Goodbye For Now.

Back in 2008 this project began, with encouragement that could’ve filled a blog of its own I set about documenting something about Church & Chips every week – and the response was amazing, people from all over the Church (and in some cases) the World Wide Web had taken notice of us.. I mean even my dad had begun to read it.. and even better – people were printing off the content for reading at home.. how awesome is that?

The Blog ran – weekly, or as close to that as possible – for a year (that year can be found in our C&C – 2008 archives) and it came through writing this that I truly found a talent for writing and even found a degree of spiritual fulfillment from writing every week – it was an achievement I was very proud of and something that allowed me to spread the good news in my own unique way.

2009 started as a promising year, and we got over four months worth of blogging archived – before things began to change – a new chapter was beginning, and to be honest I wasn’t sure if I was ready to accept it. Because being human I am scared of change and this change hit me hard. and although I could feel the presence of God throught this trying time I have to admit the whole writing process got a bit stale. After everything had blown over I began to write again but never got that spark back – instead of feeling happy about the words I was typing it began to feel like a duty (this might seem a little melodramatic, and in a way it is but I need to say it).

I denyed it for a couple of months and continued to write, but instead of new and fresh posts appearing every week I just began to follow a formula, so in response to this I took a few months to re-evaluate my situation, alas it has brought me to this point. After thinking for a few months inbetween Exams and School and further change and shake up within the Church I felt, and still feel like the blog has come to its natural end..

Nothing can last forever, and everything ends and instead of prolonging the inevitable (yes, alright this is slightly melodramatic – but do you know me for anything else?) I have made the decision to close the book on the Blog.

There could be a time when I pick this project up, resurrect it and continue to run with it – Just like God did with Jesus but until then consider this the final full stop.

Thanks for all your support and prayers.

Jordan Dodsworth

April 2009

Lent – The First Sabbath

Today is the First Day of the Third Month of 2009 – and marks the first Sunday of Lent, which leads up to Holy Week and the most special day in the Christian Calendar – Easter Sunday. That day is the Sunday in which Jesus Christ amazed everyone – cast all doubt away and rose from the dead – not only to see his friends again, but to prove that he is the Son of God and ultimately bare all of our Past and Future Sin on his shoulders and bring us forgiveness – bottled at source.

Before the First Sunday of Lent we celebrate another day (officially two) in the Christian Calendar – commonly known as Pancake Day – Shrove Tuesday, in which I am sure most if not all of you indulged in some freshly prepared pancakes smothered in your favorite topping (Maple Syrup for the Win!) – this marks the official start of the Lent (Festival?) because in much more traditional times the most common things people gave up for Lent were Dairy Products including Milks, Butter and Eggs – so with the world being such food fiends we decided to combine these ingredients and use them up in one meal – allowing for one last pleasure before showing our Love for Christ and emulating his 40 day fasting process in the Desert.

Anyway, we met up This Morning for our regular Morning Worship led by Majors Alan & Barbara – along with Barbara’s sister who led in This Mornings message. – it must have been quite an experience as you stand up and lead your Home Corps, the people who were a big part in your spiritual growth as a follower of God.

Before the Youth Groups split up to work on their own learning we spent some time Thanking God for the things we love – including, Family and Friends as well as belting out a few really powerful hymns and speaking The Lords Prayer.

Of course today wasn’t just significant because of its presence in Lent but also because it served as the culmination of this year’s Self Denial: Missionary Appeal – members of the Church – Young & Old returned their envelopes and boxes in the hope that the money raised will allow others to experience the same style of life as every person who sat in that hall this morning.

Although I was busy helping the younger youth with Hazel, I know that the older youth worked on understanding The Bible some more – and I also know they enjoyed working on a ‘Holy Ground’ exercise – but they did miss Dean who was called into work at the last minute This Morning – but Maureen did a brilliant job serving up a lunch of Sausage Rolls and Chips later in the afternoon.

As I mentioned above I had a change of scene this week and worked with the smaller guys (and girls) who listened to a story about the ‘Seeds of God’ before doing some colouring and having a bit of good old fashioned Chill Out Time.

