As I first sat down to write this email about a week ago my mind drew a complete blank and I just could not focus on what I should write. I tried to look back over the last month and what I’d been involved in, and it all seemed a somewhat fuzzy blur. There has been a lot going on and I’ve not had that much time to reflect on it all, which I am realising is something I need to make sure I do.

With the students returned from their long holiday (not a summer holiday as there is no summer in Uganda) all the activities at UCF are back on and there are many students to meet, talk with and disciple.

Matt and Claire Butler

As I sent out my last email the new Semester was just beginning and we were greeting and welcoming new students. As a church it was one of our aims this semester to get to know some of the first years and encourage them to get involved in the ministries at UCF, not just attending Sunday services. This has gone well; we held several events specifically to get to know them including a teaparty and an outing to Entebbe. A number of the freshers are now involved in the mission’s team and the student fellowships.

The Real Brothers student fellowship has been back on this month and several new students have joined us. Our theme for this semester is ‘having a cause’ and we are looking at various biblical characters; how they found ‘their cause’ and how they succeeded or failed to achieve it. We are also holding discussions on topics relevant to students such as ‘how to get on with your room-mate’ and ‘money matters’. These have been very lively and all the guys have had something interesting and insightful to contribute.

Our schedule was a little upset by the rioting in the city early in September. You may have read about this in the news or on the internet. There was some disagreement between the Kabaka (the king of the Buganda tribe in central Uganda) and the Ugandan government over where in the country the Kabaka could freely travel without first requesting permission. In protest many Buganda began riots in various markets across the city, disrupting transport and effectively shutting down all business across Kampala for two days. The police and military were sent in to calm the situation down and the next day the city was back to normal. Because people could not travel during those two days we had to postpone a couple of church activities including our first Real Brothers meeting of the semester. Instead, those of us who lived close to church met to pray for the situation. The President and Kabaka have since met to settle their differences and ensure that such riots do not occur again.

In September I also got to attend another wedding, this time in Iganga, east of Jinja. Keith Jarvis from my church in Congleton has several friends in Uganda and one of them, a lady named Alice, has a daughter called Jane who was getting married. Now Keith was unable to attend the wedding so he suggested I go on his behalf. However I made the mistake of arriving half an hour before the time on the invite and so being one of the first there and a good two hours early for the ceremony. Alice met me when she arrived and thanked me for coming. She was very kind and kept checking up on me, ensuring that I got a good seat at both the wedding and the reception and that I was safely transported between the two. The reception was outdoors underneath three marquees; the smaller one for the wedding party and two larger ones for the guests of each family. It was a grand affair with big white and pink decorations and traditional musicians and dancers. At the end of the reception I was thanked for attending and given a layer of the cake!

Ronnie and I have been continuing to visit the students at God is Able Hostel and have occasionally attended the fellowship that meets there 8pm till 10pm on a Wednesday. Personally this is a little late in the day for me but I guess it is a favourable time for the students. They meet for prayer and worship, and there is usually a guest speaker.

Two ladies from Canada arrived with AIM early in September and are also working at UCF. Sara will be here for six months and Rachel for one year. They are living on the same compound as me, along with two ladies from UCF called Lydia and Diana. They are settling in to the church well and are involved in similar things to me but are mostly working with the women of UCF.

I now have only a little over two months left in Uganda, which seems very short but there is still lots to be involved in. I just hope these two months don’t pass me by too quickly. Though at the same time, I am looking forward to being able to catch up with everyone back in England. It seems such a long time since I first arrived in Uganda, and yet some of the memories I have from home seem to be a lot more recent. Funny things, memories; I have collected a lot of them over the past eight and a half months.

God bless,

Matt

Prayer points

• For the students that I am discipling, that God would guide me in how to walk with them.
• For my own spiritual growth, that I am continuing to be taught by the Lord.
• For the people and activities at UCF, that they would be in line with God’s will for the church.
• For wisdom for the leaders of Uganda, that they would lead the country in a way that has the best interests of Ugandans at heart.

This is about two men who want to follow Jesus but have other demands to consider:

1.       The Teacher of the Law

This man doesn’t just want to follow Jesus – he wants to follow him wherever he goes. Jesus recognises this as a hasty commitment and points out some of the hardships involved.

How often do we make rash commitments, or make promises that we struggle to keep?

Sometimes other demands, like work, home or family, can distract us, or be a barrier to our Christian service or commitment, whereas for others the same demands may be an integral part of their calling. Like the man in the story we need to assess what we are called to do and rely on the Holy Spirit to help us over the barriers.

