SW Itinerary blessings

In a previous Praise and Prayer, having mentioned about how Doreen was taken ill I mentioned that she had gone on her mobility scooter to the doctor after we had spent a day at hospital.  Several friends have since commented that I should have told you the outcome, and one person took me to task for letting her go on her own.  So here is the latest news.

I took Doreen for a CT scan last Wednesday and we are awaiting hearing the results.  There has been no further recurrence of the heavy bleeding but we await the results of the scan to see if any cause can be found.  Meanwhile in most other respects Doreen is well, though unable to walk far because of her peripheral neuropathy condition.  It is this condition that has already limited her activities (she hated having to give up driving) and she values her independence, and I certainly won't take that from her.  In many ways she supports me in my ministry while continuing to exercise a valued ministry of her own.  Thank you for your concern and prayers for her.

Prayer is so important and I have been continuing encouraging a greater awareness of this.  It was our theme last Sunday at Yelvertoft.

On Monday the Bible Discussion Group met at Yelvertoft and studied the opening verses of 1 Corinthians 12.  It was a useful time.  Afterwards I met with Peter Couling and his son Paul.  Peter is 90 and a wonderful Christian at Yelvertoft.  His wife, Mille had developed Alzheimers but retained a wonderful sweetness.  Her smile would light up a room and her loving concern for the welfare of others was amazing.  For the past year Millie has been in care, and recently slipped into the presence of the Saviour she loved.  Together, Peter, Paul and I planned the service of thanksgiving for her life which will take place this Monday morning.

Until I came to Yelvertoft and met Peter seeking opportunities to say a word for Jesus to others walking down the High Street I had never heard of the Bible Students, a Christian fellowship to which Peter and Millie belonged.  It was therefore all the more amazing to find out that the father of a very good friend in Hastings was an honoured speaker years ago in the Bible Students, and that she knew Peter and Millie well.  Two other friends from Hastings had camped on Peter's farm in their younger days.  Millie was well known and loved in the village so please pray that her testimony of faith in Jesus will shine through the service on Monday,

Following the regular visit to Gartree Prison on Tuesday I had the privilege of speaking at the SASRA conference in Northampton that evening.  SASRA is a Christian ministry that works in a forces context with soldiers and air force personnel.  See www.sasra.org.uk/ for more information.  Alf Lavender, with whom I had the privilege of working for 25 years came to faith through the work of SASRA in Singapore and I found many remembered the named of the men Alf met there.  My talk on rural evangelism was well received.

Once Doreen was back home and we were both sure all was well I set off for Cornwall with some concern regarding the weather.  It proved well founded as a stretch of the M5 was closed due to flooding.  The detour route was congested making driving all the more difficult on top of the heavy rain and road spray.  Accommodation had been arranged for me at Launceston on the border of Devon and Cornwall, and I was grateful that I didn't have to drive further.

Thursday morning I pressed on through more rain to Chacewater, a village near Truro, where despite the high winds and torrential rain, a good number had gathered for a rural mission consultation.  My friend and colleague, Gordon Banks, was unable to join me as we had planned as railway lines into Cornwall had closed because of flooding and land slips.  So I had to deputise for him in addition to my own presentation.  But it seemed a good day with many expressions of appreciation.

It's only a two hour drive from there back to Feniton, near Exeter, but it took me longer.  Many sections of road were flooded and I had become so exhausted that I had to break the journey twice to sleep for a while. Danny Beavan (of Rural Expressions) and his wife Helen made me welcome and I slept well.  It was good to wake to sunshine on Friday and I had a reasonable 45 minute drive to Crediton where few friends met in the area with me for coffee.  Then it should have been no more than a three hour drive home.  We were by then experiencing more heavy rain making driving difficult and I arrived home exhausted more than five hours later.

This morning (Saturday) we held the first two of four interviews for the position of Children and Families Worker for the East Midlands Area of the Congregational Federation.  Two more interviews will be conducted this Tuesday evening.  Immediately after the interviews I drove to Hothorpe Hall to conduct a Marriage Blessing Service for a young couple following their civil ceremony.  These are precious gospel opportunities.