After Ted came downstairs to collect both groups, as he usually does we returned upstairs to tell the congregation about our learning exploits – and the older youth group – which are led by Corps Young People’s Sargent Major Roy showed off some pretty polished knowledge of Bible verses in and around the chronicling of The Creation.

After Barbara & Alan closed This Mornings meeting with The Benediction we went downstairs a revelled in some time to run off some steam before returning to school for another week.

See You Next Week

Jordan

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In some more generalised information I would like to bring to your attention www.saclifton.org.gg which is the offcial website for The Corps – it is updated weekly with new Diary Dates and Weekly What’s On? Guides as well as providing a digital download of our Weekly Printout – provided by Graham ‘The Keep In Touch’.

I am also hoping to add Photo Galleries to the site during Special Events – and there is no better place to begin than with some panoramic views of Clifton Hall or Photos from the Easter Celebrations.

If you have any Questions or Queries regarding the Website then drop me and email at this address:

web.saclifton@gmail.com

Self Denial 09′ – What Can You Do?

Today, the second week of February saw the launch of this years ‘Self Denial’ Appeal. – this special event comes around every year just before the start of Lent. The Appeal lasts for a month and focuses on a different country and its charity projects – they range from building new Corps Buildings to buying new equipment for existing outreach and community programmes.

Majors Alan & Barbara led today’s Worship and introduced the appeal – its importance – and its aims.

We have envelopes and arty coin boxes for your cash – and the whole point is that you take something from your life, lets say Chocolate or Fizzy Drinks or (a more adult denial) that expensive new piece of jewelery or that really cool remote control car you saw in the window of WHSmith the other day!.. and you put the money you would’ve spent on your Chocolate or your Drink into your envelope or box – and if you continue to do this you will soon have quite a collection to give in on the 1st of March when the appeal wraps up – and all that money gets sent off to help The Salvation Army with its worldwide projects that will change the world.

The Church & Chips group was alot smaller than usual – and the main topic of conversation was the shocking downpour of the white stuff – which allowed us all to have two whole days off school (conversation was only heard between the rumbling elephants running from one room to another).

The meeting today mixed two styles of worship to create an explosion of Power and Praise – we had a more traditional element in the classic hymns and some brilliant flag-waving from the young people – after the flag waving and spending some time in quiet and reflective prayer we went downstairs to continue with our Mobilise Youth Ministry, this morning we worked on The Bible – its first 5 Books (The Law) and the differing translations. No, I am not talking about New Living and New Century and all those kinds of translations, I mean The Bible in other countries and locations – like the African Tribes who believe that knocking signifys the arrival of a theif so any part of The Bible that includes knocking has been changed to calling because that is what they believe.

Another example we looked at is The Bible in eskimo communities – who have never seen a Sheep so any verse in The Bible which reads ‘The Lamb of God’ is changed to ‘The Seal of God’ – because that is something they can relate too. And to fully understand the important teachings of The Lord you need to be able to relate it to your own life and the situations which you face.

During the session – which was led by Roy and Dean we had a go at paraphrasing sections of The Bible. – for example if you had to explain the Christmas Story to a person or a group of people who didn’t know what a Shepherd was then you would have to modify it so they can relate to it – Stuart (One of the Church & Chips Boys) put it like this

‘A Trained person who works with animals’.

I had a go at paraphrasing something myself, explaining Jesus and his forgiveness to people who live in the desert – Can you guess where it is from? *hint – Clean

‘Bathe me in the light of the Lord and I will shine gold like the grains of sand’.

After the lesson we shared our learnings with the Congregation – then went downstairs to enjoy a meal of Chicken Nuggets and Chips from our resident Master Chefs Dean & Maureen – after eating we ran out some energy ready for the week ahead, and the imminent arrival of Half Term – and I hope that this week brings you happiness and you can join us next week for another fulfilling week of Church & Chips action. !!

Jordan

Solid Rock

Here we are again, another week and it seems another month of Church & Chips – and February is a fresh start for all at Clifton Hall, we can now put the many challenges that January threw at us – to one side and focus on the new challenges that February is almost garanteed to bring.

