My usual Sabbath rest from the Internet. Great enjoyment reading 2,000 Years of Christ's Power Vol. 4: The Age of Religious Conflict by Nick Needham. Adult Sunday school, Chris Roberts on the atonement . Paul Levy was excellent on conversion preaching from the Ethiopian eunuch. it was both evangelistic and edifying for believers I was very pleased the congregation with swelled by a family of five, single father and four children under 12 who I had invited along. I hope they will be back next week too. Roast beef lunch was enjoyed in the company American missionary guests working with our church. We had a visiting Nigerian preacher from our church in Shepherd's Bush in the evening.
Mon 3 Sep
Ancestry has helped me find a family tree link to Mormons in California! Encouraging elders meeting. 9 out of eleven there plus two from sister churches and one Oak Hill student under the care of our presbytery. We reallocated the shepherding with each of our 11 elders having personal pastoral care responsibility for some of our members. We aim to visit everyone at least twice a year. We have seen a number of new attenders over the summer including some seeking the truth in Christ.
Tue 4 Sep
U3A restated after the August break with our World Religions group. Thanks to the generosity of Evangelicals Now I had a complementary copy of the current issue for each person as the subject we perception and the magazine always has news of suffering Christians. My leading on the subject concentrated on the least controversial part - the persecution in the Roman Empire. We saw how rulers scapegoat minorities when there are problems in the regime. We also saw how a persecuted minority become persecutors once they gain ascendancy.
I went to use an ATM and am confronted by a screen telling me 'Santander supports Pride'. Well I don't and will be telling my bank I do not want this ideological propaganda in my face.
Wed 5
U3A current affairs here on world trade. I had not prepared well and we strayed onto tariffs and other matters further off topic. Five came including one new recruit. I went to the Nigeria High Commission for an hour's vigil, one of 200 hours vigil for the girl, Leah, taken by Boko Haram and imprisoned for 200 days because she would not convert. I was asked by Scott the man from Christian Solidarity Worldwide who was organising the original to stay on an extra hour as I was doing well with three staff from the High Commission coming to talk including the Deputy High Commissioner, a Muslim from Sokoto who complemented me an my Hausa. I was relieved by a Pentecostal Nigerian who had witnessed the killings of the Ibos in Zaria in 1966 It had so traumatised her as a teenager that she had blocked it out of her memory. She took over the vigil after I did an extra hour which included being interviewed by an Ibo journalist who liked my critique of Nigerian history which blamed the colonial British for a lot of the mess today. In the evening we had our monthly church prayer meeting at Dean Hall with 26 o present including four teenagers which is encouraging.
Th 6 Sep
I took a nonagenarian to her GP to OK her proposed visit to Myanmar where she was born.
Fr 7 Sep
An eventful day at the Oval. Not because of Alistair Cook's last test or a mere 198 for 7 from England. But because my friend Trevor went as he said to spend a penny in the lunch break and never returned. He phoned to say he had passed out and was in the medical room. I was to keep watching the game and he would come and join me. Then two paramedics came to collect his bag and tell me he was being sent to be checked at hospital. He phoned after a while to say he was being discharged as fit to go home but will need more tests later. We have been friends since 1969 and had 12 years together in Nigeria.
Sat 8 Sep
Joined the team led by my fellow IPC elder Peter Lofthouse for breakfast and Bible study at Tasty Bites cafe. Then three of us on the bookstall but most of the time I was talking with Usmani on the Muslim bookstall.
I have been testing items for suppliers - mainly Chinese. You buy on Amazon, send them proof of purchase, publish a review and your costs are then reimbursed. It has been fun so far but sometimes modern electronics are a headache and other family members drafted in to help set up and operate the devices.
The interview I did with the Ibo journalist seems to be going viral on Facebook.
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