After a super birthday party at Faith’s home because of the local council elections on 4th May, we were back in the Parish Room of the Holy Cross to welcome Connie Croly on the 11th May.

Sue led our meeting reading Proverbs 3 v 5-6 and Psalm 91.  We sang, Be still and know that I am God, Father I place into your hands the things I cannot do, The Lord’s my Shepherd and Trust and obey to conclude. Wendy read the poem, Don’t throw away the lifeboat by Hilary Malpass. Sue’s thoughts were very much on trusting and as it turned out, so were Connie’s.

Connie shared tales from her life in the Salvation Army and very interesting they were too! Through the years God calls us and sometimes it can be so clear and you just need to respond positively.  Connie said that the following chorus was very special to her:

Just where He needs me, My Lord has placed me;
Just where He needs me, there would I be! 
And since He found me, by love He’s bound me To serve Him joyfully!
What can I do to ease life’s heavy burdens?
What can I do to help mankind in need?
Just where I am I’ll share my neighbour’s hardship, Lighten his load, and prove a friend indeed.

God always has work for us to do and that work is important. Connie encouraged us to trust Him in all things and get alongside people and share our story – even on a bus!

Let’s serve Him where we are placed.  Can you say, “speak, Lord, for your servant is listening!”

What He says we will do, where He sends we will go; never fear, only trust and obey.

Next week, we welcome Phil Cook.

Sue illustrated her talk on the second coming of Jesus with the exciting story of Sir Ernest Shackleton, who set out for Antarctica in 1914.

His ship, the ‘Endurance’ got trapped in pack ice.  For a time, they lived on the ship until it broke up, and they survived on the ice for some months.  Finally, they pulled three of the ship’s small boats through terrible conditions to reach open water, then sailed to an uninhabited island. The situation was desperate as many of the 28 men were ill, weak and frost-bitten.  They needed help!

Shackleton took one of the boats with 5 of his most experienced sailors through blizzards and dangerous seas to South Georgia, over 800 miles away leaving behind the remaining 22 under the trusted leadership of Frank Wild.

Every morning, Frank packed up his sleeping bag and said, “Get your things ready, boys – the Boss may come today!” Every day these men watched the horizon waiting for help to come. Many months passed until one day someone spotted a ship.  The ‘Boss’ had returned, as he had promised.

Every one of the crew went home, not one was lost.  What an incredible picture of the return of our Saviour, Jesus Christ! Luke 21 v 27, 28 and 36 – “Stand…lift up your heads…watch…and pray.”

Sue challenged us – Are we ready for our Lord’s return? Something to think about!

Interested in praying for your local school? Unsure of where to start?

Check out the resource below – Pray For Schools

TWTP-for-Schools_Online-v4

An initiative of CARE in England and Wales, in partnership with:

Youth for Christ
Free Churches Group
Prayer Spaces In Schools
Scripture Union
Association of Christian Teachers
Open the Book

At 7pm on Thursday 23rd March 2023, seven of us met in the building that was the first  real ‘home’ of what was named 100 years previously, Downs Free Church. The purpose was to mark the centenary of our church in Woodingdean, in the place where it all began – at least for Downs Church.

The weather forecast had predicted torrential rain and strong winds and this had kept many of our church family away. However the poignancy of the occasion was, I think, shared by the few of us present.

To set the scene, the building is now utilised as a garage which will indicate to you the space and surroundings in which we found ourselves. Chris Yeatman, the present owner, had very kindly strategically placed heaters to warm us as we sat around on garden furniture. We began our time as you can imagine, by drinking tea and coffee, eating cake and chatting about our surroundings. Chris spoke of what he knew of the family members who started the Church.

It was for the occasion. That is until we started to pray. At this point it felt as if our numbers had swelled! And when we began singing “There is a Redeemer,” It felt as though the building itself was singing with us!

What I want to say and I so hope that you, dear reader understand, is that Jesus was there and the Holy Spirit wrapped us in His embrace. I never want to forget that ‘feeling’ of rightness, of continuity, of the Power of God! I pray that He, as our power source, will carry this wonderful church family on with His strength through the next one hundred years and into eternity with Him.   

Report by Margaret Bradford

Original photos of Downs Free Church by Chris Yeatman – with kind permission.

A good number gathered for our Spring Lunch.  Lis spoiled us with homemade quiches and we enjoyed salad, new potatoes and coleslaw washed down with Schloer! A selection of desserts with ice cream and the customary After Eight mints followed. There were good conversations at the tables during our meal and then our dear friend Linn Davies sang some of her favourite worship songs with a short explanation as to why she had chosen each song.

There is a redeemer: Life can be complicated and there are many big questions but it is good to get back to simple truths.

The Lord’s my Shepherd – I will trust in You: As a blind person, Linn has to trust what people tell her so this song is special.

Great is the darkness: The world can seem horrible and depressing but we are not alone! Come, Lord Jesus – pour out Your Spirit.

Lord, I lift Your name on high: After the “sadness and lies” of the last song, this one is so cheerful!

Jesus, Jesus, Holy and Anointed One: This is such a pure and simple song – very reflective.

Jesus loves me this I know: Sung acapella In the style of Whitney Houston and Destiny’s Child! And very lovely it was too!

