Login

Month: April 2022

MBC’s support for our friends in Romania smashes through the £10,000 mark

by

The money so far received from MBC has now passed the £10,000 mark with the actual total standing at £10,191.95.This is a fantastically generous response from the church.

So far we have sent £6,500 out to Romania (for them to use in supporting the Ukrainian refugees) as follows… £2,750 Manastur Church, £1,250 Campus Crusade and £2,500 VIA Church.

Therefore currently we have £3,691.95 in the account of which £2,000 is reserved for Zsuzsi / Andor and Noemi to use in Udvarhely / Cserefalva leaving a further £1,691.95 available.

Right now we are trying to work out the most effective use for this money, but please don’t stop giving. 

————————————————————-

Also below is a message and a picture sent to us from from Floin and Dana Florin.

Dear friends and supporters.
Thank you so much for your prayers and donations for our work in Romania.
 
We are attaching a short report and several pictures from the ministry our local church is doing among the Ukrainian refugees.
 
There are two directions we try to help. One is to provide for those who decided to stay in our city and the other is to send different goods over the border, in Ukraine.
 
With the funds some of you sent we were able to cover the costs for a Ukrainian lady’s dental needs. She told me her family will stay for at least 6 more months in our city. Her husband is looking for a job. But she had some urgent dental needs and we were able to help.
 
Our church also was able to send food and medicines into Ukraine, in the Chernitsvi area. It is an area in the western part where many Ukrainians from the east found their refuge. Because of your donations, we were able to contribute to this transport.
 
Thank you for partnering with us. Please continue to pray for us.
 
Florin and Dana Fodor

A message from Shelley

by

Dear friends

Just an update about this weekend.  On Sunday we have a service in church 11-12midday where we complete our series about Jesus in Mark’s gospel.  There’ll be activities for younger ones during the talk.

Usually its café church on the first Sunday of the month but since we’ve had a few cafes recently we are going to do it later in the month, possibly on the 8th.  We’ll do communion on the 15th May (3rd Sunday) as usual. And just a heads up that next week is the Leeds half marathon so some roads will be closed, some of you may want to cheer on the runners.  The church building will be accessible still.  More details to follow.

Beacon café isn’t happening this week to give the helpers a break on bank holiday Monday but it will be back on the week after. Stepping Stones, our new toddler group has its second session next Tuesday 10am -11.30.  Do let us know if you’d like to come along or pass it on to those you know who might be interested so they can get in touch.

We are getting together all the current information that we know about house groups so I can let you know about this very soon.  If you want to join a housegroup or you feel God is calling you to start a new one or if you meet with others and think it could be a some kind of house group where others could join then do get in touch with me. 

Building relationship, discipleship and sharing with others in a safe environment really helps…(Hebrews 10:24-25).  In this new season some people are maybe sensing the importance of connecting with a group again after a long time or some are maybe thinking it for the first time.  If you want some resources, do let me know.

Finally, thanks to those who took part in Tuesday’s meeting.

Shelley

Tomorrowm you can join us either in the building or on the MBC YouTube channel at 11am. 

Prayer as agenda for thought and action – Haddon Willmer

by

Sunday worship from the Ukrainian Cathedral of the Holy Family in Exile  was moving and informative.  I was above all impressed by the prayer of confession:

Lord God. We have strayed from the path of peace. We have forgotten the lessons learned from the tragedies of history. We have disregarded the commitments we made as a community of nations. We have betrayed people’s dreams of peace and the hopes of the young. We grew sick with greed. We thought only of our own nations and their interests. We grew indifferent and caught up in our selfish needs and concerns. We chose to ignore you, to be satisfied with our illusions, to grow arrogant and aggressive. To suppress innocent life. To stockpile weapons. We stopped being our neighbours’ keepers and stewards of our common home. We’ve ravaged the garden of the earth with war. And by our sins, we’ve broken your heart. Who desires us to be brothers and sisters, now with shame we cry out: Forgive us, Lord. 

It is a ‘We’ prayer, not an ‘I’ prayer: that is the first good step. 

The worst and biggest evils are those we make together.  Most of us never get near killing even one person,   but together, ‘we’ are armed with the capacity to destroy people and cities and wheat fields.   

In this prayer, we take our stand as people responsible for and in the history we make and suffer.  We do not  abdicate the human calling, the  dignity of being responsible to God for one another and for the earth.  This prayer does not let hands droop and knees shake  (Isaiah 35.3; Hebrews 12.12).  God gives human beings the ability,  in finite freedom,  to be good stewards of earth and all that is in it.   

Confession is a strong, healing, rousing kind of prayer.   It brings us to face the truth about ourselves as doers.  Confessing both guards us from despair over failures and saves us from expecting  miraculous rescue from God  – the sort of rescue that costs the loss of God’s gift,   the dignity of human responsibility.

Cardinal Vincent  Nicholls spoke this pray in two minutes, but who can grasp its import  in two minutes?   I need the transcript, for I need longer to pray it well, both in thought and in obedience.    Can it be a ‘We’ prayer if we don’t give time to talk it through together?   

In truth, a prayer like this gives us an agenda for thought and action.   For this prayer to be true to human dignity and the calling of God, it has to be taken into the longitude of  life, even political life.  Don’t  ‘the tragedies of history’ as well as the bounty of God’s triune goodness in human being  call for a lifetime of learning and responding? 

