Welcome to the Freedom Church Mereside Prayer Newsletter for April 2019. 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...
|
|
Christmas
It may feel like a very long time ago, but we had a really great Christmas.
One of the highlights of our Christmas activities was the Walking Nativity. Members of church and the wider community joined us as we retold the Christmas story, including a visit to the inn (Toby Carvery) and the shepherds' field (the green). We had a great time with lot of people dressed up and there was even a real donkey. As we came together to sing at the stable and as the choir sung Hallelujah, there was a real still moment when we experienced the joy and peace of Christmas among the dirt of the stable.
|
|
As is now our tradition, we "star-bombed" the estate with decorated and laminated stars during the last week of the school term. During the weeks and months leading up to Christmas, people from church had been decorating and laminated stars with the words 'Jesus thinks you're a star' on the back.
|
|
|
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 February we held an open meeting for the community to share our vision for the centre. We leafleted every house on the estate and had 40 people turn up (the exact right number for the number of chairs we had). People shared memories of the old St Wilfrid's church hall and dreams of what a new centre could offer. At the end we invited people to become a Friend of the Freedom Centre, and to think if they could offer anything for the project (including trade skills and fundraising help). If you would like to become a Friend of the Freedom Centre to hear updates on the centre and fundraising events, please click HERE.
We are excited to say that we have also received a £20,000 grant from the St John the Evangelist Trust (the same charity that fund Lizzie's post). This now brings our total up to around £27000. If you would like to donate to the centre, or know others who would be interested, see our GoFundMe page.
|
|
|
Blackpool Ministry Experience update
Amy, Eden and Rebecca are more than half way through their year with us. Things have been going well and all three of them have been enjoying their placements. In the last few months they have been visited by all three Bishops, met with a number of leaders to share their reflections on leadership and been on retreat to Whalley Abbey. They also went for an overnight visit to Church Army in Sheffield to find out about their work and their training programmes.
They all have some plans for next year, and would appreciate you keeping them in your prayers. Amy will be going to Ridley Hall, Cambridge to train to be a priest. Eden is looking for a job in Christian youth work. Rebecca is currently applying for secular jobs back in London where her family are from.
We have also started recruiting for the new intake for September 2019. To find out more about applying click HERE.
|
|
|
St George's
Our links with St George's CofE High School have grown recently. At February half term, Rev Helen Houston stepped down as school chaplain to take up a new job as a hospital chaplain in Blackpool. Linda is now covering services in school. Lizzie is continuing to provide chaplaincy support two afternoons a week, and runs both confirmation group and Christian Union. She meets with students who are finding things tough for a variety of reasons and supports them. Excitingly, we now have permission from St George's to invite students from school to our youth group MYPlace. We are praying that we will see growth through this link.
|
|
Social Seniors' Afternoon Tea
On 25th February, Social Seniors, our group for older people, held an afternoon tea. Until that point we'd been getting around 8 people each week. We applied to the council for a grant for our group, and put on an afternoon tea to raise awareness of our group and treat the older residents of Mereside to a good afternoon. We had 35 people there, and good fun was had by all. We now have aroun 15 people each week at Social Seniors, with about 20 people "on our books." The event was also covered in the Gazette - see the article HERE
|
|
|
Linking with other churches
On 17th March, our church and choir got on a minibus (and some extra cars) and drove across to the village of Chipping to St Bartholomew's Church. Linda met their vicar, Rev Fiona, at the diocesan conference and they discussed the possibilities of visiting each other. Our churches are very different in style, but that didn't stop us having a great time. We took our service sheets and held our typical service in their church with their congregation. We were warmly received and afterwards went to the vicarage where we all enjoyed lunch together. We are hoping that this link will continue in the future.
|
|
|
Pray for our Church
- For our children in Lighthouse and their leaders
- For our young people in MYPlace, their leaders and that new people would join
- For Pete as he continues with his Church Army training
- For Linda as she cares for her growing church
- For Linda's parents as they move from Tenerife to Blackpool
- For Lizzie as she nurtures children and young people in their faith
- For Amy as she works with adults in our community
- 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, and especially for the individuals we are supporting.
- 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
|
|
|
|
|
|
