Observing the traffic Lights

While driving into Leicester recently I saw something that amazed me.  As the A6 enters the urban area it reaches a point in Oadby where three side roads intersect at different points of the A6.  Traffic is managed through this section with a series of traffic lights at three points along the main road.  As I approached the first set of lights it changed from green to amber.  Traffic slowed down.  The lights turned red and we all stopped, apart from a while car at the front which was driven slowly past the red light.  The lights at the junctions further up the road were still green at that stage, so it is possible that the driver carelessly failed to realise that it should have stopped.

The car continued at an unhurried pace towards the next set of lights which had already turned to red.  To my amazement, it continued steadily ahead towards the next red light and passed through those as well. Fortunately, traffic from the side roads have a short wait before they get a green light, so the white car made its unhurried way without a collision.  To drive through three separate sets of red lights over a significant distance is extraordinary.  It was clearly not ‘jumping the lights’ it seemed that the driver was just not recognising them.  I wondered if the driver was drunk.  What might make him or her so careless?

As the lights turned to green and I made my own way along the road, I found myself reflecting on how I have responded to signals that God has set in my way.  The Bible illustrates how various people have responded to a green or a red light.  For example, Balaam the prophet was intent on ‘driving through red lights’.  In Numbers 22:19 we find Balaam apparently checking to see if God had changed his mind, though God had clearly set a red light in front of him.  Was he tempted by the bribe he was offered.  As he travelled on, even the donkey could see the red lights, which Balaam failed to see (Numbers 22:21-31).

In Genesis 4:7 God warns Cain of the need to put the brakes on his emotions or sin would get the better of him.  He chose to drive through the red light and killed his brother.

The story of Jonah is about a man who ignored a green light and chose instead to drive through a red light.  He learned his lesson the hard way and got back on the right road.

In 1Kings 13 we read the account of a prophet who was persuaded to drive through a red light and suffered terrible consequences.

The Acts of the Apostles also gives examples of God’s guidance.  Philip obediently left Samaria and went back to Jerusalem where he led an Ethiopian official to an experience of salvation.  Paul and Barnabas obeyed the call to take the gospel into what we now call Turkey.  On the second missionary journey, Paul and Silas are confronted by several red lights that stop them from proceeding in the wrong directions, before getting the green light to proceed into Europe (see Acts 16:6-10).

Clearly, when God puts a red light in our way, that is every bit as important as when he puts a green light in our way.  I must admit that, literally, I have sometimes stopped at a green light and gone through a red light unintentionally, when driving my car.  Many years ago, I had a spiritual experience just like that.

While working within a mission organisation I became convinced that God was calling me to become the pastor of a church in Kent.  I travelled to meet with the minister of the church and told him my story.  He was delighted.  Unknown to me, he had just informed the church that he was retiring.  My ministry was known to this church and he was confident that the church members would be keen for me to take on this ministry.  I was excited.  It seemed so clearly to be a green light. 

On returning to the mission headquarters I informed the director of the mission that I would be leaving to take up this pastorate.  He was very unhappy and asked me to take 24 hours to pray more about it.  I agreed, confident of my guidance.  Behind my back, the director telephoned the minister of the church, and with tears pleaded with him not to take me from the mission.  Later the following day, I phoned the minister to confirm my availability, only to discover that another name had been put forward and their system required that he was considered ahead of me.  He was duly called and served the church well.

I then spent several months of unhappiness?  I had allowed myself to be persuaded to ignore a green light. I told God how sorry I was, and determined to try to be more sensitive to his guidance in future and act obediently.  God is good, and the road since travelled has brought many blessing into my life.  But it was a salutary lesson.

I will never know what made the driver of that white car systematically drive through red lights, but I hope that you have developed a sensitivity to the Holy Spirit’s guidance, and take care to recognise and respect the traffic light God puts along your way.  Welcome the red lights as much as the green.  They are there for your benefit and that of others.

From the Diary

Sundays through March have been fully booked.  I have been blessed by the churches I have served and am grateful for the testimonies of blessing.  I have also been taking school assemblies each Monday, and continue with this to the end of term.  Other recent events relate to my work teaching on safeguarding issues.  I constructed and delivered two talks for the East Midlands Area of the Congregational Federation.  One of these was focused on the safe use of the Internet by children.  I also provided a day’s teaching for the Salvation Army at the Cliff College Conference Centre.  Praise God for safe travelling and God’s gracious blessing on all the activities of recent weeks.

·       Friday 31^st March – 10.30 CF Area Committee Meeting in Narborough, Leics.  (several important tasks to be addressed).  In the afternoon, I will travel to Nottingham where I am engaging with students on the educational/training programmes run by the Congregational Federation.  Mt role is as a member of the Pastoral Care Board.  Some of those present will be on a vocational pathway and I am there to give support and guidance when needed.

