Friday 25 February 2011

A fairly average week

It's been an interesting week.  The post has brought more orders for the CD and I plan to run these off next week and send them out.

A sad note was sounded on Thursday afternoon when we took Doreen's car to the garage and she bade farewell to both it and driving.  She is getting on very well with the electronic shopping scooter.

We had a great choir practice at the prison on Tuesday.  Only once choir member missing and some items sound seriously good.  I wish I could record it for you!

On Wednesday Doreen and I joined the Yelvertoft Senior for the annual lunch which was held at West Haddon.  One lady there had been asking about the Congregational church in the village and tells me she is coming this Sunday morning (if she can cope without the Archers!).  We followed this up with some pastoral visiting.

Janet Stafford and Gordon Temple of
Torch receive a cheque for £700.
Also on Thursday the YP and their leaders came to visit Torch Trust and present a cheque for £700.  That's enough to buy 38 goats for poor families in Malawi.  There are a lot of photos on my Facebook page.

After the presentation the YP and leaders tries on various glasses that replicated sight loss.  They also went on a tour of the offices, recording studio, printing works, library and despatch area.

The rest of the week was taken up with some study, some admin and miscellaneous activities.  These included getting invitations out for the next rural church leaders meeting for south Leicestershire, north Northamptonshire and Rutland.

This coming week:
Sunday 27th Yelvertoft CC (Pathways to a lasting peace)
Monday 28th Study/Admin
Tuesday 1st (Wedding Anniversary) Gartree Prison
Wednesday 2nd busy at Yelvertoft (and possibly a prison activity).  Collect Country Way magazines from Stoneleigh, Warwicks.
Thursday 3rd Mostly study and writing
Friday 4th Study and prep for Sunday
Saturday 5th Mission and Society Committee in Nottingham
Sunday 6th Yelvertoft CC

No formal day off this week but I plan to take time out each day, if possible.  I have only one evening commitment this week.

Thanks again for visiting this blog and for your prayers.  Do take a look at the Yelvertoft pictures on my facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=696458192.

Barry

Saturday 19 February 2011

Gearing up for intensive research

As I indicated last week there were fewer engagements over the past seven days.  This has enables me to undertake some tasks that were badly needed.  One of these was to sort out my library.  This stretches the length of the first floor landing with shelves up to 6ft from the ground.  Most of this is reference material though some shelves are taken up with biographical and general Christian books.  Now it is all properly categorised which enables me to find the various books already on my shelves that I might need to re-read and comment on as part of the preparatory stages of the research programme I have started with Winchester University.

Another related task was to do a research training needs audit for the University.  This was not easy as I had no terms of reference and had to indicate against a range of aspects whether my abilities were basic, competent, skilled or expert.  On one hand there was a natural tendency to incline towards suggesting these were on the lower levels (somewhat like taking the lower place at table story in the gospels) but then this might mean spending time and money going over some aspects where my knowledge and skill acquired over years would suggest I could tick a higher level.  Fortunately a friend with some experience of these things came to my aid and I had the benefit of the opinion of an academic who actually knows me.

There are around 24 post graduate research students and we have each been asked to write 300 words on our chosen topic and then comment on the notes others post.  Mine was the first up and I have been joined by six more.  Two other students have commented warmly as they come from rural situations and have an interest in my research into rural evangelism.

I am due back at Winchester twice in March.  The second occasion is on Saturday 19th and thinking of how I can use this travelling more helpfully I made enquiries as to whether there would be local interest in running a rural mission consultation day.  This has been taken up and we have begun putting the word out in the area in the hope of encouraging local rural church leaders.  This is sensible use of my time and helps to tie the research and teaching together.

Last Sunday there was a very precious sense of God's presence at Yelvertoft as we reflected on our relationship to Jesus - who he is to each one of us.  This Sunday should have been a rest day but I am standing in for our good friend Dr Gordon Temple so will be taking the service.  I'm not sure what to speak on at this moment and time to prepare is running out!

Gordon is the CEO of Torch Trust for the Blind.  This coming Thursday a party of around a dozen YP from Yelvertoft are bringing a cheque for £700 to Torch to purchase goats for poor families in rural Malawi - one of the areas where Torch works.  They either raised this by work or inspired donations to get this amazing sum together.  I'm feeling a little proud of them.

Doreen has been out and about in the new electric buggy she will need to do shopping as she almost certainly gives up her car this week.  We were very blessed in getting a second hand Polo automatic and she loves driving it, but the loss of feeling in her legs and feet is moving towards a critical time when driving could become dangerous.

The coming week
This looks much like the past week.  I have copies of "No Ordinary Man" to get out and copies of the "Treasured Gospel Songs" to get produced and mailed out, at least one pastoral visiting day, Sunday's ministry to prepare, general administration and study related to the research programme.  Not so many activities but more than enough to fill the week.

I sent out quite a number of flyers regarding the gospel songs CD.  Several orders have come in but, hearing how many find this ministry bringing God's touch into their lives, I hope that we might get more requests.  Some of the orders are to enable praying friends to give copies to their friends.  Now that's nice.

Have a good week yourself and please keep in touch.

