John Sherbourne

Dear MBC family

We wanted to let you know that you can join in with our Easter Journey at MBC by following the link to our Maundy Thursday communion pattern and night prayer  which you can follow at home:

https://www.moortownbaptistchurch.org.uk/news/maundy-thursday-gathering-as-the-household-of-jesus-christ-your-order-of-service 

And coming up…….

On Good Friday at 10.30 look out for the links on our website and on Facebook to watch our 10.30 Good Friday Service on Youtube.

And on Easter Sunday join us on Facebook for our Easter Celebration  at 10.45 for our livestream and  pre-recorded service. www.facebook.com/moortownbaptistchurch

We hope that you will feel part of our church community in whatever way you find to connect.

With Love and Easter Blessings,

Shona Shaw

Co-Minister,

Family @ 4 is designed especially to keep us connected. How it works is you are invited to send in pictures of what you are doing at 4 o’clock in the afternoon (give or take a minute or two) Monday to Friday. 

We’ve now added some pictures that came in on Thursday and Friday to our original gallery, something we’ll do every day. The additions are busy bee Rowan in the kitchen making a pie and collecting sticks, David still digging his border out, Gracie reminding Kate that 4 o’clock is tea time, Gwynneth’s picture of a near deserted Harrogate Road, young Master Laws mending his bike, some imaginative home schooling from Sarah Meyer one element of which includes caterpillars (don’t ask), Ethan Dodd all ready to start painting the ceiling and from anon some genuine blue sky thinking.

Our first posts showed Rowan and Daisy Dring out and about putting daffodils on neighbours doorsteps, David Gladman digging for victory whilst Sue adopts a more relaxing attitude, some lovely artwork created by Cas and John S enjoying a welcome cuppa after a marathon fence painting session.

As you can see none of this can be classed as what purists might think of as being particularly “churcy.” But that’s the point: MBC isn’t a building; it’s people, real people, people who do ordinary things like painting fences, digging ditches, mucking out rabbit hutches and washing cars.

In these times when social distancing or indeed social isolation are our watchwords we need to remember that what binds “church” together is love for Jesus, and it is this love and the “church’s” endeavours to show the compassion that his life, death and resurrection inspires that will carry us through this crisis.

So come on don’t be shy, as 4pm approaches grab your camera or your phone (selfies and videos encouraged) and when you’ve captured this golden moment go to the MBC Facebook page www.facebook.com/moortownbaptistchurch and send it to us via the messages button.  

*Latest editions are Issy Meyer’s rainbow, Josh and Howard Slater making a bench press and a couiple of pictures of Phil, Jane and Sam on their daily bike ride.

CLIFF AND HANK. Elsewhere on the website there is a story about Steve Scaife and John Sherbourne and how what started off as a bit of light hearted banter has turned into quite a feature. How long they can keep it up remains to be seen but the daily Facebook posts that Steve, an accomplished musician and John who for 50 years wanted to be Cliff Richard and all his Shadows are certainly putting a lot of smiles on lots of faces.  You can see the full story by following this link https://www.moortownbaptistchurch.org.uk/news/ok-so-maybe-its-not-cliff-and-hank-but-if-you-want-a-good-laugh-have-a-look-at-this

And if you want to follow their daily posts just visit Facebook and search for John Sherbourne and Steve Scaife and prepare to be amazed!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It’s at times like this that we need each other more than ever. Self-distancing and self-isolation are horrible; they stand against everything we hold dear. That’s why, with Jane Coates as their coordinator a team made up of pastorally trained volunteers is never more than a phone call away.

So if you want someone to talk with, to pray with or maybe just to listen don’t hesitate to call either Graham on 07979343857 or Shona on 07735458661 and they will arrange for someone to call you.

Of course talking, praying and listening aren’t things that are confined our “official” Pastoral Team. In fact just the opposite, they are things we can all do. So over the next few weeks and months when you are speaking with friends and neighbours please don’t feel embarrassed about suggesting that you pray together – you never know it might be exactly what’s required.

This week Church at Home will celebrate Palm Sunday with a question: Where were you when Jesus came into the city? As people will ask us in the future people may ask us: Where were you when Covid 19 happened?

The Service includes: a worship playlist, with a home produced “MBC Worship Team Lockdown Recording Project”

Unpacking with the Meyer family

A Bible reading from the Handleys

Get up and Get active with David Gladman

A talk from Nathan Dring

Prayers from two NHS doctors

Hello MBC with Zac and Janet Mwanje from their shop.

