Saying goodbye to someone you’ve known and loved for a long time is always hard. However, when one becomes two something difficult turns into something virtually impossible. And that was the feeling on December 9th when Moortot’s lead Diane Towns and her long time “right hand man” Pauline Bridle officially stepped down after fronting and coordinating this wonderful project for 11 and 8 years respectively.
That said the morning service wasn’t quite their final appearance as immediately after both then sped off to prepare for the traditional Moortot’s Alternative Nativity and a whole string of boisterous Christmas parties. Here’s a picture of the production’s finale together with a link to a rather iffy video.
Besides saying goodbye, the service also gave us the opportunity of saying hello to three month old Diana Baniamer. Diana’s mum and dad, Abbas and Atieh, had brought her to church in order to introduce her into the fellowship through a service of blessing and dedication.
Then as part of our prayer time friends joined Graham in praying for Terefe and Denenesh as they celebrated their Silver Wedding Anniversary.
Finally, it was also great to welcome a visiting speaker. Emma Worrall who is a staff member at mission project Open Doors shared some amazing stories of the resilience and the sheer courage of Christians living in some of the world’s most dangerous areas and how they hold their faith in the face of state persecution. 