Maden 🇬🇧 England

  • Louisville Reunion

    The old Christasus [dot] com website from Archive [dot] org
    2006 was the first year I attended

    The Louisville Reunion was hosted by the Warren and Bunting families in the back yard between their two homes. It started in 1975 and ended in 2011. I attended this annual 3 day tent meeting in September 2006 when I wanted to understand union and the oneness the son enjoyed with the Father as described in John 17.

    I was invited to the meeting by Dee Dee Winter after she responded to my emails asking what union was. I has just left organized religion the previous year, 2005 after I asked a church pastor if he knew where the Kingdom of God was.

    His response wasn’t what I had expected and I knew in a split second by his nebulous and theological response that he didn’t know himself. Then it dawned on me that if he didn’t know then it’s likely that his congregation wouldn’t know either. The Lord made it clear I should look elsewhere for answers because religion though well meaning is often the blind leading the blind.

    This is when I found the Louisville reunion and got the invite from Dee. I went to the weekend and cam back a changed man.

    I found folk who were welcoming and loving in a way I had not experienced before.

    Friends at the tent meeting, Dan Stone far right.

    The tent meeting was not dominated by a single speaker all weekend, but was everyday folk who lived from this union experience sharing their stories, their testimonies and though there were some talks, all by different people, no one person dominated.

    This was what I was hoping to find and I had found what I was looking for, union, Christ as us, the hope of glory (Col 1:27)

    Knowing these facts intellectually was not the same as living them as I write this 18 years. The first book I read that the community recommended was

    The Rest of The Gospel – When The Partial Gospel Has Worn You Out.

    It’s a play on words of course, but its so true, organized religion tends to preach the predictable gospel, it does wear you out, but some of the truth is missing.

    When was the last time the Pastor at your church revealed that God lives His life in you, AS YOU?

    As He is so are we in this world – 1 John 4:17

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  • Why Coldplay Became a Place to Rest

    Since moving to Marion, music has become less about taste and more about survival.

    Coldplay and Andy Grammer have quietly become my default — not because life feels celebratory, but because their music creates space when life is unresolved. Songs like ‘All My Love’ and ‘We Pray’ don’t demand answers. They allow presence. They hold grief, hope, and endurance in the same breath.

    Andy Grammer does something similar for me. His music doesn’t deny hardship, but it insists that worth, kindness, and forward motion still exist even when circumstances don’t cooperate. On days when work is uncertain, relationships are ambiguous, and the future feels thin, that matters.

    I don’t listen to these songs to escape reality.

    I listen because they help me stay inside it — without hardening.

    There was a time before constant sharing, before everything needed to be explained or framed. Music still lives in that older space. It accompanies rather than announces. It steadies without asking to be understood.

    Tonight, that is enough.

    P.S. I love you 🐝

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  • The Meaning of Life

    Meaning of Life

    19 years later I’m still listening to Norman P Grubb’s recordings, this one is ‘Meaning of Life“.

    I remember listening to this for the first time in 2006 when I was in Nicaragua with Fred Kornis at Heartland International Ministries.

    At that time I knew God would make all things clear through Norman because he like me was British, I just knew I would understand what Norman was saying.

    Over the years of grounding and settling what he said I now take for granted as my daily life, but in the last year I’ve found my self unsettled again so I’m listening to the series again in 2025.

    What an awesome life we live to be One with God!

    “The Meaning Of Life – 1. God Only”Meaning of Life 53:51

    2. “The Meaning Of Life – 2. Where We Begin” 53:51

    3. “The Meaning Of Life – 3. Free to be Ourselves” 49:46

    4. “The Meaning of Life – 4. From Negative to Positive Believing” 47:49

    5. “The Meaning of Life – 5. From Romans 7 to Romans 8”

    44:11

    6. “The Meaning of Life – 6. I Will Do it Through YOU”

    43:31

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  • Brian’s Story

    Digital version of my first Olympus camera

    My dear friend and neighbor Brian Symonds helped me see through the lens of my first single lens reflex camera, the famous Olympus OM 10

    Below is what his wife wrote about him when I invited her to write about Brian’s passion for photography.

    “I first met Brian in 1967 and we eventually married in 1973.

    I can always remember him saying that we would love to take up photography seriously. He was asked to do several weddings in Birmingham, including his daughters from his first marriage.Also did children’s portraits and students in their caps and gowns.

    Brian’s love of photography stemmed from his love of the beauty of all Gods creations, from insects, humans, land and seascapes and mountains. he had a natural eye for capturing a picture that perhaps someone else, would pass by without noticing.

    In 1976 we came to live in Telford, but Brian had to give up work as a drayman in a brewery, because of a serious spinal disease. The sale of our house in Birmingham, gave us a little spare cash, to get equipment that Brian needed to take his love of the camera further.

    We bought an enlarger and developer and printer, and all the paper and chemicals that he would need.He also needed a new camera, a NIKON FE, and several lenses and filters. We both went to night school, a college course, to learn all about printing and developing, which was useful because if Brian was not well enough to do it, then I could.

    Where ever we went Brian always carried his camera with him. We joined the Telford Camera Club which was held in the Lord Silken school (Telford Park School, as it was). We enjoyed the experience and company of the other photographers, and Brian even won several of the competitions, eventually he became secretary of the club, which he enjoyed immensely.

    He arranged competitions with other clubs and did exhibitions of the work. Unfortunately, due to a serious flareup of his spinal condition, he had to give up this position and for the time, the photography, as well.

    Brian taught several people how to use their camera, and the best way to capture a good photo. One was a young lady, who has now got her own photographic studio in France, and is doing very well.

    Also, Brian would take Tony, who lived next door to us in Hollinswood, with him traveling around the local area.They captured the beautiful scenery, that Shropshire has, and enjoyed each others company.

    Tony’s love of the camera has continued, even though he moved to America. Brian continued to take photographs and on many occasions did work for a caravan park in Talybont, Barmouth, he did photos for their brochures, The Site owners, even asked Brian to do photographs of the site, for 400 calendars, this kept us busy for several years.

    Brian never lost his love of photography, even when he became seriously ill with cancer, he still tried to take pictures. Two weeks before he died, we had snow and he was there at the door, taking pictures of the garden and the woods beyond, even took a photo of a little lonely robin that befriended him.

    Sadly Brian died on 11th January 2011- his 74th birthday and and our family and the world lost a very Special Man.”

    Brian’s legacy continues to live on through me .

    When I first moved to the USA our next door neighbors daughter wanted to learn photography and we bought her a DSLR outfit to encourage her continued learning.

    This love of teaching others what Brian had taught me continues to be multiples through students at Homer’s Coffee House who wanted to Learn – Billy the fireman, Bethany, and whoever asks to learn to take better photos.

    If you’d like to learn, please reach out via social media or my new photo website at https://tonymadenphotography.com or https://madenluvdesign.community😎

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