Well here we are at the midway point of the year - the kids have left school behind them and are off on their various holiday adventures and Emmanuel will probably not be the same again until the cold winds of September set in.  But what has been happening so far through this year?  Has it been ’successful’ or has it been dissappointing?

Well I can tell you that Easter certainly lived up to the billing that I gave it in my last post.  We had a fabulous time of worship, of teaching and of fellowship.  From the Communion Service on Thursday night to the buffet at the end of Sunday afternoon it was great!!  The true meaning of Easter was the total emphasis of the weekend.  Not for us the mamby pamby, politically correct rubbish - that has the power to achieve nothing at all in the eternal arena  but that seems to be the order of the day - but a true straight down the line exposition of the Biblical statement of the Atonement.  “”For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures.” I don’t think that you can get plainer than Paul as he states the case for the atonement in this great resurrection passage.  And this would have been the message you would have heard had you been fortunate enough to have popped your head into any of our Easter celebrations.

Starting From Scratch

Since then we have completed another two of our ‘Starting From Scratch’ courses.  The first one being ‘The Person of Christ’ and what a joy that was!!  The deeper we looked the more glorious we found Him - from His pre-existence to His humanity and deity and on to His now exalted state of majesty.  we spent five wonderful Thursday nights just gazing into the face of Jesus and it was well worth the effort - i can tell you!  The second course was a little more practical, I suppose, as we got a little more familiar with the identity, ministry and power of the Holy Spirit.  We saw Who He was and really, Who He wasn’t.  We looked at His ministry both in the Old Covenant and in the New - which is significantly different.  We saw what it meant to be born again [indwelt by the Spirit] - baptised [endued with power] - and filled with the Spirit [ immersed in the things of God] and that without Him none of these things would have happened.  We saw that He is the seal that authenticates our relationship with God and in being so is the guarantee of eternal life with God.  We also spent some time looking at the gifts that He sovereignly bestows upon His church and committed ourselves to be available and obedient to any calling that He might put upon our lives.  At the end we made ourselves familiar with some of the Biblical principles that we could use to protect us as we are confronted with ‘modern day moves of the Spirit’ - so called.  Such extremes as the Toronto Blessing and the Lakeland revival - are they of God or not?  as we put our tests to work we came up with too many negatives.

Our Focus

As you know our focus for  2010 in Emmanuel is the Gospel and our relationship with it.  So far we’ve had four Sundays when Rom.1:16 has been the main theme of our meetings.  It hasn’t changed us into raving evangelists yet but it has caused us to think more of why we actually exist as a church in a village called Ystrad.  So much so that two main endeavours are being planned for commencement in the not too distant future and the proverbial ‘watch this space’ is the order of the day.

Community

The use of our facilities are continually being requested by the community and it is great that so many people are using our facilities.  Ystrad Communities First are now quite resident and of course The Redfield Community Choir is also up and running.  Our name is continually being seen in the various printed matter in the Valley which is beginning to dissolve the anonymity that once hindered our developement.

The Visit Of New Hope Churches From Atlanta.

For four days at the beginning of July a party from Atlanta joined by a party from Hove turned up in the Rhondda and made God’s presence felt among us.  Schools, Sheltered accomodations and old age centres were visited by numerous groups whose only desire was to introduce people to the Lord Jesus Christ.  it culminated in a ‘Taste of America’ function in the local sportscentre where the Gospel was brought in so many novel ways.  It was great fun and it was also great to see people there enjoying themselves who would never darken the door of any church and yet they were glad to talk to people about Jesus.  our church was used a a ‘cookhouse’ for the whole affair and Missy Linda put her girls, amd me, through our paces and she churned out the sweetcorn and watermelon by the bucketload and trays and trays of ‘cobblers’[write me if you want to know what a 'cobbler' is].  Missy Linda was used to catering for crowds of 6 - 700 people as she does it in her own church every week!!  It was a fantastic end to a great week - well done the organising committee and to both sets of visitors.

