This year we’re doing something different. We’re going to buy a brick-making machine for Reuben N’gwala, a Tanzanian pastor who worshipped with us while studying in Glasgow for three years.

Reuben N'gwala

The brick-making machine will help Reuben to build accommodation at a Bible College in rural Tanzania, upgrading the living conditions for the students. The machine presses bricks from a mixture of earth and cement, reducing the amount of cement needed (ratios of around 1 part cement to 14-18 parts earth), enabling the bricks to be made on-site, reducing the energy needed to manufacture the bricks (they are cured, not fired), and enabling the buildings to use less mortar as the bricks are shaped to be interlocking. Overall the machine should reduce building costs by over 20%. The machine can continue to be used by Reuben’s team for other building projects in the area, generating much-needed income.

Making interlocking bricks

We’ll post here how we get on!

At long last the moment came when our pastor Jack Quinn was commissioned to give half of his time to minister to Adelaide Place and the other half to develop a ministry amongst the business community in conjunction with Business in Glasgow (BiG).

To assist the church to do this we called Ronnie Hall to be our assistant pastor and on Saturday 20^th October both Jack and Ronnie were commissioned to serve the Lord in these capacities over the next three years.

It was a moving and challenging occasion led sensitively by Rev Andy Scarcliffe, Mission Advisor to the Baptist Union of Scotland. Rev Stuart Blythe of the Scottish Baptist College challenged the gathered church when he encouraged us to exemplify the Lord Jesus in “Word and Signs” in our collective ministry.

The highlight of the evening was when members of the church and wider Christian community in the city laid their hands on Jack and Ronnie and, with prayer, commissioned them to these new ministries into which God has called them.

We have advertised in the Baptist Times for the weeks of 31 May and 6 June. For further information, please visit our Part-Time Pastor Post page.

The birth of our second grandaughter, Freya on the 9th February, demonstrated afresh the wonder of God’s creative power. It is a humbling experience to hold a new born baby in your arms but doubly so when it is your grandchild. The connectedness we have to any new born is basic to our humanity but more so when you have had a distant part to play in that new person’s birth.

Psalm 71 verse 6 states:

“From birth I have relied on you; you brought me forth from my mother’s womb. I will ever praise you.”

As the writer of the psalm reflects upon his own life he acknowledges that there is more than the dependence of an infant upon its parents. There is a ‘divine’ activity in the birth of every living person. Thus the Creation writings in Genesis speak of human beings being made in the image of God. Whenever I look into the face of my grandchildren, I look for the characteristics that reveal their connectedness to me and Marlyn and their other grandparents too. But I also see, a glimpse of the divine in them. My prayer is that they will grow up to recognise their Creator too.

On Thursday evening 16th November, at his flat at Auchlochan House Nursing Home, Lesmahagow, Stanley Victor Mills completed his life and died peacefully after a short illness.

Stan was a dedicated man of faith whose whole purpose in life was to be a servant of Jesus Christ his Saviour. He was a member of Adelaide Place Church for over 50 years, serving the church in many capacities but particularly in leadership as a Deacon and Elder and the support of world mission. The work of the former Regions Beyond Missionary Union was especially close to his heart, but many missionaries past and present have benefited from both his and his late wife Mara’s support.

He was a man of many talents, a keen gardener, a supporter of RSPB and a particularly skilful photographer whose work was recognised by the Royal Society and whose legacy in 20th century industrial photography will continue to be recognised in the years to come.

Update 22/11/2006:
Stan’s Funeral will be held at Dalnottar Crematorium, Clydebank, at 11 am on Saturday 2nd December, with a Service of Thanksgiving at Adelaide Place Baptist Church at 12.15 pm.

“Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord”.
(Revelation 14:13)

Since the genocide the church has gathered groups of children and formed a couple of settlements of around 30 houses, each with a social worker to support the children, many of whom are still traumatised. We plan to work with the older children to build tanks to catch rainwater from their roofs.

The project should help build their confidence as they learn new skills and should save a significant amount of the time they spend each day collecting water from puddles.

I’ll expect to get a blog going at http://www.rankin6.blogspot.com/.

One of the things that defines Baptists is the act of Believers’ Baptism. This is where a person expresses their faith in Jesus Christ by being baptised, usually by being fully immersed in water as a metaphor of Jesus’s death and resurrection.

This Sunday we have the privelege to witness the baptism of our friend Rob Galbraith, and we are happy to join with him in celebrating this next stage in his spiritual journey.

Travel note: As it is the Glasgow Women’s 10k run on Sunday, traffic diversions around the Southside may mean that your journey to church will take a little longer!

They are now on their way back to Tirana where Karen will be working as an administrator for a video production company.