·       Saturday 1^st April – Sunday 2^nd April – Nottingham for the students’ weekend.

·       Sunday 2^nd 6.00pm – Newton URC (near Rugby)

·       Monday 3^rd April – lunchtime school assembly; evening planning meeting for Harborough Holiday at Home outreach.

·       Tuesday 4^th April – HMP Gartree

·       Friday/Saturday 7^th/8^th April – attending the Village Hope Conference.  VH is a partner organisation in rural evangelism.

·       Palm Sunday 9^th April – Welby Lane Mission, Melton Mowbray.

Personal News – Doreen has just had a first operation to remove a cataract from her right eye, and is progressing well.  She is also starting a physio course to help her balance and walking.  I have recently completed an eight-year experimental trial aimed at preventing oesophageal cancer. I appear to be very fit and delighted to be taking less medication.

Thank you for your fellowship and prayers.

Barry

An Uncertain Journey?

Let me start by wishing you a Happy New Year.  Happiness is an interesting word as it contains “hap” which has its root in the context of chance rather than certainty.  We find it in perhaps.  In some parts of the UK people use the word happen to mean maybe.  Of course, words mean what we want them to mean, according to Humpty Dumpty, and when we wish someone a Happy New Year, we probably mean something like may your year be blessed or pleasant.

The fact is that life is unpredictable.  Good and bad experiences come to us all at different times, and often undeserved.  As the Bible puts it,

“I have seen something else under the sun: The race is not to the swift or the battle to the strong, nor does food come to the wise or wealth to the brilliant, or favour to the learned; but time and chance happen to them all.” (Ecclesiastes 9:11)

You have probably heard it said that we can make our own luck.  Of course, that can only be partly true, but it does have something to say to those who go through life hoping that they will get lucky.  Or as Mr Micawber puts it in Charles Dickins book David Copperfield “Something will turn up”. Each week millions of pounds are spent on the lottery.  Some follow strange rituals in order to seek good luck. Or put their trust in four leaf clovers and rabbits foot.  Then, when good or bad things happen, people restart to saying things such as “It was meant to be”, or,” wasn’t meant to be”.

As Christians, we are encouraged to place our trust in God and offer our lives to his service.  But there is no promise of an easy ride.  The time and chance factor will affect us much the same.  In addition, God’s plan for our lives sometimes includes disappointment or suffering.  When the apostle Peter was re-commissioned (see John 21), Jesus warned him of difficult times ahead.  A similar thing happened to the apostle Pau who was warned by God that he would have to suffer (See Acts 9:15,16).

So, how should we face this new year of 2017?  The best that I could hope for would be that you might seek God’s will in your life and gladly actively surrender to it.  There will be no guarantee that bad things will not happen.  If they do, hold onto the Lord, knowing that he will never loosen his grip on you.  You may need to trust God when you cannot trace him.  On the other hand, 2017 might be filled with joy and peace.

When I started to write, it was my intention to reflect on the incident in Philip’s life as recorded in Acts 8:26-40.  When Philip went to Samaria it was apparently to escape persecution in Jerusalem.  Making Samaria his destination appears to be a random decision.  But here is a man who has yielded his life to the Lord, and who is ready to grasp the opportunities that came his way.  So, he uses this new situation to proclaim the gospel to any who would hear him.  God blesses his ministry and grants signs and wonders.  Luke, the author of Acts, tells us that many believed and that there was great joy in the city.  It sounds like revival. 

Then in the midst of all that is happening, God calls him away from the revival to go back to Jerusalem and wait on the road that went to Gaza. It appears illogical.  There were still Christians and Christian leaders living in Jerusalem.  Why not use them?  We are not told the reason.  It might be that Philip had some experience of cross-cultural evangelism. Perhaps it was his notable readiness to share the story of Jesus with others.  Whatever the reason, God uses him to bring an Ethiopian civic official to faith in Jesus.   In God’s economy, reaching this one man was more important than the crowd in Samaria at that time.

But the extraordinary experiences in Philip’s life do not end with the Ethiopian being baptised.  God takes him off to yet another place where he once more engages in sharing the good news about Jesus.  Philip’s life seems, on one hand, to be a series of random happenings.  It is his response to these situations that turn chance into blessing, and through which God works out his purposes.  Similarly, the missionary activities of Paul and his team are not always clearly directed by God, yet he uses each situation to share the good news and discover what God wants to do wherever he is.  Even in prison, Paul sees this as an opportunity gained to lead his captors to the Lord (See Philippian 1: 12-14).