Barry

Friday 11 February 2011

A lot packed into the past week

This week has had a musical slant, though there were other interesting aspects.

On Monday I was required to undergo  an afternoon of security training related to my involvement with Gartree Prison.  So I was in prison twice this week.

On Tuesday I was down to do the school assembly at Yelvertoft and the theme was "love".  This theme will run over several weeks and had started the week before.  As I prayerfully pondered what to do I felt drawn to talk about the constancy of God's love for us - even when we let him down.  I also thought I should sing a Marilyn Baker song, "All I ever do is love you".  This was a challenge to try out a grown up song on key stage 1 & 2 children.  However, it worked very well and I had more conversations with the children after assembly than ever before.

In the afternoon I was back at prison for my regular "day off" (well it makes a change from other activities!).  The small staff choir was even more diminished with only two women turning up.  But this turned out to be a great time.  One of the women who four weeks ago could not sing any note I played on the piano has developed a lovely voice and now, with a little coaching from me, plans to sing "Love changes everything" to the man she loves on Valentine's Day.  Both of the women are new to community singing and plan to carry it on outside prison.

Immediately after this comes the prisoner's male voice choir.  We are getting stuck in preparing for a Spring Concert.  It's a mixture of Christian and secular songs.  It produces a great interface with the gospel.  Then in the evening I was speaking at a local Women's Fellowship on some of my experiences in rural evangelism.  I worked in two songs.  As I was about to pack up one of the leaders asked if I had recorded any CDs - if not I ought to do so.  I told them of the Treasured Gospel Songs and immediately had ten more orders!

Wednesday morning I set off for Cardiff for the Inter-Church Board of the Congregational Federation.  We welcomed the Rev Aled Edwards from Cytun (Churches Together in Wales).  We had a busy and productive schedule with working meals included until lunch time on Thursday.

The Theddingworth Valentine Party
Friday was dedicated to the research degree work until the evening when we joined friends at Theddingworth setting up the Village Hall for a Valentine Supper.  As a small congregation we gave as a gift to the community a pleasant evening with an excellent main course.  Deserts were brought by us and others, and people brought their own drinks.  It was a very happy time (more gospel interface) and as I was leaving I was asked to sing.  Fortunately I had a backing track for "Love changes everything" with me.  It seemed to go down well.

One piece of personal news: we have acquired an electric motorised shopping scooter for Doreen as she anticipates giving up driving at the end of this month.  We found a specialist shop had opened just around the corner from our home.  They had a couple of used models and we selected one which we hoped would fit down the passage between our home and our neighbours.  The question was would it be able to turn 90 degrees at the end into our back entrance.  Doreen hopped on and drove it perfectly into its new home!

We sent out a news letter via post to our friends without internet access.  I am grateful for several enquiries that might lead to possible help sharing blogged information through a monthly posted newsletter.  I am very grateful.  I need to talk this through with those who are willing to help.

I face a relatively quiet week which should enable me to catch up with a few reports I need to write and to do more early stage work for the research programme.  I have to establish an appropriate reading schedule and get some research skills training. I will keep you informed how this begins to develop.

Thanks again for your support.

Barry

Saturday 5 February 2011

This Week's News

Hi,

Thanks for keeping up to date.  About 48 hours ago I felt rather as if I was standing on a high diving board looking down at the water.  The problem is I don't swim more that a few strokes.  What I was actually doing was going off to Winchester for the Induction day for Research Students.  It did seem daunting at that time.  However, I have now made a splash and enjoyed the day.  There were two special sessions, various activities like getting a student ID card and paying fees, and introductory visits to the University Library, Student Services, and the Internet Cafe.  Now the work begins!

My research subject is how rural churches in Britain understand and engage with the task of evangelisation and other aspects of mission.  The reason for undertaking this is to leave behind a piece of serious research that might help rural Christians be more effective in sharing the Christian gospel within their home communities.  I think that for many the context of village life affects what aspects of the gospel are seen as more or less significant, and certainly how Christians engage in evangelism.  But first I have quite a lot of preparatory work to do.

As to the rest of the past week, the school assembly on Monday was OK but a little difficult as it was linked to the theme of Candlemas; we had an excellent time with the two choirs at Gartree Prison on Tuesday, and the Pastoral Care Board on Wednesday gave a positive reception to the leaflet I had written and advanced the chaplaincy aspects of ministry recognition within the Congregational Federation.

I had a nice warm glow through the week after the super buffet lunch on my birthday and all the love shown (You should see my facebook!).  Doreen's birthday followed on Tuesday and she has been gloating that she had more cards than I did!

The Week Ahead
Sunday 6th -  Free Day
Monday 7th - Security Training at the prison
Tuesday 8th - School Assembly at Yelvertoft in the morning; choirs at Gartree Prison in the afternoon; talk on rural mission to a Women's Fellowship in the evening.
Wednesday & Thursday 9th/10th - convening an Inter-Church Board Meeting in Cardiff for the Congregational Federation.
Friday and Saturday - no appointments but plenty to do!
Sunday 13th - Yelvertoft

While I always value prayers for these engagements, every day there is a full day's work plus various informal meetings some of which are quite significant.  We do need your prayers and thank you most sincerely.

Barry