After our church service, we went to Temple Newsham park to enjoy a picnic in the lovely surroundings. We played croquet, boules and football and enjoyed a fun afternoon relaxing in the sun.
We had a great time at our Community Carol service. It was really good to see so many guests, about 80 people were there.
We had a great day Sunday 30th October for Alistair and Yvette Park’s commissioning service. They are leaving us to go and work with the Faith Mission in the South West. There was a real sense of God’s presence with us as we sang, prayed and listened to God’s word brought to us by Alistair Patterson, the Faith Mission’s Director for England. Alistair and Yvette shared how God had led them into this work and some of the challenges that lay ahead. The morning was rounded off with a church lunch. We will greatly miss them they leave a big hole in our fellowship, but we know God will make them blessing to many in this new chapter of their lives.
We had a great day away together as a fellowship. Beautiful weather and stunning scenery set the scene for lots of fun, food, fellowship.
Over the summer a number from Hope Church went on missions both in this country and abroad. Tom and Calvin joined a Beach Mission team reaching families in Langland Bay, near Swansea, South Wales. John and his wife Christine went on a mission trip to Paraguay and Richard and his daughter Olivia went on a mission trip to Zambia.
Ian and Trish, Phil Gibson and his wife Elaine and Lucy all enjoyed fellowship and Bible teaching at the Keswick Convention up in Cumbria.
Alistair and Yvette and Becky organised and help lead a week’s Faith Mission camp for young people down in Devon. Tom, Calvin and Lucy also went on a week’s camp at Misterton run by Young Life Holidays.
God has answered many prayers for all these different activities and we give all the glory and honour to Him for every life touched and blessed.
On the 2nd 2016 of July, we held a Family Fun Day. This was intended as a way to build bridges and show Gods love to the local community. As we set up in the pouring rain, we were skeptical if any one would show up, but once again we were amazed by God's Power as around 400 people turned up to enjoy the activities and BBQ. We provided free food and drinks and lots of activities including bouncy castles, an inflatable slide, human table football, face painting, balloon modeling, a scavenger hunt, coconut shy and a gladiator duel. We were so blessed and encouraged by all the people who came along and we want to thank everyone who came along and those who helped out, as the day wouldn't have been possible without you!
The bible says" Now all glory to God who is able by his mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think." - Ephesians Ch 3 V 20 This is a fantastic reminder of how God is so much more powerful than we can even imagine and how even when the odds seem against us anything is possible with God.
