Fifth Week in Wales

This past week has been a little less eventful.  Actually, it depends on which part of the week you're talking about.  The first half of the week was pretty slow (which was really pretty good).  I took some time to listenCheck out this link for more about the book.

to several more lectures from ACU's 2013 Summit Bible Lectureship.  One particularly interesting lecture was a review/reflection of Tim Keller's recent book entitled "Center Church."  Keller is the lead minister of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in NYC and I think the subtitle gives a great summary of what the book is about: "Doing balanced, Gospel-Centered Ministry in Your City."  I've been thinking a lot this week about the principles that the book brings up and what it means for work with the Church here in Newport.  I'd love to get a copy and  read through the book myself (like I need another book to read!).
            The rest of the week got progressively busier and more full of activity.  Friday night I went out with Ruth Winstanley and another young adult from Newport (Mike) to a Lebanese restaurant in Cardiff.  It was certainly authentic (not that I really know much about Lebanese food) and is located in a part of Cardiff (City Road) that is home to hundreds of different ethnic restaurants and shops (from Iranian and Lebanese to

City Road, Cardiff (Not My Picture)

 Nigerian).  I found myself considering Friday night that I have had so many experiences here in Wales that I certainly would not have categorized as "British."  But these experiences reflect the rapidly changing ethnic landscape of Britain.  Even though Newport is still over 85% White, this is in comparison to it being around 95% White 10 years ago (a huge difference in 10 years time!).  The current statistics for Cardiff are quite similar, with over 90 foreign languages being spoken in the city (Urdu, Somali, Bengali, and Arabic being some of the most common).  I know now that along with learning to serve God in the traditional Welsh culture, I will increasingly need to learn to serve him in a very diverse culture.
             Saturday we had a church building "work day."  This was to mainly focus on cleaning up/out the teen room upstairs.  When the Church bought a new boiler over the winter they had to move a lot of stuff into the teen room and it had not been cleaned up since.  Much of the stuff was put up into the loft (aka. attic for Americans), which gave me an interesting opportunity to learn more about the congregations past (by looking around the loft).  There were all sorts of things up in the loft and it brought up good conversations about when those things were used and why.  There was a lot more that I'd like to have done on the work day (and many ideas popped into my head for the future), but it was probably good we only spent the morning on this task as it could be an overwhelming task.
              After worshiping with the congregation Sunday morning, I headed out for Bristol again to preach at

Roman Baths and Bath Abbey (Not My Picture)

their evening service (yes this is my third trip to Bristol since I arrived).  The evening service allowed me to get to know more people from the congregation there and I think the sermon went fairly well.  Afterwards, Jason's family and some of the young adults took me with them to get dinner in Bath.  For those who don't know, Bath is famous for a lot of things, most especially from Jane Austen's books and for the ancient Roman baths.  It is a really beautiful Georgian town which apparently is only about 20 minutes drive from Bristol (or 1 hour 10 minutes from Newport).  I might have to see if I can visit again some time.
             Real quickly before I finish, I want to encourage you to be praying about a meeting that's being planned for this Sunday after service.  I'm hoping to talk with the Newport congregation more about their expectations and desire for my work with them.  This is not easy as many times expectations are not conscious, but subconscious.  Also, I think the Newport congregation have not had a lot of time to consider "what's next" over the last few years (for numerous reasons).  Please pray that this will be a good time of discussion, consideration, reflection, and vision for the future.  I'm going to encourage the congregation to be thinking and praying about it beforehand as well.  I want to make sure that I'm moving and working in conjunction with them for the sake of God's Kingdom and glory.  I hope all of you are well and thank you for your continued thoughts and prayers!

Sincerely in Christ,
Chris