Tearfund - our Charity of the Month

Each month, St Pauls highlights one of the charities it supports (See the blog for 22^nd July). This coming month it will be Tearfund (website). Tearfund is a Christian relief and development fund. Teafund responds to disasters and is a part of the Disasters Emergency Committee and it currently has appeals for Iraq and Gaza. However, it has a much wider vision. They say of themselves:

“We're Christians passionate about ending poverty”

We're following Jesus where need is greatest, working through local churches to unlock people's potential and helping them to discover that the answer to poverty is within themselves. When disasters strike, we respond quickly. We won't stop until poverty stops.

When a community lifts itself out of poverty, everything changes. Poverty does more than exhaust, starve, trap and kill people. It destroys their sense of worth, limits their horizons, robs people of the chance to reach their full potential. Tearfund’s call is to follow Jesus where the need is greatest. We long for new life and a new sense of worth for people. We do whatever it takes to end poverty and rebuild poor communities. 

We work through local churches, because they're Jesus’ body on earth, ready to care for the whole person - and the whole community - inside and out."

Our gifts will be put to good use. We pray that they will make a difference.

Water – No Water!

As we came to church last Sunday, we ran the gauntlet of the downpours that accompanied the tail end of hurricane Bertha. As a result, many of the congregation arrived at St Paul’s singularly soggy!

At the same time, more than 40,000 Yazidi refugees in northern Iraq were huddled at the top of Mount Sinjar, on a waterless plateau, in burning temperatures of over 40° C with no water to drink. Happily, some have now managed to avoid the militant “Islamic State” extremists and find refuge in Kurdistan. But there are many who are still trapped, dying for lack of water.

Water is the essence of life. Not for nothing did Jesus call himself, and the message he proclaimed, Living Water. We cannot live without physical water. But equally, life without Jesus is meaningless.

The rainstorm on the way to church, that we battled through last Sunday, may have been an inconvenience, but how much better than finding ourselves on an arid mountain top. May the Aid Agencies’ efforts and the water drops on Mount Sinjar by western aircraft, soon bring relief.

Hello and Goodbye!

We love seeing new faces at our service each Sunday. They come for different reasons. Some are enquiring to see if there is something in this Christian faith. Others are visiting families. Others are Christians who have moved to the area. Yet others are Christians whose work activities bring them briefly to Oadby.

One such is Tobi Muyiwa (extreme right in the photo) – tall dark and handsome (he knelt down for this photo), highly intelligent (a PhD in plasma physics) and a highly skilled drummer. Tobi hails from Manchester and is waiting for a visa as he is hoping to work in a university in the United States.

While he has been collaborating with colleagues in Leicester, he has been worshipping with us at St Paul's. We will be sorry to see him go, but wish him well in the next stage of his career. Our music group will miss his drumming and we will all miss his personality.

May God go with you, Tobi.

Meditation

Today, we began our new sermon series which will be lasting up to Advent. It is based on the chapter headings of Richard Foster’s classic devotional Christian book “A Celebration of Discipline” which we were encouraged to buy (it is also available on Kindle).

In the sermon today, Steve considered the subject of “meditation.” This is the first of four “inward” disciplines. Using the examples of Moses on Mount Sinai and Peter at Caesarea he showed the value of taking time to meditate on God and his will. He showed the difference between this and the Eastern religious meditations, such as yoga, where the desire is to escape from oneself, rather than to encounter God. We were encouraged to take time out to concentrate on God and sense his will.

The next discipline, to be considered in a fortnight’s time, is prayer. Most Christians would acknowledge its importance and yet find it difficult. If that is you, too, do come and join us on 14 August.

Season of Invitation

Season of Invitation have just released some training videos by Michael Harvey using some of the material from his training sessions. They are well worth a look and fit in well with our recent sermons on the theme of invitation as we get ready to invite people along through the autumn term. You can view them here. The 'What stops us from inviting' video is a good reminder and we are planning to use the 'Acorn' idea early in September.

Home Groups Benefit from Fine Weather!

St Pauls has eight Home Groups and two thirds of the congregation are members of one of them. These meet midweek for Bible study and prayer and pastoral support for the members. Many of them take a short break over the summer.

The one pictured here celebrated the break with a Barbecue before it broke up. It was a happy time for all present and the wonderful weather we are having at present contributed to its success.

We will be meeting up again in September.

Helping Hands

The charity which St Paul’s supports and which we feature this month is "Helping Hands."  The charity offers a free, individual, face to face, and confidential service to help people deal with financial problems, debts, employment, or housing. 

In particular, they assist and advise about Welfare Benefit applications, with form filling and letter writing. They provide help with utility bills, consumer issues and family law.

In their publicity to potential clients they say: ” We have recently developed an outreach service so we can represent you at Welfare Benefit appeals and Tribunals. We can also go to the homes of housebound people to help them to fill out Welfare Benefit applications and deal with debts etc. We offer a ‘one stop shop’ service, so we can, for instance, provide a full package of care and assistance to the victims of domestic abuse including housing, financial and legal help.

We are encouraging anyone with debt problems to seek our help at an early stage.  Please, don’t let your debts mount up, and find that your interest payments are getting out of control. Just seek our help.”

We pray for their work and for the team which offers consultation at the Trinity Methodist Church in Oadby.

What Stops You?

Christians believe that Jesus Christ is the answer to the problems of life for the individual but also for society. So why are we so wary of sharing this good news with other people? In his sermon yesterday, Steve Bailey recorded the problems observed by the congregation on a flipchart. He also spoke of a book that he has been reading recently: “Unlocking the Growth” by Michael Harvey. He commended this book to the congregation and let us know that some of these “blockages,” which are chapter headings in the book, would be the topics for the sermons on coming Sundays.

I Was Blind…

Keith Waddell, who works with the Africa Inland Mission in Uganda was with us on Sunday as this year’s visit to the UK comes to an end. Over nearly 25 years, Keith has been responsible for building up an eye service in Uganda that not only reaches out to large numbers in the rural areas, whose eye problems would otherwise go untreated, but he has also been able to teach a new generation of Ugandan surgeons the skills they will need to carry on the work. In consequence, he holds the honorary post of Professor in the Mbarara Medical School. He also leads teams into neighbouring countries which lack an equivalent group of ophthalmic specialists.

In our Sunday morning service, Keith was interviewed about his work, during which a series of slides, taken by one of our congregation who visited Keith last year, was shown.

The Church of Uganda is soon to celebrate Keith’s 50 years of Mission service with a service of thanksgiving. We are thrilled that we have been able to support Keith in this invaluable work which testifies so strongly to the love of Christ.

New Life!

Saturday saw the opening of the new Cathedral Gardens by the Bishop and the Mayor of Leicester during an afternoon of celebration called “Garden of Life.” It is hoped that these new gardens will be an opportunity for people of Leicester to step aside in the hubbub of the city’s life and find peace.

The Cathedral next door witnesses to the New Life that is offered by Christ.

It was therefore appropriate that, after many joyful activities, the day concluded with an outdoor service of baptism by immersion. Bishop Tim heard the candidates’ professions of their Faith and then plunged them under the water. As they left the pool, Bishop Christopher confirmed them, praying that the Holy Spirit would indwell their lives.