Through the Storm

I am writing this as, according to the UK weather forecast, we are about to be battered by a storm possibly as strong as the 1987 hurricane.  How well I remember that.  I awoke in the night with the three storey terraced house which was our home vibrating at the force of the wind.  The next morning revealed the many millions of pounds of damage in Hastings alone.  The roof of our Mission headquarters (one of the largest buildings in the town and prominent above the seafront) had lost a section of its roof.  What remained had been lifted off, twisted round and set down at a crazy angle.  I am hoping that this coming storm will not be as bad and that no lives will be lost on land or sea.

There are four familiar storm stories in the Bible.  Jonah experienced a storm at sea when he sought to run away from God's purposes in his life. Once he realised the reason for the storm and took a sacrificial step of faith, the storm ceased, he was saved, men worshipped God, and he was soon back on the right course for his life.  This passage of scripture was used by God to speak to me during an emotional and spiritual storm through 1987 and into 1988.  It took a perfect storm to get me to take a leap of faith in which I discovered God's purposes for my life at that time.

The gospels record two storm events.  In one the disciples are own their own in the middle of the night when Jesus comes to them, walking on the water.  They discover that what they feared might overwhelm them was under his feet.  On another occasion the disciples waken a sleeping Jesus during a storm on the lake.  "Don't you care that we could be perishing?" they ask.  Jesus rebuked the storm and rebuked them for their lack of trust. Another lesson learned.

The final storm at sea was experienced by Paul and others because someone chose to take his counsel from man rather than God.  But thanks to divine wisdom, no one lost their life, though the ship and possessions were lost.  Sometimes we pass through stormy periods in our lives as a result of our own failure to surrender to God's will.  Sometimes, like Paul, we experience stormy situations because of the foolishness of others.  But God promises to be with us through the storm, so we should never lose our trust and rest in him.

It is two weeks since my last Praise & Prayer blog.  The first of these started with the Sunday morning meeting at Yelvertoft and a journey to Hoddesdon, Hertfordshire that evening.  After a night in a country B and B I was off to London for a Sunrise Ministries trustees meeting.  It was good to meet again with the team of trustees.  Monica Cook and I are grateful for their support.  An encouraging and useful meeting completed and I was off back to Hoddesdon to meet with colleagues in the Churches Group for Evangelisation at the High Leigh Conference Centre. I slipped away a little early from the CRG meeting on Tuesday morning to travel back to Herstmonceux in East Sussex and the church where I was minister for 15 years.  The reason fore the trip was to share in a service of thanksgiving and celebration for the life of Desmond Luck, a wonderful Christian who I had come to know in one of my first evangelistic missions at the age of 17.  It was a joy to see so many good friends.

On Wednesday morning I met with leaders from other rural missions and followed this with a ministry in song and word at the Senior Circle meeting in Yelvertoft.  Thursday saw Doreen and me back in Yelvertoft for our regular Bible Discussion meeting.  These prove so rewarding as the group enjoy drawing treasures out of studying Isaiah.On Friday I joined many thousands of others at an all night prayer meeting in London at which Hope14 was officially launched.  I left before midnight to get a few hours sleep before returning to Market Harborough and then on to Yelvertoft again for a great Pudding Festival.

The Pudding Festival was a fund raiser for the local Air Ambulance Service but it brought a good number into the church that had never been to an event there before.  It was a fantastic evening and photos of the puddings and their recipes will be appearing in a book.  Once sold and the funds added to the donations on the night we might find our fund raising effort moving towards a thousand pounds!  The spirit of generosity that evening was like being bathed in the gospel.  Please pray for those who attended and sampled grace.

Sundays at Yelvertoft have been proving exciting as we are currently using them to explore various parts of the Bible as we seek to build up the big picture.  So much blessing is coming as God speaks through his word and into the lives of the congregation. You might like to take a look at the booklet written to introduce people to the treasure that is the Bible.  You can find it at www.yelvertoftchurch.org.uk.  This Sunday evening I also took the service at the Church of the Good Shepherd in the village of Newton, near Rugby.  I had not realised it was Bible Sunday when I planned to speak on Esther.  The service caused a real buzz as people thrilled to the Bible story retold with contemporary illustrations. "What a wonderful evening we have had" one lady repeated several times.

