Summer Holidays 2023

As readers may have picked up, we have been away on holiday for most of the time since August 7. As usual, we have been in Wales but more unusually we took a nreak from holiday, coming back to London August 19-23, when I led the meetngs on the Lord's Day and on the Wednesday night of August 23. So the holiday has been in two parts.

Part One

Part on began with four days in Aber staying with my son and his family (7-10). it's alwasy nice to be in Aber. We didn't do much but window shop, have coffee, etc. I also spent a chunk of to days consuktinga  manuscript in the National Library. On the Tuesday night (August 8) it was good to be at the prayer meeting. On Friday 11 we drove down to Solfa to stay with our friends there. They have a lovely houose and made us feel more than welcome, including the trip out for a Welsh breakfast on Saturday 12. I have reported on preaching in the church at Roch on Sunday 13. We returned to Aber on the Sunday night. We then stayed for the week of the conference across the road to the manse in the home of our daughter-in-law's mother. It was great to see lots and lots of family and friends. I have reported on the main messages at the conference, August 14-18. We didn't get to any meetings apart from the main ones and some of those I watched online.

On Saturday August 19 we travelled back to London and stayed here until the following Thursday.

Part Two

On that day (August 24) we drove to South Wales. First we dropped in to my sister's in Bettw, near Newport. She was there with some of the family. I gave her the birthday ppresent I have been planning for some time. It is sixty jars of various things (sweets, tacks, tablets, spices, paper clips, air, etc, etc). It took a long time and is quite useless but Gail appreciated the gesture and understood it, thankfully.

We then drove on to Treorci (about an hour's drive) where Eleri had booked us and some tohers of the family into a farmhouse in Tynewydd (owned by Martin Roberts apparently). Built in 1652 it is quite charming but for the fact that the twon has grown up around it. We had a great time there adn in Treorci and elsewhere. We arrived there on the Thursday evening and had all of Friday there. On the Saturday we window shopped in Treorci and MacArthur Glen then headed back to Bettws for Gail's party. There were loads of family and friends there, including (quite out of the blue) my Uncle Peter from Canada. A really nice time.

Then on the Sunday we decided to Emmanel in Cardiff where two of my sons are members. Gareth Davies preached in the morning (from Romans on peace and hope) and our son Dylan in the evening (on the great commission). Emmanuel is slightly less conservative than we are but still very much on the conservative end which I like. It was good too to see many members of the family again. We had lunch with Dylan and Cat and then tea with Eleri's sister and family, also members of Emmanuel. It was our 35th wedding anniversary that day and that was noted too.

The next day (August 28 the Bank Holiday) we went to Ynysangharad Memorial Park in Pontypridd where we were joined by many family members. We talked, played football, found a Subway restaurant, looked at the memorial to the authors of the National Anthem (we actually sang it as we gathered). We then headed back to Treorci. It has been interesting travelling up and down the valleys, which we are very much aware of but quite ignorant of too.

We travelled back to London on Tuesday August 29. Good to be back.

Midweek Meeting August 23 2023

I forgot to note that when I was back home in London I not only preached on the Sunday but also led the Midweek meeting on Zoom, when we looked at Psalm 77. We were a decent number and it was a good time of prayer.

IMDB

I notice that I am now listed on IMDB as I am a talking head in the new documentary film The essential church. Still not seen it yet.

Lord's Day August 20 2023

Back in Childs Hill on Sunday, which felt slightly strange. I carried on in Luke 17 in the morning, looking at the ten lepers. In the evening we had communion followed by a message on the becomings of Christ (flesh, sin and a curse, etc). Various people missing but we were almost up to double figures in the evening.

Stuart Olyott on Romans 12:1

As the Aber committee decided to try not having a Friday night session this year, Alfred Place put on a preaching meeting in Alfred Place, which was packed but is, of course, much smaller. Stuart Olyott preached from Romans 12:1. (He had preached in the church the previous Sunday morning). It was excellent stuff - clear, theological, stirring.

You can hear the sermon here.

