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News from Krys, Bela and friends in Sri Lanka

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Half way through their visit to Sri Lanka, Krys, Bela and their three friends have sent us an update on how their visit to the Women’s Development Centre in Kandy is going. 

The pictures we have received so far show lots of activity in the vocational learning centre for adults with special needs, a school for children with learning disabilities and the Centre’s weaving area. However, don’t get the impression that the trip is all work and no play; on the contrary says Krys “we’ve also had some fun” which included elephant watching, getting up close to two animals which to me look like some type of monkey and even a visit to watch the Sri Lanka cricket team lose to England.  

Above and below there are a couple of galleries showing all the pictures we’ve so far received. 

Shelley’s News for week commencing Sunday 1 February

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Dear all

This week I was reminded of Psalm 23 v 2-4 (Living translation)

“He lets me rest in the meadow grass and leads me beside the quiet streams. He gives me new strength. He helps me do what honours him the most. 

Even when walking through the dark valley of death I will not be afraid, for you are close beside me, guarding, guiding all the way.”

David sings of the experience of trudging through a valley of death and although God doesn’t take him out of it, he recognises the God who travels alongside him, matching each step, each movement.  He is the same God who journeyed with the exhausted friends on the Emmaus Road.  They didn’t recognise him until a memory was triggered in their minds when they shared a meal. Like a meadow of flowers or a refreshing stream, there was creativity, grace, companionship and restoration on the journey. In psalm 23, David sees the promise that in the midst of the storm there is new strength for each day and it’s something we need to look out for before we get too focused on the valley slopes.

On Sunday our journey continues with our whole life worship series at all age café church, looking specifically at friendships. We start at 11am with breakfast snacks and drinks for all ages.  After the service, 1pm – 2pm there is a get together/share/pray session for ‘sung’ worship leaders in the music room, bring some lunch. Rock Solid for youth meets 7-8pm in the building.  Do ask if you want more information.  Let’s lift our young people and leaders in prayer at 7pm on Sunday.

The week ahead..

Monday 2nd February 10-12 Beacon warm welcome café for all.  Food pantry available. 

Tuesday 3rd February Stepping Stones For the under 5’s and their parents and carers 10.00 – 11.30am (speak to Diane or Hilary if interested)

Tuesday 3rd February House Group in the Music Room 12.30 – 2.30 speak to Howard Dews

Tuesday 3rd February at 7.30 Safeguarding group meets in church.

Wednesday 4th February Lunch Club 10.15am – 1.15pm Speak to Rachel or Lesley if you want more information as you need to be booked on.

Wednesday 4th February House Group Music Room 7.30 – 9.30pm Speak to Andy or Ruth for more information.

Thursday 5th February We will keep in touch about whether craft group warm welcome space will be going ahead this week as we are still looking for someone to help lead it.  For general information, contact Karen if you want to know more. 

Thursday 5th February 2.30pm The Thanksgiving Service for the life of Jean Hiley in the church building, followed by refreshments,.

Thursday 5th February Bible Study in the Music Room 7.00pm – 9.00pm Speak to Gareth, John C or Lesley

Friday 6th February Bible Study in the Music Room 10.00 – 11.00am Speak to Shelley for more information.

Friday 6th February Parkinson’s Exercise Class 6.30 – 7.30pm Speak to Phil Commons or Lesley for more information

Friday 6th February House group at 8pm in Adel See Jonathan, Hilary, Steve or Helen.

Saturday 7th February Sung worship and tech teams get together at the start of the year.  Chance to share, plan, pray and eat! Starts at 12.30 and finished by 3.

Sunday 8th February Service together 11.00 – 12.00pm Whole Life Worship: part 4 ‘Body, mind and Soul’ with a group for our younger friends to explore the theme creatively together.

Sunday 8th February Rock Solid Youth group 7-8pm in the church building

Looking ahead..

Below you will see a poster I have just been sent for a free session on ‘how to avoid digital scamming’ at the Ziff Centre next door to the church on 3rd February.  Its open to anyone.

Tuesday 10th February 7.30pm Meeting for deacons and Shelley in the church building

Tuesday February 24th 7.30pm Whole Church meeting.  All welcome.  The agenda will come out soon and this will include making some decisions for the year ahead.  We are continuing to pray for Gods guidance, looking at what God is doing in our communities and what the opportunities and challenges are.  This includes items that have been brought up at more recent meetings, such as people support to support this work, over the next 6/12 months.  Our building is an important part of this, some of you may have noticed a couple of water leaks from the rain over the last few weeks.  It’s something we are investigating but again if you have anything to share on any of this do let the deacons or myself know.  We want to prayerfully see all of this in the light of the bigger picture of what God is doing here in this community. 

