Church Life Update 5

This week we hear from Wanjiku about coming to St George’s during the pandemic and Deborah talking about what the last year has meant to her. Watch the next video of encouragement for Lent Week 5 (14 minutes) so we can be Community Together.

Also see previous weeks:
video for Lent Week 1 (10 minutes)
video for Lent Week 2 (12 minutes)
video for Lent Week 3 (10 minutes)
video for Lent Week 4 (6 minutes)

Wanjiku from Nairobi, Kenya, is pursuing a master’s degree in Sports Management in Barcelona. Having arrived in October 2020 in the midst of the pandemic, she has been thrown in at the deep end. She doesn’t know what life in Barcelona was like before COVID-19, but she has had a “calm and peaceful” experience so far.

When she first arrived, she listened to and watched different church services online, until a friend told her about St George’s. After visiting, “I was happy first of all to find an English-speaking church, and second to meet a church family going through the same thing that I’m going through, being away from home yet still having a family away from family. It’s such a warm feeling because when you’re walking in the same direction and you speak the same language about God, it is humbling. I enjoy the Bible studies and really look forward to them. I’m grateful to have found this church family.”

Revd Deborah Chapman then recalled her year since the pandemic began, starting with getting locked down in Australia for an extra two months with her son, daughter-in-law and granddaughter, before getting a repatriation flight back to Spain.

For her, being able to work in the church garden has been a great blessing, having morning and evening prayers, and painting. As a vocations advisor in the Church of England, she has interviewed a few candidates online for Spain, and is currently mentoring Daleen, our intern.

“I do have some personal interests that actually connect with my faith in Christ, namely my artistic bent,” she said. Deborah showed a painting that she recently did (partially pictured above) about delivering the Gospel in the form of a pearl. She also showed a sculpture of Christ, which, as a whole, looks like the same person, but each side reveals different aspects of that same person, Jesus: God in all his authority, and the suffering servant.

Revd John ended with this blessing:

Father, cherish me.
Son, cherish me.
Spirit, cherish me.

God, make me holy.
Christ, make me holy.
Spirit, make me holy.

The Sacred Three, my fortress be,
encircling me,
come and be round my hearth and my home.

The Sacred Three, be over me,
with my working hands this day,
with the thoughts of my mind.

The blessing of God Almighty, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, be with you, now and always. Amen.

Go in peace to love and serve the Lord!

View the full video on St George’s YouTube Channel.