church family matters

church family matters
COMING UP THIS AUTUMN
Bouncy Castle, Craft, BBQ,
Face Painting, Games,
Prayer Tent
Team needed to:
Help on the BBQ
do face-painting
supervise children on
bouncy castle
Great opportunity for HT
people to be involved with
our church family and
community at St Andrew’s
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VISION NIGHT FOR
PARENTS
Thurs 6 Oct, 7.30—9
pm
Come to the Church Rooms
to hear about the vision for
youth and children’s ministry
at HT and StACC. Come to
hear testimonies, and
discuss how we can best
work together.
Claire Morrish, Stuart McL
September 2016
Sat 1 Oct
10—3 am
at St
Andrew’s.
We are
hosting this one day
workshop for HT and other
churches across the city, with
speaker Michael Harvey. He
will share with us what he
has learned around the world
with regard to why people
don't invite others to church
and give teaching and
practical advice on how to
create a culture of invitation.
On Sunday 2 October our 9
am, 10.30 am, and StACC
congregations will join
together for ONE morning
10.30 service where
Michael will be preaching.
Followed by bring and
share lunch.
Our Vision
A
s we enter this autumn
season I want to share
with you our Vision for
the rest of 2016 and on
into 2017, and as we look at it
together in our sermon series I
hope we will gain a common
understanding of who we are,
where we are going, and what
we believe God wants to do with
us and through us.
VISION: We are a Word and
Spirit church. Through clear
Bible teaching, worship and
ministry led by the Holy Spirit,
we want to grow in faith and
become more like Jesus. We
believe that Jesus is the Hope of
the World and our desire is to
bring others to know Him too.
We seek to serve God in our
community and especially
among our neighbours, friends
and in the workplace. We are
committed to the whole family
of God and, at this season, are
investing in families and
growing young leaders who can
introduce the next generation to
Him.
Fri 21 Oct
8—10 pm,
at St
Andrew’s
An evening
of wine
tasting
hosted by Rob
Hopwood, a winetasting expert! Get
the date in your diaries and
invite your friends.
So we focus on Jesus the Hope
of the World and our desire to
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become more like Him, and as
such my prayer is that we will
increasingly be a community
that spreads Hope around us.
We are in a season of Grace and
Resurrection. The Grace of God
has brought us to this point; as
children of God who know in our
deepest being that we are loved
and precious, “ransomed,
healed, restored, forgiven”, we
have such Hope to share with
our neighbours and on our
frontline. But many around us
do not have such confidence or
comfort; they are in darkness
and despair. As those who live
in the light of the Resurrection
we also know that miracles can
happen, that circumstances can
be changed, that prayer is
powerful and that people’s lives
can be transformed by the
power of God.
Our Vision Statement points to
our great Hope. Please read it
often and pray through its
themes - and expect to see God
at work in our community
bringing Hope and Life.
Paul Kenchington
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Review of Arts café evening
CAP Update
O
O
n Sunday evening 21st
August we held a summer
'art and music' event at St
Andrew's.
It was arranged to co-oincide with
the month-long exhibition of a
large piece of artwork by Jamie
Chapman. We wanted to provide
a grace-filled 'café' space where
God was quietly present and
honoured, for people to gather
and enjoy one another's
company.
Around 50 people attended,
including the artist himself who
chatted to many who were
curious about his work. As well
as the artwork, there was some
actual painting going on and
some great live music provided
by Dan Young and two friends.
We learned that this kind of
space is freeing and fun, where
people can bring friends into a
church setting without feeling
awkward.
We hope
to do more of
this - please
let us have
feedback and
ideas!
ur CAP Debt Centre based
at St Andrew’s has been
up and running for a year and
a half now. Amanda, our CAP
centre manager, gives a
flavour here of what is
involved in running CAP.
“Helping people lift themselves
out of debt is a wonderful
privilege and incredibly
rewarding. Here are some
snippets from my day..
First thing every morning, I
call each client that I am due
to visit, to check that they can
still manage to keep the
appointment. Every day is
different.
Students Ministry
Building relationship with the
student community
Establishing prayer and
presence in the student
community
Fresher's Week is rapidly
approaching and in October there
will be some huge opportunities
for engaging with new and
established students. Our hope is
to build relationships with
individuals and groups alike,
either with or without a Christian
faith, in a real and authentic
way. As a Student Ministry team,
we will be offering events
throughout October, including art,
music and various sporting
events, as well as some more
adventurous outdoor activities.
Good links have been made
with both Bath University and
Bath Spa University, and the
Student Ministry team will be
attending various events, by
invitation, at both venues.
Today, I went to Trowbridge to
see Karen (my second visit to
her). She was very distressed
at our last visit, but sounded
eager to see me, and much
more hopeful when I spoke to
her on the phone. She was in
good spirits and said that she
could see ‘a light at the end of
the tunnel’ just knowing that
someone was with her and she
wasn’t on her own having to
deal with the debt. We filled
out the CAP form together and
collated all her paperwork.
I then visited Matthew who
had run out of food. I took him
to the food bank in Trowbridge
Hospitality is a great way to
encourage student fellowship,
so please do contact the
Student Ministry team if you
are keen and available to host a
Sunday lunch and/or hospitality
evenings.
The hope is to deepen our faith
together and encourage faith in
action. If you would like to be
involved with Student Ministry
please contact either Matthew
Harris or myself (Dan Young).
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and we picked up three bags
of basic food items to keep
him going until his next job
seeker’s allowance came
through.
Today was a particularly
special day for Susan as it
was her 50th birthday. Susan
has had a difficult year as
she lost her mother. She has
never missed a payment into
her CAP Plan, so I decided to
give her a treat and took her
out to lunch to celebrate not
only her birthday, but also
her dogged determination to
get out of debt. After the
lunch I then visited David to
show him his CAP Plan and
route out of debt, sent
through by Head Office. He
agreed to sign up to his plan
and said he felt a great sense
of relief that he could
manage to pay all his
household bills whilst also
paying off his debt. It is so
rewarding to see the joy in
people’s faces as they work
their way out of debt. Praise
God!
Now I must pop Karen’s
completed forms into the
post to Head Office! Bring on
tomorrow!” Amanda Wetton
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Summer Review—Youth Trip
Summer Review—Seniors
Seniors enjoyed the “Royal
Garden Party Holiday at
Home” over 4 days in Aug.
Activities included a royal
variety performance, royal
quiz (with a quiz master
direct from The Palace),
museums trips, the Jewel
Family Concert. Food
included fish and chips,
coronation chicken and of
course cupcakes! It was sad
when it was over and the
team are already talking
about how to make next
year’s programme even
better!
S
tuart , our youth
worker, took a
group of young
people from Foxhill
away to Ashbury Hotel for 3
nights. Rob Archer and a
leader from Bath Youth for
Christ joined them.
“What an amazing time
everyone had away. Every
young person got fully
involved in all the activities
and came away really proud
of getting stuck into all
sports. We had a Christian
talk each day with the young
people and they really did
respect the time and
engaged in conversations.
Children’s Holiday Club
50 children enjoyed 3 days
of music, dance, craft, bible
stories and lots of gunge and
cream pies in the Holiday
Club run by Pete Oakley and
Pulse Ministries.
Highlights included:

All the leaders going in
the gunge tank (!)
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Learning that ‘nothing
is impossible with God’
through all sorts of fun
games, energetic
worship and creative
ways to pray
really enjoyed the hydro
pool and swimming. At the
end of the week one of the
young people made a
decision to follow Jesus and
has now started his journey
with God. This week I have
done a bible study with him
and he is really wanting to
encounter Jesus.
Thank you for all your
support in prayer and giving
to make this trip happen.
Stuart McLachlan
We did a lot of activities in
the week such as surfing,
swimming, badminton,
football, volleyball, archery,
air rifle shooting, bowling,
snooker. The young people
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Summer Review—New Wine
A group of 35 ish people were
at New Wine this year. A
highlight everyone mentioned
was the HTCD ‘base camp’
where the group ate together
and generally had time getting
to know each other more. Here
are some other highlights:
CHARLES FAMILY
Gerard— early morning talks on
2 Corinthians with Simon
Ponsonby
Sarah — time at the Refugee
Prayer Tent Station (run by
Open Doors) and listening to
Lisa Pearce speak about ‘Syria
and beyond, the global refugee
crisis’
Anna — on team with Pebbles
looking after 4 year olds, and
singing/dancing at Arena.
Matthew thought it was ‘quite
cool’!
ARMSTRONG FAMILY
- Danielle Strickland's excellent
morning talks on Exodus (such
fresh teaching on really well
known bible passages - how
could we have missed the
points she made!)
Lucy and Beth adored the
children's groups, and special
mention must be made for
Stomping Ground (bouncy
castle and more) that Beth is
still asking for on a daily basis Lucy loved the marketplace
during the week who were
healed.
(henna tattoos, fleece and
bracelet duly bought) including
the cafe!
- Carrie and David Grant on
coping with the unexpected
from the perspective of being
special needs parents: totally
inspirational and completely
real
- worship times and praying
with and for others. Reinspired
me as to the central
importance of prayer ministry
and making time to respond to
God.
Gabriella—loved being on team
in Pebbles . Seeing God at
work among the 3-4 year olds
was a great encouragement.
ALEXANDER FAMILY
- Seeing Beatrice and Ava doing
the washing up with the other
girls
- hearing Danielle Strickland
which totally inspired me and
reminded me that as Christians
we can be drawn into the ways
of the world so subtly but Jesus
wants us to be different!
- remembering how much I love
camping!
- having icecream at 10 pm
Beatrice’s highlights - playing
with Anna and the other girls,
cycling to her group and coming
back in the dark on her own,
going to Stomping Ground,
Ava’s highlights - sleeping in
our tent, washing up !
WATT FAMILY
New Wine was great! Our
children really look forward to
going and talk about it as it
gets closer.
Tanya—I loved being in The
Arena and worshipping with
thousands of others. I was in
Gems during the morning with
2 year olds and thought a lot
about the potential which is in
each precious little one. Every
shower I had was hot!!
Rebecca—I loved my group and
loved the freedom to come and
go around the site and to meet
up with friends.
Daniel—being on team in
Stomping Ground. The first
aider at Stomping Ground
prayed for several people
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