Saturday, July 17, 2010
The Flow of the Game – Wales Mission July 2010
Friday July 16th and Saturday July 17th
Featherball is flexible. People can step in or out as needed. While playing it, everyone's personal style is revealed. You work together for a common goal, but each person gets to have a moment in the spotlight. And you feel the flow of the game as you bond deeper and deeper as a team.
Friday night we split up into two groups. One group (comprised of Craig, Allen, Doug, Paula, Nikki, Sara, Jason, and Euros) went to a Welsh-Speaking Baptist Chapel at Llwynhendy (near Llanelli) where a group of 32 youths (and a dozen adults) awaited. Jason led the youths (mainly boys) in a spirited race where they had wear a hat and keep a beach ball between their legs galloping like a pony, passing off the balloon and the cowboy hat to the next contestant. There was lots of stumbling, falling, balls dropping, and in one case, sweat pants falling down. Then, of course, featherball. Our team gave the youths one of the featherballs as a present. After pizza, Welsh cakes, and Bara Brith, Allen and Craig answered the youths’ questions about Oklahoma, America, God, and the Bible. The best questions were “How do you feel about President Barak Obama?” “Who did you vote for in the last election?” “Are denominations a sin, since Christians are supposed to agree?” “Why is God so different in the Old Testament than He is in the New Testament?” “When was the Bible put together as a complete book?” and “What is the Unforgivable Sin?” Still, the questions were not as tough as Craig fielded the night before from an eight year old girl. The evening was capped off by all the Americans (including Euros) giving their testimonies. The last and most powerful was from Doug who explained his previous life of sin and how if God can save Doug he can save anyone. There were tears in some of the adult ladies’ eyes.
The other group (comprised of Derek, Ruth, Jennifer, Lauren, Chloe, Lyn, Kelly, and Karri) went to Bethania Church in Llanelli where the previous week the team painted the Vestry. They hosted a children’s program and a youth program (giving the youths a featherball as well!). Jennifer spoke to the youths about how everyone longs to connect with other people and how not doing so can lead to isolation and depression (and how she has had struggles with this in her life in the past). Every eye was riveted upon her as she talked of how becoming a Christian means being connected to the True Vine – Jesus.
Saturday morning the administrative team (Doug, Paula, Nikki, and Sara) – who have been so amazing and essential the whole week keeping the rest of us organized and on track – went out shopping for food for the afternoon American Barbecue at Capel Gomer. Everyone met at Capel Gomer by noonish and set about their tasks. Paula, Nikki, and Sara, among others, worked preparing food in the kitchen. Doug took command of preparing the barbecue grill and with Jason’s help (and Paula’s good ideas) they got everything in battle trim. Allen obsessed over finishing the screens for the worship area, so many people (including Chloe, Lyn, Lauren, Karri, Jason, and Euros) leapt in to help him make is vision a practical reality. The screens were completed and placed in the worship center. They looked so classy, Allen said that they seemed downright Episcopalian. Meanwhile Craig and Allen brought food to Jennifer who was under the weather with a flu, while Derek and Deedee went to Joe’s to get everyone strawberry ice cream sundaes. Oh, Joes!
The barbecue was an amazing success, with perhaps 40 people coming and going throughout the afternoon. We all sang “Happy Birthday” to Doug, once in English and once in Welsh. Five unchurched people who happen to live in the neighborhood dropped by and some said they would come to worship the next day. Bryan (Ruth’s boyfriend) down from Scotland, got to counsel at least two of the men on drug dependency and got to pray for one of them, a man from Dublin. Steve, the taxi driver who came to the pub, did not make an appearance with his family, but he did put in a cameo, by waving to us as he drove by in his taxi. Jason and Lauren played cricket down the street with a sweet Muslim family who drove by at the end of the evening, asked for Lauren to come out of the church, and traded e-mail addresses with her. Wow!
After most people had left, Derek, Craig, Allen, Euros, Ruth, Bryan, Iestyn and others played featherball for a long time in the worship center. The harmony and good fellowship of the game seemed to reflect what this team has achieved this week. We didn’t know each other on Monday. Now we feel that we have always known each other. Our fatigue, lack of sleep, and overwork has somehow caused us to laugh harder, love each other more, tease each other more loudly, and respect each other more deeply.
Has it really all come to an end? Tomorrow we go to separate worship services in the morning (Ruth preaching at Waurnarlloyd and Derek preaching at Maes Canner) then to Capel Gomer in the afternoon. Then we get on the bus, saying goodbye to our Welsh friends for a brief tour of Cardiff, then on to the Bristol Holiday Inn.
Has this been the most successful Welsh mission ever? It has certainly been the most fruitful in terms of sheer evangelism to so many people. But each previous mission has been a necessary building block so that this most recent capstone can rise so high. If this team can see the harvest field more clearly it is because they stand on the shoulders of the giants who have come before them.
But what a view!
Featherball is flexible. People can step in or out as needed. While playing it, everyone's personal style is revealed. You work together for a common goal, but each person gets to have a moment in the spotlight. And you feel the flow of the game as you bond deeper and deeper as a team.
Friday night we split up into two groups. One group (comprised of Craig, Allen, Doug, Paula, Nikki, Sara, Jason, and Euros) went to a Welsh-Speaking Baptist Chapel at Llwynhendy (near Llanelli) where a group of 32 youths (and a dozen adults) awaited. Jason led the youths (mainly boys) in a spirited race where they had wear a hat and keep a beach ball between their legs galloping like a pony, passing off the balloon and the cowboy hat to the next contestant. There was lots of stumbling, falling, balls dropping, and in one case, sweat pants falling down. Then, of course, featherball. Our team gave the youths one of the featherballs as a present. After pizza, Welsh cakes, and Bara Brith, Allen and Craig answered the youths’ questions about Oklahoma, America, God, and the Bible. The best questions were “How do you feel about President Barak Obama?” “Who did you vote for in the last election?” “Are denominations a sin, since Christians are supposed to agree?” “Why is God so different in the Old Testament than He is in the New Testament?” “When was the Bible put together as a complete book?” and “What is the Unforgivable Sin?” Still, the questions were not as tough as Craig fielded the night before from an eight year old girl. The evening was capped off by all the Americans (including Euros) giving their testimonies. The last and most powerful was from Doug who explained his previous life of sin and how if God can save Doug he can save anyone. There were tears in some of the adult ladies’ eyes.
The other group (comprised of Derek, Ruth, Jennifer, Lauren, Chloe, Lyn, Kelly, and Karri) went to Bethania Church in Llanelli where the previous week the team painted the Vestry. They hosted a children’s program and a youth program (giving the youths a featherball as well!). Jennifer spoke to the youths about how everyone longs to connect with other people and how not doing so can lead to isolation and depression (and how she has had struggles with this in her life in the past). Every eye was riveted upon her as she talked of how becoming a Christian means being connected to the True Vine – Jesus.
Saturday morning the administrative team (Doug, Paula, Nikki, and Sara) – who have been so amazing and essential the whole week keeping the rest of us organized and on track – went out shopping for food for the afternoon American Barbecue at Capel Gomer. Everyone met at Capel Gomer by noonish and set about their tasks. Paula, Nikki, and Sara, among others, worked preparing food in the kitchen. Doug took command of preparing the barbecue grill and with Jason’s help (and Paula’s good ideas) they got everything in battle trim. Allen obsessed over finishing the screens for the worship area, so many people (including Chloe, Lyn, Lauren, Karri, Jason, and Euros) leapt in to help him make is vision a practical reality. The screens were completed and placed in the worship center. They looked so classy, Allen said that they seemed downright Episcopalian. Meanwhile Craig and Allen brought food to Jennifer who was under the weather with a flu, while Derek and Deedee went to Joe’s to get everyone strawberry ice cream sundaes. Oh, Joes!