Prayers of confession rarely get much time in church services.     ‘Short prayer – instant  absolution’  is a frequent formula  –  this prayer ends simply asking  ‘forgive us’.  Perhaps that is all a minister can say.  The phrase, ‘Forgive us’,  leaves us waiting for God, in God’s way and time and working with God.   ‘Forgiveness’ gains real substance as we stumble through history,  with and towards God.    

Forgiving, God’s forgiving and ours, is fundamental to being human.  It makes it possible to be simultaneously truthful about, and hopeful for, human being.  But forgiving needs to be thought and lived through time, it is not given by a word, nor achieved in a flash.

Remembering – Just as He told you. Jane Coates. 

by

If you are a little like me, you may sometimes half listen to what someone is saying or perhaps misinterpret or misread a significant message. This is not a good thing to do and is certainly not ‘active listening’. It is easy to ‘fit’ a message into what we think it should be based on experience or logic. In the days leading up to His death, Jesus had explained to His disciples and followers that He would be betrayed, killed but would rise again from death. On Easter Sunday, it was Mary and the women at the tomb who were the first to ‘remember’ what Jesus had told them about resurrection, and for this to truly impact their lives. 

The men said to them, ‘Why do you look for the living among the dead?  He is not here; he has risen! Remember how he told you, while he was still with you in Galilee: “The Son of Man must be delivered over to the hands of sinners, be crucified and on the third day be raised again.” ‘Then they remembered his words. Luke 24 v 2-8 

Then Jesus appeared to the gathered disciples in Jerusalem and said to them, ‘This is what I told you while I was still with you: everything must be fulfilled that is written about me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets and the Psalms.’ Then he opened their minds so they could understand the Scriptures. Luke 24 v 44-45 

Jesus had tried to prepare them for this very moment and now, the truth, the reality and the impact of His resurrection was dawning on the disciples and followers. They were remembering and their minds would begin to be opened to understand the scriptures. They were at the beginning of a journey of remembering and discovery, mulling over all that they had heard, weighing everything up and absorbing what they had seen, heard, and received, with the help of His Holy Spirit. Their memories and accounts would be carefully compiled and written down for the benefit of others and eventually for us. The purpose of their Gospel accounts was that others might hear, understand, and have life in His name. 

But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name. John 20 v 31 

We have a wonderful gift in our hands- the Bible. Even with poor memories, we can be continually reminded of God’s words and meet with the living Jesus. The Holy Spirit is there to help us to understand and to remember. The young Timothy was advised to keep on searching the scriptures. 

You must go on steadily in all those things that you have learned and which you know are true. Remember from what sort of people your knowledge has come, and how from early childhood your mind has been familiar with the holy scriptures, which can open the mind to the salvation which comes through believing in Christ Jesus. All scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching the faith and correcting error, for re-setting the direction of a man’s life and training him in good living. The scriptures are the comprehensive equipment of the man of God and fit him fully for all branches of his work. 2 Timothy 3 v 14-17 

 PRAY
Jesus, I want to be still and listen for Your still, small voice. 

Please speak to me through your word, the Bible.  

As You speak to me, please show me want you want me to be and to do. 

Amen.

Youth Camp – Romania style

by

Here are a few pictures just in from Andor and Szuszi Ferco in Romania. They were taken at last weekend’s Youth Camp.

If you would like to find out more about the work these two young pastors do, speak with Rod Russell, Howard Dews or Karen Ross, I’m sure they would love to share some stories with you.  

Ayo, join us at MBC for what’s shaping up to be a very busy week

by

This coming week at MBC looks like being particularly busy. It starts tomorrow at 11am when in church and on YouTube we try to fathom what exactly was going on when Jesus met up with two of his followers on the Emmaus Road. However, that isn’t the only thing of note in our service because before that we will be welcoming a number of new members. 

Then Monday Beacon, Tuesday at 10am sees the start of Stepping Stones, our new toddler group and in the evening (in church and this time also on zoom) a Church Member’s Meeting, Wednesday is Lunch Club, Thursday craft and finally Friday sees Robert Owen leading his bible study group.

Don’t forget if there is anything any of us can help you with just drop an email to your leadership team.  

Stepping Stones – a new toddler group for MBC

by

A new toddler group which we are calling Stepping Stones is starting at MBC next Tuesday April 26th. 

It begins at 10am and finishes at 11.30 and is being run by a team of volunteers under the direction of Diane Sunter. 

If you are interested why not drop by for a coffee on Tuesday and find out more. 

MBC Plant Sale 21 May 2022

by

This year’s annual charity plant sale is taking place between 1pm and 3 on Saturday 21st of May. 

Any donations of cakes to either eat on the day or to sell will be gratefully received. 

Many thanks, more details nearer the day. 

Church Meeting – 7.30pm, Tuesday April 26th.

by

Our next Church Meeting is scheduled for 7.30pm on Tuesday April 26th. Besides taking place face to face in church it will also be available on Zoom. 

In addition to the normal Church Meeting business items for discussion will also include: church membership, and vision. 

If anyone would like to add anything under the heading “any other business” would you please let the Leadership Team know asap but no later than Friday April 22. The address for this is leadership.team@moortownbaptistchurch.onmicrosoft.com 

Subscribe to the MBC Newsletter

Weekly news and stories about everything that is happening at Moortown Baptist Church

PHP Code Snippets Powered By : XYZScripts.com