Thanksgiving, Gratitude and Dancing for the Lord...

June 7th, 2024

Dear church family

"Give praise to the LORD,
Proclaim his name;
Make known among the nations what he has done.
Sing to him, sing praise to him;
Tell of all his wonderful acts.
Glory in his holy name;
let the hearts of those who seeks the LORD rejoice.
Remember the wonders he has done, his miracles,
and the judgments he pronounces,
You his servants, the descendents of Israel,
his chosen ones, the children of Jacob."
1 Chronicles 16:8-13

I have been reading through 1 Chronicles 16 this week and ended up getting stuck on loop for the first 36 verses - it's an incredible passage of scripture with so much to unpack from within it... It's all about the presence of God and worship around the ark of the covenant - it says men were appointed to extol, thank and praise the Lord and this made me really think about thanksgiving and celebration and extolling the Lord - to extol means "to praise enthusiastically"!

Since the beginning of the year as a church family, we have overwhelmingly been in a season of surrender and expectancy - of laying things down and receiving greater freedom from God as our Father - which has led to greater freedom within our times of gathered worship on Sundays with the Holy Spirit moving freely and there having been some really significantly powerful times of both waiting (and roaring!) in worship. For those of us who have been fortunate enough to have been able to be in church each week, it's been a gradual increase in faith of asking God each week to do something new and him creatively doing things we could have never imagined and speaking so powerfully to us as a body through the sermons and worship times - it has been such a blessing and has really built up the church.

Now is the time for a season of Thanksgiving and Celebration!

One of the new songs we will be doing this weekend is called "Thanksgiving" (I've linked it here - it's incredibly easy to pick up!)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=488HEflx2ao

In this song it says

What shall we do, we shall lift up a shout

What shall we do, we shall praise Him

What shall we do for our God made a way

We'll give Him our Thanksgiving

Giving thanks and showing gratitude to our God is something we often forget to do but over these next few months, lets make a real point of celebrating and giving thanks to God each time something happens which is unexpected, or where He moves in situations where only He can move in... I would love to collate all of these little (or big) thanksgivings - so please do email or message me (as actually many of you already do) so that we are intentionally and actively giving thanks to God regularly. Of course, there are always times where we are going through difficult times and God is with each of us in those too - but even in the darkest times, looking to Him and noticing and giving thanks for the small things can make a huge difference...

It's also been a wonderful week this week practically preparing the church building ready for us to celebrate International Sunday this coming weekend! It really is such a joy to be part of such a rich and diverse church family - where celebrating one another is vitally important as we continue to become more and more intercultural.

International Sunday isn't just a fun event - it really is a time of seeking, understanding, worshipping, celebrating and praying for one another and our nations - many of us live in the UK but our hearts are often elsewhere... It's so great to have a space to share this together as a family and also to spend extended time together as we eat our International Feast together! This weekend is also a really good opportunity for you to invite friends, family - those who don't know Jesus perhaps to come along and celebrate with us - so please to feel free to invite others along!

Throughout 1 Chronicles 16, the nations are mentioned - "Declare his glory among the nations, his marvelous deeds among all peoples" - its such a privilege to be part of a family where we are representatives of so many nations, tongues and cultures - I always say we are so fortunate to have a tiny glimpse of what heaven will be like in our church in Ashford!

As we give thanks this weekend for all God has done, is doing and continues to do in our church family and for bringing us all together (whether you know it or not, you are a gift to our church family and you are a blessing to God as you serve him and serve our family here in this church.

Looking forward to seeing you dressed to impress and ready to dance before the Lord on Sunday...! Here is a playlist of the songs we will be doing so you can listen to it on repeat before you come...

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL0CMMzOUnnKS2QAB6bixvjxTj8dv8K6w1

Every blessing and much love, as always!

Izzy xxxxx

SUNDAY GATHERING - 10:30AM Join us this Sunday as we celebrate International Sunday together! For those who are unable to attend in person please join us on YouTube: https://youtu.be/vh9Esshy4G4

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INTERNATIONAL SUNDAY WE NEED MORE FOOD for this weekend - currently we don't have very many people signed up to bring food but we are expecting a significant amount of people to come along this weekend - so please do bring along some food even if it's sharing crisps, breadsticks etc - it doesn't matter what it is - as long as we all bring things to share with one another it will create a bountiful feast of abundance which will be pleasing to God!

We love celebrating the many nations which make up our church family and being such a diverse and intercultural church is part of who we are as a church family! Come dressed in your best, ready to worship and celebrate - and then to bring and share food together afterwards!

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International Sunday 2024 2-05 THIS SUN.png

REVELATION TEACHING DAY Join us as part of the LEAD Theology Course for this teaching on Revelation with Pieter Lalleman. Sat 8th June from 9:30am-4pm at WBC. Please email katie@willesboroughbaptist.church to register or if you have any questions.

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FINBERRY PRAYER & WORSHIP As we continue to seek God and listen to His leading for us in Finberry, on Thursday 13th June we are going to be meeting at Monima's house to pray, prayer walk and claim the land! ðŸŽ‰

Finberry Prayer & Worship - Family social.png

Finberry Prayer & Worship - Family social.png

PARTNERSHIP PRAYER In response to Mark suggesting setting up times of corporate prayer for the partnership at BBC we will be joining together for two Thursday morning prayer times at BBC on June, 13th and 27th from 10am -11.30am. We will be specifically praying about the partnership. We would like to invite all the BBC and WBC church family to join together in corporate prayer and seek God's will.

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