The main news this week is that at our church meeting on Tuesday we received a unanimous confirmation of our call to Nicaragua. Jodie and I shared about our sense of call to Nicaragua and then we left the meeting for the people to talk and then vote about it, they all voted in favour which is very affirming. We had already been offered a place by Latin Link but for us we weren’t going to go unless our sending church congregation supported our sense of call. We can now officially accept the offer and get the ball rolling on the preparations, not least raising the funds! Bunyan Baptist undertakes to cover a third of the costs, but we still have to raise 2/3rds via friends and church contacts. It does feel like a relief as it was a bit nerve racking sharing your story and hoping for a favourable response especially in these times of economic recession.
Speaking of economics this week is much better than last week when I blogged when we had to do a weekly shop for £16! A friend must have taken pity on me whilst reading my blog and sent us a very generous donation. I do believe the Lord provides but it is usually through other people and I give thanks to God and my generous friend! We didn’t need to count the pennies in the same way this week as we shopped in Tescos today but we still watched what we bought and we always try to be good stewards of what God gives us. How people on benefits can afford to eat and pay the bills I just don’t know, fortunately we are blessed to have friends who support us and God hasn’t let us down yet!
Life is a strange mixture of highs of lows, we have had plenty to be grateful for this week including the above but it feels like wrestling with God at times (the passage for Sunday at church was Genesis 32:22-32) also as the jobsearch seems so hopeless at the moment! Signing on is a depressing experience every two weeks and although the staff are only doing their job and are mostly very nice, the job centre has a depressive and oppressive spirit to it and I am always glad to leave the place! It is a struggle to stay hopeful or optimistic when there are so few jobs and so many looking for them, I am just glad we are going to Nicaragua in November otherwise I would be depressed.
My guitar classes should be starting again soon and I have been faithful to my daily practising even if I had a couple of weeks off over Christmas! My chord changes are beginning to come together ( I know I am slow!!) and I am enjoying playing the guitar even if I will never be a Jimi Hendrix or even a Billy Bragg! At least I should manage to sing a few songs in Nicaragua, a good mix of worship, love and political songs!
I seem to be reading a fair bit of Marx at the moment, I am presently reading Why Marx was right by Terry Eagleton and am thoroughly enjoying it! Even Newsnight had a discussion panel last night about the crisis of capitalism and what Marxism has to say, it included an interview with Eric Hobsbawm whose book I finished the other week, small world! I wouldn’t call myself a Marxist although I would say I am a socialist, but I do believe Marx still has a lot to say to us today about the nature of capitalism and his early demise was much exaggerated in fact I would say he is due for a revival! I don’t believe socialism or communism is inevitable but I do believe God’s Kingdom is coming and one day will come in all its fullness and that it will look more like socialism than capitalism although it will outshine them both!! Go well love Stu x
