3 DAYS of HILLSONG CONFERENCE!!

the conference begins

conference cheeky boy`s..

conference huggsss..

conference song

conference crowd

conference girls

Beijing's penis emporium

There are many thousands of Chinese restaurants around in the UK and everyone has their favourite dish, but only in China itself do chefs specialise in a range of slightly more unusual delicacies.

The dish in front of me is grey and shiny.

"Russian dog," says my waitress Nancy.

"Big dog," I reply.

"Yes," she says. "Big dog's penis..."

We are in a cosy restaurant in a dark street in Beijing but my appetite seems to have gone for a stroll outside.

Nancy has brought out a whole selection of delicacies.

They are draped awkwardly across a huge platter, with a crocodile carved out of a carrot as the centrepiece.

Nestling beside the dog's penis are its clammy testicles, and beside that a giant salami-shaped object.

"Donkey," says Nancy. "Good for the skin..."

She guides me round the penis platter.

"Snake. Very potent. They have two penises each."

I did not know that.

Deer-blood cocktail

"Sheep... horse... ox... seal - excellent for the circulation."

She points to three dark, shrivelled lumps which look like liquorice allsorts - a special treat apparently - reindeer, from Manchuria.

Government officials... two of them... they're having the penis hotpot Nancy

The Guolizhuang restaurant claims to be China's only speciality penis emporium, and no, it is not a joke.

The atmosphere is more exotic spa than boozy night-out.

Nancy describes herself as a nutritionist.

"We don't call them waiters here. And we don't serve much alcohol," she says. "Only common people come here to get drunk and laugh."

But she does offer me a deer-blood and vodka cocktail, which I decide to skip.

Medicinal purposes

The restaurant's gristly menu was dreamt up by a man called Mr Guo.
He is 81 now and retired.

After fleeing China's civil war back in 1949, he moved to Taiwan, and then to Atlanta, Georgia, where he began to look deeper into traditional Chinese medicine, and experiment on the appendages of man's best friend.

Apparently, they are low in cholesterol and good, not just for boosting the male sex drive, but for treating all sorts of ailments.

Laughter trickles through the walls of our dining room.

"Government officials," says Nancy. "Two of them upstairs. They're having the penis hotpot."
Most of the restaurant's guests are either wealthy businessmen or government bureaucrats who, as Nancy puts it, have been brought here by people who want their help.

What better way to secure a contract than over a steaming penis fondue.

Discretion is assured as all the tables are in private rooms.
The glitziest one has gold dishes.
"Some like their food served raw," says Nancy, "like sushi. But we can cook it anyway you like."

Rare order

"Not long ago, a particularly rich real estate mogul came in with four friends. All men. Women don't come here so often, and they shouldn't eat testicles," says Nancy solemnly.
The men spent $5,700 (£3,000) on a particularly rare dish, something that needed to be ordered months in advance.

"Tiger penis," says Nancy.

The illegal trade in tiger parts is a big problem in China.

Campaigners say the species is being driven towards extinction because of its popularity as a source of traditional medicine.

I mention this, delicately, to Nancy, but she insists that all her tiger supplies come from animals that have died of old age.

"Anyway, we only have one or two orders a year," she says.
"So what does it taste like?" I ask.

"Oh, the same as all the others," she says blithely.

And does it have any particular potency? "No. People just like to order tiger to show off how much money they have."

Welcome to the People's Republic of China - tigers beware.

Sliced and pickled

"Oh yes," she adds, "the same group also ate an aborted reindeer foetus.

"That is very good for your skin. And here it is..."

Another "nutritionist" walks in bearing something small and red wrapped in cling film.

My appetite is heading for the airport.

Still, I think, it would be rude not to try something.

I am normally OK about this sort of thing. I have had fried cockroaches and sheep's eyes, so...
There is a small bowl of sliced and pickled ox penis on the table.

I pick up a piece with my chopsticks and start to chew. It is cold and bland and rubbery.

Nancy gives me a matronly smile.

"This one," she says, "should be eaten every day."

( bbc report)

more stories here

Christianity is collapsing everywhere except London!!!!

THE English church of most people's imagining is rural, and so is the English Christian. “The modern town-dweller has no God and no Devil,” complained the dean of St Paul's Cathedral in 1919. True then, perhaps, but the landscape of belief in England is changing fast. The latest report of the English Church Census, an independent count of bums on pews which is carried out every seven to nine years, contains the surprising news that London, the modern-day Gomorrah, is now more devout than almost everywhere else.

In 1979, when the first census was carried out, London was the least observant region of Britain. One in ten Londoners could be found in church on a given Sunday. That compared with one in six in poor northern counties such as Cumbria and Lancashire and with one in five in heavily Catholic Merseyside. The wealthy Home Counties, which surround London, were almost as godless.

