Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Matthew 11:28
Dear All
There is a lot going on at church in the coming weeks. As the busyness of Christmas takes over our prayer is that we won’t all get so caught up that we lose sight of the real reason for the season. We have produced an Advent Prayer Guide to help us keep our eyes on the Lord – there is a copy for each household available this Sunday. There are also Advent Calendars for the children and young people.
Advent and Christmas
Yes we are rapidly approaching that time of year! On 1st December at 7pm we will be tidying up and decorating the church for the Advent and Christmas seasons. There will be mince pies, sausage rolls and mulled (non-alcoholic) wine for all those who help! Please do come and join in the fun – if you can let me know you are coming that would be great so we have enough treats for everyone.
Christmas lunch
We would like be serving a Christmas hot buffet lunch on Tuesday 12th December 2023 at 12.30. All Welcome Please sign up on the sheet in the foyer if you would like to join us or are able to help. There will be no charge for the meal but a basket for donations and the card reader will be available. Thanks Andrea.
Church Meeting
The next church meeting will be on this Monday 27th November, and the Moderator will be coming to speak to us. We will also be discussing the future of the youth worker role beyond July 2024.These are the two main items on the agenda.
Christmas Gifts for Social Services – Sunday 10th December 2023
Sheila writes “We have once again been asked to support the young adults in Colchester who are no longer in care, but are in supported living accommodation. These young people have no family to turn to and have to live on a very limited budget.
Most are still in education so they receive benefits from social services from which they have to pay for their flat, food, energy bills and travel to college. Mentors are on hand to teach them skills they need to survive on their own, like budgeting and how to apply for jobs.
Day to day life for these young people is often very stressful as they try to cope on their own in an adult world. Basic food, clothes and toiletries are all they can afford.
To make this a special time of year for these people in our town, we have been asked to give biscuits, chocolates, toiletries, gloves, scarves, jewellery or any other gift you feel they would appreciate. Please do not wrap the gifts so that each present can be allocated to the appropriate person. A roll of wrapping paper would be most welcome.
Men’s Group
The final meeting for the men’s group will be on 27th November at 1.30pm. The group have decided not to meet during December and will resume meeting in January.
Nativity Trail
We are having a Nativity Trail for the local neighbourhood again this year on 3rd December starting at Prettygate Baptist Church and finishing here at Plume Avenue. The trail is planned to be shorter than before with more activities available here at the church. Think Christmas Venue and you will be on the right lines of what we hope to offer. We therefore need a Welcome team, refreshments providers and craft team. If you can help please sign up in the foyer. We also need people to help prepare the goody bags. If you need any more information please come and speak to me. At the moment we only have a handful of folk to help welcome and provide refreshments for our visitors. It would be really great to have some more to be able to provide a really warm welcome.
Safeguarding Course
Just a reminder that the Safeguarding training is on Saturday 2nd December at 10:30am and it is expected to last about 3 hours. If you work with children, young people or vulnerable adults you will need to do the training as it is URC specific, regardless of what other training you have done. There is a sign-up sheet in the foyer for the training session – please add your name if you are coming.
There is a link to the online learning that everyone will need to do before the day.
https://www.urclearninghub.org.uk/course/view.php?id=24 This link has also be sent out by e-mail.
Mondays at Church
Esther writes “Our toddler group is growing. Since starting in April we have seen 20 mums, dads and carers and 18 children come through our doors, most for the first time in a church (including some we already know). This week one mum said ‘we love Mondays here, it’s quiet, everyone is lovely and I love seeing the café run at the same time. Everyone is lovely!’ This was my vision to touch families and make an impact.
Also on a Monday with the Drop in, we are seeing positive relationships form with all the teenagers/leaders. They are more than happy to share and talk with us, eat food (they are always hungry). If one is missing, someone will often ask if we know where they are, this is showing us that the vision for the Drop in is 100% what we were wanting. We as leaders always end the session on positive notes. One parent who turned up if the first time was so impressed with us she said she was spreading the word and wanted to encourage more teenagers to come along. She even said if there was anything we needed to let her know and as she left told us that we were really blessed to have Pam Soames.
This week alone over the 2 groups, I saw 5 new adults and 7 children who have stepped into a church building having never have done this before (there is also a lady who pops in for coffee and cake). Mondays are the busiest days for the church (I spend 10/11hours each week here) and we are touching the lives of others and making an impact. Please continue to pray for everyone who enters through the doors, whether it is for coffee and cake, toddlers or the Drop in. Also please pray for all the leaders who are running/helping with all 3 groups on a Monday. God is most definitely working through these groups each week.
This week
There will be prayer meetings on Wednesday and Saturday mornings at 9.30 am. The Tuesday evening bible study homegroup is also taking place this week at 7.30 pm on Zoom – please do join us if you can. Zoom details will be e-mailed early in the week.
With love and blessings.