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After many years of fish and chips on the beach at Dunwich, Eric Spurgeon announced a new and exciting venue “Sidcup Manor” and a stop off at Southend beach and pleasure park on the way home.  We duly assembled at Stanway Chapel at 10 am for coffee, singing ‘One day at a Time’ (appropriate for our age group) and a quick !! thought for the day from Pastor Eric.

We were well prepared with our sticks, zimmers and Harold brought his scooter - our buckets and spades and sun cream for the beach. Kings Coaches provided us with a lovely smooth ride for our lunch stop at “Sidcup Manor”.  We had all brought our National Trust passes. “Sidcup Manor” had been a stately home with an impressive driveway and gardens but was now a “Beefeater restaurant” !!!   

We forgave Eric because the ambience and the food was magnificent. The steak and ale pie was the favourite and each portion would have fed a family of six in the war. Duly fed and watered we proceeded to Southend like excited school children on a Sunday school outing. The men had rolled their trousers up and the ladies were applying sun cream as the big dipper came into view.

Because it was August the seafront was crowded and the driver drove slowly along looking for a place to stop to let us all off. We had a lovely view of the front at Southend and even a glimpse of the sea and the pier.  As we neared the end of Southend’s “Golden Mile” the driver said I’m sorry I can’t stop, we will proceed to the serenity of the Alton Garden Centre at Wickford !!

Some of us breathed a sigh of relief because steak pie and the big dipper is a dangerous combination. The weather was fine so we were able to enjoy the garden centre and even found space for cups of tea and cakes. In addition to plants there were lots of ‘goodies’ on sale so we were able to stock up on a few Christmas presents. We arrived back at Stanway Chapel safe and sound and we all agreed that Eric’s senior mystery tour had been a great success.  Thank you Eric for a lovely trip and we look forward to next year.

John Knight

To all who

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Think Gift Aid

It is easy to give as you please with no fixed amount and the  Church receives extra money.

See Keith Groom

Eric’s Senior Mystery Tour

Passion of Jesus Christ

By John Piper

For many the crucifixion of Christ is a subject that is only dealt with at Easter and during communion. However in this book, American pastor and theologian John Piper gives 50 reasons why Jesus had to die, some well known and others not. The book is ideally suited for a 'Chapter A Day' approach and is written in such a way that makes the most complicated of doctrines easy to understand! Piper’s style of writing is captivating and his love of scripture evident. This is a great book for all ages and deserves a place on every Christian’s bookshelf!        

Click to download a full PDF copy of the

Lighthouse

Book Review

I read these words on a sign placed on the counter in a shop whilst on holiday. “I aim to please one person a day. Today is not your day, and tomorrow is not looking too good either”.

Prior to this on the journey to our destination, we stopped off at Coventry. As I alighted from the coach, two ladies walked towards me. One said, “Are you visiting?” to which I replied “Yes”. “I hope you like the area” the lady said. I thanked her very much. It was a nice sunny day so we got a bite to eat and found a small garden to enjoy the sun and food. A gardener came up to us with sheers and secateurs in hand. “Are you visiting, and if so how long are you here for?”  I replied again, “Yes, but we’re not here long enough to help with any gardening”. He smiled and we chatted. He left us and was back inside two minutes with a map of the area, his mark on the map where we were and said, “I hope you find it helpful”.

From the garden we made our way up the street towards the cathedral. Coming into view were the ruins of the old one on one side and the cathedral itself on the other. I am standing there looking up and down, all round me on both sides, when a ladies voice says, “Are you lost? May I help you?”  I thanked her for her interest and said, “I am admiring and absorbing the sights and views around me”.

It was later in the week I read those words on the sign in the shop, but I thought of those occasions in Coventry when three people in the space of two hours made it their aim to try and please someone.

Are you thinking as I was at that time? What is your aim?

Graham Theobald

What is your aim?

It’s the middle of August and I’m sitting at work beginning to write an article regarding relevant outreach. I must now add that I’ve got time to write this as the rain is coming down and nobody wants to swim outside. And that is a great place to start this article. How many times have you moaned about the rain?

“Oh this rain has ruined my day”  Yet on a Sunday afternoon you tuck into bright fresh carrots and big fluffy cauliflower. We should be thanking God for giving us rain showers to provide the soil with the water to grow the crops. Wouldn’t we by doing this be showing people who are not Christians that becoming a Christian changes a lot of how you see the world.

So we’re dealing with God who has no shape, form, edges, boundaries or limits because there is no end to God, which we need to remember. God then can turn up anywhere through anything to connect with anyone.

As you may or may not know I love to listen to music and love to play music when I DJ. A lot of people have asked me recently   “Are you a Christian DJ?”

I find the question very difficult to understand as you wouldn’t ask a chef cooking you a meal in your favourite restaurant in town if he’s a Christian chef. I’m a Christian yes but a Christian DJ playing only Christian songs no.