Since Easter Emmanuel has been quite busy as you can see.  Lots of things have been accomplished but there still remains the frustration of seeing things stagnate or fail to get off the ground.  So there is no place for complacency or a resting on our laurels there is still so much to achieve both within the body of believers and among those we are trying to reach.  And so the future is about maintaining the momentum of some things - initiating other things and jump starting some of the things that have stalled.  I am so grateful that we didn’t put the Holy Spirit away with the course notes because He is our only driving force as we head for the future confident in this one thing the He Whos began a good work will perform it untill the Day of Christ.  out of context I know but I think tha you have got my drift.

Ps.  The Evergreens have broken up for the Summer as of next Wednesday 29th July.

What a wonderful time is Easter.  It is that moment when Spring really begins to kick in.  It’s the first Bank Holiday of the year and thoughts wander from the misery of dark, cold winter nights to the pleasantries of the summer with all its sunny expectations [I know it doesn't always work like that but we can dream].

But what a wonderful time is Easter for those in the Christian faith.  It is the event that defines our whole understanding of the thing we call Christianity.

To some - Christianity is but an expression of ritual religion with all the attending pomp and ceremony.  To others - Christianity is but a branch of the political systems where power is wielded in the name of God, so called.

But to the true believer - Christianity is about this weekend of Easter, when we celebrate the amazing love of the God who created us, Who, even though we have turned our back on Him, He has never turned His back on us and although our sin has separated us from Him - He has taken great steps in providing a way for us to return to His loving care.

Yes Jesus, God’s only Son, came to earth specifically to take upon Himself the punishment that we all deserved for our sins, as He hung upon that cross -  in order that He could offer the greatest gift of salvation and eternal life to all those who believe.  His resurrection is evidence that what took place at Calvary was sufficient for everyone to benefit eternally.

This is the message that will be preached in Emmanuel over this weekend and I would like to invite you to come along and hear the greatest news ever!!

We have a very full programme over Easter in Emmanuel starting on Palm Sunday as we join with all the other churches in the area for a march of witness culminating outside St Stephen’s with an open air service which will be a wonderful opportunity for the Gospel to go forth into the community of Ystrad once again.  Palm crosses will be given out and also signed balloons which are set free at the end of the proceedings with the children all having a C……ys creme egg.

As a Fellowship we like to get together on the Thursday for a Communion service where we remember the events of the ‘Guest Room’ where Jesus, in symbolic form, outlined the proceedings of that Great Day of Redemption.  ‘This is My body broken for you!!  This is My blood shed for you!!”

Good Friday sees us joining together in an open meeting at 10am to celebrate - yes - celebrate the Death of Christ!!  To us this is the most important part of the Easter story; this is where Jesus dealt with our sins once and for all.  ‘It Is Finished’ was His cry and He meant just that.

Janis will be bringing a programme of readings, monologues, songs and poems that will concentrate our thoughts on this amazing event - and I will have the privilege of bringing the Gospel message.

Hopefully there’ll be plenty of hot cross buns and hot buttered toast as we fellowship together in the Redfield Room after the service.   I Love Good Friday!

Easter Sunday soon comes and then we’ll meet to celebrate Christ’s resurrection together.  It will be good to be reminded that God’s righteousness was completely satisfied with the sacrifice of His Son on our behalf.  Paul tells us that we would be still in our sins and our faith would be in vain if Christ didn’t rise from the dead - so I’m so glad that there ever was an Easter Sunday.  When I was young it used to expand my waistline but now it just boosts my faith.

All in all it’s going to be a wonderful time of worship, reflection, teaching and fellowship - I love Easter - and this year we are going to have a full week after it to relax before we start our spring programme.

JESUS CHRIST IS RISEN — HE IS RISEN INDEED!!!

On Sunday  24th January we had our first ‘Focus Sunday’.  It was a day where we emphasized the role of Emmanuel in connection with the Great Commission that our Lord gave to us.  The verse that adorns our noticeboard has become our focus for 2010 “I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ for it is the power of God to salvation to all who believe…”

While preparing for the Sunday morning ministry I came across this story which just about summed up the message and what I wanted to get over to the congregation.  I’ve included it here because it is a challenge to all of us.

