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Gareth leads our April online Prayer Together with some thoughts about Easter.

14 members enjoyed the opportunity of coming together to share in a Communion service to commence our Easter reflections and celebrations.

Faith led us in a beautiful time of readings, poems and Easter songs:

Philippians 2 v 5-11
Song: 290 Jesus is Lord
Prayer
Poem: A Beautiful Thing
Song: 780 How deep the Father’s love for us
Isaiah 53 v 1-6
Song: 596 When I survey the wondrous cross
Isaiah 53 v 7-12
Song: There is a Redeemer
Poem: Greater Love
Matthew 26 v 26-30
Communion
Song: 1346 In Christ alone
Prayer
Sung vesper

We finished our time together with a cup of tea and hot cross buns! 

Happy Easter from everyone at Thursday Fellowship.

We welcomed back Dr Ruth Butlin who gave us an update on the work of The Leprosy Mission.  Ruth has just returned from a trip to India to attend the Mission’s 150th Anniversary.

The link below gives a very interesting account of Ruth’s journey with the Mission:

https://www.leprosymission.org/the-leprosy-missions-150th-anniversary/the-leprosy-missions-heroes/ruth-butlin-tlm-hero

Many communities in the Odisha State region of India are in desperate need. People with leprosy have been abandoned.  They endure terrible living conditions  – unsafe housing, lack of sanitation and unclean water where disease is rife.  Bodies are frail and malnourished.  Many are outcasts left heart-broken, robbed of all dignity, hope and despised by the outside world.

This is where The Leprosy Mission steps in with an aim to stop the spread of leprosy, now and for future generations. They passionately believe that God has called them for “such a time as this”, a time to revive health, revive futures and revive hope. 

Ruth told us about the appeal to revive this very poor region of India and we were all given a leaflet with details of how we could support this work if so desired.

Ruth’s heart is really with the Anandaban Hospital, having worked there, (See Ruth’s story above), especially after the devastating earthquake in 2015.  The rebuilding work was due to be completed this year but there is a little way to go, so the meeting agreed to channel our love offering of £160 to this project via Ruth.

We look forward to hearing further news of the work in the email updates Ruth sends out from time to time. Watch this space!

Another lovely afternoon as Lorna Sivyour, who has been coming to us for over 30 years, brought along her violin to play some beautiful classical pieces of music and to speak to us about creation and cleansing.

Lorna’s inspiration for creation was Michelangelo’s painting of the Creation of Adam where God reached out his finger to impart the gift of life. Her second thought about cleansing and forgiveness, came from the account of the woman caught in adultery where Jesus, writing with his finger in the sand, did not condemn the woman but told her accusers, John 8 v 7 (NIV)“Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.” 

The first piece of music was Elgar’s Virelai followed by his very familiar Nimrod (Enigma Variations).

Lorna then reminded us of Romans 1 v 20 (NIV), “For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities – His eternal power and divine nature – have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.” When we look around at all the beauty, how can one say that it has evolved? God’s handiwork is everywhere!

None of us our perfect.  We have all sinned. Yet God does not condemn us.  We are dearly loved and we are accepted just as we are.  We are VIPs (very important people) yet we are WIPs (Works in progress).

Lorna challenged us to keep our eyes on Jesus and to spend time in the Word.

The last piece Lorna played was Rimsky-Korsakov’s, Scheherazade. We then finished our time together singing one of Lorna’s favourite worship songs, Strength will rise as we wait upon the Lord – You are the Everlasting God. Amen to that!

15 members were present for a wonderful afternoon of music, worship and reflection led by our visitor today, Rosemary Kemp.  It is always a joy to welcome Rosemary to our meeting and her thoughts were very much focused on ‘Music in worship’. 

Sue kicked-off our time with some verses to set the tone – Sing to Him, sing praise to Him; tell of all His wonderful acts. 1 Chronicles 16 v 9 – so says King David.

Come, let us sing for joy to the Lord; let us shout aloud to the Rock of our salvation. Let us come before Him with thanksgiving and extol Him with music and song. Psalm 95 v 1-2.

Rosemary was exposed to music from a very early age and started learning the piano at the age of three. To Rosemary, music is a language; a gift from God, with a responsibility to share it with others and a way of worshipping.

Sometimes, words are not enough and music can give you a way of expressing your emotions and feelings.

Rosemary delighted us with some familiar tunes, tunes so powerful and majestic that they don’t need words for meaning as they carry so much emotion. Rosemary called them, standalone pieces, e.g.

Jean Sibelius’s Finlandia – perhaps better known as “We rest on Thee, our Shield and our Defender.” (I have to confess that I was very moved by this.) and Johann Sebastian Bach’s Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring. 

Music can be very enriching in a service of worship.  We can come alive and/or it has the power to make one feel at home and part of what is happening even if someone is new to the environment. Some people express themselves in dance and flag waving and even playing instruments so that everyone is catered for and can feel part of our coming together to worship God and to bring Him honour, praise and glory.