I am grateful for a free morning tomorrow as John Harris, a retired Methodist Minister, will take the meeting at Yelvertoft.  In the evening I will be speaking at Market Harboorough Congregational Church.

Monday - Millie's Service of Thanksgiving.

Tuesday I will be taking a school assembly in Yelvertoft and making my regular visit to Gartree Prison.  In the evening there are two interviews at Narborough, Leicestershire.

Thursday I am teaching in the Salvation Army Training College on the pastoral care of those who have suffered sexual abuse.

Please remember all these activities in your prayers.  Join me in giving thanks for the Lord's protection in hazardous driving conditions, and the kind hospitality received,

I pray the Lord will abundantly bless you.

Barry

Exciting time in Ireland

I returned home from Ireland early this evening, tired but greatly encouraged by what I had experienced since Wednesday.  I arrived in Belfast and was met by David, the Mission Development Officer of the Board of Mission of the Presbyterian Church of Ireland, and taken to the PCI offices. As he was  involved in filming a mission resource I took myself to the Faith Mission bookshop.  This was almost certainly the best Christian bookshop I have encountered in the UK.  I hope the Christians in and around Belfast realise how privileged they are.

I had arranged to meet Trevor, the Director of Faith Mission in Ireland and we shared a useful hour or so together talking rural evangelism.  Then back to meet with David who kindly took me to a country hotel where they had arranged accommodation for me.  We shared a meal and talked rural evangelism.

At 9.00 on Thursday David collected me and took me to Lisburn for their rural mission network conference.  My discussions with David and Trevor had helped to prepare me for this event.  Although I knew quite a lot about rural life and the churches of Ireland, I had not had any direct contact previously.  The morning proved a great success according to the testimony of several ministers who spoke with me afterwards. David emailed me afterwards in which he said, "the whole look and feel of the conference today felt just right."

While waiting for the train that would take me to Dublin that afternoon I took the opportunity to visit the Apple Store in the centre of the city.  I have been struggling as to what to do in the area of IT.  In 2009 my personal PC and personal laptop were both in need of an upgrade.  My trustees advised me to invest in a really good laptop and just use that.  So, using Sunrise Ministries resources I did so and have found it very helpful. However, just after it passed out of the guarantee period it developed a screen fault that has got steadily worse.  A repair would cost £150.  It is also heavy compared with newer machines and, of course, there have been further technical advances.  

To keep costs low on the flight to Ireland I decided to take only hand baggage but the laptop accounted for a large part of the allowance.  The question has been whether to replace the laptop or just use it at the office connected to a spare screen I have and invest instead in a tablet such as the Apple ipad.  My visit to the Apple Store settled the issue as the ipad would provide a much more portable facility useful both for such itineraries as the Irish trip, and for the research work.

The train journey to Dublin in the Republic took around two hours and I was met at nearby Greystones station by Sheila Norton.  Sheila's husband, Peter, was previously the vicar of a church in Cumbria where I shared in an evangelistic outreach in the 1980s.  Friday morning Peter and Sheila took me to meet three Church of Ireland (Anglican) rural ministers.  Each engaged in mission in different but interesting ways.  It provided a further opportunity to expand my knowledge and for me to share with them from some of my now almost 50 years experience.  The whole 72 hours itinerary has proved an excellent use of time.

Meanwhile (back at the ranch) Doreen has not had a recurrence of the condition that took us to hospital last week.  She now has the first of the exploratory outpatient appointments, this coming Wednesday morning.

Last Sunday's United Remembrance Service in Yelvertoft had also gone well with several men stating that my talk had really 'spoken to them'.  We had an excellent attendance both at the war memorial and afterwards at the service, which was led by the Reader, Ian, who also shares in the Bible Discussion meetings we hold.

I am also grateful for the wisdom of our Sunrise Ministries trustees who met in London on Monday.  It was a useful and very positive meeting.  Stan Acland, a retired Christian businessman, has chaired the trustees board since 1988.  He retired on Monday as a trustee and will be greatly missed.  Graham Wise takes on that role for the next year.

