The last week has been busy and blogging took a back seat. But as part of the purpose of the blog is to give an insight into the life of BMS it strikes me that a glance at some meetings in the last week might be of some interest.
Monday 14 December:
9am: started the day with the first of three phone calls to potential new trustees for BMS. Trusteeship is a significant time commitment so getting two positive responses was encouraging.
4pm: Met to look at the finances of the business we set up in Asia a couple of years ago. The recession has hit their income and we agreed some future financing. By the way we are very encouraged by the progress the business is having in terms of outreach.
6pm: First tell-tale signs of man-flu beginning to emerge!
Tuesday 15 December:
9am meeting with Jonathan Edwards, General Secretary of BUGB, looking at the outline seminar programme for the Baptist Assembly next May.
11.30am: set off for Durham with Mark Craig, BMS Director of Communications for a meeting with the Northern Baptist Association that evening. Winter sniffles in full flow! Reminded Mark that these things have a 10-day incubation period, so that would take us to…?
7.30pm: Meeting with NBA Council members excellent. Durham wet and cold.
10pm: Travelodge – wonderful value as we got rooms some months ago for £19.
Wednesday 16 December:
8am: meet with NBA staff for breakfast. Good conversations before we set off south. Mark still driving. DK feeling like death warmed up.
4pm, arrived home.
9pm: TV lifts the spirits watching Peter Kay as MC for the Royal Variety show - makes me laugh so much.
Thursday 17 December: Busy day!
9am: catch up meeting with Peter Dunn, Director for Mission.
10am: meet with writing team to agree theme and contributors for next Mission Catalyst
magazine which we send quarterly to ministers.
11.30am – conference call with Jonathan Edwards to Chris Ellis who is in charge of worship at next May’s Assembly.
12.30pm Christmas lunch for Baptist House staff.
3pm: conference call with Jonathan Edwards to Baptist College Principals meeting in Glasgow to talk through a theology stream of seminars for… you’ve guessed it, next May’s Baptist Assembly.
4pm Meet with Paul Thaxter, Director for Transcultural Mission with the Church Mission Society (CMS) based in Oxford. I tried to get Paul to join BMS 10 years ago but failed. Our loss was CMS’s gain! Fascinating to see how an Anglican and Baptist mission agencies face similar issues.
6.30pm – leave for home. Illness may be abating!
Friday 18 December:
8.45am my turn to lead our monthly prayer meeting – used a series of Christmas cards to illustrate aspects of the significance of the Christmas events.
10.30am: staff farewell to Tom Howell, our mission teams coordinator for the last 8 years. Very slick rendition of a song based (loosely) on High School Musical! Very funny indeed. We wont be losing Tom completely as he and Caroline, plus Abigail, Bethany and Matthew go long-term to Uganda with BMS next summer.
11.00am: short meeting to agree we will raise money for a boat in the New Year! BMS has a long history of boats in mission , so watch out for this in January. And no, it wont be quite as big as the Peace.
2.00pm: Conference call with Stuart Davidson, Team Leader of the South East Baptist Association, to look at ways of developing closer partnerships with Associations, same agenda as took us to Durham on Tuesday.
4pm: cleared the last of this week’s e-mails, or to be more accurate, those that cant wait until next week.
6pm: snuffling only left – might yet find energy to update blog!
David Kerrigan
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