As the Worship Group were wrapping-up last Wednesday evening, Pat seized the chance to record the very first Brandesburton Link podcast.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 3:02 — 1.0MB)

19 days to go…………

GCSE results day for my daughter……………….we have all done very well, lots of As and A*s, thank you Jesus for answering all our prayers during the long GCSE revision months…..

On Sunday I had to take my son up to Whitby where he is involved in the sound for the Whitby folk festival taking place there this week. After only seeing a handful of people for the last 3 weeks or so, having to drive through, Bridlington, Scarborough and then into Whitby where there were literally tens and tens of thousands of people all seemingly trying to get in my way as we hunted for an address right in the middle of Whitby by the swing bridge, was quite a traumatic experience and I longed for the quiet of the isolated beaches of the rugged Sutherland coastline…….What were all these people doing here and why were they all trying to get run over whilst eating fish and chips in one hand and an ice cream in the other and why were they all so huge………….It must be due to the fisn n chips n icecream.    

On the way home it suddenly struck me that it is all well and good going to somewhere isolated for a holiday, in fact it is excellent and I can highly recommend it but thats it, a holiday. We aren’t doing our job for God by cutting ourselves off from folk we need to be in amongst people, right in the mix telling the tens of thousands about Jesus and the love He has for everyone.

Jesus loved people He was always in amongst the crowds and the crowds flocked to Him…….

In Acts chapter 2 the disciples are meeting together and waiting as Jesus had instructed when suddenly the Holy Spirit descends on them all like tongues of fire and Peter steps out into the crowds of Jerusalem, there were tens and tens of thousands of people as it was the feast of Pentecost, it was just like Whitby during folk festival week. Peter wasn’t afraid, he told them about Jesus and in verse 41 it says about 3000 people became believers that day……………..Wow.

We cannot tell people about Jesus if there isn’t anyone there to hear, we must seek out the crowds we must seek out people and tell them about the love of Jesus, and carry out the job we have been entrusted to do.

Jesus at the end of Matthew says….All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always to the very end of the age……………..This is our task, this is our main job, this is what we must endeavour to do at all times.

Monday was the day we had put aside for starting to deliver the posters advertising church, so with trepidation I set off out into Brandesburton and the surrounding area with 27, A4 posters. I needn’t have worried, we have prayed and prayed about posters, leaflets, Brandesburton and the surrounding area, God had gone before me………………..Everyone was so nice and wanted to put a poster up and the conversations I got into…… I was 35 minutes in one place just chatting about church and Jesus. It was a long afternoon but a fantastic one and by 6pm I was all talked out…………We now have posters up in 4 pubs, 5 caravan sites, 4 postoffices, a chippy, 2 butchers, a hairdressers, a newsagents, the golf club etc etc.

I am really looking forward to our worship meeting / practice tomorrow evening, it seems a while since we have all been together.

Played bowls again this evening…..my technique has suffered somewhat through lack of playing for nearly 3 weeks. We won, just…………….Next match Semi finals on Thursday, I will have to try and have a practice.

Sue has had a good harvest from the allotment today, but we have really suffered from the months without rainfall, even though it has been pouring down for the last few days, it is far too little and much too late. Thankfully we only do it for enjoyment and our lives do not depend on our harvest………………

21 days to go and counting down very quickly.

Well we are now back from our hols and looking forward to the next few weeks with great anticipation of what God has got lined up for us…….. We have had a fantastic 18 day break up on the North West coast of Scotland. A 500 mile drive which takes about 12 hours or so with a caravan on the back of the car and a car laden down with 5 kayaks on the roof, an inflatable Zodiac and outboard along with an east coast crab pot, squashed into the back of the car and the van bursting at the seams with all the gear we take…………….We took a real risk in changing sites this year and travelling a bit further North but God was good to us and we have found yet another outstanding beach campsite………and we have all come back with a tan, no it’s not rust the weather has been fantastic. We have been kayaking most days, out in the boat catching mackerel and crabs, we have had porpoises circling us and have seen minke whales cruising past the site on many of the days. We haven’t heard any news, seen any television or read a newspaper, there has been hardly any mobile phone coverage, it has been great!!!! We have had no outside distractions at all and it has been a great opportunity to get close to God, lots of time to read the bible and lots of time to pray and praise Him for all of this wonderful creation He has given us to explore and wonder at. We haven’t been outside the country for  a holiday for about 8 years now as there is so much to see and do and walk and climb and paddle in the UK.