2.       The second man.

His problem is that he needs to bury his father. Jesus’ words to him sound very harsh, and some scholars have suggested that the words have been mistranslated from “Leave the dead to the burier of the dead”. Others have suggested that the phrase is a metaphor meaning that work among the spiritually dead can be done by the spiritually dead. There’s food for thought in both of these ideas, but the point Jesus was trying to make was the urgency of his work.

We are often too good at putting off commitment or finding reasons to delay answering Jesus’s call

St Francis of Asissi & the Egyptian St Antony are just two examples of people who take this passage literally and give up everything, they embrace poverty but who amongst us is going to do this?

Jesus doesn’t demand this of everyone (he didn’t demand it of Zaccheus). We are reminded that Jesus ministry was supported by wealthy benefactors.  Jesus wasn’t pushing a fanatical or socialist agenda.  We can only enter the Kindgdom of God by grace, it is God’s gift to us.  We can’t buy our way into the Kingdom of God and therefore we must use this passage to reflect on how possessions change us whether our possessions posess us and take hold of us.

Jesus wants us to be free and to think again about how we view our possessions.  Our posessions can become our treasure but we must remember our most precious treasures are the ones money can’t buy.  Where does your treasure lie?

Written up by H Sparey

Safe Guarding Children

If you work with children or young people in the church in any capacity, or are a steward, you should have received a letter inviting you to attend a Safeguarding training session. Such training will eventually become obligatory for voluntary children’s and young people’s workers in churches. If you have received a letter, please choose which dates you would prefer, and send your reply to the Circuit Administrator. If you haven’t received a letter, but should have, please check with Pam, or Peter Bradley (wearing his Circuit Steward’s hat!)

Christmas shopping

Don’t forget you can also help the Leprosy Mission, as well as Wellspring, by ordering goods and cards from their Christmas catalogue. A pile of these can be found on the cupboard top in the lounge, along with order forms; please help yourself to a catalogue and give your order to Barbara Fryer.

The first orders received have now arrived and the next orders will be sent off in mid-October, so if you’d like to order in the next couple of weeks, please get your order to Barbara by the 18th October.

Incidentally, the first batch of orders will have raised about £16 for Wellspring.

Methodist Publishing website

A hard-hitting report called Hope in God’s Future  has been recommended to the Church for relection and action. The report argues the theological basis for action on climate change and has been approved by the United Reformed Church and the Baptist Union as well as by the Methodist Church. Copies of the report and study guide are available from Methodist Publishing www.methodistpublishing.org.uk at £5 incl p&p or £45 for 10 copies.

The study guide offers the full text of the report and questions to get you thinking, ideas for creative activities, inspirational prayers and worship, help and advice for leaders, and suggestions for group sessions lasting one or two evenings, or even a whole day.

After some routine business, we settled to the main topic of the morning: an examination of the District Policy Group’s recommendations on Regrouping for Mission (or making bigger circuits, as the more prosaic among us would put it). We began with a challenging and stimulating theological reflection from Simon Sutcliffe, then moved into discussion groups to examine some of the pros and cons of the report. After lunch there was a time of open debate, when several people spoke eloquently and powerfully about their convictions on the matter.

Finally we voted: a large majority agreed to accept the report, but hand it back to the DPG for revision. There has to be structural change at circuit level but synod members weren’t convinced that the recommendations had got it entirely right!

The second big topic of the day was Christian Discipleship in the Context of Climate Change. Following a presentation based on the recently-published report “Hope in God’s Future” (details below), several contributors spoke and the Revd Stephen Hatcher illustrated his viewpoint by putting on his cycling gear while he spoke, and assembling his bike from a set of parts.

If you’d like to know more, ask one of our circuit reps—John Hancock or Barbara Fryer.

Dear Friends,

It is hard to know where to begin in saying thank you. Perhaps I will begin with thanking you for having given me the time and space to recover.

Sam (the dog) and I have settled happily in the manse here in Congleton. It is feeling like home and the garden is gradually taking shape as a quiet oasis due, in no small part, to the physical effort of Davinia and her boyfriend, the creative skills of one of our members and the frequent visits of another with all sorts of cuttings—I can’t wait for it all to bloom next year. You may gather that, whilst no expert, I do enjoy gardening.

When asked if there was anything you could do to help I mentioned that a meal on the day of removal might be useful. Little did I know that I would be wonderfully fed for a week or more, so, again, thank you.

And to those who, for the second time, cleaned the Sandbach manse when I moved out and made sure Bourne Manse was ready for my arrival, thank you.

