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Saturday, 06 September 2008 20:46 |
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Dear Friends, Back to PNG… It will be just under two years since we left PNG, and now we are planning to return to Mt Hagen in September! This time, as programme manager for MAF in PNG, leading the team of 30 expat missionary families and 120 national staff. We are looking forward to the challenge of the role and the privilege of serving the people of PNG. There are many different demands and pressures, and we ask you to pray that we are constantly mindful of our need for God’s strength and wisdom in all we do. There are many preparations to make before we leave in two months time – packing up and renting the house, especially now we seem to have so much more stuff! Introducing Matthew… I just got my birth certificate today, so I am officially here. I have been in Cairns for six weeks now, and everyone says I am growing well and look cute, but I am getting a little bored of the menu at this hotel – always the same milk! Mummy is a little exasperated because sometimes I am just not interested. I am looking forward to lots of new food and a new place to stay in PNG. Elizabeth writes… I like Koala Kids club where I wear pink high heeled shoes. I go to daycare two days a week and play with my friends in the sandpit. This term I started going to gymnastics with Daddy. We do forward rolls, balance beams, somersaults and bouncing on the big trampoline! When Grandma came to visit, we went to the zoo – I chased a cheetah! I like having Matthew and share my chair with him as we watch Playschool and Dora the Explorer together on Daddy’s computer. Last month I had my second birthday and I had a pink cake and my favourite present was a huge duplo train track. Last week, Mummy and Matthew and I all got baptised together! Rev Trev baptised us at the Good Shepherd Church that we go to in Cairns, and Grandma read a special prayer to dedicate Matthew to God and for all of us to follow Jesus. I was only five months old when I left PNG and I am a bit worried about missing all my friends here in Cairns, and all the fun things to do, so please pray I make lots of new friends in PNG. Prayer… At a recent service at church, the Bishop was visiting and quoted this old prayer in his sermon, which we found very moving as we knew we were returning to PNG: Christ, whose insistent call disturbs our settled lives, give us discernment to hear your word, grace to relinquish our tasks, and courage to follow empty handed wherever you may lead, so that the voice of your gospel may reach to the ends of the earth. God bless, Patrick & Alison |
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Friday, 30 May 2008 18:45 |
In August I will be setting off on my own mission to India with The Leprosy Mission. For two and a half weeks, we will be building a house to be used by Leprosy sufferers who have been exiled from their own homes and need a welcoming environment to recover in. On some days we’ll also be helping out in the nearby Leprosy Hospital, talking to the patients and praying with them. Hopefully we will be able to bring God’s word to those who do not have Him to guide them through their illness. We will be based in Faizabad; a city situated South-East of Delhi. TLM centre at Faizabad was founded in 1938 and in recent years as well as the hospital, a Vocational Training Centre has also been opened, training students in skills such as tailors, carpenters, motor mechanics, electricians and many others. The team is made up of 11 people – two of which are male and the rest girls! I will be the youngest on the team,
along with another girl the same age as me. Also on the team is Rebecca Manning, daughter of my school Principal David Manning, the lay reader of St Mary’s Parish in Ballybeen with our own Mervyn Jamison. On Tuesday 10th June, I will be holding a fundraiser in Spence’s Cinema with tombola. Tickets will be £10 each, and drinks and snacks will be included in the price. The film to be shown is ‘Music and Lyrics’ starring Hugh Grant and Drew Barrymore. (Complete coincidence that it’s a film about music…!) If you’re interested in coming just let me know in the next few weeks and if anyone has any suggestions as to other films they’d like to be shown or any questions about what I’ll be doing in India, feel free to chat to me anytime!
Rosie |
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What's the value of a single talent? |
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Thursday, 29 May 2008 08:47 |
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For forty years I worked at trying to understand the ancient world, and even now in my rustic retirement I tend to read the parables as stories set in the Mediterranean two thousand years ago rather than as theological documents. Sometimes this makes them clearer, but at other times it throws up new problems: this, I suspect, may be no bad thing. Jesus’ parables are not always straightforward (the disciples found them puzzling: Luke 8.9) and often seem to challenge conventional ways of thinking; for example the story of the unjust steward (or dishonest manager, as the modern versions put it) in Luke 16.1-13, which I’m not sure that anyone has explained away. |
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Thursday, 29 May 2008 08:46 |
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On the 5th February, Julie Currie, CMS Ireland Youth Worker, gave a presentation on the 2008 Project, “FOOTSTEPS” with her now familiar enthusiasm and passion. Julie writes… WELCOME to this years CMS Ireland Annual Project—Footsteps based in Kenya. Let me take this opportunity to thank you for taking the time to be part of this project and supporting the work of CMS Ireland. Footsteps is a brand new children’s resource, overflowing with activities to keep all your young people enthralled and engaged in Kenya. It’s aim is to inform, inspire and introduce world mission to young people through hands on activities and God’s word. Kenya is a vibrant and colourful country with an amazingly diverse population, represented by more than 70 different ethnic groups - a wonderful multi-coloured canvas of cultures, traditions, customs and varied environments. Schools in Kajiado Diocese in Southern Kenya. |
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