My prayer for you, as a tick of a clock moves us from one year to another, is that you will start this year by offering this time to God.  You will start it with who you are and where you are.  Seek to find God’s purposes at this moment.  Use the opportunities it brings to share the good news and do good works. In the process, you will be changed.   Then be ready for whatever comes your way.  May you find peace from God, whatever the circumstances, and prosper in his service.  Now that’s a happy new year.

“Dear friend, I pray that you may enjoy good health and that all may go well with you, just as you are progressing spiritually. It gave me great joy when some believers came and testified about your faithfulness to the truth, telling how you continue to walk in it.” (3John 2-3)

Barry

21 December 2016

God's Amazing Coincidences

Sometimes God amazes me as he works out his purposes in my life.

Act One

It was a damp and cold early winter evening in 1962 as John Eaves moved uncomfortably in his chair at home. It was not physical discomfort he felt, though he had been recovering from pneumonia.  It was the urging of the Holy Spirit to go out onto the streets of St Leonards-on-Sea and give out gospel tracts.  Convinced of this call from God and against the advice of his caring wife, out John went from 27a Springfield Road and into the cold evening air.  At first he could find no one to speak to, neither on London Road nor Bohemia Road, the two main roads nearby.  He stepped out of the cold into a shop doorway to pray.  “If you wanted me to come out please send the person you want to have a tract soon; I’m not feeling too well!”

As he stepped out onto Tower Road he spotted a man in naval uniform hurrying down towards him.  He selected a tract at random and held it out.  The man grasped it and pushed it into a pocket as he hurried on.  John went home and told his wife that he had given a tract to a sailor and that he was convinced that God was going to save him and that God had a plan for the man’s life.  They prayed together that night and John sent newsletters to friends asking them to pray for the sailor.

The young man was not a sailor, but a sea cadet.  He was also a person who desperately wanted to sort his life out.  Having rejected his Christian background, he had drifted into an ungodly lifestyle.  Worse still, he influenced his peers into a hedonistic way of life.  Sometime later, in the privacy of his bedroom, he read the tract and found the story it contained curious and bizarre. It was about two young men who had attended a Christian meeting for fun and mocked the preacher.  The preacher prayed for the Holy Spirit to convince them of their need.  Almost immediately they broke down suddenly distraught and with a sense of their need for forgiveness.  Bizarre as the story seemed, it had echoes of stories from the Scriptures that the “sailor” recalled from earlier years in Sunday School.

The two young men only found peace when the preacher spoke with them, quoting from John 6:37, “Whoever comes to me I will never turn away”.  In the quiet of his bedroom a prayer was breathed: “If this is true, please accept me as I am.  My life is a mess.”  Nothing dramatic happened immediately, but a change began to take place.  A few months later he had started attending a Christian youth meeting, mostly because he was attracted to a girl whose father was a former minister.  After a couple of weeks, the minister of the church who led the group announced that the young man would speak on his favourite psalm the following week.  Not wanting to lose face in front of the girl, he agreed.

He wanted to be original and for five days he struggled to find a talk on the only psalm he knew other than psalm 23. It was then he picked up a picture postcard he had purchased on a school trip to the Tate Gallery.  It was of sheep in hazardous situations.  He turned it over and saw it was called “Strayed Sheep” and painted by W Homan Hunt.  He turned to a study Bible he had been given years before and read the notes that went with Psalm 23.  These pointed to other verses of Scripture:  Isaiah 53:6 and verses from John 10 and Luke 15.  The next Tuesday evening he gave his talk and confessed himself to be a lost sheep for whom the Good Shepherd had sought and for whom he had given his life.

After the meeting, the minister restrained him and urged him to be baptised.  There followed a series of preparation classes which he attended with two other young men.  The baptismal service was planned for Easter Sunday evening.  Easter Saturday evening, a woman evangelist had been booked to speak on Hastings Pier.  Sylvia Smith worked for The Evangelisation Society among London’s strippers and prostitutes and it was advertised she would speak about her work.  Unsurprisingly, this sounded interesting to the young man who attended with his friends.  That evening, after speaking about her work, Sylvia spoke on “Father forgive them, for they know not what they do”.  Taking each character in turn she spoke of Judas’ betrayal, Peter’s denial, Herod’s desire to be entertained, Pilate’s washing his hands, and the soldier’s cat of crucifixion.  After each she quoted the words of Jesus’ prayer for forgiveness. 

As he listened, the young man recognised himself in each of the characters she described.  And as he heard that prayer repeated, the love of God took hold of his own heart. The gospel he believed intellectually became a profound experience as he sang as the meeting closed, “Love so amazing, so Divine, demands my soul, my life, my all.”

