Catching Up?

I used to find it amusing to watch a young cat trying to catch its tale while running round in circles.  Sometimes it would manage to get hold but then it would slip out between the paws and the cat would have to start all over again.  I was thinking that I have had a productive week and managed to catch up with quite a lot of tasks, but I'm still not quite there and spinning around!

It felt good to get those forms completed and sent off to University.  They had to include my research proposal properly set out with supporting bibliography.  These now have to pass two sets of scrutineers before I can advance.  I'd ask you to pray about this but it sounds rather like the student who left an examination room praying that God would make Tokyo the capital of China!

The new office layout is proving a great help and I am noticeably more efficient.  I spent some time this morning adding material to one of the websites.  This included 'Get in the Picture', which is a great idea for Christmas outreach.  If you haven't heard about this please visit www.ruralevangelism.net and click on knowledge exchange, then go to 'miscellaneous ideas'.  While you are on the website please take a further look around the sections within the Knowledge Exchange.


I have taken delivery of 15 copies of Time for Action (the book I helped to write about pastoral care for those who have been sexually abused) but we still need to get a re-print done.  It looks like I have found a good contact if I can get hold of the digital file of the book.  I am talking with CTBI about this.  I also received a fresh supply of Rural Evangelism in the 21st Century as these have been selling well recently.

Letters are going out to possible new trustees for Sunrise Ministries.  We need at least three new trustees so please pray that those receiving the letters will be guided aright.

Following the email sent out earlier this week about reading the blog I received more responses than I expected stating they do look up the blog regularly.  A couple of others responded to come off the list (reluctantly).  Most will now be receiving this as an email attachment, but remember that you can look back over the Praise and Prayer News by going to the blog at ruralmission.blogspot.com

During the week I had one initial consultation for a rural URC church.  It has beautifully reordered premises with good facilities, but lacks car parking.  With only a part-time (half a day a week) minister who does not live in the village and an elderly congregation they have a challenge.  But I was able to make several useful suggestions and will try to follow up on these.

The school assembly on Monday went well.  The senior teacher commented on how the 80 or so children were gripped as I retold the story of the Good Samaritan.  "I could picture every scene" she added.

The Week Ahead
Sunday - Yelvertoft Congregational Church
Monday - ReJesus committee meeting, London (see www.rejesus.org )
Tuesday - School Assembly Planning meeting, Yelvertoft; followed by Gartree Prison
Thursday -  Morning Bible Discussion Group looking at Philippians 2.
Sunday 4th - Yelvertoft Congregational Church

There is a lot of reading and writing to do this week, also updating another website with material from the recent Oxford Diocesan event.  Please pray for my colleague, Monica, as she works in Kenya this week.

Thank you for your fellowship,

Barry

Sharing encouragements

Hello once again.

This has been an incredibly busy week and I am grateful that my good friend Dr Gordon Temple is taking the service at Yelvertoft tomorrow morning.  It will be good to sit under his ministry and great to have something of a break.

Remembrance services in Yelvertoft were very special last Sunday.  Both the gathering at the war memorial and the joint service held at our church were well attended.  On Sunday evening we met with friends at Market Harborough Congregational Church making our projection equipment available for them.

The rest of the week began and ended with tasks for the Diocese of Oxford.   On Monday I wrote and submitted an article for their magazine, and on Saturday I had the privilege of speaking at an event held in Marsh Gibbon where the theme was mission and discipleship in a rural context.  I was grateful for the many encouraging things said both during and at the end of the day.  A good number showed interest in using our "No Ordinary Man" project.  Our supply of these books is getting low.  The target group for these is those who are faithful at church support but who might never have articulated a personal faith in Christ.  To be part of the scheme costs nothing and I am happy to supply any rural church with as many copies as they can use.  See the website at www.ruralmissionsolutions.org.uk for more information.

On Tuesday I led a school assembly in Yelvertoft and was back in the village on Thursday morning for one of the two Bible Discussion Groups.

On Wednesday I was in London at the Salvation Army College teaching on their Safe and Sound III course.  It was well attended and the response to the day was very positive. Teaching on sexual abuse issues isn't easy but the best way to make our churches and Christian organisations safer is to ensure that people are well informed.  I am hopeful that before long we will get Time for Action reprinted and distributed to new Christian leaders across the denominations.