On a dangerous seacoast off the coast of Saginaw Michigan, where shipwrecks often occur, there was once a crude little life-saving station. The building was just a little hut, and there was only one boat. But the completely devoted members kept a constant watch over the sea, and with no thought for themselves, they went out day and night tirelessly searching for the lost. Many were saved by this station, so it became famous. Some of those who were saved, and various others in the surrounding area, wanted to become associated with the station and give of their time and money and effort for the support of its life-saving work. New boats were bought and crews were trained. The little life-saving station grew.

Now some of the members of the life-saving station became unhappy that the building was so crude and poorly equipped. They felt that a more comfortable place should be provided as the first refuge of those saved from the sea. So they replaced the cots with beds and put better furniture in and enlarged it to a more elaborate building. Now the life-saving station became a popular gathering place for its members, who were proud of it. And they redecorated it beautifully and furnished it exquisitely because they used it as a kind of club. Few of the members were now interested in going to sea on life-saving missions, so they hired life-boat crews to do this work. The life-saving motif still prevailed in the club’s decorations. And there was a liturgical life boat in the room where club initiations were held.

About this time a large ship was wrecked off the coast and the hired crews brought in boatloads of cold, wet half-drowned people. They were dirty and wounded and sick and some had black skin and some yellow. The beautiful new club was left untidy, muddy and generally messed up. So the property committee immediately had a shower house built outside the club where the victims of shipwrecks could be cleaned up before coming inside. At the next meeting there was a split in the club membership. Most of the members wanted to stop the club’s activities as being somewhat beneath them and an unpleasant hindrance to the normal social life of club. Some of the members insisted that life saving was their primary purpose and pointed out that they were known as a life-saving station, but they were finally voted down. They were told that if they wanted to save all those various kinds of people with different colors of skin, strange languages and odd religions who were shipwrecked on those waters, they could start their own life-saving station down the coast.

And so they did. And as the years went by the new station experienced the same changes that had occurred in the old. It evolved into a club. And yet another life-saving station was founded. And history repeated itself. And if you visit that seacoast today you find a number of exclusive clubs along that shore. Shipwrecks are still frequent, but most of the people drown.

You must agree with me that this is a perfect and yet a very sad picture of life in the Christian Church.  We seem to start off really well with the proclamation of the Gospel being our priority but as time wears on our resolve wanes and the desire to reach the lost which we once had deserts us and we turn our gaze from without to within.

Maintaining a witness is not an easy thing especially when we are surrounded by such apathy and materialism but Christ’s commission means that this is a lifetime commitment and we need always to be diligent and destroy anything that will come in to stunt that commitment.  it would be awful if God must open another church in the next street because this one has died.

Haiti

The debate has been raging as to ‘where was God’ in the Haiti earthquake.  I was sent this quote from the philosopher David Hume and asked what my opinion would be as the archbishop[??] had very little to say on the matter.   Echoing Epicurus this is how he put it:

“Is God willing to prevent evil but not able?  Then He is impotent!  Is He able but not willing?  The He is malevolent!  Is He both able and willing?  Whence then is evil?

Now about this question I can’t understand why the archbishop did not have an answer so I will attempt to give my answer.

Reading the Scriptures this is how I would put it:

First of all there is a theological answer which takes us right back to the book of Genesis and the fall of man. As sin entered the world through Adam part of the judgment of God was to put a curse upon the earth which meant that the earth and everything on it now has a finite existence.

The earth itself is suffering from this curse and is naturally running down and will one day die itself. Jesus warned that this aging process of the earth will show in an acceleration of earthquakes. So we are only seeing what He told us would happen.

It also means that we will all grow old and die around the age of 70. I would say that more people die of old age every day than from earthquakes.

Now if we want God to intervene in earthquakes does it mean that we will then want Him to intervene in the aging process of people? And so where does He stop? - Remember it was His curse as a judgment on our sin that started the aging process in the first place. Are we now asking God to save us from the consequences of our own sinful choices?

Now, if you believe in God, then that is the state of affairs as far as the Bible is concerned - if you don’t believe in God then you’ve no right to question His character in the first place!

God’s answer lay in the fact that He has sent His only Son Jesus Christ into the world to take away our sins and the eternal consequence of our sins by the sacrifice of Himself upon the cross. Whereby He is now offering us the gift of forgiveness and eternal life.