The following evening, he was baptised before a packed church.  He started to witness to friends and family, leading some to the Lord.  A few months later he applied to join a mission organisation and went on to ordination and many years of fruitful ministry.  Many months after his baptism, he found that tract and re-read it.  He recalled the night he was given it and went off to share his story with a Christian friend who ran a shoe mending business in the town.  The show mender listened then produced a newsletter he had received asking for prayer for a sailor who had been given a tract.  It was from John Eaves and bore his address.  That day John received a visit from the man for whom he had prayed.  You will imagine his joy.

I was that young man.

Act Two

About a year ago I was booked to speak at a Torch Fellowship Group meeting in Melton Mowbray in last Monday 14^th November 2016, and had chosen to share my testimony but to explain how the pathway followed sometimes brought sadness and frustration as well as blessing.  I entitled it “Rehoboth: Journey into Space” and based it on the story of Isaac’s frustrated journey as recorded in Genesis 26.  As the meeting was about to start, an elderly man came into the room.  He was unknown to all but had seen an advertisement in the local library.  I suspected that he had not realised it was a Christian meeting, so I said a little about the work of the Torch Trust to introduce the fact. 

He explained that he had not realised it was a Christian meeting, and was a little embarrassed as not only was he not a Christian but that some life experiences he suffered as a young man had stumbled his faith when he was preparing for ordination in the Church of England, turning him away from God.  Instead of pursuing a pathway into ordained ministry he had spent his adult life working with troubled young people living on city streets, some of whom worked as prostitutes. 

Members of the Group quickly put him at ease and I started my talk.  We were sitting around a table and he was on my right out of my vision.  As I got to the part about the meeting on Hastings Pier, the host of the meeting stopped me.  Pointing at the stranger she said, this man has something to say.  Apparently, she had seen a shocked expression on his face.  We turned to see him shaking his head.  “I can’t believe it” he said.  “In 1963 I was visiting my Gran who lived in St Leonards.  I saw the posters for the meeting on the pier and because the speaker seemed to be doing similar work to me, I attended that meeting.  But what drew you actually pushed me away”.

Had he not been able to provide further evidence I would never have believed his story.  He had moved into Melton Mowbray from Leicester only a few months before.  He had attended a meeting he had never been to before where he met a man he never knew giving a talk he had planned some month’s previously, only to find that both he and the speaker had been in the same meeting some 53 years previously.  I assured him that although he had lost his grip on God, God had never lost his grip on him.  He was already reminded of the prayer of Jesus for forgiveness so I reminded him that Jesus had also said that whoever came to him he would never turn away.  Will you please pray for Jeff as John Eaves and others prayed for me?  God has a plan for Jeff’s life, just as he has had a plan for mine.  Please pray that after the years of rejecting the gospel, it will now bring life, peace and joy.

More from the Diary

Please pray for my work in the prison, and for all chaplaincy staff at this time of stress in the prison service. Last Tuesday my regular visit was cancelled.  I am due in again this coming Tuesday.

This Sunday 20^th November I am taking the service at Clarendon Park Congregational Chhurch, Leicester.

Later in the week Doreen and I will be staying with her sister in Kent.  While in that part of the world I have meetings planned in Dunks Green, Kent and in Hastings, East Sussex.

On Friday I shall be attending a service of thanksgiving for the life of a former collage, Heather Stainer.  Philip and Heather worked with Doreen and me in Mission for Christ: Rural Evangelism, for many years.  Please pray for Philip and the members of their family at this time.

Please pray for my colleague in Rural Mission Solutions, Katrina, as she is laying the foundation for a meeting next Spring for those leading children’s work in rural churches in the Southeast of England.  This is part of the process of picking up on the work previously done by the late Monica Cook.  Please also give thanks for the faithful support being given by friends of Monica to enable this ministry.

May God bless you abundantly as he works out his purposes in and through your life.

Barry

Who planned this journey?

Three weeks have passed since my last Praise & Prayer News.  The first week was accounted for as Doreen and I took a short autumn break.  Since returning I have found myself kept busy so that various routine plans have been disturbed including the writing of this blog/newsletter.

The Break
I am often taken to task for not taking as much holiday as I should.  I also find that planning holidays which Doreen might find enjoyable, especially as her peripheral neuropathy limits what we would like to do, is far from easy. The idea of spending some days in Snowdonia, north Wales came to mind and the possibility of going up Snowdon on the mountain railway appealed, sop off we set.

Through the week before our departure we watched the weather forecast eagerly.  Sometimes there is a period of clear and sunny weather at the end of October, but this year it looked as if high winds and plenty of rain would ruin our plans.  As it turned out, it felt as if what happened each day had been planned by a knowledgeable  tour guide.  We arrived on a Tuesday evening as we could not leave until my regular visit to prison had taken place (we were expecting to give a concert around that time).  The farm B&B we had booked proved splendid (I recommend Farmstay UK to anyone looking for good hospitality). Wednesday looked like being the least bad weather but a phone call to the Snowdonia Mountain Railway informed us there were no places available on trips that day.  Our host urged us to just turn up and ask again, which we did.  There were just two seats available on the late morning train!

