Normally at this time of year we would be liaising with 4FrontTheatre to bring a Nativity pantomime to our local schools and community. Sadly, we can’t have the team in person this year because of all the restrictions, but we are thrilled to be able to offer a pre-recorded performance to four local primary schools. The BRAND NEW Christmas show ‘A Very Merry Covid Cancelled Christmas‘ is a 45-minute fun filled Christmas show for all the family with the nativity at the heart of it, and Dearne Churches Together are so excited to be able to give our local schools the opportunity to watch top-quality theatre even if we can’t be there in person. We’re sad we can’t have a community performance this year, but at least our school children will have the chance to experience the magic of panto after all. Please pray for the team as they continue to seek creative new ways of reaching out to people through music and drama.

Despite all the restrictions, we are glad to still be meeting in person and there are various extra meetings in November to make a note of!

Saturday 7th November

We’ll be having our ‘Take Back The Streets’ prayer meeting/ walk on Saturday 7th November at 10 a.m., meeting at GPCC and going on to pray as we walk around Highgate this time. Join us as we seek to speak God’s blessing into our local community and to pray for the variety of needs in our area.

Wednesday 11th November

The ‘Churches Together’ prayer meeting for November will be on the theme of ‘remembrance’ and we will be meeting at Furlong Road Methodist Church in Bolton-on-Dearne at 10.45 a.m. Part of this meeting will be livestreamed on Facebook on the Dearne Churches Together Facebook page.

Saturday 14th November

We’ll be meeting on Saturday 14th November at 10 a.m. in order to pack shoeboxes for the ‘Samaritan’s Purse’ Christmas appeal. If you can bring in any toys, pencils, crayons or anything else that would bless children aged 2-4, 5-9, 10-14 before that date, that would be really helpful. We will be assembling 20 shoeboxes which will then be sent via the organisation to children all over the world.

Saturday 28th November

We will be giving out goody bags to local families on this date; venues to be confirmed shortly. Ideas for local Christmas activities include:

• knitting or crocheting an angel (to be displayed in local shops and in windows of homes as a reminder of the hope angels brought at Christmas-time)

• painting an angel onto a rock and leaving in Phoenix Park to form part of an ‘angel trail’

• making a craft angel

If you do any of these crafts, please send us photos of your creations!

Despite all the local restrictions, Dearne Churches Together were thrilled to be able to connect with our local community through our ‘Light Into Our Lives’ event this week during half-term. A number of people from different churches gathered on Tuesday to pack all the bags (62 in total, plus we made a few extra just in case!) with crafts, snacks, magazines and other goodies.

Then on Wednesday we were able to give out these bags to local families at Goldthorpe and Bolton-on-Dearne:

Over 150 children have received gifts this way and we’re thrilled that some have already sent us photos of completed crafts!

We’ve heard the snacks have gone down well too!

Our thanks to all who have helped with preparations, donations and handing out bags. We will be doing a similar thing at Advent on Saturday 28th November, so if you can provide any snacks (wrapped chocolates, sweets or crisps) or small gifts, please bring them in and we will sort out a date to pack bags for this shortly.

We are very keen to bless our local community, and the half-term event and Christmas activities we are planning are ways to do this (providing gift bags of goodies for our local families.) As a church, however, we also care about children and families in other countries and support three children (Bedline in Haiti, Innocent in Uganda and Amshika in India) on a regular basis.

It’s been a very difficult year for people all throughout the world because of the Covid-19 pandemic, and we are mindful that generosity and kindness are essential qualities at all time, but especially as we approach Christmas. Because of this, we are looking to prepare 20 shoeboxes for children throughout the world as part of the Samaritan’s Purse Christmas Appeal.

This appeal involves filling a shoebox with different gifts for children. Suggestions are for each box to have a quality toy such as a doll, football with pump, or cuddly toy to bless a child alongside other gifts such as pencils, crayons, notebook or other toys. Bear in mind that every item must fit in a standard shoebox!

Please do not include used or damaged items; war-related items such as toy guns, knives or military figures; seeds; sweets, chocolate or food items;
toothpaste, lotions or liquids including bubbles; medicines; playing cards of the 4-suit variety; religious or political literature; sharp or fragile items; books with mainly words

If you can buy one such item and bring to church before 14th November, we will be packing the shoe boxes on Saturday 14th November at 10 a.m. It would be good also for people to write notes for the children and include a photo of yourself for them to be included in the shoe box. Pictures and photos of children participating in this appeal would be particularly appreciated by the children receiving the gifts.

Boxes are prepared for boys and girls within the following age ranges: 2-4, 5-9, 10-14 and we will hope to send a selection of boxes for different age groups, dependent on what you bring in.

Each box will cost £5 to post, so even if you do not give anything to go in the boxes, you could contribute by giving towards the postage of the box.

Each of the big questions we will consider uses the big question words (Who? What? Where? When? Why? and How?) to take us on a journey of discovery.

Who Is God? What is He like?