Aber Conference 2023 Thursday Morning Ian Parry 4

The final session of this year's Aber was Ian Parry's fourth message, this time on the church and focusing in on 1 Corinthians 9. It was great to close with Love Divine, one of only two Charles Wesley hymns sang in the week (I believe). Perhaps we should have sung more.

See here for session.

Emu confronts Sir Michael Parkinson

Michael Parkinson the journalist and interviewer has died we hear

Aber Conference 2023 Thursday Evening Paul Rees

Tonight's speaker was Paul Rees who hails fom Cardiff but is pastor in Charlotte Chapel, Edinburgh. He spoke from Ephesians and used some powerpoint, very rare at Aber if not unprecedented.

See here.

Jeremy Marshall (Intro Christian Heritage London interview)

Sorry to hear of the recent death of Jeremy Marshall. I knew him and his parents a little. Jeremy was always very positive. We need more people like that. He will be missed.

Aber Conference 2023 Thursday Morning Ian Parry 3

Excellent stuff once again from Ian Parry as we moved to the Holy Spirit and the more practical side of things from Joel as preached in Acts 2.

See here.

Aber Conference 2023 Wednesday Parry and Ash

Good day yesterday. More from Ian Parry and Christopher Ash. Ian took us to Revelation 5 and spoke about the Glory of the Son and Christopher Ash spoke on Psalm 149. His suggestion that the sword swinging is a metaphor for praise might well be right.

Wednesday morning here.

Wednesday evening here.

Aber Conference 2023 Tuesday Evening Christopher Ash 1

Good stuff tonight from Christopher Ash on Psalm 11. See here for the service.

Aber Conference 2023 Tuesday Morning Ian Parry 1

 

A wonderful sermon this morning from our main speaker, from Ruth on getting the big vision. See here.

Westminster Conference 2023

The brochure for the Westminster Conference in December is now out.

Double Click

Aber Conference 2023 Monday Evening Phil Swann

Phil Swann from Llanelli kicked us off with an encouraging sermon from Jude 26 and 25. You can watch the sermon on the EMW Youtube site. See here

Lord's Day August 13 2023

I was preaching last Lord's Day in Penuel Baptist Chapel, Roch. I have never preached there before but two long serving members have moved to Pembrokeshire and become members there and so I was given the opportunity. The chapel is compact and holds less than 80 I would guess. It was pretty full last Sunday as lots of holidaymakers had come in, in the morning, including a family I know from North Wales, the new minister at West Kilburn and his family, a family from Childs Hill, a couple who know my sister and several others. I preached on three groans from Romans 8 in the morning. The later 4 o'clock service was smaller and more informal with no hymns. I preached on Zechariah 3:2 and then we had a useful discussion. One feature of the day was that on a campsite near the chapel which we passed a car had speeded into a tent the night before and caused injuries, an item covered on natonal news.

Holidays

We are having a nice time in Wales. We travelled up to Aber last Monday and are enjoying staying with family. Good to get some reading done and a bit of research in the National Library. Good to be at the Alfred Place prayer meeting. Last Friday we drove down to Solva to spend time with good friends from Childs Hill who have now retured to Pembrokeshire. They treated us very nicely, including ice creams, etc, etc. I preached in Roch and we then returned to Aber on Sunday night for the conference week. That began this morning with a book launch at AP for Keith Underhill's book.

Traditional Welsh Breakfast

We are away in Wales on holiday. We had a few days in Aberystwyth and then headed down to Solva to stay with good friends, formerly members of the Childs Hill church. We had a brilliant time including a traditional Welsh breakfast in St David's, in The Mill Cafe, paid for by our hosts. You could argue over the ingredients of such a thing but in this part of the world the above seems about right. (We also had toast with ours). The sausage, bacon and egg are obvious ingredients. Then black pudding would get a vote across a wide range of territory (we always had it at home). The really distinctive ones are the cockles and the laverbread in oats. Cockles are small clams found on sandy beaches. The Magna Carta grants every citizen the right to collect up to eight pounds of cockles from the foreshore. Larger quantities will require a picking permit. Laverbread or bara lawr is a fine seaweed. It has nothing to do with bread but is a puree mixed with oats or put on toast. Scrumptious.

