Pray for Ukraine

 This is a link to the current EMF page on Ukraine, where there are reports on several workers. See here.

Days Off Weeks 6-8 2022

"What's happened to your day off reports?" I hear you ask. Well, the truth is that I have been having plenty of time off over the last three weeks but it has been rather bitty due to circumstances.

Week 6 (February 7-13) we had a German friend, Stefan Beyer, staying with us and so I spent time chatting with him and on two evenings we had guests over. He also led our Wednesday night meeting so I did not need to prepare for that in the same way. On the Wednesday morning, we walked up to and onto Hampstead Heath and then had a look inside Kenwood House. Always good to see those paintings, now including the Suffolk Collection, which if not composed of very good or famous pictures is at least historically interesting.

Then the next week, Week 7 (February 14-20) was pencilled in for my two days of the week off, which were to be spent in Wales. As it turned out the storm meant it was wiser to leave London on the Thursday so it was on that afternoon that Owain and I headed off from Paddington. I can't remember when I was last on a train. When we got to Cardiff we took a train up to Llandaf, where Eleri picked us up. She had been in Aber for the week. We stayed with my middle son. His daughter turned one recently and Owain was 21 so we celebrated those birthdays with a pizza evening at Eleri's sister's on the Friday, after twelve of them played football (not including me) and a gathering at the Emmanuel church on the Saturday morning. In between times, there was time to catch up with family and friends. Great time. Got to see my sister and her husband too as their flight to N Ireland was cancelled. We came home to a blown over front garden fence.

Then this week, Week 8 (Feb 21-27) my Uncle Peter, now 80, flew in from Canada yesterday and so we spent time with him. My sister and I picked him up from Heathrow and we spent a chunk of the day here drinking coffee and chatting. He is my dad's youngest brother, one of only two surviving uncles on either side. His wife sadly died last year. He lives on Vancouver Island.

Midweek Meeting February 23 2022

Beginning to catch up. We met on zoom once again and looked at another proverb, this time Proverbs 16:3 another one off. Found a good commentary to help me prepare. We had a good but brief prayer session too. Numbers were up again a little. Nice to have my wife back beside me, although she sits out of shot for the message. The ipad works best on zoom.

Lord's Day February 20 2022

Our numbers were still a little low last Lord's Day as it is still holiday time. We were around twenty in the morning and half that in the evening. There was communion before the evening meeting. I preached the next part of the series from Luke 9, on the transfiguration, and in the evening on Amos 7.

Midweek Meeting February 16 2022

Way behind as ever, just to say that we did meet on zoom once again and we looked at Proverbs 4:23 as a one off and had a good prayer session. We were not a great number. It seemed a bit strange as my wife was away in Aber and I was using a different computer to the one I normally use.

Lord's Day February 13 2022

I seemed to preach with some fluency last Lord's Day. We were on the basics of discipleship in the morning from Luke 9 and on Amos 6 in the evening. Numbers were down from previous weeks mainly because it is half term. The evening was the usual ten or so. Preaching the Word is a great privilege.

Midweek Meeting February 9 2022

The meeting on the ninth was very well attended and was one of those meetings that reminded me of the very international nature of things here. We were praying for one member due to go to Ghana for a wedding and another who is soon to return to The Philippines. Meanwhile, we were also praying for a member from the Indian subcontinent seeking asylum and for a weekly baptism class we have at present for three Iranians. On top of that the speaker was Stefan Beyer from Germany who was staying with us last week. He spoke on Psalm 37. We got to know Stefan through one of his members who was in London a few years ago. We had not seen him for a while so that has been good. We had a good time of prayer too.

Lord's Day February 6 2022

We had a full and in some ways eventful day last Lord's Day. At about 10 am my wife reminded me that there was communion in less than half an hour's time. I was able to me a good recovery, I hope. We had a good number in the morning when I preached from Luke 9:17-22. I felt the sermon manuscript lacked illustrations but it preached well, I felt. We then had lunch with one of the deacons and his family. That was nice. In the evening I preached on Amos 5. People seemed to be distracted during one of the readings.

Midweek Meeting February 2 2022

I failed to write up our midweek meeting last Wednesday but we did meet on zoom again. We were not as many as the previous week but we had a decent prayer time and I was able to expound Psalm 35.

Day Off Week 5 2022

The other day I was in a bookshop and spotted in the sale box the hardback edition of the novel Jack by Marilynne Robinson for ridiculously meagre £2. On my day off this week I decided to read the novel and was pleasantly surprised to see, on opening it, that it had a ribbon bookmark and, moreover, was a signed copy! I think the novel was published a t a bad time and sales have been lower than expected. Anyway I read about half of its 300 or so pages (I'm not a quick reader but it contains lots of dialogue). One review described it as a Calvinist romance and so far I've enjoyed it - more in fact than Gilead the best known of the four part trilogy (!). I also watched a little TV and a bit of word puzzling, as it's the current craze. It was nice to have our nephew here from Cardiff in the evening. Nice day.

10 Caterpillar Cakes

1. Colin (and Connie) the Caterpillar from M&S
2. Cuthbert the Caterpillar from Aldi
3. Calli (Curly and Carl) the Caterpillar from Tesco
4. Wiggles (and Eric) the Caterpillar from Sainsburys*
5. Cecil the Caterpillar from Waitrose
6. Charlie the Caterpillar from Co-op
7. Clyde the Caterpillar from ASDA
8. Morris the Caterpillar Cake from Morrisons*
9. Clive the Caterpillar Cake from One Stop
10. Archie the Caterpillar Cake from Ocado*

* Some retailers don't quite get it

Lord's Day January 30 2022

 

It was very encouraging on the Lord's Day especially in the morning. We had over 40 in the morning and crept up to double figures in the evening. I felt I preached well both times but if I can't preach on such subjects at this stage there is something wrong, I guess. We had a new Iranian couple in the morning. I hope they stick with us. We also reintroduced the cuppa in the morning.