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Avatar photoJohn Sherbourne

Now Lunch Club looks to extend its vision

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Last Wednesday morning the Lunch Club volunteers gathered for a time of fellowship and training. We thought about what Lunch Club means to the group members and the volunteers and our vision for the future. 

We also took part in a Dementia Friends Information Session (along with Shelley and Kate) led by myself, Rachel, the Senior’s Worker at MBC and a Dementia Friends Champion for the Alzheimer’s Society. The session helped us all to understand more about dementia and how to support those living with it through patience and understanding.

I hope to lead more of these sessions in the future so if you are interested please let me or one of the Leadership Team know. 

Make a difference. Part time admin vacancy at the Leeds & Moortown Furniture Store

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The Leeds and Moortown Furniture Store, a furniture reuse charity that began its life here at MBC in 1986 and currently has four of our members either working for it or serving as trustees has a vacancy for a part time admin assistant. 

Based at our Seacroft office the post is for 20 hours a week, 8.30am to 12.30pm Monday to Friday. 

You will find more information plus an application form on the charity’s website www.leedsandmoortown.org.uk 

Romania – where your money is going, and who it is helping

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The appeal for the Ukrainian refugees has now raised £8,500, which is a great effort. As a result this week we have been able to send a further £2,500 to the churches in Cluj, Romania for them to use in supporting the refugees. Rei Abrudan, pastor of the VIA church has written to us saying “Thank you very much for the collection. It is very much needed as our resources are getting very low… and if the crisis will be longer there will be a problem. Thank you for coming alongside us, again.”

Also this week Florin Fodor who works for Campus Crusade (Cru) in Romania and who is also an Elder at Manastur Church in Cluj sent us this update.

There’s still time to show your support for CompassionUK

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Last Sunday’s CompassionUK appeal resulted in 9 children, all from the same village in Tanzania being sponsored by people from here at MBC.

Bethan Stevens (below) who with her husband Mark lead Rise Church in Guiseley made the appeal during a talk in which she graphically described the plight of many of the children CompassionUK seeks to support. 

If you would like to add your name to that list you can either follow the instructions on the blue image above or go on line and visit www.compassionuk/sponsor-a-child 

Queenshill Gardeners – incredible edible Moortown, together for our planet

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And that is the second of the four Together For Our Planet events polished off, and so many seeds were sown, hopefully in all of our minds as well as in the soil!
 
We discussed resilience for our community, considering many different aspects such as food, energy and emotional preparedness, exploring what the barriers were for us and how we might overcome those.
 
In the afternoon we planted seeds and took them to put in our greenhouse! Cannot wait to watch them bloom and grow food for us all to share.
 
Thank you to Scoffs Feel Good Food for the beautiful vegan lunch as always, food that tastes delicious and kind to our bodies and the earth.
 
Thank you to Moortown Baptist Church for your wonderful hosting and support with the project.
 
Thank you to Emma at FoodWise Leeds who came to speak to us about the opportunity to take part in a community composting pilot.
 
And thank you to everyone who came today and who is taking part in these exciting processes, as we take baby steps to becoming a more cohesive and resilient community.

Join us for MBC’s journey to the cross and resurrection

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Dear friends

We have had a good week of connecting with people this week in Beacon, house groups, Sunday church, craft group, Easter lunch club, toddler group planning and more.  Its important to also remember all those we see on a one to one, in homes, cafes, doorstep visits, whats app’s or people who come into our minds so we pray for them then and there.  The body of Christ after all is made up of relationships, as it says in Ephesians 4:16

“He makes the whole body fit together perfectly.  As each part does its own special work, it helps the other parts grow, so that the whole body is healthy and growing and full of love.”

Talking of growth, it reminds me of our sunflower seeds from last week.  A seed may look great and full of potential for life but its not meant to stay like that.  It may seem uncomfortable to the seed to be put in the dark soil and then watered and then to change shape but its designed to grow.  So are we. We may at times feel in the dark, uncomfortable at the changing shape of our form and environment but a healthy organism changes and grows.  God will be with us each step of the way but we’ve got to be willing to partner with God and each other in the process.  For there are more things that will grow as a result of our growth, more seeds planted, things we haven’t yet seen, things we can only imagine.

And so its nearly Easter.  As one person put it this week, holy week is like going back to a familiar holiday destination every year.  Its known, but yet its different every time.  There is a peace and encouragement about it, but also a challenge and something new to discover.  Here’s what it looks like so far…

Sunday 3rd April – café church – following Jesus ‘with God all things are possible’ with Bethan Stevens from Compassion UK. 11 -12midday

Tuesday 5th April – An all age activity day with the Queenshill Gardeners project on resilience and wellbeing with practical seed planting in church. 11am-3pm

Sunday 10th April – Palm Sunday in church with kids activities 11-12midday

Monday 11th April – Easter Beacon 10am-12midday (ending in a prayer for those who wants to)

Monday 11th April – All age interactive Passover in church led by Shelley and Simon the community outreach officer at the Jewish Housing Association. 5.30pm-6.30pm…setting the scene for the last supper.

