Rules Made To Last

Before I get into the nitty-gritty of this weeks Church & Chips I would like to apologise for the lack of posting last week, we had just got back from a Week in England and too be completley honest I was so tired I didnt fully function for a couple of days… this week we all returned all refreshed and ready to praise God in our normal settings.. armed with brilliant stories and new Action Songs!

Today also saw the Return of some of the Corps from their summer breaks which brought us back to our usual numbers, we started the meeting together as usual.. sang, prayed and danced around before moving downstairs to our weekly Sunday School Classes - this week the Junior Solders Group was led by Anne Le Marchant and Victoria - and we really bit into one of the most core teachings of the Church The Ten Commandments which are Gods only rules for us to live by, sometimes they can be hard to follow - but if you follow them correctly then you will have a good Christ-filled life.

To make our Class more exciting we played a game, did a small craft-poster activity and using Victoria’s Musical talent practiced a ‘10 Commandments Rap’ complete with beatboxing and streetwise dancing to show the rest of the congregation at the end of the Morning Meeting.

We were putting the finishing touches to the Rap when we were called back up to the Worship Hall, to close Worship and of course perform what we had been learning - Victoria led the rap, Morgan, Stuart and Kirstie turned their hands to a little bit of Beatboxing and Francesca, Courtney and Johnathon showed us how they dance on the streets… well it was much better than reading them out of a bible Thou, Covet, etc etc

After we all shared the Statement of Faith together we sang one of our new Action Songs, which we learned at MaM Camp, which is called ‘Flabberghasted’ - which has a very fresh techno feel to it… I think it is the favourite of many.

Of course the fun doesnt stop there this week… as the kids prepare to join us aboard Starship Clifton for our annual Holiday Club.. which has taken a space theme - this year it is called Starship Discovery. if you do have a ticket to board this week, we look forward to seeing you!

After the Morning Worship we tucked into a good meal, which fueled us for an afternoon filled with Running, Jumping and Hiding - we had a few good games of Pool as well this week! :-D, its good to see those red and yellow balls are back where they belong!

Hope you all have a Brilliant Week and think of us as we explore more of our Creator at Holiday Club!

Jordan

Saved to Serve

With only a week to go until we all start our Summer adventures in Milton Abbey for Ministry + Mayhem we were all bouncing from the walls in excitement. Alot of whispering could be heard this week as small subgroups of our small group all planned who they would be hanging around with, who would be sharing bunks or dorms ecetera. - This week was very weird due to the fact that when we all went downstairs we noticed a note from Pauline. - she was writing to the people who had used a pair of unmarked keys to try and open the pool table when the cueball got stuck last week. We sorted all that trouble out and I challenged Morgan to a swift game of Pool, only to find the balls were stuck inside the table…. someone had jammed a crisp packet inside the table!

With Kelvin, Victoria and the Girls still away soaking up Mr Sunshine, Graham led the Morning Worship on the contraversial and challenging topic of ‘The Meaning of Life’ - the meeting was interesting and had a really good child-friendly angle.. as Keith and his Boomwacker Band performed 2 melodies (Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star) and (Sing Hosanna/Give Me Oil in My Lamp) - which along with our usual Action Song (I Am Incredible) really got us all in the mood for a spirit-filled morning of groundbreaking Worship, together, and as one.

After we opened the meeting together upstairs, the two teaching groups Primary & Junior Soldier went downstairs to learn about God, His Word and His Son in a less conventional, Child Friendly Way. Today Anne Watt & Dean led the lesson, which was based on ‘The Feeding Of The 5000′, one of Jesus’ many but most popular Miracle… we played Bread based Games and shared out Jelly sweets before taking plain white bags and adorning them with the words Saved to Serve :: God Bless You - which is the title for todays blogpost, we then filled these decorated bags with some sweets and chocolate and gave one to each member of the Corps, with our best wishes.

When we returned upstairs we closed the meeting as we opened it, a short, poignant prayer that really lifts and gives you that boost you need to fight your way through another week - we also sang the benediction this week.. which reminded a few of the older members of the Corps about the old Open Air Evening Meetings.