This is His only answer to the problems that we all face in this life.

But there is also a more personal answer.
We all want God to intervene in the tragedies of life as long as His intervention doesn’t impinge on our own lifestyles. This tragedy wouldn’t have been half as horrific if it had happened, say, in San Fransisco - because there they have spent billions of dollars in the design and construction of buildings that will withstand the force of earthquakes of the size of this one. These people, who live on a recognized fault line, have had no such inward investment in fact they live on approximately £1 a day.

Now I wouldn’t call you greedy but you wouldn’t get out of bed for anything less than £50 -£60 a day . I wonder if we would be so keen for God to intervene in this tragedy if His intervention would mean that from now on we would have to share our vast resources with those who have nothing? I don’t mean give a donation or raise a vast sum  [which is commendable] but share our resources.

More people die every day through the greed that exists in the world than through earthquakes.
For instance I am appalled that Simon Cowell has allegedly offered Posh Becks $1million to appear in just one of his shows. There lay the problem that exists in this world.

I would also say that more people die every day and more lives are ruined every day from drink related illnesses , smoking, illicit sexual relationships, over eating, laziness etc than die from earthquakes. Do we now want God to intervene in our own lifestyles and curb our own appetites and pleasures or do we want to keep that to ourselves and tell Him to mind His own business?

God gets blamed or His character questioned every time a tragedy like this occurs - but I would tell you that if He intervened to stop such things then we would like Him even less than we do now!!

Having said all that my heart goes out to these people the same as yours and my prayer is that out of this terrible tragedy something positive will begin to grow.

We have had such a lovely time over Christmas.  The Lord has blessed us so much.

Super Tuesday

I call it super Tuesday because I had the privilege to minister in three separate carol services through the day.  The first was rather a high profile affair in the offices of the Educational Section of Rhondda Cynon Taff Council in Abercynon, where between forty and fifty of the staff gathered to sing the traditional carols and listen to the real meaning of Christmas.  The second was so much smaller when I went to my regular haunt of Ysbyty George Thomas [occupational therapy dept.] and with a dozen or so residents and a number of staff we celebrated the birth of our Lord together.  The evening found me with a number from the church gathered with the residents of Llys Nazareth [where I used to live and still am the cleaner- Pauline being the scheme manager] to once again celebrate the true meaning of Christmas.  Ray, one of the younger residents, helped us with some professional vibes on the conga while Nigel treated us to a solo in his own inimitable style.

Evergreens Christmas Dinner

Our Evergreen Christmas Dinner was a non starter as the cook was taken ill a few days before but it gives us something to look forward to in the New Year.  The cook has made a full recovery - Praise The Lord!!

The Sunday before Christmas

is always a very special one for us and this year was no different.  Janis prepared a fabulous program of readings, poems, dramas and songs for us to enjoy before we ventured out into the frostier climes of Ystrad and met with members from the other Ystrad churches and a Salvation Army band to take the celebrations to the people of Ystrad. I had the privilege of bringing the message which is always a thrill to me.  Our Candle Lit Carol Service in the evening was also a precious time.  It was very well attended - with our worship group, being joined by a brass section for traditional affect, banging out the carols in fine form.  The Christmas buffet afterward was also up to scratch.

We also enjoyed our second Christmas morning service.  With Janis bringing her whole extended family it was another opportunity to share the Gospel through the Advent story.

On the Sunday after Christmas we enjoyed the testimonies of God’s faithfulness through the year that was coming to an end.  ‘Surely goodness and mercy has followed us all the days of our lives’ - could sum up the words that were shared.  This meeting was always the Cinderella meeting with members away visiting or being visited so a number of years ago Matthew and myself decided that we would prepare a ‘fairly high tea’ for those who were able to come.  We could cope with such a few people but this meeting has become one of the growth meetings in our calendar and soon we’ll have to swear in another temporary elder just to help us  out!

New Years Eve

This year again we had our celebration extravaganza with a ‘bring a plate’ buffet, pub-type quiz and a time of praise and worship to see out the old and welcome in the new.  Besides Joyce who just brought an empty plate everyone rose to the occasion and the supply of food was endless and enjoyed by us all.  David brought his ‘big-boy’ acoustic bass out again and we had an unplugged time of worship - bridging 2009 and 2010 with ‘Jesus is the Name we Honor’.   Upon the striking of the clock the party poppers were set off.

