Saturday Post -- 19/06/10

This week, as mentioned in the last entry, I’ve once again had the privilege of leading the morning meditations. And I do mean privilege. There’s nothing like delving deep into the Word of God and discovering new, exciting truths. Intensive Bible study’s a bit like exercise. At times, we’re a little lazy and can’t be bothered making the effort. But when you take the decision to just get on with it, you find yourself wondering why you don’t do this more often!

This week’s passage was 2 Corinthians 1:8-14, allowing me to cover a range of topics. One of them was how we can glorify God in our workplace, something Amanda and I have been thinking a lot about recently. Thinking about Paul’s tribulations in Asia allowed us to explore the theme of suffering and I found this really useful, though, for the locals, suffering doesn’t appear to be the big hurdle that it is for so many back home. In the West, we’re keen to highlight issues such as Third World poverty in the discussion, but, having worked with individuals who face this every day – Christian and otherwise – getting angry at God for their lot never really appears to be top of their list of priorities. Perhaps our uncharacteristic identification with the poor man is a convenient ruse to avoid the real issue (and if you’re not quite sure what that is, I suggest you read Luke chapter 13 and verses one to six).

No word as yet on our carnets, so we’d appreciate your continued prayers on that front. Monday sees the latest national holiday (this time for the winter solstice – I’m not holding my breath for Glastonbury highlights), which tends to rub salt into the wind a little. Bank holidays, to my mind, just aren’t the same without a set of wheels. Nonetheless, we have a car and we will have an unexpected lie-in, and for both we are truly thankful.

And we also give thanks today for the safe arrival of our fellow workers here, Kenny & Claudia Holt, who, along with their children, Emma, Sarah and Joshua, finally made it to Trinidad on Thursday evening after ten days attending to various matters in Santa Cruz. Since last December, the Holts had been in Scotland on furlough. Kenny and Claudia had just got married when I initially came to Trinidad in 2000 and their friendship and wisdom – along with the rambling dissections of Rangers first-XI – have proved invaluable over the years. So we’re delighted to be working alongside them again.

In the next 24 hours, some more familiar faces will be arriving, in the shape of Dr. Alasdair Fyfe, Alastair Fergusson and his son, Dr. Stuart Fergusson (quite frankly, I can’t believe I’m adding the title ‘Dr’ to the name of an old mucker I used to play Scalextric with – talk about feeling old). The Fergussons are old family friends of ours and Alasdair Fyfe is a man whose presence one can never help but feel blessed by, perpetually brimming with wisdom, interest and encouragement. The Alasd/tairs (delete as appropriate) are here in their capacity as elders from Cartsbridge, the sending church of Rachel Peebles, who works in FT’s community ministry, though Alastair Fergusson also sits on the Foundation Totai UK board. Anyway, we will endeavour to link up with them in the next few days, particularly as they come laden with trinkets from afar – or ‘Priority Case #1’ as we labelled it. Just hoping the Dairy Milk bars can take the heat!

Prayer
• For our carnets. Nuff said.
• For witnessing opportunities with our non-Christian workmates.

Praise
• For the Lord’s guiding hand for Craig during this week’s Meditations.
• For Kenny & Claudia’s safe arrival.

¡Que Dios les bendiga!

Craig & Amanda