But the party didnt finish up there - with the C&C Kids going downstairs to endulge in a meal of Fish Fingers and Chips. and Roy performed his random act of Kindness by buying some of the kids drinks from the Coke machine from his own pocket (including me, thanks Roy)… after we had scoffed meals that would literally feed the 5000 we got down to an afternoon of Wii, Lego and 40:40, spending some time with our mates in a familiar setting before, being pulled out of that and set challenges elsewhere.

I am accompanying the Children to MAM next week - so I will not be here to write another of these. but I hope to write some on paper, in this style to post up each day of the week after we return (if you get what I mean) culminating in a post on the Sunday of our first C&C back. - you can find these in a new category:

C&C: On Tour > MAM Camp 08′ - the category list is avalible on the homepage.

Right, I believe thats it for this week…. yup just one last thing to say,

Hope you all have an Amazing week and really feel the Lord working in yout life, because no doubt he will be working in the surroundings and of course in all the Kids and Leaders at Milton Abbey School next week.

See you all soon

Jordan.

Each is Different

Todays Church & Chips was much more relaxed than usual because now each of the islands Schools has closed up for Summer, giving most of the Church & Chips Kids six whole weeks off!… everybody was excited about their six weeks of freedom, some of our regular crowd had jetted off to the sun already (Including Anne Le Marchant and the other Sunday School Leaders) and some unlucky adults had been drafted in to work (Dean & Roy) so our small group were controlled by Vicky, Maureen and Me (yeah, I can hear you laughing already!) - its good preparation for Ministry & Mayhem Camp in just two weeks!!

Vicky led the Morning Meeting today and we had a good time in Worshipping and Praising the Lord together - and a small group of boys plucked up the courage to stand in front of the entire corps and lead ‘Okey Dokie’ - one thing I found with them is that they seemed to make as much noise as we would if we had 30 more children! - well done boys!

Todays Sunday School groups were led by Anne & Terry (Junior Soldier/Youth) and Kim (Primary) and I sat in with the Junior Soldiers (as usual) and we extended on last weeks topic in which the main point was that we are special, God Created Each of us Differently and how we were created in Gods Image, Anne also mentioned that we are Gods favourite creation.

Anne & Terry brought in some Chocolate Bars and Fruit Jellies to share and took a picture of each of us - they then printed this out using their spangly technological home photo printer, we then stuck these pictures to a peice of paper and put down some personal information, such as: Favourite things to Do?, Height and Eye Colour…. reminded me a little of Facebook! :-), after we finished the class we showed the Corps our profiles - which were emblazoned with the words ‘We are Created in the Likeness of God, We are his Masterpeice’.  we also read out a passage from the book of Genesis - which documents and depicts the Creation of The World, The Human Race and all the Animals and Plants that came with us!

We closed this Mornings Worship in an extravaganza of Hymns, Prayer and the Spoken and of course The Grace, we also sing this downstairs before we eat but I have to admit it is a shorter, rockier version that is written in the style of our Action Songs… talking of downstairs, Maureen had cooked up a pretty lipsmacking meal of Sausage & Chips, which seems to be quite a favourite with the Crowd because the number of empty plates and satisfied faces is uncountable (of course the atmosphere was a little different without Dean, Roy, Victoria, Kelvin & F&F) but Vicky & Keith (and his Boomwackers) made up for it!

Today was good fun and everybody who was there really enjoyed it - weather it was the good game of pool in which the white ball got stuck… dont worry we got it back, or having to open the coke machine several times for several reasons - all good!

Only Two more weeks until MAM Camp!

See you next week

Jordan

Special…. Good Word…. Kinda…… Juicy

13th July was the date of another day of learning and excitement headlined by God with his support acts Love, Jesus and Joy. and with Graham leading todays Worship we were given the chance to hear a fresh perspective on the Messages of The Lord handed to us by a man who has inspired Spurgeon Church and was ready to bring that inspiration to his home Church, ‘The Best Church in The World’ Clifton Hall, Salvation Army (of course we all know who im talking about) Graham Rimmer!

As usual we enjoyed each others company as people began to arrive at the hall… fresh faced and ready for the challenge of learning more about God our Creator and how he thinks we are Special. (everybody but me anyway!) Special… Good Word…. Kinda Juicy The group was a little small but we still made double the noise we should be able to on our way up to join the rest of the Church for the begining of the mornings Worship.

