'Grilled' by the Youth

On Sunday morning I was invited to join our fantastic youth group Tribe. Not only was there Bacon Cobs, Cup Cakes and Hot Chocolate to enjoy but lots of questions to answer!
No question was off limits and the young people asked some great, searching questions covering all sorts of topics about life, faith and living the Christian life.
You can read more on their blog https://stpaulsyouthoadby.wordpress.com/
Thanks to Lou, our excellent Youth Worker and the lovely young people for such a great morning!

Try Praying

20 million adults in the UK pray.
13 million pray at least once a month and 9 million every day.
One in three people believes God will answer their prayers.

On Sunday we gave everyone a copy of the Try Praying booklet and encouraged them to use it for the next 7 days and see what happens.

To find out more, order your own booklet or download the app visit http://www.trypraying.org/

Back to Church Sunday

This Sunday is Back to Church Sunday and we have been encouraging people to invite family, friends, neighbours, colleagues or anyone really to join us this Sunday.

Our service is at 10am and we extend a warm welcome to everyone to come and join us, you are most welcome.

Whatever your background and life story, we believe that you are precious to God and we look forward to getting to know you better.

Come and join us, we look forward to seeing you!



Film Night

Now the darker nights have returned St Paul's is able to continue its film nights.
Our next one is this Saturday, 26th September at 7.30pm.
On show will be 'What we did on our holiday' a PG film described as a heart warming, uplifting comedy for all the family.
Tickets are £4 on the door and a drink and some nibbles are included too!
Do come along and join us.

Harvest Assemblies

This week Lou and I are in Manor High School leading Harvest assemblies.
We are talking about our generous God, all the good things He has given to us and how we can share them with others to help make the world a better place.
We have used a couple of You Tube clips to highlight sharing.
The first clip is from Action Against Hunger and is called The Sharing Experiment. Watch to see what happens when 2 children are left alone with 1 sandwich and see what we can learn from them.
The second clip is called 'Would you give your jacket to Johannes?' and shows a social experiment with a cold boy sitting at a bus stop and records peoples reactions.
This Harvest time how can you share from the abundance you have to bless others, help those in need and do good to our neighbours?

Shaped by God

Archbishop Justin Welby has written exclusively a 100 word reflection for the Diocese, reflecting on the diocesan vision Shaped by God.
To read it click here.
You can also sign up to receive further reflections from a variety of writers every fortnight.

More amazing craft

Here are some pictures of our wonderful Supertroopers children and their leader who always comes up with some amazing craft activities using his woodwork skills. Today's model told the story of 2 Kings 5 where Naaman is healed of leprosy after washing 7 times in the river Jordan. The children retold the story well and made the point that it is good to obey the commands of God rather than question them. Well done everyone!

Welcome Joel !

We are delighted to hear that Steve and Angie's new baby, Joel Andrew arrived at 10:55am on Sunday 3rd April, weighing in at 7lb 2oz.

Steve, you will be licensed as team vicar at St Paul's on 29 June sent us this photo and thanked us for our prayers.

We are really looking forward to the whole family joining us

Walking with The Needy

Sunday morning was our All Together and Parade Service, when we welcomed the Rainbows, Brownies, and Guides to our Family Service. After some very enthusiastic Christian songs led by Doug Tincello, our youth worker, Lou McGoldrick, spoke about how Jesus approached people in need, especially the father of a child with convulsions. She encouraged us to do the same.

In our prayers, Angie Bailey encouraged us to walk in prayer with those in need. Everyone had a cut out of a foot and was asked to write the name of the particular person or group of people in need on one side. On the other, we were asked to write what we were praying for. All the “feet” were placed on a strip of carpet and we offered these requests up in prayer. 

A Special "Happy Birthday"

Gill Aires

This week has again seen us join together for Coffee Pot – our midweek session for people to come together for friendship and coffee. Each week, we celebrate the birthdays of those who attend – who often treat the rest of us to cakes. This week, the birthday was for one of the leaders of Coffee Pot, who is usually organising the celebrations for other people – Gill Aires. Gill, who is a marvellous cook, provided us with delicious flapjacks.

Not only is this an opportunity to wish Gill a Very Happy Birthday and many joys in the years ahead, but also to say “thank you” for all that you do in organising Coffee Pot.

A Busy Day

David Bloomfield

Sunday 6 October turned out to be a busy day. The congregation exceeded 90 for our morning Communion Service. At it, we welcomed David Broomfield, the Church Relationships Manager at Tearfund. Tearfund is a Christian relief and development agency and our church is linked with one of their partner churches in a project in Uganda. David described Uganda and gave us greater insight into the church there. Afterwards, he stayed around and answered questions and distributed Tearfund literature.

In the afternoon, there was fun@4, when some of our children met, had fun and activities and learned more of Christian belief.

In the evening, a group met for "Essential," a discussion of Matthew chapter 25 over a drink at the Grange Farm Pub – a situation in which everyone was able to contribute their own understanding.

Three very different forms of worship, but all centred around our faith in Christ. It’s good to avoid uniformity!

Working for Peace

Tearfund is one of the leading evangelical Christian relief and development agencies. It is St Paul’s charity this month. On the coming Sunday, 6 September, a speaker from Tearfund will be talking about its work during our morning service. The large number of areas of conflict in the world today, give Tearfund a particular and much needed role. Their website describes this as follows.

Our work in areas of conflict

When conflict breaks out, people in poverty invariably pay the highest price as countless civilians in Syria, Afghanistan, Darfur and the Democratic Republic of Congo will tell you. Fear drives many to take the only option available – fleeing their homes and livelihoods that have often been a struggle to build-up in the first place.

Tearfund tackles people’s immediate needs by providing shelter, food and basic essentials to help them survive, but we also often stay for the long haul, helping with reconstruction and giving people the skills they need to restart their lives.

In places such as Nigeria, where thousands died in clashes between Christians and Muslims, we also help build the peace.

Sunday will be a good opportunity to learn more of this work and to support Tearfund, both through our prayers and our giving.