Planted by the Providence of God

I have spent the last few days reading Keith Underhill's new autobiography cum handbook for church planting and mission. It is a well produced hardback with large print and sturdy pages. The book is enhamced by many colour photographs, two indices and some maps. Too many typos but there we are. I am familiar with the story to some extent in that when I came to Aberystwyth as a student I attended Keith's sending church. He was just getting started then. In 2011 I travelled to Kenya to speak at a conference (enjoyed seeing my name on page 452!) and so saw the work close up. I also spoke on my return to GBM on Keith's behalf convinced he had been treated harshly by them and others. I know many of the men who have walk on parts in the book.

Keith has divided the book into four phases (preparation up to 1977, church planting 1977-1989, consolidation 1989-2006, church maturing 2006-2015). Interspersed with these chapters are 22 biblical foundations for mission that go from the great commission to the centrality of preaching. As Tom Richwine has written 

This book is a compellingly detailed account of some of God's work in Kenya over the last 40 years skillfully interwoven with biblical principles of missions and church planting. A must read for those considering serving Christ by planting churches in a cross-cultural environment. These pages highlight the challenges, opposition and many rewards of dedicating your life to taking the gospel to a foreign nation.

Some may find the book (at 510 pages) long and no doubt some editing could have been done. As a prolific prayer letter writer Keith is not short of material. The book is well written, however, and the large amount of material serves to leave you with a very full picture of what has been going on down the years. It is stunning to see what God can do with one (in some ways) ordinary man.

Having recently re-read Michael Toogood's much briefer but similarly compelling story of what God can do with one man I am beginning to see that there have been giants among us. If anyone has any influence in these matters I am eager to see something from Brian Ellis and Andrew Swanson soon.

PS On the 14th of August, at 11am, Keith Underhill will be speaking at a special-meeting at Alfred Place in Aberystwyth, to launch his book Planted By The Providence Of God (Broken Wharfe, 2023). All welcome.

David and Susan

I was walking along my street the other day and I saw my neighbours David and Susan. A thousand thoughts can pass through your mind at once and so I thought first of the fact that all three of us are Welsh. David is more of Scot really but I remember he told me he was born in Wales. Susan grew up in the same county as I did. Then all three of us have published books (Susan's on gardening and David's a novel). The thing that was uppermost in my mind, however, was Teddy Bear Comic which I was a reader of back in the day and its strip Nurse Susan and Dr David. Shows my age.

Lord's Day August 6 2023

We began yesterday with communion. We were supposed to welcome in new membrs but they were late so we held it over to the main meeting, which is better in some ways as non-members are much more likely to be present. I preached from Luke 7:7-10 fearing I might have taken too small a section but I made an application using Gavin Ortlund's list of practical helps to humility. Good to have our student and his wife along again. In the evening we weren't a very small number. I preahed a text - Romans 15:13.

Midweek Meeting August 2 2023

On Wednesday night we met on zoom once again. Numbers were down as one mght expect at this time of the year but lots prayed once we got going. We looked at Psalm 11, whuch I caan't say I have ever really noticed before.

Day Off Week 30 2023

The main thing on my day off this week was going down to the aquarium in central London, Sea Life. We went by tube, getting off at Waterloo. It's a while since I've been to the aquarium and there were new things to see. It's expensive but Tesco vouchers help. We went with my third son and his family. Their youngest is too young to enjoy it properly but their two year old thought it was great, as did the rest of us. We briefly met a boy working there from Carmarthen, a Welsh speaker. We wandered north then to Leiceser Square. I came home for the dog. The rest of the day was spent mostly reading. I've been catching up on my Banner mags. The penguins are Gentoos.

Carey Conference 2024

 

Brochures for the Carey Conference next January are out. Speakers - David Campbell, Paul Mallard, Conrad Pomeroy, Paul Brunning, Gail Currie.

Westminster Conference 2022 Print Version

The printed version of the six papers given last September on Oxford Street are now available in print form. The death of Michael Toogood earlier this year means that for the first time in along time we did not have his help o this volume.