who am i?

Some of the people who read this (assuming there are any) will know me very well, some may not know me so well, some may have never met me and know nothing about me at all, for the benefit of the latter two this post will give you an idea of who i am and the things i like...

I'm going to do this via a rather strange medium... a good friend (dan hames) started a craze, well he didn't start it, it came about through a sermon he listened to (by Steve Davis of a church in Leicester) in which he (Steve) suggested that, as Christians, we should be able to give, at short notice, a list of 150 things that we are thankful to God for... so I'm going to give it a go, and hopefully it'll be a fun way of allowing any readers to get to know me a little bit...

Here goes (by the way, these are in no particular order of preference)...

1. The Gospel (not sure what this is? click here)
2. My mum and dad (thanks for having me)
3. Ben (who i'll have known for 10 years - my longest standing friend - in September)
4. Nathan
5. Jonny
6. The hope that as I get older and more mature willies and farts will continue to be funny
7. That I have good relationships with all four of my grandparents
8. That God has provided for me to go to Malaysia for six weeks to do His work
9. Psalm 73 (click the link to read!!)
10. Leicester University
11. My Psychology girls (Holly, Indi, Sarah and Tish) - a group of girls who live up the road and I study psychology with - who I love to bits
12. Being able to naturally use the phrases "by proxy" and "liase with" in conversation
13. Football
14. That football is enjoyable to watch as a neutral - meaning I can continue to watch the world cup now that England have been knocked out
15. Superlatives
16. My sister (Rebecca) and brother-in-law (Michael)
17. Radiohead
18. Lad's nights
19. Steve Bawden and Dan Hames - a delight to know
2o. Christine "Beeee" Burroughs - one of the most inspiring people I know
21. Loud Rach (Rach Webb) and Noisy Rach (Rach Wray) - noisy = loud + annoying
22. Newcastle United FC
23. My ipod
24. My guitars
25. James Pearson - a very gifted friend
26. Chris Turnpenny - another very gifted friend
27. Tennyson Boys (past, present and future)
28. When Pete spontaneously bakes for us
29. That Jonny is going out with a nice young lady (Anneli)
30. The library gang (a group of people who I spent much time revising with before my exams this year) - Myself, Steve, Charlie and Sara
31. That Charlie always looses when we play games (and is a gracious loser - at games, not in life generally, that is... she is not a loser in life, not that she is a loser in life, just not a gracious one)
32. How competetive she (Charlie) gets
33. The things we did on our revision breaks - and managed to do something different every time
34. Long conversations with beeee
35. Playing guitar
36. Writing songs
37. Playing pro evolution soccer against nathan
38. Playing pro evolution soccer on the same team as ben, and trying to win a world cup together with England
39. Real ale
40. Going to the pub with dad
41. John Steptoe
42. John's family - who have looked after many of us students at leicester since we arrived
43. Our holiday last year to Munich, Prague and Budapest
44. Drawing
45. Michelle - so much fun to spend time with, talk about Jesus with and paint/draw with
46. Evangelism with people you don't know
47. Evangelism with people you do know
48. Answered prayers
49. Finding out you've encouraged someone
50. The Cross of Christ
51. Different Cultures
52. World music
53. Talking about music with my dad
54. The Mighty Boosh - hilarious and wierd english sitcom
55. Alan Partridge - another hilarious english sitcom
56. The Office - another hilarious english sitcom
57. Swimming
58. Giggling in public places with Ben (like recently when we were on a train opposite a business man and were doing a crossword and realised the first five letters of a word were "e, r, e, c and t")
59. That I'm going to Malaysia with an American guy with a much cooler name than mine (me - david andrew panting, him - todd bradely suave)
60. Steve Coogan - comedian
61. Hymns - especially when I can understand what they're getting at
62. Andy Upton - pastor of my churh and a very big man
63. Jenna - one of my best friends from the second year of uni
