Praying For The New Term
Tonight, at the start of our service, we prayed for the children present who will be going to school – some for the first time, others to new classes – and prayed for the schools in our area and the schools associated with church member’s families. Schools need our prayers! We prayed for staff and students alike, and prayed especially that love and truth will be at the foundation of all that is taught.
Schooldays can be the happiest days of our life, but they can also be difficult times. Bullying, anxiety and relationship problems can be prevalent; there are many pressures, not all related to academic achievement. Our board naming schools and children is a reminder to us all to pray continually for young people and for our community, not simply at the start of a new school year.
Please pray for:
- Goldthorpe Primary Academy, Sacred Heart RC Primary School and Highgate Primary Academy in Goldthorpe
- Gooseacre Primary Academy, The Hill Primary Academy and the Robert Ogden School in Thurnscoe
- Heathergarth, Lacewood and Carrfield schools in Bolton-on-Dearne
- Secondary schools (Astrea Academy Dearne in Goldthorpe, Saint Pius X and Wath Academy in Wath-on-Dearne) and Netherwood in Wombwell
Please pray for the children we know in schools locally.
The Power of Testimony
This morning Dave spoke from John 4:39-42 about the power of personal testimony. In meeting with the Samaritan woman at the well, Jesus chose to engage with someone whom Jews traditionally did not regard highly. Samaritans were in some respects at odds with Jews, and women were not highly regarded by men at this period, but Jesus took the time to speak with her, to accept her and to understand her. This led to a change in the woman’s attitudes, for this stranger, whilst not condoning her lifestyle, clearly was not rejecting her or looking down on her.
The woman was so struck by her meeting with Jesus that she went back to all in her town and testified about this man. Her curiosity and passion about this encounter clearly aroused the curiosity in other people, for they too came to see what all the fuss was about. We too are called to be evangelists, but so often feel we cannot do this. All we are asked to do, in reality, is to tell our story to others, to speak about what God has done. ‘Come and see someone who has changed my life’ is at the heart of every Christian testimony.
This is all that evangelism is – simply telling others what God has done for us. Many people came to faith as a result of this woman’s testimony, and the same can be true for us too.
Why Christmas Matters In August
It’s 117 days to Christmas and already some shops have Christmas items for sale. Most of us groan at the notion of Christmas being thrust at us in August. It feels, somehow, wrong.
People like me who love to plan ahead are secretly quite pleased to have access to Christmas items all year round (it spreads the cost and facilitates planning – I live in a world where my head is six months ahead of the calendar date most of the time!) But over recent years I have come to appreciate the all-year-round message of Christmas more and more and do not object to frequent reminders.
Christmas, to me, is all about Jesus, and the name ‘Immanuel’ is one we remember especially at that time. Christmas remembers, and celebrates, ‘God with us’, God in human form, God taking on flesh and dwelling among us.
And the truth is, I need Jesus in August. I need Him in March. I need Him every day of the year. I’m living in ‘the messy middle’ of the story, when the world’s not all as it should be and I can’t always see a way out of trouble. I need, therefore, the reassurance that God is with us, not simply on special occasion days in dark December but also on 30th August, which isn’t a special date in my calendar. He’s there in the everyday and the mundane. He’s there in the ordinary. He’s there in the mess.
So whilst you may not be thrilled at seeing Christmas goods in shops, whilst you may balk about thinking about Christmas yet, don’t push Jesus out of the everyday. We need Immanuel every single day of our lives.
The Power of Story
Every Thursday in term-time I take my youngest granddaughter to the Lil’ Beatz dance class run by the Clayton School Of Dance & Performing Art’s at The Play House & Cafe Thurnscoe. Music and movement are so important to children’s development, and she is now beginning to join in all the actions and understand the songs that are sung to her.
One song tells the story of various nursery rhymes and the chorus starts, ‘I’ll tell you a story’, promising to take us on adventures to new worlds. That is what stories do. At this age, we go to the Caribbean car wash with pompoms to clean our imaginary cars and we swim like fish in our imaginary ocean. We row our imaginary boats past crocodiles and beep the horn on our imaginary buses. I don’t know about my granddaughter, but it’s welcome therapy for me!
This is because we all need stories in our lives. We need daily reminders that story is at the heart of life. Somehow we adults believe that stories are just for children and that we have outgrown them. Nothing could be further from the truth, and I relish my weekly dose of reality framed in the medium of dancing story.
The Bible is a large, sprawling story made up of 66 books. Northrop Frye comments that ‘the entrie Bible is enclosed in a narrative framework’, and I agree. It can be easy to forget that when bogged down in Levitical laws or genealogies of unprounouncable names in Chronicles, but the Bible contains the basic elements of all good stories:
1. a beginning and an ending
2. a catastrophe that has marred the original design and separates us from our good end
3. a plot of salvation, of rescue
4. developing characters who reflect our human nature and show us what God can do with people
5. meaning, significance (life is not simply random.)
This brings not only reassurance but reality to our everyday lives. We know all about beginnings and endings (we celebrate births and remember deaths). We know all about the messy middle (sorrow, pain, tragedy). We yearn for the happy endings and daily watch growth and development around us. Deep down, we love the personal touch.
The Bible tells us the whole story of humanity, which can’t be told, it declares, without reference to God. Let the Bible’s story bring as much joy to you as my weekly foray into Lil’Beatz’s world does. Let story shape your week.
Thurnscoe Picnic In The Park
We held the last of the summer ‘Picnics In The Park’ today at Thurnscoe Plaza. Funded by the Dearne North and South Ward Alliances and the Snap Tin Community Hub, these picnics have seen families coming together to eat and to enjoy sporting acitivities, face painting, forest school skills and creative thankfulness!
Our thanks to Dan Jarvis for his nerf gun wars1
Our thanks to Sue’s Ices for providing ice-creams for us.
Our thanks to Clive, Janet & Karen who taught us much about thankfulness.
Our thanks to the Dearne Area Team for their sporting equipment.
Our thanks to members of Liberty Church, Rotherham, who did free face-painting for us,
Our thanks to all of you for coming!
Altars In The Wilderness
“Now those altars in the wilderness tell the story of His faithfulness.” (Phil Wickham, “This is our God”)
The art of a songwriter is to capture a world in a line, to allude to so much in few words. It’s a skill I admire but don’t possess. This song means so much to me, but I return each time to this line. The Old Testament stories come alive again; I remember all those altars, apparently piles of stones, but places that marked people’s encounters with God. From there, I remember my own altars and look with awe on the things God has done.
Each community art project is, for me, far more than a piece of art. It’s the story of God’s whispers to me and of His provision. It’s the story of what God can do when He gifts people with talents. I have my own list of Bezalels and Oholiabs: Ruth Waterworth, Lydia Caprani, Rebecca Dye, Anita Heatherglen, Pete Davies, Julia Williams, Jayde Bell. I have so many people who bless me with their talents, who have taken my dreams and breathed life into them.
But each art project is ultimately also the story of God’s faithfulness. I pray one day when people ask why there are photo boards and colourful shutters and murals and sun bears and elephants and mosaics in Goldthorpe, this testimony will remain. God cares about our community and creative people reflected that.
The community art project in 2024 is to create beautiful works of art on shop shutters in Goldthorpe. Here is artist Jayde Marie Bell working on the first shop in the project, ‘Millennium Cutters’.