The atmosphere was brilliant… it sort of built up over time and really hit its peak when we sang ‘He Has Made Me Glad’ and the sound was just amazing  - the people in the room this morning were really hungry for enrichment from The Lord and I hope the feeling you get from that stays with you for the week to come.

After we had shared in Prayer, and given our vocal chords a good tug we went downstairs to enjoy our lesson with Anne Le Marchant, Anne Watt and Kim… and the lesson was based on quite a few things.. we explored the concepts of how God thinks we are special, we did some simple posters which showed a our own hands drawn onto peices of card and decorated them specially and I drew my left hand and put a different part of my body around the outside with the words ‘God Created Every Part Of Me’ adorned on the back of the hand… I added another personal touch by writing Gen 1:7 which depicts God creating man and giving him life.

We also worked on some of our Junior Soldier course… talking about an issue that is squashed onto many column inches… Drugs, what they do to you, how they make you and the ones around you feel… we worked our brains and listed some that are harmful and some that are good… some of the boys came up with some weird ones such as Drinking Petrol? (lets just hope that doesnt become a Google Keyword!) and Anne explained how she worked with Drugs in her daily life as a Policewoman and urged us never to cross paths with anything of the kind.

After the session was finished we had some time left so Good ole’ Guitar Hero came out to play! and we had only just managed to load up the game screen before it was time to rejoin the congregation upstairs Coincidence? hmm.. we closed the meeting by showing off our posters, and after Graham had closed the meeting with a prayer and we had shared Grace together we went back down to the basement to enjoy a meal of Chicken Nuggets And Chips prepared by resident feeders Dean and Maureen… The afternoon was then lost to a selection of running and jumping activities and lots and lots of lego construction…. the afternoon was much more relaxed than usual due to the fact that the islands Schools will break up for six whole weeks of Freedom by the end of this week, and people are looking forward to lounging around doing nothing, going to Junior Camp Ministry + Mayhem in Milton Abbey as well as their family holidays.

Next week we will be missing the Langs as they go to visit the Mothership for two weeks before the Camp Carnage and we are unsure what is happening to Sunday School next week due to the absence of Anne & Kim who are jetting off to French France for a Month - hope you all enjoy your summer breaks and come back ready to face the Autumn and fast approaching Christmas Celebrations, and of course the First Birthday of this here Blog!

See you All Soon

Slip, Slap Slop

Jordan

The Christ Aspect

Its the 6th July 2008 and this weeks Church & Chips was quiet, just the way we like it! - reasons vary for the absence of some of our friends, maybe they are off on Holiday or not feeling One Hundred Percent… or off on a island wide Bike Ride and Fun Day - thats right its the weekend of the Rock to Rock Bike Ride and as many flock on two wheels to the starting line we flocked to Clifton Hall, as always to Worship together in the presence of the one we love.. and in some cases with the people we love in a place we love.

Kelvin led todays Morning Worship as Victoria is not feeling well, but he greeted us with the same smile and happy face as usual… Im still not sure if those two are on Happy Pills or not because whenever we see them they are happy… even if we spill a drink, or break a Playstation they still wearing a smile - and that is how we like it!.

After we opened the Worship together in a frenzy of Prayer, Hymn and Action Songs the young people all converged downstairs to form a big Sunday School Group.. just for the first bit, then we split to work on our seperate Sunday School classwork (although I think we should have stayed together as their was only two of the Primary Class). In the Mobilise! Course we were extending on last weeks lesson with Anne about Choices (See Choice Words).. but this time we were discussing how God wants us to spend our Lesuire Time, how we can be Christ-Like with our fun time (that is why I have named todays Blog ‘The Christ Aspect’)

Kim helped out with todays session which began with a round of the Playground Classic ‘Simon Says!’ which illistrated that if we want to follow Gods Plan for life we shouldnt follow the example of our friends all the time, because our best interests are at the core of everything God does for us.

We then used our colourful activity books to explore our topic further, utilising our Drawing skills to illistrate 3 of our friends who do not believe in God, his message or His Son. Once we scribbled our ideas down we sat down in a circle for a special prayer time, Anne shared a Prayer with the Group as we focused our attention on a lone flame, which was part of a colour changing scented monster candle. That to some people signified Gods Presence in the room, I thought of it as Gods Ear… listening to our Prayer like a child listening to a bedtime story, taking in each detail and imagining what comes next… only difference is that God makes it happen!