We found ourselves joining a coach party that had booked as part of a tour.  We squeezed into the last compartment and found ourselves in excellent company.  The scenery was wonderful, as was the recorded commentary.  Partway we paused at Hebron, (see Genesis 13) where the remains of a small chapel can still be seen.  Obviously it had been built to serve the scattered upland farming community.  Apparently, it was still in periodic use until fairly recently. We journey on but just over half way up the mountain we had to turn back because the wind was too strong.  But it had been a lovely and informative trip and the company insisted on refunding everyone's fares.  Nice trip for free!

While waiting for the train we called in at the 'Electric Mountain', an amazing feat of engineering with a vast cavern carved out inside the mountain to house a hydro-electricity generating station,  Our hope to take the tour on day two was now frustrated as there were no places.  So instead day two was spent visiting the local slate museum.  Some of this is out of doors but a break in the weather made it possible for us to enjoy the full experience.  This included a brilliant talk and demonstration from a man for whom this was his last day at work.  We would have lost out had we come on the third day.

That third day we had booked into a tour inside 'Electric Mountain'.  It poured with rain so being inside was the perfect solution. It felt as if someone was adjusting our schedule perfectly.  Brilliant as the engineering is, this system depend absolutely on a partnership with God's creation in order to keep the lights on at peak times across the country.

Saturday was wet and windy so Doreen suggested a trip to the pictures.  She was keen to see 'Philomena'.  We very rarely go to the pictures but would not have wanted to miss seeing this moving film. Judy Dench at her best and an amazing piece of work by Steve Coogan as writer, co-producer and seriously good actor.  The film demonstrates another aspect of Ireland's unhappy past and how young unmarried women were mistreated by the Catholic Church.  The scenes towards the end deal with the issue of forgiveness and justice perfectly.  Another positive outcome from a day that could so easily have been wasted.

Sunday was to be our final day.  I had asked our host about local churches and she consulted a friend who attended a Welsh-speaking chapel and found that they provided translation to English via headphones.  It was another wet and windy morning and I dropped Doreen off at the doorway while I went in search of a place to park the car.  As She reached the outer door two other people arrived from the opposite direction.  One 'just happened' to be the friend of our host who looked after Doreen perfectly.  The timing was incredible!  Although we were in Caernarfon it felt just like a village church and home from home.  Excellent welcome, good fellowship, engaging ministry, generous love, enjoyable singing (I managed one whole hymn in Welsh and knew it well in English).

We emerged to sunshine and after lunch we spent our final afternoon driving over the mountains.  A casually planned route took us on what is apparently one of the best journeys in the area with breathtaking beauty and the first autumn snow resting on the tops of the mountains.

You may well be bored reading about something so personal as a short holiday in Wales.  I share it because it genuinely felt as if all my plans had been taken and readjusted so that it could not have been better.  It was a microcosm of my life since I handed it over to God.  Of course things go wrong and there are the equivalent of wet and windy days, but we are secure in his care and the plans he has for our lives are those that are best.

Prison
Sadly, the expected concert has never happened but the choir has been given the opportunity to sing at a Celebration of Faith and Hope within the prison community.  We have prepared 'The Holy City' (based on revelation 21) and 'In Christ alone my hope is found'.  The event takes place at the end of this month.

Remembering
A major feature of recent days has been the annual Remembrance Day. The village school had asked if I would take the children in year six to their regular act of remembrance on the Friday morning (8th).  I gladly accepted and offered some extra time.  This resulted in an hour's lesson with the top class, a school assembly and the time at the war memorial with the children.  Lots of positive responses from children and teachers!  I was back in school last Tuesday for a routine visitor assembly on the theme of light.

From the school visit on Friday I set off to Stafford for the cremation followed by a thanksgiving service for a former Office manager in my days in Mission for Christ.  David Woodward had proved a rock during his time with us.  He arrived together with his wife, Barbara and their friend, Beth and the three proved a formidable and precious team.  David's daughter, Ruth is a children's evangelist and had also worked with us.  Ruth asked me if I would like to say a few words at the Thanksgiving Service which I was glad to do, though unprepared.  It had been over 25 years since we had worked together.  The trio had used retirement years as a gateway to service.  Wonderfully, David and Barbara's son, Dr Michael Woodward has just started doing the same working with OMF in Cambodia.  Would that more would use such opportunities.

