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Prayer Letter
November / December 2006 “Therefore, my dear brothers, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labour in the Lord is not in vain.” (1 Corinthians 15:58) The
autumn term at Christ Church is always a time for rejoicing. Not only because
many of our activities begin again after the summer break. But because in
October each year, we mark the anniversary of the doors opening at Christ Church
on 12th October 2002. This
year, the 4th since that momentous occasion, we were delighted to welcome the
Bishop of Chester, the Right Reverend Peter Forster. This was his first visit to
Christ Church, and his presence with us was a real encouragement. It
was also a significant Sunday for another reason. This was the first occasion on
which we were able to use our new communion cup and plate. These had been given
to the church with the aid of a generous donation in memory of the late Mr. Roy
Dutton. It was lovely to have Roy’s wife, Mavis and daughter Ann with us for
the service. It may be somewhat sentimental on my part, but the gift of our own
communion vessels seems to underline in a significant way the spiritual reality
of our being a church family. The
anniversary service followed hard on the heels of another Sunday celebration –
Harvest Sunday. The church was beautifully decorated with flowers for the
occasion. However, instead of encouraging gifts of fruit and veg., we joined
with St. John’s in encouraging donations to the Tearfund Emergency Famine
appeal for East Africa. This proved a tremendous success with over £5800 being
raised across both churches for the charity. After the service, 40 of us sat
down to a ‘bring and share lunch’ in the meeting room. It was a tight
squeeze, but the food was delicious and the atmosphere wonderful. Occasions like
this, and the superb ‘On Track’ harvest supper the following Friday, are
proving an excellent way of building relationships and establishing new
contacts. One
other welcome addition to the church in recent weeks has been the purchase of
several large print bibles. These are available for use on a Sunday morning but
should also prove really useful to our mid week courses and meetings. Although
they are NIV bibles like the others in the church, they are in American English,
and so should provide extra entertainment in the form of variant spellings and
vocabulary - watch out for the rooster! Looking
forward to Christmas, we would want to capitalise as much as possible on all the
hype that surrounds the season. Many of our groups will be organising their own
special activities, please pray for the preparations with all the other demands
of the season. Our carol service will be on Sunday 10th December at 3pm, and
Roger Fawcett our youth minister will be speaking. The service has been well
attended in past years and we long to see that being the case this year. Please
pray that we will proclaim the message clearly over the season, and that we will
build relationships and meet new people during the festivities. In the new year we will be running another ‘Christian Basics’ course. Please pray that those we come into contact with over Christmas would be drawn along to attend the course. Thank you once again in anticipation of your prayers, we are really indebted to you for your faithful prayers for us all.
David
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Last updated: January 27, 2007. We aim to update this site weekly.
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