John Sherbourne

There is a big red box in the meeting area labelled PAFRAS. A few people regularly give food and toiletries for the often destitute asylum seekers that eke out an existence in our city. Those gifts are much appreciated by the people who gather on a Wednesday in St Aidan’s church hall which is always overflowing as we drop off the donations. So what does Pafras do and what need is it meeting?  More information below is taken from the PAFRAS website, where you can find much more detail.

But before you read that, the immediate needs are:

FOOD Chick peas (0.5-1kg), Pulses (0.5-1kg), Tins of tuna, tomatoes, Rice (0.5-1kg) Sugar and Pasta, Tinned meat (not pork), Baked beans, Cereals (Porridge, muesli), Coffee/tea, Biscuits            

TOILETRIES Moisturiser, Nappies (mainly 10KG+), Deodorants (Men and women), Razors (disposable), Shaving Cream, Shower Gel/Body Wash, Soap, Hand wash and Tooth brushes

So what is Pafras and what does it do?

PAFRAS is the main pro­ject in Leeds providing dir­ect sup­port to des­ti­tute asylum seekers. All those who attend our drop-in are offered a meal, pre­pared by our volun­teers, snacks and fresh fruit as well as hot and cold drinks. Addi­tion­ally, at each drop-in we dis­trib­ute food par­cels put togeth­er out of the dona­tions of food­stuffs that we receive. We ensure that all volun­teers who handle food have food safety aware­ness train­ing.

The food giv­en out at our drop-in is a vital life­line for people who have little or no access to food else­where. At the same time our drop-in opens a vital social space in which people for whom meet­ing in a café is unthink­able.

Our aim has been to cre­ate a space that ser­vice users can feel at ease in and take own­er­ship of. To this end they are encour­aged to get involved in run­ning the ser­vice, from man­ning the recep­tion desk to pre­par­ing food in the kit­chen (more inform­a­tion on this can be found on the volun­teer­ing page).

Des­ti­tute asylum seekers are one of the most mar­gin­al­ised and excluded groups liv­ing in Bri­tain today. Isol­ated lin­guist­ic­ally, cul­tur­ally and socially, they fre­quent in a world where rumour and fear over-shad­ow and often play too great a part in people’s choices. In provid­ing a little for people’s imme­di­ate needs, our drop-in also opens a win­dow through which our ser­vice users are able find out more about oth­er ser­vices they can access.

A range of dif­fer­ent ser­vices are delivered at the drop-ins:

• One to one sup­port for cli­ents with exper­i­enced staff and volun­teers,
• Advice, sign­post­ing and refer­ral provided by exper­i­enced case­work­ers,
• Men­tal health sup­port and com­ple­ment­ary ther­apies,
• Social activ­it­ies and volun­teer­ing – oppor­tun­it­ies to take part in vari­ous activ­it­ies includ­ing con­ser­va­tion, arts and com­munity pro­jects in part­ner­ ship with oth­er organ­isa­tions.

 

There will be a Fairtrade Stall after our morning service this coming Sunday (October 28th). As usual Roger Robson and his team will be on hand to show you a whole raft of beautifully crafted Traidcraft goods as well of course as a wide range of Advent calendars and Christmas cards. 

There will be a new weekly Bible Study Group on Friday mornings in the MBC Music Room starting this week, October 26th. With tea and coffee from 9.30am and proceedings starting at 10 each session will last about an hour. However please feel free to come and go as you wish. 

Rod Russell who very recently visited the USA has very kindly sent us these three images.

The first (left) Rod spotted outside what he describes as a outwardly Christian/evangelical cafe in West Virginia, the other two, the “so called” Beautiful One -liners were in a church bulletin.

How do you feel about MBC adopting a similar outreach strategy?

Answers on a postcard please. 

For all Fairtrade and Beehive supporters we have some very sad news. Traidcraft PLC, the Christian pioneer of Fairtrade since 1979 has announced that unless there is a remarkable improvement in sales, they will have to cease trading at the end of December.

Despite its pioneer status and close links with churches across the UK, Traidcraft has been facing serious trading difficulties caused by many of the issues affecting all retailers and by the fall in the pound since the decision to leave the EU. Traidcraft’s ethical model also means it pays its suppliers on time and will not squeeze the prices it pays them – the enhanced prices for producers being the baseline of Fair Trade. The hope is that there may be a way of restarting in a different form next year.