On our homeward way from  our short break in Wales Doreen and I called in to visit Alfred and Sylvia Lavender who now live near Stoke.  Sylvia has not been well and has spent many weeks in hospital and is currently in a care home where the four of us met up.  I had worked with Alfred for 25 years and we had both married our wives during that time.  Alfred is an extremely talented and under-appreciated evangelist with a real passion for sharing the gospel.  It was good to fellowship, talk and pray together.

Good News in the Countryside in Southwell
On behgalf of the Rural Evangelism Network and on Wednesday 13th November I led sessions for the Diocese of Southwell and Nottingham on rural evangelism. Those attending included some with experience in rural ministry; others were newly appointed. It proved a good group to work with and our resources are on their website.  It was good to meet up with the Revd Jonathan Smithurst and others from his benefice on the borders of Nottinghamshire and Yorkshire which I had served with an Away Day in the past.

Yelvertoft
The ministry in the village moves forward steadily.  Our recent Pudding Festival and the United Remembrance Service have reinforced our image of being here to serve and bless the community in the Lord's name.  In a few weeks time we launch what we hope will be a monthly form of Messy Church. Please pray as the information starts to go around the village.

Mission for Christ/Action for Christ
Pressure from the Charity Commission has meant that the task of recovering the Mission from a disaster caused by illegal actions and mismanagement by a former trustee has had to take priority again.  Mission for Christ is the organisation in which I worked for 25 years with Alfred and many others.  Monica Cook, who still works as a valued colleague, trained and worked in the Mission. Apart from his wrong-doing, the former trustee has proved uncooperative as we have sought to put affairs in order.  This has protracted things but we are slowly getting there.  A formal agreement between the Mission and another Christian charity in Yorkshire is now about to be signed.  He had left this in a terrible mess.  Apart from taking £26,500 from the charity illegally, he claimed enormous expenses and failed to provide evidence to support much of this.  He had managed to get away with this by reducing the number of trustees and by obtaining authority to draw funds direct from the bank electronically.

I came back on board as a trustee in June 2012 and have been working with the Charity Commission, Companies House, the Police and various other authorities since then.  A Mission once worth over £700,000 had been reduced to a few hundreds of pounds and an uncertain future.  Yet, amazingly, the Lord has been supplying sufficient funds to keep the work afloat while we sort out the problems inherited and seek God's guidance regarding the future.  New trustees are waiting to be appointed and the final stages of the rescue plan agreed with the Charity Commission should be completed before the end of this year.

Pondering on the way that the Lord has provided to keep the remnant of this once very active Mission going took my mind to the account of Elijah at Kerith (see 1Kings 17).  The whole land was in crisis because of ungodly leadership.  At a time of famine the Lord took care of his servant.  Kerith was a place of miraculous provision, but it was a provision for a limited time as God had further plans for Elijah. We believe that God still has plans for Mission for Christ.  For the moment in the midst of the sad situation in which I found it, God has been clearly nurturing its life, and I and the current team of trustees are grateful.

God's provision and protection of Elijah during this time of crisis is among the most amazing accounts of God's provision.  Twice each day food was delivered to him.  I am not an expert in Hebrew but read somewhere that the word translated 'ravens' could have been a common term for Arabs.  There is plenty of evidence in scripture for ways in which God sovereignly interacts with other creatures.  But the lesson here perhaps is not so much about that but that God made such consistent provision for his servant: not just a daily provision, but twice daily.  With God, all things are possible.

The Onward Journey
Our hope remains in the God who guides and provides.  We can do no better than to put our lives into his hands to serve him, whether in big or small ways, with all that we have.  I have experienced the truth behind such catch phrases as "Where God guides, he provides" and "What God orders he pays for".  While I know where my journey will end I have no idea what lies ahead (though I still have hopes and dreams).   Your continued prayers are asked for Monica and myself in our own ministry of Sunrise Ministries and Rural Mission Solutions.  Please also pray for all with whom we network and serve, especially the Mission for Christ situation at this time.

Thank you.

Barry

It's a matter of trust

Trust is an interesting concept.  Sadly, these days there is a tendency sometimes to discourage trust.  A few week's ago I was out for an energetic walk and met a young boy and girl pushing their bikes up the steep hill I was walking down.  After a friendly exchange of greetings they took the opportunity of having a rest and we chatted for a few moments.  On such occasions I am always careful to ensure there is clear space between us.  They chatted away very happily but were then joined by their mum and dad who came puffing up the hill some way behind them.  I greeted them politely and started walking again.  However, I could sense a little concern on the part of the parents as to who the strange man was and why he was talking with their children.  Of course, they were right to be concerned as they knew nothing about me.  Parents have a duty of care, and being too trusting in some circumstances can be dangerous (though I hasten to add, not in this case).

