Pringles Cans Collection

Our children and young people have had an exciting year finding out how, if we pray about the things we need, trust God to help us and then do our bit, we can see amazing things happen. Way back in the summer they did a fantastic job of decorating Pringles Cans which we could take home to collect our change in for the building fund. A big thank you to everyone who took a can and saved up your change for us! (We know they got very heavy indeed once they were even half full!)

The cans came back over the past couple of weeks, and we counted up the money in them. Actually, the coin machine at the bank did that for us and we were very glad of it's help, even though it did seem to take a very long time to do it!

First we poured all the coins into the machine...

Then we waited while it sorted them all out...

And we waited while it counted them....

We found out the machine does not like coins that come from America, or Spain, or Cyprus or even Zimbabwe because it gave all of those back to us!  Then, after a lot of counting (while we waited) it told us how much we had collected. We were very impressed because it is a lot! The final total is:   

£164.94!!

All of that money will be paid into our building fund to help with projects such as providing disabled access and toilet facilities in our building. Of course, we still need a lot more than that, but we can keep on doing our bit! There are still lots of Pringles Cans - why not pick another one up next time you are in the church and start collecting your change again? And, of course, we can keep on praying and trusting God too!

Sunday 23rd October

On Saturday 22nd October, the Christian Motorcycle Association is holding a conference in our building at Priory Lane.  Mike Fitton the National Chairman of CMA will be speaking.  For more information on the CMA check out this link.
http://www.bike.org.uk/cma/index.php

We are pleased that Mike will be sharing with us at the Link on Sunday morning.
Mike is an former police officer.  After becoming a Christian he worked as a youth and children's evangelist with Crusaders for ten years.
In his role with CMA he  travels and preaches extensively throughout the UK, Europe, South Africa and the USA.  He visited Sudan in November last year at the invitation of Open Doors UK.
He is a leader at  Whitby Christian Fellowship http://www.whitbychristianfellowship.org.uk/.

God has given us room.....

In fact, God has given us many rooms! As I wandered round 39 Priory Lane yesterday, with a can of polish in one hand and a duster in the other, listening to sounds of the minister serving with a hoover, ( International ministry to a conference of 1000 last month balanced with some cleaning this month has to be good for the soul!), I was struck again by the fanatstic facilities we have.  Our building is a huge resource for us to use and share with the community around us.  Thank you to each one who works so hard to keep it in good condition by either putting stuff back where you found it, picking up a paint brush on maintenance nights, by givining into the building fund, or those who serve us regularly in weekly cleaning and maintenance.

We have some ongoing challenges, leaking areas in the roof and toilet facilities that yell upgrade at us, but we are believing that these are opportunities for us to see God lead us and provide for us! He created the mounatins, rivers, seas and oceans.  He came up with the giraffe and the elephant.  He is more than able.

This morning the building was full of toddlers and their grown ups in the main hall and a women's development group downstairs working on craft projects.  Messy Church is made for our building and one Saturday a month the place becomes gloriously chaotic and really quite messy. No-one cares about the mess, (altho a more effective hoover may be needed soon), as there is a friendly atmosphere that many people have come and relaxed in to.  People are what our building is about.

We are excited too that  around the third week in January we are starting what we are calling  Alpha Expresso. The versatility of the building allows us to run a coffee shop with the best of coffee and of course muffins, chocolate slice and other delectable goodies while we explore such topics as "Is there more to life than this?" "Who is Jesus?", "Is the bible relevant today?" in an informal setting.

We do have some incredible home baking people in our church community so that alone should be a reason for coming along. Wednesday evenings, 7.45pm,  open the door of 39 Priory Lane and the smell of feshly brewed coffee should welcome you!  Just need to work now on getting the coffee machine serviced............ .

Mo