We will be watching a film called ‘Hop’ tonight, starting at 6 p.m. Perhaps this bunny will feature in it!

Here are some more photos from the Easter Special event:

There were prizes for the best-decorated eggs:

… and for the best cards:

In it all, we explained the meaning of the most important week in the world’s history:

We showed people around the building, explaining our history:

We took refreshments to the market stall holders as usual:

and generally had a great time!

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

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Stained glass (well, plastic!) painting:

Card-making & Easter-egg decorating

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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)

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.’

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’

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

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’