The barbecue was an amazing success, with perhaps 40 people coming and going throughout the afternoon. We all sang “Happy Birthday” to Doug, once in English and once in Welsh. Five unchurched people who happen to live in the neighborhood dropped by and some said they would come to worship the next day. Bryan (Ruth’s boyfriend) down from Scotland, got to counsel at least two of the men on drug dependency and got to pray for one of them, a man from Dublin. Steve, the taxi driver who came to the pub, did not make an appearance with his family, but he did put in a cameo, by waving to us as he drove by in his taxi. Jason and Lauren played cricket down the street with a sweet Muslim family who drove by at the end of the evening, asked for Lauren to come out of the church, and traded e-mail addresses with her. Wow!
After most people had left, Derek, Craig, Allen, Euros, Ruth, Bryan, Iestyn and others played featherball for a long time in the worship center. The harmony and good fellowship of the game seemed to reflect what this team has achieved this week. We didn’t know each other on Monday. Now we feel that we have always known each other. Our fatigue, lack of sleep, and overwork has somehow caused us to laugh harder, love each other more, tease each other more loudly, and respect each other more deeply.
Has it really all come to an end? Tomorrow we go to separate worship services in the morning (Ruth preaching at Waurnarlloyd and Derek preaching at Maes Canner) then to Capel Gomer in the afternoon. Then we get on the bus, saying goodbye to our Welsh friends for a brief tour of Cardiff, then on to the Bristol Holiday Inn.
Has this been the most successful Welsh mission ever? It has certainly been the most fruitful in terms of sheer evangelism to so many people. But each previous mission has been a necessary building block so that this most recent capstone can rise so high. If this team can see the harvest field more clearly it is because they stand on the shoulders of the giants who have come before them.
But what a view!
Thursday, July 15, 2010
Saturating the Soil – Wales Mission July 2010
Tuesday July 13th, Wednesday July 14th, and Thursday July 15th
When you come to Western Europe people’s hearts are so often hardened to the Gospel, that you hope to have one spiritual conversion per person per week. If you get to mention how good it is to seek out Jesus as the answer to the troubles in life or to explain the plan of Salvation, then that is pretty unusual. In the last two days here in the Swansea suburb-village of Warnaurloydd, our team has gotten to talk to many people about Jesus. How many people? By a conservative estimate, in the last three days we have shared the Gospel to at least 300 people. And probably more.
It started Tuesday and Wednesday afternoon and evening, when we hosted a Children’s Program and a Youth Program each night. Tuesday, our team had only 40 minutes to prepare for the Children’s program. The Crafts group, led by Lyn and Chloe, put together art projects which focused upon Zaccheus, the wee little man, including little art trees for the children to decorate. Without having time to consult the Crafts Group, the Story/Song group also put together a focal point – which just happened to be Zaccheus! Who needs actual human coordination when we have the Holy Spirit to cover a multitude of incoherence?
The two programs with the Children featured songs, a story, crafts, games, and snacks. The songs were amazing. Karri positively gleamed with the Holy Spirit and with the spiritual gift of teaching (are “acting” and “delighting children” considered spiritual gifts?) every time she led a song. Nikki pretended to be too sophisticated and jaded to really relate to children, but Program Commander Craig saw right through that façade and assigned her to serve Children. She also gleamed in leading a children’s song or two of her own, and in connecting with a little red-headed girl with whom she had a long talk about Jesus and Biblical prophecy. Lyn and Chloe somehow make visual, tactile, art projects out of no time or resources at all (except the ones Deedee bought, with great foresight, last week) -- things the children will see and connect with reminding them of Jesus for many days to come in their own homes. Derek and Davida (the head Deacon of Seion Chapel) expected for about 5-6 children to show up. The first night a stunning 14 showed up! The second night, the total was 21, many of whom were first-timers! It seemed to be the social event of the season for the local Welsh children.
The two programs with the Youth featured crazy, loud, and chaotic good times – and a short, proper sermon from Derek on Wednesday evening. Jason and Jennifer worked together leading these programs, with Jason often doing a majority of the planning and Jennifer often serving as the megaphone to actually martial the unruly teenagers. The organizing principle of the youth seemed to be the “featherball.” Allen had bought eight of these gadgets for this mission and had Craig bring them over the sea. The rules are simple – a group standing in a circle must work together to keep the ball in the air, counting the number of times they hit is as a group. It is not as easy to do as it seems, so the game is addictive, fun, and conducive to uniting random people into a team. It is not competitive, so everyone comes away a winner. It is flexible, so that people can step in or out of the game as needed, and it is conducive to conversation. When you finish playing for a few minutes, you feel like you have been introduced to each personality standing around the circle. Once the disparate teens formed into specific groups by the process of feather ball, then they often eventually did other things, sometimes including more feather ball. Jennifer led a large group of girls (and one boy) in playing “Mafia.”
Allen and Jason hit the streets recruiting older teenage boys who had never darkened the door of a church to come have pizza. Eventually they got a small group to come – they worked very hard to stay outside the church building, standing in the alley in the drizzling rain kicking a beach ball with Allen, Jason, and Doug. They only went inside for brief pizza or soda runs. Doug was particularly instrumental in keeping the boys from fleeing at the first (when the pizza was an hour and a half late – after being called in an hour early!) by talking to them of American sports and showing them pics on his Iphone. But then the boys phoned friends to come join them (“of all places at a church!” one was heard to say). One of the boys (Alexander) brought his mum to the pub on Thursday and they both stated that they had never seen anyone ever be so caring and generous to the youth of Swansea, for no particular reason other than to love them and maybe to tell them a little about Jesus. She said that our visit had made a powerful impression upon Alexander. Alexander and Allen traded e-mail addresses – they both hope Alexander (and maybe his mum, Sarah) can visit Oklahoma and stay with the Rices. Derek had expected perhaps 5-6 youths might show up the first night. Twenty One showed up the first night! None of the older teenage boys (perhaps eight in all) could come the second night because it was Prom Night. So the second night other teenagers came – about 20in all!
Wednesday morning seemed especially sweet. The whole team (except for Jennifer who crashed at the hotel – sleeping for 12 hours in a row) went to a little Welsh school behind Seion Chapel and performed at the school assembly. About 220 children showed up (not counting 20 or so in the nursery) to hear Allen narrate the tall tale about Pecos Bill, relating it to Jesus calming the storm in the Gospels. Jason played out the role of Pecos Bill, pratfalling, lassoing Allen’s arm with a lasso, and to the delight of the children, riding a cardboard tornado like a bucking broncho. Then Karri led the children in a delightful and somehow comical version of “My God is so Big!” complete with hand motions and silly voices. It all sounds ludicrous (which it was), but it was a howling success. The children returned the favor by giving us a harp concert beforehand, by singing “My God is so Big” back to us in Welsh, and by reciting the Lord’s Prayer in Welsh. This event was especially meaningful to Allen who was at a children’s school assembly in Glastonbury when he got the call to come back to Britain as a missionary. That he got to speak to the children at a British school seemed to complete the circle he had been working to draw for two years. After the assembly, the Headmistress was so gracious to us that she gave us a tour of every classroom in the school, so that we got to say hello to every child. Then she gave us all tea and biscuits. Even better, she told us that she would love to have us do school assemblies in the future – a great ministry opportunity for Derek and Ruth starting in September.
Thursday Night, Craig split the team into two groups – one group going to the Mason Arms Pub (one-half block from Seion Chapel in Warnaurloydd) for an “American Night” and one group going to Pontiliw to Derek’s mentor’s (Vince’s) church where our team last week had painted the wrought iron fence. The group at the pub danced American line dances (led by Lauren, as usual, exploding in all her Mary Poppins glory) and street dances. The street dances were led by two Swansea youths – a brother and a sister who were the children of Steve, our team’s taxi driver on two occasions. Allen had gotten to share the gospel with Steve and invited him to the barbecue – no one expected him to show up and bring his whole family, including his wife, two daughters and son. Ruth acted as Supreme Hostess, Allen mingled among all the groups, Euros helped out with the dancing and Jason escorted people through the rain to the grill in the back and played on the monkey bars with the youths. Nikki hosted the Welsh/Okie quiz which was a great success, while Chloe, Lyn, Kelly, and Sara hosted the senior ladies from Seion Chapel at a table of their own (on Wednesday, our whole team had hosted these ladies at a tea party in Seion Chapel). All in all, perhaps sixty people crowded into the small room at the back of the pub in a come and go free-for-all that was one of the most spirited and communal social occasions one can imagine.
