Hi and welcome to my weekly post on this blog. I'm writing this on Friday evening and still reeling from the scenes of devastation in Japan.
We have been much in prayer for Stan Acland the Chair of Trustees for my mission charity, Sunrise Ministries. Stan has had a bit of a rough time after major heart surgery but is now making good progress and is expected home from hospital soon. We thank God for his recovery so far and continue to pray for him.
Last Sunday was encouraging as for the second week running we had 18 at the Yelvertoft Congregational Church. This is almost 2% of the population and marked growth from the figure with which we started. There has been a great sense of God's presence and new people have been returning. I am overflowing with joy.
Monday I had a school assembly at Lubenham that went very well. The theme was mountains. Having briefly mentioned Moses meeting with God and the Mount of Transfiguration we then drew parallels between life as we grow up and mountain climbing. We looked at Everest and some of the highlights including the 15 year old that has climbed it and the blind man. I talked about how good it is to have Jesus as our guide.
The rest of the day I wrote an 1800 word article on rural mission for a magazine called the Reader (for Church of England Readers - similar to lay preachers).
Tuesday - instead of going to Gartree Prison I went to London for a meeting of the Churches Group for Evangelization. It was good to hear of the various activities and plans going on with other Churches and organisations. Wrote up the report on the way home and circulated it to all who needed the information. I was pretty tired when I got home but I had work to do before I could go to Winchester so I read literature and wrote most of a draft introductory chapter for my Thesis. This is only rough - a kind of broad brush strokes job to enable the supervisors to fine tune me.
Wednesday morning I tidied up the material for the university, sent it off and then took time out.
Thursday morning I travelled to Winchester. On the local station platform I met a lady who had been visiting her grandson in Gartree Prison. She comes from Cornwall and happens to know my good friends there. It seemed like an arranged meeting. On the second stage of the journey a man got off the train in a hurry at Basingstoke and left his wallet and train tickets. I rescued these for him and handed them in to a team of worried looking officials at Winchester. I was told later that it is rare to get wallets and purses handed in. That's sad!
The session with my supervisors at the university was not as bad as I had anticipated but they want me to do even more reading. For a chap that likes to be active that's a challenge. I read a text book all the way there and all the way back.
On Friday (today) I have spent all morning to evening setting up a new and better website for the Rural Evangelism Network. Towards the end of last year I set up a new website for REN and separated a website out for Rural Mission Solutions (used to be Rural Sunrise). But that website has proved frustrating when it comes to editing it. So all the pages had to be migrated from one to the latest version. It should go live within 24 hours (probably no later than lunch time on Saturday) so you could try going to www.ruralevangelism.net and taking a look.
Tomorrow (Saturday) I'm supporting the local Torch Fellowship Group meeting in the morning, preparing for Sunday's ministry quietly, and otherwise resting.
Doreen is getting on great with her electric scooter. Together we got off some of the orders for the CD "Treasured Gospel Songs". It is difficult to write or talk about this without sounding egotistical! One payment came in from Ireland with just one word on it "Brilliant!" Another payment came in with a complaint that it was over too soon and he felt he was wearing it out because he kept playing it. He then ordered and paid for a copy for a friend. The many copies for friends that are being bought are such a joy. God's word in song is touching more and more hearts. Please give thanks with me to God for his blessing on this project.
We took a delivery of more padded envelopes and copies of the CD will be in the post tomorrow. Each one sent out with prayer.
The coming Week
Sunday 11.00 Newark Congregational Church and 6.00 Theddingworth Congregational Church.
Tuesday - Gartree Prison
Wednesday - Yelvertoft Senior Circle (Songs and Stories)
Thursday - Free Churches Group, London (on behalf of the Congregational Federation) - session to explore the appointment of a new Free Church Superintendent Chaplain for Prisons. We have hopes of modifying the job description and I value your prayers for a good outcome for this very important post.
Friday - Rural Mission Consultation for some churches in Hampshire.
Saturday - Winchester University (Research Training)
Sunday 20th - Yelvertoft Congregational Church.
Otherwise Doreen and I will get the REN mailing out, do some admin and do reading for the research programme. I will catch up with Monica's news as she is back from her hols, and I will try to crash out and rest when I can.