2010

I’m quite excited about 2010 because we have a few new initiatives that are starting.  We will be continuing with the courses ‘Starting from Scratch’ which were really successful last year and are eagerly anticipated.  The first one examining ‘The Person and Ministry of Christ‘ will be starting on the 14th of January.  Why don’t you plan to join with us?   On Saturday 16th in the morning we will be having the first of three ‘Prayer Breakfasts‘ in The Gallery where we will be able to bring our worship and our concerns before Almighty God.  Then on the following Sunday [17th] we are having the first of six  Focus Sundays - Our focus for this year in Emmanuel is the scripture that adorns our notice board - “For I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ for it is the power of God for the salvation of all who believe...”

I hope and pray that through reading this blog and visiting this site you have been blessed and if you don’t belong to any Fellowship or if you have no faith at all then I hope that you have been challenged and if you live withing a 600 mile radius it would be nice to see you in the flesh.

God’s Best To You In 2010

As we come up to the Christmas period I always find myself looking back over the year to see how things have gone. To say that this year has been a cloud nine type of year would be to exaggerate somewhat.  In fact for me personally it has been a rather trying year although there have been some very high points as well.

We have suffered with a number of people becoming ill this year - hindering them from coming to the Fellowship as often as they would have liked; my father-in-law is now unable to walk and hasn’t been out and about for the last six months or so and   we have also had a few people move on which taken altogether has made a big gap in our Fellowship.

But, having said that, we have completed 3 sections of our ‘Starting From Scratch‘ project.  For many years I have desired to take the church through the basic doctrines of the Christian Faith and this year that desire has become a reality.  For five Thursdays each school term we have devoted our teaching to a specific topic.  in January our first subject was the ‘Word of God‘ then in April we looked at ‘God’s Plan Of Salvation‘ and just recently we have finished a five week spell studying ‘The Character of God‘.  Each course was very well attended and the feed back extremely positive.  The next one will be in January and we will be looking at the ‘Person Of Christ‘.

When we completed the renovation work on the building our desire was to hire out some of the facilities in order to 1] receive some revenue so our building project could progress to completion and 2] more importantly become more known in the community.  A few weeks ago the ‘Ystrad Communities First Team‘ started working from the Redfield Room on a Thursday.  This is a great encouragement for us as now the community is actually coming into our church and getting familiar with the surroundings.

At the end of September we had our first Leadership Conference.  We traveled to  Kidwelly in Carmarthenshire where we spent the day in the pleasant surroundings of a Country Hotel called ‘Gwenllian Court’.  The day was great and the teaching was very practical and well received.  Another outcome of the day was a realization that we have the facilities  to put on such an event ourselves and so we are in the process of setting the building up as a potential conference centre with the hope that the building will be used by even more people.  We have two very pleasant rooms which are self contained with toilet facilities and there is a chair lift access to the Gallery.  We have produced some literature on this and so if anyone is thinking of running a small course, an exhibition  or a boardroom meeting then get in touch and we’ll send you the details. [info@emmanuelchristianfellowship>co>uk]

Our plans for the Christmas period are a little up in the air at the moment.  Already planned is our Evergreen dinner which will take place on the 16th of December and once again this year we will have in-house caterers with Susan and Val doing the honors. 

On Tuesday the 15th we”ll be travelling north to Pentre where we have been invited to host a carol service in the sheltered accomodation - Llys Nazareth. 

On the 19th after our morning service [11:30am] we will once again join with the other churches in Ystrad for an open air carol service by the Star.  The Savation Army band will be aiding us in our choral exploits again this year and Terence will be giving a short address.

Our candle lit carol service will take place at 6pm that same night where we will really celebrate the birth of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ in word and in song - the children will also explain the Christmas story from their perspective too.  then we’ll join together in a Christmas Buffet.

