Today's Meetings:

9.45am Children's Bible Club
10.15am Sunday Prayer Meeting in cottage
11.00am Morning Service
6.30pm Evening Service
After Church Fellowship will be at Mike & Rosemarys.

Weekly Meetings:

Wednesday

9.30am to 11.00am Mums & Tots
3.45pm to 4.45pm Children's Hour
6.45pm to 8.00pm KIC club - For Year 4, 5 & 6 children.

Thursday

2.00pm Ladies Rest Hour - Speaker: Mr. Greenbank
7.45pm Bible study and prayer meeting - Speaker: Pastor

Friday

7.30pm to 9.00pm FOY - For secondary school children

Saturday

Mums & Tots dinner

Sunday

11.00am & 6.30pm Sunday Services - Led by Pastor
3.30pm Carol Service at David Coffer Court - Led by Matthew
Please come and support this witness.

Thought For The Week:

"that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man." Ephesians 3:16

Prayer For The Church:

Continue to pray for the last midweek meetings before Christmas that God may bless these.

Please begin to pray for the outreach opportunities that arise over the Christmas period. Please see notes over page for dates. Pray that the calendars that have been and will be distributed will be well received.

Please pray for Paul as he speaks at the Bethany Centre, Whitstable on Tuesday lunchtime to the local OAPs.

Please continue to pray for Sarah Rabbidge.

Please pray that all those involved in preparations for Holiday Bible Club on 18th - 20th February will know the Lord's strength. If you weren't able to be at the planning meeting and hope to be able to help - please let the co-ordinator (Daniel) know.

Prayer For The Local Area:

Margate: The church praises God for continuing commitment of the young people in the church. It also requests prayer that people will read and respond to the pre-Christmas literature that will be taken out next week - especially that people will come to know and love the Lord Jesus Christ through its Christmas programme.

Prayer For The Wider Area:

MALDIVES - NON-MUSLIM MALDIVIANS TO LOSE CITIZENSHIP
The Maldivian constitutional assembly has passed an amendment stating that "none, except Muslims can be Maldivian citizens". The implementation of this amendment to the constitution means that a number of Maldivians will lose their citizenship and become stateless. In the Maldives it is illegal to practise any other religion than Islam; however, there is a very small percentage of Christians in the country. Some of them are expatriates, but there are also some Maldivian Christians, converts from Islam, who would lose their citizenship. Although the current constitution does not specifically mention this, any person who follows, preaches or simply reads texts of other religions is punished until he or she turns to Islam.

Under President Gayoom, whose autocratic regime has recently come under attack, militant Islamism has become more widespread. After a bomb explosion earlier this year, which injured a number of tourists and was attributed to an Islamic militant group, the president promised to take measures to combat Islamic extremism. This seems to contradict this latest amendment to the constitution.

Pray that the amendment of the constitution will be quickly repealed. Pray especially for the Christians in the country that they would not be forced to choose between converting to Islam or becoming stateless and having to leave their home country.

TURKEY - MURDER TRIAL PUT ON HOLD
The trial concerning the murder of the three Christians working for Zirve Publications (a publisher for Christian books) has been postponed until 14 January 2008. The court decided to adjourn the hearing because the defendants' lawyers needed more time to prepare their defence, court officials said.

It seems that the media has been spreading rumours about the murdered Christians in order to present them in a negative light. Also, it has been reported that the majority of the investigations for this case seems to deal with the "missionary activities" of the three Christian men rather than the murders.

In Turkey, Christians and other non- Muslims make up less than 1% of the population. In the light of Turkey's possible entry into the EU, the trial is being seen as an example of how the country deals with religious intolerance.

Weekly Bible Readings:

Mon 10th Dec

Psalm 37

Matthew 11

Tue 11th Dec

Psalm 38

Matthew 12

Wed 12th Dec

Psalm 39

Matthew 13

Thur 13th Dec

Psalm 40

Matthew 14

Fri 14th Dec

Psalm 41

Matthew 15

Sat 15th Dec

Psalm 42

Matthew 16

Sun 16th Dec

Psalm 43

Matthew 17

General Announcements:

Dates for the Diary

December
Sunday 23rd - special Family Service at 5 p.m. followed by refreshments.
(no Sunday Bible club)
Christmas Day - 10.30 a.m. Worship service.
31st - New Years Eve - games and refreshments from 9 p.m.
Devotions and prayer . - 11.30 p.m.

Calendars
Thanks to all who made the task of getting the calendars out on Saturday so easy and encouraging.

Thanks to Philip for an excellent "flyer" to go out with the calendars.

Christmas Cards
Post box for internal posting is now available. Last Collection on Thursday 13th Dec and will be delivered on Sunday 16th Dec.