Lunch or not

The Chancellor, George Osbourne, wants to change the tax laws to ensure that international companies, such as Starbucks and Amazon, aren't allowed to move monies around different parts of their businesses so that they avoid paying tax on the profits that they make in each country where they operate. One of the reasons this issue has come to the surface now is that Mr. Osbourne is looking for every penny he can get as he attempts to balance the books in the tough economic climate.

But in countries such as Ghana tax avoidance by big business can be the difference between a child going to school or not going to school, having lunch or going hungry. Here is another short video highlighting one aspect of the work that Christian Aid are involved in.



On 21 April I'll be running the London Marathon and hoping to raise £2000 for Christian Aid. You can sponsor me at www.virginmoneygiving.com/keithtarring

Last orders please

Later in the year, as a church, we are going to be engaging with the Community Bible Experience. As individuals we will commit to reading the New Testament over the space of eight weeks and as a community we will explore the text together on Sunday mornings and in our small groups during the week.

The Experience uses the NIV text of the New Testament but in a different order to what you will find in a typical Bible, and in a different format - all the verse numbers, chapters, footnotes etc have been removed. 

The easiest way to follow along will be to get your own copy of the book. But each week we will be publishing that traditional verse references for the passages that will be read in the following week - so you can follow along with your own 'normal' Bible. Also free versions are available on sites such as YouVersion if you have a Bible reader on your mobile phone for example.

If you would like your own copy of the text then you have until Thursday to order to get the special discounted price. If you haven't yet signed up get in touch with Keith before Thursday and order your copy.

Marathon Update - 8 weeks to go

This week's training has gone well, and although there are still eight weeks to go and a lot can happen in that time, I am starting to feel more confident and the training seems to be paying off. The two speed sessions this week went well, including the 3 x 1 mile interval session that for one reason or another has been put off for several weeks. Friday's 9 mile run done at marathon pace was followed by 19 miles on Saturday done at a good 9:10 m/m pace, and it felt as if I could have gone a bit further if necessary. In total this week's total was just over 45 miles.

This coming week there will be a 6 mile run with 4 miles done at 7:00 m/m pace - hopefully I will get within a few seconds of this pace this week. The only other main session is a 20 mile long run. Once again there will be a total of five runs, and the total mileage of about 46 miles.

The only thing this week that hasn't gone quite to plan is the marathon diet - which was put on hold for half-term. Therefore there has been a little chocolate, crisps, ice cream, pizza, burger and chips - as well as the more appropriate fruit and porridge. Back to normal this week!

I'm running the London Marathon for Christian Aid - if you would like to sponsor me you can do so at www.virginmoneygiving.com/keithtarring

Take a step

Monday is the beginning of Fairtrade Fortnight 2013. What steps will you be taking this year?

One of the things that the Fairtrade campaign demonstrates is that lots of people making a small change can have a large impact. Once, you would have been hard-pressed to find the Fairtrade Logo in your local supermarket - maybe on one brand of coffee and a few bananas. Now you'll find it in many supermarket aisles on items such as clothing, honey, sugar, rice, wine, footballs and flowers. Some of the UK's favourite chocolate bars now carry the logo.

Beans, sheep and chickens

Maybe you have given up chocolate for Lent, but if not and you're tucking into your favourite bar have you ever thought about the communities that provide the raw ingredients required to make chocolate?

Here's a story from Bolivia that shows how Christian Aid, once again working through a local partner, have been able to help farming communities. 

Find out more about Ivana as she takes you round her local community in Bolivia, sharing how Christian Aid partner CIPCA has helped them to rear woolless sheep and chickens, ensuring they have food all year round.

On 21 April I will be running the London Marathon to raise funds for Christian Aid - so that in turn they can help communities like the one in the video. You can support me by visiting www.virginmoneygiving.com/keithtarring

A better way

Last Sunday we returned to our series looking at the life of Jesus through the eyes of Mark's gospel, and in 2:13-22 we find Jesus inviting a guy called Levi to follow him - which he does. And Levi then invites Jesus and the other disciples to his house for a meal with his friends and work-mates.

That might not seem all that amazing until we read the bit about Levi being a tax-collector. An un-popular profession in most cultures but especially so in first century Palestine. As a tax-collector you were working for the occupying army from Rome, you were siding with the enemy, and to top it off you were almost certainly adding a little to every bill - a little that would find it's way straight into your pocket. Levi was certainly not the sort of person you would expect Jesus to ask to follow him - and he was most certainly not the sort of person who you'd go and eat with - at least not unless you wanted to become ceremonially unclean. That's the reason why the Pharisees were so shocked at what they saw Jesus doing.

