February 2nd

Jon visited a couple of people from the church with Don on Wednesday. It was good to spend some time with them and hear about their experiences. On Thursday it was Tiny Tots again - very busy this week and lots to help out with practically. In the evening Ali joined the 'Facing the Challenge' discussion group which was interesting.
Today we went along to Open Church where a couple of new people visited which was great. Good to chat with people again and develop our relationship with them.
We've also been busy preparing for this coming Sunday when Ali will be doing a children's talk in the morning and Jon will be leading part of the evening service.

January 22nd

Last Thursday saw us at Tiny Tots Plus again. Ali was asked to man the tea and coffee station but had a few problems working out how to pour coffee, not spill the milk and chat - who said multi-tasking was a natural gift for women? Jon got his hands dirty - literally! He dived in with enthusiasm to the craft activity which was painting shakers with the children. He only managed to get one mark on his trousers...hmm, is this a new skill he has acquired?
In the afternoon Ali went to visit a couple of the older members of the congregation with Don. It was a good experience and very interesting meeting them. She enjoyed finding a bit more about them and their involvement with the church. In the evening Ali went off again to go to the mission prayer evening. She was able to find out about the different people the church support in India, Nigeria, Bolivia and the UK. It is good to know the church is committed to supporting their missionaries in prayer.
Friday we were both at Cambray for Open Church where we both had the opportunity to chat.
Sunday morning saw an early start again with Ali going along to the Gateway Fellowship again. This has been running for around 18/19 years. There was a big group of people there and it was lovely to worship with them. Ali was joined by the rest of the family for the morning service and then we went to lunch with a couple from the church. This was a great time and we chatted with another family who had also been invited. It is good to get to know people a little better each time we see them and also to share a bit more about our journey. A quick dash home via Redcliffe for a birthday party then tea and Jon was off to church again to lead the service. This went really well and he said it was good to be involved. The music was different again in both services. In the morning the Junior Choir sang a couple of songs, and both services had drums, guitars, etc. and had a much more contemporary feel.

January 7th

OK, so we're on placement again, but not quite as far as Brisbane this time! This time we're at Cambray Baptist Church in Cheltenham.
And no, don't expect daily blogs this time because we are not 10,000 miles away, experiencing the delights of a foreign country.
For those who don't know, Cheltenham is about 7 miles away from Gloucester, so we won't have to travel far at all, and will be able to stay at home (the girls are still at school.)
That said, it is a little complicated because it means travelling to and from there every time we need to do something. We hope we won't clock up 20,000 miles over the next six weeks!
We started, sort of unofficially, by attending the services on Sunday.
Cambray Baptist church is interesting because it still has the 'traditional' English Baptist chapel layout - raised church organ, balcony on three sides, raised pulpit, etc...
There are a few mod. cons. such as twin, rear-projected video screens at the front, a fancy lectern that can be raised or lowered, decent chairs downstairs and good lighting.
The morning service was a fairly traditional style Baptist service, with most of the hymns being played on the organ, the kids going out after about half an hour, and tea and coffee after the service.
The evening service was a communion service, but was strikingly different. After the first hymn, the reading was read, then we went straight into the sermon. After the sermon, we sang another hymn, listened to some notices etc, sang a song, then went into communion. This was interesting because we ate the bread together, not when we received it, sang a chorus, then drank the wine as we received it, not together. This seemed really strange to me because every Baptist church I've ever been to, as far as I can remember, does this the other way round. We then finished with a hymn. The whole thing took an hour; half for the sermon, half for communion.
I was really impressed that they had decided to change the format of the communion service, rather than try to cram everything in together or have a service that ran for another thirty minutes.
Apparently the morning service isn't usually quite so traditional, but we'll see next week what the difference is.
So, a good start, glad for a different experience, hope it continues so positively.