A more traditional version of the song from Ernie Ford can be heard here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QpinzLXXp14

Today’s charity is Samaritan’s Purse (http://www.samaritanspurse.uk.com/)
Samaritan’s Purse operates one of the most accessible projects I’ve ever known. Each year it runs ‘Operation Christmas Child’ to support thousands of children. Last year alone it had the joy of sending nearly 1.12 million shoeboxes full of toys and gifts to children living in parts of Africa, Central Asia and Eastern Europe. The beauty of this project is that each family can contribute something and it also teaches us how to give at Christmas time. The charity Samaritan’s Purse is involved in much more, however. It runs water and sanitation programmes in Ethiopia, Liberia, Niger, Mozambique and Uganda, providing clean water, sanitation and health and hygiene education to millions of people, thus reducing disease and death in these areas.

Today’s song is an alternative rendering of ‘The Twelve Days of Christmas’, this time according to Shrek!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-UhcmUU0QpY

Today’s charity is Tear Fund (http://www.tearfund.org/)
Tear Fund is an internationally recognised charity, noted for its professional expertise in development, disaster response, disaster risk reduction and advocacy. This level of professionalism and expertise, matched with the enduring, sustainable effectiveness of the local church, is a powerful force in the face of poverty. As signatories to the Red Cross Code of Conduct and members of the Humanitarian Accountability Partnership, Tear Fund is driven by the belief that the local church is a powerful force for transformation in communities living in every kind of poverty. Inspired by the example and teaching of Jesus, it recognises that people have deeply interconnected material and spiritual needs which it seeks to meet by working through local church partners. Tear Fund is particularly involved in Africa, Asia and South America, working also in Eastern Europe and the UK. You may well support this charity through buying Fair Trade products, which seek to create opportunities for producers and workers who have been economically disadvantaged or marginalised by the conventional trading system.

Today is Christmas Day, the first day of Christmas. So here’s a fun video to watch and listen to, that very familiar song ‘The Twelve Days of Christmas’. Each day I’ll be putting up a link to a different version of the song (some traditional, some not-so-traditional!) This one is by a variety of Christian artists. I particularly like Mark Hall of ‘Casting Crowns’ who is definitely not a rapper!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zBBAEy1Xw9w&feature=player_embedded#)

The charity I want to look at today is the Bible Society
(http://www.biblesociety.org.uk)
As a teacher of languages, it’s perhaps inevitable that I’m interested in Bible translation. This charity is involved in Bible translation: what is so shocking is that more than 4,400 languages in the world still wait for even one book of the Bible. It’s involved in more than 550 translation and retranslation projects, but is also involved in getting the Bible onto audio (a billion people can’t read, but only 3% of languages have the Bible in audio) and into Braille (every 5 seconds, someone goes blind, but the complete Braille Bible exists in only 35 languages.) Moreover, the charity is not just involved overseas, for in our own country, the Bible is no longer a point of references for everyday life and Christians often lack the confidence to apply the Bible’s message in a society that increasingly sees it as irrelevant. In England and Wales, the Bible Society works with the worlds of the media, politics, arts and education to show how the Bible connects with life and have programmes to make the Bible available for prisoners, refugees and people in special need.

Our church regularly receives magazines from Bible Society, so do make sure you get your copy and read more about what this charity is doing!

Today was the last coffee morning before Christmas and outside, the festive spirit was in full force!


Inside we had willing helpers, though not all were entering into the festive spirit!



Mark supported local businesses and enjoyed brunch!

The notice board was updated as well.

Have a wonderful Christmas – don’t forget that the next service at church will be on Sunday 1st January at 10.30 a.m.

David Cameron has talked a lot about the ‘Big Society’ and the topic of charitable and voluntary work is quite a hot one these days. I have spent most of my life involved in charity work and feel privileged to be involved in volunteering. I have volunteered with a local community centre for many years, was involved with an environmental charity in the past (Groundwork Dearne Valley), am involved in fund-raising for my place of work, which is also a registered charity, and volunteer here at church as well. I think there is a whole army of volunteers out there who do a great job in our society and that Christians are among some of the best volunteers there are.

I’ve already talked a little about this when we were renovating the building:
http://stmarksgoldthorpe.blogspot.com/2010/04/community-payback.html

What I thought I’d like to do over the twelve days of Christmas, starting on Christmas Day, is take a look at various charities and see what they do to help those in need. These are all charities I’ve been involved with over the years and I’m sure there are absolutely tons more that deserve a mention. If you would like to mention your own favourite charity, please let me know and I’ll try to include them too. I’ve tried to look at things that are happening in this country and abroad and to include a broad range of projects, but I’ve also looked specifically at Christian charities because I think we need to realise just how much the church is doing. So often we can have small vision and even feel ashamed of the church at times, but overall, God is doing amazing things in the world and often He’s using ordinary people like you and me to achieve those things.

So, amidst the Christmas festivities and fun, take a moment each day to look at the blog and find out more about different charities. God is interested in the world; He is not a parochial, insular God and His people should always reflect His character. These charities are working to fulfil Amos 5:25

“But let justice roll on like a river, righteousness like a never-failing stream!”

May we support others in their work and be open to the new things which I’m sure God has for us to do in 2012.

It’s 22nd December… three days to go before Christmas! I doubt many of could say we’re entirely ready and prepared. At this stage, there may well still be shopping to do or presents still to wrap; for most of us, there will definitely be food preparation at the very least still on our ‘To Do’ lists!

What is so enormously reassuring about Christmas, however, is that it shows us God is never taken by surprise and there is absolutely nothing left to do in terms of what is needed for our salvation. There was absolutely nothing we could do to save ourselves: as Aaron Shust says in his song ‘Come and Save Us’:
“There’s nothing we can do
Nothing we can do
Father, we need You
To come and save us”

Thankfully, the Father’s plan, devised even before the creation of the world (Rev 13:8), did not need us to achieve some level of goodness or rely on our brilliance to succeed. It depended entirely on the Son’s willingness to do the Father’s will (Heb 10:5-7) and on His obedience to God. And He did not fail us!

“It’s all been done
It’s all been done
You have come
All for love.”

So, whilst we may still have things to do before we can rest on 25th December, we can indeed rest in the fact that the Saviour has come and we can, therefore, be saved.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BV140bmx55U