Easter Special
We had a fantastic morning and early afternoon with craft activities galore. Thank you to all who helped to run the event and to all who came along to it!
The calm before the storm…!
Busily working away…
We had face-painting:
Balloon-modelling
:
Stained glass (well, plastic!) painting:
Card-making & Easter-egg decorating
:
Counting down…
Tonight at the prayer meeting we have been praying for the special events to be held at church on Saturday 31st March. The Easter Special will run from 10 a.m. until 2 p.m., with face-painting, balloon-modelling, Easter crafts and much more! In the evening, there will be a family film, starting at 6 p.m., followed by free chip butties!
If you can help to set up for the event, this will be done on Friday night, instead of badminton. Any help at all on Saturday will be gratefully received. That might be making teas and coffees, washing up, helping with the craft activities or just being around to chat to people who come in. Most of all, let’s pray that God will work in our local community:
“Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful. And pray for us, too, that God may open a door for our message, so that we may proclaim the mystery of Christ, for which I am in chains. Pray that I may proclaim it clearly, as I should. Be wise in the way you act toward outsiders; make the most of every opportunity. Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone.” (Col 4:2-6)
This is love…
As Easter approaches, it’s good to meditate on all that Jesus did for us on the Cross. This song (also taken from the new album from Kutless called ‘Believer’) looks at the Garden of Gethsemane and the motivation behind the cross.
“Alone in a garden weeping
Begging His Father, pleading,
‘Take this cup from me,
But if it’s Your will, Father, let it be.’
All of the others sleeping
Sweat on His brow was bleeding
He could have run away but He chose to stay
This is Love; this is real;
This is more than a hope or a feeling.
It’s enough to cover us
This is Love.
After a kiss abandoned
Beaten and cursed for passion,
They lifted Him up to die but He laid down His life.
Death only wished it was stronger
The grave couldn’t hold Him longer
He rose in victory to rescue His enemies
It seems like this mercy is following me
It seems like this love has come to rescue me.” (Kutless, ‘This Is Love’)
Kutless,’This Is Love’
Rise above the normal
I’m reaching that age where I start to think about my life in terms of mentoring and being a role model, wondering what I am actually passing on to the next generation; I’m also a language teacher who spends her life trying to drill tenses into pupils who barely seem to understand these in English, let alone French. The conditional tense talks about ‘would’ and ‘should’ and ‘could’… hypothetical scenarios which may or may not actually happen. Certain conditions have to be fulfilled if they are to move from the hypothetical to the actual, some of which are easier to predict than others (‘if you did your homework and handed it in on time, I would not be cross!’)
So when I hear a song that uses the conditional tense, my ears prick up and the cynic in me supplies all the ‘if’ clauses which may not lead to these conditions being fulfilled! But then I stop. For this song is actually not just talking about hypothetical scenarios. It’s talking about what Jesus said we actually are, now, not just what we will become in the future or what might happen one day. We are the light of the world (Matt 5:14). We are the salt of the earth.(Matt 5:13) God’s love does dwell within us. (Rom 5:5) So maybe it’s true that we can also ‘rise above the normal’, even when we’re weak and weary, and be a hero, a role model, a light shining God’s love to a world that is desperate for reality and truth.
“Who ever told you you can’t win?
Who ever said that if you fail don’t try again?
It’s in the ordinary,
Deep in the weak and weary:
The power to overcome the fear you’re holding in
You could be a hero.
You could be the change in this world.
Rise above the normal,
Don’t have to be afraid any more.
We are the light; we are the hope;
We are the love inside worth fighting for
You could be, you could be, you could be a hero.
You don’t have to look that hard to see.
You don’t have to reach that far to find someone in need.
There is a desperation deep in this generation,
Looking for something new, a love they can believe.
Love will even cross the ocean wide,
Love will lose it all to save a life
Because of the love God gave you’ll find
That you could be a hero.” (Kutless, ‘Hero’)
Kutless, ‘Hero’
Easter Specials
We will be running two special events this coming Saturday, in preparation for Easter.
The first event will run from 10 a.m. until 2 p.m. on Saturday 31st March. This will include the usual Saturday morning coffee morning with a whole host of children’s craft acitivities. There will be face painting, balloon modelling, Easter craft activities and competitions and much more. Admission is free and it would be great to see loads of children involved with this!
In the evening at 6 p.m., we will be running a ‘Family Film Night’. Come along to watch a great film with an Easter theme, suitable for all the family, and then enjoy free chip butties afterwards!
Over the Easter weekend itself, there will also be a Communion Service on Easter Sunday (8th April), starting at 10.30 a.m. and a Family Service, starting at 6.00 p.m.
Love in action
Mark McKeown spoke last night about a vision the Lord gave him just before the Women’s World Day of Prayer in March, on a theme he has been pondering for two years. The question he has been pondering has been ‘Who are the poor and needy?’ and from there he has wanted to know what he can do to help them.
The vision he received involved twelve boxes on the stage of the community hall, full of tinned food, cakes, crisps and biscuits, along with fleece blankets and hot water bottles. When the church got involved with the local Salvation Army church for the Women’s World Day of Prayer and part of this involved providing tinned food for the local community, he realised that this could be part of the vision he had seen.
Since then, he has been involved in talks with our church leadership and with the leaders of the Goldthorpe Salvation Army and the result will be a collection point at church each month where we can bring these items in and which will then be taken to the Salvation Army for distribution among the poor and needy in the local area on the 1st of each month, starting on 1st May.
The box is already in church:
The Salvation Army are involved in a Government scheme to ‘keep warm and well’ in winter. Imagine Mark’s surprise when he saw these fleece blankets and hot water bottles… just like in the vision!
Our response to help those in need is simply a reflection of the Father-heart of God. God is the greatest giver of all. He gave His only Son (John 3:16) and we are urged not to become weary in doing good to all in need (Gal 6:9-10). Similarly, John reminds us that love has to be seen in practical ways if it is to be real (1 John 3:16-18). Let’s mirror God’s heart and reach out to the poor and needy in practical ways, starting now! After all, our generosity is simply a result of God’s generosity to us:
“But who am I, and who are my people, that we should be able to give as generously as this?
Everything comes from you, and we have given you only what comes from your hand.”
(1 Chronicles 29:14)