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November 2017

How about a REVERSE ADVENT CALENDAR this year?

  • 13 November 2017
  • liz.dyer

How many of us have an Advent calendar hanging in our house during December?

Do you look forward to opening the wee windows on that calendar every day and seeing what lies behind each?

Does yours have a picture? Does it have a little verse? Is there a gift? Or a sweet treat?

For some, an Advent calendar is a luxury that is out of the question. For some, even the most basic of items are unaffordable.

This is why, this year, our churches are asking you to make a 'Reverse Advent Calendar'.

How does it work?

Each day, instead of getting something for yoursself, we would love if you would put one item of food into a box.

On Christmas Eve morning (Sunday 24th Dec 9.45am at West Kirk or 11.15am at Polbeth Harwood Church) you can bring that box of food with you to church and put it under our tree. After the service, all the produce collected will be taken to our local Food Bank to ensure that many families will have something cheerier to look forward to over the festive period.

If you don't want to collect food, then you could put aside a coin each day and bring this along. Any funds collected will go to the Food Bank too.

Let's make Christmas great for as many people as possible this year!

November 2017 Letter

  • 1 November 2017
  • nanda.groenewald

Dear congregations

This time of yeaR is filled with R’s:

Reformation,
Remembrance, Red leaves
falling to the ground…

 It’s a time to Remember:

  • to remember the history of our church;
  • to remember those who gave their lives for their country during wars and time of unrest;
  • to remember, as we look at the changing seasons, that God is in control of our lives.

In the church; in the world; autumn, winter, spring, and summer – God is always in control. In the times when we can see it, and in the times we can’t; in the times when we feel His presence, and in the times we don’t…

We had such a lovely family holiday in Majorca during the October break. They boys played on the beach for hours, they swam in the sea and they made lots of new friends. And it reminded me so much of family holidays when I was a wee girl.

Nothing was the same – I grew up in a different country; the first time I set foot on an aeroplane was when I was 20 years old; my parents had a caravan so we never stayed in a hotel; yet it all felt so very similar. Laughing with my family, getting sand between my toes, eating ice cream almost every day… Many happy memories that I shared with the boys, and also new memories made for them to share with their own families one day.

But the anniversary of my mum’s death also falls in the October break. That’s also something I will never forget. But as the years move on, its different things I remember, and share with my boys – what an amazing person their granny was; how she would have loved their good sense of humour. I remember how sad I was at her funeral and how hard it was to get used to not having her around, but these things pale in comparison now to all the amazing things I remember doing with her and learning from her.

And that’s why it’s important to remember – so we can see how God helps us to keep going in the hard times, and how there are never only hard times, but plenty of good times too.

Seasons change, life changes, but the one thing that always stays the same is the love of God. It’s this love that gets us through the hard times, and this love that makes us enjoy the good times.

So let’s REMEMBER that this month.

May God bless you all.

Nanda