But Today God showed everyone at Clifton Hall that he is utterly and truly the most amazing and trustworthy source you could find anywhere – he made no qualms in telling us he is our Solid Rock. He has done that by giving Alan & Barbara the inspiration and spiritual strength to come out of (I’m sure a very cushy retirement) to lead and manage our Corps for six months until God reveals the next phase in his plan. This is something that have overlooked in the emotion of the last few weeks – the fact that everything is planned by our God and we need to trust him – everything will be sorted… just have a bit of faith and keep those prayers streaming…

We were graced with a relatively small group of young people today – but it didn’t stop us from spreading that all important Good News, before we went upstairs to Sing, Pray and take part in the opening stages of this morning’s evening worship – we let of a bit of steam – socialising with friends and chilling out – it has been proved that you will respond best to the teachings of God if you are in a relaxed state – its the first stage of building that trust I suppose.

As we went upstairs and Alan & Barbara began their meeting I realised that everything seemed a little bit cold.. and yes you guessed it – as confirmed by our Oracle of Corps Communication Keith – that the Hall’s ever-so reliable Boiler had decided to lie in bed a little bit longer… I hope it kicked itself into gear for the evening Worship because it is bitter outside – as I write this I am actually seeing the first flurries of a possible snowfall .

Anyway back to our usual subject matter. Worship today was focused on trusting God after such big changes – we sang some pretty awesome hymns and spent some time in reflective prayer.

The Junior Soldier and Youth Ministry groups split up properly for the first time in a few weeks  – with the older Youth begining to fill the gaps in the Salvation Army’s Mobilise Course – which combines Bible Study with real life issues, which allows you to apply your spiritual learns to your daily lives. The younger group did some work on Bubbles with Slyvia and Hazel – I am not sure what they were working on this week but it is an amazing first encounter with God – and learning about God at such a young age allows you to truly apprieciate the magnitute of his awesomeness.

After some time working in groups we travelled back upstairs to give our new arrivals a taste of the Ministry of our Young People which has become a staple in the diet of our Church – which last year I nicknamed ‘The Best Church In The World’.

Whether you agree is up to you.

After Alan pronounced this Morning’s Benediction our small but cheery group left the Hall to enjoy a meal from the wonderful kitchen of our resident MasterChefs Dean & Maureen – this week we munched on Fish Fingers and Chips – nobody can say that Christians don’t care about Omega 3 (Jesus did perform one of his most famous Miricles using humble fish).

As the afternoon unwound and everyone began to relax and get ready for another week which promises it’s high and lows but will ultimately turn out alright if you put your trust in the ultimate.

I hope that everybody who reads these words in the week to come feels blessed by the fact that if you put your full and utter trust in God – your life will be ultimatley fulfilling, and of course – if you find these words in 7 years or so when the world has moved on – kissed goodbye to its troubles *cough credit crunch cough* you can say that you trust.. not just the best.. but the greatest.

Have an Amazing Week

Jordan

Farewell Friends.

Sunday 18th January will always be a sad day in the hearts of all involved with Clifton Community Church, as this date marks Kelvin’s Final Sunday as Officer of St. Peter Port Corps as he and his family make the transition into life in the mainland after Four Years heading up our Corps. – and although we are sad to see them depart, we are glad others will be able to experience his Preaching, and the lightness and fun the Family can bring to almost every occasion.

Kelvin had two final meetings to lead before he could leave, and those quite possibly could have been two of his best meetings to date. – The Morning was of course, the all ages meeting we have come to love – and of course, his final sitting with the Sunday Club he helped create, which continues to strive from week to week – this blog is proof of that. And the evening was focussed on Trusting our Lives to God as he works in our lives, moving Kelvin at this time is part of his plan and can only mean good things for both us – as a Corps, and the people the Family will meet when they move.

I understand, this could be taken to be soppy and morbid, Like we will never see him again.. and trust me that’s not the case, as we all have emails, Facebook and other means of communication – so it seems, all is not lost. And our new Officers will come along and pick up where The Lang’s have left off and continue to work with the Church and the people in it. The Commnity spirit inside Clifton has led me to believe that its not the building that makes it a church, that is just simple bricks and mortar – it is the people who gather every week, to worship, an amazing God who in these modern times is fighting the sciences, The Athiests and everyone who is determined not to believe in something they cannot see – and Clifton keeps showing me that God is winning (If you get what I Mean), anyway – I digress..

