The view from the pulpit.
Climbing the stairs, ascending, looking over the sea of heads.
Parted in the center, was Moses here already?
Preaching the word to so many faces,
Looking.
Expecting.
Some smiling, some sad, some quizzical, some frowning in concentration.
(I pray)
Some just blank… nothing, switched off or sponging up the presence?
(I pray some more)
One face peaking around the pillar! Not really wanting eye contact.
Eyes, looking, wanting to be fed. Yearning…
An ear cupped near the back. Sit closer next time man.
In the zone, such fun and joy. The presence palpable. Yes Lord.
Sometimes its lonely up there.
Where are you God?
Where am I going?
Now, tell ’em about Jesus, the words of a mentor pop up.
If I am struggling I look at the smilers.
If I am riding the wave I look at the frowners… And smile!
A distraction as someone looks at their watch.
Hang in their, my point is just around the corner. Two blocks!
How many sermons has the wall at the back actually heard?
Fishing with words as the message sits and then,
hopefully, prayerfully,
sinks into the Soul.
The takeaway delivered.
Gently, I climb down the stairs.
What just happened?
Jesus…
Is that what it felt like on the cross,
Without the physical pain?
Fr. Nigel Mumford+
Author Archives: Nigel W.D. Mumford
Some time ago, I was driving across the north county listening to National Public Radio (NPR).
Suffering
A close friend who once again is going through medical issues said to me today,
I’m fine in my spirit for which I completely thank God. Amazing really. After all these different bouts of suffering the refiners fire doesn’t get any cooler!
Refiners fire…..hmmmm. a friend had picture for me about gold being beaten out so finely it became gold leaf that could be finely put into the tiniest nooks & crannys…….lovely thought.
There IS a sense to suffering.
It is what we do during the suffering and what we do after the suffering that is important. Christ suffered that we might have life and life abundant. If you are suffering invite the Lord deep within the forming scar tissue. Allow your emotions to have their say with the right prayer partners. Sometimes we need to express what is going on!
The woman in the Gospel of Mark 5 touched the very hem of the robes of Christ. She expressed herself in silence and humility with an act of extreme courage.
To suffer means to endure.
If you endure something you suffer through it… you press on through the aridity and disenchantment. You press on in the depression. You press on in the pain and frustration. With Gods help. You are not alone.
Fr. Nigel Mumford+
FOREWORD,
AFTER THE TRAUMA, THE BATTLE BEGINS. Post Trauma Healing.
General the Lord Dannatt GCB CBE MC, DL Chief of the General Staff, British Army, 2006-2009
There are few people that one meets in life who have confronted death as starkly as Nigel Mumford has, and who can then describe their experiences for the benefit of others as he had done. This book is a remarkable testament to the triumph of spiritual healing over the despair of illness- physical or mental, real or imagined, or perhaps an amalgam of all four. For Nigel Mumford these things are not theoretical, they are his practical experience and therefore his testimony is all the more authentic because he writes about what he know and promotes what he believes – nothing can be more genuine.
As terrible as the physical injuries of war or a horrific accident can be, the sufferer rarely has to explain his or her condition to others as the scars are plain to see. But more numerous and more painful are those whose injuries are invisible, and for them there is the additional challenge of persuading others of the existence of their problem, and its severity. Quite properly Nigel Mumford subtitles this book: “After the Trauma, the Battle Begins…” it is this trauma – experienced by so many over the years, but unrecognized by so many for far too long – that is the focus of this book. In the pages that follow the traces the history of our understanding of Post- Traumatic Stress Disorder, describes its characteristics and its consequences and places the condition as an everyday reality both in war abroad and in the supposed peace of life at home.
Nigel Mumford’s journey of understanding, explanation and healing through the pages of theirs book is underpinned by scriptural authority and inspirational experience. The combination is effective and compelling. However, the reader is not just left with a warm feeling of hope but instead given a spiritual and practical life plan based around seven carefully argued and explained steps. So this book is both a thriller and an exercise book. From the opening chapter Nigel Mumford quotes extensively from Psalm 121. This psalm of inspiration, bidding us to “Lift up mine eyes unto the hills from where comes my help” is well known and well placed here but I would draw out a further through from within its verses. In the King James Version, the last two verses read:
“The Lord shall preserve thee from all evil: he shall preserve thy soul. The Lord shall preserve they going out and they coming in from this time forth, and even for evermore.”
How many times have prayers been offered to preserve “thy going out and coming in” on behalf of those in military combat, or even in the mundane daily round of civilian life, only to result in death, physical injure or mental scarring? How does the loving God allow these things to take place when the psalmist states that “The Lord shall preserve thee from all evil”?
