Thanksgiving hospitality

On Thursday Carol organized a US style Thanksgiving Day in our Cambridge home for six friends.  By US style I mean the full works of turkey, mash potato, green beans and other vegetables with pumpkin pie to follow.  Procuring pumpkin pie proved difficult and this problem assumed increasing proportion as obvious avenues to purchasing it turned into dead-ends. Alas, the success of Thanksgiving seemed to become highly dependent on getting pumpkin pie one way or another.  Then Carol remembered the US serviceman who sometimes works at our local corner shop.  Calling him she asked if her was going to be on the air-force base and could go into the stores for a pie.  To her joy, he said he would try and a couple of days later announced his success.  There was delirium.  Thanksgiving would turn out OK after all!

Our friends arrived and the first course went swimmingly.  Carol announced we were having genuine pumpkin pie and our friends duly showed amazement.  None of them had tried it before.  Carol brought it in on a large platter.  However, as she cut the first slice, one observant guest noted that the pastry crust did not seem to be cooked, nor the very runny contents. Rushing to the bin and fishing out the discarded box with instructions it became clear (too late) that it needed to be cooked for 65 minutes.  There was instant mirth and it turned out to be the day's highpoint of jollity, and continued to echo as sub-theme for the next few hours.  Fortunately, Carol had some back-up desserts and the cooked pumpkin pie made the rounds with a cup of tea later in the afternoon.


The back-ups required ice-cream which I took out of the freezer and dispensed with aplomb.  However, while replacing it I failed to notice that it fouled the freezer drawer. I thought I had closed it firmly but 18 hours later, as ice cream dripped on the floor, I realized my mistake.  Some freezer contents had melted, others were past redemption in their soggy packages.
 
We shall remember Thanksgiving 2016 for some really good sharing as well as other things!  Hospitality is to be commended but just occasionally it has unforeseen consequences.

Postage Stamps

Yesterday I was preaching at Harston Baptist Church - a village church just south of Cambridge.  It was their 230th. Church Anniversary and the congregation of 70 plus really celebrated (with a great bring and share lunch afterwards).  Because I wanted to emphasize the theme of 'Jesus the King' in my sermon, I told a children's address about my six year old grandson Anton who won a BBC Blue Peter Competition to design a stamp for the Queen's Jubilee.  The prize was to gather with other winners for tea at Buckingham Palace with the Queen.  I think I blogged a post at the time - it was such great fun hearing him tell us of the secret doors in the palace, and how the Queen had come up to him and told him 'Your design is fabulous!' Of course, in retelling the story I emphasized the much more overwhelming experience of meeting King Jesus and living in his story over 230 years.

After the service an older couple came up to me.  He introduced himself as Ian Loe a former student at Spurgeon's College but said he really wanted to comment on my stamp story. 'I don't want to boast,' he said chuckling, 'but I also have been to the Queen because of stamps! I have designed over 550 stamps since the 1970's'.  His wife chimed in: 'He was awarded the MBE for his work!'  Apparently Ian is one of the world's foremost wildlife stamp designers with a particular focus on butterflies. A large volume was recently published of his work. What a delight it was to meet him in a small Baptist church!

Later, over lunch a lady told us that her son had a friend whose boy also entered that same competition. When they showed the winning designs on TV he saw his but a different name had been attached to it.  It required urgent correction to ensure the right designer met the Queen which they achieved in time! Had I been preaching successive weeks I think I could have made a series out of congregational stamp stories!  You just never know a congregation's stories.  That's one of the reasons why I plead for preachers to be good listeners and collaborators!

Hospitality

On Sunday the preacher's text was 1 Peter 4: 1-11.  He concluded by brief reference to the various outcomes of living for God.  They really do deserve attention (especially the qualifying comments):
          - Be clear minded and self-controlled so that you can pray
          - Love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sons.
          - Offer hospitality to one another without grumbling
          - Use whatever gift you have received to serve others........

Later that day, we discovered an email with an urgent plea for someone to host the local Baptist ministers' wives group meeting on the evening of November 14th.  This is a group Carol has only attended once before, but I noticed she was tapping away on her ipad. 'What are you doing?' I said. 'I'm saying that if no one else volunteers the group can come here.   It will be a squeeze but it would be giving hospitality!'  We chuckled as we remembered the sermon challenge and the rider - without grumbling.

And, because no one else has come forward....it is happening!  An immediate opportunity to offer hospitality.  And there had better be no grumbling!   As Carol said: 'You can go upstairs!'

Happy Day

Yesterday evening, as I went into the room for our mid-week church prayer meeting, the leader Andrew asked me: 'Well, have you done it?!'  I was surprised that he was so in tune with my latest crisis but he had read my last blog and knew the pressure of these last few days. The best part was that I was able to answer, without wishful thinking or fudging (which have characterized recent responses as to how I was getting on!), with a heartfelt  'Yes - I've sent the document off!'  It is heartfelt and I am so grateful to God for energy to keep going and the patience of dear Carol!

It was wonderful to hear someone pray about the manuscript later in the meeting giving thanks and asking that it might prove of value to God. That, of course, is the most important issue - that God might approve and bless all the effort over this last year of planning and writing. As a resource book for the New Kind of Preacher project in the US it will only be of use as God blesses its ongoing journey. A few new peer learning groups of pastors are starting this month.  For the first of two years, as they covenant to work with each other, they will work through the eight modules of my book using an accompanying workbook.  So much depends upon how helpful they find it! Their second year as a group is called a 'freedom year' when they will support each other in seeking to implement one major issue of a New Kind of Preacher!

I am glad to have met one prayer target but now a far bigger one looms ahead.  One of my tag lines has been: 'renewed preaching comes from renewed preachers.'   Renewal is God's gift and we must keep seeking it.