Life is like sitting on a chair, you don’t get to choose the chair but you can decide how to sit on it. The last day of mission training had more of a focus on helping us to thrive rather than just survive whilst overseas. Again there was input: a session on Animism and a... Continue Reading →
Mission training: shame and honour
“Mission is something we do with God, we can be the catalyst God uses” is my quote of the day from day 3 of mission training. However, the effectiveness of a catalyst in a reaction can depend on several factors and we want to create positive reactions and much of today revolved around how we... Continue Reading →
Mission: context is everything
How fast can you stuff a tiger? Each session of the short term volunteer training comes up fast on the last. From 8:30 am to 8pm at night, with little time between the sessions, in the last 24 hours we’ve considered questions ranging from “what is the gospel” – which got people really animated –... Continue Reading →
Speed Missioning
Mission is an extreme sport. And to help me get in shape I'm spending this week at the BMS World Mission training centre in Birmingham (UK) doing the course they run to prepare people for going overseas as short / mid term volunteers. It's a strange experience being a student, these days I spend lots... Continue Reading →
BUGB / BMS Baptist Assembly 2015
Back in the UK I attended the annual BUGB/BMS Baptist Assembly on Saturday. This year it was a one day event, which worked better than I thought it might. Obviously reducing the events length means that there are lots of things there isn’t space for, such as opportunities for other Baptist Organisations, plenary sessions with... Continue Reading →
Iquitos floods 2
I’ve been looking for the latest bits of news and while I can’t vouch for the accuracy I’ve learnt the following:Sourced from Elcomercio.pe 1. River levels look as if they may keep rising till mid May and then take months to recede.2. About 200,000 people are affected by flooding. Not all have been displaced, many... Continue Reading →
Iquitos flooding
It’s now four weeks since I was in Iquitos, during which time the flooding has got worse. The Red Cross now estimate that in the region 200, 000 people have been affected, 43,000 homes flooded; a number that is still rising as the water levels increase meaning that perhaps 1 in 3 people are flooded... Continue Reading →
An unusual Easter
My normal Easter routine has gone a bit awry this year. Spending two weeks in Iquitos, Peru and then returning for Holy Week has meant that most of the week I’ve been suffering jet lag. Nevertheless, the usual run of services has come to a great conclusion with an Easter Sunday baptism. Yet half the... Continue Reading →
Iquitos visit
Now back from my trip to Iquitos I've put some of my photo's onto a video. The pictures will be the basis of my sharing with the church here which makes the video fairly lenghty.The visit was different to last time; my previous visit was more of a fact finding visit whereas my return was... Continue Reading →