The most recent church census shows a reversal of this pattern. Churchgoing in London has declined in the past few decades, but only slightly: in May of last year 8.3% of people went to church on Sunday. Elsewhere, especially outside the Home Counties, Christianity has been routed. In Cumbria 7.1% of people went to church, and in Lancashire 6.5% did. Almost by default, London has become the second-most observant region of Britain after Merseyside, and will soon overhaul it.

There are two main reasons for Christianity's peculiar survival in the capital. The first is immigration. In the past few years London has imported the descendants of many of the people who were converted abroad by 19th-century British missionaries. Kingsway International Christian Centre, which attracts more than 10,000 people to its Sunday services, claims that 46 nations are represented in its congregation, many of them African. Black African immigration is the chief reason for the rapid growth of Pentecostal churches in London (see chart).

Immigration has slowed the decline in almost all denominations, including Catholicism and Anglicanism. In England as a whole, 12% of Anglicans and 17% of Catholics are now non-white. And a growing number of white Christians are immigrants too. Croatians and Poles have opened churches in London. One of the capital's biggest congregations is Hillsong, an Australian import with a notably Antipodean congregation. It meets at the Dominion Theatre in between performances of “We Will Rock You”, a musical tribute to the sexually unorthodox rock band Queen.

The other reason London still goes to church has to do with the city's odd social mix. The city has relatively few working-class whites—the group that has lost faith most dramatically in the past few decades. It does, however, have plenty of wealthy whites. Churchmen are ambivalent about them, partly because of a saying about camels and needles, partly because they suspect that some middle-class folk only come to church because they want to get their children into religious schools.

But come to church they do. Some of the capital's largest congregations, such as the evangelical Holy Trinity Brompton, are stuffed with young professionals. The church has dealt with young people's tricky habit of moving frequently by “planting” new churches, thus creating a London-wide network. Such initiatives, together with the piety of young black Londoners, explains the most striking finding of the English Church Census. Fully 57% of all people in their 20s who went to church in May last year did so in the capital.

As English Christianity's centre of gravity moves away from crumbling rural churches and provincial cathedrals towards the multicoloured congregations of the capital, it will face pressure to change. In the past three years the worldwide Anglican church has faced bitter arguments over homosexuality. These have revealed how hard it is to reconcile the views of liberal Americans and Britons with those of conservative Africans. Such fissures are gradually being imported into domestic churches too.

LAUGHTER CLUB !!!

A collegue of mine just told me that ,tonight she is going to a laughter class.session in coven garden..

that got me thinking...what is that thing again that people have invented to fill the God-designed -void in their heart ...

A bit of research and I found few link that explains it...

one of the definition:

Laughter Yoga is physically-oriented technique that uses a perfect blend of playful, empowering and otherwise "tension-releasing" simple laughter exercises, interspersed with gentle breathing and stretching exercises, rhythmic clapping and chanting of Ho Ho Ha Ha Ha in unison. This is done as a way to improve health, increase well-being, and promote peace in the world through personal transformation. In Laughter Yoga you use laughter as a tool, not an emotion.
These exercises last about 20 to 30 minutes and are adapted to suit the needs, abilities and motivations of the group participating

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Laughter-Yoga

LAUGHTER CLUB

CLONING!!

U WERE TOLD!

THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL...

In Sunday School one morning Little Joey raised his hand and proceeded to ask a question that had perplexed him for some time.

"Mr. Goldblatt," said little Joey, "there's something I can't figure out.

According to the Bible, the Children of Israel crossed the Red Sea, right?"

"Right."
And the Children of Israel beat up the Philistines, right?"

"Er, right."

"And the Children of Israel built the Temple, right?"

"Again you're right."

"And the Children of Israel fought the Egyptians and the Children of Israel
were always doing something important, right?"

"All that is right, too," agreed Mr. Goldblatt. "So what's your question,Joey?"

"What were all the grown-ups doing?"

This is where I am supposed to be!!!

yes I am back to London....
with really one this one my heart ..just like dorcas reminded me this morning...to do the best I can in the whatever situation and to the best of my ability....

one thing for sure....London is where I am supposed to be right now...I still dont know why but it seems that where the Lord wants me to be.....

after over 4 yrs here ..4 yrs of tought time..where most time I would ask myself why I am here and if I d heard God well,telling me to leave Paris to come here.....

I really doubted it every now and then...because God only knows why...since I stepped into this country it s been tough...for no particular reason....I just didnt like like and I guess mostly I couldnt find a church which I belong to ..which is the most important thing for me....

and then when I did it took me ages to adapt to it........

Back in Paris,,I didnt want to come to London I just obeyed,,just like when I was over in New york and went back to Martinique ,I didnt want to but I obeyed..

then again it took me a while to accept it ...about over a year....

oh lalalala when are you going learn ,Vero, that God always knows what he is doing....