On Friday Doreen and I travelled to and from Hastings for a service of thanksgiving for Alan Blythe.  Alan must have known me almost my entire life.  He was a good and faithful friend.  He taught me to drive, attempted to teach me to play the piano accordion, but most importantly he taught me by example what it means to be a disciple of Jesus.  Alan was on the leadership team of the church in which i shared in pastoral leadership for 21 years.  It was good to meet old friends and share happy memories of Alan with his wife Peggy and their family.

When not out on activity almost every waking hour has been spent at my desk.  So a big thank you to those who prayed that we would be kept safe in travelling, and stay physically and spiritually fit.  I am always encouraged by words of appreciation I receive but the praise belongs to God, and thanks go to you - my fellow labourers in the gospel for your prayers.

This week:
Please pray that essential work for the university will get accepted by my supervisors this week.  This is a major hurdle and I have invested a lot of time into this section.  The deadline is 30th November.

I will also have other writing to do this week.  Pray for the Lord's help as I write.

Other key activities:

Sunday 20th - 6.00pm  Newton URC, near Rugby, Warwickshire

Monday 21st - School Assembly at Lubenham, Leics.

Tuesday 22nd - Doreen will be working for Torch Trust (morning); I will be in Gartree Prison (afternoon)

Wednesday 23rd - Yelvertoft Bible Discussion Group (evening)

Sunday 27th - Yelvertoft Congregational Church (morning) and Theddingworth Congregational Church (evening)

After two very intensive weeks it will be good to have some time during the week to slow down.

As we move towards the year end I value your prayers that the Lord will supply our needs.  Both my work in and from the Midlands and my colleagues work in the south-east were showing a small deficit.  In the light of the global financial position that is not surprising, but we do not want to reduce our work for God in the rural communities of Britain.

Thank you for your prayers.

Barry

Life after change

Hello,

I am writing this week's Praise and Prayer Blog from my new office environment.  It actually isn't new - just changed.  Last Friday evening I shifted most of the piles of paper and files from my office into our bedroom (what a patient wife I have!) ready for Saturday morning when my next door neighbour arrived to build my new desk.  Together we managed to get my two pedestal desk down stairs and into the front garden where someone collected it after I advertised it on Freecycle. A cupboard and a filing cabinet moved into the space previously occupied by the desk.  A large printer moved into the space previously occupied by the cupboard.  And the new work top was built where the printer and the filing cabinet had stood and a mobile pedestal slipped neatly under the new work top.

Outcome:  I can now open both doors of the cupboard and all the drawers of the filing cabinet (both previously restricted by the desk), and I have more usable space and better use of natural and artificial light.  You might ask why I didn't do this five years ago!  The reason was that my desk, which was in a good state, had served me well for many years before that.  I valued its role as it had been a good servant.  I was loathe to accept that it had become inappropriate!

How much of what goes on in the life of our churches revolve around inherited aspects that have proved useful in the past, but which might now not be so appropriate?  We are often loathe to let them go?  How much better might some things work if we only found the courage to let some things go?

One of the problems that Nehemiah encountered as he and others were rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem was that rubbish from the old wall was getting in the way (Neh 4:10).  I guess they were using some of the old wall in the new wall; but not everything was appropriate.

Last Week:
On Sunday we had a really good meeting at Yelvertoft.  In the light of the anti-capitalism demonstrations we explored what the Bible had to say about the use of money.  If you are interested I have a small booklet on this topic.  In the evening I drove to the Dartford Crossing and spent the night in the Travelodge sleeping next to a room with a noisy motor running all night!

Monday, on to Battle for Sunrise Ministries' trustees meeting.  Letters are about to go out inviting a number of others to join the board.  Please continue to pray.  There was a clear sense of unity in the meeting.  After this I called in at Herstmonceux to collect some hymn books, did a little admin with Monica in her office and then visited Peggy in Hastings.  Peggy and Alan are valued old friends and Alan has just gone to be with the Lord.  We spent an hour or so during which we expressed something of what Alan had meant to us.  Finally, driving home to Market Harborough and arriving at 11.30 pm.

