Winners (and Losers!)

Woke up this morning to find it snowing again!  It was a wintry wet snow which did settle slightly on the grass and cars but the roads themselves were wet and the snow melted away.  I drove through the snow into Salisbury to the Men's Breakfast event hosted at St. Francis's Church by that church, Salisbury CityChurch and St. Paul's.  I met up with James and my former colleague, Anthony, from Friends Life.  The speaker this morning was Steve Martin (not the comedian, although he was funny in places) from Christian Vision for Men who spoke in an engaging and entertaining way about ways Christians can bring men to faith - many of the things I am already trying to achieve through Pub Theology.  His talk was entitled "Winning Men". When we arrived there had been a power cut which meant that the breakfast hadn't been cooked and we had to wait around for a while with coffees and teas before the power was restored.  In fact, I think that this was fortuitous as it meant we didn't have the usual worship period and went straight into the talk and then a hastily scoffed breakfast.  Had it been done in the normal format, then there would have been a period of worship, breakfast and we would all three of us have had to leave before a most interesting talk had finished.  I dropped Anthony off at Salisbury Station (he was on his way to the Hampshire coast for a family meeting) and I went into the city to bank some cheques and had a cup of coffee in Cafe Nero whilst I went through my emails and other messages.  Back home, I did some more work on the service and sermon for tomorrow and just after 2 pm, Thom and I set off for Southampton for the Saints' game against Manchester City (the current Premier League Champions).  What a game!  Saints won the match 3-1 thanks to two early goals in the first half (Puncheon and Davis) and an own goal by Barry in the second.  What a win!  It takes Southampton 6 points clear of the relegation battle and has probably put Manchester City's hopes of winning the League beyond the pale.  A really enjoyable day today.  Tonight I finalised my sermon ready for tomorrow morning and watched Match of the Day - with glee!.