Liz’s Letter 19/01/2025

Dear All,

Andrew’s move and induction service
This a big week for our church and our new minister and his family. Andrew, Candid and Evelyn move into the manse on Thursday.
On Tuesday 21st January at 2pm, Andrea will be at the manse (57 Shrub End Road) to do the final cleaning so that everything looks and smells nice. If you are able to join her, please can you let her know.
We hope that the family will feel blessed and welcomed into their new home by the beautiful refurbishment which has taken place and also the gifts which will be left.
Andrew’s induction service takes place on Saturday 15th February and he will lead his first service with us on 16th February. There is a sign up sheet in the foyer for those who would like to attend the service and the tea afterwards. Please sign up as soon as possible. If you have dietary requirements please make this clear on the sign up sheet (eg if you sign up for a family of 6 but only one needs dairy free food please ensure that this is clear so that the catering team don’t think there are 6 dairy free food teas required).
These are exciting times in the life of God’s church here at Plume Avenue and at Tiptree. Please do continue to pray for Andrew, Candid and Evelyn as they say their farewells to their current churches and prepare to move to Essex.

Church Heating
Dave Anderson has set up the boilers and thermostats so that everyone using the building can do so in a comfortable way. It has become apparent that these settings are being changed and thermostats on radiators are being altered which means that there have been a number of occasions when people have arrived to use the building and it is very cold. Please can we ask everyone not to alter the boiler settings or thermostats! If the heating is not appropriate for your use, please speak to Dave so that he can amend it and/or show you how to enable the boost function to be used.

Safeguarding
Matthew Lewis our lead safeguarding coordinator will be unavailable from 23rd December to 3rd February. If you have a safeguarding issue or concern during this period, please contact Maz Rattray or Dave Anderson who are also safeguarding coordinators for the church.

Bible Journaling
Bible journaling will be on Saturday 25th January from 10-12pm. Feel free to join us if you would like to spend time in God’s word, no artistic skills or previous experience required! Just bring a bible or notebook. Drinks and biscuits are provided, please speak to Jo for more details.

Prayer before the morning services
We are aiming to gather together to pray at 9.45 am each Sunday with those who are leading and taking part in the service, Please do feel free to join everyone to pray in the music area.

Encounter Evening – 26th January 2025
There is an Encounter Evening happening at St. Johns, Colchester on January 26th with Paul Harcourt speaking – all are welcome to what promises to be a really good evening together. You do not have to book for this.

Toddler Group
Back in April 2023, Esther launched the toddler group at church on a Monday morning. Initially the numbers were small but over time the group has become very successful and now has a number of children and adults each week. It has become an important space for adults to come and meet together and chat and support one another and for their little ones to gain some social interaction with children of their own age. Those regularly coming are from church families, families associated with the church and also from the local community.
As the group has grown, so has the amount of work to set things up, chat to folk and clear away afterwards. This has become too large a task for one person.
Esther really needs a team of folk to support her with the group for it to keep going. There are a number of ways you could help:

• Help each week for the whole morning with setting up, chatting, and clearing away
• Offer to help on a rota basis for a number of mornings a month to set up, chat, clear away
• Offer to help set up each week or join a rota
• Offer to stay and chat each week or join a rota
• Offer to come and clear away each week or join a rota

Please do pray about this and if you are able to offer some help or would like more questions, either reply to this e-mail or speak to Esther or myself. This group is so full of opportunity and is such a blessing to so many – please consider supporting it practically.
Huge thanks go to Esther for all she has done and continues to do for the toddler group and those who attend.

Synod Day
On Saturday 8th March, we are hosting the Synod meeting here at Plume Avenue. We are going to need some help with stewarding and catering. Please do put this date in your diary.

This week
There will be prayer meetings on Wednesday morning and Saturday morning at 9.30 am. Zoom details for these will be e-mailed early in the week.

With love and blessings,