Last week was so busy that there was no time to make note of it all. On Monday morning I got myself over to the LTS where I had planned to meet with one of the students (Paolo Patuelli, who is from Italy). We are so glad to be mentoring someone again this year, especially a family man. Then it was on to the Evangelical Library to hear a very good lunch time lecture on the Pentateuch from Dr Ian Densham. This was a helpful look at some of the issues and included helpful pointers on preaching from that part of the Word. I was only sorry that we didn't have more people there. I picked up a couple of books on Jansenism which I have begun to read. I then drove to a home in Wembley to visit the oldest member of my church. It's always good to see Lilian. In the evening I was over in Ashford for a Bible Preaching Trust committee. The Bible Preaching Trust makes small grants to ministers in financial need. It was good to agree on grants for men in Scotland, the north of England and Spain this time.
Then on Tuesday I was supposed to be involved in a prison Bible study but that was not possible so I went over to Highbury and Andrew King very kindly helped me get my forms sorted out for getting into this work more thoroughly with CPR. I then went on to the Royal Free Hospital to visit my longest standing church member. It's always good to see Ken too.
Wednesday began with attendance at a funeral at Golders Green Crematorium. I got to know South African David Strauss when he moved in next door to the church and started attending. The place burned down a few years later and he ended up in the north of the borough and keeping contact was difficult, although we would see him from time to time and he would phone fairly often. David was a most interesting character and not always the easiest to deal with, very much an Afrikaaner I guess he was a professing Christian. I then headed down to Clerkenwell to meet up with Tom and Donna Drion (like the Kings, home schoolers I discover) for lunch in the chapel there where Tom is heading up the GraceLife work with Ross Orgil. Tom studied in John Macarthur's Master's Seminary. They seem to be making real progress with a multi-national congregation,. It was good to meet. From there I went on to a regular appointment speaking at a BUPA home in Golders Green. In the evening it was our midweek meeting on Providence, making further use of John Flavel's excellent Mystery of Providence.
The rest of the week was less busy in some ways but with a regular meeting with my fellow elder, sermons to prepare and a newsletter plus two short talks for the Friday night clubs I was not twiddling my thumbs and appreciated the extra hour.
