Thanks for February

March 1st, 2024

Dear church family

"May your unfailing love be with us, Lord, even as we put our hope in you." Psalm 33:22

God has been speaking to me this week about trusting Him - the song "Trust in God" by Elevation worship has a refrain "I sought the Lord and he heard and he answered" (from Psalm 34) - sometimes when life isn't going how we expect it to, it's important that we declare truth over ourselves and over one other. As Katie said last week in her (excellent) sermon, our feelings do not dictate our faith - only the truth which we find in Jesus helps us to see things as they really are because our feelings will often lie to us!

Let's continue to trust God together as we begin a new month...!
Can you believe we have reached the end of another month already - we are two months into 2024 and we have so much to be thankful for as a church family. We are aware that there have also been significant struggles for many people over the past month or so - particularly with health issues - but we believe in a God who is always good - and that His promises are secure and we can trust that He will never leave us. If you do want prayer for anything which you may be struggling with, please do get in touch as otherwise we may not always be aware.

We kicked off the month of February with Power Hour - each of the three power hours this month have felt significant and been times of close encounter with Jesus for all those who have been there - through worship and prayer and seeking and listening, we get to learn more about God's character and His plans for our church, ourselves, to intercede for the world and to pray for healing amongst our church family. We believe in a miracle working God and so we need to keep pressing into prayer in order to see some of the healing we are longing for across the church.

The youth team also took 20 of the young people ice skating - a really fun time together for those who were able to take part with apparently some interesting "skating" from leaders and children alike...!
We also want to also take this opportunity to thank the youth team for all they do to sow into our young people week in week out on Mondays, Fridays and Sundays - continuously loving and championing them and pointing them to Christ. We are so grateful for you all!

Sundays in February kicked off again with Baptisms! Another three people - Lucy, Mollie and Fearne - got baptised. Each testimony was inspiring and showed clearly how God has been working and is continuing to work in their lives. If you missed it and would like to watch the service back, please click here: https://youtu.be/t6ATPMXhtjg

Our LEAD theology course continues to go from strength to strength with the learning community we have created being taught this month about "Exile and Return" and "Preaching and Communication" - it is a really great time of going deeper with God together and definitely worthwhile if you want to understand more context around the bible and also practical theology too!

Our Ladies returned to Jays Soul Food for another evening of sharing extremely yummy food together, getting to know one another better and building on existing relationships - it was a really great evening (thank you Janet for hosting us again!) and we hope to continue to organise more opportunities for ladies in the church to gather together very soon - if you have any ideas, let us know!

We also celebrated the dedication of Henry Ashford this month - a beautiful time where as a church family (and as a biological family), we committed to pray for Henry, to continue to pray for Edward and to support Harriet and Charles in their parenting journey. Mark suggested that each day we can pray for some of the people we have committed to pray for over the years - asking God to bring people to mind perhaps!

On Sunday mornings we have been continuing our "I Am" series, looking at the book of John. It has been a really great series with lots of people challenged, transformed and changed by what God needed us to hear!
A huge thank you must go to our preaching team for the amount of work they put in to listening to God, preparing what He is asking of them and then delivering it to our church family to build us up and strengthen us for the season ahead!

Our children in Firestarters have been continuing to look at "Stories of Jesus" - either stories which have Jesus in or stories which Jesus tells. It's always so great to journey with them in their faith - they regularly share fears or worries with one another and are genuinely friends and family together - laughing, encouraging one another and praying for one another.

We have been creating spaces each week to intentionally invite the Holy Spirit into our sessions - where the kids might sit, lie down or even within the context of Communion as we did last week - they are all growing in their faith so much and it's just beautiful!

Family, Food and Fun was another opportunity to share Jesus with families within our community who need loving! We had a really great session with an insanely yummy spaghetti bolognaise cooked by Rachel and the team and lots of "love" themed crafts! We fed almost 100 people but more than going away with full tummies, our prayer is always that they will go away full of the love of Jesus and that they will come to know Him as their Lord and Saviour.
Thank you so much to everyone who gave up their time to come along and volunteer on the day or setup the night before - it is so appreciated.

In the middle of the month, Mark and Barry went to Romania for a couple of days to share some time with Dani and Sarah Ispas and their family - they were able to talk together, pray together, dream together, worship together and preach and encourage the church - a really special time all round.

Over 40 people came along to the first of our Deaf Awareness sessions, excellently led by David and Denise. As a church, we want to be able to welcome everyone into our family and for everyone to feel welcomed and we learned some sign language together! We had a lot of fun with some of the scenario questions, also learning a significant amount which we didn't know previously. If you want to come along to the next sessions, please email Harriet in the office and she will let you know the dates once they are confirmed.

Last Friday, IGNITE (Friday Youth) was run by the older youth for the evening (this format happens once a month) and they played human cluedo! 31 young people were there, engaged and there are being beautiful relationships built between the older ones and the younger ones.
Please do keep praying for our amazing young people!

Recently, Porchlight have begun using our community cafe on a Monday afternoon as a safe space for people come and hang out, do some crafts, have coffees and hot chocolates! It's only been a couple of weeks so far but please pray they will see growth in the amount of people coming along and that they will be able to really journey alongside people who need a bit of a helping hand.

As you can tell, February has been a month to really celebrate all God is doing in amongst His people in our church and beyond, and we want to continue to remain so thankful throughout this year!
If you have any stories or things to celebrate, please do let us know as we would love to celebrate with you also.

"The Lord is my strength and my shield;
my heart trusts in Him and He helps me.
My heart leaps for joy and with my song I praise Him."
Psalm 28:7

Every blessing and much love, as always,

Izzy xxxxx

SUNDAY GATHERING - 10:30AM Join us this Sunday as we gather together in worship and continue our sermon series 'I AM - Who is Jesus?'. For those who are unable to attend in person please join us on YouTube: https://youtu.be/WhqEPsTF-6I

I AM - Youtube Slide - ALL-21 Vine YOUTUBE.png