Try it for yourself.

Since I moved my internet to Airband I have had any number of people asking me about it. Does it work? Is it reliable?  Can you really use it for your phone as well?  Is it expensive? Is the firm that supplies it helpful

And from my experience I can answer “yes” to all those questions.  But the best thing you can do is to try it for yourself and make the experience your own by trusting Airband to deliver what they promise.

Just like Christian faith. I can answer questions. Does faith help with the muddle of life? Can it support in the difficult times? Does it give meaning and purpose?  

Here too, from my experience I can answer “yes” to all those questions.  But that is no substitute for making the experience your own.   A decision to trust not Airband but God enables us to experience Christian faith. God delivers on his promises.

And the Eternity Wide Web has to be  a more important connection!

Churches Pastoral Team

Had an excellent Pastoral Team meeting last night & have just published details of the team on the churches' website

We had a speaker from the local Social Services & we have a much clearer picture of how Social Services work and how we refer to/access them.
It was two way. Social Services have a clearer picture of what we do and we will be doing a mapping exercise so that the local social worker knows what is going on across the whole of their patch.

David Priston

Probably few, if anyone, in these villages will have heard of David Priston. There's no reason why anyone should have. He was a mission partner with the China Inland Mission working with Chinese people in Malaya, served as a curate in Hereford and for 21 years was Rector in the South Croxton group of villages in Leicestershire.

So no real connection & nothing to do with these villages, except I lived in South Croxton and it was there that I explored a calling into ordained ministry.   Without David's help, support and encouragement I wouldn't have been ordained and wouldn't now be vicar of Teme Valley South. But for David these villages wouldn't have me as vicar.

David died on the 17th of last month and there was a funeral and service of thanksgiving for his life yesterday (5th April).

Our lives are all shaped by people and events outside our control and many of which we have no knowledge about.

Give thanks to God for David and pray for Philippa and  Simon (his children) and their families 

Easter thoughts

The end of this month is Easter – the time when Christians remember Jesus’ death and resurrection.   The big question is did it happen?  Was Jesus crucified? Did he rise from the dead?

Crucifixion was the normal method of execution in the Roman Empire. The Roman soldiers knew their job and an execution party that got it wrong would be in big trouble.  There is no good historical reason to question Jesus’ death.

 What then about him being brought back to life? Did it really happen?  On one hand we can take the view that dead men (particularly ones that have undergone the torture of crucifixion) can’t come back to life so it can’t have happened. On the other hand we can look at the evidence to see if it did happen.

For me the evidence of the gospels is compelling.  Their accounts ring true.  They don’t read like made up stories.  Yes, they all record the event differently, but read four newspapers all reporting the same event today and you find much greater variation!  Clearly something happened to change those frightened disillusioned followers into the fearless ambassadors risking and giving their lives for Christ. 

So what happened? Mass hysterical illusion? Fraud? Conspiracy and cover up?  To me the only explanation of the change in Jesus followers that makes sense is that he really did rise from the dead. And if he overcame death then it means the promises he makes for us are trustworthy.

Chuch news

If you're interested in general news about what is happening in Teme Valley South Churches then this link to the churches' facebook page might be helpful for you

A morning in the snow

This morning I was supposed to be going to Stoneleigh for a meeting of the Country Way editorial group. The latest issue has been published online http://www.arthurrankcentre.org.uk/publications-and-resources/country-way and my printed copy arrived in today's post.
But a quick look at the lane outside the Rectory suggested it would not be a good idea.  Shanks Ponies are the order of the day. But it's an ill wind...  Sally, who was going to take the midweek communion at Eastham was unexpectedly unavailable, so I walked down the lanes to Eastham. The midweek service is a recent innovation, yet to build up numbers.
This morning there were two of us and we celebrated the feast of St John the Alsmgiver - a saint from Egypt in the 7th century who it seems gave away not just this own money but diocesan money as well on frivolous things like maternity hospitals, caring for refugees, supporting beggars....    What would it be like, we wondered, if the diocese today was to give away all its money on food-banks and the like????
Walking back up from Eastham I was noticing that the lanes were much clearer having been ploughed and gritted and wondering whether I should have gone to Stoneleigh, when I came across a large gritting lorry with snow plough stuck in the lane. Going up the hill it had lost traction and slid onto the verge where the weight of the load and the soft ground had caused it to tip over. Two tractors were there but decided that it would need something bigger to pull it out.
On up the hill a local business man and his son were taking the post to the inaccessible houses that the post van couldn't reach.
On up the hill and more conversations about weather, life, faith...
Not the morning I'd expected, but good.

 

Christmas Letter

The Rectory

Broadheath

Tenbury WR15 8QW

Christmas 2012

Dear

If you’re someone who dislikes round robin Christmas letters please accept our best wishes for Christmas and the new year and feel free to ignore the rest of this. 

However even though we keep in touch with some people with facebook, we still enjoy hearing about other’s news & people have told us they like to receive ours, so here it is.

February saw the birth of our third grandchild, Geoffrey, Daniel and Annabelle’s first child.  As a first born often does, he kept us waiting and didn’t seem in a hurry to come into the world and he needed a little extra encouragement before he made his appearance.

 

We had a week away on the Lizard peninsula, Cornwall, during February half term.  We stayed in a former lighthouse keeper’s cottage right at the southern end of the Lizard. We walked the coastal paths looking to see if we could see seals (we couldn’t), looked for geocaches (we found them) and walked the lanes where there were fields of daffodils in bloom.

The summer marked our 30^th wedding anniversary. Looking back it seems like a long time ago. We were out of the country on the actual anniversary. We were in northern Portugal staying for ten days near the river that marks the boundary with Spain.   We had a very pleasant time unwinding. We spent our actual anniversary canoeing, not something that many people would have predicted 30 years ago!

The run up to Portugal had been busy, not just with all the usual preparation for going away but because Madge (Margaret, my first wife’s mother) had after a long illness died.  Because of everybody else’s travel commitments the funeral could only take place on the Friday four days before we went to Portugal.  Also because it had to be that day, the priest from her local church wasn’t available, so I was asked to take the service. Not many people have the chance to say the last word about their mother in law! It all went as well as could be expected.

After Portugal was busy too.  We arrived back on a Friday. The next day was Edward (my nephew) and Kate’s wedding. It was good to see family on a cheerful occasion.

October saw us back in Cornwall for a few days break staying at Talland Bay, with walks to Polperro and Fowey and visits to the Eden project and the lost gardens of Helligan.

Another family gathering was in November when it was Geoffrey’s christening, again good to meet up with folk that we don’t see as often as we might like.

The churches continue to develop. Three years after the decision was originally taken, Stanford was added to this group on the 1^st of November.  That means I’m up to seven churches. It also means a change in the structures of the other six churches and that will take a little working through. This year has seen the first people from these villages being confirmed in several years, two adults in May and four teenagers in November. The Pastoral Team is starting to find its feet.  We have funding for a project with  someone spending two days a week developing geocaches in the churches, walks from the churches and stories of the local area. That project finishes next March.  There is more life about the churches.  I reflect on what I am doing with the Centre for Studies in Rural Ministry and am at the early stages of a dissertation with a working title of “How provision of church services affects church life: an inquiry in Teme Valley South”