Dudley!

Back in 1989 a young man from the USA came to work with Gorsley and Ross on Wye Baptist churches, following a mission trip from a Baylor university team led by a young Louie Giglio
The young mans name was Dudley Callison he did a difficult job very well.
Over the years we lost touch until we were reunited by the wonders of Facebook
To cut a long story short we met again this week in Shropshire
It was great to see Dudley ,meet his parents and hear about his family.
What also excited me was his passion to bless people and share Good News with them. dudley works for an organisation which is very influenced by Alan Hirsch (someone who has also influenced me in thinking about Mission (see the Forgotten Ways Handbook)
We took Dudley down to our town centre site where we are about to rebuild and in the rubble he could see enormous potential for mission
Just talking about mission with Dudley and Steve fired us all up to get on with it soon!
Took a few pictures of the old building and Dudely and also thge stunning local park which looked great in spring
From the rubble new life will come!

Michele

Yesterday we buried Michele ;She was a young woman of 41 who recently died following a very brave batlle with cancer. Michele leaves a devoted family, and as they were very proud of her ,she I am sure would have been very proud of the way they took part in her funeral despite the obvious pain they were feeling in their loss.
During the service my mind went back to the fantastic occasion when Michele testified to her faith in Jesus by being being baptised ,it was a wonderful service ,full of joy and praise !

The symbolism of baptism is powerful as Michele went down into the water she was saying I die to myself as she came up out of the water she was proclaiming I rise to live again for Jesus!
Michele did live for Jesus in the short time that was left to her, and now she has gone to be with Him forever
We took Michelle to the grave and left her there; knowing that God would not leave her there

Our thoughts and prayers are with Kevin ,the children and all Michele's family

Easter!

Just back from Easter morning service
I really enjoyed being there.It is so good to see so many people gathered to worship The Risen Lord Jesus!
The music was great , there was a passion for Jesus in the singing and there are real and deep relationships being built ,lots of local people coming along and a sense that God is at work in our church unworthy though we all are. we have travelled a long long way in recent years . We are people together on a mission
Above all though God is great ! Jesus Christ is Risen! He is Risen indeed!