Touch and go: Tourists can now pay for Blackpool seaside donkey ride with DEBIT CARD, Daily Express

BLACKPOOL'S famous donkeys have trotted their way into the 21st century - by allowing seaside tourists to swipe a DEBIT CARD over their saddles.

Instead of letting the kids down when the hunt for small change in their pocket fails, parents can instead scan their bank cards or enter their pin numbers into the seats to go along the Lancashire seaside resort's Golden Mile.

The decision to give the long-standing family tradition a makeover was taken by Mark Ineson, owner of Real Donkeys UK, who has sold donkey rides on the seaside town's beach for almost 20 years.

After recognising the boom in 'touch and go' payments he teamed up with Barclaycard to go contactless.

Hoping to give his business a "much-needed boost", he said: "Over the years I've had to turn hundreds of kids away because mums and dads don't have the cash on them to pay for a ride on Dillon and the beach is often the last place you want to be carrying lots of change.

"So I approached Barclaycard to see whether they could help solve the problem.

"The saddle they've come up with means hundreds more people will be able to experience one of the Great British seaside traditions and have a donkey ride along the sands.

"It also shows that, regardless of how traditional your business might be, there are always new things to trial that can give it a much-needed boost."

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Comment:

While watching BBC Breakfast news this morning, and it mentioned this story,  my immediate thought  was to check the calendar to see if today’s date wasn’t April the 1^st,  relieved that it wasn’t April the 1^st and somehow I hadn’t missed the last few months of my life,  and then feeling disappointed  that my dream that I was Dr Who was just a dream!,  I thought that this story was very clever and thought provoking,  well done to Real Donkeys of Blackpool and Barclaycard for introducing,  although I do feel it’s a marketing promotion.  

Your Personal Responsibility in Church Discipline

Your Personal Responsibility in Church Discipline

Jesus made it clear that the discipline process should always begin with a one-on-one encounter: “If your brother sins, go and show him his fault in private” (Matthew 18:15). Discipline is not instituted by a committee. If the offender repents, there is no need to involve others at all.

Discipline, if successful, both suppresses the effects of sin and limits the circle of knowledge. Far from broadcasting knowledge of someone’s sin unnecessarily, the discipline process confines knowledge of the offense as much as possible. In most cases, if repentance occurs early enough in the process, no one but the offender and the person who confronts ever needs to know about the offense.

Why Do We Put ‘Christian Celebrities’ on a Pedestal?, Charisma Magazine

Gungor. Vicky Beeching. Mark Driscoll. David Yonggi Cho. What do all these names have in common? Controversy.

Of course, a blogger like myself could not go silent on these issues.

When situations like this arise, we are challenged, confused, disillusioned. We often resort to bashing, freaking out, and being disgusted (or excited) when a Christian celebrity falls.

When I think of the aforementioned names, I think of children of God who followed the call of God, were used mightily by God, and are being honest with their struggles. Mistakes have been made; power has been abused. But that's no excuse to write people off.

An Issue of Worship

Allow me to issue a challenge—to you, to me. This is about worship. When situations like this arise, I wonder whom we are worshiping, what we're prioritizing. Our worship culture so often becomes a consumer game of digesting the latest, greatest songs and resources, idolizing the people who carry the gifts of God.

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Profile: Danniella Westbrook

Profile: Danniella Westbrook

Don’t stare at her nose! That’s all that was running through my head as I prepared to chat with British actress Danniella Westbrook. It’s not often I’ve had to mentally prepare to avoid a social faux pas, but I’m sure I wasn’t alone with this one.

The child model turned actress was born in Walthamstow to a cab driver and a shop assistant and was brought up in Essex. Her parents supported their daughter’s ambitions by allowing her to attend the prestigious Sylvia Young Theatre School, and she found fame aged 16 playing Sam Mitchell in EastEnders, a role she would revisit intermittently for the next 20 years. She featured in many prominent storylines with her onscreen brothers, thugs Grant and Phil Mitchell, but it wasn’t this that made the headlines.

During the mid-90s Westbrook developed a severe cocaine habit, epitomised by pictures published in the press where it was evident that her nasal septum had been completely eroded. With grisly pleasure, the tabloids rejoiced in documenting the life of a young woman spiralling out of control. Pictures of Westbrook falling out of nightclubs and lying in gutters became standard gossip mag fodder. So in 2012, when she gave an exclusive interview to a British tabloid detailing her conversion to Christianity and newfound love for clean living, almost everyone did a double take. Of all the people to find God and turn their life around, she just seemed so unlikely.

So how did it all come about? My journey to find out was a somewhat arduous one. If her agent is to be believed, Westbook is a hard woman to pin down these days. The release of her new book, which openly documents her drug abuse and a gang rape as well as her conversion, has resulted in her becoming a born-again celebrity in high demand. After this difficulty, together with detailed requests for the provision of transport and a make-up artist (we were filming), I began to wonder what kind of person I would eventually meet.

The reality was a very petite individual, who arrived with no entourage and a very humble, relaxed and warm manner. She wore a crucifix and had the Bible verse Isaiah 54:17 tattooed on her wrist. ‘I always feel – especially coming from a working class background and being in the public eye – people judge, judge, judge and they use judgement as a weapon against people, to make them feel terrible about themselves,’ she explains. ‘So, for me [the verse says] “God’s there for you and no weapon formed against you shall prosper”. So that’s the Bible verse for me.’

Brian & Jenn Johnson - Where You Go I Go

The Pretenders - I'll Stand By You

Glee Make Me feel your love