Tuesday and Wednesday I was able to use some of this time for work related to the research degree.  I finally sent off my latest attempt at setting out my proposal on 'Form C' and spoke with my senior supervisor.  I am right up against a deadline and hope what I have done will be sufficient.  I also received a phone call from a university in Germany seeking my collaboration is preparing material in German on the subject of rural evangelism.  They plan to translate some of my published writing.

Wednesday evening I met with one of the Bible discussion groups in Yelvertoft where we opened up the second half of Philippians 1.  Worth reading about Paul's confidence about life after life and his attitude to suffering.

Thursday I had an early start to get to the church leaders breakfast in Rugby, which was followed by pastoral visits until 6.00pm.  At 6.45am I had received a phone call from Kenya from the pastor of the church through which my colleague does such a lot of work.  This led to a series of telephone conversations through the day and evening and drafting a special letter to be emailed the following day.

Friday was spent preparing for next Saturdays talk on 'Mission and Discipleship in Rural Areas' for the Diocese of Oxford.  I have also been invited to write 400 words on the topic for the Diocesan magazine.

Saturday morning I went to support a Torch fellowship Group (blind and partially sighted Christians).

This Coming Week:
Sunday 13th - Joint Remembrance Services at Yelvertoft in the morning.
Monday - priority writing article for Oxford Diocese and finishing talk preparation.
Tuesday - School Assembly in Yelvertoft; Gartree Prison.  Then travelling to London for overnight stay at the Salvation Army College, Denmark Hill.
Wednesday - all day teaching at the Salvation Army College (Safe and Sound Course)
Thursday morning - Bible Discussion Group at Yelvertoft
Friday - Doreen and I will travel to Hastings, East Sussex for a Service of Thanksgiving for Alan Blythe.
Saturday - Key Note Speaker at Oxford Diocesan event, Marsh Gibbon.
Sunday 20th - the service at Yelvertoft will be taken by Dr Gordon Temple; in the evening I am taking the service for Newton URC, near Rugby.

Please pray that I will use time wisely in this week, and be fresh physically and filled with the Holy Spirit for each engagement.  God is able!

I pray that God will grant to you a really blessed week.  As always we welcome your news.

Barry

A change is as good as a rest?

Hi!  I'm not quite sure where this week has gone!  I am writing this on Friday at the end of the afternoon, looking at a 'mountain' to be climbed before I go to bed tonight.  Tomorrow my office space is going to be reorganised.  My existing desk (taking up too much space) will be manhandled down the stairs ready for some one to pick it up as soon as possible.  A new work surface will be built against a wall to my right, which will reduce eye strain as my current desk faces a sunny window.  That done, a large printer, double cupboard and a filing cabinet will all take up new locations.  Two pedestals will take their places under the new work surface, and I will stop for lunch!!

Actually, all the above will not create a problem... the problem is finding somewhere safe to store all the bits of paper around the room plus the material from the desk while the changes are being made.  Please pray that all goes well and that someone who needs a desk will come and collect it soon.

Last Sunday we had a very special service at Gartree Prison.  Apart from the meeting itself all the team had good discussions afterwards.  In one of these a prisoner was led to the Lord at his request.

On Thursday I led the daytime Bible discussion group at Yelvertoft with eleven people present.  In the afternoon I led one of the house groups for Market Harborough Congregational Church.  This was the last in the series on Friendship Evangelism.  Please pray that those who have and are still working their way through this programme will find the courage to share their faith with their friends.  I hope to put this series into a single publication.  Let me know if you are interested in getting a copy.

This has also been a busy time preparing for the Sunrise Ministries trustees' meeting this coming Monday.  As part of that agenda the existing trustees will be looking at a list of potential new trustees.  At this time we need at least another two new trustees.  Please pray for God's guidance in this matter.

The coming week


Sunday - Yelvertoft Congregational Church, Northants
Monday - Sunrise Trustees Meeting, Battle, East Sussex
Tuesday - Gartree prison
Wednesday - evening Bible Discussion Group, Yelvertoft
Thursday - Church leaders meeting in Rugby, Warwickshire followed by pastoral visits
Saturday - Torch fellowship Group, Market Harborough (supporting)
Sunday 13th - Joint Remembrance Services in Yelvertoft.

I will be very focused on some the work I have to do for Winchester University through this week.

We give thanks to God for all who stand with us in prayer and for those who are able to support us practically.

Thank you.

Barry