Following on from last year we will meet together on Christmas morning and herald in the day with praise and worship and our next meting will be on Sunday afternoon [4:30pm] which will be an opportunity for anyone to tell thier story of God’s goodness and mercy which has followed them every day through 2009.  This will be followed by a ‘fairly high tea’  which, as for the last seven years, will be catered by the eldership.

And we’ll finish off the last mnute of 2009 exactly where started it from and that is in an attitude of praise and worship to the One who has not only saved us by His grace but Who has also kept us through this and evey other yaer by His grace, as we gather for our watchnight service.

Details for any of these meeting and events can be obtained in the usual way. [info@emmanuelchristianfellowship.co.uk]

All that’s left for me to say is - “Have yourselves a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year and thank you for visiting us on the electronic expression of our church and why not plan to come and visit us in the new year in the real expression which is far far better:

God’s best to you all

“This summer has been an utter disgrace!” This was the comment of the evening, as we were cooking our burgers and sausages hidden away from the weather and eating them in the warmer climes of the Redfield Room.  Yes, once again an Emmanuel outdoor event bites the dust as our planned BBQ/open air service in the park hits the brick wall of inclement weather.  Never-the-less we all enjoyed ourselves and concluded the evening with a time of worship and praise.

Besides the disappointment of our outdoor program, this year has been very profitable indeed.  Since my last entry we have completed the second leg of our “Starting From Scratch” course during which we dealt with God’s plan of Salvation.  Such subjects  like ‘The Substitution of Christ’ –  ‘Propitiation - Redemption and Reconciliation’ were explored and each of us were thrilled at the love of God and His amazing grace toward us.  At the moment I am preparing for our third leg which is the daunting task of ‘The Doctrine Of God’ - which will begin on Thursday 24th of September and run for five weeks.

The Songs Of Revelation.

For the last two months Matthew has taken us through some of the songs of Revelation in our Thursday nights.  They have been an immense source of blessing to every one who has attended as he has dealt with such gems as Rev.5:9 — “And they sang a new song, saying: ‘You are worthy to take the scroll, and to open its seals; for You were slain, and have redeemed us to God by Your blood out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation, and have made us kings and priests to our God; and we shall reign on the earth.’” He is set to continue for another few weeks and hopefully these studies will be available on CD and MP3.

Leadership Conference

This is something new for us this year.  We’ve chosen a lovely country hotel in Kidwelly Carmarthenshire to hold our first Leadership Conference. Its taking place on September 26th and I for one am looking forward to it.  Times of worship, prayer and praise will be interspersed with three sessions outlining the ‘essentials of leadership - the responsibilities of leadership and lastly the nitty gritty of leadership‘.  The day will be rounded off with a time of worship and a word of exhortation from David.  The hotel was recommended by the Pastor of the local Apostolic Church so our expectations of a good looking after are very high indeed.

Children’s Ministries

Allison

A disappointing casualty of our extended building and renovation program was our children’s work but I am glad to say that we have begun to take tentative steps to remedy this situation with Allison who now takes the children on a Sunday evening as they follow the same program as the grown ups.  The childrens’ input into the main service as they recite their memory verses and act out dramas have added a lovely richness and variety to our times of worship.

The Evergreens

After a well earned summer break the Evergreens will be resuming business on Wednesday September 9th at 2:30pm.  This year in our opening service we will be joined by the ladies from Ynyshir who will minister to us and join with us in our celebration buffet.  This is our 13th year and it is our desire to see it going from strength to strength.  I think this is the most enjoyable meeting of the week and I find it very strange that people would rather stay in their own homes by themselves than join with us for a delightful and eventful afternoon.  So if you are one of those people or if you know someone who needs some company and could do with a bit fun then make an effort and come along  - you’ll not regret it I can promise you.

Men’s Fellowship

Just before I go I’d like to tell you about the Men’s Fellowship.  During 08/09 it was a real source of blessing as we were favored by ministry from both within our ranks and further afield.  Andrew Jenkins from the Apostolic Church and Ian Parry from the Cardiff Bay Church were among those who came to us with God’s precious Word.  Dave is planning the program for next year and the meetings are set to start up again on Monday October 4th at 7:30pm.

If you are local then you are more than welcome to come and join with us in these services I’m sure that they will be a blessing and a challenge to your faith.

