making time

The last two weeks of June are always really busy.

I've been here long enough now to know that. There are all sorts of things at the school, with end of year dances and concerts and services - just about end-of-year everything. And all sorts of loose ends which need tieing up in the church.

Then there are things going on in the village. Like the local Children's Gala Day this coming Saturday.

And our own 'communion Sunday' coming up, with another extra service in the afternoon.

Planning is important and I try to be prepared. Like getting ahead as much as I can today, doing some initial preparation for the services this coming Sunday. Getting the groundwork done.

Way back, too, I'd also taken steps to ease the 'log-jam' pressure that there is by asking one of our 'fellowship groups' to organise the Sunday evening service. I mean, I'll do the preaching and lead them through the sacrament: but they were prepared to plan how the service might run, what shape it should have. That sort of thing.

Mind you, I think they maybe felt that they had bitten off a bit too much. Planning a thing like that with a whole group of people who all have their own great ideas - well, it can sometimes start your head spinning.

But I'd left it to them and they've got it all in hand, I think, which is great. It eases the pressure on me quite a bit, that's for sure.

The pressure of time is something most folk feel. At least in our helter-skelter world where everything happens so fast. So it sometimes takes an effort just to stop and sit and meet with folk.

We made the effort today. The Reception Area team. Well, most of us. Rosaly wasn't there, but the rest of us managed along. For all of the team, I recognise it was a sacrifice of time. When most, maybe all could probably ill afford the time they gave.

But it's good and important to stop like that and to make and to take the time that it needs to discuss and address all the issues there are: and to see what the Lord has been doing down the months.

We met over lunch at the halls and were able to work through a range of different matters which required to be addressed.

For something like 46 weeks of the year or more these folk provide a wonderful menu for lunch. And the teas and coffees as well, of course. And all done entirely voluntarily. I think they're really wonderful and it's not just what they do, but who they are and how they go about the different chores that all need done.

It's humbling to work alongside such folk. And to know their support and their help.

In fact, I was thinking today how many different folk there are around me here who give of their time and their strength in a multitude of different ways. Very humbling indeed. It makes me see how amazingly good God is. To surround me with people who share the same vision and seek the same ends and gladly are serving the Lord.

And, like I say, it's good to stop and have the chance to talk things through with them. As we did today.

It was good, as well, to have the chance at night to meet with the folk in the kind of embryonic 'fellowship group' there is. Again, it's a case of the time being made and taken.

Talking through their work-life situations and the way the Lord works there. And trying to get our heads around the notion of the 'covenant'. All good stuff!

And it felt like there was progress being made. A growing understanding of the way the message of the Bible holds together: and just what this guy Jesus was accomplishing.

He was never too busy!