Nigel Mumford answerers this most critical dilemma in life through the pages of this book. The truth that he seeks to explain is that our physical bodies, though important for a while as we live our earthly lives, have no value in the grand order of things. What matters is not our physical or even mental health in this life, but the health of our soul – our inner being – that intangible part of us that is immortal for good or ill. The psalmist is unequivocal; “he (the Lord) shall preserve they soul”. It is our soul, not our bodies that really matters and a soul dedicated to the service of Almighty God is a soul that is eternally healthy, free from physical or mental injury, and it is that which will be preserved “even for evermore.”
So this book is first and last a book of hope. Towards the end, Nigel Mumford reverts to discussion of the “Welcome Home initiative,” that most important but often confusing experience of the returning veteran, He exhorts the reader: “Be well, do good works and for the sake of God, love one another.” But the homecoming that really matters is the greeting for the Christian soldier when one day, after a lifetime of service, he hears the words of St. Matthew Chapter 25, verse 21: “Well done, good and faithful servant.”
Now read on and be truly encouraged.
Richard Dannatt
A Chance Meeting that Saved a Life.
By The Rev. Nigel Mumford+
The prayer team of “The Welcome Home Initiative” (WHI) and I were having lunch before WHI program number twelve. I saw a man sitting by himself and went up to him. I introduced myself and sat with him for a while. He was not part of the program. The combat vets were arriving later. This man told me he had come to the center for a private retreat. He said he needed to get away and be by himself. I told him we were running a program for combat vets. His eyes opened wide. He said that he was a combat vet and then told me a little about his service in Afghanistan.
I immediately invited him to have “his retreat” with us. At first he declined. I told him just to come, meet the men and women and hang out with us. If you don’t like it then return to your private retreat. After a while he agreed.
He joined in and was an integral part of the retreat. He was very quiet to begin with but made friends and joined in. It was a blessing to see him come alive. He kept thanking me for the invitation. How much is this going to cost? I assured him that the public had funded the program. I told him to thank God for his invitation to the program.
After the closing ceremony he came up to me and gingerly opened his back pack. He privately showed me a pistol. I asked him if it was unloaded. He assured me it was. He then said something that changed my life forever.
“Fr. Nigel” he said. “I had come here for a private retreat. I had planned to walk far into the woods and put the barrel of this pistol in my mouth and blow my brains out. I just could not cope with the haunting trauma of war. I don’t need to use this after all, thank you for saving my life” At this point we both had tears in our eyes…
Again he said, “Thank you for the invitation to join the Welcome Home Initiative. If you had not invited me I would be dead now. Thank you and thank God for the invitation to life. Our meeting stopped the need in me to commit suicide.”
One veteran’s life saved because of the Welcome Home initiative. Thank you God.
BY HIS WOUNDS, INC.
The official launch day of BHW is 5th September 2013
Please pray that this ministry will reach thousands of people letting them know that Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. That people may truly know that actually God Is still in the “business of healing.”
I have no doubt whatsoever that I am alive because of corporate prayer and this is the type of prayer that really moves mountains.
Please visit www.byhiswoundsministry.org for more information.
Please sign up for news letters etc.
A post card of our logo “The last breath, a breath that changed the world” by Kathy Delair, will be available soon.
Thank you so very much indeed for your prayer coverage.
God is BRILLIANT.
Be well, do good works, and for the sake of God, Love one another.
Much love to you in Christ,
Rev. Nigel+
BHW is a 501(c)(3) not for profit charity and is totally self supporting. Thank you for your contributions.
Coping with clutter
9 August 2013
Last month, while I was recovering from a knee operation, Killy and l tried to de-clutter my study as well as our garage, shed, loft, kitchen and bedrooms. It has been a revelation. Let me tell you some of the things that we have found:
- A huge quantity of business cards from people, many of whom I have no recollection of meeting.
- Several boxes of mysterious adapters and cables that fit no known phones or computers.
- Lots of empty boxes. Why did we store empty boxes for years!
- A pile of cassette tapes, some marked ‘Keep!’. Not very useful for a household which no longer has the means to play cassettes.
- A huge pile of books that I have either not read, never finished or will never read. The very existence of some puzzles me. Why, I ask myself, did I get a Russian phrasebook? And did someone give me Church Architecture: A Glossary of Terms?
- A handful of coins from mysterious countries, some of which I am sure I have never visited.
- A box full of keys – keys to what, I ask myself.
In the shed, there was a gas canister that doesn’t fit the BBQ. In the garage, we found numerous half-burnt candles, several tins of paint, each with enough paint to cover a postage stamp, and a good number of chipped and broken vases – why did we keep these?
As for the wardrobes – there were jumpers and jackets and suits I wore in the 1980s and which I haven’t worn for several decades. I still tried them on – although quite why, I don’t know!