As well as all this you will be invited to make your own Palm Cross, (follow this link to see what you’ll need to hand) and out usual Live Streams from our Facebook page www.facebool.com/moortownbaptistchurch

During our Palm Sunday Church at Home broadcast (10.45am Sunday April 5th) Richard Thompson will be showing us all how to make our own palm crosses.

If you watch this video Richard will explain all.

https://youtu.be/DYnewDHea9Q

Despite all the restrictions we are currently experiencing Oasis and Moortots are settling into something of a routine. Tuesday and Thursday at 11am respectively both go live at facebook.com/moortots

This week Shelley, Rowan and Daisy told stories, sang songs, took crayons and pencils for a walk and made some beautiful butterflies.   

Here’s Tuesday’s Oasis, which for some reason is brought to you at a rather jaunty angle… just consider the bending over as part of your daily exercise, and below that, and the right way round today’s Moortots.  

Sarah and Ben Meyer are a young couple who like many thousands of others have suddenly found their lives turned upside down.

For mum Sarah, who recently left a job in marketing to spend more time at home with Issy, 5 and 16 month old Charlotte, plus to study for a degree in psychology things are as you can imagine pretty full on. For Ben, an IT Manager with a firm of financial advisors the change to full time working from home is no less a challenge.

Having seen the pictures Sarah and Ben have been sending in to our Family @ 4 feature we invited Sarah to tell us about her day – this is what she said.

Hi, since I gave up my full time job I have only been working one day a week, leading baby and toddler music and sensory classes and as I’m no longer doing that I’m free to look after the kids then do my uni study on an evening and sometimes in Ben’s lunch break. This is when he takes on the play leader role.

In theory I suppose we do have a loose timetable, some sort of routine but to be honest we take it day by day. So usually it’s PE in the morning; Joe Wicks, Kids Yoga or another You Tube class then story and snack time. Following that I’ll prepare a selection of tasks that school has set and Issy chooses what she wants to do until it’s time for lunch. If we aren’t already in the garden that’s also time to play outside.

Usually afternoons are just free to do anything we like. Quite often we’ll do a bit of reading or do some more work on our rainbows badge. If the weather’s good we’re either in and out of the garden or off on a walk; if not then we’ll stay in and watch a bit of Cbeebies.

On Tuesdays and Thursdays we go on-line and join in with Shelley, Rowan and Daisy as they present Oasis and Moortots – the girls love this and it’s great for us all to know that people who we might normally all be sitting and playing with will also be watching.

Some days, like today we’ve not yet done anything that school has set because Issy doesn’t really want to. But that doesn’t mean we’re not still learning. I love free play, to me it’s the best. So that means that for today, and for any others like it we believe that in addition to learning to dance to the Greatest Showman, making shapes and counting in the sand pit, “baking” playdough biscuits, seeing how big our caterpillars have grown and playing hopscotch are all perfect ways to learn.

As for Charlotte, she just sort of falls in with what we are all doing albeit in her own way; right now she too is dancing to the Greatest Showman. But she’s really good at amusing herself. Yes she has the odd tantrum and occasional she naps but I guess in a way at 16 months old she’s the least affected of us all.

One thing we did do last week we really enjoyed we called Rainbows and Hope. It involved making our rainbows to join in with the rainbow trails that are springing up across the world. This soon started a discussion about why we were doing a rainbow, so as part of Issy’s “RE lesson” we all looked at the story of Noah and the Ark. And this is what we decided.

At the moment it feels as though we are in the ark, not being able to go out very much and not being able to see our friends. But Noah trusted God and he knew that by staying in the ark he was keeping his family and all the creatures safe. At the end of the flood God put a rainbow in the sky as His promise that He would never destroy the earth again. Every time God saw the rainbow He would remember his promise.

The rainbow was sign of peace from God and of hope that all will be fine at the end of the storm. When we go out on our daily exercise we look for rainbows in the house windows and are reminded of God’s promise to us.

There are a couple of links here to some videos we have made: one shows the girls joining in last Sunday’s Church at Home Service, and the other is them negotiating our home-made obstacle course.

https://www.facebook.com/sarahjmeyer/videos/10156852810107204/   

https://www.facebook.com/sarahjmeyer/videos/10156852808507204/