Last Monday was the first day of re-engaging with the university research project studying rural evangelism. The plan is to set aside every Monday for this project as far as possible. On Tuesday it was back to work with the choir in HMP Gartree.  On Wednesday I chaired the Churches Rural Group meeting at the Arthur Rank Centre in Warwickshire.  On Thursday it was Bible Discussion again with more treasures from Isaiah, followed by a journey to Peterborough to take the handover from our Area Children and Families Worker as she starts maternity leave.  Finally, Saturday afternoon was a planning meeting for "Get Messy for Christmas", which we hope will be the launch of a monthly "Messy" event in Yelvertoft.  This has been the subject of prayer for over a year so it is great to see it taking shape.

It has been an exciting two weeks but mostly because of the evidence of God at work changing people's lives, including mine.  This week, immediately after the regular time in Gartree Prison, Doreen and I are heading for North Wales for a week's break.  There hasn't been much opportunity for recreation in this very busy year.  we are hoping the storm will have blown itself out and that we will get a few clear days to enable a trip up Snowdon. Though we will not have any engagements until Tuesday 5th November please keep us in your prayers.  We have truly felt the impact of answered prayers in so many ways during recent months.

In a recent Sunday morning at Yelvertoft our Bible exploration took us to Joshua and included the battle at Rephidim (Exodus 17).  While Joshua's skills and strength were needed in the fight, the vital work was done on the mountain as hands were held up to the Lord.  We know that "It is not by might, nor by power, but by God's Spirit" as Zechariah prophesied (Zech 4:6). Please pray as we recharge our batteries.  Your prayers are being answered.

Thank you.

Barry

"In Journeyings Oft"

Slight change in format this week.  I will share news and prayer requests first and then share a biblical reflection afterwards.

The Past Week
A major problem has been trying to cope with all electronic communications via my mobile phone.  This was cause by a change in telephone and broadband supplier.  The original promised date for both was 24th September.  This was revised to 30th September.  The phone was connected on that date but internet connection came on 11th October.  This was frustrating, time consuming and costly.  I am hoping to get adequate compensation from the ISP.  All is now working well.  Previously, I had suffered a problem with a rogue programme having hijacked aspects of my laptop computer.  This took several days to put right.

Last Sunday I continued the theme of exploring the Bible at Yelvertoft and focused on Joshua.  While preparing this I realised that the Book of Joshua and the Acts of the Apostles are both "what happened next" accounts.  Since Moses is a type of Christ it also seems that Joshua prefigures the apostles.  The more I looked at this the similarities seemed obvious.  Joshua was servant to Moses and learned from him.  He had to learn about conflict and the fact that the outcome of battle depended on prayer.  Exceptionally he was with Moses as he went up the mountain to commune with God and receive divine instructions for the faith and life of God's people.  The twelve also received instruction from their Master; some also accompanied their Master up a mountain for communion with the Father. Both had experiences of the Holy Spirit.  Joshua, like Peter got some things wrong.  Both Moses and Jesus concluded their ministries on a mountain and commissioned and set aside their followers to complete what had begun.

Monday and Tuesday were spent struggling with administration and preparing for ministry later in the week.  I also had my regular visit to HMP Gartree on Tuesday.  On Wednesday morning I travelled to Winchester University for a Supervision Meeting with Professor Messer, the head of department.  It was a useful meeting and good to get back on tracks.  From Winchester I travelled to Denmark Hill, London where I taught on the salvation Army's Safeguarding Course through the Thursday morning and afternoon.  On this occasion there were 21 delegates including some senior officers as well as Corps Officers and various youth, children and families workers.  This is always a demanding ministry but the group were excellent to work with and it was encouraging to get many good comments.

