Trevor and Linda Galpin - Ministering the love of the Father - TLG Mins (US) Inc

Sitting in the Piazza Ducale, in Vigevano, Italy can be extremely self indulgent. The whole experience is an assault on the senses. It is a veritable feast of Italian life and culture. For the antipasti, (starters), there is the richness of the architecture. The Piazza is said to be the most beautiful and aesthetically pleasing in all of Italy after San Marco, Venice. It's proportions are 1:3 apparently, which is difficult to see unless you are an architect. However it is undoubtedly pleasing to the eye and balanced in its aspect with the Duomo at one end and its colonnaded walkways, providing shade and protection from the weather, on the other three sides. Next in the feast comes il primo piatto (the first course) which undoubtedly must be the cafes and gelateria, that jostle for attention and offer invitations to share the delights of fabulous ice cream, aromatic coffee and if, like me, you love the distinctive combination of the two that the Italians have created, an affogat...

A couple of weeks ago we dropped into a Partners in Harvest event in Hemel Hempstead, UK. We met loads of friends but in literally, the last five minutes we ran into Willie and Mandy, great friends from Brockton.  We share lots with them but recently I introduced them to C Baxter Kruger. Now they are hooked too. In our brief chat they asked if we had heard Godfrey Birtill's latest Album "The Wine is Alive". Willie dashed to the car and ran back and thrust a very well played CD into my hands.  His said to me, "You will love Track 3!"  I have been playing it ever since. It's excellent.  It's like Birtill and Baxter have been hanging out together and inspiring each other. The whole album sings truth and lifts us above so much of our miserable pleading that we call Christian worship, begging God to show up as if he isn't with us already.   It is a mixture of styles and may not appeal to everyone but the words, oh the words are great.  The track that Ma...

We are at the end of another memorable visit to the US. We packed for wintery - spring like weather especially as we were going to be in Pennsylvania in March and Minnesota in April, but in the end we have not had one day below 70F (that's about 21c). We have dragged a load of cold weather clothes with us and not needed them.  It's been wonderful! We have seen Father pour his loving heart out all over the place and it has been fabulous to behold.  All sorts of surprises along the way too. We are continually asked how we cope with the traveling and the continual change of place, pace and beds, we were in number 34 last night since January.  Sometimes we are asked in such a way and in a tone of voice that suggests that the expectation is for us to respond with a sigh and a sagging of the shoulders that implies "We are suffering for the Lord"!  My response is always, "We love it! We are having the time of our lives!" In the past I have had the belief that s...

We have stopped en route from Minneapolis to Florida at Atlanta Int Airport. This airport is absolutely huge! We have a three hour lay over and it is time for something to eat. As we sit and watch the world go by we are being entertained by a really good small jazz quartet. It is all very civilized and makes for a restful wait. There are lots of places to choose from and we settle on T G I Friday's. As good as anywhere. The food is great and we are just about to leave when the irony of it all strikes me. Today is Good Friday. This is the day when the beloved Son of God bought us back with the price of his life and brought us home to the Father who never stopped loving us and waiting for us. Thank God it's Friday indeed.

Today is a very special day for Linda and me, but also especially for Linda.  Today she is 60 years old and also celebrating her 15th birthday as she is a leap year baby being born on February 29th. We also celebrate the day 40 years ago when we got engaged. It was at an old church on the marshy coast of Essex in England called St Peter's on the Wall. It stands in the ruined enclosure of the Roman coastal fort known as Orthona built in the fourth century to defend the failing Roman empire from Saxon pirates. Then in about 650 AD the Saxons built this church.  In 1972 Linda and I stood in that church and I asked her to marry me. We exchanged engagement rings that we both still wear 40 years later.  Now we have been married for 38 years this year.  We have walked together all these years and faced many challenges like most people.  We have grown together over the years. Linda is the love of my life and my best friend, beyond any doubt. Like many we have strug...

It had been in my diary for some time that William P Young or Paul as he is known, was going to be speaking at a Church in Taupo this week. Paul is the author of the world best seller The Shack. Something like 17 million copies sold to date. What I hadn't realized was that he would be coming to dinner at the Eden Centre, where we live, for a couple of evenings.  So there we were sitting around the table chatting with the man.  What a privilege. I have read the reviews on the internet. I have read what some very eminent and influential theologians have said about the Shack. I have wondered why some members of the faith community can become so filled with vitriolic and why they love to strain at gnats.  But that is not new and sadly blights the Christian church and the way we are perceived by the wider world.  But, I have read The Shack. I read it on a plane flying to the UK from New Zealand a few years ago.  It was difficult because I kept gettin...

One of the mixed blessings of getting older is that there are fewer things left to do!  One of my things was to see the Pyramids. That has been now ticked off the list of things to do before I die. But I have added a caveat to this accomplishment. See them properly next time and not from the roof of a rather persistent local's house who really would rather we had paid a lot more money to him and he could then have taken us into the enclosed area at a special rate.... just for you... very cheap...etc etc. Instead we climbed the steps to the third floor roof and had an amazing view across the roof tops of the rambling suburb that is right up against the tourist zone that is the Pyramids and the guarding Sphinx. A 16 hours stopover on the way back from Tanzania to the UK meant this whistle stop visit to these ancient tombs of the Pharaohs was possible.  We got a taxi from the airport hotel and off we went. Very clear instructions of what we wanted were totally ignored by the dr...