- Worship this Sunday
9.30 am: regular worship, including a sermon. This will NOT be the next chapter of A Place for God. The new cameras have been fitted, the wiring and controls replaced. This Sunday will be the first real test of the system. We anticipate that sound and vision will be live streamed to the StAB YouTube channel from this service.
10.30 am: at the same time as Junior Church happens, all teens and adults will divide into five groups. These will each explore one of our five ideas for Growing Young – details in the attached document. Rather than explaining the mechanics of this, we want to maximise time in groups. It would be a huge help, therefore, if you could look at the attached document, consider which of the groups God is prompting you to contribute to, and note where it meets. You are not letting anyone done if you conclude that God is not prompting you to contribute to any of the groups. If that is the case, why not come to the 9.30 am service this week.
2) Gift Day
The events of this month means that Gift Day has had a lower profile than it normal. For example, I have not had the opportunity to mention the Ife Bible Translation project.
The Ife people live mainly in Togo in West Africa. They are a minority ethnic group which means there has been virtually no written material in their own language. In turn that has discouraged people from learning to read. Frequently, the first substantial thing that appears in a minority language is the Bible. As well as allowing people to hear God speak to them in their mother tongue, this has the added benefit of prompting people to learn to read. That then opens up whole new worlds to them.
Wycliffe Bible Translators (the organisation Hamish and Annika Ralston are with in Sweden) have had a team working on the Ife Bible since 1981. The New Testament was completed in 2007 and the Old Testament is reaching completion. There is funding to cover this. What they are short of, however, is funding for literacy classes. We intend to give £5750 from our Gift Day this year to assist with this. In these classes simplified portions of Scripture (imagine a children’s Bible) will be used. People will hear God speaking while learning to read.
If you haven’t yet done so, could you think about a gift you might make to allow this, and the other projects to go ahead.
3) Sunday 2 October Messy Church
Next Sunday we have three services – 9.30 am, 10.30 am, and 4 pm, when Messy Church happens.
Messy Church is a fantastic opportunity to connect with people who are not part of church at the moment. It is definitely not just for children. The format and the time slot make it much more accessible to many people who are not regular church attenders.
That same format, however, requires many people. About 30 people from the congregation are needed every time. This is a significant proportion of our church. This vital ministry relies on many people recognising that this is a place where God is calling them to give some of their time and talents. Might you be one of them? It usually happens on the first Sunday of the month between 4 and 6 pm. Please contact Alison Singleton at messychurch@standrewblackadder.org.uk or by phone (details in the Directory) if you would like to find out more, try it once or even offer to be there every month.
4) Welcome Evening: Wednesday 5 October 7pm, Room 1.
Twice a year a Welcome Evening is held. It’s an opportunity to allow people who’ve started coming to St Andrew Blackadder to find out more about the congregation and the different ministries on offer. It’s aim is to help new(ish) people find their place in the congregation, to help them feel they belong, and to help them discern where God is calling them to serve.
If you are comparatively new and haven’t been to one of these evenings, it is for you. Consider yourself invited!
Sometimes, contacting the people this evening is for, is tricky. These people may not know about this weekly email, or the WhatsApp group. The very people who I want to invite, are not in the loop. So, if you know of anyone who is new(ish), please could you mention this to them. It’s better to get five invites from 5 people than none.
The evening will last between 60 and 90 minutes. Niki and Tommy, (Session Clerk and Deputy Session Clerk) will be there with me.
5) Prayer Gathering
Each Wednesday on Zoom between for 30 minutes starting at 7 pm.
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88152470672?pwd=WHpUOVdWN3NpSTBCUjF3aDRhcE1Ldz09
Please contact the church office for log in details.
Neil
Rev Dr Neil Dougall
ndougall@churchofscotland.org.uk
St Andrew Blackadder Church of Scotland, North Berwick
St Andrew Street, North Berwick, EH39 4NU
Scottish Charity SC006421
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