There are so many other ways in which you have shown your love and care from cards and flowers to the use of a shower, persuading my computer into action and the warmth of your welcome on my return. It is truly good to be back among you.

I am so much better but am instructed by both my doctor and Philip Berry to phase myself back in and to that end, for a while, I will not be working on Mondays and Fridays—but that does not mean don’t contact me in the event of an emergency.

I was delighted that the Church Council met last night for what I feel was a very open and good meeting. Just to keep you up to date they unanimously decided, having examined your responses to the questionnaire, to put forward to the Circuit Meeting on October 15th both plans for work on the roof and the employment of a Youth Worker.

As a church you are truly a blessing to each other, not only in the multitude of gifts and talents you display, but in the love you show to each other.

My prayer is that, collectively and individually, we might daily grow in the grace and love of Christ, that our lives and those of others both far and near may be enriched.

With my love,

Pam

Genesis 1:26 can be interpreted as man is ruler over all the earth however, a better way to interpret this passage is using one of the World Council of Churches aims that of seeking justice and peace, and upholding the integrity of creation. We should see man as responsible for caring for themselves, others and all created things.  Pause to consider a quote attributed to St Elizabeth Seton and Ghandi “May I live simply so that others may simply live“.

What are our priorities? Is there damage that needs repairing? Is this God’s hand at work trying to save his creation?

Write up by Heather Sparey

The original Christian Web and New Media Awards 2009 Invitation

The original Christian web and new media awards 2009 is a bit of a mouthful, TOCWNMA is pretty hard to pronounce which is why I imagine they are also known as ”The Bloggies’.  Back in 2007 Premier Christian Media had the vision of rewarding the people behind the Good christian websites.

This year, in a bored moment one lunch break, I thought I would enter our website, and then promptly forgot all about it. Well a few weeks ago I was emailed to inform me, that out the hundreds of entries the Wellspring website was in the final 6 in the category of Best Small Church Website. Well as you can imagine after my head had returned to it’s original size, I booked my train ticket down to London.

My tickets and London travel pass

I hadn’t been to London since my brother took me years and years ago, and all I can really remember from that day was the running. Running after tubes, running after buses, running up escalators, running down escalators and then running to catch the train home at the end of the day. Still I was pretty excited about going, especially as my Mum agreed to come and spend the day with me. I had already lined up the list of attractions I wanted to see.

Breakfast at the station

Mum and I on the London eye

The London Eye stands 135 meters tall over the south bank of the river Thames, and after buying tickets we were ushered into a small room where we watched a 4D movie that tried to make out that the London eye was going to be sexy and exciting, using fast paced cuts and special effects.  The reality wasn’t sexy or exciting, but rather more majestic and spectacular and less cheap. I only wished I could go back again at night and see all the London lights.

I also visited the Tate modern, which was ok, I think the so called art rather offended my mother, so we made our way to St Paul’s for a rest and to enjoy the evensong.

The Bloggies award ceremony was being hosted at St Stephens (The London Internet Church). We were one of the first to arrive, and had to wait outside while the organisers made the last minute preparations, But this gave us the opportunity to talk to some of the other guests, alot of whom worked in London, but some had come as far afield as Scotland.   After a champagne reception we were seated in tables of 8 and dinner was served.   The food was exceptional, and a jazz band played background music throughout.

At the awards

After we had had eaten, and feeling quite relaxed after a few glasses of wine the reward ceremony began, with host Maria Toth from Premier radio dishing out the prizes. I could feel my heart racing as we we moved in to the small churches category, second place went to the Reading family church, my heart was now pounding in my chest….

and the winner was…

not us. First place went to High Kirk. After an overly enthusiastic clapping session I returned to my glass of wine, and let the evening’s events draw to a close before jumping on the tube, and then train back home.

It had been a great adventure, and a fantastic experience. However prize or no prize, I plan to continue my commitment to developing the Wellspring website, making it a useful resource to members and nonmembers. I find it amazing that nearly all this site is built and maintained in my lunch breaks, and yet somehow we reached the dizzying heights of being in the top 6 best small church websites in the UK.

Maria Toth on stage - The original christian web and new media awards 2009

I never got to make a speech on the night, but if I had, I would have thanked Diane Burgess for all the hard work she puts in, in keeping the calendars, rotas, and service feeds uptodate (google tells me these are the most visited areas of the site). I would have also thanked Barbara for sending me the link (Wellsprings magazine) every month for inclusion in this blog, and above all I would have thanked you, all our visitors, the people who find this information useful, the people who listen to our podcasts, or write in our forums.

Grace and Peace

Rich