So yeah, after we met together downstairs this morning, and I trounced a few people on GH, and got Trounced (notice the capital T) when it came to battling with Francesca, we went upstairs to join in with Worship and sing one of the songs we learnt from MAM Camp in the Summer of 2008 ‘Flabberghasted’ (and had a pretty fun time of it too), after the opening few minuites we travelled back downstairs to do some Bible Study on one of Jesus’ most testing times – his temptation – the session was led by Dean & Roy and contained storytelling and Bible Exploration – with some wordsearches and crosswords thrown in for good measure.. after we closed the meeting in prayer – and the adults began to go home – we went downstairs to enjoy a wholesome meal of ‘Sausage Roll’s and Chips’ prepared by our resident MasterChef team Dean & Maureen.

The feeding of the Zoo was followed by an afternoon of fun and frolics – and closed with everyone wishing Kelvin well in his new appointment, before everyone went home to resume normal life, Homework, Work and School in most cases.

–

This Evening the Corps came together for its usual Evening Meeting, to find that Graham had spent his lunchtime, Hijacking bedsheets and letting go of his Banksy-style desires on them – (here is his Wikipedia Entry if you dont know who he is) – the result being

GEE Whiskers,

Your Leaving

The sight of those words (Kelvin’s favorite catchphrase, might I add) made all who passed through those doors tonight grin – and all in attendance got pretty emotional when Graham stood up to present Kelvin, Francesca and Felicity with presents – so they can mark the four years they spent as part of.. here it comes… ‘The Best Church in The World’.

…

The Evening was topped off with Tea and Biscuits and Tag (for some people) and with a few tears we said goodbye to those three people (oops.. four, I didn’t forget Victoria.. ) who have made Church Life so much better for everyone.

Thank You, God Bless and Goodnight.

Jordan.

Recommit, Reconfirm, Reconnect.

January is shaping up to be a Month of Change at St Peter Port Corps as our officers get set to leave the Island for new challenges, Next week will be Kelvin’s last Sunday as the Officer for the Corps, and the Family will leave for the mainland in the last three days of this month. and although the announcement was sudden – everyone at the Corps will join me in wishing them luck with every aspect of their new home, school and job. – Thank You.

In other events, The Corps celebrated another Commitment Sunday and together we Recommited our Faith in the Lord, as the title suggests, it was a morning of Recommit, Reconfirm and Reconnect - this weeks Meeting was led by Kelvin, with Victoria arriving later to spend some time with the Youth, (so she said, we know she was only there for the grub.) Which was well-cooked by Maureen who was flying solo as Dean had to work .. In this week’s meeting we sang our usual action-based worship song ‘Hey Diddle, Diddle’ – This week’s Youth Worship was led by Roy and I as we were missing some of our regular helpers (through illness and Holiday) and we had a good time learning about John The Baptist and his amazing Baptism of Jesus. – The younger youth did some cutting and sticking based craft work – and even made some pretty cool paper Doves.. learning the art of the concentina fold in the process

The Junior Soldiers did some more wordsearches, crosswords and Bible Exploration surrounding the important story that marks the beginning of Jesus’ journey that has changed the world forever, and will continue to do so in the future.

After we had rushed to complete all the activities (with Ted’s help) we went back upstairs to share our work with the congregation – with Felicity the only one to speak up! (did anyone learn anything this morning?) ..

Kelvin closed the meeting in prayer and everyone left that building with a sense of newness - good word newness but all our youth went downstairs to enjoy a meal of Chicken Nuggets and Chips (the meal that has revolutionized the way we worship) and has even got us recoginition with a mainland website! (yay,yay,yay!) – right, massive moment of glee over – back to the serious stuff, – we spent the afternoon playing a mix of Rock Band on the Wii, Pool and Football before all going our seperate ways to enjoy another week of school or work – or both, in some cases and I hope that everyone has a brilliant week and everything goes your way – especially for me as I prepare to take my first attempts at AS Levels … eeek!

See you Next Week.

