News for Middle of November 2005

Dear Friends,

Apologies if you have not been receiving all my communication, as I have discovered that a problem with my computer has resulted in not all emails getting through. It is now two months since I last heard from home, so I have to trust that all is well. I am receiving occasional encouraging news from KIST. Progress on my PhD is going well, and I hope to be on target to hand in on 1st December. I have now booked my flight back to Kenya, departing on 13th December. As I write I am in York. In two weeks I plan to be back in Wantage, the first Sunday in December in Alresford, and then the following days in Andover.

The other major event remaining in my time in UK is the consultation on 'Vulnerable Grassroots Mission' on 9th and 10th of December. We still have spaces on this consultation, which will run from 9.30am on Friday 9th until 4.00pm on Saturday 10th of December at Andover Baptist Church. Please contact me or write direct to Jenny Greenwood, the Andover Baptist Church secretary (office@andoverbaptist.org.uk) for details. We are still needing the engagement of more serious people to deal with these critical issues.

We had a pre-consultation consultation for people in the West Midlands, organised by my landlady in Birmingham, on Thursday evening (10th November.) which went very well. That relatively short discussion was sufficient to make it clear that we are facing a modern British society that is not able easily to see many important mission issues through being totally caught up in materialist perspectives on global society. That is, British people are so deeply immersed into the view that global problems are solved through financial means, that other avenues of human relationship are being severely neglected. This is ironic considering how the church recognises the importance of having a close relationship with people in its own community.
That is, the British local church engages its local community by contributing spiritually and socially with a human face from a Godly perspective, but when it comes to the world scene in which communication is a lot more difficult, the churches role becomes predominantly financial.
This has been a good 'warm-up' for me in preparation for the 2 day consultation forthcoming. It has driven home again to me just how important it is for us to address these issues squarely in December, and then to communicate them more widely to those involved in overseas mission.

Best wishes,

Jim