64. Anna - another friend from uni who is lots of fun to talk to and spend time with
65. Hitting a half decent shot when I play golf
66. Playing football in the rain
67. When I score a header
68. The pub (specifically the one down the road from our house - the "horse and groom")
69. Food
70. Steak - I like mine done between medium rare and rare
71. Girls who either like football, or like that I like football
72. People who think I'm funny (especially John Steptoe - he's soo easy)
73. A good Pizza
74. Christmas Dinner
75. The Christmas Eve service at our Church (Great Sampford Baptist Church)
75. Knighton Evangelical Free Church - my church in Leicester
76. My gap year - spent doing sports ministry with Ambassadors in Sport
77. Hebron - the Scripture union camp i went on for 8 years and will probably go back to one day
78. Confusing and thought provoking films
79. The Parole Officer - fantastically funny film
80. The boys from uni - James, Liam, Mark, Andreas, Rich, Adam, Paul and Fiona (not really a boy, but in that group of friends)
81. John Piper's sermons - which you can download here
82. Our family home
83. My beds - both at uni and at home
84. Being able to drive in all circumstances
85. Leicester University Christian Union
86. Jo Lacey
87. Late night conversations with Nathan
88. Spending time with Jonny in any situation at all
89. Being on the CU exec as evangelism secretary
90. Writing songs with Nathan
91. Being in a car with either John, Dan or Joe
92. That I'll be living with Joe Guilford next year
93. Word Alive
94. Graham Beynon - pastor of a church in Leicester
95. Anyone who came as a guest speaker to the CU
96. Lee Nicholson - my youth pastor as I grew up
97. Clever television adverts
98. Muse
99. Jenna's housemates - Rach, Bine, and Emma
100. Learning a foreign language
101. Durham City
102. Durham Cathedral
103. Friends from Durham who I've not spoken to for a while - Rob, Sarah, Kirsty, Chris, Mandy, James, Amy, Jenny
104. Ali Wickam
105. The Navigators
106. Bernard Dishman - the king of the leicester navs
107. Being a little naughty - obviously in the name of good fun
108. Good practical jokes
109. Playing Uno with my family
110. Ian, Fiona and Joseph from next door
111. Dan's singing voice
112. Steve's guitar riffs
113. That we live round the corner from a 24 hour spar
114. That we can be fully satisfied in Jesus
115. Being able to wear flip flops with long trousers
116. Annoying Rach Wray
117. That we (me, jonny and john) got to see radiohead live in blackpool
118. Shpongle
119. Jazz
120. Learning to play the drums with John
121. Upper Tichbourne people - a group who live near us in Leicester, who were so welcoming and encouraging in our first year at uni
122. Hedge and BB
123. Ruth Clarke - the exec link to da street
124. My new friendship with Chloe
125. Bumping into friends I've not seen for ages - for example when I bumped into Paul Loosemoor at the CU leaders training weekend
126. That I'm going to see Jonny for two weeks in Perth, Australia (not Scotland) when I'm finished in Malaysia
127. Spending time with Jenna and Ruth Shepherd
128. My evang team - Amber, Liz and Joe
129. Swimming in the sea
130. Skiing - haven't done it for ages, absolutely love it
131. That the bible condemns eating cucumbers - well... kind of... - in Numbers 11 v 5 - read the whole passage, and think about what Paul says about going back into slavery after being given freedom from sin
132. Alan Shearer, Robert Lee, Warren Barton, Temuri Ketsbia, Nolberto Solano and Michael Owen - Newcastle Players (past and present)
133. Delirious? - although I'm still not too sure about their latest album
134. Curry
135. Chinese food
136. Mexican food - possibly my favourite after Christmas dinner
137. Trying new food
138. Trying new things in general
139. Scuba Diving
140. The Sermon on the mount (Matthew 5)
141. Psalm 63
142. Huw Miles - half welsh leicester legend
143. Fish and Chips
144. Greece - including greek food
145. Crosswords
146. How caring Jonny is when I'm ill
148. Play fighting
149. Anybody who reads this and leaves a comment
150. Finally, and most importantly, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the hope of heaven

There you go... I hope you know me a little better now, in my next post I'll be writing about why I'm going to Malaysia and what I'll be doing there