Reaching out in love

October 20th, 2023

Dear church family,

"Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good; His love endures forever." (1 Chronicles 16:34)

In one of the songs we have recently learned as a church community, we sing "God is Good - all through time every hour every minute". We have a God who is good, through all circumstances, through all the valleys and mountain-tops of life, who is good and faithful to us as His people. God's mercy, compassion and love for the world in which we live in overflows out of every single part of creation - including us as humanity. We (that includes you!) were created and designed out of His goodness - because of His love for us (and the undeserved mercy which we receive), we are able to be compassionate, kind, generous and loving to those around us.

If you're new to the church (or even if you're not!), you may not be aware that in the school holidays, we partner with other venues around Ashford to provide "Family, Food and Fun." We buy trays from Fareshare to create a market stall where everyone is welcome to take food items away, we provide lots of craft activities, toys, spaces for families to be together and create memories and we then eat all together. Often we share food together with between 80 and 90 people which is wonderful. Jesus was a big fan of sharing food together with others - many of his teachings or memorable moments occur around a table (or generally around food). We love being able to show God's goodness, mercy and love to the guests who come along in this way - it's part of who we are as a church family.

In order to make these events happen, we need volunteers to come along on the day and support the families as they make memories together. We have an incredible kitchen team in place (praise God!), but we also need other people to be around ready to mingle and chat to the families, to be able to man the outside area (if the weather is kind to us) and then to clear up afterwards. If you aren't able to help during the event (11-1) but are able to come along from around 1pm to begin the clear-up, that would be amazing - the more people who come along, the quicker it is to get things cleared up and turned around.

Often, it is through serving others that we are able to be used by God to do His work. He may have plans for a conversation, a profound moment or even just a shared interest which leads onto more conversations. As a community, we want to be able to declare "God is good" over our community - and then partner with God to see the transformation and change which will follow.

If you can help out on Monday (23rd October), please let me know. If you are unable to help practically but can be praying for the families - please do. Please pray that each guest who comes in recognises God's love through every action, every thoughtful craft - through each part of the event. Pray also for continued relationships with our regular families and for them to come to know Jesus as their Lord and saviour - salvation is always the goal and we would love to see more people impacted for the gospel through events like this...

Every blessing and much love, as ever,

Izzy xxxxx

SUNDAY GATHERING - 10:30AM Join us this Sunday as we continue our series on Church Family. For those who are unable to attend in person please join us on YouTube: https://youtu.be/blnme3EKMWQ

Church Family - Youtube Slide - INTERGENERATIONAL-01 Social.png

CHRISTMAS HAMPERS!!!!! Thank you so much for everyone who responded so quickly to the "Prime Day" deals and ordered board games and other items for our Christmas Hampers for this year! It was absolutely overwhelming to come in to church and find countless parcels all with the things we had asked for in our initial push because they were so significantly reduced...

THS WEEK, it would be really great for people to continue buying bits of the amazon gift list which is here...
https://www.amazon.co.uk/hz/wishlist/ls/18DQ4XT2P22M5?ref_=wl_share

ALSO OTHER GIFTS TO BUY:
50 packets of Popcorn
50 packs of Marshmallows
15 Lynx Gift Sets (currently on sale in Tesco, Boots and B&M)
25 Large Candles (Some are currently on clubcard price at Tesco and Nectar card price in Sainsburys!)

We are getting there with chocolate donations (which are currently £4.50 in ASDA or £4 in Sainsburys with Nectar card) and we have all the board games we need - if we need any more of these we will let you know!

Thank you all so much for loving and serving these families in our community so beautifully... it is very much appreciated by the families and by the schools which we partner with.

NEWCOMERS MEAL Join us on 27th October 7:30pm. If you're new or new-ish to church, we would love you to come along to our next Newcomers Meal on Friday at Izzy and Mark's! Paula, Katie and Izzy will be hosting this meal and it's a great opportunity to meet some other people who are new to the church or to faith, ask questions and enjoy time together!

If you want to come this time, the spaces are limited so please sign up using the link below: https://willesboroughbaptistchurch.churchsuite.com/events/3fp4wyvw