In fact there is a warm welcome to everyone who actually ventures through the doors of Emmanuel Christian Fellowship - God is that type of Person and we are that type of people.  you will meet with people who love to worship and sing praises to our God, you will be confronted with the true Word of God as it is preached from the pulpit and you will be treated to a refreshing cup of tea if it happens to be a Wednesday afternoon or a Sunday night.  So why not come along it might be the moment that changes your life for time and eternity.

God’s Best to you all:

Well here we are making our way through 2009 and it’s high time I put fingertips to keys and wrote something significant about life in ECF.  Since my last blog so many things have happened before and after Christmas but I’d just like to comment on three that stood out for me.

Excuse the pun, but I’m glad to say that our ‘Big Band Praise’ evening went with a swing.  With a nine piece band and a number of guest soloists we gave some of the old hymns the jazz treatment, some of the more modern songs the rock treatment and with a few blues numbers and of course a couple of carols thrown in we really did have a night to remember.  (If you look carefully at one of the photos you’ll notice yours truly giving the skins a bit of a hammering.)  It was the last event of the year that celebrated the 100^th anniversary of the building that has been used by God to proclaim the Gospel in its fullness to the very privileged people of Ystrad and it proved that the church is still alive and has much more work to do.

The Christmas buffet that we were greeted with after the music was something special with the church family working together to provide for every taste.

Sticking with Christmas we had our first Christmas morning service this year and what a pleasant surprise it was.  Being the first one we didn’t know what to expect but we did have a very good turnout and just the most precious time of worship, reflection and fellowship.  One family came on block and it was a pleasure to see them all enjoying the experience of a Christian Christmas morning.

For 21 years, that is ever since I became a pastor, I have always dreamed of taking time out to teach the basic doctrines of the Christian faith.  I’d spent many hours listening to the ‘Basic Bible Study’ series of teaching tapes of a man called Roger Price who founded a fellowship in Chichester/Bognor in the seventies and longed for an opportunity to emulate his vision of impacting the church with what I think is the most important issue for today.  Well on January 8^th my dream was realized as we started a course called ‘Starting from Scratch’.  We spent the next five (six if you count the one that was canceled because of the snow) Thursday evenings looking at the “Authenticity of the Scriptures”.  We discussed its authority, its inspiration, its sufficiency, its inerrancy and its truly accurate transmission from ‘lost autograph’ through the manuscripts to modern day versions.

What a joy it was to join together week by week, with over half the church on this amazing voyage of discovery with its emphasis on the supernatural quality of a book that only God Himself could have brought into being.

Already I’ve started work on our second 5 week spell which will start on April 23^rd where we will be dealing with “God’s Plan of Salvation”.  If you want any more information just drop us an email and we’ll be on your case.  It should prove to be a very enlightening and at the same time faith-building exercise as some, for the first time in their experience, will begin to really understand just what actually went on at Calvary and more personally what took place the moment they put their trust in the Lord Jesus Christ for the salvation.

Easter is looming large on the horizon and we are looking forward to the Christian event of the year.  For most churches it is a very busy period and we are no exception.  It starts on Palm Sunday where we join together with the other churches in the town and march together to the central spot which is a pub called The Star and there we celebrate the triumphant entry of our Lord into Jerusalem with song and a short message.  Weather has never been a problem since this event started and we pray that this year will be no different.

On Thursday we, as a church, gather together for communion and then on Friday & Sunday we advertise our services locally and invite the community to come along in order to get to understand what Easter is all about.  Our Sunday evening service starts at 4pm after which we enjoy a buffet tea.  Our experience of Easter has been so precious in years gone by and so I am looking forward to a wonderful time of worship, of teaching of fellowship and outreach.

We had our first wedding in the newly renovated church in January and the setting was just perfect for Rachel and Daniel to tie the knot with the signing of the register taking place at the front of the church the whole thing was so laid back and almost informal.  Feedback from both families was very positive and perhaps, who knows, whether we’ll see a steady flow of young hopefuls passing through; each bringing an opportunity to share with them the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

The Lord continues to bless us with His manifest presence and I pray that you too will know His goodness and mercy as it follows you all the days of your life.

God’s best