I suppose trusting always carries a certain amount of risk and requires trust.  When Abraham obeyed in faith the call of God to leave home and friends and travel to an unknown destination (Hebrews 11:8) he must have known there was risk, or the element of faith would not be needed.  Walking by faith, like natural walking, requires a willingness to move from security and lose balance.  It takes a little time and some bumpy experiences before a toddler learns that after losing his/her balance he/she can recover it again and move forward in the process.

It seems to me that from time to time our ability to walk by faith gets tested.  Abraham's certainly was.  He had to wait many years for a promise to be fulfilled.  He even had to trust in an extreme way when offering his son.  We can't be sure what went through his mind, though Hebrews 11:19 suggest one explanation.  Haven't you ever reached a place in your life where you wonder just what God is up to?  Or maybe you have wondered whether he has forgotten to look after you and is busy somewhere else!

This week we received in the post an appeal letter from Guide Dogs. The envelope and the papers inside were illustrated with a photo of a friend of ours, Mike Townsend, and his guide dog Tom.  Mike and Tom found themselves caught up in the bombing in London in 2005.  Mike had been staying at the Tavistock Hotel and had just left on his routine walk to the offices of the RNIB in Judd Street just 8 minutes away.  Suddenly he heard an enormous explosion and was aware of people running past him in panic.  A bomb had gone off on a bus ripping it apart and killing many. The police then rapidly closed down a number of roads, making it impossible for the usual route to be followed.  Amazingly, Tom found a new and rather circuitous route to the offices.  Mike told me, "I couldn't understand why Tom was taking me the wrong way, because I couldn't see what was happening.  Then suddenly we were at the office.  Tom had found the way."

What Tom did is a great illustration of how we sometimes experience God's guidance.  Our limited vision makes us confused.  But just as Mike had to totally trust in Tom, we have to trust in God, even if it seems the way we are led is not what we expect.  God sees the bigger picture and knows the right way to get us to where we need to go.

Recent News

• It was good to share in teaching 32 second year cadets at the Salvation Army College recently.  The cadets had just received news of where they would be stationed and were shortly to be commissioned as officers. Please give thanks for their commitment and pray as they take up this ministry.
• Our enthusiastic Bible Discussion Meeting at Yelvertoft has chosen to work through Isaiah and we recently held our first session.  Give thanks for the desire to learn more of God's ways.
• Jonah was the subject for the service on Sunday 3oth June at HMP Gartree as we explored the challenge of obeying God's call to share his word, and the fact that our God gives second chances.  Give thanks for the Christian presence in the prison.
• Give thanks that I am almost fully recovered following the operation and fully back to work.
• Give thanks for an encouraging meeting recently with an Anglican bishop as we lay out plans for the research into rural evangelism.
• Give thanks for a positive response from some to letters I sent out on behalf of Action for Christ. We are grateful for Christian friends travelling with us through difficult times.

Prayers Please

• Sundays 7th and 14th - Yelvertoft Congregational Church
• Monday 8th - Lubenham Primary School, Leics.
• Tuesday 9th - Yelvertoft Primary School, Northants.  Taking our new Children and Families Worker with me.
• Wednesday 10th - Holiday at Home (outreach) planning meeting in Market Harborough.  Pray for the team led by Brian Kennard as we prepare for the outreach in August.
• Thursday 11th - Bible Discussion Meeting in Yelvertoft.
• Friday 12th - Visit to colleagues in East Midlands for renewal of their CRB certificates (now known as DBS)
• Saturday 13th - A bereavement support meeting in Yelvertoft.  This is an experiment and we have no idea who might turn up.
• Health - a recent eye test suggests that the macular degeneration I have in both eyes may be deteriorating and I have been referred to a hospital specialist.  Pray for wisdom and effective response as this could impact both reading and driving.
• International Congregational Conference takes place at the end of this month and we are in the final stages.  Pray for the team led by Val Price, and for all those travelling to London from various parts of the world 
• Action for Christ - pray for an adequate income to maintain this ministry of which I am a trustee.  We are in the final stages of clearing up problems left by a former trustee who devastated the charity.
• Please pray as I prepare to take up the research work, exploring how evangelism is understood and practised in rural England.

Commit your way to the Lord;

    trust in him and he will do this:

6 

he will make your righteous reward shine like the dawn,

    your vindication like the noonday sun.
Psalm 37: 5-6

As always, my heartfelt thanks for your fellowship.

Helping to prepare others for ministry

Dear praying friends,

I am starting to write this at almost midnight on Saturday 30^th June and I apologise to those who like to look it up on the internet on Saturday evenings.  I am sitting in a hotel room in Nottingham and my only link with the internet is via my mobile phone so I am not sure whether the connection will be good enough for sending out the emailed version.  So if this comes to you late please understand and forgive me.