Yet Jesus is re-defining the whole way they understood the kingdom of God. It was not something you were born into, and you remained in as long as you did the right things and avoided the wrong things. It was not something that those who were inside needed to protect from those who were outside. No, the kingdom of God was something that you entered through repentance (1:15) and once on the inside you were to be looking outward and inviting others in too.

Jesus got invites to spend time with "tax-collectors and sinners", even though we know from examples such as Levi, Zacchaeus and the rich young ruler that he made radical demands on people's lives, demands to repent - to have your whole life turned upside down. But then as these people spent time with Jesus they came to see that what he had to offer was a better way of life.

How can we show that there is a better way this week?

Tuesday's Tune - 6

Today we come to the end of our series of favourite / meaningful songs that were chosen for an evening service we did back in January. (There were a few more that were chosen but I can't find video clips or audio for them.)

Today's song is 'All the way my saviour leads me'. I'll let the words speak for themselves.

Marathon Update - 9 weeks to go

Only 9 weeks to go! We're into single figures which seems too close for comfort, but in reality that's still over two months away (just).

When I wrote last week it had already started to snow and come Monday morning there was a covering of wet snow on the pavements and plenty of slush on the roads. So once again it was on with the Yaktax, so I was able to get in the miles - if not the speed. 

By Tuesday the snow had all gone so normal service resumed with the 'cutback' week. I managed to get all the sessions in, although due to a dodgy stomach wasn't able to get the 9 miles at 8:30 min/mile pace and the 12 miles at 9:30 m/m in on consecutive days as planed. Instead I had to take a day in-between, but then ran them both quicker than planned so hopefully that will make up for it. Wednesday's session which had a planned section of 3 miles in 21 mins - I managed 21:09 which is quicker than I've done for a while so that's promising.

This coming week should contain a couple of faster sessions - which I don't really enjoy. One is 3 lots of 1 mile in 6:45 and the other contains a middle 4 miles in 28:00 or 7 m/m. I was watching Mo Farah on Saturday running 3000m in 7:42 - that's 1.86 miles - so a pace of 4:08 m/m. I can't even do that for 200m and this was an comfortable race! Just had a look back at some of last year's sessions and found an interval session with a 200m in 42s - so that's 5:37 m/m pace. With the news this week that Mo Farah is going to run the London Marathon - I guess he won't need to worry about me!

The main session this week is of course the long run - which this week will be up to 19 miles. Then it will be 20 miles the following week. After that, in terms of long runs, there will just be two more 20 milers before the 26.2 on April 21.

I'm running for Christian Aid and you can sponsor me at www.virginmoneygiving.com/keithtarring

The Real Easter Egg

Just in case you're starting to think about buying Easter Eggs - now that you've given up chocolate for Lent you can think of little else...




To find out more, including details of what you get in the box visit www.realeasteregg.co.uk

Investing in Coffee

Each Thursday between now and the middle of April I'm posting something from Christian Aid about the work that they are involved in around the world. A lot of their work, as you'll see from today's slide show, involves working with smaller organisations and charities that are based much closer to the poorest communities that Christian Aid seeks to help. In this way resources are much more likely to benefit those they were intended for.

Captain America actress Hayley Atwell, travelled with Christian Aid to Nicaragua, the second poorest country in the western hemisphere. She saw how coffee cooperative 'Soppexcca', part-funded by the charity, is investing profits from its Fairtrade organic coffee to help build its children a better future.




On 21 April I'm running the London Marathon to raise £2000 for Christian Aid. You can help by sponsoring me at www.virginmoneygiving.com/keithtarring

What aren't you doing for Lent?

A couple of weeks ago I arrived early at the local crematorium for a funeral I was conducting and got speaking to the organist who must spend most of her days sitting through half-hour funeral services. Anyway - her opening line of the conversation was 'are you non-religious?' I must have looked sufficiently blank as I wondered what had prompted her question - was it because I was wearing a suit and tie rather than a clerical collar and gown - because she quickly continued. The funeral was listed as NC. She wanted to know what this was. I assumed that it meant non-conformist - hence the lack of candles and a simple plain cross at the front of the chapel. (Tucked away at the front of the chapel are a whole range of table top items that allow the crematorium staff to cater for a wide range of religious tastes.)

