Today's Meetings:

10.15am Sunday Prayer Meeting in cottage
11.00am Morning Service
Children's Bible Club Anniversary

6.00pm Evening Service
After Church Fellowship at Bruce & 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: Sarah Chan C.W.I.
7.45pm Bible Study and Prayer Meeting - Speaker Pastor Bill Gardner - he will also share with us for prayer the needs of the church following his retirement.

Friday

7.30pm to 9.00pm FOY - For secondary school children

Saturday

9.30am Open Air

Sunday

11.00am & 6.00pm Sunday Services - Preacher: Ben Hutton

Thought For The Week:

"Behold the LORD'S hand is not shortened, that He cannot save." Isaiah 59 v 1

Prayer For The Church:

Pray for Sarah, Mona and Jessica, all pregnant with their first child.
Thank God for answered prayer for FOY.
Continue to prayer for the outreach activities, particularly that there will be a quiet and attentive spirit during the teaching time Please also pray for Mums and Tots with particular regard to the quiet time.
For Mark and Marilyn that they will have a restful time and be drawn even closer to the Lord.

Prayer For The Local Area:

Leyton ‘We thank God that our mid-week outreach activities are well attended and pray that these contacts will lead to conversions. The need for a pastor is a matter for prayer.'

Congratulations to Eddie and Pam Porter on the birth of their first grandchild, Rachel! Congratulations also to the parents, Elizabeth and Ian Thompson.

Prayer For The Wider Area:

Grace Missions Ministries - Charles Woodrow - Nampula - Mozambique

The church started off 2009 with its annual New Year's Day worship and fast. This is a tradition we picked up from other Mozambican churches and we have benefited from their example.

People spend the entire day in prayer and worship and many churches include a fast of varying duration, beseeching the Lord's blessing upon their ministries in the coming year. We have found these all-day services to be most rewarding and not fatiguing in the least, contrary to what I always expect. Worship just gets better and the prayers more fervent as the day wears on. We finish by breaking the fast with a fellowship meal in the evening.

With the beginning of a new school year we have lost the participation of three long-time members, two who have been employed as teachers in remote locations and one who is doing college work in another province. As we are a church of only 20 members, it is not easy to lose so many people at once.

However, we are thankful that God seems to be bringing new people into the church more rapidly than in the past. As I prepared a report recently for an association of Reformed Evangelical churches in southern Africa that we belong to, I was gratified to discover that though we have only 20 members, six of them had joined just in the past year, four of them by a profession of faith. Also, that 19 of those 20 members have read the Bible from cover to cover and all are known to study the word daily!

And 12 have memorized the entire scripture memory catechism of over 300 short passages which is offered as part of a financial aid program for people in and outside the church who have no income.

These comments serve only to point out some of the ways our congregation is unlike many traditional churches here. Yet at the same time, we much need and desire a greater work of grace and love in the hearts of all our members and leaders, that we might have the winsomeness of Christ that woos the lost and helps them over the cultural obstacles that hinder true conversion.

Bible Readings:

22nd 1 Chronicles 25:1-31; Romans 2:17-29
23rd 1 Chronicles 26:1-32; Romans 3:1-20
24th 1 Chronicles 27:1-34; Romans 3:21-31
25th Psalm 88; Romans 4:1-25
26th 1 Chronicles 28:1-21; Romans 5:1-21
27th 1 Chronicles 29:1-30; Romans 6:1-14
28th 2 Chronicles 1:1-2:18; Romans 6:15-7:6
29th 2 Chronicles 3:1-4:22; Romans 7:7-25

General Announcements:

Pastor and Marilyn - from tomorrow Mark and Marilyn will be on holiday for a week on the "Costa de Hampshire".

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 7.30pm.

"After church" next week.
It is a 5 week month so any offers for next week will be welcome!