The group at Pontiliw (Craig, Derek, Karri, Paula, Doug, and Jennifer) had a “Family Night” that turned into a theological question and answer mainly addressed by Craig. A precocious eight year old girl had a list of twenty questions which Craig (and at times others, such as Paula) heroically answered in a way that was both true and intelligible to an eight year old. One example of her questions was “What is the Holy Spirit and what does He look like?” This was a wonderful opportunity for Craig to explain the nature of the Trinity and the purpose of Christ for the salvation of all Christians. Craig took the sheet from the little girl and promised to hang it on his office wall. He plans to e-mail some answers they did not get to cover and to take a picture of the paper on the wall to show her what an impression her questions have made upon him. That girl will get a Ph.D. someday.
Thursday night we all met at Capel Gomer, ate pizza, sang Abba songs, danced disco, and laughed uproariously. It is amazing how this group of 18 or so (counting the Welsh) have bonded so quickly. How can there be so many inside jokes when we have only known each other since Monday? How can we be having this much fun and still call it a Mission?
And yet sharing the Gospel with 300 people in three days isn’t bad for fertile ground like Mexico or Nicaragua, let alone Western Europe. Whoever said sowing couldn’t be fun?
When you come to Western Europe people’s hearts are so often hardened to the Gospel, that you hope to have one spiritual conversion per person per week. If you get to mention how good it is to seek out Jesus as the answer to the troubles in life or to explain the plan of Salvation, then that is pretty unusual. In the last two days here in the Swansea suburb-village of Warnaurloydd, our team has gotten to talk to many people about Jesus. How many people? By a conservative estimate, in the last three days we have shared the Gospel to at least 300 people. And probably more.
It started Tuesday and Wednesday afternoon and evening, when we hosted a Children’s Program and a Youth Program each night. Tuesday, our team had only 40 minutes to prepare for the Children’s program. The Crafts group, led by Lyn and Chloe, put together art projects which focused upon Zaccheus, the wee little man, including little art trees for the children to decorate. Without having time to consult the Crafts Group, the Story/Song group also put together a focal point – which just happened to be Zaccheus! Who needs actual human coordination when we have the Holy Spirit to cover a multitude of incoherence?
The two programs with the Children featured songs, a story, crafts, games, and snacks. The songs were amazing. Karri positively gleamed with the Holy Spirit and with the spiritual gift of teaching (are “acting” and “delighting children” considered spiritual gifts?) every time she led a song. Nikki pretended to be too sophisticated and jaded to really relate to children, but Program Commander Craig saw right through that façade and assigned her to serve Children. She also gleamed in leading a children’s song or two of her own, and in connecting with a little red-headed girl with whom she had a long talk about Jesus and Biblical prophecy. Lyn and Chloe somehow make visual, tactile, art projects out of no time or resources at all (except the ones Deedee bought, with great foresight, last week) -- things the children will see and connect with reminding them of Jesus for many days to come in their own homes. Derek and Davida (the head Deacon of Seion Chapel) expected for about 5-6 children to show up. The first night a stunning 14 showed up! The second night, the total was 21, many of whom were first-timers! It seemed to be the social event of the season for the local Welsh children.
The two programs with the Youth featured crazy, loud, and chaotic good times – and a short, proper sermon from Derek on Wednesday evening. Jason and Jennifer worked together leading these programs, with Jason often doing a majority of the planning and Jennifer often serving as the megaphone to actually martial the unruly teenagers. The organizing principle of the youth seemed to be the “featherball.” Allen had bought eight of these gadgets for this mission and had Craig bring them over the sea. The rules are simple – a group standing in a circle must work together to keep the ball in the air, counting the number of times they hit is as a group. It is not as easy to do as it seems, so the game is addictive, fun, and conducive to uniting random people into a team. It is not competitive, so everyone comes away a winner. It is flexible, so that people can step in or out of the game as needed, and it is conducive to conversation. When you finish playing for a few minutes, you feel like you have been introduced to each personality standing around the circle. Once the disparate teens formed into specific groups by the process of feather ball, then they often eventually did other things, sometimes including more feather ball. Jennifer led a large group of girls (and one boy) in playing “Mafia.”
Allen and Jason hit the streets recruiting older teenage boys who had never darkened the door of a church to come have pizza. Eventually they got a small group to come – they worked very hard to stay outside the church building, standing in the alley in the drizzling rain kicking a beach ball with Allen, Jason, and Doug. They only went inside for brief pizza or soda runs. Doug was particularly instrumental in keeping the boys from fleeing at the first (when the pizza was an hour and a half late – after being called in an hour early!) by talking to them of American sports and showing them pics on his Iphone. But then the boys phoned friends to come join them (“of all places at a church!” one was heard to say). One of the boys (Alexander) brought his mum to the pub on Thursday and they both stated that they had never seen anyone ever be so caring and generous to the youth of Swansea, for no particular reason other than to love them and maybe to tell them a little about Jesus. She said that our visit had made a powerful impression upon Alexander. Alexander and Allen traded e-mail addresses – they both hope Alexander (and maybe his mum, Sarah) can visit Oklahoma and stay with the Rices. Derek had expected perhaps 5-6 youths might show up the first night. Twenty One showed up the first night! None of the older teenage boys (perhaps eight in all) could come the second night because it was Prom Night. So the second night other teenagers came – about 20in all!
Wednesday morning seemed especially sweet. The whole team (except for Jennifer who crashed at the hotel – sleeping for 12 hours in a row) went to a little Welsh school behind Seion Chapel and performed at the school assembly. About 220 children showed up (not counting 20 or so in the nursery) to hear Allen narrate the tall tale about Pecos Bill, relating it to Jesus calming the storm in the Gospels. Jason played out the role of Pecos Bill, pratfalling, lassoing Allen’s arm with a lasso, and to the delight of the children, riding a cardboard tornado like a bucking broncho. Then Karri led the children in a delightful and somehow comical version of “My God is so Big!” complete with hand motions and silly voices. It all sounds ludicrous (which it was), but it was a howling success. The children returned the favor by giving us a harp concert beforehand, by singing “My God is so Big” back to us in Welsh, and by reciting the Lord’s Prayer in Welsh. This event was especially meaningful to Allen who was at a children’s school assembly in Glastonbury when he got the call to come back to Britain as a missionary. That he got to speak to the children at a British school seemed to complete the circle he had been working to draw for two years. After the assembly, the Headmistress was so gracious to us that she gave us a tour of every classroom in the school, so that we got to say hello to every child. Then she gave us all tea and biscuits. Even better, she told us that she would love to have us do school assemblies in the future – a great ministry opportunity for Derek and Ruth starting in September.
Thursday Night, Craig split the team into two groups – one group going to the Mason Arms Pub (one-half block from Seion Chapel in Warnaurloydd) for an “American Night” and one group going to Pontiliw to Derek’s mentor’s (Vince’s) church where our team last week had painted the wrought iron fence. The group at the pub danced American line dances (led by Lauren, as usual, exploding in all her Mary Poppins glory) and street dances. The street dances were led by two Swansea youths – a brother and a sister who were the children of Steve, our team’s taxi driver on two occasions. Allen had gotten to share the gospel with Steve and invited him to the barbecue – no one expected him to show up and bring his whole family, including his wife, two daughters and son. Ruth acted as Supreme Hostess, Allen mingled among all the groups, Euros helped out with the dancing and Jason escorted people through the rain to the grill in the back and played on the monkey bars with the youths. Nikki hosted the Welsh/Okie quiz which was a great success, while Chloe, Lyn, Kelly, and Sara hosted the senior ladies from Seion Chapel at a table of their own (on Wednesday, our whole team had hosted these ladies at a tea party in Seion Chapel). All in all, perhaps sixty people crowded into the small room at the back of the pub in a come and go free-for-all that was one of the most spirited and communal social occasions one can imagine.