So much to praise God and give thanks for.

Prayers for this week
This Sunday I will be leading and speaking at the meeting at Yelvertoft.  I propose exploring some of the issues about prayer that the Holy Spirit has been stirring in my heart (and I hope yours too).

On Tuesday, after the regular visit to Gartree Prison, I will be travelling to Northampton to speak at a meeting of SASRA (the Soldiers' and Airmen's Scripture Readers Association).  My dear friend Alfred Lavender, with whom I worked for 25 years, was converted through SASRA when serving in the air force back in the 1950s.  They have invited me to talk to them about rural evangelism.

If all goes well with Doreen's visit to the hospital outpatients on Wednesday I will leave to keep my appointment in Cornwall.  Please pray that this local rural mission consultation will be as fruitful as the one undertaken recently in Northern Ireland. Please not only pray for me but also for my friend and colleague Gordon banks who will be sharing the programme.  Gordon has been through a tough time recently.  Pray too for all those who attend.

On the way back home I will be stopping off in Devon where I hope to meet up with some old friends over coffee in Crediton.  I will enjoy that immensely.

On Saturday I have a wedding blessing service at Hothorpe Hall, and ministry on Sunday as usual.

Special Encouragement
As I have previously indicated we have felt the impact of the global financial problems, as have other charities. The response to the letter sent out a few weeks ago has eased the situation a little but on my area of ministry we have started to eat into our financial reserves.  My colleague, Monica, is in a very similar situation.  We shared this with the trustees last Monday and made it a matter of prayer.  Monica rang me excitedly on Wednesday to say that she had just received an unexpected donation of £1,000 for her area of ministry.  How we rejoiced!

Please pray for Monica as she is off to Kenya again for the work we do there.  God has been very good and we particularly rejoice over the fruitful ministry we have experienced.  Join us in giving thanks and in prayer as we look to the Lord to sustain the ministry.

Yours sincerely in Christ,

Barry

"The best laid plans...."

It was encouraging to welcome a number of visitors to our 'harvest with a difference' service last Sunday at Yelvertoft.  We had encouraged people in the village to bring supplies for our nearest Foodbank at Rugby and filled up the back of a car after the meeting with tins and packets to help people in times of crisis.  To find out more about Foodbanks go to www.trusselltrust.org.

On Tuesday evening I met with two colleagues to review the applications for the position of Children and Families Worker for the East Midlands Area of the Congregational Federation.  This covers some 33 churches, many of which are rural.  We short-listed four applications and have arranged interviews for later this month.  Please pray for all involved.  We are conscious that each applicant is precious to the Lord and we need his wisdom and guidance.

On Wednesday I met with members of my local rural ministry management group to whom I am accountable.  I was grateful for their support and wise counsel.  That evening my plans for Thursday were about to be turned upside down.  At around 8.45 Doreen, my wife, announced that she was tired and was going to bed.  Unknown to me she had been suffering from bleeding from her back passage for several days, and had experienced a severe bleed Wednesday morning.  I had understood she had a tummy upset.

At around 9.20 she appeared down in the living room and informed me that twice in the previous half hour she had experienced substantial fresh bleeds from her back passage.  I called the out of hours doctor and an ambulance arrived not long afterwards.  Because A&E at the hospital was already backed up with patients, and Doreen's blood pressure was only a little low and she had a strong pulse they decided to leave her resting at home.  At around 4.00am she had her fourth substantial bleed.  Her pulse was still strong so I made her comfortable and we waited for morning to break.

We arrived at hospital A&E in Leicester at 9.15 having first visited our GP.  Doreen was examined, questioned, and put on a drip.  We then had to wait 90 minutes for a transfer to another Leicester hospital where she was to be admitted onto a surgery ward.  This ward had experienced a high level of admissions and it wasn't until around 7.00 pm that we finally saw a senior doctor (in fact two came along almost at once).  He was very caring and there was more questing and probing.  There had been no further bleeding and he concluded that she would be more comfortable at home, gave both Doreen and me very firm instructions and sent us away to await for outpatients appointments for further examinations.

