It was almost entirely blocked …. It had been like that for months; slowly getting worse …. and finally, something had to be done! Whoever had plumbed in the wash hand basin in our bathroom, seemed to have done so in a way that made it almost impossible to get at the U-bend! After considerable difficulty I managed to take it to pieces … and the gunge!… I doubt if it had ever been cleaned out in the nearly thirty years since the house was built! Now, after a not pleasant cleaning process the water flows freely.
It really set me thinking … about the blockages in my life which accumulate little by little, which slowly but definitely work against the wholeness of the person God intends me to be … and about my reluctance to face up to them, as somehow things still seem to just about work ….
Now I seek to read a small portion of the Bible each day (not with work in mind, but for me) asking God to inform my mind, and move my will, so I might live day by day better in step with Him. Recently I have been reading about David, and all that he faced in the days before he became king of Israel. I have seen how sometimes he acted wisely and graciously as he looked Godwards … how on other occasions his injudicious intentions were challenged, and met with wise response … and others when one unwise choice led to another and another ….
Whilst one of these later sequence of events was unfolding, I read the words “But David found strength in the Lord his God”  – that meant he really faced up to the things that had bit by bit built up (like blocked drains!) – and he disciplined himself to tackle it with God, whom he knew deep down inside, understood, and was able to offer a positive way forward!
It is a really liberating experience for us to follow Davids example. Do we have the courage to face up to the “gunge”, (built up over many years perhaps) which needs dealing with and would open up a fresh and enriching chapter in our experience of our Creator? Help is at hand if we are ready to face the reality …
With my prayers,    Jim Stevens

Dealing with the jargon ..!
Recently in visiting someone at home I was asked what BCP meant alongside one of the services listed in Chipperfield News …. and what did “5 Alive” mean? Point taken, thank you! Too easily we use our own jargon which others do not understand. So, my apologies, and I hope this bit of explanation helps…
BCP is shorthand for “Book of Common Prayer”, which has been used in the church since 1662. Other services are held in modern language.
All age worship implies that we seek to worship across the age range all together in a way that everyone can participate and value, from the youngest to the oldest present.
Cool Runnings involves spending time together over a simple meal, watching a clip or two from a film, and using that to think about Jesus Christ ….
Ask – Discovering God together held in Sarratt village hall, gives time to discuss, to question, to explore… matters relating to God and spirituality.
5 Alive is simply how we use the main morning service on the four 5th Sundays of the month. Our aim is simply to do something very different …
As two churches, Chipperfield and Sarratt, one “Benefice”, we seek to hold a variety of services to meet a growing diversity of both need and approach, so that we may be the better able to discover more of the amazing riches of God. It is not possible to provide everything in both villages …. so I hope that everyone can know that whatever we do there is always a welcome. We aim to provide something for younger ones every Sunday morning at the 10.00am services in Sarratt on the 1st and 4th Sundays of the month and at St. Pauls on the 2nd and 3rd!
Jim Stevens