December 2014 - Paul Bennison

And there it was…gone! Except it isn’t….

Posted on December 27, 2014 by Paul Bennison Posted in Journal, Personal, Random Thoughts, Testimony Leave a comment

Most of the ‘celebration’ events in the United Kingdom last a day – Guy Fawkes Night, Shrove Tuesday, etc., or even a weekend – Easter, August Bank Holiday – and the build up is minimal, and then they’re over. Christmas seems to last forever – months before (Christmas shops open around September), the madness of shopping – enough food for a 6 weeks internment! – and then – it’s gone. I don’t know about you, but with Christmas on a Thursday, and Boxing Day Friday, today really feels like it should be Monday. It’s the only annual event that messes with your head, but, of course, the most significant event in human history. Tim Keller, the outstanding pastor, preacher, and writer, said this:

Christmas is telling you that you could never get to heaven on your own. God had to come to you.

Even for us, as born-again Christians, it’s easy to get so caught up in the madness that surrounds Christmas, that the eternal truth of what happened slips down the pecking order of importance. It is, for those who believe – and I guess, even more for those who don’t! – the genuine realisation that God came, and continually comes, to us. I’m so grateful that God so loved the world, that he sent his son, so that we can have everlasting life.

I don’t know what your Christmas was like. Maybe raucous with a houseful of family members. Maybe out, partying. Maybe quiet, reflective. No matter what, the truth remains the same, that for those who believe, we’ve GOT everlasting life. What an awesome thing to be able to say. So Christmas the Event might be over, but Christmas the future changing event, is with us, eternally. Thank you, Father. Thank you Jesus. Thank you Holy Spirit. We can NEVER thank you enough, only try, by being the people you LONG for us to become, changing your world by letting people see (not be bombarded with words) the true life of Jesus in and through us.

My Christmas was quiet: I’m grateful for that after the long, long (and somewhat traumatic!) drive early in the week. It was vital for this poor right knee – the one the child kicked on the ferry last Sunday – had time – a lot of time – to remain horizontal, as, by Wednesday, I could hardly walk on it. Thankfully, I’ve got some more days hiding away, in a warm house, with my log fire making the room so warm and snug, and the occasional glass of something or other, helping with rehabilitation! I’d value your prayers for my knees, as always, but especially the right one now, as to be suddenly moved, hard and fast, from left to right (as opposed to front to back!), did something inside it that I can still feel, even though I’m dousing it in copious amounts of anti-inflammatory gel, and some heavy duty painkillers.

For anyone who wonders if God doesn’t heal you, for some negative reason or other, then put it out of your mind. Over the years my knees have been bad, I’ve seen God heal (literally) hundreds and hundreds of knees, pairs of knees, many with what I’m ‘diagnosed’ with (but not receiving!!). They get up, walk, shout, laugh, run…’I’m healed, I’m healed!’ – and I have to resist the urge to ask them to help me up off the floor, if I’ve knelt in front of them to pray for them! Quite frequently, I do just ask a little question of God, like ‘When is it my turn?’!!

I do hope that you have a blessed last few days of what I’m sure has been a short year, and that your dreams (not resolutions – they rarely work!!) for 2015, will reflect the truth that Jesus came to give himself to us, invest himself in us, and pour out his life through us, so that we can be the ‘image of the invisible Jesus’ – which is what Paul said of Jesus, in Colossians 1 – ‘the image of the invisible God’….

The long & winding, the very straight, & the very ‘unable-to-see’ autobahn, & a boy I could have clobbered…

Posted on December 22, 2014 by Paul Bennison Posted in Journal, Personal, Random Thoughts, Travel Leave a comment

Well, a gruelling journey home is finally over! It was ‘interesting’! Left Romania 4 am Saturday, the first 90 minutes was great as there’s a motorway that – one day??! – should go to the border…the bit of the road that isn’t motorway yet is almost exactly as it was when we first drove in with trucks 25 years ago: 2 lanes, narrow steep, deep ditches either side, there a frequently huge lorries – artics here in UK, 18 wheel semis in USA (don’t know about Australia!!) over on their sides in the ditches, no cats eyes (anywhere in Europe, for that matter – why not?? Greatest invention ever for drivers!), and the same distance as was motorway took 4 hours or more… driving rain, so lovely!!