The group at Pontiliw (Craig, Derek, Karri, Paula, Doug, and Jennifer) had a “Family Night” that turned into a theological question and answer mainly addressed by Craig. A precocious eight year old girl had a list of twenty questions which Craig (and at times others, such as Paula) heroically answered in a way that was both true and intelligible to an eight year old. One example of her questions was “What is the Holy Spirit and what does He look like?” This was a wonderful opportunity for Craig to explain the nature of the Trinity and the purpose of Christ for the salvation of all Christians. Craig took the sheet from the little girl and promised to hang it on his office wall. He plans to e-mail some answers they did not get to cover and to take a picture of the paper on the wall to show her what an impression her questions have made upon him. That girl will get a Ph.D. someday.
Thursday night we all met at Capel Gomer, ate pizza, sang Abba songs, danced disco, and laughed uproariously. It is amazing how this group of 18 or so (counting the Welsh) have bonded so quickly. How can there be so many inside jokes when we have only known each other since Monday? How can we be having this much fun and still call it a Mission?
And yet sharing the Gospel with 300 people in three days isn’t bad for fertile ground like Mexico or Nicaragua, let alone Western Europe. Whoever said sowing couldn’t be fun?
Monday, July 12, 2010
Baptized in Welsh Culture – Wales Mission July 2010
Monday, July 12, 2010
Whiplash. That is what it felt like to escort the First Group to where as they were getting in line to check their bags at the Bristol Airport and then to walk 100 yards to where teh Second Group was just getting off their plane. Sad hugs goodbye and warm hugs hello. The First Group saw through the windows that the Second Group had made it safely through immigration and had gotten their baggage.
The Second Group was comprised of Allen Rice and Jennifer Nath as holdovers from the First Group and new members Craig McClain, Jason Coker, Doug and Paula Mikes, Lyn Holmes, Chloe Baulch, Nikki Clark, Sara Gibson, Karri Doughty, Kelly Cheek, and Lauren West. They all had a thoroughly Welsh Day touring Tintern Abbey and Caerphilly Castle, eating a hearty Welsh breakfast at “The Anchor” across from the abbey (which again opened just for us), then Welsh Rarebit, Lamb Cawl, and Welsh Cakes at “Glamor” across from the castle. In the evening, we indulged in traditional Welsh pub food at the local Wetherspoon’s where we ate what we wanted (fish and chips, burgers, etc.) but we all snarfed about half each of a Sticky Toffee Pudding drenched in Custard. Welsh indeed!
Most of this team has never been on a mission, never been abroad (at least to Britain), or both. It is fun to watch them experience their first castle or their first Welsh Rarebit (they generally liked both!) with their eyes wide and their hearts open.
After stopping in Cardiff to see Deedee and Deah Rice (and to get some clean laundry for Allen and some “Go Phones” for the team), we went to the Dragon Hotel in Swansea where we showered and rested for an hour. Then at 7:00 p.m., we met in the hotel lobby, which we made our living room. We had a team meeting, expressing some of our hopes and expectations for this mission. The we went to the pub where we “happened to meet Derek, Ruth, and Aled (in other words, Nikki covertly called them). There was a great deal of introductions, laughter, and high spirits, despite the fatigue of the Americans. The party broke up at 9:30 p.m. and everyone stumbled off to an early bed.
Tomorrow morning we are to meet at Capel Gomer at 9:00 for Prayer and Bible Study, then we are to figure out what we are doing. It would be nice to know – since we have our first children’s program at 4:00 p.m.!
Whiplash. That is what it felt like to escort the First Group to where as they were getting in line to check their bags at the Bristol Airport and then to walk 100 yards to where teh Second Group was just getting off their plane. Sad hugs goodbye and warm hugs hello. The First Group saw through the windows that the Second Group had made it safely through immigration and had gotten their baggage.
The Second Group was comprised of Allen Rice and Jennifer Nath as holdovers from the First Group and new members Craig McClain, Jason Coker, Doug and Paula Mikes, Lyn Holmes, Chloe Baulch, Nikki Clark, Sara Gibson, Karri Doughty, Kelly Cheek, and Lauren West. They all had a thoroughly Welsh Day touring Tintern Abbey and Caerphilly Castle, eating a hearty Welsh breakfast at “The Anchor” across from the abbey (which again opened just for us), then Welsh Rarebit, Lamb Cawl, and Welsh Cakes at “Glamor” across from the castle. In the evening, we indulged in traditional Welsh pub food at the local Wetherspoon’s where we ate what we wanted (fish and chips, burgers, etc.) but we all snarfed about half each of a Sticky Toffee Pudding drenched in Custard. Welsh indeed!
Most of this team has never been on a mission, never been abroad (at least to Britain), or both. It is fun to watch them experience their first castle or their first Welsh Rarebit (they generally liked both!) with their eyes wide and their hearts open.
After stopping in Cardiff to see Deedee and Deah Rice (and to get some clean laundry for Allen and some “Go Phones” for the team), we went to the Dragon Hotel in Swansea where we showered and rested for an hour. Then at 7:00 p.m., we met in the hotel lobby, which we made our living room. We had a team meeting, expressing some of our hopes and expectations for this mission. The we went to the pub where we “happened to meet Derek, Ruth, and Aled (in other words, Nikki covertly called them). There was a great deal of introductions, laughter, and high spirits, despite the fatigue of the Americans. The party broke up at 9:30 p.m. and everyone stumbled off to an early bed.
Tomorrow morning we are to meet at Capel Gomer at 9:00 for Prayer and Bible Study, then we are to figure out what we are doing. It would be nice to know – since we have our first children’s program at 4:00 p.m.!
Happy Musings – Wales Mission July 2010
Sunday, July 11, 2010
The last day of church camp is always filled with such high emotion. You have lived a week of 24 hour days with people you didn’t know well before, but now you can’t imagine living without for a single day for the rest of your life. You don’t want it to end. You relive the funny, precious moments in conversations with each other and every second was priceless. On this mission that experience is magnified by the immense respect we all have for everyone because of the way God has skilled and gifted them in the ministries they have practiced here.
At breakfast this morning Allen mentioned to the little group of four he was sitting with that he could name any American or Welsh person who served with us this week, and the response would be for everyone to think of that person, their character, their sacrifice or service, and their personality and then for everyone to gently reply “Ahhh” in misty-eyed adoration. Then Allen actually trotted out a few names. After each name, the four at the table gazed into their memories with sweet smiles on their faces and whispered “Ahhh!”
Saturday was a day for finishing things up. One group (Tom, Deedee, Shannon, and Ruth) went to Capel Seion. Tom did some electrical work, while Deedee and Shannon painted the Vestry bathroom, suffocating the whole time in mold, paint fumes, and carpet glue which the carpet layers sprayed in front of the bathroom door, trapping the hapless women inside. The women wisely used the exterior paint on the bathroom walls, thus sealing the remnant of mold away from people trying to breathe air as they use the toilet.
The other group (Lonnie, Danny, Euros, Donna, Allen, and Jennifer, and Aled) spent our only day devoted to working at Capel Gomer. Danny, Lonnie, and Euros patched the roof trying to stop a leak in the upper room’s skylight. Donna, Allen, Jennifer, and Aled spent the day buying supplies to build four screens two meters tall and two meters wide draped with light grayish-black polyester fabric. By the end of the day, the structures had been completed, but the curtains had not been completed. Something for next week’s group to accomplish.