A. W. Tozer said, “What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us.” Knowing who God is and what He is like really is at the heart of life’s questions, for if we know these things, we can also know who we are and the reason we are here on earth. Answering these two questions opens up for us so many other things such as the meaning of life, what’s the purpose of life and so on. We must, above all, come to terms with the fact that God is at the centre of the universe, not mankind. Just as the Copernican revolution in the 15th and 16th centuries meant that people had to re-think their astronomical views (that the earth revolves around the sun, and not the other way around), we must see life from God’s point of view if ever we are to understand it fully. Exploring the essence of God is essential to our spiritual growth.

Where Is God?

We need to understand both the transcendence of God (Ps 115:3) and His immanence – that He is near to us (Phil 4:5) We need to remember that Jesus is ‘Immanuel – God with us’ (Matt 1:23) every day of our lives and not just at Christmas! Knowing that God is with us sustains us through many tragedies and through suffering as well as being a constant source of enrichment and encouragement. If God is with us and for us, then who can be against us? (Rom 8:31) Paul goes on to remind us that nothing can separate us from God’s love and the fact that the presence of God is with us always to the end of the age becomes our source of strength. (Rom 8:38-39, Matt 28:18-20, Heb 13:5) No matter what is going on around us or even within us, God’s presence becomes our sustaining force.

When, God? How long?

‘When?’ questions can be divided into two categories: ones which are relatively easy to answer because they have a fixed point (your birthday will be on the same day each year, for example!) and ones which are not so easy to answer because they are more fluid. Often, we question God’s timing. When will God move in power? When will we see His answer to our prayers? When will Jesus come again? These are all important questions relating to God’s timing, and it’s hard for us (because we dwell in time) to understand the eternal nature of God and the way He works in time. One of the recurring questions in the Psalms is ‘How long, Lord?’ (see Ps 6:3, Ps 13:1-2, Ps 35:17, Ps 74:10) and it’s one of the most frequent questions we still ask today. We need to explore time and eternity and God’s timings to begin to answer this question.

Why, God?

The Bible is full of ‘why?’ questions. Why does God allow suffering? Why do bad things happen to good people? Why can’t we all just get along together? Why are there wars and murders? Why is life so difficult at times? Sometimes, God reveals His purposes to us, as He did when Habakkuk asked him about the suffering Israel was undergoing, though we often can’t cope with His answers! (Then, He told Habakkuk He was going to raise up a ruthless people, the Babylonians, to discipline His people, which confused Habbakuk even more! How could God use the treacherous in this way?!) Sometimes, He doesn’t answer the ‘why?’ questions (Job never really got an explanation from God as to why he had to suffer so much). Exploring the purposes of God will lead us to mystery and wonder: ‘oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable his judgments, and his paths beyond tracing out!’ (Rom 11:33)

How, God?

How God works (or the methods of God) draws us inevitably into paradox and mystery, because God doesn’t do things the way we think He will or even the way we think He should. Is 55:8-9 reminds us that God’s thoughts and ways are far higher than ours. God’s kingdom is a topsy-turvy kingdom, where the first shall be last and the last shall be first (Luke 13:30), where life is found through death (John 12:24-25), where greatness comes through service (Mark 10:43), where love conquers hatred (Matt 5:43-48) – and where we have to turn all the world’s wisdom the other way up to have even the faintest clue what God is doing. We spend our whole lives learning something about how God works, and this matters enormously not in the abstract, but so that we can begin to live reflecting His character to the world around us. God teaches us about loving unconditionally, forgiving freely, caring compassionately – and essentially, if we even begin to glimpse something about His methods (seeing only a reflection as in a mirror, as Paul puts it (1 Cor 13:12)), our lives are changed for the better.

Asking questions is a natural and normal part of life; it’s really the way children learn! Studies have shown that a 4-year-old can ask between 200 and 300 questions every single day. Warren Berger, author of ‘A More Beautiful Question’, says children ask an average of 40,000 questions between the ages of 2 and 5. Yet unfortunately, as we grow up, we often stop asking questions, perhaps because we feel stupid or because we think there are no answers. In Christian circles, sometimes questions are frowned up, and people feel that if they question God, they show a lack of faith.

The Bible is packed full of questions, however (people’s and God’s!), and we need never be afraid to come before God honestly (the Psalms show us a whole range of questions, bewilderment, anger and confusion, all voiced freely in the context of a personal relationship with God.) Over the next week’s we’ll be looking at a range of questions such as:

1. Who is God?

2. What is God like?

3. Where is God?

4. When will God…?

5. Why, God?

6. How does God work?

These questions are often called ‘life’s big questions’ and we need to explore them so that we are equipped to deal with other people’s questions such as:

• What’s the meaning of life?

• Does God exist?

• Why am I here? What is the purpose of life?

• What is truth?

• What happens after death?

• Why does God allow suffering?

• Why do bad things happen to good people?

If you have questions you’d like us to tackle, please let us know!