McLeans to Wales

Well, it’s been a busy day.  We had a quick birthday party for the Nicholson’s son Daniel in the morning.  Then, we hauled our equipment down to the high street to set up for the “Fayre.”  It had poured rain for most of the morning, but the weather finally cleared off around noon and stayed pretty nice all afternoon.

As for the fayre itself.  We were fairly satisfied with how it went.  Our intention was not to blitz the street with leaflets or tracts (most of them would be thrown on the ground anyway) but to join in with the event, show that we are part of the community, and try to connect with people we know.  Also, we wanted to raise the profile of our church and make people aware of our existence.  And, we prayed that we would be able to give out at least a few pieces of gospel literature, which we did.

So, our activities at the fair – i mean, fayre – were pretty low key.  We are in a small town, and the people we meet, we will generally meet again.  And it’s the repeated contact that we aim for.  The more familiar and comfortable people are with us the better.  One especially encouraging thing for us was the involvement of our church folks.  Each of us brought his or her own gifts and strengths (and weaknesses) to the effort, and it was great to see the Lord using all of us together.

Today I began working with two groups of high school boys, something that should continue into the spring of the school year, every Friday morning.  The first group that came today consisted of Year 11 boys, which I think is roughly equivalent to the 11th grade in US high schools, although one does not have to continue after Year 11 in the UK.

The encouraging thing for me is that I know all of the boys that came in the Year 11 group.  It’s the same group that I spent some time with last year – faithful readers of this blog may remember that I wound up playing football with this group on my first time volunteering with them.  The second group is all Year 10 boys, none of whom I’ve met before.  Being young high schoolers, they are a bit easier to manage than the older ones.  What a difference a year makes – kind of like the difference in American high schools between the cocky seniors and timid underclassmen.

Needs vary among these guys – anything from mere lack of interest in academics to heart-rending family situations and serious potential for future problems with the law.  Most of them need some good role models and plenty of encouragement, and I am just there to help them in whatever way I can.

Since it begins at 9 am and runs until 12:45 with hardly any break, I was pretty worn out by the time I got home.  In some ways, however, it is the highlight of the week.

I have a few things I want to talk about on this blog, but for now here is our latest update letter.

We completed our holiday bible club this afternoon.  Overall, we were happy with how things went.  I think we averaged about 14 kids every day, and we probably had over 20 different children attend at least one day.  I think at least five children had little to no church background, which is the group we were trying to target.

Although we were limited in the number of workers we had, the club did attract the support of many folks in our church.  That was encouraging.  We were also encouraged by the larger numbers of children compared to last year.  When you reserve a room, plan a program, make all the preparations, and then 2 children show up – or none – it can be kind of a downer.  So we were thrilled to have between 12 and 16 each day.  And the Christian parents who brought their children were an encouragement and showed their appreciation.

So, overall we would say that the effort was worthwhile, although the club wound up with a slightly different focus – mostly kids from Christian families – than we had intended.  So far in our time in Wales, it has seemed that traditional children’s ministries just don’t hold much attraction for the general public.  I suppose that could change if the ministry is supported by more personal relationships with the families we are trying to target.  However, the growing impression on us is that ministry “programs” are just going to be very limited in their effectiveness, unless perhaps the program is augmented with one-on-one contact.  Even so, we ultimately rely on God being at work and drawing people to Himself.  We just need to keep working at finding those people.

Thanks so much for praying for the holiday club.  We had a great time, made some new friends, taught the gospel to many children, and experienced the Lord’s grace for serving even in the midst of fatigue and changing focus.  It was a good week.  These kinds of ministries don’t always bear their main fruit until much later, and we are happy to leave that with the Lord.

Well, we survived another day!  Although, we put on a holiday club last summer, somehow I’ve forgotten how draining it can be to spend five consecutive mornings leading children through a holiday club/vbs.  Of course, this summer we have had about twice as many kids come, requiring a lot more energy.

Today went well.  And we even had a few kids come who were from non-Christian homes, as far as we know.  Well, at least one boy.  We had a couple of girls come for the first time – they were invited by a friend and it wasn’t clear what their situation was.  Even if we still had mostly kids from Christian families, I’m quite sure not all of them are Christians.  And today we learned about “substitution” – Christ dying in our place.  The kids listened very well and I trust that the gospel was fairly plain to most of them.  We just pray for fruit.

Tomorrow is the final day of the club.  We will be talking about the resurrection.  Thank you for praying for us this week.  Please ask the Lord to get us through the final day.  One of our six workers has a 9-week-old baby, and another one is about 7 1/2 months pregnant, so we are not exactly operating at full strength.  We can all attest to God’s sustaining grace, however.

Thanks for keeping up with our holiday club this week via this blog.  Things have gone well and we appreciate your prayers.

We had better weather today, which was nice.  And we had 15 kids attend.  Again, virtually all of the kids in attendance are already connected to either our church or another church in the area.  This was a ministry we had not anticipated, but we take it as from the Lord.  It has been encouraging to meet a number of other Christians from the area, so we are thankful for the opportunity to make those friendships and minister to the kids that are coming.  But we are going to try and have another go at inviting some of the kids on our street again, if we can.

Tomorrow, our Bible lesson and verse will focus on Christ’s sacrifice for our sins.  This will be the most gospel-focused lesson so far, although we have tried to make the gospel plain each day.  Please pray that the gospel would come across clearly to the kids.  Also keep praying that we might see some non-church kids come along.

Well, today was a good day.  Things went much more smoothly, which I think was a blessing for all involved.  It rained most of the morning, so we had to scratch our opening outdoor game time, but things went okay.  Joe is doing a great job with the games and being creative with the limited indoor space we have.  Plus, we only had 12 kids today, so that made things more manageable as well.

We continue to have mostly church kids, so please pray that we can have an effective ministry with them.  It’s never wasted time to teach the Bible to children – whether they’ve heard it all before or not.  Even our own Maggie is perhaps old enough to understand the gospel now.  But please also pray that we might see more non-church kids.

Today was the first day of our holiday club.  It went off okay, I think, although we have some adjusting to do for tomorrow.  Counting our own and the Nicholson’s kids, we had 16 children of various ages attend today, which was exciting.  To be honest, I’m not sure how many more we can handle!  Six of the kids came from three families who attend a pentecostal church in the area, and I’m not sure if they intend to come every day.  The more the merrier, as far as I’m concerned, although our primary focus (obviously) is to reach “unchurched” families.

So, thank you for praying for our efforts.  Overall, I think it was a successful first day.  Pray especially that we would see more non-church kids come.

Well, it’s a busy week this week.  Our holiday club begins next Monday and runs all next week, and there is still quite a bit to do to be ready.  Lately, it seems like every time I plan to “get stuff done” for the holiday club, something else comes up and throws my plans off.

Our family is doing okay.  Marcia has about 9 weeks left in her pregnancy, and it’s getting to the point now that we just want the baby and are ready for her to not be pregnant anymore.  I guess everyone goes through that.

We have enjoyed some good opportunities to spend time with neighbors lately, which has been encouraging.  We had one couple over for a bbq this week, and we had a nice time.  A good first step.  And a few of the neighborhood kids always seem to show up now when I take our kids outside to play.  We have invited them and are hoping that they will come to our holiday club.

So the big thing over the next two weeks is the holiday club, and we really need your prayers.

Oh my!  I didn’t realise it had been so long since I had updated the blog.  Anyway, here is our latest prayer letter.