Lord's Day April 13 2025

I've been in Cardiff this weekend, visiting family and preaching at Emmanuel Baptist Church where my son and sister-ib-law are members. I oreached from Romans 8 in the morning and Proverbs 24 in the evening. See here and here.

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.

Induction at Emmanuel Cardiff

We were so glad to be with the folk in Emmanuel, Gabalfa in Cardiff last Saturday. This is the church where my sister-in-law and her family and two of my sons are members. Fflur's husband Glyn Ellis is an elder there and Dylan is one of the ministers in training. They have been without a pastor for some time but have recently called Paul Whitely, previously at Penyrheol in Gorseinon, Saturday was his induction. Paul and his wife Lynsey are from Swansea. They have three kids. The meeting was chaired by Peter Milsom. The preacher was Steffan Jones from Pontardawe who preached to Paul and the congregation, helpfully, on Philip the evangelist. A lovely tea followed. Nice to meet Geoff Gobbett, Meirion Thomas, Dave Lewis, family members et al. There must have been 15 or more ministers present. The trip home was very straightforward, which we appreciated. We wish the church well.

Day off Week 41

Last week's day off fell on Saturday, as we wanted to join Eleri's father celebrating his 80th birthday down in Cardiff. We travelled on Friday night and were pleasantly surprised at how straight forward it was for a potentially stormy Friday night. We stayed with Eleri's younger sister. I spent half of Saturday morning catching up on my Bible reading journal - behind again. I then discovered that I had brought no change of shirt and so had to head into Whitchurch, which only has a Peacocks when it comes to men's shirts (I don't buy clothes from charity shops). I nearly bought a trartan shirt but went for the black denim in the end. Geoff's daughters and thers had worked really hard and so we had an excellent get together in the church where two of our sons now worship with their wives. (In fact one pair now live in a bungalow right next to the church so it was good to visit them for the first time in their new home beforehand) About sixty family and friends turned up and we sang happy birthday, etc. Lovely time. It was nice to be with some of the family after the party before we left, getting home around 10 pm. The only sad note was missing sons - one in America and the family who couldn't get down from Aber because of the flooding.

Lord's Day August 23 2015

 

I'm a bit behind with this but I was sat listening again this last Lord's Day. We were in the Cardiff area after the wedding and stayed with relatives and so we went to their church, Emmanuel Baptist in Gabalfa, Cardiff. The preacher for the day was Dave Norbury who gently and winningly encouraged us from Scripture - from Psalm 78:19 in the morning and from Acts 6 in the evening. The first was a reminder of what God can do and the second a call to follow him. We also had a brilliantly told children's story in the morning. Dave Norbury has a background in education and Beach Missions and until recently was General Secretary of the EMW. In the evening my wife's brother-in-law interviewed him. I believe he is currently a member in Llanelli  Free Church.

Lord's Day August 31 2014

I was not preaching once again as we were at my niece's wedding in Cwmbran and Newport on Saturday. In the morning we went to Emmanuel, Cardiff, where Eleri's sister and family are involved. The pastor John Woolley was preaching. It was a special from the heart sermon on prayer that managed to be both very challenging and yet stirring too so that you actually wanted to pray more rather than feeling bad about your lack of prayer. The Ellises kindly treated us to lunch before we all trekked up to Cwmbran to be with my sister for tea in her garden (the biggest private garden in Croesyceiliog I believe). At Pontrhydyrun the preacher was their assistant Stephen Tucker who was just coming to the end of 1 Thessalonians. So two more experiences of congregational life to add to my earlier samples from my sabbatical period. Buildings vary greatly. Clearly, screens are in, at least for the songs and readings if not for the sermon points. An extra few accompanying instruments is no big deal. Preachers rarely wear ties. Open prayer in the evening is common enough but taking a collection  any time (or even mentioning giving) rare.