And in the kitchen – why keep an old tea set we used 20 years ago, which we couldn’t stand then and certainly would never use now. Wow! We now have ‘space’ in our cupboards!
Clutter seems to be a disease of our time and culture. It used to be that when the kids left home you could consider ‘downsizing’ but sadly it seems that clutter expands to fill the space available. Although it is tempting to speculate about why we all accumulate so much, the issue with clutter is how we deal with it. Because successful de-cluttering is hard, we really need to have the right attitude: a ruthless, stop-at-nothing determination. We need to recognise that clutter is a serious problem.
The word ‘clutter’ is apparently related to ‘clot’. And as clots block up arteries and impede blood flow with disastrous results, so clutter does the same to our lives. Think, for instance, about how it leads to wasted time. Consider a no doubt all-too-familiar scenario: you are working on a project and you realise that you need item A (whether it’s a document, a tool or a kitchen utensil). However, because there is so much clutter you have to search for it. Now note what invariably happens. In the process of trying to find A, you successively uncover items B, C and D, each of which are far more interesting and each of which demand your attention. The result is that when you finally do discover item A you have either run out of time to use it or you cannot now remember what you wanted it for in the first place.
So we must de-clutter. But the practicalities of dealing with clutter are far from easy. We have to engage in a process of filtering. So, in my own study, I end up asking over everything whether I should keep it, give it to a charity shop or simply consign it to the dustbin? It’s not an easy decision and there is a view held by some experts in the field of de-cluttering that the only thing to do is adopt a scorched earth policy and just bin it all. Although I have some sympathy for that approach, I don’t believe that everything should be thrown away. If you are like me, your clutter is probably virtually worthless in financial terms, but you do need to remember that money is not the only measure of worth. The past has value and memories of events, and particularly of individuals, should matter to us.
It is worth remembering how in the Old Testament Samuel put up a large memorial stone and ‘named it Ebenezer (which means “the stone of help”), for he said, “Up to this point the LORD has helped us!” ’ (1 Samuel 7:12, NRSV). There are some things you may wish to keep as ‘Ebenezers’ –honoured reminders of long-ago friends, mementos of times rich in blessing and testimonies of difficulties overcome. The past, even when it comes to us in the form of clutter, can provide us with much fuel for gratitude. And let’s face it, it’s actually a privilege to have clutter. Only two kinds of people have no clutter at all: those who have so little to do that they don’t generate any and those who are too poor to have any. I thank God I am in neither category.
Yet although we may save some precious reminders, the reality is that much must be disposed of, so how do we decide what to get rid of? As I leaf through old files, letters and books I find myself repeatedly thinking of words such as ‘essential’ and ‘priority’. Anyone who has ever tried de-cluttering a study or garage will be aware of the danger that after a few hours’ labour you have in fact managed to justify keeping almost everything. We need to ask some very hard questions. Do I need this? Am Iever going to need it?
One reason I think that many people today find it hard to deal with clutter is that they prefer to think they are here for ever. They imagine that sooner or later they really are going to read those unread books, do that unopened jigsaw or experiment with those French recipes. Here, as in so many other areas, I am helped by knowing that the Christian life is like a journey. As I look at all I have before me, I repeatedly ask myself a single, simple question: ‘Is it needed on the voyage?’ If you are looking forward to the next world, there’s a lot to be said for travelling light through this one.
Agapé,
Revd Canon J.John
Mumford’s Musings.The world is your oyster…
With God we can do anything (Philippians 4:13). There is huge opportunity waiting on the one hand but, there are a lot of irritants in life on the other. Poison ivy on the skin as we brush past those irritants. Grains of sand that get under the skin can cause a major irritant. Of course a grain of sand in an oyster shell eventually forms the jewel of a pearl. It was Sir Winston Churchill who said, “If you are going through Hell, keep going!” It was William Shakespeare who said, “The world is your oyster.” An idiom from ‘The Merry Wives of Windsor’ (1600).Allow the irritants of life to form jewels within you.Jewels that others will see form the adornment of God.~Nigel Mumford+
Cancer is a word not a Sentence!
A Woman Healed of Cancer with Medical Documentation.
By The Rev. Nigel Mumford+
Date line: 17 July 2013: I have just got off the phone with Maria Holland.* (Name used with permission.) As soon as I heard her speak, I heard a vibrant woman with great joy and peace in her voice. Maria lives in South Dakota. I had heard the story of her cure through her sister Anne* but wanted to hear what happened from Maria’s perspective. Maria is a twenty two year USAF and US Army veteran with former PTSD issues. Two years ago she was diagnosed with anal cancer and related immediately with Farrah Fawcett. Maria had most of the area removed and was given a colostomy bag. January of this year the cancer metastasized through the blood to stage four cancer in an area of her bones, her liver and her lungs. The prognosis was not good. Maria was told by the medical profession that she would never be cured. She was also told that her liver was not responding to medication at all. Maria told me that she had written her obituary. She also told me she has a huge friends list on Facebook, with many people praying for her.
