Friday 5th Feb...

We are gathering at the United Reformed Church in Petworth at 6:00pm tonight for our 'Chip, Chat, Chew'

 We'll be enjoying a meal together curtesy of our local chippy as well as chatting over some church business and catching up on the news! See you there!

Click here for the agenda

Prayer for Christian Unity

Some of us attended the service for Christian Unity at St Mary's last Sunday. This prayer was part of that service and we felt worth sharing.

'Take us from where we are to where you want us to be; make us not merely guardians of a heritage but living signs of your coming kingdom; fire us with passion for justice and peace between all people; fill us with that faith, hope and love which embody the gospel; and through the power of the holy spirit make us one, that the world may believe, that your name may be enthroned in our nation, that your church may more effectivey be your body, we commit ourselves to love you, serve you and follow you as pilgrims not strangers.'

Prayer for Haiti

Lord, I just want to say THANK YOU,

Because this morning I woke up and knew where my children were.

Because this morning my home was still standing,
Because this morning I am not crying
Because my spouse, my child, my brother or sister, my parent does not need to be buried
or to be pulled out from underneath a pile of concrete,
Because this morning I was able to drink a glass of water,
Because this morning I was able to turn on the light,
Because this morning I was able to take a shower, Because this morning I was not planning a funeral

But most of all I thank you this morning because I still have life and a voice to cry out for the people of Haiti .
Lord I cry out to you, the One that makes the impossible, possible,

The One that turns darkness into light, I cry out that You give those mothers strength,

That You give them peace that surpasses all understanding,
That You may open the streets so that help can come, That You may provide doctors, nurses, food, water, and all that they need in a blink of an eye,

For all those that have lost family members, give them peace, give them hope, give them courage to continue to go on!

Protect the children and shield them with your power.

I pray all this in the name of Jesus.

Chip, Chat & Chew!

Hi All

Last Sunday we said that we'd postpone the Chat & Chew that was booked for Sunday 24th Jan because of the Prayer service at St Mary's at 3 o'clock also on that day.

And it's always tricky getting another Sunday that isn't already booked up so instead we're going to do Chat & Chew on Friday 5th Feb at 6pm at the URC.....with chips! Children all invited so that we can include them and also not worry about babysitter availability.

So please would you let me know whether you'll be able to come and what you would like to order from the Tasty Plaice.

And also please pass this onto anyone else involved in PCC who isn't on the email.

Have a god-blessed week!

Kate.

YAK...

Linda has been hard at work on the latest issue of YAK. As usual it's available in the 'Links' section on the right and is packed with the usual brilliant blend of information , prayer pointers and dates. Look out for information on our Church weekend away in April and updates from Eric & Ele, Ruth and Hannah.

Spring Sunday Themes

For your info, preparation and study...


Our Sundays gathering this season will be based around the theme 'Convictions of Steel'. This is taken from a passage in 1 Thessalonians taken from The Message. As with our last series 'Feast & Famine' there will be a degree of freedom for each morning to look at the same subject from different angles.

You can find the passage in the 'links' section titled Spring Sunday Theme highlighted to suggest some different themes within the passage.

Happy new year from Hannah

Hi everyone,

After a flying visit to Petworth over Christmas (made even shorter by my plane back from Gambia being delayed by a day!) I'm just getting ready to leave again . . . on Sunday (3 January) I'll be catching the Eurostar to Paris where I will start French studies at a Christian language school. I plan to be there for six months initially, with the option of staying for up to a year.

Why Paris? For a while it's been a personal goal of mine to learn French. This would be useful if I was to get involved in further translation work in Gambia – because it is surrounded by French-speaking countries and also because knowing another language would be helpful. It is also a way of taking some time away from being in Gambia having been there on and off for over eight years now, and I plan to use the time to seek God's guidance for the future.

Thanks to all of you PCCers for your love and support in the journey. I'm looking forward to seeing more of you as Paris is a lot closer than Gambia so it'll be easier to pop back and say hello – and I'm sure I'll see a few friendly visitors out there as well?!

Lots of love, and happy new year to you all . . .
Hannah

Christmas Celebration

Here are details of our Christmas celebration with our friends at the United Reformed Church. Please feel free to copy and print the above to use as an invite to your friends and family.