Saturday night we got Chinese takeout and met in the upper room of Capel Gomer at the dinner table. We talked animatedly and laughed uproarously, especially at the revelation that Lonnie had taken a paint rag with tar on it that he had used on the roof and thrown it in a grimy mop bucket – which happened to have Euros’s jeans and shirt soaking in it! Lonnie laughed so hard that his face turned the plum color of the wall behind him. Allen suggested Danny was a chameleon. It was a wonderful time, capping off a week of teasing the goofy, overcaffeinated monkey of a man -- the delightful Euros.—especially by Danny, Tom, and Donna.
Sunday morning, we all went our various ways until 2:30 p.m. when we met at Capel Gomer. In the morning, Lonnie and Derek went to Capel Seion and enjoyed the exuberant reactions of the congregation there to their newly remodeled church. Lonnie especially enjoyed the responses of the children and youth – who we intended to be primary beneficiaries of our efforts. Tom and Donna went to the Swansea Museum where they saw a mummy. Allen, Deedee, and Jennifer accompanied Shannon to the Mumbles where she finally got to do a bit of light shopping for the first time this trip.
At Capel Gomer, the team met with the Welsh congregation, perhaps a dozen strong. We heard a delightful and encouraging sermon by our old friend Mark, the Life Secretary of the Welsh Baptist Union. It was on the topic of how fatigue, failure, and fear can lead to discouragement, but meeting with Jesus in our daily lives can revivify us again! Derek led us in a Communion ceremony which was a symbol of the unity we all felt with God and with each other. But perhaps the sweetest moments were those singing hymns. Each hymn has a bilingual translation so that the Americans sang in English and the Welsh sang in Welsh at the same time. It was so beautiful that some of us teared up a bit.
By 4:00 p.m. the service was over and we all took photos, said goodbye, and struggled to tear ourselves away from our Welsh guests. We went back to the Dragon Hotel, boarded the bus, and waved goodbye to Derek at the curbside. Later on the highway, we saw him pass us – he apparently was going to Cardiff to celebrate his mum’s birthday.
We picked up Allen and Deedee’s daughter, Deah Rice, and two of her housemates (Jess and Nicola -- all three live in Cardiff) and toured Cardiff Bay, eating at “Salt” restaurant while the final game of the World Cup (Spain VS Netherlands) blared over the speakers. We tried to get caramel apple pie with custard at “the Cottage,” but they no longer carry that menu item, (much the chagrin of about eight Americans I know). We dropped Euros, Deedee, Deah, Jess, and Nicola off at various points in Cardiff and drove to Bristol and the Holiday Inn Airport hotel at about 11:00 p.m.
Long day. Long Week. Great team. Another team arrives tomorrow, but they will be great in a different way. It is a melancholy feeling parting company with such good friends. Church camp is over. But the memories will remain forever. To say nothing of what God has accomplished among us.
What in the world would have happened if this team had not come to prepare the way for the next team? I thank God that was not part of His Plan.
The last day of church camp is always filled with such high emotion. You have lived a week of 24 hour days with people you didn’t know well before, but now you can’t imagine living without for a single day for the rest of your life. You don’t want it to end. You relive the funny, precious moments in conversations with each other and every second was priceless. On this mission that experience is magnified by the immense respect we all have for everyone because of the way God has skilled and gifted them in the ministries they have practiced here.
At breakfast this morning Allen mentioned to the little group of four he was sitting with that he could name any American or Welsh person who served with us this week, and the response would be for everyone to think of that person, their character, their sacrifice or service, and their personality and then for everyone to gently reply “Ahhh” in misty-eyed adoration. Then Allen actually trotted out a few names. After each name, the four at the table gazed into their memories with sweet smiles on their faces and whispered “Ahhh!”
Saturday was a day for finishing things up. One group (Tom, Deedee, Shannon, and Ruth) went to Capel Seion. Tom did some electrical work, while Deedee and Shannon painted the Vestry bathroom, suffocating the whole time in mold, paint fumes, and carpet glue which the carpet layers sprayed in front of the bathroom door, trapping the hapless women inside. The women wisely used the exterior paint on the bathroom walls, thus sealing the remnant of mold away from people trying to breathe air as they use the toilet.
The other group (Lonnie, Danny, Euros, Donna, Allen, and Jennifer, and Aled) spent our only day devoted to working at Capel Gomer. Danny, Lonnie, and Euros patched the roof trying to stop a leak in the upper room’s skylight. Donna, Allen, Jennifer, and Aled spent the day buying supplies to build four screens two meters tall and two meters wide draped with light grayish-black polyester fabric. By the end of the day, the structures had been completed, but the curtains had not been completed. Something for next week’s group to accomplish.
Saturday night we got Chinese takeout and met in the upper room of Capel Gomer at the dinner table. We talked animatedly and laughed uproarously, especially at the revelation that Lonnie had taken a paint rag with tar on it that he had used on the roof and thrown it in a grimy mop bucket – which happened to have Euros’s jeans and shirt soaking in it! Lonnie laughed so hard that his face turned the plum color of the wall behind him. Allen suggested Danny was a chameleon. It was a wonderful time, capping off a week of teasing the goofy, overcaffeinated monkey of a man -- the delightful Euros.—especially by Danny, Tom, and Donna.
Sunday morning, we all went our various ways until 2:30 p.m. when we met at Capel Gomer. In the morning, Lonnie and Derek went to Capel Seion and enjoyed the exuberant reactions of the congregation there to their newly remodeled church. Lonnie especially enjoyed the responses of the children and youth – who we intended to be primary beneficiaries of our efforts. Tom and Donna went to the Swansea Museum where they saw a mummy. Allen, Deedee, and Jennifer accompanied Shannon to the Mumbles where she finally got to do a bit of light shopping for the first time this trip.
At Capel Gomer, the team met with the Welsh congregation, perhaps a dozen strong. We heard a delightful and encouraging sermon by our old friend Mark, the Life Secretary of the Welsh Baptist Union. It was on the topic of how fatigue, failure, and fear can lead to discouragement, but meeting with Jesus in our daily lives can revivify us again! Derek led us in a Communion ceremony which was a symbol of the unity we all felt with God and with each other. But perhaps the sweetest moments were those singing hymns. Each hymn has a bilingual translation so that the Americans sang in English and the Welsh sang in Welsh at the same time. It was so beautiful that some of us teared up a bit.
By 4:00 p.m. the service was over and we all took photos, said goodbye, and struggled to tear ourselves away from our Welsh guests. We went back to the Dragon Hotel, boarded the bus, and waved goodbye to Derek at the curbside. Later on the highway, we saw him pass us – he apparently was going to Cardiff to celebrate his mum’s birthday.
We picked up Allen and Deedee’s daughter, Deah Rice, and two of her housemates (Jess and Nicola -- all three live in Cardiff) and toured Cardiff Bay, eating at “Salt” restaurant while the final game of the World Cup (Spain VS Netherlands) blared over the speakers. We tried to get caramel apple pie with custard at “the Cottage,” but they no longer carry that menu item, (much the chagrin of about eight Americans I know). We dropped Euros, Deedee, Deah, Jess, and Nicola off at various points in Cardiff and drove to Bristol and the Holiday Inn Airport hotel at about 11:00 p.m.
Long day. Long Week. Great team. Another team arrives tomorrow, but they will be great in a different way. It is a melancholy feeling parting company with such good friends. Church camp is over. But the memories will remain forever. To say nothing of what God has accomplished among us.
What in the world would have happened if this team had not come to prepare the way for the next team? I thank God that was not part of His Plan.
Saturday, July 10, 2010
Friday, July 9, 2010
Bright Ripplings – Wales Mission July 2010
Friday July 9th, 2010
A raindrop plopping in a pond causes ripples. Those ripples collide with lily pads, leaves, and twigs, each of which sends back other ripples. Soon there is an interconnected web of waves sending out bouncing and reverberating ripples which connect and intertwine because it has started to rain.