Last Thursday we held a service of Thanksgiving and Celebration for the life of Robert Owen and it was a privilege to hear people’s memories and stories of Robert.  Thank you to all those came along and to all those who helped with set up, welcoming, worship and tech support. We continue to pray for the family.

Look forward to seeing you all soon,

Shelley

Minister

Moortown Baptist Church

Clowning around. Lunch Club tries out a spot of juggling

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Whenever professional juggler Matthew Tiffany turns up at Lunch Club there’s never any shortage of volunteers wanting to get in on his act. 

Whether that act be juggling, plate spinning or for that matter anything else designed to mesmerize you can bet your bottom dollar that before long there’ll be no end of people – all old enough to know better – wanting to join in. 

And that’s precisely what happened at this week’s Lunch Club when Matthew paid a return visit. 

Well done Rachel for arranging this special treat. Just occasionally being able to act your shoe size rather than your age is something that I’m sure most of us would benefit from. 

Sixty years of MAF service to Chad links MBC to our BMS mission partners Mark and Andrea Hotchkin

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Since 1966, MAF (Mission Aviation Fellowship) has been delivering help hope and healing to the remotest parts of Chad.

From fighting famine to delivering healthcare and improving literacy, MAF continues to serve isolated communities through a range of partners. MAF’s Claire Gilderson looks back through the ages.

Claire’s report talks about the part MBC’s Mission Partners Mark and Andrea Hotchkin play in the story.

You can read it by hitting the link below. 

Happy 60th birthday MAF Chad!

News from Banglabesh, and in particular from Jhumpara

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Sharing a recent email sent from Bangladesh, Phil and Rod report on the support that the villagers of Jhumpara continue to receive. 

If you would like to find out more about MBC’s link to Jhumpara here is a post that appeared here in February 2010 and was written by Dr Michael Flowers who with his wife June served for many years in Bangladesh with BMS. 

There is a third project supported by the Bangladesh Fund, the Jhum Para Project. Back in the 1960’s there was a shift in the management of leprosy world wide, and all patients except those needing specialist hospital care were to be discharged from Leprosy Homes into the community. Inevitably, as in our case, there were some who were unable to live independently because of disability, or who had nowhere to go, because of ostracism. For them we obtained a plot of land where we built simple bamboo houses for them to live in.

We left Bangladesh soon after that and we lost touch. Although we began to visit Chandraghona again with medical teams from 1985 onwards we were unable to visit the village because of the civil war. It was only after the peace deal was signed in 1997 that June, during one of our team visits, was taken to the village and found the people there, some of them the original patients, with their children and grandchildren, all living by begging, and in abject poverty.

June was appalled and felt a compulsion from God to do something. We began to make plans and the following year a team from this church conducted a careful survey to see how we could help best. So the Jhum Para Project was born.

The urgent needs were for food, (instead of milk, or eggs, or fish, or meat, they ate snails and frogs), for drinking water, for house repairs, and most importantly, for education for the children, none of whom were at school. As an income generation scheme the initial idea of purchasing piglets for them to raise for meat or to sell was an attractive idea when raising funds at home!

Over the years the provision of school uniforms and equipment, tutors for coaching, mosquito nets, blankets, latrines, sewing machines, and adult literacy classes, have brought about an astonishing transformation.

More recently textile training for the girls and driving instruction for the young men, have brought some hope of employment, and the appointment of a pastor has resulted in many conversions and baptisms. The most recent facility has been a brick-built schoolhouse to serve the whole community.

YTV’s Calendar features the Leeds & Moortown Furniture Store to highlight furniture poverty

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The Leeds and Moortown Furniture Store was formed here at Moortown almost forty years ago. Since then a constant stream of MBC members have served it in one capacity or another, in fact even as I write five of our members are trustees while numerous other people help as volunteers.
 
As one of Leeds’ most valuable and respected charities LMFS is at the forefront of the battle against furniture poverty. Hence the reason YTV chose to visit its Seacroft warehouse and also why shortly after the feature was aired Rachel Dodson, the Store’s General Manager took to social media… here’s what she wrote.
 
On Tuesday January the 20th ITV Calendar, that’s Yorkshire Television’s regional news programme featured a piece on furniture poverty and how some local authorities are cutting the welfare scheme that supports people living in crisis with furniture. If you would like to watch it it’s 14.54 mins in and available on ITVX).
 