Then of course, I stopped at the delightfully short-named place in Hungary – Monsonmagyaróvár – think if I’m honest, I feel asleep for a while, as I’d been driving for 9 hours by then, and left my car lights on, result: obvious!… hence the blessing of the AA and Club Toyota, albeit 90 minute wait – to get me started again… the lovely man who spoke no English, in his ‘MagyarMotorsClubMonsonmagyaróvár’ van (wouldn’t want to be the sign-writer for that company!!). Hungary is fascinating because only there will you see road signs that have the letters ‘c,b,m, x, and z’ together in a word, and they manage to pronounce it! I do love their word for Sunday, though – Zombat (I often feel like one when I’ve been in some churches, whatever a zombat feels like, but it IS very onomatopoeic, isn’t it??!) If I remember, too – a vital one this, if it’s correct – that ‘eper fagylalt’ is ‘strawberry milkshake’ in McDonald’s! Apparently, Hungarian has the same language root as Finnish: hmm, not surprised there, then!! I seem to remember one word on the video wall for worship song words, in Finland, had about 37 letters in it – including around 14 ‘u’s and ‘k’ s….. I admire you immensely, Finnish friends, especially dear friend Teija, who’s been in Colombia for many years. Don’t really know any Hungarians, but I’m sure I’d admire you, too!

Truth is, many Europeans put us to shame: many – very many! – speak at least 4 languages…

Then, of course, I didn’t want to stop anywhere in case it had damaged the battery, and I’d have call AA/Club Toyota, for every toilet stop!! I found some creative ways to get round that, by stopping in between huge lorries parked up for the night, and using more ‘natural’ facilities…

On and on, into Austria – lovely weather in Hungary & Austria, 13C temperature, so I didn’t see any snow, but lots of nice castles and chalets! On into Germany – including more night driving, again – somewhere around Munich, a phenomenal snow and sleet blizzard arrived, total white-out in moments (no cats eyes!!), couldn’t see more than probably 10 metres in front, or the road markings, the wipers didn’t cope, but my foot seemed to stay on the accelerator (well, it was still autobahn, with no speed limit! It lasted until way past Nuremberg: such a blessing… tried to sleep at a few service areas, but couldn’t, so I ploughed on…iinto a bit of Holland, and then Belgium….where, 90 minutes from Dunkerque, I finally fell asleep for 30 minutes outside a lovely patisserie – that was closed 🙁

On the ferry to England, a ‘lovely’ child (not!) thought, in a gangway of about 4 metres width, that it would be better to jump my outstretched legs, crossed at the ankles, (which were hurting severely having been cramped in the car for so long….), except that he failed, and kicked my right ankle sideways (so against the knee joint), and I screamed….his dad laughed, so ‘well chosen’ words come out of my mouth – getting back to, then in, the car, was excruciating: by the time I got to my friends’ Keith & Margaret’s last night, I couldn’t walk… slight problem, in that at 7.30 am this morning, I was back in the car for a near-500 mile drive to Scotland and yet another ferry!

If I told you how quickly I did the journey, you would think badly of me (!! 🙂 ) – my excuse was that once I got my right leg wedged on the accelerator, I couldn’t bend it or move it…suffice to say, I got on a ferry 4 hours ahead of the one I was booked on! I made sure I sat NOWHERE anyone could hurt me!!

Then I coiled my poor legs back into the car again, for the last 30 minutes to home, from Belfast…. and now, MY BED!!

That was the year that was….! Driving home for Christmas…

Posted on December 17, 2014 by Paul Bennison Posted in Journal Leave a comment

You’d have to be of a certain age to know the title of this post! It was the name of a (tv or radio?) programme back in the old days (actually it was ‘that was the WEEK that was’), but for me, and I know for many people in ministry, it certainly has been some year. Before typing any more, I will issue my usual apology for the lack of posts here: I’ve said before, that I don’t want to keep writing the same thing in posts just for the sake of one appearing in your inbox, or on Facebook. I’m not one of those people who wants to tell you what I ate for lunch (in my case, most days recently, that would be a blank space anyway!!), or who I talked to and about what. I find Facebook a bit of a ‘drag’ for those sorts of posts: it’s not a criticism of the writers, just that there’s more to life than food etc.,!

I’ve had an ‘interesting’ last few months, some of which has been documented here, or in my newsletter. If you don’t get a newsletter and would like one, you can sign up here on the website. I’m such a ‘tech wizard’ that I don’t know how to post the newsletter on the appropriate page here: I’m hoping my friend Lee, who is the ultimate tech wizard! – will tell me soon!

I won’t repeat my newsletter about the year ‘that was'(!) – it’ll appear here soon, hopefully!

