looking back: moving on

Dreaming of a White Christmas

Well its has already snowed but its not yet Christmas. Snow and ice seems to be causing a slowdown in UK at present. Snow covered landscapes look stunningly beautiful in virgin white, but the effect soon wears off and can be disastrous. Staff travel time to work has increased - sometime hours more. And Basingstoke is now famous, as it became Ice-locked and cut-off Of course this become a chance for a good British moan about he weather and system breakdown.

Some times, like the state of Narnia without Aslan . it seems to be ‘always winter never Christmas’

I finally engaged with the Christmas spirit last Saturday at our International Carol service at Christchurch Woking. This is a little glimpse of heaven as we worshipped in over 20 different languages. If you are interested you can read about it elsewhere on this blog

Climate Change

The Copenhagen summit has been in the news a lot trying to get some international consensus on carbon emissions.

I find it hard enough to keep up with clearing leaves and now snow from the garden and drive, let alone addressing these huge Global issues

The C of E engaged with Green issues this advent in a series of excellent videos helping us to slow down and reflect more Church of England's online advent calendar with go-slow lifestyle challenges and stories ‘Ready, Steady. Slow’. CMS partner ‘A Rocha’ was one of the organisations featured

Melt down ?

The global economic downturn has been a financial meltdown affecting many. CMS also faces challenges. There are encouragements, with individual giving increasing but church giving decreasing, investments realising little, and legacies being very unpredictable. And pension commitments and increasingly project specific funding makes it more challenging.

So we in CMS are looking at ways of cutting back and becoming more efficient. Do pray for CMS in these hard times and tough decisions that need to be made particularly for the Senior Management Team (SMT) and trustees group.

DRIVE with Care

I am in the process of finishing off our report of the Asia process entitled ‘Mirror-indicator-Manoeuvre’

The process of engaging with partners through structured interviews and group conversations has been like looking in the mirror. It has been very encouraging as we have met many inspiring leaders throughout Asia who have a vision and a commitment for mission. Many are enthusiastic about the idea of Asia-CMS.

We are also indicating what possible directions we can go in setting up an Asian entity, And reporting to Trustees in mid January about the next steps as we manoeuvre and turn in a particular direction. Please pray for that time that we will have a clear mandate to continue and the resources to do so as well

As you are aware it is very hard to drive on icy, treacherous roads. Sometimes we need to slow down and proceed with caution.

Moving on

I usually use the year ending, with Christmas, birthday and New year in quick succession as a time to reflect…. I’m sure I am not alone in this. Sometimes reflecting helps us to move on

So I am also blogging a reflection exercise which may or may not be helpful. A sort of spiritual MOT

And may we all in CMS, particularly the Asia Team wish you all a very blessed Christmas and a fruitful new year

“Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? Is. 43:18-19

Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. Phil. 3:13-14