The family service for the anniversary weekend had a quiz about traditional clothes from around the world. We had to identify the countries represented by the following photos:

There were ten photos in all to identify and the winning team scored six points, so we obviously didn’t find this quiz easy!

Answers?
1. Germany
2. Japan
3. Russia
4. Africa
5. India
6. Iceland
7. Argentina

The whole theme of the anniversary weekend has been ‘He’s Got the Whole World in His Hands.’ Stephen’s sermon on Sunday morning had a startling take on this theme. He sat at the front and apparently went to sleep!

He then spoke from Mark 16:15-20, talking about how Jesus appeared to His disciples after the Resurrection.

If God is in charge of our world, in control of everything that happens to us and is looking after all of His creation, then there is no need for us to worry or fret or spend so much time trying to make things work out the way we want them to. Jesus told His disciples that worrying could not make them grow an inch or add a year to their lives. Worry is pointless and undermines the faith we profess to have in God. We need to learn to live out what we believe and rest in God’s sovereignty and control, for His unfailing love is reliable and steadfast and His power is unlimited. Being content in God’s sovereignty doesn’t absolve us from responsibility, however. These verses give us a command, to go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation. We have a responsibility, as Adam did, to tend the wonderful world we live in and to spread the good news wherever we go. God is in control! He’s got everything in His hands.

Prizes were distributed to the winners of the globe competition (in reverse order):

Don’t forget today’s services at 10.30 a.m. and the family service at 6 p.m.

As at Easter, we decided to hold a family film night in the evening to encourage all those who had come to the craft activities to return to find out the winners from each competition and to have fun together. We had 72 people come to this event.

We watched the film ‘Cloudy with a chance of meatballs’, a children’s film released in 2010 about an inventor, Flint Lockwood, who makes a machine that can make food fall from the clouds, thus giving his small, sardine-based town a new lease of life. The animated film looks at important themes of identity (Flint and the weather forecast girl Sam Sparks are hugely intelligent, but often feel mocked by others because they are ‘different’), gluttony and greed and helps us to reflect on the demandingness and selfishness of modern society, all wrapped up in great action and adventure!

After the film, willing workers from church provided a supper of meatballs and pasta to anyone who wanted to stay behind:

It was a great end to a fantastic day!

The anniversary weekend is an opportunity to pause and reflect on God’s goodness and faithfulness to us as a church over the past two years. On 3rd July 2010 we officially opened Goldthorpe Pentecostal Community Church in the new building on Market Street and on 7th July 2012 we stopped to reflect on all that has happened in the past two years.

We had photo displays in the main hall of the things we have done in that time:

We have had family services on a range of themes, including love, ‘mission impossible’, Samson, the Queen’s Jubilee and the Olympics and been involved in a range of building work to further improve the building.

The family services reflect our ongoing desire to make God’s Word accessible to all, presenting it in a fun style, with quizzes, competitions and short sermons to show people that God is interested in all ages and can speak through a variety of media.

The building work has involved replacing all the windows in the building and rewiring the Community room. We have a new cooker and new heaters in the kitchen and have worked on the drains and have new tarmac in the car park. We have also cleared our old building site on Beever Street before we sold it.

The other photo display looked at the outreach work we have been involved in (including working with other local churches and missionaries) and at the role of the Bible in all our studies. I’m sure you’ll be pleased to know that the food boxes are already full again as we seek to minister to needy people in Goldthorpe! This display also looked at all the fun activities we do together as a church (parties, celebrations and so on.)

Two years ago we put up a photo montage in the foyer showing how we had worked on the building. We have just put up another photo montage showing how the journey of faith has continued (with thanks to Stan Plus Stan Two for the donation of the photo frame):

I believe it is vitally important to record and remember all that God has done, partly because we have a human tendency to forget, partly to proclaim to others His marvellous deeds. That’s one reason I am keen to keep this blog, so there is a record for people to see what God is doing. We have photo albums in church of all that is happening and these displays reflect the diversity and range of ministries in which the church, a body of ordinary believers with an extraordinary God, are involved. Wes King has written a song called ‘Remember’ which says:
“Remember
Oh, I never will forget
My Ebeneezer
Is the day You paid my debt.” (Wes King, ‘Remember’)

The reference to Ebenezer is taken from 1 Samuel 7:12: ‘Then Samuel took a stone and set it up between Mizpah and Shen. He named it Ebenezer, saying, “Thus far the Lord has helped us.”’ (since the word ‘Ebenezer’ means ‘stone of help’). These anniversary weekends and photo displays are one way we set up our own modern-day Ebenezers, reflecting on all God has done to help us and trusting He will continue to be our help and our shield in the days to come.

We had a lot of craft activities based on the theme of ‘God’s Got the Whole World in His Hands’.

So we made worlds with handsto represent this theme…

We also had pictures of the world:

… and Indian headdresses and bracelets...

We had a competition about animals of the world and face-painting as well:

We also had a quiz about famous buildings and places in the world:

We had flags of the world to colour: