One of the most moving incidents in my life was when my pastor’s 18 year old brother died in his arms just because he didn’t have five bucks for the medicine.  You can go to the chemist and you can see the medicine  (and I’ve had that disease umpteen times – amoebic dysentery) but if you haven’t got the money for it then, sorry – go home and die.  So his 18 year old brother died in his arms for five bucks.  That’s five bucks for a life.  You know, that fries my brain.  This is a sick, sick world.

That’s the sort of experience that drives Simon Guillebaud on.  Working in Burundi since 1998 to help heal that sick, sick world.  Founding Great Lakes Outreach (GLO) in 2003, he seeks to channel funding from Britain and the US into project partners who are engaged in a variety of ministries in the war-torn central African country.  Simon now spends much of his time travelling as a speaker, developing support for GLO’s work.

GLO works with well-known partners like Scripture Union and Youth for Christ as well as many other local organisations.  Their approach is to identify local leaders of the highest integrity and calibre, and forge strategic partnerships with their organisations to empower them to lead the way in transforming the country at multiple levels.

GLO’s website is well-designed and worth a visit, if only for the stunning photography.  GLO uses technology to communicate in ways which can inspire others, uploading photos and videos to YouTube and Facebook where they have gathered over 3,600 supporters.   Lack of media awareness is often a challenge to small organisations; the rapid and effective growth of GLO is proof that it is worth getting familiar with it.

http://www.greatlakesoutreach.org/

This month our resident guru Adam Brown continues with simple instructions on how to get more performance from your PC

1. Check if you may have a virus slowing your PC

A common reason for a PC running too slowly is that a virus has made its way on your hard drive and started duplicating itself like mad or using up valuable system resources and memory, severely slowing down your computer.

Scan for spyware or virus using your favorite virus scanner, or use AVG free antivirus software or a good online solution like MacAfee Freescan – see  www.mcafee.com/freescan

2. Disable unused network ports or other controllers

Do you have any unused network connections that you could disable, or even any other PCI slot devices that you could remove totally if not in regular use?

3. Run Scandisk

Try running scandisk to check for system file errors or bad sectors that could be repaired.

Right click on C drive –> Click Properties –> Click Tools –> Click Check Now –> Check both boxes and click Start

A scan will be scheduled for the next time you start your computer.  Beware – it can take a long time so it might be a good idea to leave it running overnight rather than get annoyed when you need to start your computer in a hurry!  Use a UPS if your power supply is unreliable.

4. Operating System needs updating

Sometimes an operating system can have certain bugs or need patches and updates in order for it run correctly.  It’s also important to get security updates to avoid getting viruses that slow down your computer. It’s best to manually update otherwise you can waste time getting a lot of unnecessary software which is what we try and avoid.

5. Do not show Hidden Files

Sometimes showing hidden files is useful but it also means your GUI has to load up all these random hidden files, most of which are temporary ones and this can slow down your PC.

In any windows folder Click Tools –> Click Folder Options –> Click View –> Click Do not show hidden files and folders –>Click OK

6. Check what processes and programs are running

Hit Ctrl Alt Delete (all at the same time) to start the task manager, then click processes to see which application is using most of your system resources.  Closing something using a lot of resources before running a software application can help speed it up.

Highlight the appropriate process –> Click End Process

Beware of closing any old process: look up the name on Google first to find out what it is. You can also identify primitive viruses this way so keep an eye out for things that look strange. Lots of normal programs do have strangely named processes though.

7. Slow PC in games?

You can also play around with video card settings to get the best smoothest game play while sacrificing some graphics quality.

Right click your desktop –> Click Properties –> Click Settings –> Click Advanced –> Click on your graphics card control panel and follow on-screen instructions

If none of these solutions have improved your PC performance, come back next month for advice on hardware solutions!

I few weeks ago I was talking to a lady who is angry with God.

30 years ago she and her husband moved to a part of the world where they confidently believed God would bring revival through their ministry.  Despite much prayer and labour, and many false dawns, there has been no breakthrough.  Moreover, her husband has a debilitating illness from which he has not been healed, and their only son has turned his back on God.

She is angry with God, because they haven’t succeeded, and life is not as sweet as she thinks it should be.

Yet she has a high standard of living, financial security, and is not persecuted for her faith.  Unlike most of the global church, which is far more accustomed to poverty, oppression, suffering and death.  As were the earliest Christians, many of whom would have been slaves.  Much of the rest would have been poor, and were accustomed to their property being confiscated, or facing death if they did not renounce their faith.  And yet the writers of the new testament insist that this is normal.

So, if like my angry friend, we feel tired and fed up in our ministry, what encouragement is there for us?

Jesus calls us to be faithful.  He promises the faithful a welcome into his kingdom.  Faithfulness is not synonymous with success.  In fact, it is possible to be faithful without being successful at all.  Faithfulness is persevering in a calling despite failure, discouragement and defeat.  Faithfulness is doggedly persisting when common sense is telling you to give up.  The martyrs in Revelation 12 suffered death, but we are told that they overcame.  What looked like defeat God considered victory, because they refused to give up even when it cost them their lives.

Faithfulness leads to fruitfulness.  Fruit is godly character produced under adverse circumstances.  I once met a man who had spent 18 years in prison for being a Christian.  Each day he was made to stand chest-deep in human sewage as he shovelled out the cesspit.  And the fruit of that labour showed in the joy and godliness of his life.  He spoke of his experience as if he were in a garden with the Lord, as the smell kept people away and he was able to sing praises to God at the top of his voice while he shovelled.

I draw encouragement from saints like these, for whom the grace of God which they have experienced is so much more important than their immediate circumstances.

” I did not labour in vain even if I am being poured out as an offering…”

Fans of popular evangelical writer Tom Wright will no doubt be pleased to hear that the theologian, who publishes his more academic works under the name NT Wright, has announced that he is taking early retirement from his role as Bishop of Durham in order to concentrate on his theological work.

Wright’s work has some influential followers such as James Dunn, Rowan Williams and Tim Keller, despite having been challenged on a variety of fronts  - particularly his ideas on the key doctrines of justification and atonement – by both liberal Christians and conservative evangelicals, notably John Piper.  This controversy has not dented his popularity and his works have been bought enthusiastically, and even read, by thousands of Christians worldwide.

Being freed from the work of a bishop will allow Wright to return to the world of academia, and he is taking up a role as Research Professor of New Testament and Early Christianity at the University of St Andrews.  The academic and ecclesiastic worlds are two passions which have long struggled for pre-eminence in Wright’s life, since he studied both classics and theology at Oxford, before studying for the ministry.  He then resumed his academic career, which he combined with chaplaincy before becoming a dean, canon, and bishop.

Tom’s departure will be keenly felt by the Archbishop of Canterbury, for whom he was a crucial ally in holding the Church of England together.  As a leading representative of the centrist evangelical group, he is a figurehead for a large group of Anglicans keen to maintain the traditional teaching and values of the church while remaining committed to staying within the existing church.

It would appear that Wright has finally realised that being a bishop is a full-time job that does not sit easily with being a writer.  In a statement issued by the Diocese of Durham he said

This has been the hardest decision of my life. It has been an indescribable privilege to be Bishop of the ancient Diocese of Durham…. But my continuing vocation to be a writer, teacher and broadcaster, for the benefit (I hope) of the wider world and church, has been increasingly difficult to combine with the complex demands and duties of a diocesan bishop.

Syzygy hopes that he will continue to publish vibrant, readable yet challenging books for many years to come.