News

At MBC, whenever a child is Dedicated or receives a Blessing he or she is always given a simple certificate on which it says this: Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.” Matthew 19.14. 

Last Sunday (May 27th) it was our pleasure to give just such a memento to Jayden, Nathaniel, Reggie Lynch. However, what made the Service extra special was mum and dad, Debi and Jason’s request that they too should receive a blessing.  

Debi and Jason have kindly given us permission to use some pictures taken at the Service, so many thanks and God blessings on you all. 

To view a larger version of any of these pictures just click on the image.

I think it’s fair to say that no Sunday morning service at MBC is ever what you might call quiet or straight forward. Besides all the traditional elements there’s very often a mission slot, or our children come back in to share what they’ve all been up, sometimes we have a visiting preacher or maybe some weeks just an up date on one of our many and varied projects. Sunday May 20th, however, was even busier than normal.

This was because after a shortened service (one hour, five including Communion) we held the second of our special open Church Meetings.

On the agenda this time was the election or reappointment of deacons, confirmation that Howard Dews is to be our GDPR guru and the latest news on our ongoing search for a new youth worker. Then, an hour later it was time for the top side of a hundred of us to share lunch. 

The gallery below shows a selection of images taken on the day. This includes pictures of a splendid new “stained glass” window, specially designed and built for Pentecost by Kate Slater, our two new deacons – Paul Smith and Phil Laws and a shot taken in the lounge showing what some of our kids were doing during our meeting. 

So there you have it, Sunday May 20th, just another day in the eventful life of Moortown Baptist Church. Fortunately everything ran smoothly even if it was a bit of a struggle getting everything cleared away before it was time for Shona and Graham to clock on again, this time to lead a 4pm Tea Service. 

You can view a larger version of any of these images simply by clicking on the picture

10.30am Morning service, including communion (with children out from the start and young people going out at 11am)

11.30am Special Church Meeting to discuss Youth, future developments and an election of deacons. Children are welcome at the meeting however it will be broadcast in the meeting area to enable families with young children to participate in the meeting while the children are welcome to watch a film in the lounge if they prefer.

12.15pm Bring and share lunch. Please bring enough for yourself and a bit extra.

4.00pm Tea Service – ‘Pentecost’ followed by afternoon tea.

Below is a gallery of pictures taken last Sunday as some of the seven thousand runners who took part in the ASDA Foundation Leeds Half Marathon streamed past MBC. Naturally after the slog up Stonegate Road many were extremely grateful that some of our young people were again on hand offering a short, sharp Haribo boost. 

The event which believe it or not has been “running” for thirty three years is now organised by the Jane Tomlinson’s Run for All project and attracts some of the world’s top athletes.

However, as you can see from Ross Bromley and John Sherbourne’s pictures when the field includes a 44 year old bearded nun called Jonny, Spiderman and a guy weighed down by having a 34kg anchor strapped to his back not everyone is in it to win it. 

So special mention this year to run regular Moira Richardson (right) and also to our Children’s Worker Cas Stoodley. Cas joined Luke Dean, Meanwood Valley Baptist Church’s Youth, Children and Community lead and Ben Jones, founder of Missional Generation to run in memory Luke and Gemma Dean’s daughter Orla who died in March 2017. In fact now the team have all returned safely you can still help their causes: Martin House Children’s Hospice and Leeds Mencap by going on line and visiting https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/orla-river 

Once again one of MBC’s most popular and successful events, our annual plant sale has proved to be a great hit. In just two hours money raised from the sale of plants and donations for coffee and cake totaled £1,200. 

Huge thanks to Jenny Dixon and her green fingered team who between them had spent days, weeks and months preparing for the big day. 

All the money raised will be donated to two charities: Living Local, a community project based here in north Leeds and Christian Aid. 

Here’s a gallery of pictures taken at the sale… you can view a larger version simply by clicking on the image. 

If you were with us on Sunday morning you probably treated yourself to one, or maybe more, of the delicious home made cakes that our young people had baked. The donations the goodies attracted totaled £152.25 which will very soon be being transferred to the International Nepal Fellowship. 

The Fellowship works with or runs a number of very practical projects and with UK cash going a long way in Nepal you can be assured that this sum will be put to very good use. 

The youngsters who baked either by themselves or with friends each get to choose which projects they want to support. 

Hilary Willmer has kindly supplied us with a list of some of just some of these projects which you can see below… 

Green Pastures Hospital

£5 – shoes for a leprosy patient, £17 for a leprosy self care kit

Disability

£8 toys for children with disability, £25 school disability training

Medical camps

£5 medical supplies for one patient, £13  transport medical team to remote health post

Community development

£10 chicks for family small business, £15 plant a fruit farm (50 saplings)

Then larger sums such as £80 clean water tap or £225 goats and training to care for them

So thanks to those who bought the produce and of course to Debbie and Chris Drew for suggesting this to us.

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

On 20 May there will be an hour long service followed by a special church meeting to discuss Youth, future developments and an election of deacons.

After the meeting there will be a church lunch which will be bring and share. Please bring enough for yourself and a little bit extra.

This is the meeting that was initially scheduled for May 6th. 

As part of their Golden Wedding celebrations Susan and David revisit MBC

It’s always a pleasure to welcome new people to MBC, and I’m glad to say that’s something we do often. However, when the people you are speaking to turn out to be a couple who were in fact married here at Moortown in 1968 that pleasure takes on extra significance. 

Such was the case recently when on a visit to Leeds Susan (nee Susan Cheesbrough) and David Poole, who now live in Hampshire, attended one of our Sunday morning services. 

Following the Service John Sherbourne caught up with them and much to his delight discovered that tucked away in Susan’s handbag were not only some original wedding pictures but also an invitation to their reception which like many at the time was held in the opulent surroundings of The Mansion at Rounday. 

Fortunately for us, after being introduced to a couple of MBC’s “old timers” – folk who fondly remembered mutual friends Susan and David were more than happy to share their story with us. 

“Susan at the time had lived in Harehills, Leeds until she went to university and attended Allerton High School. It was during the sixth form that she started going to Moortown Baptist Church; a little group of three from the school went Sunday by Sunday.

We were both teachers and living in London when we were married but soon moved to Holmfirth.  We visited Leeds frequently because Susan’s parents remained in Harehills until, a while after the death of her father, Susan’s mother moved to be nearer us in Holmfirth.  Our two children grew up. went to university and began working in the south – Bath and East Grinstead.  It was for that reason that we moved to Hampshire to be able to visit more easily.

Time passes so quickly and, then, we once more visit the Baptist Church for our golden wedding anniversary.

If we are in the district again, we shall try to find time to attend worship. It is clearly such an active fellowship contributing much to the district. Visitors are certainly made welcome; we very much enjoyed our visit.”

For the record: the MBC Minister who officiated at Susan and David’s wedding was Rev’d Ralph Drake. 

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