After the session we rejoined the congregation to close our morning of worship, with a heart-stopping rendition of ‘Shine, Jesus Shine’ and Kelvin read the Benidiction… I always stay upstairs to say hello to , everyone as I think this is very important, and I was going about my usual buisness, saying hello to Terry, Anne and their Russian Visitors, Keith etc. and Joy came along, she placed an envelope in my sweaty paw and says ‘this is money for your holidays,’ and I opened the envelope and out fell a crisp 5 pound note.. I obviously looked shocked cause she said ‘Your Welcome’ and that really brightened up my day because my friend had felt she would give me money, I never asked and certainly didnt expect it but thank you all the same. - I thought this good deed deserved a mention this week because she didnt have to do it.. she did it out of the goodness of her heart, I believe this deserves public recognition so I can show my apprcieation in a way that truely means something! - The Blog!.

Maureen cooked up a batch of Sausage and Chips for us to scoff, and that we did - we then spent some time playing and having some fun before another week descends on us… and with no Friday Club I am unsure what I am going to do with myself..! but alas, Church & Chips will soldier on!

Have a Great Summer and See you Next Week .

Thanks from the Bottom of My Heart

Jordan

**

Choice Words

It is 11:38pm…. Jordan is in the Lounge writing his usual Blog post while watching ‘8 Out of 10 Cats’ waiting to welcome in another Month of 2008… They are coming and going so fast and of course christen another of our Blog Archives, which hold all the nutritional goodness of the past 7 Months of Blog… Bored, so am I! lets get on with it!

Church & Chips is a really good way to round off your busy week, because it allows you to spend some Quality time with God in a familiar envoirment with some of the best mates you will ever make in your entire life (OK - Im exagurating, what you gonna’ do … ive got the password) but honestly its brilliant because it brings together the Young and the…. Not So Young to worship as one.

Before the Church & Chips group is released on the Worship Hall we spend some time every week to chill out and prepare to listen to what God has to teach, this could mean a Game of Pool, Table Football or Guitar Hero (yes, it wasnt dead for long! :-).

Victoria opened the morning with another happy face and some choice words about the Football which Spain will win (Edit: I was correct!) and because we were in a particularly happy mood we sang two action songs - one old, one new and spent some time in prayer thanking and rejoycing in the power of the Lord… of course before we went downstairs we sang some classic hymns so not to lose sight of the older generation of praise music..

The group then transferred themselves down into their class areas for Junior Soldiers and Primary Sunday School sessions, ours (Junior Soldiers) was led by Anne & Kelvin and was very cool because they brought the topic of the session into the age group perfectly. The session was about Choices and Anne provided us with several tubs of our favourite sweets, (Cola Bottles, Flying Saucers, Strawberry Laces etc.) and told us to each pick one.. some found it easier than others and some decided straight away, we learned how choices affect us and how we were given Free Will by God when we he created us and our amazing home Earth.

We have the Choice to mould our lives to God’s plan or go our own way, but one thing will stay the same, whatever choices we make God will always be there - he never turns his back and never denies us his love, care and wisdom. What we do with these choices is a choice in itself because we are not Robots and God trusts us to make our own judgements.. helping us along the path with his word The Holy Bible.

Anne asked us Questions, normal questions that we encounter on a daily basis, such as What colour underpants to wear or what type of Cereal to eat in the morning - we also talked at length about Choices we make and the consequences that follow, we mainly chatted about Crime and its Punishments as this is the perfect example of big Choices and Concequences.

After the session we rejoined the main worship Family (I make a point to put that in at least once a week) and closed our time together in prayer, praise and diliberation before moving downstairs once again to enjoy the more social side of Church & Chips and of course The Chips (and Chicken Dippers) - which tasted pretty good if I say so myself.

Ben and Stuart enjoyed exploring more about the Drums with a proper teacher, and Roy, Keith and some others enjoyed messing around with some abstract musical instruments which I have forgotten the name of… sorry terrible memory, this has been published 2 days after… so I think I can be forgiven.