It is amazing how tiring standing around in hospital for ten hours can be!  Doreen was exhausted and I had to review my Friday programme which was to include a meeting with a solicitor in Cambridge at 11.00 followed by a drive to Hebden Bridge in Yorkshire for an important meeting related to Action for Christ (AfC). We both slept fairly well and concluded that I should keep my Friday appointments.  As I prepared to leave for Cambridge and did as much administration as I could, Doreen took herself off on her mobility scooter to the doctor.  As I was about to leave home for Cambridge the solicitor rang suggesting that she could proceed with the work without the need for me to travel to Cambridge.

The journey that afternoon to Yorkshire was tiring because heavy traffic doubled the travel time.  Together with another trustee I met with representatives of the rural church.  AfC had been sponsoring the pastor of this church and had also spent around £180,000 on essential building repairs to enable a local rural-based ministry to continue and develop.  Unfortunately both the trustees of AfC and the local trustees had been misinformed regarding resources available and in June 2012, when I became a trustee  it was only then discovered that there were insufficient funds to complete the project or the sponsorship of this pastor and two others in Kent.

The pain that the trustees have been caused and the work we have had to do has been exacerbated by the knowledge that the folk in Yorkshire have been misled and let down by someone acting in our name, having also misled us.  This situation will not easily be resolved.  Our primary concern is to minimise the problems for the local people and to do all in our power to help and support them.  However, in some respects our hands are tied and we have not been helped by the withdrawal of the services of our (AfC) solicitor just when he is needed most!  All this pushes more work on me.  Please pray firstly for our friends in Yorkshire that they will be guided aright.  Secondly for AfC as we seek to manage it through this deep crisis.  Thirdly, for the AfC prayer partners and supporters that they will stand by the organisation at this time.  Please pray for me as I seek to juggle this with my other responsibilities.

So it was that I returned to Market Harborough this afternoon, after spending the night with friends and former colleagues, Sue and Tony Newnham in Bradford.  I managed a few hours sleep this afternoon and prepared for the Joint Remembrance Day Service this evening.

Activities this week for which your prayers are asked

Sunday morning there is an act of remembrance at 11.00 in the village of Yelvertoft followed by a joint service at the Parish Church where I am preaching.

Monday 12th I will be attending a meeting of the Sunrise Ministries trustees in London.  Before this I have yet to prepare the papers for this meeting, having lost Thursday.  Sunrise Ministries is the proper name of the charity under which Rural Sunrise and now Rural Mission Solutions operates.

On Tuesday I will be at HMP Gartree for my regular work with the prisoners in the choir.

On Wednesday I fly to Belfast and on Thursday I will be leading a half day event for rural ministers in the Presbyterian Church of Ireland.  In the afternoon I will be meeting with one of the leaders of the Faith Mission in Ireland.  The Faith Mission is a partner organisation within the Rural Evangelism Network that I administer.

I will then travel to the Republic where I shall be staying with an Anglican friend for whom I and others conducted rural outreach work when he was in Cumbria.  I welcome the opportunity to learn more about the particular circumstances for rural churches in Ireland.  Plans are now also afoot for subsequent work with other mainline denominations.

I fly back from Dublin on Saturday morning ready for the Sunday morning meeting in Yelvertoft and another busy week which will include activities in Cormwall and Devon.

Please pray for safety in journeys and no hitches along the way, for sensitivity in the situations where I will be working, for God's wisdom in all I say and do, and that fruit will abound for his glory.

Thanks you.

Barry

The Power of Prayer

In the past two of these newsletters I have asked questions about how we pray.  I have done this because I believe that for many of us our times of prayer are superficial.  The Bible is full of examples about the power of prayer.  Let me share just three New Testament passages that stand out to me.  The first of these is the account of Peter’s imprisonment in Acts 12.  Luke tells us in detail of the impossible situation in which Peter was securely held in prison.  Then comes a “but”.  But prayer was made without ceasing by the church for him. The result?  Chains fell off and Peter walked out free.

