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Hope with Malachi

"See, the day is coming..." promises Malachi, and I was excited to hear from Stuart yesterday evening about the glimmers of hope that he has seen in Malachi as he has prepared to share with us on Sunday. Last Sunday Phil Green from Home for Good started from Malachi to remind us that caring for vulnerable children is always close to God's heart. I'm looking forward to hearing more of what God is saying today through this prophet.

Also this Sunday we'll be sharing communion, and praying together for our Christmas events - more details below.

And look out for the launch of our new website over the weekend. Thanks so much to Mike Burn for pushing this through, Caro Swan for the photos, and Andy Pressdee for the design. More details to follow...

Pray for Christmas at CCC

Last Sunday I encouraged you to take an invitation card for our Christmas carol service and give it to a friend or neighbour, and this week we've given invitations out at PlayPoint and the English class as well as putting them through letterboxes in our area around the Point.

It's our regular Sunday prayer time after our morning at The Calabash - I'm really enjoying our Sunday prayer times. I hope you are too and do plan to stay until 1pm after refreshments - we'll pray together for our Christmas events and for those we are inviting to come along.

'A Strange Christmas'

Has anyone else been doing these readings? This week's theme has been 'Strange Wait', today focussing on 'Strange Pedigree' from Matthew 1:1-16.

This is a list of names showing Jesus' Jewish male heritage back to Abraham, but it includes Gentiles too, in particular women: Tamar was a Canaanite, Ruth a Moabite, Rahab from Jericho, and Bathsheba who married a Hittite.

Krish Kandiah writes: "Their inclusion is an early warning of an important theme in the Gospels - Jesus comes to save the whole world. They demonstrate the irrepressible grace of God."

Search Twitter for #astrangechristmas to find daily updates.