Prayer Mail

Dear Friends,

 

This is our prayer mail for 26 June 2016.

This week: 

1) a student completed one of our distance learning courses.

2) I have been preparing for what is ahead in terms of incorporating ourselves into the potential diocese. This preparation often involves considerable advance-work to do well: learning about the potential diocese and its indigenous cultures and related provincial matters - how they may vary from what we are used to, and how the Gospel can be expressed effectively in the potential diocese. We do this to develop informed and relevant content that fits the diocesan mission/expression of the Gospel, upgrading course content to take into account diocesan cultures, and so forth, as needed: getting more into the mindset of the person on the ground, what tools they need as they look both outward and deeper in order to spread the Gospel.

What I am doing is in missionary terms entitled: "contextualization of the Gospel", and in my situation this is a kind of a theological educational version of Fresh Expressions (the UK church planting program that was talked about, at Albany Convention). To do this well, it can take a while. All this, to be ready for discussions in August, as had. 

As Julie mentioned to me yesterday, look at where my D. Min. Thesis of 2004 has taken me (on the development of a theological education curriculum for the Deacon Formation program in the Diocese of Albany). This is unusual for D. Min. projects. For me, it is like the river of the Holy Spirit in Ezekiel 47. Wow.

 

Prayers: 

 

1) Prayers for guidance on the path ahead, for whatever the Holy Spirit has in mind. Clear discernment as to the 

appropriate path would be appreciated.

 

2) For the deacons waiting to be ordained in Belize, that a date would be fixed. 

 

3) For the easing of tensions between Guatemala and Belize. 

 

4) For the Spanish Prayerbook printing process.  

 

I pray for you every day.

  

Are we making a difference? Absolutely. You are part of that.

 

God bless you,

 

Fr. Shaw

Manchester

Newsletter

Transforming Countries for Christ

I have begun realizing lately, that what we do in our making a difference ministry is bigger than a handful of students in a distance learning program, in part because is it not the number of students, it is more about who they are.

And the ministry is more than helping a handful of people through their ordination processes, whether applying or moving from the transitional diaconate to the presbyterate, again because it is not the number of students, it is about who they are.

And the ministry is more than the several thousand lives we may touch in a year in just Belize, let alone the hundreds of others who browse and delve into our Web sites each year, for it is not about the number of students, it is about who they are.

What we are doing is bigger than the ministries on paper. It is bigger than the Anglican Church in Belize. What we are doing is transforming the country of Belize, for example, because of the ministry of the handful of students and people in the ordination process.

This was brought home to me poignantly recently when a chaplain to the military in one country told me that my preaching course was transformative in his ability to reach people in his congregation on base. He had taken a preaching course in a provincial Anglican seminary, but he found the results of our course to be more effective because it connected him with his congregation in a way that his provincial seminary course did not. The result: the military in that country were being impacted effectively with the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

And as I look back across the people with whom I have interacted personally, I see that I have met and talked with some rather influential people in the country of Belize, for example, as well as the down and out. It is only now that I begin to understand that what started as modest goal a few years ago, has turned into a ministry that helps transform a country at several levels. And our effort is one part of God’s effort to do that.

It’s humbling to step back and see the bigger picture. And thank you for your part in helping to make it happen.

God bless you all,

Fr. Shaw, and on behalf of Mtr. Julie.

SAMS missionaries with the Diocese of Belize.

Support.

Please pray, and continue to make checks out to: "SAMS". Put "Shaw and Julie Mudge" in the memo, to support what we are doing.

Mailing address:

SAMS,

P. O. Box 399,

Ambridge, PA 15003-0399. 

Bishop Philip teaching students from Georgeville at the   Cathedral of St. John The Baptist, Belize City, Belize, 2016; we all transform the future of the country, one moment at a time.

Prayer Mail

Dear Friends,

This is our prayer mail for 19 June 2016, and attached is our June newsletter.

This week, my missionary focus has been in two areas:

a) This week, helping people with the entry/mid-phase part of the ordination process in the

 Diocese of Belize. 

b) There is very strong interest in our long distance missionary work in that other diocese that I

 mentioned last week. 

We plan conversations to resume in August, and I have begun preparing the way administratively.

Prayers: 

1) Prayers for guidance on the path ahead, for whatever the Holy Spirit has in mind. Clear

 discernment as to the appropriate path would be appreciated.

2) For the deacons waiting to be ordained in Belize, that a date would be fixed.

3) For the easing of tensions between Guatemala and Belize. They are still high.

4) For the Spanish Prayerbook printing process.  

I pray for you every day.

  

Are we making a difference? Absolutely. You are part of that.