Maundy Thursday 14th April – Journey towards the cross..an evening led by members of Moortown in church…timings to be confirmed

Good Friday 15th April – Together by the cross – an all age reflection on Good Friday.  Church will be open from 9am – 11am for personal prayer and reflection with option to draw, write, ponder, paint.  There will be a craft to make for those who want to take home or hang on the trees outside for others to take who walk past.  At 10am there will be time together for half an hour designed for all ages to remember what happened on Good Friday with hot cross buns.  Come for part or all of it.

Easter Sunday 17th April – All age Easter Sunday Celebration 11am-12midday with communion.  Join together for this special day.  With Easter eggs…

We’ll get as many of these services on YouTube live with Facebook updates so do look us up to check updates.  I’ll update you all next week. We also have our website too at www.moortownbaptistchurch.org.uk which will give you all the latest information. If you are on tech teams and worship teams I’ll be in touch over the next few days.  Thanks everyone.

In Christ

Shelley

Sunday 3 April. Café church and a touch of Compassion

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Who are we following? (café church with drinks and breakfast pastries)  

https://youtu.be/AdZvqyorGJc

What or who do we follow today? More glimpses into what the kingdom of God is like… We also welcome Bethan Stevens from Compassion UK to share some of her stories (Mark 10: 17-31)  

Welcome to Easter Lunch Club

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With a team of four working away in the MBC kitchen and the same number front of house doing the same this is how Lunch Club marked the start of Easter. 

A hearty (but healthy) lunch followed an introduction and welcome from Rachel, a talk from Shelley and then a good half hour making Easter crafts. 

Amid laughter and smiles crafting hand made stained glass windows, Easter cards and carefully cut out crosses added a real feeling of togetherness to the event – ironically held just 24 hours before the new team behind MBC’s Stepping Stones meet again to dot more i’s and cross more t’s ahead of relaunching the church’s mums and tots ministry.

The importance of these chalk and cheese projects sitting as they do alongside our regular Sunday services, Beacon, craft group, housegroups, bible study, an up to the minute website etc. etc. cannot be over-stated for each, in its own special way is doing two things; 1. building the kingdom of God and 2, putting MBC, a local church firmly where it belongs and that’s at the heart of our community.      

  

Florin Fodor at Manastur church in Cluj tells us how they are supporting Ukrainian refugees

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As we have watched hundreds of thousands Ukrainians entering Romania, we have asked GOD what we can do to help and love the refugees. In response to His guidance, many of you prayed and provided funds to support our mission among them. We thank you so much!!!
In attachment you can read an update on our activities.
 
Please continue to pray for:
– peace in the region
– many of the Ukrainians who are now in Romania to hear the Gospel message
– human resources (interpreters into Ukrainian/Russian, counselors, teachers for Ukrainian children)
– material needs to be fulfilled
– planting an Ukrainian church in Cluj (on a mid-term)
 
Thank you for partnering with us through prayer, finances and encouragement. We are thanking God for all that you do for Him, out of your care for the Ukrainians who are suffering at this time.
With gratitude, Florin and Dana Fodor

MBC’s support for Ukraine – please sign up now

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Despite it being everyone’s wish to throw open their homes to Ukrainian refugees we realise that for many of us this just isn’t possible.

However, for those that have decided they can – and most if not all of the refugees who arrive in Leeds will have come to us via our church links in Romania will also need support. 

Schooling, finding nurseries, learning a strange language, registering for healthcare, arranging benefits etc. etc are just some of the practical difficulties these people will face, and from what we see and hear the majority of this will need to be done by either the churches these people are being linked with or by the people they are staying with. 

At this moment in time our priority is setting up a support network to support the supporters. In other words to appoint someone to coordinate our effort; to arrange lifts, to arrange a rota of people who can cook and bake, to visit, in fact to do all the things you would normally do but more so. 

The one thing we mustn’t forget, though, is that the vast majority of these women and children will not only be miles and miles from home and from those they love; they will be scared of shadows. 

Taking in refugees is a massive and potentially long term commitment but so too is supporting those at MBC that support them.

If you feel able to help (in any way possible) please speak with Shelley or with any member of the Leadership Team just as soon as you possibly can, that way through our links with churches in Romania and via an organisation named the Sanctuary Foundation MBC will be able to do its bit.  

leadership.team@moortownbaptistchurch.onmicrosoft.com

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