On Sunday 14th July 2013, I had the privilege of preaching and praying for people at Trinity, Episcopal church, Rensselearville, NY. People came up for an anointing and the laying on of hands. Anne presented by telling me her sister Maria needed prayer. We prayed for her and then I was prompted to anoint her hands to take that anointing to her sister not realizing that her sister lived in South Dakota! The next day Anne and her mother felt compelled to drive to South Dakota (a twenty five and half hour, 1,597 mile drive). Before they set off, Anne called her sister to see if they could come and see her but did not tell her the “real” reason they were coming. Maria was very specific in setting boundaries that she did not want her mother and sister to come for the bad news and to wait for her to die! She told them that she did not want them hanging around being morose. When they arrived they went straight upstairs and Anne laid her hands on her sister Maria. Anne told me later that she felt what she thought was an electric shock as she laid hands on her sister’s hot spots of the liver, lungs and bones, the sites that were riddled with stage four cancer. As her sister moved her hands over the areas of concern, Maria told me that she felt extreme heat from her sister’s hands, as well as comfort and a deep peace. The next morning Maria went for a positron emission tomography (PET) scan. After the scan, the technician turned her back on Maria and would not show her face. Technicians are not allowed to let the patients know what is going on. Maria told me that she knew… she knew the result. They had to wait until the afternoon for the report from the oncologist.The doctor started his report with, “I can see no biological or scientific reason… but I have good news for you. It’s gone, you are completely cancer free.” They were stunned, “You are a medical miracle.” He added. This was the first good news they had heard for two years. Anne, Maria and her husband give all the credit to God and all those who were praying for her. Evidence of the power of corporate prayer and corporate faith to move mountains of disease. Maria then told me she felt that she had been cured of PTSD from her military experience because of the cancer. She said she now has no fear at all as she walks totally with Jesus. Maria also said she found humor to be very important in the healing protocol, of which I was very aware as we spoke. She is a very funny woman blessed with a new joy and abundance of life. Thanks be to God. Let us not limit what God can do. This story includes all the ingredients, the full recipe of healing… to the full cure. What an amazing God we serve. Press on by faith dear souls…
*Names used with permission.
© Copyright, The Rev. Nigel Mumford+ July 2013
After the Trauma, the Battle Begins, Post Trauma Healing.
Book review.
Welcome Home!, December 16, 2011
By Jason Twombly (New York) – See all my reviews
This review is from: After the Trauma the Battle Begins (Paperback)
“After the Trauma the Battle Begins” by Nigel Mumford is written primarily to soldiers who have suffered the shock and awe of combat. Additionally, serving as an address to caregivers, this book breathes a message of healing and hope to all those haunted by post traumatic stress.
Longing to be understood, longing to be free, longing to be whole and longing to be home are cries of every human heart. There remains for all of us a sense of homesickness and heartache for all things to be put to right. Once cast east of Eden, we achingly wander far from home.
“We live in a world shattered, each step reechoes the cracking of broken glass, shards removed at first from aching feet but then…finally…tolerated. Longing to recover the tranquil garden of gentle grass.” -unknown
This world is both broken and beautiful. Known by the heroes fighting for our liberty, the shards of broken glass are often lodged in the deepest most hidden recesses of their hearts and minds. ‘Welcome Home’ as spoken to soldiers returning from tours of duty is the greeting the reader himself hears from within the bosom of God’s healing embrace. ‘Welcome Home’ is the sweet drink from the stream of serenity that soaks the scars unseen.
Written from the empathy of one who candidly walked the vale of combat and suffering, the author does not avoid describing the jagged edges of life, but offers beauty for brutality and hope for helplessness in the person of Christ The Healer.
If you’ve ever wanted to read a book by a man thrilled and filled with thankfulness from not a few escapes from death then read this book. If you have been desperate for an Anne Sullivan to come along and put words to the inarticulate groanings of your soul that cannot be uttered, Nigel Mumford is the minster of healing that will trace your wounds in the Hands of The Pierced One. Therapy with a theological telos is the kind that is real. Therapy that throbs with compassion is the kind that counts.
Therapists, counselors, chaplains, captains, pastors and those afflicted by trauma, I urge you, read this book. Post traumatic stress affects not only soldiers, but the rank and file of everyday people who have been dealt the blow of unspeakable horror. Take up and read. Unlace your combat boots, rest your aching feet and be led to pastures of the “tranquil garden of gentle grass.”