Saturday 10th

Jon led homegroup on Wednesday. It seemed to go well, but as usual, Jon let it go a little over time! (Hasn't yet learned to use a watch!) Jon found it interesting to be looking at a passage that he has translated from the Greek in lectures. (1 John 1)

Thursday saw us contending with a cold-ridden Abi and about two inches of snow. Driving seemed a little too precarious considering the weather, so we gave Tiny Tots a miss this week.

Friday was open church again, but the weather was cold and wet - sleet this time - so very few people were there. The hot cups of coffee and tea were much appreciated by those who made it through the weather, though.

Impending Interviews...

We visited Bristol Baptist College yesterday to meet the new principal and to discuss our options regarding our course for next year. It was good to have some of our questions answered and to discover that there may be more ways to become accredited than we had previously thought. It is possible that we could attend an interview in March if we want to and the college gets the go ahead for this to happen before our interview for ministerial recognition. Apparently this interview is the hard(!) one.

Ali will be preaching and being assessed this coming Sunday evening (11th Feb) and Jon's turn is on 4th March - again in the evening service.

February 6th

We can't believe we are in week 5 already - time is racing by so quickly! Jon went on a walk with some people from the church on Saturday in Adlestrop - great weather and good fellowship.

Ali did the children's talk in the morning service on Sunday. She blew a balloon up, let it go and then hung grapes on a piece of string! And all to illustrate John 15:1-17.

Jon led communion in the evening - but without the balloons, string and the only grapes were in the wine!

Ali went along to the lunch today and then shared some of her personal story at the Ladies Fellowship. Jon is busy planning the Home Group material for tomorrow evening.

February 2nd

Jon visited a couple of people from the church with Don on Wednesday. It was good to spend some time with them and hear about their experiences. On Thursday it was Tiny Tots again - very busy this week and lots to help out with practically. In the evening Ali joined the 'Facing the Challenge' discussion group which was interesting.
Today we went along to Open Church where a couple of new people visited which was great. Good to chat with people again and develop our relationship with them.
We've also been busy preparing for this coming Sunday when Ali will be doing a children's talk in the morning and Jon will be leading part of the evening service.

January 30th

Thursday we went to Exeter to the Christian Resources Exhibition so that we could go to a couple of the seminars there. Ali went to one called 'A gospel of words or signs?' which gave her a lot to think about how to include deaf people into the life of the church. Jon went to a one entitled 'Why don't real men go to church?' which he found to be interesting. It was a good opportunity to hear about some different issues and other people's points of view.

Jon went to Open church on Friday lunchtime and attended the service on Sunday morning. It was good to have the links between prayer for the OMF missionaries that the church supports and Kang-San Tan (a lecturer from Redcliffe who was preaching) who used to work for OMF.

On Friday Ali went off to Eastbourne to the Children's ministry conference for the weekend. Eastbourne was actually sunny(!) but unfortunately the conference was very intensive so she didn't get much opportunity to see the delights (!) of the town - although early Saturday morning she did get a chance to go to the beach and watch the sun rise.

The conference had some really good seminars on puppetry and she learnt some great action songs with Duggie-Dug-Dug (that's Doug Horley who wrote 'We want to see Jesus lifted high' for those who don't know) - it was wonderful to see a whole auditorium of adults all getting involved and doing all the funny actions - the chicken dance song was particularly memorable! There was also very funny magic trick involving a square of cloth and a banana!

During the main teaching sessions they did show a couple of videos that were shown during the Children's ministry course last year at Redcliffe (good to see Redcliffe leading the way...) The most challenging aspect, apart from cramp from writing copious notes, was feeling lonel,y as so many other delegates had come in groups from their churches.

Gloucester Roads No Longer Safe

For anyone who hasn't read our Cheltenham blog, Ali has passed her driving test!

January 24th

First up - Ali passed her driving test on Monday after the blog was published - She is still in shock!

Second, we were at another pastors' meeting yesterday morning, followed by Jon going to the lunch club and Ali going to the Ladies Fellowship. There was lots of postive feedback about Jon leading the evening service on Sunday, but he was accused of being a Pentecostal by one lady! (This was a positive comment...!)

Jon went to the Christianity Explored course that began at Cambray on Monday night. It was a generally good experience but it was the introductory session. Hopefully he will be able to continue going along and see some more of the course. Seeing as it is based on Mark - the Mark course we did in the autumn term will be coming in useful!