Another consequence of being NC is that we don't do Lent. At least not in any meaningful way.

Lent is (depending on your tradition) a period of 46 days that runs from Ash Wednesday (today) to Easter Saturday - that's 40 days + 6 Sundays. As Easter moves around the calendar so does Ash Wednesday. 

Lent is traditionally a time of preparation for Christians who are NNC (not non-conformist) in the run up to the events that surround Easter. It is a time for reflection and confession and is often accompanied with self-denial and fasting. 

Yesterday was Shrove Tuesday, or Pancake Day. Pancakes were an ideal opportunity to use up all those ingredients you have in the kitchen that you won't be able to use during the fast of Lent.

At services on Ash Wednesday ashes are applied to the forehead of those in the congregation - these ashes are often made by burning the palm crosses that were given out the previous Palm Sunday. Ashes remind us of our mortality and are often a symbol of mourning and repentance in the Bible.

So why is it that many NC churches don't do Lent? I expect it is a case of throwing the baby out with the bathwater. I expect that there have been periods in history when Lent has been nothing more than a superstition - in the sense that if you don't eat meat for 40 days and you give alms to the poor and the church then God will forgive your sins - no matter how you live the rest of the year. There is always the danger that we think that because we are doing something we are earning God's forgiveness - when in reality it is all about the grace and mercy of God. Jesus warns us that when we fast it should not be a big show for the approval of others, but should just be between us and God. Lent is not mentioned in the Bible - the 40 days probably comes from the 40 days that Jesus spent in the wilderness after his baptism and before his ministry started.

And so we don't do Lent. The good is thrown out with the bad. But it is interesting to see that things are changing.

Lent provides us with an opportunity to make time, to reflect, to prepare for Easter. We can make time by giving something up. Sometimes we're just looking for something to kick-start or shake up our spiritual journey again - maybe that something could be Lent.

Maybe it could be a time to follow a series of Bible readings and reflections. There are various programmes available on You Version - click here to see the details You will find a lot of others online too.

LICC have a helpful serious of reflections on how the love of God can impact our place of work that they will email to you each day of Lent - click here to see that resource

Christian Aid have a number of resources that encourage us to give thanks for what we have as well as challenging us to think and act on behalf of the millions across the world who do not have. They have resources for children and young people as well as adults, and a great smart phone app too. Visit their website to find out more.

Tuesday's Tune - 5

The fifth in our series of Tuesday's Tunes is Paul Oakley's 'Who is there like you'. A song that reminds us what Jesus has done for us, and provides us an opportunity to respond.

Lent begins tomorrow, and hopefully I will get round to posting something tomorrow about that. But whatever Lent may or may not be, it is not an opportunity to do something in order to earn God's forgiveness or to buy peace. For that we can only trust in the cross and in God's grace and faithfulness.

Marathon Update - 10 weeks to go

That's another week done, and another week closer to the big day. This week's training went well with the long slow 17 mile run being done on Friday, and followed up by 8 miles done at marathon pace on Saturday morning. I was pleased with how my legs felt on Saturday although I do have a slight pain in the right side of my right foot - but then I have a pain somewhere or other most days! At the moment I don't think it's anything to worry about.

This coming week is the next 'cut back' week so slightly less overall mileage (37 as opposed to this week's 40) and the long run will only be 12 miles. But a couple of the shorter runs will be on the faster side to make up for it. There is snow and colder weather forecast for the coming week - which always has the potential to mess things up. [When I wrote this on Saturday there was snow forecast on Wednesday - now on Sunday evening it has already been snowing for two hours.]

Last week I was talking about the different paces that I run during the week - and how I know how fast I'm going. The answer is my Garmin Forerunner 305 - a GPS watch that can display a whole range of information like distance run, current speed, average pace, time, calories, elevation - all thanks to satellites that pinpoint my position on the surface of the earth every second. You can also set up a work out - such as 1 mile at 9 min/mile pace, then 3 miles at 7 m/m, then ... Every time you get to the end of one stage it beeps and then tells you what's next.

Then when the run is over the 305 is connected up to the computer and everything is stored and can be analysed to the n-th degree - if you want to.

Sponsorship-wise I am nearly half-way to my £2000 target. You can sponsor me by visiting www.virginmoneygiveing.com/keithtarring

Lay me down

Here's the next of the songs from Chris Tomlin's new album 'Burning Lights'. For those who are wondering, this blog is not sponsored by Chris Tomlin and I do not receive any income for promoting his music! 

