The Olivers In Thailand

Earlier this year, our friend Martin Smith from the band delirious? brought together his musical friends (why was I not invited!) to Scotland to attend the first Compassion Art retreat.

For more information about it see here.

Below is a YouTube video of some of the musicians perform one of the new songs at the 2008 Dove Awards, Nashville.

Well done folks!

Phil Morris has published his report here on the Yak Attack 2008 Race in Nepal.

Yak Attack is a race of man against the mountains - run or cycle, or crawl, or even roll! - no matter.

They have published a 21 minute video of the race to give you an idea of how they suffered!

(I am not responsible for this video - nor the "music"...)

So, who wants to enter next year?! Richard P? Stu S? Jez W? Start your high-altitude training now!

We were delighted to receive Easter greetings from friends in Nepal. We would like to share their story and Easter poem with you..

The family moved to a new community about a year and a half ago. There are about 25 children living here that play together every day. One of the leaders of these kids is an older girl named Ruthie. Our daughter Joy quickly became close friends with Ruthie and also became one of the leaders of the "gang". At that time we were the only Christian family and all the other children were from Hindu and Buddhist families. Joy shared the gospel with Ruthie and several other friends about a year ago. She shared for over an hour, starting from Creation and the fall all the way to Jesus' death and resurrection. She was out in our sandbox sharing her faith with them while they played together. Ruthie was very opposed to the message and openly said that she did not care if she went to Hell and even said that she wanted to go to Hell. Over the last year, we were very concerned about this close friendship because we heard that Ruthie would steal from the children and how mean Ruthie was to many of the other children. We were almost at the point where we felt we should tell Joy she could no longer play with Ruthie because of her behavior, but decided to let the friendship continue and see if our girls could affect her in a positive way. Joy began to give Christian videos and books to Ruthie and continued to share about Jesus.

Since we've been back in Nepal over the last 4 weeks, Ruthie has not stopped asking questions about the Bible and about Jesus. She's started going to Nepali churches and reading her Bible. She is bringing her parents to church. Today, she gave me this poem that she just wrote for Easter and I wanted to share it with you.

He is not here, He is risen ...

God Can God can do anything Anything He can He can create the world Or create a man From mind to soul From chalk to coal From heaven to hell And angels who fell On earth to tell That God is coming But you never know From male to female And God can show That He rose up from death And had a hole In his hands and legs Because He is the only God To suffer all my sins Because I believe In being a Christian!

Please pray for Ruthie, that she will grow stronger in her faith and be able to share with the other children who live in our community about Jesus and that they would in turn reach out to their parents and bring them to church also. Ruthie is a key leader among the children in this community and will be able to really share Jesus with them since she comes from the Hindu background that they also come from.

The Easter rally today was a huge success, with over 15,000 people attending in the biggest park in the city (the government gave permission for the first time ever for the Christians to hold their Easter rally in the large open park in the middle of the city!)

Happy Easter!

For the extreme sports fans out there, you will love this!

A ride across Nepal on foot and/or bike, climbing to over 5200m.

Phil Morris is a friend from Eurotherm who is now working for the INF.

Yes he must be mad - but I bet there must be more than one of you who wished you could be there! I certainly do! And more importantly, wished that I was fit enough too!

Follow his reports here. And you can sponsor him here.

My old desk at Eurotherm has barely got cold, and now this...

Yes! 17 years of precious collections of priceless books, manuals, software boxes. But fortunately I had rescued all the tea (and coffee) before I left. Look! There are all those CD cases. I needed one today too!

And who is this for? For him:

Please look after my fan! Yes the one with my name of it, several times, from multiple moves.

I understand the Eurotherm R&D are/have undergone yet another internal move. As the boss said to me last week, he loves playing chess. He is obviously the King. But who is the Queen?! There are several possibilities...His wife, or Liz?

Thanks Mike for grassing on them!

Adrian

It rained a bit last night - all night!

School has been closed for the day due to the flooding resulting from the rain.

The photo was stitched together using the free "AutoStitch" utility - looks like I missed a few shots. Tough! I'm not going back down there again.

Oh yes - its still raining now...

I made my way down to the school...

Trying to avoid the really deep water in the road, I stuck to the pavements, which was slightly shallower, and made my way down to the clock tower, pushing my bike. Having proudly made my way to the corner of the tower, feeling happy that I was relatively dry, suddenly the world disappeared from underneith me as I was swallowed up into the abbys - well, my right leg was. Managed to pull my right leg out from the clutches of the unseen monster, then had to try and find my flip-flop, which fortunately floated (note to self - always wear flip-flops that float during times of floods). The bike...hum - the monster had engulfed the front tire. Having little nutitional value, the monster offered little resistance to me pulling it out.

Turned out that the monster was nothing other than an open man-hole. Yes, yes, I've now fallen down a man-hole. But you could not see it (I was looking, honest!) due to everything being covered in flood water!.

Anyway, the children are loving it, cycling around in the floods. I've warned them about the pavements - stick to the road, even if it is deeper!

Adrian