McLeans to Wales

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As you may have noticed, this blog has been pretty silent lately.  We moved house nearly 4 weeks ago, and since then we have been busy unpacking, serving in our new church, unpacking, closing things out at our old house, celebrating birthdays, and probably more unpacking.  Well, then we had someone from the States stay with us for four nights and I just got back yesterday from a three-day conference for ministers.  I think things are going to quiet down for us now, which means I am out of excuses for having a messy office.

Anyway, we need God’s grace as much as ever.  We hear so often from people who pray for us – both in the UK and in the US – that I can’t help but be hopeful that God will show Himself strong in our behalf.

Thank you to those of you who prayed for the induction service on Saturday.  We had the chapel full, but thankfully no one was left standing, except for maybe the dog that one friend brought along – and I’m sure that he was made to feel more than welcome by all the children who were trying to pet him afterwards.

The Lord sent as many people as we could handle, but no more.  The ladies did a fine job serving food afterward, delivering it airline style, moving up and down the narrow aisles to serve the people right in their seats – the food was much better than “airline food,” however.  No one seemed to mind the crowded conditions, and the whole thing seemed to go rather well.

We managed to have most of the families with young children crowded into the front corner of the room, which I’m sure made for some great entertainment if anyone was losing interest in the actual service.  I think there were three mums, two dads, 3 babies, and 7 other children of various ages.  The kids eventually settled down, but it was quite lively at the beginning.  The preacher for the day began his sermon by commenting on the “fruitfulness” of some of the young ministers in North Wales.

So, we were glad for how the day went.  It was a tremendous encouragement to have so many there from other churches – I think at least 12 different churches were represented.  And we were extremely grateful for those who were able to help clean up afterwards.  The sermon was a great encouragement – emphasising from John 21 that the Lord uses failing people, particularly failing ministers, to care for His sheep.  There were many other blessings from the day that I won’t take time mention.  Now, we need to get to work!

We are somewhat recovered from the weekend now.  What a memorable weekend it was for us!  On Monday morning I was recounting the events of the weekend with our girls, observing that it was no wonder they were so tired.  As I was listing all the things that had been going with our new church, Maggie pointed out that we had also had the royal wedding!  Of course – the royal wedding – no wonder they are exhausted!

Here in the UK, we officially had a 4 day weekend because of the wedding on Friday and the May Day bank holiday on Monday.  The last four days will always be remembered by us as the weekend we saw the royal wedding, held the induction service, experienced my first day as pastor in Rhuddlan, and then awakened to the news that Osama bin Laden was dead.  What strange juxtapositions we often encounter: a royal wedding watched by billions, full of pageantry and extravagance – followed for us by a simple service in a small chapel, attended by 100 people and hardly noticed by anyone else; a beautiful “common” girl marries a prince and the world celebrates – then two days later a bearded extremist is assassinated, and the world celebrates again.  World-wide fame for each, but for very different reasons.

In the big picture, it’s a good reminder that we live in a fallen world, where joyous events can quickly be overshadowed by darker happenings.  On an individual level, the wedding was fun, fascinating, and maybe even a little inspiring.  But for us, beginning our ministry in Rhuddlan will prove to have far more abiding – even eternal!- significance than any other event of the weekend.

In thinking over the past several years, we are realising that our special memories are scattered among several different houses.

• Summer 2005 – Graduation from seminary and finally moving off campus
• Summer 2006 – Maggie is born
• Summer 2007 – Move across town to a larger house
• Winter 2008 – Gwyneth is born
• Autumn 2008 – Move to Abergele, North Wales
• Autumn 2009 – Move across town
• Autumn 2010 – Amelia is born
• Summer 2011 – Move to Rhuddlan

Every year since 2005 we have either moved, had a baby, or both.  We’ll see what happens in 2012.  I’m not making any predictions!

Things are moving forward on a number of fronts, and we could really use your prayers.  First, the induction service for my becoming the pastor in Rhuddlan will be held this Saturday.  I think that people from several different gospel-preaching churches will be attending, which is a mixed blessing.  We are thrilled to have them, but we are not sure where we will put them all!  At this point, we have made all the plans that we can, so we are not sure what else we can do.  It will be fun on Saturday.  Since my first Sunday preaching in Rhuddlan will be this Sunday, it promises to be a busy weekend all around.

And speaking of being busy, we think we have found a house to rent.  The papers are not officially signed, but we have them in hand.  We don’t have an official moving date yet, but it’s going to be soon – less than a month away.  We would have liked to put it off another week or two, but we have other events coming down the pike, so we need to just get it over with.

Right now we feel like we are in between ministries, so it will be nice to be officially “inducted” (much preferable to being “induced”) at Rhuddlan.  However, with the move coming up, we definitely feel like our strength and focus for ministry are being seriously diluted.  We need grace, patience, and wisdom for digging into our new ministry and getting set up in our new house.

Perhaps you’ve just read our prayer letter (or maybe you haven’t), but you want to know a bit more.  Well here it is.  We are thrilled to have the Nicholsons back from the States finally.  They got back a couple of days ago.  Having filled in for them for 12 weeks, we have a new appreciation for how they laboured so faithfully for the 2 1/2 years they were here by themselves, before we arrived.  We have also been glad to see others in the church pitch in more and help with various parts of the ministry and looking out for one another (and us).  We aren’t above being “ministered to” by the people we came to serve, and many have been a great blessing to us.

But things are changing fast for us.  We are indeed switching to a different church in the town of Rhuddlan.  In fact, this Sunday will be our last Sunday as part of the church in Abergele.  We will be attending church in Rhuddlan for two Sundays, and then I will be taking over as pastor there on 1 May.  With God’s help we will find a house to rent in Rhuddlan as well – hopefully sooner rather than later.  It’s not a long commute from Abergele to Rhuddlan, but we definitely believe that we will be much more effective in that ministry if we could live in the town itself.

We are excited about serving in Rhuddlan, but we need wisdom for how best to make gospel progress in that town.  There are a good number of older folks in our new church, and they are burdened about reaching younger people and families in that town.  Reaching unchurched younger people through an older, established church can be a challenge, but we trust that God is not finished working in Rhuddlan.

One of the coolest parts about going to Rhuddlan is that it has an 800 year-old castle there.

Click here for our latest prayer letter.  More than ever, we need your prayers.

You never know what might result from attempts at ministry.  Last October we had a three-day half-term holiday club.  To be honest, it wasn’t a very exciting week.  Amelia was born just a couple weeks before, so we were still adjusting to life with a newborn and Marcia was still recovering.  We only had a few kids come.  It seemed like a lot of effort for almost no result.  We wondered if it had been worth it.

But not long ago we began having renewed contact with a parent of one of the kids who came to the club, and it has been very encouraging.  Since people on both sides of the Atlantic check this blog, I won’t be any more specific than that, but we are encouraged by what’s been happening.

We are so dependent on the Lord to bring anything out of any of our efforts.  The important thing for us is to keep trying and keep praying.