Here’s another.  James tells us in chapter 5 that the prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.  The illustration here is of Elijah, head tucked between his knees, as he seeks God to send rain.  What happens?  A deluge of rain.

My third reference (there are so many) is of a man called Epaphras.  We read about him in Paul’s letter to the Colossians, where we are told that he was “always wrestling in prayer” for blessing on the believers at Colosse.  All three references have a sense of earnest prayer that lasts for more than a few moments.

Somewhere in the back of my mind there is a line that goes, “We often say our prayers, but do we really pray?”  I feel that if the Christians concerned for the proclamation of the gospel in rural areas were really praying, we would see a revival. James also writes, “You do not have because you do not ask God”.  I certainly pray a great deal but I sometimes wonder if I am praying in the right way.  I want to see a revival in rural Britain before my life comes to an end.

Thank you for your prayers

Thank you for your prayers during the past week.  There have been some very real encouragements as I have sought to open up God’s word in various situations.  There have also been times of challenge, frustration and disappointment.

Key Points for prayer this week

Before I list various items for which I would very much appreciate your earnest prayers that in each situation God will be glorified, I want to ask you to take time over these.  Perhaps you could read through the list and then be still with God for a time and seek the help of the Holy Spirit as to how you should pray.  You may want to spread the items over several days of the week, but note that some activities this week are on specific days.

Please pray as with fellow trustees of Action for Christ I continue seeking to help this mission organisation through difficulties it has encountered. This is the new name of the mission in which I spent my first 25 years of ministry. 

Please pray as Mick Sawyer, Anna Lachowski and I review the applications for the position of Children and Families Worker for the East Midlands Area of the Congregational Federation on Tuesday.

Please pray for my ministry at Yelvertoft this Sunday (Harvest thanksgiving) and next Sunday (joint service for Remembrance Sunday).  I am so encouraged by everyone at Yelvertoft and by what has recently been achieved in alterations to our premises.  We are looking to expand certain areas of ministry very soon.

Please pray for a meeting with our solicitors in Cambridge on Friday as we revise our mission constitution.  After this I will be travelling to Yorkshire to meet with Christians running a rural project.

Please give thanks for the financial support that has come in and pray that the Lord will raise up the remainder of the Mission Link Partners needed to sustain our rural ministry.  We are not looking for vast sums but do need folk to sign up to give regular monthly or quarterly small donations.  These are tough times for many Christian organisations, and rural mission in the UK tends to be low on the list of concern for many.

Please pray for the trustees of Sunrise Ministries as they meet on Monday 12^th in London.  It is this team that are ultimately responsible both for my ministry and that of my colleague Monica Cook.

Please pray for those seeking to support rural evangelism in Germany, having translated some of my writing to help the rural Lutheran churches there.

Please pray for my visit to Ireland on 14-17 November.  I am going at the invitation of the Presbyterian Church of Ireland but I am seeking to add some other strategic meetings with those responsible for rural evangelism both sides of the border.  Please pray that the Lord will guide me to the right contacts.  Please pray for Peter Norton who has been assisting with this.  Peter is an Anglican clergyman for whom I shared in a mission in Cumbria many years ago.

Please pray for the work of the Rural Evangelism Network as we lay plans for our 2013 conference.  This was a very helpful network in the past and it is my hope that it will prove even more helpful in the future.  On 22^nd November, Capt. Gordon Banks and I will be heading up a rural mission consultation in Cornwall and we have a few empty places.  Please pray that God will draw in the right people.

Please pray for the Baptist Union of Wales with whom I will also be working in 2013.  They are planning an event and have asked me to speak at this.

Please pray as we begin taking bookings for the International Congregational Fellowship Conference in the UK in the summer of 2013.  I have to prepare publicity and organise the online booking system.

Finally, I ask for your prayers as November will be very busy.  Pray for my physical and spiritual health, and that I will be able to set aside times of rest between engagements.

Thank you.