Letter from the Manse

Someone asked me a difficult question recently. “Do you think of yourself as Welsh?” Tricky one. I am more or less Welsh by ancestry. My name tells you that. My father was from Swansea and his parents were Welsh through and through. My mother was born in Wales too, but her father was Irish by descent and her mother English. I was born in England but we moved to North Wales when I was three and stayed there until I was seven.

We were always an English-speaking family. The headteacher …

The first day of a new year. A time to look back and a time to look forward. Many things to give thanks for, many things to grieve over, many things to reflect on.

I’ve been reflecting, inevitably, on all the activity of the past year, and especially our evangelistic efforts. Martin has knocked on hundreds of doors in Charlesworth and Gamesley. With his team, he’s delivered thousands of leaflets. He’s organised lots of special events – men’s breakfasts, barbecues, open evenings for neighbours and friends. He’s gone into …

All ready for Christmas? Cards, presents, tree, decorations, turkey, mince-pies. You’ve thought about them all. But what about people? How much thinking have you done about them?

The Bible talks a lot about hospitality. In Old Testament times one of the marks of God’s people was that they opened their homes to others. Job said, “the sojourner has not lodged in my street; I have opened my doors to the traveller…” (Job ch 31 vs 32). Abraham “lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, three men were standing in front …

 What is a missionary? Silly question. We all know what a missionary is, don’t we? We have missionary prayer meetings. We get missionary newsletters. We read missionary biographies. A missionary is, well… a missionary. And yet, nobody seems to be able to tell me just what we mean when we call a person a missionary.

Once it was simple. People were sent from countries where there were churches to places where there were no churches. They went there to preach the gospel, to make disciples, …

I heard this morning some desperately sad news. The phone rang at quarter to nine. Alec Taylor was ringing to let me know that our friend Nigel Lacey had died during the night. Since his first heart attack a month ago, we had heard varying reports of his condition. One moment we heard that he was making good progress; the next we heard that he was in intensive care. And then finally this news – half expected and yet shattering.

Nigel had been a preacher for many years. He …