I have just returned from a very successful and enjoyable week at the Keswick Convention.
It is the third year running I have been and I would say this was the most memorable for the many fascinating people I met and also the number of copies of God’s Secret Listener I sold.
It also made a difference that it hardly rained unlike the previous two years and that I was helped very ably on the European Christian Mission stand by the East of England volunteer Don Gyton and Philipp Ruesch who works for Trans World Radio in Vienna, Austria. Don is pictured left and Philipp on the right on the stand.
As well as European Christian Mission and Trans World Radio having links as told in Captain Berti Dosti’s story, published by Lion/Monarch of Oxford, the two agencies are now working closer together to help promote each other.
I again stayed in Brun Lea Guest House in Stanger Street which I can thoroughly recommend. It is only yards from the town centre and about 100 yards from the Earthworks exhibition area where all the mission stands were situated.
There were more than 3,000 visitors to the convention which went very well.
In particular I thought the guest lecturer, Andrew Dilnot, who spoke about Biblical principles in the funding of the care of the elderly was first class. He spoke well and the ensuing discussion was very helpful.
Andrew certainly has an impressive CV. He is Principal of St Hugh’s College, Oxford; a Pro Vice Chancellor of Oxford University; Chairman of the United Kingdom Statistics Authority; Director of the Institute for Fiscal Studies from 1991 to 2002 and Chairman of the Commission on the Funding of Care and Support, which reported to the Government recently.
What amazed me was the number of faithful mission supporters visiting the convention and how many of them commented on how moving they found Berti Dosti’s visit and interview at Keswick last year.
But for me the most amazing event was when someone mentioned my name while I was in the coffee queue and a young man came over to me and asked me: “Are you the John Butterworth who was a dormitory leader at the Felixstowe Explorer Camp in 1989?”
I said I was and then Simeon Locke said he had been in my group for two years running when he had been nine and ten years old.
Simeon is now married to Gemma and they have a young baby daughter Elodie.
They are about to go with ReachAcross to help the church in Kayes in Mali in West Africa or if the political situation in that country worsens they will go first to Senegal.
I was touched he remembered me and delighted he came over to introduce himself to me.
It capped a memorable Keswick Convention for me.
If you would like to order a signed copy of the book for £7, including postage within the UK or £8 anywhere in the world also email John@jbutterworth.plus.com
