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Prayer Newsletter for Freedom Church Mereside
by Rev Linda Tomkinson
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Welcome to the Freedom Church Mereside Prayer Newsletter for December 2018. You are receiving this email because we thought you might be interested in knowing what is going on with our church but you can unsubscribe from this list at any time and you won't receive any more. 

Here's what we've been up to...

New things
The last few months have seen a whole range of new ministries starting up. We have started Social Seniors, a group for older people to have fun and socialise; Shed Men, run by Pete, a group for men to chat and make stuff; Free Wheelers, a cycling group; and Generation, a Bible study group for 18-35 year olds. Our groups have seen growth and we are seeing new people joining our community and existing members getting more involved in our church family. 
Freedom Centre update
Many of you will know our vision to see St Wilfrid's old church hall transformed into a community hub - the Freedom Centre. In October we found out we were unsuccessful with a large grant we applied for, but we are as determinied as ever to get the Freedom Centre open to serve our community as we share God's love with them. We now have a website with more information about the Freedom Centre and all the other stuff we get up to as a church family - freedomchurchmereside.org.uk 
We have also set up a GoFundMe page so people who want to donate to this project can. The link is: GoFundMe
We recently had a Bingo evening where we raised £438, including the auctioning of a piece made by the Shed Men. This means our total raised so far is over £3000. This is still some way off our target but is a significant amount raised in the last 2 months. 
 
BME Changeover
July saw the end of the first year of the Blackpool Ministry Experience. Lizzie, Josh and Alex moved out of their house on Castlerigg onto new things. Josh is now studying. Alex is studying Art at college with a view to becoming at Christian Art Therapist. Lizzie is now our full time youth worker (find out what she's up to below).

This year's BMEers moved in at the end of September. This year we have three people working with three different churches across Blackpool. Amy, who is from Cambridge, is working with Freedom Church Mereside. She has recently been recommended to train to be a vicar, so is getting lots of experience in full-time ministry. Eden, who is from Accrington, is working at St John's in the town centre. Eden is a talented youth worker and has been involved in starting youth work in St John's and is also experiencing other areas of ministry. Rebecca, who is from Croydon, London, is working in Holy Trinity and St Peter's in South Shore. She is exploring where God is calling her and is involved in a whole range of activities in those two churches.

 
Our Youth Worker
Lizzie started as our new Youth Worker in August and is now responsible for all things for those aged 0-35 and leads our Sunday school - Lighthouse, youth group - MYPlace, school assemblies - at Mereside Primary, Generation - our new 18-35 Bible study group.
As well as things within church, Lizzie also works at St Georges Church of England Secondary School for 2 afternoons a week, working with their school Chaplain. 
To mark Bible Sunday at church, the youth group MYPlace led the service. They did so in a way that highlighted the plight of persecuted Christians around the world. We spent our previous MYPlace meeting researching the countries in which Christians are persecuted and the ways this is done. They then chose to focus on North Korea, number one on the Open Doors watch list. Using resources from Open Doors, we ran the service as if it was a ‘secret church’. This meant that bibles were ‘smuggled’ into church, songs were sang in a whisper and the importance of the bible to those who are persecuted was highlighted. We were also joined by Bishop Jill, who spoke to us about her favourite bible verse!
A massive well done to all of MYPlace for an amazing service that caused all there to pause, reflect and praise God!
Our holiday club, Faith Factor, started in June! We have since had another successful holiday club in August! Faith Factor is for primary aged children and runs for 3 days, starting with breakfast together! In June we looked at the Armour of God, with lots of singing, crafts and games!
In August we looked at the story of Joseph and his dream coat! We followed Joseph, thinking about what we could learn from all he went thorough. And of course it saw the return of the leader’s challenge! We ended Faith Factor with a celebration service for the children, their family and our church family, where we preformed our dance, shared all we had learnt and even had a special guest in Bishop Phillip! Thank you to all the volunteers who made it possible!
Sharing what we've learnt
As a church we have been involved in teaching others about estate ministry. We've had a number of visitors over the last few months. One notable visitor was the OneShow who filmed both at our Car Boot Prayer tent and at church. We were really pleased with the segment, and with the feedback we received after it aired.
We had an ordinand with us over summer and will have another ordinand joining us very soon. Linda and Pete have also taught at a church planting course down in Plymouth. It's exciting to see other churches across the country catching the bug for estate ministry and seeing what a joy it is to share God's love with those living on estates.
Coming up

Next week, Friday 14th December, the choir are holding a Christmas Extravaganza, to raise money for the Freedom Centre. All our welcome and there will be games, stalls refreshments and the choir will be performing with their usual gusto!


On Thursday 20th December we will be having a Walking Nativity for our estate. This will involve mass fancy dress as we process from the Windmill to the Children's centre - telling the story of Jesus' birth as we go.
Pray for our Church
  • For our children in Lighthouse and their leaders
  • For our young people in MYPlace and their leaders
  • For our new ministries, that God would use them for his glory and give us direction and guidance
  • For Pete as he continues with his Church Army training
  • For Linda as she cares for her growing church
  • For Lizzie as she nurtures children and young people in their faith
  • For our links with Mereside Primary, being thankful that we have to opportunity to lead an assembly every week
  • For the children's centre on our estate, as its future is decided
  • For all involved in mental health services and that we, as a church, may play our role within that
  • For our developing links with the council and Blackpool Coastal Housing, that through them we would be able to share God's love more widely
  • For the Blackpool Ministry Experience Participants this year, as well as new recruits for next September. 
  • For God to provide the money needed to open the Freedom Centre - especially for our fundraising events, networking and grant applications.
Thank you for taking the time to read this prayer letter. 
With blessings from
Rev Linda & Pete Tomkinson

For more information on our work you can email
revlindat@hotmail.co.uk

or phone
07784 325537

or come visit us at
Freedom House, 8 Langdale Road, Mereside, Blackpool, FY4 4RT


or follow us on Facebook
or see our website
 
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Freedom Church Mereside · Freedom House · 8 Langdale Road · Blackpool, Bpl FY4 4RT · United Kingdom

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