As a charity the Leeds and Moortown Furniture Store supports 100’s of people a month that cannot access this scheme and with other items that this scheme does not offer.
 
The referrals for furniture are increasing and any support you can give us with furniture donations, volunteering or raising funds to buy furniture is always very much appreciated.
 
You can get in touch with us by calling 0113 273 9727 or by emailing info@leedsandmoortown.org.uk

Shelley’s news – week commencing Sunday 25th January

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Dear friends

We started a theme in church last Sunday looking at whole life worship based on the Hebrew word ‘Avodah’ meaning worship, work and service.  This word is used in the bible in the letter to the Romans Chapter 12 verse 1.

“Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship.”

Last week we focused on money, this week we consider work, whether it be paid, voluntary, short term or long-term projects.  What good works has God got for us to discover and get involved in?  We start at 11am in the building and online on our youtube channel.  There will be a group for children to explore the theme creatively during part of the service. 

Here’s what’s going on for the rest of the week…

Sunday 25th January Children’s group leaders planning and prayer after the service 1-2pm Feel free to bring your lunch.

Sunday 25th January Rock solid youth 7-8 in the building.  Ask for more details, all welcome.

Monday 26th January 10-12 Beacon warm welcome café for all.  Food pantry available. 

Tuesday 27th January Stepping Stones For the under 5’s and their parents and carers 10.00 – 11.30am (speak to Diane or Hilary if interested)

Tuesday 27th January House Group in the Music Room 12.30 – 2.30 speak to Howard Dews

Wednesday 28th January Lunch Club 10.15am – 1.15pm Speak to Rachel or Lesley if you want more information as you need to be booked on.

Wednesday 28th January Creative Psalm Writing 7.00 – 9.00pm in the Sports Hall.  Everyone welcome, resources provided.  Open to beginners and all who want to explore God in life in a different way. Ask Shelley for more information.

Wednesday 28thJanuary House Group Music Room 7.30 – 9.30pm Speak to Andy or Ruth for more information.

Thursday 29th January  Warm Welcome Space Craft Group 2.00 – 4.00pm Contact Karen if you want to know more.  All welcome

Thursday 29th January  Bible Study  in the Music Room 7.00pm – 9.00pm Speak to Gareth, John C or Lesley

Friday 30th January  Bible Study in the Music Room 10.00 – 11.00am Speak to Shelley for more information.

Friday 30th January Thanksgiving service for the life of Robert Owen starting at 11.30am.  Do come along and support Carol and the family as we thank God for Robert’s life on earth.  All are welcome to refreshments in church after the service.  The family have said that you don’t need to wear dark colours for this service. 

Friday 30th January Parkinson’s Exercise Class  6.30 – 7.30pm Speak to Phil Commons or Lesley for more information

Friday 30th January House group at 8pm in Adel See Jonathan, Hilary, Steve or Helen.

Sunday 1st February All age café church 11.00 – 12.00pm with drinks and breakfast snacks, designed with all ages and experiences in mind.  The theme is Whole Life Worship: relationships (John 15;15)

Sunday 1st February Sung worship leaders get together.  More details to come

Sunday 1st February Rock Solid Youth group 7-8pm in the church building

Looking ahead..

Thursday 5th February 2.30pm Thanksgiving Service for the life of Jean Hiley.  All are invited to come and remember Jean and thank God for her life.  There will be refreshments in the church after the service.

Saturday 7th February Sunday sung worship and tech teams get together at the start of the year, starting at 12.30 for the afternoon.  More details to come.  If you have thoughts you would like to input on this please see Andy B or Shelley.

Tuesday 10th February 7.30pm Meeting for deacons and Shelley in the church building

Tuesday February 24th Whole Church meeting.  All welcome.  The agenda will come out soon but this will include making some decisions for the year ahead.  We are continuing to pray for Gods guidance, looking at what God is doing in our midst and thinking and planning for where God is leading us.

Around our community..

You may have heard or seen our facebook page about Councillor Mahalia France-Mir who sadly died last Monday.  Mahalia represented Moortown ward for Leeds City Council and held some of her local surgeries in the church building.  We pray for her family and thank God for her work in our local communities.  We endeavour to continue to work for good with our partners in the community.

The self-defense class we were hosting with LJWB was postponed as not enough people signed up in time but if you would be interested in something like this in the future can you let Lesley know and we will compile a list of interested people ready for the next one.

In Christ

Shelley

Shelley Dring

Minister

Moortown Baptist Church

Shelley’s message for w/c Sunday 18th January

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Dear friends

Here is the week ahead…

Sunday 18th January  Church service with Communion and group for our younger friends to explore the theme together 11.00 – 12.00pm.  We’ll be starting a new short series looking at ‘whole life worship’.

