Just a quick post to say that I'm putting together a mailing list for my monthly Malawi prayer letter, and if you want to be on it, drop me a line.This week has been immersed in Mormonism. I've been through www.mormon.org from beginning to end, and really enjoyed most of it. I've read chapters of various books which describe Mormonism as anything from a vicious cult to an accident of history. I've started on the Book of Mormon, though it doesn't look like I'll finish that anytime soon, and then I'll still have Doctrines and Covenants to read as well as the Pearl of Great Price. What I don't really have much of is personal experience with them. I've met one, for about 5 minutes, in a normal social setting. I've also hosted two foreign missionaries to a glass of water once, which was fun. So if you're reading this and Mormon, please say hi. If you know
The reason for my interest is that Glen Halliwell in Malawi told me last month that the church there is increasingly coming into contact with the Latter Day Saints, as they often prefer to call themselves. Obviously, he wants to be able to communicate with them at a meaningful level, and so asked me to see if I could get my hands on some tracts or the like.
It's also been immersed in busking, as Rich and I went down Friday and Saturday. Jenny Grieve has the first STORM busking photos on her facebook, but I've hijacked this one on the left for those of you not on facebook. We raised a little over £50, which we felt was respectable! The bigger issue was surely just the chance to enjoy the sun with good music and hopefully brighten the Queen's St atmosphere for the expectant rugby fans who'd come for the St Helen's match. Sam Orr and Kristin from the Welsh college added a classy classical element to the music on violin and cello respectively. Come down and support us next Saturday if you can, we'll be on Queen St as usual.
Oh yes, I should explain STORM, shouldn't I? Student Outreach Malawi is a group of students from Cardiff Universities who go out to the Blantyre region in Southern Malawi each summer to get a taste for Malawi, the developing world, orphanages and extreme poverty, and hopefully contribute in a meaningful way to life there. I went last year and it's the reason I'm going back. I'm unashamedly praying that some of the team who go this year will do the same and return to Malawi at some stage of the future with the skills they've acquired at University, and find something of the awesome joy that only comes from giving up what you know and have to serve God, through the most down-and-out of his creatures. This year, I'm helping to lead the teams, under Sam Orr. We're hoping to get STORM registered as a charity in the next year, and hopefully there will be a dedicated website in the near future.
A few recommendations to close: Pilgrim's Regress by C. S. Lewis is a fictional romp through 20th century philosophy and theology by one of the sharpest minds of that century. I absolutely loved how no topic was off limits, but neither was any topic too serious to be allegorised.
Sam Roberts is a bilingual Canadian soft-rock group. I love 'em!
Psalm 94 for anyone who is interested in justice, God's discipline, and enduring faith.