We were able to join in with some beautiful worship songs as our response to what we had heard and enjoyed:

SOF 544 There is a Redeemer – Melody Green
SOF 912 Lord, You have my heart – Martin Smith
SOF 89 Faithful One – Brian Doerksen
SOF 1850 Holy Spirit, Living Breath of God – Keith Getty & Stuart Townend
SOF 203 I believe in Jesus – Marc Nelson

Rosemary also delighted us with some unfamiliar pieces – 

Ludovico Einaudi’s Primavera which means spring was particularly lovely and very appropriate for this time of year. A Chopin waltz was a piece of music which sounded just like a conversation was taking place and the composer was asking us to “listen to me!” It had a language all of its own!

At the end, we had an opportunity to be still (which is of course our motto for the year), to rest in His presence, to meditate while Rosemary played Debussy’s Arabesque.

A very uplifting afternoon – thank you  Rosemary for blessing us!

Further to our post on the 10th March, we have received an update from Paddy:

I attach a photo of the meeting last Friday (14th March) which was attended by over 600 pastors, including all major denominations. Also in attendance were 15 senior church leaders, e.g., an Anglican bishop, key leaders in Presbyterian, Methodist, URC, Evangelical churches etc. The theme of the meeting was from Psalm 11 v 3 (“if the foundations are destroyed what shall the righteous do”), the book of Joel 1 v 14 (“proclaim a solemn assembly”) and from the book of Esther where Mordecai declares 4 v 14 (“for if you remain completely silent at this time, relief and deliverance will arise for the Jews from another place,  yet who knows if you have come to the kingdom for such a time as this”). The church and country of Kenya stand at similar cross-roads.

The gathering agreed that the church would not take any government money and would not allow the government the use of their pulpits for their messages.

The next step is the “Solemn Assembly”. This is to be a large (possibly 100,000 strong) meeting/rally of Christians to discuss what is happening in the country and with the church, AND to pray. They will organise this for the 27th April.

Daniel has asked that we pray for this assembly and for him personally – that he would have God’s favour at this time, (remember he has a role in organising and leading these meetings), and like Moses, for the Lord to “show him His glory”.

The following is the report from 10th March 2025 to give some context to the latest update:

We have been asked to pray for our friend Daniel Gitau and his fellow church leaders at this time. Paddy Taylor writes, “When Daniel returned to Kenya last summer, it was to see people on the streets protesting and general uproar in the country. There was a downward spiral of events, too long to detail here, and President Ruto, who was the candidate that Daniel and other senior church leaders had endorsed, turned out to now be making very bad decisions, including, allegedly bribing thugs to intimidate any opposition to his office. The church has had to distance themselves from him. However, Ruto has also allegedly bribed some church leaders to speak up for him and condone his actions leading to a quite confused state within the church. Daniel is really upset about how things have developed. He and the other leaders he knows well, including leaders of most of the major denominations, have decided they need to act to help change the bitter feelings in the country. They plan to meet with a large group of Pastors this Friday coming (14th March) and talk to them about what they see happening in the country and pray with them. Following that they shall organise a “Solemn Assembly” of Christians (they anticipate around 100 000 plus), to pray for the country and to seek God’s help in the current problems, specifically the difficulties being caused by President Ruto.”

Pray for wisdom and discernment for Daniel – on top of all the ministry issues, he has this kind of pressure to deal with! Pray for his fellow, non-corrupt church leaders, that they would be granted wisdom and would be of one heart and mind. Please pray for the Lord to intervene in the country as these believers seek Him and as they seek to speak truth into this situation. Pray too for protection for Daniel and his family.

Troubled by what is happening in the world? Not sure how to pray? Let’s do it together! Jane leads our online prayer opportunity for March. Click on the link below to access the video:

https://www.facebook.com/downsbaptistchurch/videos/973761664470030

17 members joined us for the first meeting of our spring and summer session on what was a beautiful, sunny and warm spring day. It was so good to be back all together and what a special meeting it was!

Sue led us beautifully and introduced our motto for the year – Psalm 46 v 10a – “Be still and know that I am God.”

We had the opportunity to be still for two minutes and to focus on God. Surprisingly to Sue, everyone found that quite easy to do and seemed not to be distracted by the sounds from outside or wandering thoughts!

We then thought about some of the things that can help us focus better, like listening to a favourite worship CD, looking at a picture (Sylvia brought in a small picture of Holman Hunt’s ‘Light of the world’), holding a small wooden cross (a few of our number use these), lighting a candle, being out in nature and enjoying God’s creation, sitting by the sea and gazing up at the stars. All of these can help us to be still and to not just know of God but to really KNOW Him in our hearts and in our lives!

Sue had chosen some beautiful songs and readings which helped all of us to reflect that God is indeed our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble (Psalm 46 v 1), of which there is so much in this world.

We were all given a bookmark to take home and to keep close so that we can be reminded to take time to be still and know that He is God!