Much of the last three months has been spent in Romania, in a very different style of ministry for me: mostly one to one, or small groups meetings – hence the ‘lack’ of stories. It has been a valuable time in respect of what I’ve been able to do, it’s been a learning curve for me and the people I’ve been with here, for them, and me, hopefully one that will stand in good stead for the future. Part of this ‘sojourn’ is as a direct consequence of my ‘lung attack’ in August – pretty major pulmonary embolisms – and my doctor’s advice not to do any long-haul flights before the new year, as you may – or may not – know, flying and blot-clotting go hand in hand quite often! So I’ve been a good boy and behaved myself, doing what the doctors have said, and dutifully taking my fairly hefty dose of warfarin every day to keep my blood thin. That’s an interesting experience – thin blood! It has certainly affected my feeling colder than ever before – which has consequently meant that I’ve had the heating on in the apartment I’ve lived in for the last few weeks: even more when I ‘nicked’ my finger _ well, a bit more than a ‘nick’! – with a sharp knife, and couldn’t stop the bleeding for ages!!!

If I’m honest, a few weeks ago I felt like the child who’d been sent to camp, or boarding school, who didn’t want to be there, and I wanted to return to Ireland. God made it very plain to me that his plan wasn’t that, and that I should stay. I’ve been more relaxed about being here since then: even up until yesterday, it was ok. Then today, I felt that it is alright to leave now.

Realising that God has had me on a journey other than ‘in the air’, I’ve wanted to make sure that I’ve heard him, been open to hearing him, and I’ve had time here to be alone with him, all of which are invaluable. I’ve learned so much: including total dependence on him, in that he’s taken me through a walk of faith on learning to live with little, to a place where I’ve had to make my needs known to people, à la Acts 2. I’ll be perfectly honest here, I hate doing that. I don’t have any problem in raising money for other people’s needs, people like dear Ana Beiba in Cali, Colombia (man, how I MISSED being in Cali in October and November 🙁 – one of the ‘long-haul sacrifices I had to make). When it comes to sharing my own needs, it’s like I’m trying to type with my toes on a keyboard the size of a mobile phone: almost not do-able! If anyone thinks that living in Romania must be cheaper – a concept I know many people have, as it is a poor country, then come and live here for a week…. it’s not cheap, and I have nothing but admiration for people who work their socks off, for 150-200 euros a month (about £120-150, US$185-250) a month salary, when petrol (gas) is as expensive here as it is in the UK. It’s like money disappears through a bottomless hole. There are so many people here with very rel, genuine needs. Rent is dearer here than many parts of the UK. I’m in an apartment with one room – a bed-sitting room, a kitchen, and bathroom: it MIGHT, at a real push, accommodate a family with one small child, but really, just two people tops. It’s 450 euros. I’ve had to draw a line at trying to help them, purely and simply because because money has been so tight. I have given, where the needs have been more desperate than mine, but many times I haven’t been able to, or felt the liberty to, because my money is people’s sacrificial giving to me – maybe it’s you. reading this who has helped me. And for that, I’m deeply grateful.

I was very blessed by a good friend on my birthday, a couple of days ago, with a gorgeous cake/gateau/pastele (dunno which language describes it best, English, French, or Spanish! – I think Spanish, the last one!!), and some hours at a great leisure centre/spa, in Deva: I sat in the jacuzzi for ages! And then the sauna – and then the jacuzzi. Quite predictable, me!!

I know that God brought me here to Romania: and I’ve waited, through some difficult times, listening for his voice to say ‘time to go home!’. I feel that today, he’s said that. My only problem now is to get home: I have my car here, and this journey God has taken me on has pretty frequently left the kitty totally empty! Like now. A fiend called me the other evening, and I was telling him about my dilemma of personal fund-raising, and he suggested ‘tagging’ my needs to the end of a blog post, so… at the bottom, if you feel able to help me, my needs are there: if personal fund raising ‘offends’ you, I understand, just don’t read to the bottom!

Thank you for all your prayers and support, care, birthday greetings. I really value and appreciate them. So, as soon as I have the means, I’ll be doing the second part of the blog title, hopefully making it in time – Chris Rea’s great song ‘Driving home for Christmas’.

I hope and pray that these few days ahead of Christmas won’t be too busy or stressed for you: if I don’t get to blog again before the greatest celebration in history after Easter, that you have a wonderful Christmas, a time of rest and peace, and the blessing that Jesus came from his home to give to all of us who want it.

Personal Needs:

I think I explained to you that I was told I had somewhere to stay on my own (which is a blessing when you travel, for an extended time) and then the realisation that the rent for the apartment – and the utilities – were down to me! – so:

Rent (for January – I have to give one month’s notice to the owner) £360

Fuel for 1400 miles to Calais: fuel for 600 miles to Cairnryan, Scotland, av 35 mpg (circa 60 galls)

ferry crossings 1 x Calais – Dover, 1 x Cairnryan -Belfast, 1 x Belfast – Cairnryan £600

Possible overnight accommodation, Germany, Sibiu – Calais (24 hour+ drive) £60