We would like to extend a warm welcome to you for our services today which are led by John Alsop from Bradford-upon-Avon.
Today’s meetings 9.45am Children’s Bible Club
10.15am Sunday Prayer Meeting in cottage
11am Morning Service
6.30pm Evening Service All are welcome to the after church fellowship at. Paul and Janets
Weekly meetings Tuesday 8.00p.m. Lord’s Table and Members’ Prayer Meeting
Wednesday 9.30 to 11 Mums & Tots
3.45 to 4.45 Children’s Hour
6.45 to 8.00 KIC club for Year 5 & 6 children.
Thursday 2.00 Ladies Rest Hour - Speaker – Peter Jermyn
7.45 Bible study and prayer meeting - Speaker – Paul John 14 vv 12 – 23 “A more intimate Relationship”
Friday 7.30 to 9.00 FOY for secondary school children
Saturday 9.30 Open Air
Sunday Harvest Thanksgiving 11 a.m. Worship – Thanksgiving for the gift of Carys - followed by cake and a cup of tea.
4p.m. Family Service – Mike Moore Buffet Tea
6.30p.m. Mike Moore
Prayer for the church Pray for Pastor Mark as he preaches at Ryarsh today.
Please pray for the on going weekly activities that God may bless each.
Continue to pray for the anticipated arrival of Mona - The latest news is that assuming no further problems, we anticipate an arrival at Heathrow on the afternoon of September 27th 2006.
Please pray for Marilyn as she anticipates going into hospital Tuesday. Please pray for her and Mark as she has to fast from Monday lunchtime – this will cause difficulties with her diabetes.
Please pray for others who may have hospital visits this week.
For the Local Area Covent Garden “Praise God for good conversations on the streets. Pray for two non-Christian regulars at our meetings who desire to know more and also for the parents of the young people who come to our meetings.”
For the Wider Area CONVERT FROM ISLAM TO CHRISTIANITY KILLED IN SOMALIA Somali Christian sources report that Ali Mustaf Maka‘il, who converted from Islam to Christianity eleven months ago, was shot and killed in the Manabolyo quarter of Mogadishu on 7 September 2006. Ali (22) was a cloth merchant and college student. According to the source, the gunman was loyal to the Union of Islamic Courts (ICU), the Islamist organisation that took power in Mogadishu in early June 2006 and now controls much of southern Somalia. The gunman shot Ali in the back after he refused to join a crowd chanting Qur’an verses in honour of the lunar eclipse. (Solar and lunar eclipses are significant in Islam and are accompanied by special congregational prayers.) The ICU confiscated his body for 24 hours before delivering it to the grieving family. It seems that under the new Islamist rulers, who include hard-line jihadi elements, the tragic history of persecution and martyrdom for Somalia’s tiny Christian community is set to continue and most likely to worsen. In July 2006 there were unconfirmed reports that three Christians had been shot and killed by Islamists as they returned home from a prayer meeting. In October 2005 an evangelist and house church leader, Osman Sheik Ahmed, was shot dead by Islamist radicals. Children of Christian Somali refugees in Kenya have been kidnapped by Muslim relatives and taken to Islamic institutions in Somalia for “rehabilitation”. The leader of the ICU, Hassan Dahir Aweys, promised to implement shari‘a in all areas he controls. According to shari‘a, apostates (those who leave Islam for another religion), must be killed. Over 99.5% of Somalis are Muslims and regard Christianity as a foreign religion of their historic enemies in Ethiopia and of their former colonial masters the Italians and the British. There is a long history of conflict between Muslim Somalis and Christian Ethiopians, so anti-Christian sentiment runs deep. Most Somalis take it for granted that a true Somali is a Muslim and converts to Christianity must be traitors. These prejudices, widely held by Muslim Somalis, seem to used to justify violence against Christians, both indigenous and expatriate. The US-led invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq and the recent Israeli campaign against Hizbullah in Lebanon have fuelled and inflamed the inherent hostility to the West and to Christians.