President’s Blog: Monday 30th May
These last two weeks have been particularly busy with Zoom meetings, the Two Saint’s Way Pilgrimage, Easter Offering Services, Christian Aid week and a visit to London, to name but a few. All of which have proved to be eventful in their own way.
Last week our MWiB District Group set off on the next leg of the Pilgrimage from Stoke Minster to Tittensor, along the canal and bordering Trentham Gardens. Organising the transport for each leg was a challenge! We all needed to meet at the end of the walk, first. Then half the cars needed to take all the passengers to the beginning of the walk and the drivers needed to organise their shoes so that they were in the right place for driving back! The one-way system in Stoke is a bit of a mystery and our first challenge was to find the car park. The start of our walk was delayed a while! We walked until we came to Trentham and then visited the lovely Trentham Parish Church with its Saxon Cross and Praying stone. As we began to walk through the fields, we found some logs to sit on for our lunch, but one of our pilgrims fainted. We took her back to the church and I waited with her until her husband came to fetch her while the others carried on. Thankfully, she went to the hospital and is now fine. We will have to do the second half another day.
After a very poor response from our door-to-door Christian Aid envelope collections, we are suggesting a rethink on the way money should be raised as many people have stopped using cash and are aware of the threat of rising energy and food costs.
I was invited to represent MWiB at the Service of Thanksgiving of the work that has been done in the past at Methodist Church House, London. My husband was stewarding so had to be there before me. We travelled to the station together and I waited on the platform for a train that never came – they changed the platform but didn’t make an announcement! I waited a further hour for the next one. The service of Thanksgiving was a fitting tribute to all who had passed through the doors or had worked at Church House. It was lovely to meet up with Alison Judd, Jill Baker and Janice Clark – MWiB was well represented. Before, and afterwards, we toured the building, looking at the artifacts and photos in the various departments. After an enjoyable afternoon, we set off on our journey home. We were informed that the train crew could only take us to Rugby instead of Crewe. We waited on Rugby station for an hour or so for the next train We were thankful for the boxed afternoon tea we had been given at MCH but eating a cream tea on a station bench proved a bit of a challenge! The train arrived and we hadn’t travelled very far when there was a medical emergency, so we had to wait at the next station for the paramedics and then the ambulance. It was 10 pm by the time we reached home.
One piece of good and exciting news is that the Global Relations Department are organising a visit to Colombia in January, for me. I hope and pray that the travel arrangements will go to plan! It is good to know that God is with us in all eventualities.
Blessings
Ruth