Jordan Dodsworth

ps. if you are wondering where the Corps website has gone – I am currently working to stabilize it for 2009 – it should be back online as soon as possible.

Walk with Me & Work With Me

28-30“Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.”

2009 is finally upon us, and we gathered at Clifton Hall for the first Church & Chips of this brand, spanking new year – which will bring challenges, friendships and lots lots more. – we joined together for a meeting led by visiting Major’s Neil and Chris Webb – who are the big bosses in our Division of The Salvation Army and they spent time reflecting on the images of Christmas, using beautifully carved peices created by a Carpenter who had come to The Army to find God and start his journey.

They had brought a selection of these and they all represented a different element of Christmas, or Jesus – first we saw a Manger, which was nothing more than a lowly animal’s feeding trough – hardly fit for the man who would go on and share bountless wisdom with the world, the next wooden ornament was of a fishing boat.. because when it came to choosing his followers (Disciples) he chose them from a group of fishermen – because he knew that these men worked long hours, never gave up and gave any task they where given their all. – Jesus chose all of us to be his followers because we have these qualities too, but we musn’t get complacent – Jesus’ message was to spread the word of God and that is what we must do.

The Third (Of Four) peices was a Yoke, which most of the young people had never encontered before – this was a small looped device that Farmers and Workers would put around the neck of two cattle, or donkey (anything that could pull a carriage) and it made sure they where both level and ensure and encourage teamwork between the two…

Talking of teamwork, The meeting had a cleverly placed peice of Audience Participation hidden within, the two Cameron’s and Morgan and Jonathon had one leg tied up and had to complete a lap of the hall in differing directions – working as a team to overcome troubles and problems they faced. – this activity shows that if we work with God and follow him he will help us overcome our troubles, problems and even heal your heart. Of course their was a winner – they had been working well as a team and worked out the correct pace – allowing them to speed past struggling opponents and claim the prize …. of fresh air!

During this time we shared some heartfelt prayer as we prepared to move downstairs into our Sunday School lessons led by Roy and Kelvin respectively… but wait – im missing something – oh of course. Before anything could continue we had to leave our weekly stamp on the meeting by using our knowledge of those cool Doug Horley Action Song’s we gave a rendition of ‘Wonderful Lord’. Which really hit home for me as we step into the unknown of a new year.. it really is a soothing comfort to know that you have someone to watch out for you – to keep you on the right track.. and ultimatley to pick you up and dust you off when you stray from the path – or make a mistake.

The session with Kelvin was a very close and communial Bible Study – which each person gained alot from no doubt – the four Three Junior Soldiers (without counting little old me) worked on a selection of fun worksheets with activities ranging from crosswords, to mazes and word searches – these sheets really allowed you to get close to the childhood years of Jesus and really immerse yourself in what it would have been like for him – knowing at the young age of twelve – the potential of his Father in Heaven and also knowing that he would have such a big role to play in ‘God’s Salvation Plan’. after we had finished we returned upstairs into the Worship Hall to hear about the final peice from the collection that the Major’s had brought over to show us – and this was possibly the most important one of all.

The Cross.

This is the symbol of Jesus’ sacrifice for each and every human being on this humble Earth and a vital component in God’s Plan to bring Salvation to the Masses. Can you imagine how it must have felt for Jesus who knew he would be rejected and have to perform the ultimate act of sacrifice? – I will leave you to think about that one.

After the Meeting we sat down to another stellar lunch cooked by our resident master chefs Dean & Maureen – who presented us with a plate of Fish Fingers, Chicken Nuggets and Chips (I think we hit the Jackpot, either that or they are fattening us up!)

then we set our Mood Meters to ‘Chill’ and had a bit of fun in anticipation of our first week back in routine and of course the passing of Christmas and the beginning of what is looking to be one of the best years yet.

See You Next Week

Jordan

..::Note::..

The C&C Blog is now a whole year old – started on 6th of January 2008 – with a post for nearly every week of the year – that counts up to about 36-38 in total.. I have sorted the whole Blog Year into a yearly Archive which can be accessed using the Year By Year dropdown menu on the blog’s homepage. – this is to compliment the Rolling Monthly Archive which can also be accessed using the Month By Month dropdown menu.  – thanks for all the support.