The Construction Team co-opted the Preparation Team and the Welsh volunteers today as we all worked together to finish the major projects at Capel Seion in Waurnaurloydd (or something sort of like that). Hamman’s heroes finished painting the Vestry a lovely light green, and its doors a subtle brick red; they replaced window sills, cabinets, and heaters. When we were finished for the day, we met in the completed Vestry, and held hands in a circle to pray and celebrate. What was black and moldy was now spring green, the symbol of life and rebirth. We applauded and took a bow. We took pictures of the group. We laughed. Then we boarded a sixteen seat taxi and headed back to Swansea.
It would seem that all we did was spruce up a room in a church. A big room, yes, and one that will be used to teach many children and youth for a long time to come. But not Earth-shaking in importance, you might think. But our efforts had a ripple effect. Agape begets agape. Inspired by our efforts, the church we were working at, Capel Seion, decided that they wanted to complement our efforts on their behalf with some efforts of their own. They decided to have new carpet laid in the Worship Area and the Vestry. Those just happened to be the only two rooms we were working in. Coincidence? The net effect is that the Church was a quantum leap ahead of where it was when we came to see it for the first time just three days ago.
But wait. There’s more. As we were leaving for the day, preparing to board the taxi, a man pulled his truck up behind us, hopped out and asked us if we were painting the church. When we replied affirmatively, he said that he was a paint salesman and he wanted to give us all the free paint that we could use. He plans to drop by first thing tomorrow with cans and cans of the stuff. We can’t use all of them tomorrow, of course, but we might be back. And there are many rooms in the church that could use a good coat of paint. But more important is the sweet, spontaneous, generous attitude of this good man who offered what he had to people he didn’t know for a cause he certainly must have understood. Whether he is a Christian (which is rare in this country) or not, the ripple he created is unmistakable.
Maybe he just happened by and saw the outside concrete of the entryway had been painted an eye-catching bright yellow. Or maybe he was motivated to drop by because his child (like all the children) was handed a leaflet in the nearby Welsh school proclaiming that Capel Seion will “have a team of friends from America . . . who have organized games, crafts, songs, and stories for the kids” and that this activity will perhaps serve as a springboard for “a regular kids club in September.”
Yesterday Allen, Deedee, Jennifer, and Shannon accompanied Derek to a nearby town called Pontlliw to a chapel called Carmel. We met Derek’s mentor, Vince, a gracious senior pastor who plied us with Bara Brith (much like American Pumpkin Bread), Welsh Cakes, and tea while we painted the wrought iron fence which ran along the road. At lunch time, Welsh Elder Alan Jones and his lovely wife Ceri came all the way from their home in northern Cardiff (Rhiwbina to be precise) to see Allen and Deedee. Among other things, Elder Alan brainstormed with Elder Allen over many future ministry possibilities in Wales for an infinite number of Henderson Hills teams.
Allen wants to do them all. The unity between the American team is sweet. The love between the Okies and the Welsh is communicable. The ground is sometimes rocky and the work is often hard, but many of the Okies are already planning to return or return again. The food is rich, fried, and fattening: Welsh Rarebit. Hot Tea. Welsh Cakes. Bara Brith. Hot Tea. Sticky Toffee Pudding with Custard. And Hot Tea. And then, of course, there is the main reason we came here In the first place: Plowing, Sowing, and Reaping the Harvest. Meeting people. Learning from them. Loving them. Letting them love us.
Wales is one of the wettest countries in Europe. The deep pools of water have been
stagnant for a long time. But it is beginning to rain. The silver surface is beginning to reverberate with splashes here and there. In December we seem to have made a bit of a splash in Capel Gomer. This trip, we are seeing some ripples in Llanelli, Pontlliw, and especially Waurnaurloydd. The Spirit is moving upon the face of the waters. What a thrill to be caught up in the rain!
A raindrop plopping in a pond causes ripples. Those ripples collide with lily pads, leaves, and twigs, each of which sends back other ripples. Soon there is an interconnected web of waves sending out bouncing and reverberating ripples which connect and intertwine because it has started to rain.
The Construction Team co-opted the Preparation Team and the Welsh volunteers today as we all worked together to finish the major projects at Capel Seion in Waurnaurloydd (or something sort of like that). Hamman’s heroes finished painting the Vestry a lovely light green, and its doors a subtle brick red; they replaced window sills, cabinets, and heaters. When we were finished for the day, we met in the completed Vestry, and held hands in a circle to pray and celebrate. What was black and moldy was now spring green, the symbol of life and rebirth. We applauded and took a bow. We took pictures of the group. We laughed. Then we boarded a sixteen seat taxi and headed back to Swansea.
It would seem that all we did was spruce up a room in a church. A big room, yes, and one that will be used to teach many children and youth for a long time to come. But not Earth-shaking in importance, you might think. But our efforts had a ripple effect. Agape begets agape. Inspired by our efforts, the church we were working at, Capel Seion, decided that they wanted to complement our efforts on their behalf with some efforts of their own. They decided to have new carpet laid in the Worship Area and the Vestry. Those just happened to be the only two rooms we were working in. Coincidence? The net effect is that the Church was a quantum leap ahead of where it was when we came to see it for the first time just three days ago.
But wait. There’s more. As we were leaving for the day, preparing to board the taxi, a man pulled his truck up behind us, hopped out and asked us if we were painting the church. When we replied affirmatively, he said that he was a paint salesman and he wanted to give us all the free paint that we could use. He plans to drop by first thing tomorrow with cans and cans of the stuff. We can’t use all of them tomorrow, of course, but we might be back. And there are many rooms in the church that could use a good coat of paint. But more important is the sweet, spontaneous, generous attitude of this good man who offered what he had to people he didn’t know for a cause he certainly must have understood. Whether he is a Christian (which is rare in this country) or not, the ripple he created is unmistakable.
Maybe he just happened by and saw the outside concrete of the entryway had been painted an eye-catching bright yellow. Or maybe he was motivated to drop by because his child (like all the children) was handed a leaflet in the nearby Welsh school proclaiming that Capel Seion will “have a team of friends from America . . . who have organized games, crafts, songs, and stories for the kids” and that this activity will perhaps serve as a springboard for “a regular kids club in September.”
Yesterday Allen, Deedee, Jennifer, and Shannon accompanied Derek to a nearby town called Pontlliw to a chapel called Carmel. We met Derek’s mentor, Vince, a gracious senior pastor who plied us with Bara Brith (much like American Pumpkin Bread), Welsh Cakes, and tea while we painted the wrought iron fence which ran along the road. At lunch time, Welsh Elder Alan Jones and his lovely wife Ceri came all the way from their home in northern Cardiff (Rhiwbina to be precise) to see Allen and Deedee. Among other things, Elder Alan brainstormed with Elder Allen over many future ministry possibilities in Wales for an infinite number of Henderson Hills teams.
Allen wants to do them all. The unity between the American team is sweet. The love between the Okies and the Welsh is communicable. The ground is sometimes rocky and the work is often hard, but many of the Okies are already planning to return or return again. The food is rich, fried, and fattening: Welsh Rarebit. Hot Tea. Welsh Cakes. Bara Brith. Hot Tea. Sticky Toffee Pudding with Custard. And Hot Tea. And then, of course, there is the main reason we came here In the first place: Plowing, Sowing, and Reaping the Harvest. Meeting people. Learning from them. Loving them. Letting them love us.
Wales is one of the wettest countries in Europe. The deep pools of water have been
stagnant for a long time. But it is beginning to rain. The silver surface is beginning to reverberate with splashes here and there. In December we seem to have made a bit of a splash in Capel Gomer. This trip, we are seeing some ripples in Llanelli, Pontlliw, and especially Waurnaurloydd. The Spirit is moving upon the face of the waters. What a thrill to be caught up in the rain!
