Our congregation seems to have a number of November birthdays to celebrate and today we all gathered to sing Beryl a "Happy 90th Birthday" with a cake to add to our after service tea and coffee. Gina and Arthur stepped in to take todays service at short notice and gave us a flavour of the "open the book" sessions that a group of people take into the local primary school. This week they took the story of Noah and the Ark to school and we had a repeat performance today. Noah was seen building the ark with a large mallet, adding the animals including two large toy tigers (one of whom refused to sit properly, loading the ark with food and letting the dove fly from the ark. Even the congregation were involved making the rain sound effects.
Sadly due to a rainy start we moved venues back to the chapel for our Harvest Festival service and lunch today. A good number of us praised God for the blessings we have with our food offerings being delivered to the Tamworth food back next week. After the service our now legendary question master Vince put forward another challenging and tightly fought quiz which had only points in each of the four teams before the picture round clinched victory for one team. Our thanks to all those who bought our food to share, the washing up and tea crew and of course our quizmaster Vince.
Our minister Farai leaves us today after five years. Her last service today was celebrated afterwards with cup cakes and tea and coffee. We all wish her well in her new appointment in Harbourne
Today due to COVID restrictions further easing we were finally able to have a cup of tea and cake after the Pentecost service lead by Gina and Arthur. Our socially distanced tables waited on for tea and coffee proved to be a great success.
Easter service saw the chapel organ being played before the service for the first time in over a year. The communion service was led by Rev Farai and afterwards the Easter display was much admired as we left through the "tomb" exit. Easter Sunday also sees our now traditional Easter lily flowers. These are bought by the congregation often in remembrance of loved ones departed.
Our service was led by Linda Comfort who had put a lot of time and effort into interpreting the work written this year by the woman from Vanuatu; A collection of around eighty islands found in the Pacific ocean to the East of Australia. We had a map and items which helped us picture life in the islands and the recounts of the problems of cyclones which regularly hit the island. We learnt that the illustration depicted on the booklet this year was by a local artist Juliette Pita. All attendees were given lovely paper flowers which were formed from designs of the islands fauna and brightened up the morning. The children were asked to complete a flag using tissue paper and this was explained as being red for blood, green for the earth and fauna and black for the people of the island which became independent in 1980. The little symbol is a boars tusk (often worn by islanders) with leaves representing peace in the middle of these.
Donations totalling £102 were later sent off - thank you We seem to have a boiler which is demanding attention. With it being a bank holiday weekend it will be Monday before it will be looked at so we have had to cancel this coming Sunday service with Fiona Beadle. Hopefully we shall be back next week.
*** Update *** Now fixed and we are warm again. Today we were allowed to meet again inside the chapel and it felt good to be back amongst friends again. And what a joy to see the wonderful nativity tableau erected high on the outside wall for all to behold as we entered. Such creativity amongst our congregation!
We thought about resilience; thinking of the many examples of the same in the Bible and reflecting on our own resilience during these difficult months. “Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened and do not be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go” Joshua 1:9 We thought about our ‘ring pull’ charity, the Purple Community Fund, who have been supporting some of the poorest people in the Philippines, and how amazingly resilient these people have been, not only locked down in slum conditions, but coping with a fire, a volcano eruption and three typhoons. And still strong and resilient! We looked at some of the beautiful crafts they create from ring pulls. £25 was sent to the Purple Community Fund for their Christmas appeal. We remembered lovely friends who have passed away since we were last in chapel together. Mary Payne, Dick Dale and of course the Reverend Derek Shaw who will all be sadly missed and who have all left us with happy memories which will never be lost. Today our service was all about the power of prayer. We thought of the people on our prayer list as well as the persecuted Christians of the world and prayed for all in need. £50 was collected to be sent to Barnabas Fund.
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