God has really looked after us as well, on the way there we cut it a bit fine with the diesel ….we kept expecting to see a petrol station but about 150 miles went by without passing one at all and then the exhaust started to fall off about an hour or so from the campsite, lots of prayer, we were burning just fumes I am sure at the end…but we made it into the village only to be confronted by 2 of the pumps being out of diesel, thankfully there was a pump at the back of the forecourt that was still ok, we then had another 6 miles to the site on a road that greeted us with “Unsuitable for caravans”…………………We made it and the exhaust stayed on, just…thank you, thank you, Lord.

On the first Saturday evening my sons girlfriend had a fall and badly injured her thumb, which was horribly swollen and she was unable to  move it and she was also in a lot of pain. We all feared the worst but God spoke to me immediately and said pray for her, well like you do I thought I would wait until I went to bed, when no one was around as we had a friend with us who wasn’t a Christian and I thought it might upset him (feeble excuse I know )……..Anyway God kept telling me to pray for her and just before she left the van that night I put my hand on her swollen hand and asked Jesus to heal her and take the pain away so that she might be able to get some sleep…..I then spent the next hour or so in bed saying sorry to God for not praying for her immediately and that from now on I would be obedient when God called on me to pray for someone. I fell asleep praising and worshipping God.

Sunday morning, Laura bursts into the van after an early morning walk, all dressed and booted up, bearing in mind she could not get undressed without help a few hours previously.” How did you sleep Laura”…”Oh fine”. “Hows the hand Laura” “Oh theres nothing wrong with it now!!!!!!”  Praise God, Praise God, Praise God, we really thought we might be trying to find a casualty department today, but God heard our cries and prayers.

God really cares for us and wants to help us and make things good for us…way back in the bible in Exodus ch15 v26 “If you listen carefully to the voice of the Lord your God and do what is right in His eyes………….for I am the Lord who heals you”

Psalm 103 ” Praise the Lord, O my Soul, and forget not all His benefits -who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases. ……”

Matthew ch4 v23 ” Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom, and healing every disease and sickness among the people” 

God intervened many times throughout the holiday, He really does love each and every one of us and wants the best for us all the time and is constantly looking after his people…at the end of John ch 21 v 25 ” Jesus did many other things as well. If everyone of them were written down. I suppose that even the whole world would not have room for the books that would be written.”

God is constantly looking after myself and my  family and also all the Christians I know, we all have many stories of how He has touched our lives in different ways. He wants to look after everyone, we just have to acknowledge that we need Him in our lives and accept that Jesus died for each and every one of us so that we can be forgiven for all the wrong things we have done in our lives. When we accept this and acknowledge that He is the risen Son of God we can have a relationship with Jesus, and this relationship is full of overwhelming love that will transform lives and bring a freedom purpose and a new beginning for everyone who believes…………………. 

Well, August is upon us, link launch is now next month, 41 days away……………….We are well on our way with our preparations. We now have posters and a vinyl banner to put up outside on meeting nights.

Sue and Alison are working on link ladies, we are awaiting posters and invitations from the printers. All the publicity stuff looks awesome which is down to our good friend Amanda who has been doing all the design work. From the outset we decided that everything must look and be excellent to put across a modern new and vibrant church and God gave us Amanda who has sorted out everything for us.

I have been bursting into print for the local magazines, Brandesburton Buzz and also Leven Life.

Sue was in the hairdressers the other day when she came across a form advertising the Beverley Guardian who are going to run a feature on Brandesburton and Leven next week. I was going to contact them towards the end of August but this was purpose made for us. So hopefully we are going to feature in the Beverley Guardian as well!!

I have had some cracking drives to Spurn point over the last week or so…..early morning sunrises,  I have seen deer, hares, foxes, owls….the quiet of the car is a good place to get close to God, and you cannot help but want to praise Him when His creation keeps leaping out in front of you underneath a beautiful red sky……….

I managed to talk about Jesus to the launch coxwain and his crew the other evening. I was really tired and just wanted to bob off to sleep as the launch cut through the waves back to the point end after leaving a ship. As I walked through the cabin door I was greeted with “Now then Clarky have you been happy clapping lately”. The crew member then asked what kind of a church I went to and before I knew it I was telling them both about what it means to be a Christian….. It’s my fault I keep praying for opportunities to talk to people and it never ceases to amaze me when the opportunities crop up……….

We really need some rain, my poor allotment is desperate but tales from the plot will have to wait until next time……………………