Wednesday, July 7, 2010
Silver Linings -- Wales Mission 2010
Silver Linings stand out because they emerge from the darkest clouds. Tuesday morning July 6th our team had a great time of Bible study and prayer focusing upon Acts chapters 1 and 2. Then we went to Seion Baptist Church in the nearby suburb of Waurnaurloydd (spelling approximate) where team two will be having programs for Children and Youth next week. The church was built the year Abraham Lincoln ran for president the first time – 1860. We surveyed the church in shock. We were supposed to do a little light cleaning and picking up trash. What we found was a room where mold was seeping through the paint permeating an entire wall. Jennifer could stand it for perhaps five minutes before darting outside with her asthsma inhaler. Shannon started to get sick. Deedee's throat closed up and Allen developed a sore throat within a half an hour. The Welsh didn't notice the problem much at all. It wasn't even on their suggested list of twenty items we might want to attend to. This is what it is like to live in one of the wettest countries in Europe.
We were initially dismayed at the decrepit state of the whole church. On the roof over the entrance door a swarm of bees buzzed angrily around. One or two of them stung Jennifer as she had run outside to catch her breath. The entryway foyer had minor mold problems and peeling, leprous paint. The roof has chunks of shingle long rotted away and other areas covered with moss. The cemetery in the back yard has weeds six feet high.
How did this church get in such a state of disrepair? The church members are a dozen or so elderly ladies who simply are not physically or fiscally able to maintain the church. But now comes the silver lining: for no apparent reason, except for the movement of the Holy Spirit, twenty or so children attend this church. Also, ten or so youth attend the church. The youth live in the nearby government run slum housing and they have somehow gotten interested in Christianity in a land where it is dead except for the seventy five or older crowd. The children come from different part of town and by and large don’t know the older ladies, other than they now happen to go to the same church together. So the only reason these children and youth seek the Lord is that the Lord has called them to Himself. And they sit every Sunday deeply inhaling the Gospel. And the mold.
I mentioned that when we saw the deep disrepair of the church building, we were dismayed. Well, not all of us. The silver lining is that the five person construction team sprang into action. The team was comprised of “Construction Commander” Lonnie Hamman, “Master of all Trades” Danny Tengram, “Electrician to the Stars” Tom King, “Interior Designer/Journeywoman/Account Manager” Donna King, and the young, broad-backed, Oompa Loompa dancing Welshman Euros Ap Howell. Ruth Matthews served as chauffer and long-suffering servant for the Construction Team. They were like hunting dogs unleashed. They stalked every inch of the building in a surveying frenzy. They had fire in their bellies, purpose in their hearts, and a glint in their eyes for the first time this week. They bared their fangs at the task ahead. And then they struck.
After ordering tools, which arrived the next day, and after a brief shopping trip for supplies, they were off and running. By Wednesday July 7th, they had torn out the mold-splattered Vestry wall, sprayed it down with hazard-killing bleaching solution, and re-concreted the wall. Meanwhile, they selected paint for the entryway foyer and applied gave a fresh yellow coat to every inch of the blistered cream color. Meanwhile Tom tracked down the rat’s nest of electrical wiring glitches and did some fast draw troubleshooting.
What’s next for the construction team? At Capel Gomer, they are to fix a roof leak, put in outside lighting, and ponder construction of worship area portable screens. At Seion Church they are to take out the deacon box, reconstruct the stage, and purchase heaters to keep worshippers warm in the long, bitter winters. Oh, and probably walk on water.
The Preparation Team was comprised of Allen and Deedee Rice, Shannon Richardson, Jennifer Nath, and local boys made good, Derek and Matthew Rees. On Tuesday, they scouted out locations for the next week’s children and youth programs, and did some prayerwalking. On Wednesday, Deedee, Shannon, and Jennifer bought craft supplies for the next week’s programs while Derek, Matthew, and Allen brainstormed over next summer’s mission plans. Then the whole team took a twenty minute train ride to Llanelli where they fellowshipped with the good people of Emmanuel Baptist Church. The team actually had a plausible excuse for such fellowship – we helped them paint the large entryway. Yes, even the Non-Construction Team got to do a little hard physical labor, though they pretended to be completely inept at their task (though for some it was not really much of a pretense). Allen left to go back to Seion Church where he met with a dear friend, Iestyn Ap Howell (Euros’s older brother), who has been such a strong pillar in the formation of Capel Gomer in its first year. Iestyn took Allen to supper (lamb steak with mint gravy!) where they caught up with each other’s lives and then had an incredible three and a half-hour long theological discussion. The two of them had been trying to carry on a long, complex dialogue back and forth by e-mail over the course of the last six months and it was such a relief for them to finally talk face to face again and heart to heart.
Wednesday evening concluded with almost everyone milling about at Capel Gomer. There was joking and laughter, the joy of unity after a hard day spent bonding. Encouraged by Deedee, local Welsh music sensation Hazel was coerced into positioning herself at the keyboard. Euros beamed a power point of some song lyrics upon a blank wall. Then an impromptu worship service broke out as a makeshift choir harmonized in a crescendo: “no power on Earth, no scheme of man can ever snatch me from His Hand.”
Dark clouds come. They bring hard rains. And mold. And bee stings. But they also bring silver linings. This team has brought their lunch buckets and their pick axes. They are swinging hard with happy hearts at the rich vein of ore directly in their path.
We were initially dismayed at the decrepit state of the whole church. On the roof over the entrance door a swarm of bees buzzed angrily around. One or two of them stung Jennifer as she had run outside to catch her breath. The entryway foyer had minor mold problems and peeling, leprous paint. The roof has chunks of shingle long rotted away and other areas covered with moss. The cemetery in the back yard has weeds six feet high.
How did this church get in such a state of disrepair? The church members are a dozen or so elderly ladies who simply are not physically or fiscally able to maintain the church. But now comes the silver lining: for no apparent reason, except for the movement of the Holy Spirit, twenty or so children attend this church. Also, ten or so youth attend the church. The youth live in the nearby government run slum housing and they have somehow gotten interested in Christianity in a land where it is dead except for the seventy five or older crowd. The children come from different part of town and by and large don’t know the older ladies, other than they now happen to go to the same church together. So the only reason these children and youth seek the Lord is that the Lord has called them to Himself. And they sit every Sunday deeply inhaling the Gospel. And the mold.
I mentioned that when we saw the deep disrepair of the church building, we were dismayed. Well, not all of us. The silver lining is that the five person construction team sprang into action. The team was comprised of “Construction Commander” Lonnie Hamman, “Master of all Trades” Danny Tengram, “Electrician to the Stars” Tom King, “Interior Designer/Journeywoman/Account Manager” Donna King, and the young, broad-backed, Oompa Loompa dancing Welshman Euros Ap Howell. Ruth Matthews served as chauffer and long-suffering servant for the Construction Team. They were like hunting dogs unleashed. They stalked every inch of the building in a surveying frenzy. They had fire in their bellies, purpose in their hearts, and a glint in their eyes for the first time this week. They bared their fangs at the task ahead. And then they struck.
After ordering tools, which arrived the next day, and after a brief shopping trip for supplies, they were off and running. By Wednesday July 7th, they had torn out the mold-splattered Vestry wall, sprayed it down with hazard-killing bleaching solution, and re-concreted the wall. Meanwhile, they selected paint for the entryway foyer and applied gave a fresh yellow coat to every inch of the blistered cream color. Meanwhile Tom tracked down the rat’s nest of electrical wiring glitches and did some fast draw troubleshooting.
What’s next for the construction team? At Capel Gomer, they are to fix a roof leak, put in outside lighting, and ponder construction of worship area portable screens. At Seion Church they are to take out the deacon box, reconstruct the stage, and purchase heaters to keep worshippers warm in the long, bitter winters. Oh, and probably walk on water.
