Storytime in the Big Chair At Avenues we value the contribution a story makes.  At most of our events we have a Storytime.  It's not always able to be in the Big Chair, but the atmosphere created by a good yarn is always inspiring.  If you have a story you'd like to contribute to this page, email Caroline at avenues.journey@gmail.com
The artist There was an artist who had the marvellous talent of being able to quickly paint amusing pictures and impressions. (some people might remember Ralph Harris used to have a television show doing just this.) One time at a party he saw a blank canvas. He whipped out his brushes and with rapid and deft stokes he painted a quick colourful picture. Having finished he stood back and waited for his friends’ applause.From his new stance he realised, to his horror, that the canvas wasn’t blank at all! It was the corner of a great masterpiece by one of the grand masters of art. The masterpiece was so vast that from his close range he didn’t even realise it was there… and in the corner is his little doodle. You can imagine how he felt! It is the same when we realise what our attempts to live look like when we first get a glimpse of the fact that there is a grand master plan. JB Phillips (1906-1982) was an English Anglican cleric who decided that the old King James Version was incomprehensible to youth. He became well known when he addressed this problem in 1958 by publishing a paraphrase of the New Testament  (The New Testament in Modern English). This was an early equivalent of The Message.