On a more positive note Traidcraft Exchange (the charitable arm of the PLC) will continue to work with marginalised producers and help them find ways of trading themselves out of poverty.

Traidcraft have produced a great final catalogue with a wide range of really lovely products. It is very important they have a strong selling season this Autumn to give them the best chance of moving forward positively.

If you want to help Traidcraft please continue supporting The Beehive (formed in 2000 by members of MBC and other local churches and currently the only fully fair trade outlet in Leeds). We will be very much business as usual to the end of the year and beyond – as long as possible- and we are running stalls at MBC on October 28^th and on November 25^th for your Christmas preparations.

Please pray about this situation – for leaders and workers of Traidcraft based in Gateshead; for Church Leaders and all the ‘Fairtraders’ volunteering in the nation’s churches; and for outward – looking Christian concern and action for justice in God’s World.

Please, please follow this link to the Traidcraft website and read CEO Robin Roth’s statement: www.traidcraftshop.co.uk/traidcraft-update

To encourage Traidcraft you can email lovetraidcraft@traidcraft,co.uk

Fears that with Cas Stoodley’s departure one of MBC’s longest running outreach projects would come to an end have been allayed. Rewind to Christmas is a tried, tested and much loved feature of church life that has run here at Moortown for almost fifteen years. And that’s why we are delighted to announce that Shelley Dring (pictured above) has agreed to take on the main up front role. Over two days – this year that’s the 26th and 27th of November upwards of four hundred Year 4 children from a dozen local primary school will join us as over four one and a half hour sessions we employ drama, storytelling and craft to show and tell what we as Christians believe the true meaning of Christmas to be. 

Shelley who lives locally, is married to Nathan and has two young children works at Temple Newsam House. There she heads up the Learning and Access team. “Although up to now I have never seen an MBC Rewind I have heard lot’s of great reports about them” says Shelley. “As many of you already know I love working with children so being given the opportunity to join your team is something that really excites me.”

Fearing Shelley might be being thrown in at the deep end Rewind veteran John Sherbourne (who if you remember announced his retirement from up front duties after our 2017 Easter Rewind) is making a one off comeback. “It’s funny” John says “but after so many years of working up front with a number of different Children’s Workers, and then being quite content with my decision to take more of a back seat role Shelley’s enthusiasm for the job is really firing me up. Rewind really is a fabulous project, it’s one that invites us to tell the Christmas story to so many different people and I’m sure Shelley will be brilliant.”

COME AND JOIN THE TEAM. One cute little trick that Cas used to use was that once you’d signed up to help at Rewind you’d signed up for life; in other words Shelley and John will be hoping that the list of team they have on file today is as up to date as it was last year at this time. However, if for some reason you can’t come or equally important is you fancy joining us – and that doesn’t mean you need to be available for all four sessions – please see Shelley or call John on 07913505865 as soon as you can. 

There’s a gallery of pictures below which give you an insight into what goes on at Rewind. To view a larger version of any of them simply click on the image. 

I’ve just returned from a long weekend (Friday to Monday) visiting Cluj in Romania.  It may seem a bit “crazy” to go all that way just for a weekend but the availability of direct flights twice a week from Robin Hood Airport at Doncaster now makes this possible! 

As most of you will know we have had links with Romania since 1991 and with Manastur Baptist Church in the city of Cluj in the Transylvania region of Romania.  The reason for my visit was to be able to join them at the induction service of their new pastor, Daniel Lacatos (pictured below).   The church there has been without a pastor since the previous pastor retired three years ago and so it has been a difficult time for them during this period. 

Pastor Daniel is married to Simona and they have four children.  He was previously pastor at a church in the eastern part of Romania and so they have had to relocate to Cluj.  If you would like to see the induction service it is available on the internet via the following link http://bisericamanastur.ro/ (select “arhiva video” and then “7 octombrie dimineata”) – however as it is nearly 3 hours long and has 3 sermons (in Romanian) you may want to just dip in!

I was asked to give a greeting to the congregation on behalf of our church.  As well as it being a time of change for them I referred to change in our church with discussion about Sunday services and also with Norman Hiley’s passing.  I read Jeremiah 29:11-13 “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.  Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you.  You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. “ After the service I was invited to join the invited guests and their families for lunch in the church.