I hope you had a good week, but whether good or bad we all need to keep our eyes on the Lord and our hand in his.
Barry
We have been much in prayer for Stan Acland the Chair of Trustees for my mission charity, Sunrise Ministries. Stan has had a bit of a rough time after major heart surgery but is now making good progress and is expected home from hospital soon. We thank God for his recovery so far and continue to pray for him.
Last Sunday was encouraging as for the second week running we had 18 at the Yelvertoft Congregational Church. This is almost 2% of the population and marked growth from the figure with which we started. There has been a great sense of God's presence and new people have been returning. I am overflowing with joy.
Monday I had a school assembly at Lubenham that went very well. The theme was mountains. Having briefly mentioned Moses meeting with God and the Mount of Transfiguration we then drew parallels between life as we grow up and mountain climbing. We looked at Everest and some of the highlights including the 15 year old that has climbed it and the blind man. I talked about how good it is to have Jesus as our guide.
The rest of the day I wrote an 1800 word article on rural mission for a magazine called the Reader (for Church of England Readers - similar to lay preachers).
Tuesday - instead of going to Gartree Prison I went to London for a meeting of the Churches Group for Evangelization. It was good to hear of the various activities and plans going on with other Churches and organisations. Wrote up the report on the way home and circulated it to all who needed the information. I was pretty tired when I got home but I had work to do before I could go to Winchester so I read literature and wrote most of a draft introductory chapter for my Thesis. This is only rough - a kind of broad brush strokes job to enable the supervisors to fine tune me.
Wednesday morning I tidied up the material for the university, sent it off and then took time out.
Thursday morning I travelled to Winchester. On the local station platform I met a lady who had been visiting her grandson in Gartree Prison. She comes from Cornwall and happens to know my good friends there. It seemed like an arranged meeting. On the second stage of the journey a man got off the train in a hurry at Basingstoke and left his wallet and train tickets. I rescued these for him and handed them in to a team of worried looking officials at Winchester. I was told later that it is rare to get wallets and purses handed in. That's sad!
The session with my supervisors at the university was not as bad as I had anticipated but they want me to do even more reading. For a chap that likes to be active that's a challenge. I read a text book all the way there and all the way back.
On Friday (today) I have spent all morning to evening setting up a new and better website for the Rural Evangelism Network. Towards the end of last year I set up a new website for REN and separated a website out for Rural Mission Solutions (used to be Rural Sunrise). But that website has proved frustrating when it comes to editing it. So all the pages had to be migrated from one to the latest version. It should go live within 24 hours (probably no later than lunch time on Saturday) so you could try going to www.ruralevangelism.net and taking a look.
Tomorrow (Saturday) I'm supporting the local Torch Fellowship Group meeting in the morning, preparing for Sunday's ministry quietly, and otherwise resting.
Doreen is getting on great with her electric scooter. Together we got off some of the orders for the CD "Treasured Gospel Songs". It is difficult to write or talk about this without sounding egotistical! One payment came in from Ireland with just one word on it "Brilliant!" Another payment came in with a complaint that it was over too soon and he felt he was wearing it out because he kept playing it. He then ordered and paid for a copy for a friend. The many copies for friends that are being bought are such a joy. God's word in song is touching more and more hearts. Please give thanks with me to God for his blessing on this project.
We took a delivery of more padded envelopes and copies of the CD will be in the post tomorrow. Each one sent out with prayer.
The coming Week
Sunday 11.00 Newark Congregational Church and 6.00 Theddingworth Congregational Church.
Tuesday - Gartree Prison
Wednesday - Yelvertoft Senior Circle (Songs and Stories)
Thursday - Free Churches Group, London (on behalf of the Congregational Federation) - session to explore the appointment of a new Free Church Superintendent Chaplain for Prisons. We have hopes of modifying the job description and I value your prayers for a good outcome for this very important post.
Friday - Rural Mission Consultation for some churches in Hampshire.
Saturday - Winchester University (Research Training)
Sunday 20th - Yelvertoft Congregational Church.
Otherwise Doreen and I will get the REN mailing out, do some admin and do reading for the research programme. I will catch up with Monica's news as she is back from her hols, and I will try to crash out and rest when I can.
I hope you had a good week, but whether good or bad we all need to keep our eyes on the Lord and our hand in his.
Barry
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