CHRISTMAS. BURTON LATIMER Sunday 13 th Christmas Cantata. Saturday 19 th Carol singing at Sainsbury s. Sunday 20 th Family Carol Service

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1 President: Position Vacant Secretary: Mrs. Susan Deacon 1 De Capel Close Woodford, NN14 4HR Telephone: Hello everyone, CHRISTIAN AID DATES FOR YOUR DIARY KDF DATES: Thank you to everyone who joined in our Soup and Mosquito Drive event. Nine of our Kettering churches were represented and we raised a total of 242 on the night with one or two more donations since then. Our Regional Organiser greatly enjoyed the event with the chance to meet so many people and, of course, is delighted that we have made such a good start with our support for the Christian Aid Christmas Appeal. Please do all you can to raise more for the appeal in the next two months. Graham, our Treasurer, will be pleased to receive cheques. If you prefer, cash can be left in a clearly marked envelope for Rev David Milner at the Fuller Coffee House (please hand to the Manageress or on-duty Befriender ). N.B. If your church wishes to deal directly with Christian Aid, the gift must be specifically marked for the Christmas Appeal otherwise it will not receive the UK government match funding. And, of course, it would be greatly appreciated if you would inform our Treasurer so that we know our total for this area. Our next Churches Together event is on Sat 5 Dec 11 a.m noon - Carol Singing on Toller Church steps. Please do encourage support (singers/ collectors/ donors). Proceeds will be for the Christmas Appeal. Posters will be supplied soon. Thank you for your support, Carol Milner.Thursday January 28th pm Council Meeting at Woodford B.C. EVENTS AROUND THE FELLOWSHIP: Friday 18th December 2015 Snowman Drive 6.30 pm Carey B.C. King Street Kettering NN16 8QL CHRISTMAS ACROSS THE FELLOWSHIP BURTON LATIMER Sunday 13 th Christmas Cantata Saturday 19 th Carol singing at Sainsbury s Sunday 20 th Family Carol Service Christmas Eve Midnight Service Family Christmas Day Service CAREY Sunday 20 th Christmas Family Service Carols by Candlelight Christmas Day Service at Rockingham Road RINGSTEAD 6.00 pm am 6.00 pm pm am am 6.15 pm 10:00 am Sunday 6 th "Carols Round the Tree" Dodson & Horrell County Store, including switching on the Christmas Tree lights pm Thursday 17 th "Carols for All" and mince pies 2.30 pm Sunday 20 th Family Carol Service am Christmas Day Worship for all the Church Family am Sunday 27 th Cafe-Style Service WOODFORD Sunday 20 th Christmas Family Service Carol Service Christmas Day Celebration am am 3:00 pm 10:30 am

2 NEWS FROM THE FELLOWSHIP GREETINGS FROM GRETTON We are going through an exciting period at Gretton. For three years the only two children in the church were my two and now we have a crèche, children s group and a group for teenagers. We could have 20 young people there on a Sunday. We also have an alpha group running which is going well and it is so exciting to see the work God is doing in people. We had our festival in the summer which many in the church believe to be the best we have held so far and we are now planning for next year. The worship group from Rutland who came this year were wonderful and contributed hugely to the evenings and will be back again next year. Overall we look forward to seeing new and more exciting things as the Lord continues His work. We are still praying for more children s and young people s workers as this is always a need as the groups grow, but we are also very short of musicians and we are praying that God will raise up people to fulfil these roles. One sadness I have had is that we closed our evening service about 8 months ago, apart from a monthly communion service. We had to recognise that few ever attended and that it was a long term trend. We also had to accept that sometimes something must die for something new to grow; and so it has proved. One or two people came forward from the church family and now we have a worship evening once a month, usually on the third Sunday and it is proving to be popular. I have no doubt that over time it will grow and evolve as God leads. We are so grateful to God for all He is doing and we pray that our eyes will remain firmly fixed on Him. Peter Rev. Peter Lloyd February News: Rowlett Road & Thrapston GREETINGS FROM RINGSTEAD In terms of the big picture the past 9 months or so have been quite uncertain. Things have not worked out as they seemed to be doing, nor as we expected them to. We believe that the Lord s timing is always better than ours but we can fret! If everything works as we now expect it to (!) we should soon be welcoming Robert and Carel Shehane from Texas to be our American Interim Pastors, initially for a 6-month period. They are a retired couple who have worked as missionaries in Guadeloupe and France as well as having ministered in the USA. There have not been many Baptist churches in the UK that have been down this route but all the ones we have spoken to have been very positive about their experience of this way of working. We are very much looking forward to this new phase of our life as a church. We are planning an informal welcome service for Saturday 20 th February and you will all be invited so put the date in your diaries! We expect them to arrive in the third week in January, so in a few weeks before Christmas and the first few weeks in January we have to scurry round, decorate, fully furnish our manse and find a car for them to drive whilst here! Also if everything works as we now expect it to, we hope that Patrick, Rachel and Samuel will be well on the way to being settled into their next area of ministry. We have appreciated their time with us, as have many others e.g. through the School of Prayer and we do pray that the Lord's will becomes clear for them (before this is published!). In February, also we have planned a session with Revd Colin Pye one of our regional ministers to help us think through how as a church we should develop over the next few years. Traditional churches are dying, we have to change! Ringstead Shared Church

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9 Keith Mitchell

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