The Xmas Factor - The Unseen Side
For those of you who don't have the privilege of being around The Kerith Centre during the week you might not realise that our Christmas programme extends way beyond what happens on Sundays - excellent as that is. Some non Sunday events I can remember off the top of my head are The Festive Feast, There's More to Life Christmas Meal, Battle of the Bands, Konnections Social, Distribution of hampers given by Housegroups and Garth Hill College and toys from the Unique Women's Breakfast, Sparklers Christmas Parties as we as all the on going support into the community Catriona Mitchell, Andy Jackson and many others are providing. Please don't get upset if I forgot your event - just post a comment to remind us of it!
Well the last two days we've had two more outstanding events with the Brackenhale and Garth Hill College Secondary Schools Christmas Carol Concerts. I only made it into the Garth Hill one today but there were well over 1,100 people in the auditorium (oh for that every Sunday!) and the kids (probably not the right word) loved having the big stage with all the lights to perform on. The concerts are jointly lead by our Youth Team (headed by Lee Layton-Matthews) and the Youth Team from the Eternity Warfield Church. There is a fantastic freedom for them to declare the gospel in the front of all those teachers and pupils, and chatting with the head and other department heads afterwards they are incredibly grateful for all we do. It's also exciting to see our two churches working together - a great pointer to how with Hope08 we can look to achieve so much more together than we ever could apart. The head of Garth, Keith Grainger, invited Brian Meardon (Vicar of Warfield) and me to meet him in the New Year to talk about how Garth could partner with both Hope08 and possibly what we are doing in Zambia - more of that in the New Year but another example of the church being the head and not the tail.
I'm incredibly proud of our teams who have made all these "unseen" events happen - too numerous to mention but you know who you are :-) We are changing hearts and minds - keep asking God to break in through all that we do!
On the subject of Hope08 don't forget the New Years Eve prayer meeting. Details of that and other aspects of Hope08 are on the fledgling Hope Bracknell website - check it out and register for future updates!
Off to pick up Jacob and his friends from Bracknell Sports Centre before a rehearsal for Christmas Eve tonight - roll on Boxing Day!
Simon.
Well the last two days we've had two more outstanding events with the Brackenhale and Garth Hill College Secondary Schools Christmas Carol Concerts. I only made it into the Garth Hill one today but there were well over 1,100 people in the auditorium (oh for that every Sunday!) and the kids (probably not the right word) loved having the big stage with all the lights to perform on. The concerts are jointly lead by our Youth Team (headed by Lee Layton-Matthews) and the Youth Team from the Eternity Warfield Church. There is a fantastic freedom for them to declare the gospel in the front of all those teachers and pupils, and chatting with the head and other department heads afterwards they are incredibly grateful for all we do. It's also exciting to see our two churches working together - a great pointer to how with Hope08 we can look to achieve so much more together than we ever could apart. The head of Garth, Keith Grainger, invited Brian Meardon (Vicar of Warfield) and me to meet him in the New Year to talk about how Garth could partner with both Hope08 and possibly what we are doing in Zambia - more of that in the New Year but another example of the church being the head and not the tail.
I'm incredibly proud of our teams who have made all these "unseen" events happen - too numerous to mention but you know who you are :-) We are changing hearts and minds - keep asking God to break in through all that we do!
On the subject of Hope08 don't forget the New Years Eve prayer meeting. Details of that and other aspects of Hope08 are on the fledgling Hope Bracknell website - check it out and register for future updates!
Off to pick up Jacob and his friends from Bracknell Sports Centre before a rehearsal for Christmas Eve tonight - roll on Boxing Day!
Simon.