Greetings from Hannah

Hi everyone,It was great to see some of you when I was recently home for an unexpected weekend visit to celebrate my mum's graduation – I'm so grateful to be able to work among the people who are so close to my heart yet be able to 'pop' home on the train for the weekend. It was also great to have a visit from John, Sue and Kate. We had a great time visiting the W African parts of Paris and meeting lots of people out and about on the streets. Their visit was a real encouragement for me.

A few weeks ago I had a moment of radio fame in Paris, when I agreed to go on a weekly radio show for the S community! It was a tiring experience – the show lasted for over three hours, and even though I wasn't talking all that time, I had to concentrate hard as I could be asked a question at any moment, on a wide variety of topics. I came away slightly frustrated at the language mistakes I made and the things I thought afterwards that I 'could' have said, but lots of people have since commented on the fact that they heard me and stories of the tubab (white person) who speaks S are spreading!

I have also been teaching twice a week (covering for someone who was away) at the women's literacy classes that I was helping out at, even though as a foreigner I don't feel that qualified to teach French! Most of the women are immigrants who have already learnt French orally, so the focus of the class is to help them learn the alphabet and how to read and write, equipping them with skills to help with daily life here in France.

Another thing I have been occupied with is converting all the 54 Bible stories that we recorded in Gambia into dvd format (nothing fancy, just a plain screen with the sound files in the background), because dvds are really popular among the community in France and much more widely used than cds or tapes. The big advantage is that I found a way to fit all four hours of stories onto one dvd, whereas they were taking up four audio cds. I have been giving these to different contacts as appropriate.

Right now I am back in Gambia to spend time in the village and to attend a conference for workers from across W Africa. We're busy setting up things for this right now and excited to be welcoming special Petworth guest Reuben who will be coming to look after the children. Thanks to those who have helped make his trip possible – we are looking forward to having him here and his presence will be a great blessing to lots of families!

There's lots more I could write but I'll save it for another time... thanks as always for your support, encouragement and prayers.Love

Hannah

Joseph - Step Father of Jesus

Hi Church Family. Eunice's very clear portrayal of Jesus humanity highlighted through the role of His "step father" Joseph, makes for good listening. Click on the link in the recordings section on the right.

As promised...

Click here

As promised on Sunday I have put the list of dates for our Sunday gatherings from May through to September. As you will notice it is very empty! Please click on the image above or on 'PCC Summer Sundays' in 'Links' on the right. From there you should be able to add your name in the boxes. Don't forget to click 'File' and 'Save' before you finish. Give it a try and if you get stuck just email me with what you can do and when.

This from our Blog post on 27th March explains what we'll be looking at. Scroll down to that post for more.

Our next theme for Sundays and beyond...

Where are our Roots?  What do we tap in to for daily life and when times are hard, personally and as Church?

What are our Foundations?  What is essential to the outworking of our faith, without which, we crumble? 

What are the Pillars of our faith – those things which we are building around as a community of believers?

The topics for this season are:

• Worship
• Prayer, fasting and intercession*
• Breaking bread
• Fellowship and community living
• Teaching
• Sharing the Good News, Making Disciples and Evangelism*
• Receiving and Living in the Holy Spirit (Including healing and miracles)*
• Baptism of New believers
• Social action, Justice and Giving*
• Leadership

Thanks. Jonny

Sunday 10th April

Just a quick reminder that as part of our Church Family Gathering tomorrow we will be spending some time dedicating Reuben to God. This will entail praying for him, reading scriptures and writing our prayers thoughts and prophecies down for him.

Please feel free to come having prepared something for him or just go with the flow of the morning.

Roots, Foundations and Pillars

Our next theme for Sundays and beyond...

Where are our Roots?  What do we tap in to for daily life and when times are hard, personally and as Church?

What are our Foundations?  What is essential to the outworking of our faith, without which, we crumble? 

What are the Pillars of our faith – those things which we are building around as a community of believers?

The topics for this season are:

• Worship
• Prayer, fasting and intercession*
• Breaking bread
• Fellowship and community living
• Teaching
• Sharing the Good News, Making Disciples and Evangelism*
• Receiving and Living in the Holy Spirit (Including healing and miracles)*
• Baptism of New believers
• Social action, Justice and Giving*
• Leadership

This list is drawn from both the list we all contributed to when Kev spoke to us and a list compiled by Chris a while ago.  It’s not exhaustive and as we discovered when trying to divide the different topics, they all relate and overlap.  The aim is for us to look at some of the things which are most important to the life of the Church, or in Kev’s words, the things we give most “weight” to.

It would be especially helpful if speakers could refer to Kev’s teaching, Naomi’s discussion starter document and the questions it raises, and Chris’s thoughts, all of which are available on the blog.  We hope that through looking at these topics, we will begin to discuss together the questions raised and be changed by what we learn together, growing closer to God’s best.

It may happen that more than one person wants to take a particular topic, which would be great, because it will give us different perspectives!  Some of the topics, marked * cover large areas, especially “Sharing the Good News, Making Disciples and Evangelism” and may need to be looked at more than once form different angles.

Remember, “The Word” doesn’t have to be standing up in front of everyone and talking – you can bring the teaching in your own way and the role of the overseer is to help you make this happen.  It is a good idea to talk through your ideas with the overseer for your morning; he or she may also have ideas about how to deliver the Word, make it come alive to us and help us apply it to our lives.  It is also always good to think about how we can minister to one another in simple ways and help seal in what God has brought.  This may be praying for one another on the morning, but it could also be asking everyone to do something in the weeks between Sundays we meet.

You are Beloved - for such a time as this... Downloads of Sue's talk are now available, one to listen to (see Recordings index) and the other to follow her notes (see Links).

PCC at Home

Hello dear All,

 

As you may remember from our “Chat ‘n Chew”, we’re running with mid-week gatherings, twice-monthly, for the next while.  The pattern will follow (with a few exceptions) the 2^nd Tuesday and the 4^th or 5^th Thursday each month.  So we had the first in the series last Tuesday. 

 

Our next get-together – of “PCC at Home” will be at John & Pat’s, Thursday March 31^st, and they’ve very kindly invited us to share a meal with them that evening.  So -  PLEASE let John & Pat know if you can come,(343329) and also offer food contributions!

 

Plus – offers, please, to host the upcoming dates for “PCC at Home”!  There’s no pressure on anyone to come up with a particular focus for the evening you host – you may prefer to simply enjoy having us in your home for chat and coffee!  But obviously if there’s something to share, or highlight, or pray into – well and good.  The main thing is to be together as family.

 

Dates coming up – please let me know when you can host (I’ll also be asking peeps directly if I don’t get any responses!?!)

Sue

Hello everyone, its Marianna here...

Children on the Edge.

Hello everyone, its Marianna here. As you may know me and my mummy are giving up chocolate for lent and it is sponsored for a charity called Children on the Edge. Thank you if you have already donated some money. 14 people have sponsored us, so soon we will have £77. If you haven’t sponsored us and you would like to Email us:

manismitheram@googlemail.com

or

gin_ger76@hotmail.com

If you’d like to find out more about Children on the Edge go to www.childrenontheedge.org

Thank you!