August 2023: Dead Mice and Paella Rice

First and foremost – I'm very excited to say that I'll be staying on at St Paul's for another year as a Ministry Trainee. I'll talk a little about plans for next year down below, but please join me in giving thanks to God that that's been able to happen.

Here's the usual mix of some highlights and prayer points from my first year as a Ministry Trainee:

Highlights: Door Knocking Second Lap

After 4.5 years of hard work, the St Paul's door knocking team have finished their "first lap" of the parish! It's a huge achievement, but one that I hardly contributed to at all: I just turned up for the final 6 months and ended up knocking on the final door. It's a strategy I first pioneered with jigsaw puzzles – let others do the hard work for hours and just join for the last 15 minutes or so.

We made a little trophy to commemorate the achievement:

We have now started a "Second Lap" of the parish, with a new set of questionnaire questions to help us get to know our neighbours, themed around Hope. We continue to work hard to make sure we follow up people well, so that if anyone does express an interest in chatting more to us we can make sure we go back and visit again. You could pray that we do that well and build good relationships with people.

This "Second Lap" also gave me a chance to dip back into tech. For the first lap of the parish we collected people's responses using a Google Form, which was very handy but had a few drawbacks. So for this second lap I've made a little app that door knockers can install onto their phone to record people's responses. It's built with a really neat no-code service called AppSheet (a Google product). It lets you create apps backed by a database in a Google Sheet. The genius of it is that you barely have to do any coding, and no server/database management at all, and you get a pretty decent/flexible app at the end of it.

Highlights: Preaching

I've preached at church a few more times including this Sunday just gone. I got to preach Luke 13:31-35, a tricky passage where Jesus talks about his death and the destruction of Jerusalem(!)

I ended up being very encouraged by what he says though. Verse 33 is a great reminder of Jesus' determination to go to Jerusalem to die:

That language of "pressing on" leaves us in no doubt: Jesus' death wasn't an accident – it's central to his mission! And it reminds us that he is the one in control, not Herod/Pilate/anyone else.

Since my last prayer letter, I've also preached on Habakkuk 3, Luke 24, and Luke 13:22-30. You can now listen to all our sermons on the St Paul's Harringay sermons podcast! (a long-running project of mine that I finally got over the line a month or two ago). Available wherever you get your podcasts.

Highlights: Camp and Holiday

Last week me, Courtney and the girls also had a great time on our summer camp, Madness and Mayhem. As per the last few years, we've been looking after the leaders on Max, the 9-11 age group. It was a brilliant week with a fantastic team and campers, and although I think I'm still quite tired from it I can't wait for next year.

And we're off on holiday tomorrow! We're going to Spain, where the weather will apparently be 42° when we arrive. We can't wait (Orla is particularly excited to go on an aeroplane) and are praying it'll be a good time of fun, rest, and tasty Spanish food after a busy month of camp and associated prep.

Lowlight: I Had to Kill a Mouse

At church the other month I found a mouse caught in a trap, still semi-alive. I had to try and quickly finish it off in the most humane way I could think of. Neither I nor the mouse found it a particularly enjoyable experience.

Next Year

Finally, as I mentioned above, I will be doing another year as a Ministry Trainee at St Paul's! I want to do a second year for several reasons. Partly because I haven't yet decided whether to go into full-time ministry longer-term, but also because I have benefitted so much from this first year in so many ways, I'd like to keep that going for another year.

I'll be doing more of the same (leading Bible studies, preaching, general odd jobs) but hopefully at a higher intensity, and I'll also be hoping to try some new things out too. I'll also be doing a second year of study at Cornhill.

I'm delighted to be doing a second year and would love your prayers as I head into it!

Stuff I'm praying for (and would like your prayers for)

Thanks:

• That I can do a second year, and for the generous trusts and St Paul's themselves who have been able to sort out my funding. It is a huge weight off my back knowing money is sorted.
• For a great week of summer camp and wonderful servant-hearted leaders.

Ask:

• That we'll follow our door knocking contacts up well and that it will lead to people coming to know the Lord Jesus.
• For wisdom to decide whether to go into ministry at the end of next summer.
• That God will give Pete and I wisdom as we work out what my second year will look like day to day, so that I can best serve the church and the people in it.

Thanks so much for reading. Don't forget you can sign up here to be emailed whenever I send out an update!

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