Friday was dedicated mostly to trying to catch up with jobs that had got behind because of the IT problems. Saturday morning I participated in in an Area Executive Meeting for the Congregational Federation, held in Leicester.  The remainder of the day being spent preparing for the Sunrise Ministries trustees meeting on Monday.

The coming week - key activities
Sunday (a ministry-free day).  In the evening travelling to Hoddesdon, Hertfordshire.
Monday - travel into London for Sunrise Ministries trustees meeting (This is the body that oversees all my activities other than my ministry at Yelvertoft and with the Congregational Federation).  During the afternoon I travel back to Hoddesdon and join other colleagues in the Churches Group for Evangelization with meetings running through to 12.00 on Tuesday.  At this time I start a journey to Herstmonceux, East Sussex for the funeral and thanksgiving service for Desmond Luck, an old friend and member of the church there.  I first met Desmond in 1964 when I was part of a team conducting a mission in the village.  I travel back home that evening.
Wednesday - I travel to Corby in the morning to meet with leaders of other national organisations doing mission or resourcing mission in rural areas.  I then rush to Yelvertoft where I will be singing and speaking at a senior citizens meeting.
Thursday - We hold the regular Bible Discussion Meeting in Yelvertoft.  Friday I plan to attend the Hope14  Launch Meeting in London.

As you will see this means two busy weeks back to back.  I need your prayers please.

Closing Thoughts. 
Each of the writers of the four gospels in the Bible record the "Great Commission" but in distinctly different ways.  I wonder whether you have ever given these differences any thought.  Mark records what we are told to do and where we are to do it: proclaim the good news to everyone in the world.  Matthew records why we are supposed to do this: to make more disciples of Jesus.  Luke (in Acts 1) reminds us how we should do this: we are to bear witness to Jesus through our own experience of knowing Christ.  We are also reminded of our need to be filled with the Holy Spirit to undertake this task. John also records the how: we are to do this in the same way that Jesus was sent: as a loving and sacrificial servant, offering our lives for the blessing of others.

To respond to that Commission, which is the duty of every Christian, we need to take on board each different aspect emphasised by the writers of the Gospels.  The who is now us.  The when is us now!

I pray that you will know God's abundant blessing on your coming week.  Thank you for your partnership.

Barry

Clouds and more clouds, but...

Dear friends,

It is almost certain that at some time in your life you will have referred to the fact that above the clouds the sun is still shining. We often say something like that to assure people that God’s love towards them is always there – even when all they can see are the clouds of difficulty and troubles.  One dark damp and miserable day I took off on a flight to somewhere and thought about this as we were passing through the storm clouds.  But instead of breaking through to sunshine we broke through to a space between two layers of clouds!  There were more clouds above!  Of course, eventually we rose above these into the blaze of sunshine.

This time last week I was relieved that my technical problems with my laptop were over and I was looking forward to life with a new Internet Service Provider (ISP) due to take place on Monday morning.  According to the information when I had signed up to the new ISP I should have received a new wifi broadband router during that past week.  As it had not arrived I phoned and after a 30 minute wait followed by a subsequent 10 minute wait I received an apology that something had gone wrong so the broadband would not be on until last Wednesday 30^th (a week after the date I was first promised).  We had hit another layer of cloud!

The new phone line was working on Monday as promised.  The router arrived on Tuesday and I eagerly looked forwards to Wednesday. After midday on Wednesday there was no internet service so I phoned and had yet another 30 minute wait only to be told “something had gone wrong” and it should now be fixed BUT there would be no broadband service until after 10^th October.  How many layers of cloud can there be?

In the bigger scale of things these frustrations are hardly worth mentioning, though at the time trying to handle all internet use with the aid of my mobile phone and limited internet access has been frustrating. Meanwhile two very relevant spiritual aspects have coincided with these frustrations.  The first of these was a request to participate in a short drama at the start of last Saturday’s Mission and Society meeting.  The theme was Peter recovering after his disastrous attempt to walk on water.  The message was problems and troubles will come your way but keep your eyes on the Lord and not on your problems.  I can kind of see the relevance of that now!

