A month in review...

Probably not helped by sitting out in the cold over three days for the Passion of Christ I was not in good shape during Easter week. Therefore it was a delight to learn that Jane had booked a very last minute short break to Portugal.

After speaking at the Sussex Prayer Breakfast we (me and the ‘girls’) headed off for Gatwick and then to Faro. We arrived at the set of apartments just a few miles west of Albufeira around 9pm.  I hadn’t a clue where I was, only a vague idea of how I had got there, and as often happens when I fly, I could hardly hear anything. But Jane and Tabitha were fantastic and ensured I had the time and space I needed to rest and recuperate. I soon picked up and we had a brilliant time exploring the area in a hired car. We visited a great Anglican Church in nearby Lagoa. Always worth doing, as amongst other things, ‘locals’ can give you the best information on places to visit on a short stay.   

Arriving back it was straight into ‘work’ as I attended a Training Day in Supervision for Spiritual Directors Part-Two with the excellent Andrew Walker. A few days later we had the concluding Day for the year long course ‘Introduction to Spiritual Direction.’

The pace of life remained hectic because as much as I needed the break and it was great to be away the flip side was that I now had limited prep time for some upcoming events and activities.    

  The first of these was the Residential Weekend for our MSM course. http://www.missionshapedministry.org/ I was co-leading a module on Evangelism. It was a huge challenge trying to condense  two 90 minute sessions into one 120 minute session. The weekend itself was great fun and this was my first visit to the fantastic Ashburnham Conference and Prayer Centre.

I arrived back home on Sunday afternoon and had a quick turn around before heading north at 7am on Monday. I was going to the Church Army Gathering at The Hayes Conference Centre Swanwick. ‘The Gathering’ was chosen instead of Conference to reflect our becoming an Acknowledged Mission Order last September. The title was ‘Fit Together’ which was a very clever idea as it carried a number of motifs. We heard some ‘stories’ of the work of various Officers and again it is amazing the breadth of the work of the Church Army across the UK and Ireland.  However in our agreed endeavour to make Christ known we ‘fit together.’ Our key note speaker was Graham Tomlin who helped us explore how we could train ourselves in Spiritual Fitness. (Getting 'Fit Together') For my part I set up a display of the work of CA in rural areas, I led a small group plus I ran a workshop introducing the Rural Evangelism Course Simon Martin and I produced for the Arthur Rank Centre. http://www.arthurrankcentre.org.uk/

Back from The Gathering and time for some last minute preparation for the final session of the ‘Everybody Welcome Course’ at Wivlesfield. www.everybodywelcome.org.uk/

Sunday, and I joined the good folk at St George’s Kemp Town for what has now become an established Celebration BBQ following the Patronal Mass. I provided some large garden games, a PA kit, a folk singing brother, Malcolm, and a singing wife who also helps set things up – Jane is a real treasure!