January benefice newsletter

JANUARY 2018

Weekly Holy Communion Services in January Every Sunday 9am Wadworth & 11am Balby 7th Here come the Magi 14th Here comes the Jesus 21st Here comes the Disciples 28th Here comes the Wine

Every Wednesday 2pm Loversall We focus on the persecuted Christians throughout the world and also remember saints from history that inspire us today.

17th Anthony of Egypt, hermit, Abbott, 356 24th The conversation of Paul 31st Bridgit, Abbess of Kildare, c525

CHURCH NEWSLETTER

CHURCH NEWSLETTER Contact us phone 01302 851974 or email wadwithlove@gmail.com Or visit our web site. www.blwchurch.com Or find us on Facebook Or follow us @BalbyJohns @KathsLoversall @StJohnWadworth

WEDDING PREPARATION Saturday 10-12 Wadworth Church We take a detailed look at the wedding service

A WALK THROUGH THE OLD TESTAMENT STARTING Most Fridays RESTARTS 10am -12md, Wadworth Church check with the Vicar before coming

ALPHA STARTING 7pm @StJohn’s Balby.

Come and explore Life - Faith - Meaning www.blwchurch.com

17th Jan

20th Jan

19th Jan

JANUARY 2018

Mid-Week @Balby Church Every Tuesday Cups & Cakes Free Coffee Shop 10am - 12md Serving FREE coffee, Tea, Cake, Scones, Toast and Crumpets We also run an emergency Food, Toiletries and Clothes bank

CHURCH NEWSLETTER

Monthly @Wadworth Church Something Different 7th January 6:30pm Cakes, praise, prayers & a theme based on a secular song, this time its: “We’re all in a Yellow Submarine” by the Beatles

THIRD@4PM

Every Thursday

21st January 4pm

Community Friendship Group 10am - 3pm

An informal service for all ages involving crafts, music and different ways of praying & saying sorry. This time the theme is: “Water into Wine”

Feeling lonely? Come along. Make some new friends. We have some good fellowship as we do crafts and games together.

First & Third Mondays 5-6:30pm Balby Church.

Spark Christian Youth Group for 11-18 age group. Explore your faith with Pizza, games, snacks and activities

27th January 10-12md Chance to meet old friends, make new ones, topical talk around 11ish, bric-a-brac stall, prayer stations

Every Tuesday after Cups & Cakes service for Healing & Wholeness 12:15 Balby Church as we pray for healing and wholeness for ourselves, others and our community please join us www.blwchurch.com

JANUARY 2018

It is now over a year since we first started to pray for God’s wisdom and direction for the church of St Katherine at Loversall. Over the last year we have seen a revelation of plans

CHURCH NEWSLETTER

FUNERAL MIRIAM TAYLOR 3pm St John the Baptist 4pm Rose Hill

2nd Jan

which continue to come together. We now have a plan and permission to remove the 19th 12:15pm St Katherines troublesome asbestos flue and Jan condemned boiler and replace 1:20pm Rose Hill with a new flue and boiler. We hope the work will take place in January. We think we have a cost effective solution to bringing water into the church and we have started to pull together plans for an area with facilities for making refreshments in the Wirral Chapel. The 5 year inspection of the church by our Arcitect revealed a number of jobs that need to be done and we hope a plan to do these will be costed and agreed in 2018.

FUNERAL MANFRED HICKSON

Sixteen people did Alpha in the autumn and thoroughly enjoyed themselves. It was great to meet for some food, watch a video and then split into groups to discuss issues raised by the video. Alpha is a fantastic way to explore Life - Faith - Meaning and its been done by millions around the world. We are running Alpha again starting at 7pm on the 17th January and it would be great if you can join us. We are using a different set of videos this time so it will not be exactly the same and it is ok to do Alpha on more than one occasion - I’ve learned something every time I’ve done it. Bring a friend with you - the more the During January we are praying for the following better. streets However if you have done Alpha and do not want to do it again we are running an alternative. This means you can still come and join in the fellowship of eating and meeting together but split to www.blwchurch.com

JANUARY 2018

Please Pray for: Lynsy and all connected with her, Claire and family, Pam Scarfe, Shirley, Stoddard Family, Stacey, Bill, KeltonMeek family, Iris, Terry & Kath Cassidy, Pam & Dennis, Darren, Liam, Basil, Zarish and family, family and friends of Miriam, Michael, Manfred and Lily

CHURCH NEWSLETTER

watch your own video and have your own discussion group. The other course we are running is “Jesus the Game Changer”. In this series, host Karl Faase travels to the UK, USA, Singapore, India and Australia, interviewing authors, academics and modern-day game changers about how the life and teaching of Jesus changed the world and why it matters.

Jesus Christ has made an indelible mark on human history and He continues to do so through His followers.

Yet many people do not realise that the values western democracies are built on originate in the life and teaching of Jesus – the equality of all, servant leadership, care for the poor and marginalised, dignity of women and children, education, to name just a few.

The visible face of “Given Freely Freely Given” at Balby St Johns has benefited from the extra space we have been able to create by stacking 13 pews in the north aisle.

The extra room has allowed the clothes bank to expand and we now have a dedicated food sorting area. There is more to do but we are making progress and we been able to accommodate the continuing increase in attendance. There was some concern that removing the pews would mean there would not be enough seating for big services over Christmas. However the pew removal has made worship more intimate on a Sunday and we have had several services where we have seated more than 140 people. So these concerns can be laid to rest.

The number of food bags we give out have doubled in the last 12 months and we now average 26 bags per week. 32 people attend on average per week on a Tuesday morning compared with 22 this time last year. We also now have links we the Refugee Council, improved links with Balby Carr Academy and new links to Maple School on Cedar road.

Christmas services were very busy and many thanks to everyone for decorating the churches and helping with the hospitality and welcoming. A massive thanks also to everyone for all the help in 2017 - it was an amazing year as we saw God on the move. I am excited about 2018 and seeing even more of God’s kingdom unfolding before our very eyes. www.blwchurch.com