For the second spiritual element I turn to my dear niece’s blog at http://vickicottingham.blogsport.com this weekend.  Vicki who suffers from ME and endures significant chronic pain writes this weekend about fighting against the tendency to indulge in self-pity. It’s a brilliant blog so please take a look for me.  So now I am stopping whining about clouds.  But, seriously, you too may have been going through a rough time – and even one problem on top of another.  If that is the case then remember that clouds serve an important purpose and we could not do without them.  Try to look away from the clouds and spend a little quality time with the Lord.  Slip on your favourite Christian CD. Meditate on all that God has done for you.  Try to find God even if he seems to be engaging in hide and seek.  He is there and wants to hold you tight.

An elderly Methodist minister was famous for starting his services off with a prayer that always began “Lord I want to praise you for…” He used to walk to the various chapels, often down country lanes and found much to praise God for.  But on one occasion he had walked through a storm and arrived dripping wet.  As he stood in the pulpit, a puddle of rainwater forming around his feet, a member of the congregation murmured, “He’ll find nothing to praise God for today”.  The preacher raised his hands heavenward and uttered “Lord, I want to praise you that it doesn’t rain like this every day”.

I am so thankful that my dilemma with the internet has happened during a relatively less busy time.  I want to praise him that I have been able to stay in contact through the mobile phone.  I want to praise him that various people who have been expecting communications and files via the internet have been very understanding.  I especially want to praise God that there are no communication difficulties with him (other than those of our own making). I want to praise God for all he is and all he has done and is still doing for me.

We had a great service last Sunday in the prison.  One of the songs the prison choir has been practising for our next concert is “The Holy City”.  One of the members of the choir had offered to sing it as a solo in the service and I felt it was right to say yes.  After praying about it I felt that I should plan the service in the light of this song which is based on Revelation 21 where John sees the New Jerusalem descending from heaven.  I felt drawn to speak about visions and spoke on three interspersed with appropriate hymns and songs.  The first was Jacob’s vision in which he learned that God was in the place and had a plan for his life despite his bad character.  The second was Peter’s vision at Joppa where he learned that God’s love reaches to all humankind and not just the ‘special people’.  The third was John’s vision.  With the congregation joining songs of praise we read parts of Revelation chapters 5 and 7.  Then Michael, one of my prison friends read the opening verses of chapter 21 and this was followed without delay with that solo.  We concluded the service to tumultuous applause!  Some had clearly caught a vision of God’s great love and the gospel, and a home we can all look forward to, where there will be no more pain or sorrow.

This Week…

I value your prayers for the following:
·    Sunday 6^th – 1030 at Yelvertoft Congregational Church.  In the afternoon Doreen and I will be attending our Area Autumn Assembly.
·        Tuesday 8^th – HMP Gartree
·        Wednesday 9^th – Winchester University Supervision meeting trying to get my research back on track.
·        Thursday 10^th – Teaching on sexual abuse issues at the Salvation Army College in London to a mixed group drawn from within the SA.
·        Saturday 12^th – 11.00 Congregational Federation Area Executive meeting in Leicester.
·        Sunday 13^th  - Rest day.

Also please pray that the broadband will be connected this week.  There will be a lot of catching up to do at the end of the week.

Please pray for former colleagues, Alfred and Sylvia Lavender.  Sylvia is in Hospital and has been for many weeks.  Please pray as Alfred seeks to arrange a place where she can receive appropriate care.  It’s a tough time for them.

A few friends have gone on to glory over the past week.  Among them a dear man called Desmond who leaves behind Josie.  This couple are among those among whom I served way back in the sixties and later pastored from 1990 to 2005.  I will miss Desmond who has gone where there are no clouds!  Please pray for Josie.

As I sit typing this and wondering whether I will manage to get it sent out to you and published as a blog I find myself more aware of God’s blessing and a deep desire to shout a Hallelujah!  God is good (did I hear you say “All the time”?).

I pray that you will have a good week, and that you will overflow with praise to God – our faithful God.

Thank you for your fellowship.

Barry