For the last few years a group has been working to establish a Leith churches together holiday club for the summer holidays.  Around 80 children registered for the programme run by volunteers from 9 local congregations.

Is this something you would like to know more about or be part of for 2010?  No matter your age or experience, you are invited to a launch evening to find out more, and for the opportunity to get involved in the planning, set up, prayer or kids’ teams.

Where: Ebenezer Church

When:  Monday 22^nd February

Time: 7.30 p.m. – 8.30 p.m.

See posters in Abbeyhill church vestibule or call 445-9918 for more information.

(a)  the position of Church Officer will not be filled in the meantime;

(b)  the flat in 25 Elgin Terrace will be rented out;

(c)  cleaning duties during the week will be done on a voluntary  basis, alternate weeks being done by a volunteer member of the church (who has committed until at least the end of May) and the Polish Speaking church  (to be ratified at their church meeting in February);

(d)  provision for Sunday duties needs lots of folk in the church family to become involved and step up to the various responsibilities, not just the Deacons.

More information will be given about Sunday duties in the next few Sunday morning services.

Time of meeting:

First Friday of every month

Leader:

Craig Sayle

Number attending:

15 – 30

Aims:

Encourage believers through fellowship and worship in an informal setting; build bridges with the community with a view to sharing about the Lord.

Prayer chain

Requests for prayer for specific, urgent needs within the church family sent out by Craig Sayle to members of the land-line group, the text group and the e-mail group.

This is a most remarkable puzzle.  It was found by a gentleman in an air-plane seat pocket, on a flight from Los Angeles to Honolulu, keeping him occupied for hours.  He enjoyed it so much that he passed it on to some friends.  One friend from Illinois worked on this while fishing from his John-boat.  Another friend studied it while playing his banjo.  Elaine Taylor, a columnist friend, was so intrigued by it, she had it in her weekly newspaper column.

Another friend judges the job of solving this puzzle so involving that she brews a cup of tea to help her nerves.  There will be some names that are really easy to spot.  That’s a fact!  Some people, however, will soon find themselves in a jam, especially since the books are not necessarily capitalised.  Truthfully, from answers we get, we are forced to admit it usually takes a minister or scholar to see some of them at the worst.  Research has shown that something in our genes is responsible for the difficulty we have in seeing the books in these paragraphs.  During a recent fundraising event, the Alpha Delta Phi-Lemonade booth set a new sales record.

The local paper, the Chronicle, surveyed over fifty patrons who reported that this puzzle was one of the most difficult they had even seen.  As Daniel Humana humbly puts it, “the books are all right here in plain view, hidden from sight.”  Those able to find all of them will hear great lamentations from those who have to be shown.  One revelation that may help is that books Timothy and Samuel appeared with their numbers.  Also, keep in mind that punctuation and space in the middle are normal.  A chipper attitude will help you to compete really well against those who claim to know the answers.  Remember there is no need for a mass exodus; there really are thirty books of the Bible lurking somewhere in these paragraphs and waiting to be found.

Prize from the Editor for first correct answer !!

Clearly the church family needs more explanation about these groups and the Leadership hope that the following will help to clarify things.  The three groups are: an Evangelism Team; a Publicity Team and a Planning Team.

Evangelism Team:  The idea is that the Evangelism Team identifies                   possible events.  The folk on this team then commit, as appropriate,                   to being at the event and conversing with those who attend the                   events so building links with the community and of course taking any                   opportunity which arises to share the gospel.

Planning Team:  The Planning Team has the task of identifying the                   different activities involved in the event and making sure that each                   of these is organised properly.

Publicity Team:  The Publicity Team has the task of arranging the                   types of publicity required for the event and deciding how things                   should be communicated, displayed or distributed.  The publicity                   would naturally include all the times, dates etc.

All three teams are essential for any event to run smoothly and to ensure that the outreach element is at the centre of what is done. The teams which are already working on events for Easter are currently composed as follows:

Evangelism Team:  Adrian Currie, Liz Forrester, Tam Macaulay, Jane                   MacLeod and Craig and Elyse Sayle.

Planning Team:  Dorothy Nisbet, Russell Simpson, Patricia Tweeddale,                   Mark and Louise Whatmough.

Publicity Team:  Adrian Currie, Eddie McGill and Sandy Rose.

If you would like to know any more about the Teams or to become involved in any of the Teams, please speak with Craig.

Lynne Brown in Angola ~ Fiona Welsh (Jack Welsh’s niece) is currently on a short-term assignment in Mozambique while she waits for a new visa for her mission work in Angola.  Pray she will get her visa soon.

Kathleen Burns in Uganda ~ Pray healing, strength and grace to cope for Kathleen as she has an inner ear infection affecting her balance and also an intestinal infection (bilharazia).

James and kirsty Robertson ~ Pray for James and Kirsty who have been attending their Field Conference and then James will be one of the facilitators and Kirsty one of the attendees at the Jonathan Training Course 11^th-25^th February.  They then return to this country for HA on 26^th February.

Johnny and Kristine Fisher in Austria ~ There was a church meeting at the end of January to see how they should respond to the challenge of welcoming and integrating foreigners in Linz and in their church. It was a big encouragement to the Fishers that there was a real sense of the whole church being involved in responding to this challenge, and it wasn´t just a wish list for the leadership team to implement.

Bee and Blaise Theroz in Switzerland ~ Bee has been having increasing opportunities with Thai ladies while continuing to study French, while Blaise is still proceeding with his application to OMF.

C o n g r a t u l a t I o n s

Stephen & Jane and James MacLeod on the safe arrival of

Seraphim Jane on Tuesday 19^th January

How did the church have enough money to replace the lost Bibles so that it’s back to one per seat?

Answer:

For those who don’t know the background to this question, there used to be just a few Bibles scattered about the church. Then in 2005 the church was altered.  When we got back in for services at the beginning of 2006 some folk were led by God to give money to provide Bibles for every seat. It was, therefore, possible to purchase 100 bibles.   By 2009 about half of these Bibles had disappeared from the church. So for a time there was only one Bible approximately every two seats.

Two things then happened independently: the Bible Society had a bargain offer on for 20 Bibles that couldn’t be ignored; numbers attending having decreased some chairs were removed from the church.  So Bibles were once again available on every seat, although there were not so many seats!

You may be interested to hear that since the 20 extra bibles were purchased in 2009 we have already lost 10 of them. The church finances being what they are at present, we’re unlikely to replace Bibles in the near future. If the losses only occurred because a few folk neither had access to a Bible nor could afford to buy one, there wouldn’t be much of a problem. The real problem comes when people just walk off with a Bible or take them for use elsewhere and don’t return them.  So if you do come across any of the Bibles in a strange place, please return them to the church!

This is the last of the questions to our treasurer.  However, if you have any further questions please don’t hesitate to approach Jennie, she is happy to help in any way she can.

If they do not find any dry rot in the flat roof above our sanctuary, they informally said that they reckon their work might take 2 weeks to carry out, though it could be longer.  This will therefore affect some church activities for a minimum of 2 weeks from 6^th February.