We closed our afternoon with the vesper – May the Lord bless you and keep you – singing it to each other.

Thanks go to our very hardworking Committee for making the afternoon so special and to Linn who blessed us with her lovely voice.

We welcomed back Keith & Laurel Barnes on the 13th April.

Keith told us about his attempts to trace back his family tree on the Barnes side and eventually went back as far as the 1600s. Although he found out the names of his ancestors, he didn’t know anything about them.  Keith contrasted that with what David says in Psalm 139 v 16, “Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in Your book before one of them came to be.” God knew what we were going to be like before we were!  How amazing is that!

David, in Psalm 139 considered just how great God is and he had a real understanding of where he stood. He knew that God was with him and for him and that his security was in Him and so should ours be!

Keith then referred to Psalm 121.  Our help doesn’t come from the hills but from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth. The Lord watches over us and our future hope and security is in Him.

Keith chose some songs for us this week and Faith used them all – and what a blessing they were too!

• • Fill thou my life, O Lord my God, in every part with praise, that my whole being may proclaim Thy being and Thy ways.
  • Have thine own way Lord.
  • Jesus, You are changing me.
  • All I once held dear – Knowing You Jesus, knowing You, there is no greater thing.

To know God and to make Him known

A WORSHIPPING CHURCH OF PEOPLE WHO PRAY AND FOLLOW THE TEACHING OF THE BIBLE.

Jesus said: “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” John 14 v 6

A WITNESSING CHURCH OF PEOPLE WHO SHARE OUR FAITH IN WORDS AND ACTIONS.

Jesus said: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbour as yourself.” Luke 10 v 27

We welcomed back Ann Dracott to our meeting on the 23rd March. Ann brought along some of her favourite jigsaws and engaged us all by asking us what was interesting about them! Many replies were given – here are a few: challenging; frustrating; patience needed; they come in all shapes and sizes; you have a picture to follow; good for the brain; you wonder if you’ll have all the pieces; you need good attention to detail; you don’t have to do it all at once or even on your own; satisfying when you finish it!

Ann then moved seamlessly onto the church as a body as recorded in 1 Corinthians 12 v 12 onwards. We discovered that there are many similarities with doing jigsaws namely, the body of Christ is made up of all different pieces, shapes and sizes but all are important and make up the big picture.  It is important for each member of the body to know how they fit into the whole, as a fully functioning, healthy body is honouring to God and essential to us serving the community in which we are placed.

Ann reminded us that you need at least two pieces for a puzzle – you can’t do it all on your own – we need each other!  God has set the framework and the boundaries and we need to find our unique place. What a challenge this is!  Let’s make sure that we are not the missing piece and that we take our place and play our part in building up the church!

Sue continued her series on the writers of the four Gospels and this week we finished with Matthew. Sue left Matthew till last because there is so little about him in the Bible!  It doesn’t really matter as all we really need to know is that he was chosen by Jesus.

What we do know is that he was Jewish, sometimes called Levi, son of Alphaeus and was an educated man and a tax-collector. When he was called, he rose up and followed Jesus and left everything except one thing – his pen! He used his pen and deep knowledge of the Old Testament to write down the sayings and teachings of Jesus in Aramaic and they were translated into Greek by others. The book of Matthew is very much a Gospel for the Jews relating the Old Testament prophecies about their long-awaited Messiah to their fulfilment in Jesus.

Matthew would have been despised because of his profession as most were dishonest but he left his comfortable life for a life on the road following an itinerant and unknown teacher. Jesus accepted him just as he was and because He befriended sinners and visited them in their homes, many came to follow Him when they heard His teaching and saw how He spoke and lived His life.  We thought about Zacchaeus another tax collector whose life was radically transformed after meeting Jesus and who may have known Matthew!

Sue challenged us to think about our attitudes towards people who have a bad reputation or whose lifestyle or preferences we don’t like or agree with! Do we really believe that God can transform lives?

We have all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God – Romans 3 v 23 yet when we meet Jesus and accept His call we are saved and changed by His undeserving grace because of God’s unfailing love for us.

We sang the lovely old hymn – “Just as I am” written by Charlotte Elliott to finish, but Sue concluded her talk with highlighting a particular verse:

Just as I am, thou wilt receive, wilt welcome, pardon, cleanse, relieve,

Because Thy promise, I believe, Oh Lamb of God, I come.

Faith led our time together and her focus was Romans 8 with the thought that nothing can separate us from the love of God.

It was a joy to welcome Wynn Funnell back to our meeting.  Wynn has been coming to share fellowship with us since 1999! 

Wynn started her talk by singing unaccompanied the lovely song which is actually a carol, ‘Born in the night, Mary’s child’ by Geoffrey Ainger.  In fact this beautiful song widens in its theme to include not only the birth of Jesus but His life, death, resurrection, ascension and His coming again. Nobody was expecting the way God chose to show himself to the world or how His life would pan out. Even those men whom God chose to be His closest friends were baffled as they saw events unfold over the three years they spent with Him.

Wynn shared testimony of her experiences, some of which were very challenging but she said, “take opportunities to engage with people.  Show the love of Jesus, smile and be kind.” The Lord will give us the words to say.