God bless you,

Fr. Shaw

Manchester

Prayer Mail

Dear Friends,

 

This is our prayer mail for 12 June 2016.

 

This week, my focus has been in two areas:

a) People in the ordination process in the Diocese of Belize.

b) Mission-booth and participation at the Diocese of Albany Convention. I enjoyed catching up with many people. 

It was a blessing.

In addition, an opportunity has arisen to possibly expand the mission of the distance learning theological college 

into another province in the Anglican Communion. There is a fair amount a leg work ahead before I would be in a 

position to make announcement with more detail.

Prayers: 

1) I would like prayers for guidance on the path ahead, for whatever the Holy Spirit has in mind.  

 

2) That this current phase of ministry continues to be fruitful, and for all the plans we are making for the future 

in Belize, and for the people involved in those plans. 

3) For the easing of tensions between Guatemala and Belize.  

 

4) For the Spanish Prayerbook as it moves incrementally closer to being printed.  

5) Julie and I celebrate our wedding anniversary this week.

 

6) I pray for you every day.

  

Are we making a difference? Absolutely. You are part of that.

 

God bless you,

 

Fr. Shaw

Manchester

Prayer Mail

Dear Friends,

 

This is our prayer mail for 5 June 2016.

 

This week, 

It has been an interesting week in light of the Commission on Ministry meeting on Wednesday. And the current distance learning course is winding down. 

a) We have entered an interesting ministry phase. Sometimes there are a lot of end results that materialize all at once. Yet mission work is not like that all the time. Quite often, there are quite lengthy and subtle building phases which look like things are in standstill, but in fact they are moving at the Holy Spirit's pace, not at a North American pace. This drives most North Americans to throw up their hands and abandon ship, thinking that nothing is happening. 

But this is also where endurance and steadfastness in the Holy Spirit on the part of missionaries plays a key part in terms of incremental progress going forward in the Caribbean context. We have entered one of those subtle phases. It is all quite mysterious, and yet, in the long run and based on past experience, it all works out in God's timing. And, stepping back even farther, it is all part of the big picture of transforming society through the people in the Church.

b) We keep moving ahead on course development, student participation, and ordination process plans. We have reached a milestone in which all our courses are set in the overall curriculum, with room for expansion and revision as needed. Flexibility, sense of humor, organization, and listening to the subtle presence of the Holy Spirit's guidance has continued to be important over the years as the basis for the design of the future program.

c) We have reached a new phase in the diocesan plans ahead with regards to the Bishop's ideas, the Commission on Ministry's plans, and my role as Diocesan Examining Chaplain/Advisor to the Bishop and Commission on Ministry/Mentor in the ordination process/and Talent Scout for potential clergy. We have entered a new promising phase of coordination between us all and a new phase as to what is ahead in terms of a potential clergy pool.

d) I am encountering more and more North Americans who have been relocated to their own homes from their former work environments, where they connect with their office via distance connections, and where their immediate supervisor may be in another state, as a way to cut overhead expense. I have meet several people in this situation in the past week, alone. Our distance learning program dynamic with students works somewhat in the same way, and has become somewhat visionary in that regard. 

 

Prayers: 

1) I would like prayers for guidance on the path ahead for us all (including the Commission on Ministry, the Bishop, people in the ordination track, possible entries into the process, and potential students - whether lay people, Lay Ministers, people in the ordination process, or clergy), for whatever the Holy Spirit has in mind. Some people in this circle have been recovering from illness or surgery. Prayers for healing for them would be appreciated, as well.

2) Prayer also for continued support for our ministry would be appreciated; like a focus on praying for parish stewardship in support of parish mission and ministry, it is part of missionary life to pray for support of missionary mission and ministry.

 

3) That this new phase of ministry continues to be fruitful, and for all the plans we are making for the future in Belize, and for the people involved in those plans. 

4) For the easing of tensions between Guatemala and Belize. The higher than normal level of tension has been going on for some time now. And I would not be surprised to learn some day that in the background of our current mysterious ministry dynamic, that this international tension may have played a role at some level. It is also a reminder that missionary trips are not guaranteed to be safe, and that our form of missionary venture may be part of God providence for both ourselves and our friends in Belize in this regard.

 

5) For the Spanish Prayerbook as it moves incrementally closer to being printed.  

6) For our daughter, the Rev. Hannah, who is having a birthday this week.

 

7) I pray for you every day.

 

8) If you are going to be at the Diocese of Albany diocesan convention next week, look for our booth. I plan to show recent photographs.

 

Are we making a difference? Absolutely. You are part of that.

 

God bless you,

 

Fr. Shaw

Manchester