Technology

You hear about parents having to be taught by their children about how to use new technology: I thought of myself as a bit of a techie, but not any more.

Last month my old phone finally died and Abi bought me a new one. "You've got bluetooth" I was told by a friend at work. "Oh, great" I replied, not knowing quite what he meant. So, my 14 year old son had to show me.

The next day when I had a free lesson, I decided to walk round the maths faculty rooms with my bluetooth on. I detected nine phones on, and went into each classroom, asking the students to turn their phones off. Seven of them did... the other two changed their names to a rude message to me.

I told this to a friend from church, who laughed so hard, he has now permanently changed his bluetooth name to **** off Sparky!


I managed to get the last laugh though. I visited the classes next time they had maths, with a message that our friendly community policeman was on his way with a tracking device that would identify your bluetooth name, your phone number and where you were sitting to within three feet.

To avoid detection, about 20 students have all changed their names to Reuben (my son, who is also a student at the school). He keeps getting told off by teachers for having his phone on in lessons, even when it is off. I have decided that perhaps from now on I will keep my phone experiments to looking at the manual at home...

Sparks flying...

Where on earth have we been for the last five months? Well, first of all, Reuben and Ellie have both become MSN-dependent, so getting onto the computer has become so much more difficult. I have been doing my usual summer work with the EDEXCEL exam board, and have just finished my marking allocation. Abigail has been busy with making her waistcoats, and her first design has finally made a sale. It is about to be withdrawn from the website, so if you want a "surf's up" waistcoat for a beach wedding, you'd better get in quick - it's in one of the speciality designs sections, there is a link lower down on this site from "Global Warming and Abi Going Back To Work." The actual business is thriving and is moving to a larger building in Totnes in the next couple of months.

So then, what have we been up to? I guess the biggest two things are related, and will take some time to explain. About three years ago, when our church was in difficulties and we were finding that our faces did not fit, Abi and our eldest two children all got involved in a youth club, RIOT (acronym for Righteous Invasion Of Truth), at a local Pentecostal Church. When our position became completely unmanageable with the Torquay church, there was a natural link already through RIOT, and we joined this Paignton based church.

RIOT was in effect the mission field of our whole family; however, in December last year the main youth leaders made the decision to focus their attention on those who were prepared to commit themselves in specified ways to a discipleship programme called "The Academy." We realised that this had little appeal for the ones we were there for, and were not surprised when almost all of those who signed up were from church families - not including our own children, which was a decision based on both its unsuitability for them personally and also for their longing to be there for their unchurched friends.

After struggling for a few months with constant questions at work of, "When's RIOT coming back, sir?" mostly from young people I then didn't even know, we finally told our children in the middle of May that they could invite "half a dozen" of their friends that Friday evening. They were invited to stay a couple of hours, with a noise curfew of 9 o'clock for the sake of the neighbours. Three weeks later, we had over twenty, and yesterday thirty-six filled our front room for the talent show of juggling, music playing and dancing (which took place in our increasingly muddy garden).

Although we have expectations, we don't lecture them. We have had to learn to turn a blind eye to smoking in the garden, but have asked them if they are desparately addicted to nicotine, to limit themselves to one during the evening, which most of the smokers respect. We have had only one alcohol related issue, which is unlikely to be repeated by the individual concerned.

At eight o'clock, we feed them doughnuts, chips, pizzas or cookies; on one occasion serving a barbecue. While they are eating, we spend no more than five minutes to formally welcome them and remind them not to come to early, not to leave too late, not to spill out onto the street and to respect our property and neighbourhood. Most of all we tell them that God loves them and wants to know them as a friend.... and that we will explore that more some time in the future.... and that's all. No preach, no "all eyes closed, yes sir, you at the back, I see your hand." Many of them made responses like this at RIOT which is yet to be followed up, but when any of them are ready to start to take life as a friend of Jesus seriously, hopefully we will be there to help them.

Reactions have been mixed. Some of the parents think we are crazy, some are suspicious of "us and that church..." We have not publicised this at church, and some second-hand criticism has come our way, but none directly to us (Christians, that's the way to do it, eh...). We have had supportive comments from all of those who we invite to speak objectively into our lives. Most of all, we have been overwhelmed by the response of the incredibly grateful teenagers, who for at least one evening per week are safe from the seducing eyes of the drug dealers that pollute our town.

So, our Friday nights are no longer peaceful. Nor is the rest of the week, because this is not a meeting - it's a lifestyle that takes up all your time.

I don't know if anything will come of this. However, I do know that if we do nothing, then nothing will certainly come of that...