In this section we publish stories and features of longer-lasting
interest than
News items. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
In this section we publish stories and features of longer-lasting
interest than
News items. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
During the three years to 2004, Wellspring Church, Congleton, have hosted eight children. They come from Belarus – a country north-west of the Ukraine, which took the bulk of the radiation fall-out when the nuclear reactor at Chernobyl exploded in April 1985. The fall-out was 100 times greater than that of the atomic bomb at Hiroshima. Parts of Belarus are completely devastated and most of the rest of the country is heavily contaminated with nuclear radiation. Nearly all the children born today suffer from radiation sicknesses, and everything they eat and drink, even the air they breathe, is contaminated. Chernobyl Children's Lifeline brings groups of children over for a month’s rest and recuperation. Their life expectancy is 26-28 years but a month here, with clean air and uncontaminated food and water, can give them an extra two years of life. Wellspring raise money to pay for the children to come to Congleton. In 2003 this was nearly £5,000. While they are with us the church organise things like picnics, canal trips and sightseeing visits. Wellspring also arrange dental treatment for the children. There is no anaesthetic in Belarus. One girl had a tooth pulled out by her father with pincers! Treatment is very generously given free by our local dentists. And one of our girls who needed spectacles was given them free by the Congleton branch of Specsavers. It isn’t easy having these children. They are young (9-11), not well, far from home and speak a foreign language. But it is so very, very rewarding. We are always looking for more people to join our group. Please contact us at Wellspring Church if you can help. Kath Leather [Based
on an article in The Link, |
|
|
Victorian time capsule in Lichfield At a recent General Church Meeting at Lichfield Methodist Church, business was interrupted by the arrival of a time capsule from 1891 that had been unearthed during building work. The glass jar contained church documents, coins and newspapers: two local newspapers dated 7th August 1891 and a copy of the Methodist Recorder dated 6th August 1891. Three coins – a penny, halfpenny and farthing – also carried the 1891 date. Finally there was a local preaching plan for the Circuit and a list of the Trustees. |
'Network' Support for Zimbabwe Orphanage The project has raised £15,000 during the Network District Presidency of Bronwen Degg. The orphanage is at Karoi in the north of the country, more than 100 miles from Harare by air. The staff are of many Christian denominations. We have received emails from a missionary called Dini. Things have been very difficult for the orphanage. At one stage they were on amber alert: ready to move out. The children are all ages from babies upwards. Some money is used to buy maize meal, water and electricity. Even so, many get sickness and diarrhoea and some die. The money also pays for baby clothing, cots and sheets. And the bigger children get school fees (yes, they do have to pay for schooling) and their uniforms. During the summer of 2004 Dini had to go back to her own home which meant that we lost contact and thus could not provide more money for the orphanage. Margaret Dean |
|
|
Congleton to be a Fair Trade Town? Chester, Stoke-on-Trent, Stockport and Liverpool are just a few examples of Fair Trade Cities. See details on Chester at www.fairtrade. org.uk/towns_chester.htm. Chester-and-Stoke Methodist District also aims to attain Fair Trade status. Locally, we will be campaigning for Congleton to become a Fair Trade town. Five goals need to be met: |
|
| >> Council to pass
a resolution supporting Fairtrade and agree to serve Fairtrade coffee
and tea at meetings and in offices and canteens. Fairtrade products
should be served in local catering
establishments.
>> Fairtrade products to be used in a number of local work places and community organisations >> Achieve media coverage and popular support for the campaign. >> A local Fairtrade steering group should be convened to ensure continued commitment to Fairtrade Town status.
|
||
|
|
Circuit's choir spread their wings During a period of a few months the choir led worship at Congleton Edge, Davenport, Gawsworth, Key Green, Lower Withington, Rood Lane, Trinity and Wellspring churches. |
 |
Fair Trade Group in Congleton Area At an initial meeting in May 2004, at Westwood House, representatives of Congleton Methodist Circuit and Congleton Team Parish (Church of England) agreed that individual churches and Congleton Town itself should aim for Fair Trade Status (see article above). |
In
keeping with this outward looking attitude, the choir have members from Bosley,
Brookhouse Green and Wellspring, as well as their original members, from
Trinity.
We find that the people who listen to us have a very wide range of tastes in music. As a result, the 'sets' of music we sing have encompassed styles ranging all the way from Bach to the Blues. On a Palm Sunday evening we sang two medleys of hymns, anthems and songs for a large, appreciative congregation drawn from many churches and denominations. And we have a project to sing a full Choral Communion to a contemporary setting. The commitment, good humour and fellowship of the choir members never cease to astonish and delight me. I have been involved with the choir since 1977 and still find it hugely enjoyable. |
|
| In the same
month, Dennis Wood of Trinity
Methodist Church met with the town mayor, Margaret Williamson, who was
very supportive.
She agreed to suggest to the Town Clerk’s office that they |
We
always welcome new members. If you have the faith to sing, why not
come and join us? You can |
|
|
use Fair Trade Tea & Coffee, suggest to the Chief Executive that he talk to the group, and commit to using Fair Trade Tea & Coffee at her fund-raising events,. She also asked the group to do a 15 minute presentation to the Town Council. |
Gordon
Ball, [From
an article published in The Messenger, |
|
|
[From the 'Devil's Dictionary' by Ambrose Bierce (1842 – c1914)] EULOGY –
Praise of a person who has either the advantages of wealth and power, or the consideration to be dead |
One day a group of scientists got together and decided that man had come a long way and no longer needed God. They picked one scientist to go and tell Him that they were done with Him. The scientist walked up to God and said, "God, we've decided that we no longer need you. We're
at the point where we can clone people and do many miraculous things, so why don't you just go on and get lost." |
|
|
|
||
|
'motivating
and mobilising the church to missions' (See also the Vision for a new mission at Wellspring) |
|
|
| MiA Aims and Objectives | MiA Launch Event | 'Take my Hand' Appeal |
| The
aim of MiA is to promote missions.
MiA is non
denominational, with strong and active international links.
We firmly believe that every person in every church should be involved in missions. This is not something reserved for a select few. MiA was established under the umbrella of Wellspring Methodist Church, Congleton. The way this works is for us to run the MiA programme in churches, explaining God’s view of mission (Biblical Mandate), giving information, encouraging and then assisting the local church and individual members to form links with individual missionaries. |
To
achieve the goal of MiA we need to gain access
into churches and to individuals. The most effective way of doing
this is through a ‘ripple effect’, i.e. by word of mouth.
A church that has been inspired by MiA to establish new mission activities or revive existing ones is likely to recommend MiA to others. We felt that the best way forward was to get people to come to us, and that the best way to do that was to run an event that feels different, exciting, interesting and big. Therefore we held a major Launch Event in June 2004. Called Mission Made Easy, it was a day of fun and education for all the family. There were community based projects from around the world, including AIDS care, Health Clinics and job creation in Africa, plus inner city work in Stoke and Manchester. Alongside all this we had a strong cast of international speakers. |
Take
my hand is a simple yet very effective way in which we
can continue to raise money and promote projects.
The staff in different ministries take the handprints of the children in their care. Each print will have the name, age and location of a child. These are then framed (in the UK) and sold for £5 each. Administration and production costs (transportation, framing, etc.) are low. A really high proportion of the money will go back to the specific ministries. Over the next 5 years we aim to sell a million handprints! This will raise a huge amount of money for the various ministries. We are developing practical plans to make even this awe inspiring objective achievable. |
|
Angie
Lewis, |
||
|
|
||
 |
||
|
This is Magazine Page 2 |
|
|
