Midweek Meeting June 6 2018 etc

For quite a while I have been reporting on this blog what goes on at our regular meetings on the Lord's Day and on Wednesday nights. I didn't do this at first but as these loom so large in my weekly life it seemed strange to say nothing about them week after week.  There is an opitimum two or three day turn around time between each one and sometimes I am a little late with my updates.

We are quite late in the week for this one but I think that has turned to my advantage in the end. I say that because on Wednesday we had a visiting speaker. It was Robin Asgher from Cranford. Robin grew up in Pakistan and I first met him when I was a lecturer on the EMF course. He went on to do two years at the Seminary and was my assistant for a year before beginning as a church planter in Cranford, West London. He always speaks about me and that time very warmly.

It was great to have him back then and hear a little about the work in Cranford which now includes opportunities at nearby detention centre with immigrants interested in the Christian faith. The main topic was reaching out to Muslims. We are having a special focus on outreach in the area this month. He has a lot of experience in that area and had helpful things to say.

One reason I am not sorry to have left this report a little is that the next evening we had a visit from Luke Jenner, who had been lecturing on Acts at the Seminary. He is one of many students who, like Robin, were regularly with us during their time at seminary. Generally speaking I think these were positive times for the men involved. We certainly appreciated having them with us. (I am tempted to start listing them but I will leave someone out I'm sure. There are many. Robin, Mark Raines, Ian Middlemist and Andrew Lolley stand out as they also served as assistants). Most of these men are in ministry at present. I get rather discouraged sometimes and one bright spot that makes me confident it has not been as bad as I feel is these former members of the congregation.

The other reason I am glad that I have delayed is that Robin was encouraging us to be friendly to Muslims and to take time to get to know them. Well, today was the first day of door to door and a deacon and I knocked in one of the high rise flats near the church. Most people were out though those who were in were friendly enough. Then we knocked a door and the lady, a Muslim, I recognised from a local shop. She invited us in for a cuppa and we had a good chat while some Hindi gameshow played on a TV in the corner. She was very positive about Islam (though not fasting and unenthusiastic about some of its modern manifestations). One could think of several women in the congregation who might be able to befriend her and I must get hold of a bilingual New Testament for her. An encouraging start then.

We also had our second actual men's meeting. I must report on that elsewhere.

Rural Wales

We’re having a nice time here in Wales. On Saturday we left early for Tywyn in West Wales where our middle two have been on their week’s camp. It was nice to see them and other parents we know picking up their kids. I also saw my niece Charlie briefly. The boys had a fine time getting to the top of Cader Idris, bivouacking, going to a climbing centre, hearing Gwynne Evans on Paul, etc.
From Tywyn we headed through the rain via Tal Y Llyn deep into the Welsh heartlands and to the home where Eleri’s brother-in-law Glyn was brought up in Llanfair Caereinion. Glyn and family were at his parents briefly before he headed off to lead an EMW camp over in Quinta. Rhodri, my eldest, joined him for the trip and we trust they are having a good time.
Meanwhile back here in Aber we realised that we hadn’t collected everything from the Tywyn Camp and so Eleri and Dylan made another round trip while I did laundry duty. By the time they returned, Fflur and the three children were here and had gone with our two youngest down to the front. There was a rock concert at the castle which we could here up in the manse – it didn’t sound too hot.
On the Sunday we headed south in sunshine, first thing, via Cardigan, for Clarbeston Road, Pembrokeshire, where I was due to preach at Bethany Free Church. I first attended the church when I used to come to church camps down in Amroth as a boy. I have preached on one or two occasions before. (One of the elders, a SASRA reader, and his wife, reminded me that I had previously preached 11 years ago when their 11 year old son had just been killed in traffic accident.) Bethany is not large but with some holiday visitors the place was pretty full. Among those present were David Norman and Ruth Jones who have been labouring in Tasmania for many years now. Formerly a minister in the Grove, Camberwell, David is from the area and had come to see his mother during statutory long service leave from his church. He said he’s just bought my book on Proverbs, which was good to know.
I preached on Psalm 3 in the morning (a new sermon) and fell back on an old sermon on Dorcas from Acts 9 in the evening. Doing a new sermon in a new place made me a little hesitant in places sadly. The morning meeting was followed by communion. I didn’t have a Bible with me and the pulpit AV was too big to carry down to the table and so I gave Paul’s words in the NIV from memory. I’ve learned them simply by dint of repeating them twice a month for over 20 years.
The church would gladly have given us hospitality but we took opportunity to visit our friends Ian and Hanna just down the road in Haverford West. My former assistant Ian was recently inducted as an evangelist in Hill Park Baptist. It was lovely to seem them and their little boy Filip (who our boys just love) again in their new house in Baring-Gould Way. We had good fellowship Sunday afternoon and evening and on Monday morning as they very kindly put all six of us up, by retreating to a futon in their front room.
We wanted to do something nice on the way back to Aber and Hanna put us on to the Pemberton Chocolate farm, deep in the real wilds of Pembrokeshire, near a place called Llanboidy. Once more I have been impressed with the greenness and the beauty of the vast Welsh countryside as we passed through places I had mostly never heard of. The chocolate farm is a small business that took over old farm buildings around 30 years ago and has been set up in such a way that you can see something of the luxury chocolate making business firsthand. A young man called Rhodri (there’s a nice name) introduced the whole thing and then we walked through a sort of window lined tunnel observing the work going on as a CD commentary accompanied us. My favourite fact was that chocolate is the only substance that stays solid at room temperature but liquid at body temperature – hence that wonderful melting feeling. We were rewarded with a chocolate to dip at the end of the tour. We also watched an interesting film about chocolate making, viewed the few other things on show there and (as they hoped I guess) spent ₤15 on chocolate gifts (plus more on fudge and sweets). So not amazing, but a nice morning, helped by the fact the weather just about held. More here.
En route home we popped into Aberaeron for chips and an ice cream and were back in Aber by around 3.30 pm. Most then went to the beach, while I had a wander, reading and enjoying a coffee before food later on. Ah, easy days!

Down to South Wales

Down to South Wales for part of the weekend. The weather was just turning so the sunshine added to it all. We headed off to my sister-in-law and family in Cardiff first and had a lovely time with them. We also visited my wife's cousin and family (where it's half in Welsh and I struggle to keep up) and I was able to visit my dad who'd been taken into hospital with gall stones the day before. He looked quite well by then but morphine is wonderful thing.

The main purpose of our visit was to be in Hill Park Evangelical Baptist Church, Haverford West, for the ordination and induction as evangelist of Ian Middlemist who, after 2 years at LTS was my assistant for seven months last year and this. The fairly elderly church is pastored by Gareth Edwards. They recently sold their original premises that had been used as Sunday School rooms and are using the proceeds mainly to finance Ian for two years. That shows vision.

I preached from Acts 26 and Paul's commission - a good place to turn I felt, though not one I've heard preached from in that context before. See it here. There were about 60 present - church members, local ministers, family, friends, etc. There was a nice tea to follow nearby. I did preach in Hill Park one summer about 5 years ago. I'd forgotten that I had a broken leg at the time - but they all remembered, of course, and were glad to see I'd recovered! Going back to Wales is always slightly strange for me. It's like you know it all (what they haven't changed) yet you don't belong in it. I tend to feel like that anyway so when there's real reason to do so its even stranger.

I'm planning to be back in Cardiff again this week - to see Jan Akkerman who is performing solo and is supported by a young man from Cwmbran (Gareth Pearson) who it turns out is the son of a fellow I was in school with.