Maidenhead Study

Colin enjoys his after-study chat with Andrea, while Melvin wraps his Bible in a bag and Adam listens in.

Rebecca tells Joanie about her upcoming US trip.

Colin Smith has long wanted a Bible study out in his area, which is Twyford. He lives in a great nether region between London and Reading, north of the M4 motorway that heads west from London. He wants to drag people to church to hear the Bible teaching, but he reckons he can’t drag them as far as Twickenham. Therefore, there must be a Bible study out his way. He has been a Persistent Widow, and has prevailed.

Three weeks ago I began the study in a village near to him called Maidenhead. It is the home of Jill Baker, a single mother who attends Calvary Chapel Oxford. Between Jill and Colin, people have been invited, coerced and dragged to hear the Bible taught. There are unbelievers and Catholics attending, as well as believers who have not read their Bible for decades. They are stirred up enough to come and listen.

Tonight I begin a verse by verse study of Revelation. Because of the imagery and the difficulty of interpretation this book is neglected and practically unknown in the churches. Lord willing, this will be a revolutionary study for those who attend.

The same goes for the midweek study in Twickenham. One of the ladies in Twickers invited her sister to the Maidenhead study. After I announced what we would study she said to me, “Well, what about us? You gonna do that for us? I’m jealous.” 

That Persistent Widow stuff again.

Solid Weekend

I said earlier we went home to do our weekend thing. That means church, but my weekend was not the usual thing. After a full service I went home, ate lunch in ten minutes, and got in the car to drive to Norbury. That’s out Streatham way.

There is a Calvary Chapel there, and the services are done in Punjabi and Urdu. Its pastor, Ilyas Mughal, had asked me on Friday to teach for him. He had to attend a funeral in Italy. I have long wanted to meet with them, not even to teach, just meet them, just be a fly on the wall, just see how they do church. So this was a dream come true.

I drove and drove. There are twelve million people in London. I figure most of them were driving in front of me, I was going so slow. I got there half an hour after the service started, but the worship band (above) was still playing, thank the Lord.

I was thinking about what to teach, and finally decided I would do the most good if I taught Psalm 1. I had other messages with me, but I hadn’t had time to refresh myself on them. It would have been like reading someone else’s notes. Not good.

I asked if there was going to be an interpreter. No, they don’t need one, I was told. Oh… Okay. I hoped I could speak clearly enough to be understood. It turned out it wasn’t a problem. Most people there are multilingual. They live in England. Right.

I had dinner afterwards with the family of the girl playing the electric guitar in the picture above. That church was the sweetest group of people you could meet. It was a privilege to be asked to teach and give them what I could. I hope I get to go there again.

Encouraging Visit

Creation Fest planning meeting at my house.

Just last week Brian Brodersen visited England. He had a packed schedule; he likes to see as many people and do as much as he has time for. So he went to Oxford for the Teach the Word conference. Monday he visited Bristol, where a new work is being planted. On Tuesday following we met for a Creation Fest planning session. That evening he taught the Gateway Fellowship at Yateley, east of where we are. Elliot Wilsher and I have been out there before; his in-laws live out there. We had dinner with Brian before the meeting. He taught a simple, encouraging message from Aaron’s blessing in Numbers 6.

Question and answer time in Yateley.

Wednesday he went to London to meet with the managing director of Premier Radio. Matt Kottman, Doug Keen and I  drove his baggage to York, as we were meeting with Calvary pastors there for a quarterly prayer meeting. We prayed, discussed, ate curry, prayed some more.

Our first prayer session in York.

Discussing weighty matters after a great curry.

He went up to a conference in Scotland and we came home and did our weekend thing (more on that later). Monday he returned to my house. Elliot and Matt met us and we had one more curry in Surbiton.

Quite a lot was accomplished on his trip. It was an answer to my prayer, that the Lord would bless that short time and make it count. The most important thing is that people were encouraged and built up. That is a highly significant work.

After the Ceremony

I forgot to add: after we were sworn in and became real Brits, we went out to celebrate. Where did we go? Why, where real Brits go to celebrate, of course.


We went to a French patisserie.


Mental, innit?

Citizenship

On March 2 Joanie and I attended our citizenship ceremony to be sworn in as British citizens. The girls had already received theirs. The government does not require minors to take an oath.

We waited some time at the registrar’s office in Richmond until the start of the ceremony. Then we were ushered into a room large enough for us to sit in the front and guests to sit behind us. The official doing the ceremony had those taking the oath swear, then those who didn’t take an oath made an affirmation. The difference was the oath was sworn by Almighty God, the affirmation was a solemn declaration.

During the meeting we met an Iranian man who was a former journalist, who had to flee the country. We wanted to stay in touch with him but in the confusion after the ceremony he left and we couldn’t find him. We know that he lives where we used to live. So we will try to see if we can find him if we ever get some time. I got off a quick pic (above) so we could recognize him again.

Dave Visits

I’m still trying to catch up with life since returning to England in February. I gave up trying to post the whole US trip here. I put the pics with a little commentary on my Facebook page. So let's move on with some February news.

One of the things that made it easier to return was knowing my brother Dave was going to visit us soon after. He had a trade show in Barcelona to attend. After that his youngest son Matthew would be coming and they would go somewhere special. Normandy was the front runner. I was jealous of France. I wished they could stay with us.

Careful what you wish for, they say. Dave came back from Barcelona to say that his wallet was stolen while at the trade show. He could get his credit cards replaced, and Matthew ended up bringing them with him. But Dave couldn’t get his driver’s license replaced without personally being there. So he couldn’t rent a car to drive to France.

So Matthew was limited to seeing London. And our family went with them, seeing places we never go because we live here. Like Abbey Road, in the picture above. We're standing in front of the recording studio. The actual crosswalk the Beatles walked across is so ordinary you would miss it if you didn’t know what it was. But we walked across it, along with dozens of people from all over the world, while local traffic sighed or cursed at the never-ending obstruction.

When I took Dave and Matt to Heathrow to see them off, I felt desolate. It was hard to see them go. But he gets to travel more often. He’ll be coming in May for another visit. I’m looking forward to taking him to a good curry place.