Rob Bell put it like this in his book ‘Velvet Elvis’

“Music is already worship, music is praise, music is sacred, music is Good”

This statement from Rob Bell is great and required me to think a lot about it. Paul said ‘For everything God created is Good’ God created everything which means that a song with a heavy, loud repetitive beat which isn’t ‘labelled’ Christian could outreach to somebody who is choosing their faith.

It must however be added that all music can be corrupted for purposes other than God intends.

And it is also possible that music labelled ‘Christian’ can be awful, lacking inspiration and through that, Christian labelled music could be giving God a bad name.

So what I’m trying to say is outreach needs to be relevant and connect to the real world today.

From reading the Bible I’ve learnt that God does not want to recover His original dream for creation, He wants to take it much further.

Genesis begins with a Garden, Revelation a City, God want to move this world forwards and ensure we bring as many people on this wave to save as possible.

In Jesus Name Amen.

Am I a Christian DJ?

A personal view by Dale Connelly

Half Term Holiday Club

This October half term saw SEC hold our first holiday club for child-ren from 5 – 11 years.  This club proved to be a real success with the emphasis in our first year being Quality rather than Quantity. We had over the course of the week 25 different children register, some of which were known to the church and many not known. There were many reasons this holiday club was a success, none greater than knowing our awesome God was in control! He had not only brought to us Chris & Sue Govus to lead the club, but the team of people He had brought together to actively support the club proved in many ways to be one of its successes. The amount of work involved in running this club before and after was at times over- whelming, but our God had brought together a team of committed people excited about seeing Him work in these children’s lives, and through Him this became our strength for the task ahead.

Each morning started with the team coming together for prayer before the children arrived at 9.45am. Once registered in each day, the children would sign up for which craft they would like to do later on in the morning. This choice would differ daily and there would be about five choices available.  All children had been split into three teams and given team names from the Disciples of the Galileans theme. Each team had a leader who was assisted by other adults and older children helpers. As the children and their families arrived there would be a Mr Bean film running in the main church, the children would watch this giving the team time to chat with parents.

Once all children were in and settled we would start with a theme song with lots of actions. Children were encouraged to bring items along daily to earn extra points for their team, anything with a beach theme. Over the course of the week the children had made banners, posters and many other props that displayed their team name. They were also encouraged to bring along friends as well as complete daily biblical challenges and it was at this time rewards were given via team points for all their efforts.   We would then play our first game of the day which was named “What’s the Catch”. The children loved this and it aroused a very healthy level of competitive banter. The aim of this game was for the team to try and catch as close to 153 fish as they could to score the maximum points.

Following this game daily would be an observational film. The teams had to watch this, and afterwards answer 5 questions about the film to earn points for their team. Next we carried out a couple more action songs before sitting down to a drama sketch representing a well known story from each of the biblical team names.

Following the sketch it was amazing to see the children respond in different ways about the story they had just heard. Hearing what they were learning about Jesus come straight from their mouths became the joy and encouragement for all the leaders. We were then led through a 2 minute aerobic session to music with lots of action before then stopping for a break.

Daily we had a different team of helpers from the fellowship come and prepare squash and biscuits for the children and tea and coffee for the leaders. Children would then start their chosen craft which they had signed up to. All crafts had a biblical theme and all leaders at this point used this opportunity to sit down with the children and get to know them a bit better as well as help them with their craft.  On completion of the craft we returned back into the main church in our teams to play “Lob the Lobster”, again this generated lots of team noise and healthy banter in an aim to earn their teams more points. After “Lob the Lobster” the child-ren learnt to sign the Lord’s Prayer. This was an amazingly perfect way of not only teaching the children the prayer but also giving them the signs to help them to remember it.

Our final game of the day was named “Shark Attack”. It was at this point the teams maximised their scores to try and ensure there team leaders were not “Dunked”. The aim of this game was to try and get five fish to the safety of the “rock”, by answering questions correctly from the story they had learnt earlier on in the morning. Following this the winning team were awarded the fish trophy and the leader of the losing team prepared to get wet!  We would like to thank the fellowship for their support both in prayers and financially to enable this holiday club to take place. The difference this has made in these children’s lives and their understanding of Jesus is amazing. Some of the comments made by the children included:

“I wish God was in our family” – from a 5 year old to her Mum. “Can you pray with me please” – from an 8 year old to a leader.

Children also wrote their prayers at home and brought them to attach to the ‘Prayer Net’.  These prayers are now displayed in the school room.

So now the Church seating has been put back and the leaders t-shirts boxed up, but we believe that God has birthed this children’s mission as a yearly outreach.  We learnt a lot of lessons through the week - including how cold the water was on the leaders head in the gunk tank!  Please pray not only for the children that attended this mission, that they may return and join our existing activities, but also  that God will direct us as a fellowship in how we should continue in our outreach of the holiday club in 2011.

Blessings Nigel & Mandy Drew

Proverbs 22 v 6 – Train a child in the way he should go and when he is old he will not turn from it