Messy Church

 

We had a fun filled couple of hours again at Messy Church last Saturday when many families came along to enjoy time together as we heard more about prayer. Sarah reminded us of how Jesus said that birds and flowers don't worry about what they will eat or what they will wear because God knows what they need and looks after them. There were even lots of flowers and a little budgie at Messy Church to help us remember that we can pray and ask God for the things we need and trust Him to look after us too!

Over the past year we have learned so much at Messy Church as we have heard stories from the Bible about heroes like Noah, Joseph and David, and the life of Jesus, the friends He had then (and how He wants to be our friend now) and how He died and rose again so that we could be forgiven of our sins and have a relationship with God. We have made all sorts of crafts, things to take home to help us remember these great Bible stories - and had a great time being Messy in the process! Then there's the enthusiastic singing and a chance to pray together too before we eat the delicious food which our hard working kitchen team make for us, and the yummy home made cakes.

Messy Church is always busy with more than 50 people coming along, and there's usually a couple of new families each time too. But numbers have never been important; the people are important and those who come have a great opportunity to hear about God and His love for them.

There is always such a buzz around the building on Messy days - so many people are needed to help in so many different ways, but it is always such an encouraging and worthwhile time and, without everyone's help and the many prayers, it just wouldn't be possible. So, if you help in any way - then a HUGE thank you!

We are having a break for the next couple of months, so the next Messy Church will be on Saturday 31st August. Invitations are already available in Priory Lane so grab a few over the summer and invite any family or friends who might like to come along!

 

Soul Action South Africa

Phil and Rachel Bowyer work with Soul Action in Durban South Africa. Soul Action South Africa facilitates opportunities for Christians who are passionate about integral mission to network, train and work together in order to address all forms of poverty in a holistic way.

Anti Human Trafficking

Soul Action UK spent 10 days with Phil and Rachel in March, filming how projects and churches are responding to Human Trafficking (HT). Highlights included:

Soul Action - the crew spent a morning with the group of church leaders they have been gathering since October 2012. Everyone shared what they are passionate about, how they are responding to HT and how Soul Action is supporting them. They also visited their literacy team, and leaders with whom a parenting course is being developed by a lady named Clare Whittaker. Both issues are cricital to preventing trafficking.

His People Church - they met and prayed with leaders as they prepared to go out onto the streets and minister to girls whose poverty leads them to prostitute themselves.

Grace Family Church - the crew joined an evening service and afterwards filmed church members as they put together toolkits to assist previously trafficked women.

Redlight Anti Human Trafficking - they filmed a lesson at a local school on how to avoid being trafficked, and had the opportunity to meet ladies who, after leaving the streets, were making jewellery: restoring the beauty in the fallen nature that people usually walk by and ignore.

 

His Church - they had the privilege of joining devotions at a local Christian school where pupils regularly intercede on the issue of human trafficking - it was very powerful!

PLEASE PRAY FOR a good response to the first short film(s) that will be shown in July, and the rest that will be released online following Soul Survivor's UK festivals.

Umoja and Facilitation

In April they began gathering a group of 20 church and project leaders to explore a community development. This group has committed to meeting monthly for a year to explore an approach that focuses on potential rather than poverty. Umoja involves empowering people to the point where they can identify their own needs and use their own resources to address them.

 

Part of the first session was spent thinking about facilitation, which is foundational to the whole process. Phil and Rachel led the leaders in a series of activities to explore the importance of faciliation.

 

PLEASE PRAY that people put what they discovered into practise and consider how to facilitate in the groups they work with.

 

Phil, Rachel and their son Zac will be in the UK from 7th June to 7th July sharing with current and new supporters as part of an awareness/fundraising tour. They will be with us at the Link on Sunday 23rd June.

 

For more information on Soul Action South Africa, check out their website at www.soulaction.co.za or their facebook page at www.facebook.com/soulaction There are also newsletters available in Priory Lane.

 

Do you need a reminder of this today?

A message from the Link Kids

Remember this photo from an earlier blog?  It is not the most gloriously attractive image, is it?  The good news is that the work to transform this into a fully functioning disabled toilet is now in the tendering process. The drawings and specs are with local companies (Big thanks to Kevan for all his hard work on this!)  and we are praying that we are able to appoint the work to one of them in the beginning of June.  Our deadline for completion is the end of October. 

David Storm in Egypt

David has recently returned from a busy week in Egypt with a colleague. This colleague has been communicating with various churches in Uganda and Egypt for a prayer initiative that stretches along the Nile River.

They are aiming to see simultaneous prayer groups in every nation along the Nile during the first week of September - including Sudan and Ethiopia.  It is an ambitious project but one that has been warmly received by national prayer leaders and churches in Egypt and Uganda alike.

If you are interested in joining this exciting initiative then please do contact David for more information.

 

April update from David and Corne Storm

Time flies when you're having fun...

Corne worked for a week with the World Horizons Youth Development Team on their annual Stewards Trust camp.

(Stewards trust is a Christian charity devoted to discipling young people, families and older people, through camps and house parties)

I was a mini bus driver for them for the week, driving them to various outdoor activities around the Gower and also leading them on a overnight mountain expedition in the Brecon mountains.

 

They were a fantastic group to work with and we believe God had done great things in the kids and the leader's lives.

I praise God for safety on the roads driving the kids and also for a fun filled refreshing week(being away from house and mummy duties).

 

Annelie has recently turned 18 months old.

I love ....

- how excited she is to see me in the morning when I first walk into her room, how she jumps up and down in her cot with joy!

- how she loves the porridge that I make her each morning, that she has a good appetite!

- that she cannot wait to get outside and will walk me to the door in the morning as I leave for work wanting to come outside too!

- that she giggles at my funny dances and funny faces, that she finds me funny!

- that she has TinTin teddy and she knows it as daddy teddy because it looks like me!

- that I can stick her out over a ledge to feel the rush of the wind, and she loves it!

- that we go to the beach to build a house out of driftwood, and she will just sit there as I build the playhouse around her, watching and waiting for daddy to join her when he is finished

- that she loves the big orange Land Rovers!  How she runs to them in the car park, to stand in the drivers seat, pretending to drive and beeping the horn!

- that she trusts me, that my being present gives her confidence!

- how she coped with the rough travel conditions and 45c heat in Iraq, I know I can push her yet further!

- that she is happy to be picked up and cuddled by anyone around the world!

- that she just legs it outside as soon as the front door is opened or as soon as we let her go, I love her desire to go, explore & discover!

- that she is cuddly & will walk over to me to embrace me when I come home

- how she loves the water, loves to splash and swim and put her head in the water

- how she loves her bed and reaches for it as we enter her bedroom at night

1 John 3:1 (NIV)

How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God!

Annelie and Daddy

An Update from David Storm

Thank you to David Storm for this update on the work he and Corne have been doing recently with World Horizons!

This month has been about learning from others, developing a training manual and training new leaders.

We are delighted that at the end of March the first new short term mission leaders training course was run specifically for an Oxford based church that wants to send its students on a trip to Morocco.  The course basically teaches about leadership and trip planning of overseas mission trips.  We really want to be able to mobilise the UK church into worldwide mission, and training church members to lead their own trips is another way in which we hope to achieve this.

We will send more photos and updates in April!

God bless,

David