Sunday 18th January Rock Solid youth groups in the church building 7-8pm

Monday 19th January Beacon Warm Welcome Space and Lord’s Pantry  10.00am – 12.00pm  Everyone welcome

Tuesday 20th January Stepping Stones For the under 5’s and their parents and carers 10.00 – 11.30am (speak to Diane or Hilary if interested)

Tuesday 20th January House Group in the Music Room  12.30 – 2.30 speak to Howard Dews

Wednesday 21st January Lunch Club  10.15am  – 1.15pm Speak to Rachel or Lesley if you want more information as you need to be booked on.

Wednesday 21st January Wednesday worship for all 1.30-2 in the music room.  The theme is Awakening.

Wednesday 21st January  PACT Meeting  6.30 – 7.15pm – Police and Communities Together for Moortown.  Everyone welcome.

Wednesday 21st January House Group Music Room 7.30 – 9.30pm Speak to Andy or Ruth for more information.

Thursday 22nd  January  Warm Welcome Space Craft Group 2.00 – 4.00pm Contact Karen if you want to know more.

Thursday 22nd January  Women’s Self Defence Group 1.00 – 5.00pm Sports Hall.  All women are welcome to book a free place.. See attachment to this email or ask Shelley or Lesley.

Thursday 22nd January  Bible Study  in the Music Room 7.00pm – 9.00pm Speak to Gareth, John C or Lesley

Friday 23rd  January  Bible Study in the Music Room 10.00 – 11.00am Speak to Shelley for more information.

Friday 23rd  January Parkinson’s Exercise Class  6.30 – 7.30pm Speak to Phil Commons or Lesley for more information

Friday 23rd January House group at 8pm in Adel See Jonathan, Hilary, Steve or Helen.

Sunday 25th  January Service 11.00 – 12.00pm with a group to explore the theme with our younger friends.

Sunday 25th January Rock Solid Youth group 7-8pm in the church building

Also…

Wednesday 28th January  Creative Psalm Writing  7.00 – 9.00pm in the Sports Hall.  Everyone is welcome and you can bring your own paper and resources or just use what we have here (we have pastels, pens, colouring pencils and art paper..)

Well done!

Well done to all those who completed the erecting scaffolding course on Friday and passed with flying colours!  We are committed to looking after our volunteers and passing on skills so we are very grateful for those who gave up their time to do this and the money from church to support the training.

Last week myself, Deacons Andy, Krys, Mandy, John along with Rachel our Seniors worker went to the Fresh Streams leadership Conference in Staffordshire.  We’ll be passing on helpful learning and training in the next month as there were many different workshops alongside the main sessions.  In the meantime, if you would like to watch the main seminars for free they are all available online on their youtube channel at FSLC26 – Awaken – Session 6 – Holding Space for Encounter The theme for the Conference was Awaken. 

Soon Krys and Bela will be visiting the women’s refuge in Sri Lanka.  If you want to find out more then have a look at our website here Women’s Development Centre. Krys Gadd makes her annual visit to Sri Lanka, only this time her support team is considerably bigger. Read on to find out how you can help. – Moortown Baptist Church

Church meetings dates will be confirmed this week.

Funerals

I now have some more information about two funerals taking place at Moortown Baptist Church over the next few weeks.  The thanksgiving service for Robert Owen will take place at 11.30am on Friday 30th January in the church building followed by refreshments in the church.  All who would like to come and remember Robert and support Carol are welcome to all of this.  Carol has said that you do not need to wear dark clothes on this occasion.

The thanksgiving service for Jean Hiley will take place in the church building at 2pm on Thursday 5th February.  More details to come.

Finally, a big thank you

A big thank you to everyone who came to celebrate my birthday after church last week.  I was really touched by your fantastic cards and things and many kind greetings.  It was a special time together and massive thanks too to all those who made cake, decorated and supported tea and coffee making throughout the afternoon!  You have kicked off the year for me well!

In Christ

Shelley

Shelley Dring

Minister

Moortown Baptist Church

Fresh Streams – a leadership conference attended by Shelley and five of our members

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Fresh Streams is a leadership conference held last week in Staffordshire. It was attended by Mandy, Andy, John, Krys, Shelley and Rachel and its theme was Awaken.

Over the next few weeks our team, besides telling us about some of the things they got up to will also be passing on lots of learning and training tips.  However, if you can’t wait and you want to get a flavour of the event right now you can by following this direct link https://freshstreams.net

 

 

 

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