how will they take it?

...hopefully very well! as they are very forgiving folk at Chapel!
Let me explain -
We have no organist for this coming Sunday as she is poorly. So do we sing unaccompanied?
Our organist is an excellent singer as well who can get us all singing - I am no good - I can only follow.
We do have electricity and a loop system, but no mixing desk or computer and projector. Think back 30 or 40 years and that's us!


And then I had a bright idea. I do have an ipod which has all my favourite CDs on it, including many hymns. So I abandoned all the hymns I had chosen for Sunday as none of them were on the ipod and chose new hymns that were sung relatively slowly, and with a long lead I've manage to get the hymns to come through the loudspeakers.
I just hope the Chapel folk won't mind singing along with an ipod!

career or vocation?

This morning on Radio 4's 'Sunday' program, the bishop of Fulham was being interviewed on his plans to become a Roman Catholic priest in response to the Anglican's move to have women bishops.
He spoke about the fact that he was following his vocation, it was not a career and therefore he would like to become a priest but was also aware that he may be a lay person within the Roman Catholic church. He would go where the church told him.


Is that the difference? My move to the ministry was not my choice, it was a calling that I could not ignore! Do some Anglicans take more note of church and tradition, than of the call of God? or is it that the church's tradition speaks so loudly that it is difficult to hear God.
In Christ there is no male or female; all are equal!

28:19 or 21:17

Dare I admit it?
I've always found the Great Commission in Matthew's Gospel difficult!
And I've grown up finding missionary service difficult!
There - it's out in the open!


The first is because I prefer Jesus' commission in John's Gospel as it is more fitting with my personality and the second is because I knew several sons and daughters of missionaries who were literally shipped home to England to go to boarding school - I didn't think it was right!


But over the years I have softened in my outlook, especially now knowing several friends who work for the BMS and hearing more about the work of those abroad.


This weekend, four small Baptist chapels have had a visit from their 'link missionary'. For those who have no idea what this is.....
Some churches have folk who were part of their membership who have been called into missionary work but for other churches with no missionary of their own, they are given a link missionary.


Our four chapels, two on the border in England and two on the border in Wales share Judy. Yesterday, we gathered in England to worship, hear about her work, have tea and eat Thai food from a local restaurant and share communion.
And this morning we gathered in Wales to worship, hear about her work, pray for her as she returns to Thailand at the end of the month and get to know her a little better over coffee and cakes.


Judy used to be a children's nurse and was happy in her work but felt a call to missionary service. Having been sent to Thailand to undertake looking after those with AIDS and HIV, she started fostering a little girl and then found she was fostering a boy and then another girl until she is now running a Thai government approved foster home with six full time staff, several of whom came from very difficult backgrounds and in need of a fresh start in life.


I found it very reassuring that in my life too, God called me to one thing and it was only as time went by that I realised that it was so I could be in the right place to do something else.


I am excited about the work Judy is doing and how she is open to God, knowing that she doesn't know what will happen next but fully trusts God, knowing that God will provide.
And I feel that I have made a new friend! and for that I thank God