Aaron Shust has been busy co-writing songs over the past months (which will lead to a new album release later this year.) The first video is available from this, called ‘The Greatness of Who You Are.’ May we indeed be set on fire by the all-consuming God and proclaim God’s glory and greatness in all we do.

Matt Redman also recently recorded a new live album, so 2015 promises to have some great new songs with which to worship God!

The Women’s World Day of Prayer was held at St Peter’s church in Barnburgh, celebrating the theme of servanthood from John 13:1-17. With colourful clothing and displays and lively music, we celebrated the diversity of these islands:

As we prayed for various ministries helping immigrants, those with HIV/AIDS, teenage mothers and those suffering from cancer, we saw that all the negative factors can be replaced by positive truths from God’s word: we are blessed, included, never alone and so on.

Local ladies brought tinned food to support the food bank run by the Salvation Army in Goldthorpe:

Alison’s prayer: ‘Lord, I want to thank you for the amazing work of the churches together. Through their gifts we are able to feed and care for the people of the Dearne Valley. Lord, I want thank you for giving the food bank users the strength to open the doors and ask for help. Lord, I want to thank you that through you lives are being transformed and changed.’

Don’t forget the Women’s World Day of Prayer this Friday (6th March.) This will start at 6 p.m. at St Peter’s Church in Barnburgh, and has been written by women from the Bahamas. Banish the winter blues by wearing colourful clothes! Don’t forget to bring tinned food to this event to support the Salvation Army food bank.

On Sunday (8th March) there will be the Christian bookstall in church, featuring cards, gifts, books and CDs from the CLC bookshop in Sheffield. Come along ready to buy!

There are also a number of activities happening locally over Easter. Our church will be showing a film based on Matthew’s Gospel on Good Friday at 7 p.m. and on Easter Saturday at 1 p.m. and 7 p.m.  The Salvation Army will be showing the film ‘Jesus of Nazareth’ on Saturday 21st March and 28th March at 4 p.m. and will also host a special Maundy Thursday service at 7 p.m. on Thursday 2nd April.

The Easter ‘March of Hope’ will see all local churches joining together for a march of witness around Goldthorpe on Saturday 4th April. We’ll start on Lockwood Road at 10.30 a.m. and will march around Goldthorpe, singing songs of witness, ending back at our church for a church lunch by 12 noon. This is a great opportunity to let all of Goldthorpe know that Jesus is alive!

Don’t forget also the church trip to Bridlington on Monday 4th May. If you’re interested in going on this, please let Julie know as soon as possible as she will be booking the coach soon.

How often have we heard the plaintive complaint of a child during the school holidays, ‘There’s nothing to do!’? Children seem to have a low boredom threshold, and this does not always disappear with age! Local residents often complain that there is nothing to do in our area, that we are somehow unfortunate in living in a place where activities are limited, but actually, these complaints are often based on ignorance. There is an incredible amount of things happening in Goldthorpe and the surrounding villages and it’s up to us to decide what we want to be involved in or to find out what is available. Maybe God has something new for you to do!

There are many organisations working in Goldthorpe and a lot of the activities they host are free. Crisis, a charity which works with the homeless or those struggling with housing issues, is hosting a series of textiles sessions, teaching people how to sew and mend, at our church on Wednesdays from 11 a.m. until 1 p.m. for the next few weeks until 8th April. If there is enough interest in the area, these may well continue beyond then. Come along if you’re interested and talk to Linda, the tutor.

The Mums & Toddlers Group at our church (Fridays, 9 -11 a.m.) has been having fun with craft sessions and healthy eating sessions run by other groups which work in the area. Last week, the toddlers made healthy cheesecakes and workers are coming to make fruit smoothies this Friday.

The Salvation Army hosts a job club every Monday and Friday at their church and from 7th April a charity called Creative Recovery (which works using the arts to promote wellbeing) is hosting ‘Live Arts Cafe’ there from 4-7 p.m. each Tuesday. Live music, art projects (the first session involves batik, an Indonesian technique of wax-resist dyeing to whole cloth) and a light supper will feature each week, so if you’re wanting to use creativity to bring about social change, grow community spirit and boost well-being, this is the place to be!

The parish church has re-started its lunch club on Tuesdays at Goldthorpe Parish Hall. For the value price of £3.50, you can enjoy good food, good fellowship and the opportunity to meet people from other churches.

Furlong Road Methodist Church will be running healing services once a month on Friday evenings shortly.

These are just some of the things going on in Goldthorpe. Events and courses are also hosted at the library (including a Readers’ group, a Story and Rhyme session for children and holiday activities for children), at the Dearne Enterprise Centre and at the Community Shop. If you want to get involved in something as a volunteer or learn new skills or simply meet new people, there are plenty of opportunities out there. There really is a lot you can do if you want to!

The latest newsletter from Steve & Katuska Davies in Mozambique arrived this week. The annual team retreat took them away from the smoke of Maputo to the salt of the Indian Ocean, and they were refreshed from Bible teaching from other OMS missionaries. The seminary is now operating both a day and night programme, with different students attending the evening classes to the ones attending during the day.

Katuska continues to home school their three children and deal with financial and administrative matters at the seminary. Health issues (often related to the hot sticky climate) continue to be a focus for prayer, as does Mozambican bureaucracy! Steve and Katuska have a ‘precarious’ status according to their identity card which means they must now take another driving test to acquire a Mozambican driving licence. Mistakes were also made on their children’s identity cards which mean they have to be renewed each month and a special exit permit applied for every time they leave the country (to travel to nearby South Africa, for example.) Such bureaucracy can be tedious and time-consuming, but they say they remain ‘cheerful and reassured.’

As elswhere in the world, Islam is growing fast in Mozambique and poses a real threat to the church. Pray that the Bible college will be able to strengthen the local church and help in teaching on this and other issues.

Obedience is a key topic in the Bible. We see it in the choice Jesus gave Peter when he told him to follow Him: he could choose to follow or to walk away. Jonah is the classic example of one who initially disobeyed God and ended up in the belly of a large fish as a result! The story in 2 Kings 5 tells us of a foreigner whose healing from God depended on his obedience.

Naaman was a commander of the army of the king of Aram who was afflicted by leprosy. His servant girl urged him to seek healing from the prophet Elisha, but he did not like the answer he received. Being told to wash seven times in the River Jordan (that number again!) did not strike him as sufficiently important or grandiose. His frustration can be seen in 2 Ki 5:11-12: ‘Naaman went away angry and said, “I thought that he would surely come out to me and stand and call on the name of the Lord his God, wave his hand over the spot and cure me of my leprosy.  Are not Abana and Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? Couldn’t I wash in them and be cleansed?” So he turned and went off in a rage.‘

Obedience is often a struggle for us. It can be hard to discern between God-inspired ideas and those which are self-inspired; it can also be hard when God tells us to do something which is unpalatable or unpleasant to us. Naaman’s initial thought was that washing could be done elsewhere; maybe he even thought that once or twice would be sufficient, but in order to be healed, he had to follow Elisha’s instructions exactly.

Challenges come as we walk with God and it is easy for us to want to solve these challenges ourselves. Often we think we know best, but all God requires is our obedience. His remedy may be unexpected and even undesirable to us, but all He requires is our obedience. Naaman, helped by his servants’ intervention, had the joy of being healed and from this learned that ‘there is no God in all the world except in Israel.’ (2 Ki 5:15) As we obey God, we have the joy of doing His will and, in the words of the children’s song written by Garry for the occasion, ‘listen, obey and be blessed.’