My Town, My Country and the World

We returned from our trip Thursday and our feet have not touched the ground since. Before posting on our trip thought I'd post on this weekend first. Have a particularly busy week coming up but will hopefully get my photos sorted.

This afternoon the market place in the centre of our town was a place of praise and worship as Christians from various denominations came together to flood the town with prayer and worship as part of the ongoing World Day of Prayer. Just over a week ago we were seeing temperatures of 54 degrees but this week it has 'hotted' up and today we were sweltering in 86 degrees. Not conducive to sitting/standing outside in the sun for 90 minutes so many were using up every bit of shade possible. Ironic that some of us were standing outside the 'Iceland' store. I think they sold lots of ice lollies today!

Our town is certainly in receipt of much ongoing prayer as many regularly walk the ring road praying. Added to this lots of the youth are out on Saturdays praying for people personally as they go about their shopping and then there are the Street Pastors out on Friday and Saturday nights 'till all hours of the morning, offering help and praying for the over inebriated young people as they leave the nightclubs.

Thousands will be coming together at the local football stadium in a couple of weeks to pray for our nation and the world at large.

Tomorrow we begin 24 hours of prayer.

Then yesterday was the launch of a new venture at Pilgrims Hall. (Lots of posts on Pilgrims Hall if you click on my sidebar). The Christian bookshop in the local town had to close down due to the widening of the road at the junction where the site was. It has been sorely missed so together with the owner we have gone into partnership and are running a Christian Bookshop at Pilgrims Hall.

There is nothing that Paul, seen here, does not know about Christian book selling having been in the business for 30 years, buying selling, supplying, wholesaling and writing books himself. We are not embarking on a serious money making venture but offering a service to the community and bringing in more people to these beautiful and serene acres. It's now time to ceremoniously cut the tape.

Starting small and will build up when we know what people want.

I have posted many photos of this place in the past but before leaving will take just a few to add to this post. The Wysteria is in full bloom but only on the Pagoda. It did cover the side of the house until we had to have it removed a couple of years ago as it was seriously beginning to damage the brickwork. The Hall is a listed building and we had no choice, the work had to be done to specification costing us £65,000 (pounds). A real faith venture in these financially difficult days.

The Hall is used by many groups and churches so on a day like today there are always people taking time out in the grounds to study, meditate or pray.