The Preparation Team was comprised of Allen and Deedee Rice, Shannon Richardson, Jennifer Nath, and local boys made good, Derek and Matthew Rees. On Tuesday, they scouted out locations for the next week’s children and youth programs, and did some prayerwalking. On Wednesday, Deedee, Shannon, and Jennifer bought craft supplies for the next week’s programs while Derek, Matthew, and Allen brainstormed over next summer’s mission plans. Then the whole team took a twenty minute train ride to Llanelli where they fellowshipped with the good people of Emmanuel Baptist Church. The team actually had a plausible excuse for such fellowship – we helped them paint the large entryway. Yes, even the Non-Construction Team got to do a little hard physical labor, though they pretended to be completely inept at their task (though for some it was not really much of a pretense). Allen left to go back to Seion Church where he met with a dear friend, Iestyn Ap Howell (Euros’s older brother), who has been such a strong pillar in the formation of Capel Gomer in its first year. Iestyn took Allen to supper (lamb steak with mint gravy!) where they caught up with each other’s lives and then had an incredible three and a half-hour long theological discussion. The two of them had been trying to carry on a long, complex dialogue back and forth by e-mail over the course of the last six months and it was such a relief for them to finally talk face to face again and heart to heart.
Wednesday evening concluded with almost everyone milling about at Capel Gomer. There was joking and laughter, the joy of unity after a hard day spent bonding. Encouraged by Deedee, local Welsh music sensation Hazel was coerced into positioning herself at the keyboard. Euros beamed a power point of some song lyrics upon a blank wall. Then an impromptu worship service broke out as a makeshift choir harmonized in a crescendo: “no power on Earth, no scheme of man can ever snatch me from His Hand.”
Dark clouds come. They bring hard rains. And mold. And bee stings. But they also bring silver linings. This team has brought their lunch buckets and their pick axes. They are swinging hard with happy hearts at the rich vein of ore directly in their path.
Monday, July 5, 2010
Happy Landings -- Wales Mission July 2010
We arrived in Bristol without much of a problem at all. We were expecting to be detained, questioned, and waterboarded by the Immigration officers like Allen Rice and Tim King (among others) had been in December 2009. But preparation paid off. And especially prayer. Part of the problem last time was a team of 24 coming into Britain all at once on a largely unoccupied plane. We stood out like some sort of Land Run Okies galloping in a conestoga fury toward the customs gates. This time our team of 19 was coming in two subtle waves. Our first wave of eight (Allen and Deedee Rice, Tom and Donna King, Lonnie Hamman, Danny Tengram, Shannon Richardson, and Jennifer Nath) was just a wave of six because the Kings had invaded a couple of days early to explore London – they joined us in the airport lobby for a day of touring. So that little band of six mixed in unobtrusively with a gigantic crowd flooding off the plane. The second wave of eleven will slip in next week, hopefully as unnoticed as the first eight.
Now about prayer. No amount of preparation could have made entering Bristol so easy and quick. God’s hand was upon us. That is because the prayers of the saints were buoying us up. Thanks be to God and to our faithful prayer friends.
Six of our team of eight had gone on one of the previous Welsh missions. Donna and Jennifer were the rookies this week. And maybe because of their beginner luck, everything went smoothly. The noteworthy event in the Newark airport was that as Allen awoke from his nap on the stained-carpet floor he turned to see a pigeon running toward his face. Oh, New Jersey. The only major events that happened on the plane was that a little girl took Shannon’s plane seat from her – and Shannon happily obliged. Oh, and the loudest shrieking banshee ever to inhabit the body of an infant child slammed her high-pitched blitz of decibels in Jennifer’s ears the whole seven hour journey across the pond.
Our driver was a sweet Bristol man of about Allen’s age, but he looked 15 years younger (that’s actually a commentary upon Allen); his name was Chris and he was the best driver we have ever had. When we parted at the end of the day, he mentioned many times how he wanted to say goodbye to each of us, and how kind and generous we were to him. He suggested we request him personally to drive us again – and we certainly will. Chris was as much tour guide as he was a driver. He took us on an unscheduled trip to the Bristol Bridge where we looked down dozens of stories to the city of Bristol and the river Avon below. Lonnie decided to see how the other half lived by walking across the roadway to see the walkway on the opposite side. A uniformed official came running from 100 yards away, yelling at Lonnie not to step on the opposite walkway, which unbeknownst to us was closed. Of course, everyone but Lonnie could hear the bellowing man as he charged officiously up the street. He somewhat crankily informed Lonnie that the walkway was closed for a reason – but he never told us what that reason was, nor where the warning sign was posted. The Brits can Pharisaically judge you for rules they assume you know but they diabolically never post.
Chris also took us up to a high tower overlooking the bridge which had in its top floor a “camera obscura,” a Nineteenth Century system of mirrors which projects a movable 360 degree view of the surrounding countryside down upon a circular white table. It is like a panoramic HDTV view on a flat screen TV 170 years before there were flat screens. We stared at it hypnotized and somewhat nauseated until Jennifer’s claustrophobia inspired us to flee the little, dark, well house of a room.
We also toured Castle Coch (a stylish Victorian Disneyland of a castle constructed 100 years before Walt Disney was invented by his parents) and Llandaff Cathedral (a glorious patchwork of random building stones -- in yellows, grays, and mottled purples – and a pastiche of styles across several centuries). The cathedral sits at the bottom of a long, slow hill which causes the building to give the impression it is rising to greet you. For lunch we sampled Welsh food (rarebit, cawl, and Welsh cakes) at Glamor’s in Caerphilly and for dinner we met Matthew Rees, Euros, Huw, and Derek Rees at an Indian restaurant were we talked, laughed and planned for an early start in the morning.
Now about prayer. No amount of preparation could have made entering Bristol so easy and quick. God’s hand was upon us. That is because the prayers of the saints were buoying us up. Thanks be to God and to our faithful prayer friends.
Six of our team of eight had gone on one of the previous Welsh missions. Donna and Jennifer were the rookies this week. And maybe because of their beginner luck, everything went smoothly. The noteworthy event in the Newark airport was that as Allen awoke from his nap on the stained-carpet floor he turned to see a pigeon running toward his face. Oh, New Jersey. The only major events that happened on the plane was that a little girl took Shannon’s plane seat from her – and Shannon happily obliged. Oh, and the loudest shrieking banshee ever to inhabit the body of an infant child slammed her high-pitched blitz of decibels in Jennifer’s ears the whole seven hour journey across the pond.
Our driver was a sweet Bristol man of about Allen’s age, but he looked 15 years younger (that’s actually a commentary upon Allen); his name was Chris and he was the best driver we have ever had. When we parted at the end of the day, he mentioned many times how he wanted to say goodbye to each of us, and how kind and generous we were to him. He suggested we request him personally to drive us again – and we certainly will. Chris was as much tour guide as he was a driver. He took us on an unscheduled trip to the Bristol Bridge where we looked down dozens of stories to the city of Bristol and the river Avon below. Lonnie decided to see how the other half lived by walking across the roadway to see the walkway on the opposite side. A uniformed official came running from 100 yards away, yelling at Lonnie not to step on the opposite walkway, which unbeknownst to us was closed. Of course, everyone but Lonnie could hear the bellowing man as he charged officiously up the street. He somewhat crankily informed Lonnie that the walkway was closed for a reason – but he never told us what that reason was, nor where the warning sign was posted. The Brits can Pharisaically judge you for rules they assume you know but they diabolically never post.
Chris also took us up to a high tower overlooking the bridge which had in its top floor a “camera obscura,” a Nineteenth Century system of mirrors which projects a movable 360 degree view of the surrounding countryside down upon a circular white table. It is like a panoramic HDTV view on a flat screen TV 170 years before there were flat screens. We stared at it hypnotized and somewhat nauseated until Jennifer’s claustrophobia inspired us to flee the little, dark, well house of a room.
We also toured Castle Coch (a stylish Victorian Disneyland of a castle constructed 100 years before Walt Disney was invented by his parents) and Llandaff Cathedral (a glorious patchwork of random building stones -- in yellows, grays, and mottled purples – and a pastiche of styles across several centuries). The cathedral sits at the bottom of a long, slow hill which causes the building to give the impression it is rising to greet you. For lunch we sampled Welsh food (rarebit, cawl, and Welsh cakes) at Glamor’s in Caerphilly and for dinner we met Matthew Rees, Euros, Huw, and Derek Rees at an Indian restaurant were we talked, laughed and planned for an early start in the morning.
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