Best Foot Forward

I have just returned from a visit to the local outdoor-activity shop in Market Harborough where I have acquired some proper walking boots and other items ready for a sponsored walk on 16th April.  Our church is part of the Congregational Federation which made a commitment to raise £30,000 over three years for a Christian Aid partner charity in the Dominican Republic.  We have done well between us and are almost at the target amount, which has to be reached by May 2011.  The charity does excellent work that not only serves poor and needy people in the Dominican Republic (despite luxury tourist hotels there is a lot of poverty in this country) but also helps some folk from Haiti which is next door.  The Federation sent a team to see the situation first hand and they arrived back in the UK very shortly before the earthquake in Haiti.

So on 16th April this old man is going to set out on a 13.5 mile walk across country from Yelvertoft (where my church is situated) to Market Harborough (where I live) in company with other friends.  There are two intermediate points along the route at 4.5 miles and at 7.5 miles.  I hope to make the whole distance but apart from walking around the village and to and from the town centre I have not done any serious walking for around five years!  I am now looking for sponsors so how about it?  You could sponsor me on a mileage basis, or for completing the whole walk, or just for the audacity of thinking I can still walk that far!  All offers appreciated and you can email me at barry@ruralmissions.org.uk.

The Past Week's News
Sunday 20th I was tired from a very busy week (including the Friday and Saturday when I was in Hampshire) but the ministry on Sunday morning at Yelvertoft seemed to be appreciated.
Tuesday 22nd I was in prison with the choir.  The lads were very warm in their appreciation, which was nice.  In the evening we had a meeting at Theddingworth, Leicestershire.
Wednesday 23rd we hosted a lunchtime meeting for rural church leaders in south Leicestershire and north Northamptonshire.  In the evening I led the second of our Lent series in Yelvertoft.
Thursday 24th we went in the morning to Yelvertoft again for the first Lent meeting for a second Lent Group.  Eleven turned up, which was encouraging.
There was plenty to do to fill the gaps in the week!

The week ahead
Sunday 27th Doreen and I will be at Yelvertoft but the service will be taken by John and Joy Langford.
Tuesday 29th I have a school assembly in Yelvertoft in the morning and back to Gartree Prison in the afternoon.  Doreen and I then leave to drive to Hastings.
Wednesday 30th I hope to meet with friends at the Bruderhoff Christian Community in Robertsbridge, East Sussex.  We are then going to the funeral service and thanksgiving for the life of Doreen Porter in Eastbourne followed by a gathering at Herstmonceux.  Doreen and her husband Colin moved to the Herstmonceux area specifically to help us in the work there.  Just a few weeks ago their daughter died after a long battle with cancer.  Please pray for Colin and others in the family.  Then we set off back to Yelvertoft for Lent session 3 for the evening group.
Thursday morning it is session 2 of the morning Lent Group followed by a local Lent Lunch, after which I plan to crash out and do nothing!

On Wednesday work commences re-roofing our home and office at Market Harborough so I can imagine I might need to move to our local library to work!

Please pray that we will be kept healthy and spiritually refreshed as we run around.  Blessing does not come from overworking but from overflowing with the Spirit of God.  God is good and blesses us so much more than we deserve.

Thank you for being there - around the throne of grace - for us.

Barry

This week from Winchester

This week’s reflection is being written from a Travelodge near Winchester.  I’m here firstly because I have another session at Winchester University tomorrow (Saturday), but since I had to make this journey I offered a day to rural churches in the area for a consultation on rural mission.  Nine Anglican clergy and one lay leader gathered at the vicarage at St Mary Bourne and we spent a useful morning and afternoon together.  Such an event makes very good use of the time.

The week started with services at Newark in Nottinghamshire (where we explored John’s account of Jesus meeting with the woman at the well) and Theddingworth, Leicestershire (where we explored the issue of spiritual appetite and how Nehemiah in the OT and Peter and John in Acts 4 determinedly responded to difficulties they faced.  Later that evening I faced a minor but annoying challenge when I started a really bad cough that turned out to be a chest infection that then overshadowed the rest of the week.

However, on Tuesday I still went into prison to work with the choir and on Wednesday had an enjoyable afternoon of songs and stories with older folk at Yelvertoft (adapted so as not to strain my voice) and the first of our Lent meetings in the village that evening.

During the week we also mailed out the Rural Evangelism Network newsletter and Country Way magazines.  I also got the new REN website online.  You might like to check it out at www.ruralevangelism.net – especially the Knowledge Exchange section.