The visit was also an opportunity to meet a number of people I know in the Cluj.  I stayed with the Rusu family who visited Leeds in May last year and enjoyed their excellent hospitality.  I met Rei Abrudan who was formerly youth pastor at Manastur Church and is now pastor at the new VIA church which seems to be going well and has grown to 500 members during its 3 year existence.  I was also taken out to the Apuseni mountains where we visited a waterfall and then stopped at restaurant for trout and chips (and admired the two wolf skins hanging on the wall). I also saw the new Christian centre being built by Manastur church in the mountains particularly for groups of young people and which is getting nearer to completion. 

Altogether an action packed weekend which felt as though I had been there for a week!

Howard Dews

As predicted, and to put it mildly Sunday September 30th was extra busy. At 10.30 Shona led our Harvest Thanksgiving Service. This in itself was a three part affair with a special monetary offering which raised £461.50 for BMS World Mission and Christian Aid, a huge selection of tinned or dried foodstuffs and toiletries that’s either gone to a local food bank or into our own Lord’s Pantry and finally a beautiful display of fresh fruit and veg complete with a Harvest Wheatsheaf – and mouse. 

Then at 11.30 Graham joined Shona to chair one of our occasional all together Church Meetings. Accepting that on Sunday mornings MBC is currently functioning at maximum capacity the hundred and fifty present were invited to follow on from the the ten “What do you see” questions that have been circulating both on line and on paper for a good couple of months by discussing and then feeding back their thoughts on two quite specific questions 1). Who are we making space for? and 2). What sort of space should we offer? 

Naturally there were a whole raft of different answers; from making space for international students and for new Christians to providing bouncy castles in the car park and designing a bible based set of Jenga blocks. All comments were of course duly noted and an assurance was given that our Leadership Team would give them their full attention. 

The next step, then, is to move on to a number of what are being called Pilot Sundays, days when at least some of the suggestions made can by put into practice. These will be Sunday 14th October, Sunday 4th November, Sunday 2nd December and then the 6th, 13th, 20th and 27th of January. 

Although one could argue that the initial consultation process is now drawing to a close Graham and Shona felt it important to stress that both they and the whole of the Moortown Baptist Church Leadership Team are still keen to take feedback and they urged people to keep thinking, to keep talking and to keep praying.

Finally, at 12.30 and to round off the first part of our busy, busy day over a hundred of us stayed on and enjoyed a splendid Shared Lunch. To the small band of volunteers who “manfully” set up, cleared up and washed up we say a very sincere thank you. 

To view a larger version of any of our gallery pictures simply click on the image. 

Below is the headline and opening paragraph of an article from this week’s Baptist Times… it makes very interesting reading.

A Baptist minister shares what it’s like to feel anxious all the time – and what has been helpful in working through it.

Today is World Mental Health Day and I know what it’s like to feel you are falling apart. One of the things I was told as anxiety split my being was that I needed to be more resilient. I already believed that and was beating myself up for feeling anxious all the time. However, what I found out and this is one piece of wisdom I want to pass on today is that just because you suffer from mental health distress does not mean you are not resilient.

You can read the whole story by clicking on this link. 

https://www.baptist.org.uk/Articles/531776/Mindfulness_resilience_and.aspx

[subscribe2]

There’s so much going on at MBC this Sunday that we thought we’d give you a heads up on what to expect, what to bring and where our harvest contributions are going.

Firstly: Harvest Financial Offering: This year we are supporting two Harvest Appeals: BMS and Christian Aid.

Secondly: Our Harvest Food Offering: any food donations (tinned, dried goods etc but in particular toiletries) will be shared between our local food bank at Moor Allerton and our own ‘Lord’s Pantry’ that provides one off food parcels.

And thirdly our Harvest Produce Offering, that’s anything that has been home grown in gardens or allotments. 

Church Meeting and Shared Lunch: after the service we are a holding another of our all together church meetings; this one to discuss feedback on the proposal to change to holding two services on Sunday mornings.

This will then be followed by a shared lunch. If you can please bring a plate of savory or sweet food to feed yourself and three or four others.

There will be a table in the sports hall to leave food before the service begins.

Thank you.