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 at Bruce and Margaret's home

Weekly Meetings:

Monday

3.45pm to 4.45pm Children's Hour

Wednesday

9.30am to 11.00am Mums & Tots
6.45pm to 8.00pm KIC club - For Year 4,5 & 6 children.

Thursday

2.00pm Ladies Rest Hour - Speaker: Mrs Hoppe
7.45pm Bible Study and Prayer Meeting - Led by Bruce

Friday

7.30pm to 9.00pm FOY - For secondary school children

Saturday

9.15am Outing to Westbrook Bay - Please see notes

Sunday

11.00am & 6.30pm Sunday Services
am Pastor
pm Eddie Porter

Thought For The Week:

"The LORD is my light and my salvation; Whom shall I fear? The LORD is the strength of my life; Of whom shall I be afraid?" Psalm 27:1

Prayer For The Church:

Pray for safety and an enjoyable day out as a church as we go to Westbrook Bay this Saturday.
Pray that Pastor may be richly blessed as he attends a conference this week.
Please pray for the CCIW camps this summer. Pray for Alistair and Norman as they prepare their daily sermons. Pray for the tent officers as they prepare their Bible studies.
Please pray that through God's grace the weekly prayer meeting will increasingly become the powerhouse of the week's ministry.
Pray that Simon may know the Lord's healing hand on him.

Prayer For The Local Area:

Thamesmead is the church on our prayer Diary for the coming week. "Sunday morning attendance is still encouraging. Our need for pastoral leadership and others to help with the work is ever more pressing."

Prayer For The Wider Area:

Christians in Gaza
Readers will recall the murder of Rami Ayyad, a member of the Baptist Church, who managed Gaza's only Christian bookstore and was involved in many charitable activities. He was found shot in the head, on a Gaza street in early October 2007, 10 hours after he was kidnapped from the store. Ayyad had received regular death threats due to his charitable and evangelistic missionary work. The shop, run by the United Bible Societies, had been firebombed six months before the kidnapping.

Christians fear that the Hamas rule in Gaza has emboldened Islamic extremists. Hamas has tried to calm jittery Christians with reassuring handshakes and official visits promising justice. Hamas spokesman, Fawzi Barhoum, insisted the killing was not religiously motivated. To date, no one has been accused of the murder and no indication of a continued investigation is at hand.

Attendance at the local Baptist Church is down from an average of 70 to 10.
The church's pastor, his family and 12 employees of Ayyad's store were relocated to the West Bank to wait out the tense atmosphere. An unprecedented number of Christian families, rattled by the religious tensions, are migrating from Gaza, thereby reducing the Strip's already miniscule Christian population of approximately 3,200, including evangelicals and Roman Catholics, in a population of 1.4 million.

The signs of despair are evident at Ayyad's home. Posters declaring him a martyr hang on the walls. Ayyad's older brother, 35-year old. Ibrahim, said his 6-year old son, Khedr, was harassed in school over his uncle's murder. Muslim schoolmates call him infidel.

A distant relative of Ayyad, Fouad, said he also is packing. He said his father, a guard at a local church, was stopped recently by unknown bearded men who put a gun to his head before he was rescued by passers-by.

Those who are Christians who have chosen to remain, or who are unable to leave, are seeking ways to limit the risks. Some leave each Sunday service with a Muslim-style scarf covering their head. "We have to respect the atmosphere we are living in", they explain.

In the past, relations between Christians and Muslims were excellent. This has significantly changed since the Islamic group Hamas routed forces of the secular Fatah movement and seized control of Gaza in June 2007.
Please pray.

Bible Readings:

June
22nd Deuteronomy 24:1-25:19; Galatians 5:1-26
23rd Deuteronomy 26:1-27:26; Galatians 6:1-18
24th Psalms 35; Ephesians 1:1-14
25th Deuteronomy 28:1-68; Ephesians 1:15-2:10
26th Deuteronomy 29:1-29; Ephesians 2:11-22
27th Deuteronomy 30:1-20; Ephesians 3:1-13
28th Deuteronomy 31:1-30; Ephesians 3:14-4:16
29th Deuteronomy 32:1-52; Ephesians 4:17-32

General Announcements:

Want to get fit ?!?
If you would like to have some fun getting fit, please see either Sarah or Debbie. This is open to everyone on a Monday evening from 7.30 pm.

Outing
We have a 72 seater coach booked and 94 people coming. Please write your name on separate list if you are willing to take your car and how many spaces available.
Please write your name also if you are willing to go in someones car. Thank you Joyce. Church will help with actual fuel costs.

Mums and Tots
If anyone not already involved would like to help with drinks this week please let a leader know.
Many Wednesdays the session is very full, so extra help would always be very welcome.