Saturday Post -- 05/11/11

These are some pictures from last weekend's 7th anniversary barbecue. Here I am swimming in a giant vat of hot chocolate...I wish! Still, the copious mud at the lake's surface made for a very pleasant water temperature.

Amanda, like many, wisely stayed in or around the shade of the car most of the time. It was a hot one!

A decidedly quieter week, this one, after the endless travel and meetings of the one before. Another holiday, Día de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) allowed us a day's excursion to a remote lake a good 45 minutes' drive out of town. I took my zoom lens in the hope of snapping some monkeys, which friends of ours have witnessed out there in the past. Alas, even they appeared to have recoiled from the sheer heat of what was a suffocating day, temperature-wise. 

We also enjoyed a relaxing day at the FT staff barbecue, marking the 7th anniversary since its founding. An ENT surgery patient had very kindly offered his sizeable chunk of land to us for the day, which included two huge mud-lakes. Wherever there's a body of water to be found, I'm often first in, and this was no exception. It makes me wonder if I've got something of my late grandmother in me, who was said to be a born swimmer. Until I start swimming...

But the undoubted highlight of the week for us came on Tuesday evening when, for the first time in nearly two years, we conversed with our old friends Bryan & Amanda Dove, via Skype. Amanda and I met the Doves (from Ohio) at a newbies lunch at St George's Tron when we were engaged in our post-marriage, Glasgow-wide church-hunt. They had just arrived in town for Bryan's post-graduate studies at Glasgow University and, like ourselves, were certainly on the lookout for some Christian companionship. Well, from the moment Bryan revealed his fellow United sympathies (and a happy 25th anniversary to you, Sir Alex) our friendship was simply an inevitability and over our two-and-a-half-years in the city, we shared many a Thanksgiving, Christmas dinner, hill-walk, chick-flick night, Old Trafford visit and so many more special times. When we left for Bolivia, Amanda was due any day now with their first child, Saoirse.

Well, we finally got our first live glimpse of the 22-month-old Saoirse and the more recent addition, Reuben, on Tuesday evening. Moreover, we had a great conversation. Bryan & Amanda are now based out in San Diego, where Bryan is serving as a Navy Chaplain. It was exciting to hear what God is doing in their lives and really beneficial to be better informed as to how we can pray for them. Like us, they keep up a fairly active web presence, but there is just no substitute for a good, face-to-face conversation. We really enjoyed it, and there are so many others out there we'd love to speak with in person once again. So if you have Skype and you're up for a chat, please get in touch!

There have been some interesting developments in my own ministry this week. While in Canada, we were really convicted of the need for us to be focused on personally discipling younger believers and we prayed that God would reveal 'disciples' to us. On Thursday, I had the privilege of meeting a 16-year-old church and youth group regular called Nino. We're going to be working through a discipleship book together for an indefinite period and I used Thursday to introduce the material and establish some ground rules in terms of accountability. Today I'm due to meet with Paulo, another teenage boy who is our next-door neighbour, with loads of leadership potential, but somewhat lacking at the moment in terms of Christian friendships.

Tonight at the youth group, as part of our year-long study of 'The Purpose Driven Life' we're due to look at the Word of God, and I'm down to give the talk. However, it has become clear to us as leaders that the vast majority of the youth group aren't picking up their Bibles at all between Monday and Friday. So, with much prayer, I've decided it's time for a challenge. I'm going to outline the benefits of regular Bible reading -- indeed, the necessity of it -- and show them how they can practically go about establishing a regular reading time. Not only that, but I'm going to issue each of the young people with a contract, signed by themselves and their small-group leader, which commits them to a daily time of Bible reading.

In all honesty, we have no idea how 'successful' the enterprise will be, as commitment is a major weakness in this culture. However, we're keen not to just let the teenagers leave with vague hopes of getting into daily Bible reading, only to forget about it the next day. We want them to think seriously upon how to go about this truly fundamental practice in the Christian life.

One last thing before we sign off: now that 2011 is slowly but surely drawing to close, our thoughts are turning to designing our brand, spanking new prayer-cards for 2012. If you received one in the mail this year, then you can expect one in the coming months. If you didn't and you would like us to post you one for 2012, please get in touch at our email address, cramandaham@gmail.com. Ta!

Prayer

• For Craig's discipleship work with Nino and Paulo. Amanda is also looking to establish a regular discipleship slot with a girl called Adriana in the coming weeks.
• For Craig's talk with the young people tonight, and for a group-wide commitment to a daily devotional time.

Praise

• For some relaxing excursions over the past week, particularly the chance last Saturday to spend time socially with our fellow workers at FT.
• For our Skype chat with our friends Bryan & Amanda. 

¡Que Dios les bendiga!

Craig & Amanda