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Last week’s reading on Acts 17 reminded us that in Jesus we live and move and have our being.  As a further reminder and a celebration of this Shelley is asking if you could join in with a Pentecost celebration dance! 

No expertise required.  Just record yourself moving for 20 seconds and email it to shelley.dring.mbc@btconnect.com or if you have her number you can whats app it. We’ll put the music over your video so don’t worry about any background noise.

It can be fast or slow, inside or outside, standing up or sitting down but needs to be recorded in landscape and you don’t need any professional equipment or moves but if you want any than that’s your choice!” 

The videos need to be sent to Shelley by Tuesday 26^th May to be part of the Pentecost celebration on 31^st May on Church at Home and Family at Moortown.

For even more info you can watch Shelley’s video invite here 

During last week’s Church at Home service Abi Pitchford shared with us some information about fostering and told us of how a dedicated project is aiming to provide a safe and loving home to every child in the UK care system. Below is a message from Safi Newton, Home for Good’s project worker for north and west and Yorkshire. And then below that is a link to a Home for Good video in which founding director Chris Kandiah of the scheme explains why the current lockdown situation is putting added strain on this area of need. 

Thank you so much to those of you who have shared the Home for Good information and video over the past week.  We are seeing lots of visits to our social media posts and webpage and today we have been able to connect our first enquirer to Leeds City Council Fostering Team.  You may have seen in the media that this week and next are NATIONAL FOSTERING FORTNIGHT so it seems like the perfect time to be drawing people’s attention to the current need locally.

http://www.homeforgood.org.uk/leeds-response

 

It could be said that even in normal times John Kavanagh is quite used to having the streets to himself. That’s because John’s job in one of our council’s city centre offices requires him to be at his desk just after 7am. However, compared to “normal times” the last seven weeks have, says John “been exceptional.” 

John (left) who began to worship with us here at MBC after being invited by a friend to last Christmas’ carol service travels from his home in Moortown by bus, and certainly up until the government’s last somewhat muddled update he says it wasn’t unusual for him to see just a handful of fellow commuters during his ten minute walk from his bus stop on Vicar Lane to his office. 

However, during that short morning walk and also on his way back home John has taken time out to create a superbly observed and highly personal snap shot of a city in lock down. 

Using only his mobile phone John has shot literally dozens of still images, many of which you can see below as well as a ten minute long video. 

Some of his pictures have been edited, on the whole simply to convert them to fit a certain shape in a collage or to add a touch of detail to an area lost in shadow. But the video is raw, it is as shot. And the reason we publish it exactly as John presented it is to ensure that nothing detracts from its sheer integrity. 

By his own admission John is no Steven Speilberg, nor he says will his film put him in line for an Academy Award. But that’s not the point; in terms of a body of work that sees real life Leeds in spring 2020 what John has produced here, and particularly so by him adding his own off the cuff comments and opinions carries far more weight than any box office smash that tinsel town might drool over.  

We do hope you enjoy looking through the pictures and watching the video, and to John who obviously knows Leeds like the back of his hand we say a big thank you. 

Over the next few months and years umpteen millions of pounds will no doubt be poured into producing TV shows and feature films that will tell the story of how in 2020 a worldwide killer virus claimed hundreds of thousands of lives, and as the image above illustrates all too well brought the High Street to its knees. As a research tool and before they begin casting I suggest that the professional film makers start by watching John Kavanagh’s little video.  

You can watch John’s film by clicking here

  mbcnewspics@gmail.com                                                                                

VE Day, the seventy fifth anniversary of the end of the war in Europe was everything you could have hoped for… except that is for not being able to mix with you family and friends, and in what one wag referred to as a new “home front” not being allowed to stray any further than your garden!  

So many thanks to the Meyers, the Coates, the Drings, the Scaifes, the Armstrongs, the Barkers, the Slaters and the Thompsons for making the most of a bad lot and sharing these lovely pictures with us. 

It’s really good to see a couple more Home Groups have moved on line: in one Nathan, Abi, Sam, Andy, Ruth, Ben and Sarah certainly look to have discovered the perfect antidote to lockdown: laughter.

And in the other, Marion, Maria, Jan B, Jan F, Diane, Rita, Nicki who normally meet every other Wednesday at Gwynneth’s home this week spent an hour or so Zooming their way in and out of one another’s homes by courtesy of lap top, tablet and phone.  