A busy week has culminated with a weekend of activity with students on the Congregational Federation’s Integrated Training Course.  It started at 7.30pm on Friday and part of my responsibilities was to lead the opening worship.  I had felt that the Lord wanted me to speak on “Why are you here?” and encourage the very mixed group to reflect on how we engage with God’s purposes.  The question was one of three questions that three Dannite spies put to an isolated un-named Levite who had got himself engaged as a private priest and compromised with idolatry.  I think he could not have given the questions much thought as he was later taken by the same spies and turned into a tame priest for their purposes and still embroiled in idolatry. 

A similar question was put to Elijah after he had fled in fear from Jezebel and saw no point to living, feeling that he was the only one who feared the Lord.  How wrong he was and how blind to the fact that God was still enacting his purposes to bring his people back to himself.  We reflected on the twin dangers of drifting aimlessly and/or allowing discouragement to rob us of victory and joy.

On Saturday morning and afternoon a colleague from an urban context and I jointly engaged in a shared discussion on rural and inner-city ministry and mission, while the audience of tutors and students interacted with us with considerable enthusiasm.  This covered two 90 minute sessions and worked well.

Now I am putting the finishing touches to the service plan for the morning meeting here in Nottingham with the students, tutors and members of the local church.  The theme I have felt led to is one that looks at excuses.  We use far too many as we seek to justify ourselves before God.

I hope you managed to catch the 5 seconds of me conducting the choir on Channel 4 on Monday or Tuesday.  It was a shame that the piece they recorded of the choir singing in beautiful harmony ended on the cutting room floor and showed instead a rather rough rendition of a carol!  Still the film would have given a little idea of what a lifers prison experience is – though many of us felt it failed to tell much that would have been of value.

On Tuesday I took the school assembly at Yelvertoft before going into prison.  Then that evening I travelled to London ready to speak at the Salvation Army Training College on Wednesday.  After the morning and afternoon sessions I sat a while and talked about scripture with a special advisor to the House of Lords.  Then it was on a train again heading for East Sussex.

Many reading this as an email attachment will know that my first 25 years of Christian ministry were partly spent in a rural evangelistic mission.  After I left the organisation certain matters came to light that ultimately led to the founder/director of that mission serving a prison sentence for shameful acts.  After the court hearing I did what I could to help the trustees understand how the organisation’s culture and management had contributed to multiple acts of abuse.  Resulting from this a friend who had been one of the co-writers with me of Time for Action had been invited to become a trustee and had ultimately become the Chair of Trustees.  Two weeks ago I received a phone call in which she asked if I would join her and the only other active trustee in seeking to sort out problems into which the organisation has more recently found itself.  I was soon to realise how critical the situation was, calling for some urgent decisions and actions.  So it was that Wednesday evening and most of Thursday was spent exploring the scope of the problems and exploring how the problems might be resolved.

So it was a very full week yet again, and I am sure that were it not for your prayers it would have been even more challenging.

Praise God

·        for safe and smooth travel, especially in a week when the weather made travel difficult for thousands;

·        for the attentiveness of children and staff at the school assembly;

·        for yet another good session with prisoners in Gartree;

·        for a really positive time with Salvation Army cadets as we tackled the difficult subject of sexual abuse in a Christian context, how to reduce risk and support victims;

·        for the commitment of trustees and staff in the mission I am helping;

·        for the wonderful fellowship at Nottingham with students and tutors and for my fellow guest speaker who shared the two Saturday sessions.

Please Pray…

·        for the life of Yelvertoft School and the team from the local churches as we take assemblies.  Pray that young hearts will see Jesus in us and be drawn to him.  We cannot use these occasions for preaching or evangelism, but we share the good news through our relationship with the children and school;

·        for the members of Gartree Male Voice Choir.  A prisoner (R) who was recently transferred back to Gartree and who was and is again a member of the choir has served almost twice the length of his tariff (minimum sentence) and is perplexed why he is in this situation.  For most of the prisoners the choir is the most positive part of their weekly life;

·        for the Salvation Army Cadets who this weekend will be commissioned and go out as new officers to various SA churches;

·        for wisdom for the trustees of that mission organisation;

·        for the Congregational students as they explore their vocations and work through the training programme;

·        for my work in prison on this Tuesday;

·        for an important discussion in which I will be involved on Wednesday;

·        for meetings on Friday and Saturday in Nottingham when some of those on the training course will come before the Pastoral Care Board, with some hoping to be approved to become ministers.

Prayer is so important.  We dare not serve God and his people in our own strength.  Please pray for me and Doreen; it will be good to have more time together this week.  Pray that God will continue to sustain us spiritually, and in every other way.

Thank you.

Barry