Time to plan

Tonight, I went to a meeting at Jenny's, one of our parishioners, who kindly welcomed us with drinks and a strawberry roll. On the agenda, preparing for the 'church fete' on the 9th of June. So a few of us, Joan, Geraldine and Sonia were there, throwing ideas to see how we could organise it! I am not going to bore you with the details so I'll will go straight to the conclusion.

We all agreed that we would take this opportunity to do some Christian outreach at this event.

There will be a prayer wall for everybody to use, a stand where people can read Christian tracts and see copies of the one minute bible, the 'usual stalls' : book, plant and cake stalls, a slide and games for children, a relay race for the adults, a fancy dress 'défilé' with a prize, a stand where the primary school children would exhibit some craft, a painting competition, some musical 'interlude' , songs, and the last but not the least, 'refreshments possibly including strawberries'. I hope that I am not forgetting anything.

Any other tips or ideas are very welcome!

May the Lord give us strenght and guide us to use our skills harmoniously in the coming weeks to serve Him. In Jesus-Christ. Amen

Pear cake and brownies

That evening I looked at some pears that were ripening too fast in the fruit bowl and thought I'd better use them before they rot! So, I found a recipe for a pear cake and this is how it turned out. Later on I asked Camille to do her special treat, brownies. She's done them before and she has a special knack for them. They are usually delicious.

Camille mixing up the brownie mixture!
Well, here is the verdict!

The pear cake is edible but nobody has eaten much of it yet !
Three quarters of it are still there intact !

The brownies are absolutely delicious and we are making a real effort not to finish them in one go!

Music trio!

Did I promise more photos? This is a rehearsal in Hixon church! Meet Celia, Steven and Maureen.

Music matters! True or not ?

My hubby Steven is very meticulous when choosing the music and songs to play during a service. I have to agree with him.

I like all kind of music including some traditional ones but my favourite are more modern hymns and songs. Obviously all children love lively music and we are so fortunate because we have a variety of instruments that can be distributed during the service!

Do you know these two:
Our God is a great big God by Jo and Nigel Hemming
and
Great,great, brill, brill by Doug Horley

or this one ?

Thanks the Lord for the Kerygma bus!

Meet the team of the Kerygma bus and some of our parishioners.

Colin, Henry.

We are so fortunate that the Kerygma bus comes to Hixon every Tuesday.

This was Pentecost Sunday and Colin visited us at church. Colin told us he started the Kerygma' bus ministry project in Easter 2006. Together with a team of volunteers, he has used a double-decker bus to deliver RE lessons sharing the good news about Jesus with thousands of schoolchildren, as well as working with detached youth in towns and villages.

Sally and Celia.






Camille, Celia holding 'the bucket' and Jenny.

 

These photos  go back to the 13th Jan 2009 and it was a little bit cold in spite of the heating being full blown. The bus is always full of children .

It comes a time when you have to stop dreaming that you are going to spread the Good News around you, instead you have to get up and do it, you have to do something about it.

Praying and reading the Bible help finding out in which direction the Holy Spirit guides you. Telling people about Jesus our Saviour. Every Christian is equipped with the necessary tools for spreading the Gospel and it is a question of knowing their strengths.

Somehow, I always go back to the parable of the sower. The good soil has been prepared by brothers and sisters in Christ who have not given up but persevered and kept on spreading the good news!

18"Listen then to what the parable of the sower means: 

19 When anyone hears the message about the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what was sown in his heart. This is the seed sown along the path. 

20 The one who received the seed that fell on rocky places is the man who hears the word and at once receives it with joy.

 21 But since he has no root, he lasts only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, he quickly falls away.

 22The one who received the seed that fell among the thorns is the man who hears the word, but the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth choke it, making it unfruitful.

 23But the one who received the seed that fell on good soil is the man who hears the word and understands it. He produces a crop, yielding a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown."

Matthew 13 :18-23

A tour of Stafford

What a wonderful start to our saturday mornings: seeing a pheasant gobbling up seeds next to the wood pidgeons. He flies over the fence and spends quite a long time feeding. Two jackdaws also appear quite often, they have spotted the peanuts in one of the feeder. They are so quick that I have not managed to take any photos yet!

On saturdays, Steve and I have breakfast and do our bible reading in the dining-room facing the garden so we cannot miss the birds!

Later on that morning I went to Stafford and took a few photos of the park and the town center

I must confess that I haven't visited that museum yet ! We have only been living round here since August 2007, that's my excuse.