More from our archive: 

Among other notable memories this week’s look back in time see Rod and Roger playing table tennis in what looks like a WW2 bunker, former Youth leader John Hawksworth speaking during our 50th anniversary service, the largely youthful looking cast of our circa 2011 Good Samaritan drama, David Vail going ape and an iguana visiting Lunch Club. 

If you have any old pictures of MBC that you would like to share with us, or indeed anything else email them to mbcnewspics@gmail.com and we will include them in a future column.

mbcnewspics@gmail.com

 

Hello everyone

I hope you are all OK.  I know some of you have had a few challenges, others are busy, others are quiet.  I’m sorry I haven’t had chance to catch up with you all so far but my prayers and thoughts are with you.  It been great to hear that some of you have been tuning into our live Facebook at 11am on Tuesdays and Thursdays and also our new Family at Moortown channel where we upload the week’s live sessions as well as putting on new Sunday sessions that you can see every Sunday on the same theme as Church at Home.  

It was also great to see many of you draw an egg for the virtual Easter Egg Competition.  It was both lovely to see all your faces as well as learning more about you through your artistic representations! 

So it’s time for another one…. I have just put this on the Pulse leaders whats app but I am also emailing this out to Pulse, Bubbles, toddler group leaders, Rewind team, Creche and anyone I know who has responded to me so far on supporting children/families. I’d like you to record your favourite bible story/a story that means a lot to you, either in the past or now in no more than 2 minutes.  You can use props, act it, create it, read it out from a book, speak it, sing it, paint it, whatever you like but all under 2 minutes. The most important thing is that it’s as accessible as possible, for example, if you can use 2/3 words then don’t use 10.  You’ll know this already but as it’s a video then be mindful of what is in the background, look at the camera and try not to wear the same colour as your background, make sure you stand out! The bible stories will be put up over the next few weeks on Moortots Facebook page (that will soon be renamed Family at Moortown to encompass all we do) and the Family at Moortown youtube channel. 

Although this is a challenging time it’s also exciting at what God is doing.  We are getting people tuning into church who have never been in our building and it would be great to support these families as well as supporting our precious families who are already part of MBC on a Sunday.  May is actually national share a story month, so what better way then sharing God’s word?

The deadline for our bible stories/passages is Saturday 23^rd May.  Can you what’s app or email them to me on shelley.dring.mbc@btconnect.com  Please don’t feel this is something that you have to do, I know everyone has different pressures but if you are able and would like to then it would be great to hear from you.  Also if you know anyone who would like to do it, then please let them know.  Do get in touch with any questions

Thank you all so much

Blessings

Shelley

Church Meeting: We were due to meet as a church in May and hold deacons elections. Taking advice from the BU and others in our Baptist family we are postponing the elections until the autumn but we are exploring how a virtual church meeting might work on Tuesday  June 9th. During this coming week please get in touch with the Leadership Team, Shona or Graham as we think through how this might be possible. This gives everyone a heads up to our direction of travel but allows a wider consultation to happen over this week.

Useful emails:

LTsecretary@moortownbaptistchurch.onmicrsoft.com<mailto:LTsecretary@moortownbaptistchurch.onmicrsoft.com>
shona.shaw@moortownbaptistchurch.onmicrosoft.com<mailto:shona.shaw@moortownbaptistchurch.onmicrosoft.com>
graham.brownlee@moortownbaptistchurch.onmicrosoft.com<mailto:graham.brownlee@moortownbaptistchurch.onmicrosoft.com>

Church Giving – We have easy ways by which you can give to church online or by standing orders. To find out more email Paul Smith, our Treasurer, on treasurer@moortownbaptistchurch.onmicrosoft.com

 

 

Did you know that you can now catch up with all Moortots, Oasis, Bubbles and Pulse videos by clicking on just one link. Their exclusive Youtube channel is called Family at Moortown and is easily recognisable by the distinctive rainbow graphic that you see below. 

Shelley Dring, MBC’s Children and Families lead, more often than not assisted by her two young children Rowan and Daisy makes regular live Moortots/Oasis broadcasts during the week on www.facebook.com/moortots whilst on Sundays during our 10.45 am Church at Home service she presents a great set of prerecorded, hands on material for young children, their parents and/or carers via the Youtube link we have copied below.   

So remember if you want to watch Moortots or Oasis live you’ll still need to go to www.facebook.com/moortots. But if you miss either or you and your family want to join us on a Sunday morning nothing could be more straight forward than hitting Family at Moortown’s new one click link…. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCu1CPwAaahNoX3sjDXNdzbA