Sunday 15th August - Mark 5

We are now up to chapter 5 in our journey together through Mark's Gospel - his biography of Jesus' life, death and resurrection. In this chapter, we have two powerful stories in which Jesus frees a man from the control of many evil spirits, heals a lady from a debilitating illness and then raises a young girl from the dead. Quite a day! This morning we are going to be focusing on the first half of the chapter and considering the impact Jesus had on all those he engaged with in that particular encounter. Hopefully I'll see you there.

There is no Christians Against Poverty prayer meeting this evening, but please do continue to pray for our CAP Debt Centre and for Morgan, our Centre Manager. There is also no Prayer and Prophecy meeting this coming Wednesday evening, as we are taking a bit of a break through August.

Next Saturday (21st), we are having a work party in our back garden to do some tidying and improvement work in preparation for the opening of the Pocket Park next door. As I mentioned on Thursday, we only have a few people who've offered to help out, and would love more, so please do consider whether you could come down to lend a hand. If you can, please let Julie know.

Also, as part of updating our garden space, we have ordered some good quality garden tables and seating, which we can regularly use ourselves, but which can also be utilised for outreach opportunities as we link with the park going forward. Some generous folk have already offered to sponsor a table, or to give a gift towards the cost of one, and if you are able to join them in donating towards this cost, you would be making a really helpful contribution towards creating this fresh opportunity to have an impact on our community. Thank you.

Finally, just wanted to let you know that Elaine and I are having a few days away in the upcoming week - firstly visiting our son, Josh, in South Wales and then attending a wedding in Lymington, where we served for 10 years. My sciatica is still pretty painful so I'll likely be doing a lot of sitting and not a lot of walking. Sounds like the perfect holiday to me!!

Many blessings,

Nigel

1 John 5:5 - Who is it that overcomes the world? Only the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God.