Being a disciple of Jesus means giving over control of our lives to him - that's why it's a daily struggle - because there is always something inside of us that wants to be number one.

Partnerships in Zimbabwe

Many of you will know that I will be running the London Marathon in April, and attempting to raise £2000 for the work of Christian Aid. Every Thursday until then I will posting a short video to highlight one aspect of the work of Christian Aid.

This week we'll see how Christian Aid is able to work with a local partner organisation in SW Zimbabwe building dams and sinking wells. One project provides for whole communities - not just providing them will clean drinking water, but also allowing them to grow a range of crops and so providing a better diet. Excess food can then be taken to a new processing centre where it can be prepared for sale or dried and so providing nutrients for later in the dry season.

As it says on the video this makes an enormous difference for all those in the community. If you would like to sponsor me remember that anything that you can give will make a difference to some of the poorest communities in the world.

You can sponsor me at www.virginmoneygiving.com/keithtarring

Small change - big impact

On Sunday we took a break from Mark's gospel and we had Gabriella, a guest speaker, take our all age cafe church service. We were thinking about New Year's Resolutions - why we make them - and what small things we could do that would make a real difference in our lives. 

One of the things that we talked about was being thankful. Being consciously thankful. Deliberately stopping and recording things that we are thankful for. Here's Gabriella's thankful jar.

What small changes can we make that will have a real impact on our lives?

Tuesday's Tune - 4

Today we come to the fourth in our series of Tuesday's Tunes - a list a favourite hymns / songs that were picked out at an evening service we had back in January.

Today's choice is a very old Irish hymn, from the 17th century - although the words are much old than that, coming out of the Irish monastic tradition.

The words are a prayer that God be everything to us - a great definition of what it means to be a disciple. There is the hope of the final victory and an acknowledgement that along the way anything may 'befall' us - but whatever comes, our prayer is that God will remain our vision.

For such a popular hymn there are lots of versions available to chose on the internet. Personally, as well as the words, I love the rhythm of this song - and so I have chosen a version that majors on the percussion.

Marathon Update - 11 weeks to go

Well, that's another week of training over. This week's long run was 16 miles and at the 13 mile mark I couldn't imagine having to do the same distance again - which is of course, what I'll be doing in only 11 weeks time. But by the time I got to the end I could have done a bit more - usually I'm feeling like collapsing in a heap at that point! This long run was a bit cold but I kept my energy up with Jelly Babies on the way round!

The total mileage for this week was a little under 40 miles.

Last week I said that I'd tell you a bit about the different sessions I do each week. Training for a marathon is a balance between getting your body ready to run 26.2 miles at the right pace without destroying yourself in the process. So there is a mix of shorter runs which are run more quickly; middle distance runs done at marathon pace; and longer runs which are run more slowly but give you time on your feet.

I try to do intervals at 6:45 pace (6 mins 45 seconds a mile pace); tempo runs and hills at 7:00 pace; marathon pace runs at 8:30 pace and easy runs at 9:30 pace.

Intervals, hills and tempo runs all have a 1 mile warm up at the start and a 1 mile cool down at the end.

An interval session might be something like (1 mile fast, then 0.25 mile slow jog) x 3. Hills might be (0.2 miles up hill fast, then slow jog back down the hill) x 6. A tempo run is between 2.5 and 4.5 miles at tempo pace.

Long runs are gradually building up to 20 miles, and there will be three of these between now and April. The day before each of these long runs there is a marathon pace or easy run half as far. So this past weekend there was an 8 mile marathon pace run on Friday and then a 16 mile easy run on Saturday.

Then there is one easy 5 mile recovery run and two rest days each week.

So this week looks like:

Monday: 1 mile warm up + 3 mile tempo run + 1 mile warm down
Tuesday: 5 miles easy
Wednesday: 4 mile marathon pace run
Thursday: Off
Friday: 8 mile easy run
Saturday: 17 mile easy run
Sunday: Off

How do I know how fast to run for these different sessions? Am I running too fast or too slow?  I'll tell you about that next week.

Remember that you can sponsor me at www.virgimoneygiving.com/keithtarring

Whom shall I fear?

A couple of weeks ago Chris Tomlin brought out his new album 'Burning Lights' and since then this album has been the sound track to about 60 miles of running. Great tunes and powerful lyrics. Over the next few weeks I'm going to post some of the songs and some of the stories behind the songs. Here's Chris talking about the song 'Whom shall I fear'.




Here's the song, from the album preview back in October.