Our mission work Chairman, Stan, is now home after his heart surgery.  Monica is back from her travels down under.  Though this was a recreational trip she (typically) managed to do some valuable ministry along the way.

No doubt, like me, you have been concerned over circumstances in Libya, Japan, and Ivory Coast.  How I long for the fullness of God’s kingdom to come in.  You too?

The Coming Week:

A quieter week gives an opportunity to get on with work connected with the Research Project and perhaps take a little time out that has not been possible over recent weeks.

Sunday 20^th - Yelvertoft Congregational Church, Northants.

Tuesday  22^nd – Gartree Prison

Wednesday 23^rd – Rural Church Leaders’ Meeting for south Leicestershire, north Northamptonshire and Rutland, held at Torch House, Market Harborough.  Yelvertoft Lent Group in the evening.

Thursday 24^th – Morning Lent Group in Yelvertoft.

Sunday 27^th – Yelvertoft Congregational Church

We praise God for all his faithfulness and blessing, as we look to him to give those opportunities of service – not least as described in 1Peter 3:15.

Barry

An interesting week

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

Encouraged but facing a challenge

It is late Saturday night.  I have just completed setting out my main thoughts for tomorrow morning's meeting and I shall soon stagger off to bed.  But, thankful as I am for all who look up this information at the weekend, I thought I should put some information here.

We started the week with an encouraging attendance at the meeting in Yelvertoft.  One lady who had attended once before came again, and another couple from the village came for the first time.  We looked at the issue of peace with God and peace from God.  It seemed to be an engaging topic and I sensed God's presence especially when speaking about what God has done for us that we might know peace with him.

We came into this week with concern for Stan Acland (Chairman of Sunrise Ministries trustees).  He recently learned that he needed a triple bypass operation (heart surgery).  Two invitations to get into hospital at the end of the previous week failed so he was sent back home twice.  He had his operation this week but after recovery he suffered a set back and had to be sedated and his heart supported.  He is now doing better but is still on the critical list.

This past week I have done as much work as I can on the early stages of my research degree course.  I completed and sent off one important document.  How much this might need revision I will find out on Thursday when I have a tutorial at Winchester (I'm rather anxious about this).

On Tuesday we had almost a full attendance at the prison choir and a good practice.  There is still much to do however before our next concert.  One piece of very good news is that two of the choir members also work in a recording studio in the prison and read for a blind organisation.  I introduced the studio to Torch Trust for the Blind and we are now well on the way to getting some Christian books audio recorded for Torch.  Sound tests were carried out on a number of readers and my two choir members did excellently.  It's a new twist on my networking gift!

On Wednesday I met with the architect who will be drafting proposed alterations to Yelvertoft Chapel. This is the start of quite a big step of faith!  I also did pastoral visiting and collected the copies of Country Way from Stoneleigh, Warwickshire for sending out to REN members this coming week.

On Friday I produced 40 copies of Treasured Gospel Songs 1.  I was able to use the disk printer and multi-duplicator at the Torch premises in Market Harborough for which I an very grateful.  With Doreen's help we got our initial orders out on Friday afternoon.  One prayer partner ordered 8 to pass on to friends, and another ordered 6.  A recent ministry to a women's fellowship also resulted in 10 being ordered.  They now come in a proper hard case for a price of £5 plus postage (£1 for one; £1.50 for 2; £2 for up to 8).  All the profit goes into the rural ministry.   Much more encouraging is that God has been using these recorded songs to bless people (young and old).

So we come to today (Saturday) when I was in Nottingham morning and afternoon for the Mission and Society Committee of the Congregational Federation.  Lots of encouragement as the Federation continues to press forward on biblical and Christ centred principles.

Doreen is adjusting to no longer being able to drive and is getting used to her electric mobility scooter.

The coming week
Please pray for Stan, his wife and family.  Pray that Stan will make a full and speedy recovery.

Please pray for me as I prepare for my first tutorial at Winchester University this week.

Sunday 6th - Yelvertoft Congregational Church, Northants.
Monday 7th - School Assembly, Lubenham, Leics.
Tuesday 8th - Churches Group for Evangelisation Meeting in London.
Wednesday 9th - final prep for Thursday!
Thursday 10th - Winchester University
Friday 11th - REN mailout
Saturday 12th - Torch Fellowship Group, Market Harborough
Sunday 13th - Newark Congregational Church, Notts. and Theddingworth Congregational Church, Leics.

No day off this week but I will grab as much free time as I can.

Thank you for standing with us.

Barry