Finally, I would like to apologise for the late publication of this weeks Blog post but again, technology failed me this weekend and I was unable to access the Blog throughout the rest of Sunday and the whole of Monday.. but here it is, better late than never.

Now to walk the Dog….!

Have a Brilliant Start to the Month and I will see you all here next week for another edition of the Blog

Goodbye June, hello July.

Jordan

Fish Fingers, Bible Exploration and Glitchy Games

This was the main jist of today’s Church & Chips… Maureen & Dean were away… is God trying to tell us something?

I am writing this at 3:42pm on Sunday June 22nd 2008, at least 3 hours after the doors of Clifton Hall have closed for another week. (Come on, I needed some time to recover!) today’s C&C Group was missing a couple of its regulars as some went off to explore Herm Island and others were at Scout Camp… one was all the way in France, but we soldiered on as usual and spent some time chilling out before the meeting began to get rid of any pent up energy…. Morgan was beaten well and truely at GH2 by Girls and Boys respectivley and I was mashed by the Computer at Wii Sports Baseball (you cant win them all!) through all of this two girls played on their DS’ and others had a game of Pool missing a couple of balls after they went on a journey on Friday Night.

After everyone upstairs was prepared, we spilled out onto the top floor to join in with the beginning of Morning Worship and it began with a more traditional Hymn… and of course the always cheery Victoria welcoming us in the only way she knows….HAPPILY

Before we went downstairs and split into our little groups for a more personal study with God we sang one of our favourite Action Songs.. which were sadly missed by many last week as we came together with L’islet Corps for the visit of the Territorial Commander and his brigade (See ‘Daddy Day.’) - we all sang together the very hand-jive monster mash masterpeice that is ‘Hey Diddle Diddle’.

After a small but meaningful prayer time, welcoming the new children who have just joined us for the rollercoaster ride of learning about our Lord and Jesus and sang another hymn, which is well known by many of the children as one of the hymns they sing at Primary School, but we sang it differently… (’Cause thats how we roll Dawg’) we sang it as a Round… and as each side of the worship hall joined in I really felt a community warmth and spirit… then I thought, we are much more than a Community - we are a family.

Then came the time we went downstairs to enjoy our Sunday School Class with the S-team (

Captain Kelvin, Roy & Anne! - today the Junior Soldiers learned about following Gods Word and living the way God wants us to, and how The Bible gives advice and is really a handbook to the Christian Lifestyle. After playing a game which involves Biblical Heroes (Ruth, Noah, Moses, Samson etc.) we got down to some good old fashioned Scripture Reading, looking through some passages in the ‘Good Book’ and discussing them together, as a group… I did fall over and nearly squash Franki - here is my public apology.

As usual, after spending time upstairs we rejoined the main worship and shared the Benediction together to close the meeting - which allowed us to go downstairs to enjoy Fish Fingers & Chips and an afternoon of runny-jumpy-stuff (sadly, this included the demise of Guitar Hero) one of the best Playstation Games ever created by the human mind. - ask Francesca, she would say the same… and maybe Victoria if you poked her enough!

My final thoughts for this week include how the adults didnt know who was cooking for the kids so we ended up having a late dinner…. I laughed - me and Flic enjoyed a game of throw the Chicken Crisps accross the room and see if they bounce, what can I say… we are mad.

JD

Daddy Day.

Sunday June 15th always has a very special meaning, but today it was even more important to the humble flock at Clifton Community Church. Because the Territorial Commander and his brigade were in Guernsey to visit the two Guernsey Corps (or ‘Big Boss Man’ - as I called him). Because of the TC’s visit both Clifton and L’islet Corps joined in United Worship today. The hall was packed (ive only ever seen it that full at Christmas) and the kids were on their best behaviour. (well, maybe that was asking too much?).

Before the meeting today was a chance to blow off some steam before learning about Jesus, and meet some newcomers who had come for the very first time (Id namecheck them but Im terrible with names) and of course a good game of Pool, and a couple of notes of GH.

We went upstairs to hear the opening message from the TC, say hello, all the usual stuff… we sang a couple of traditional churchy hymns and spent some time in prayer… opening our hearts and minds to the touch of God on this special day, spent in celebration of both our Earthly and Spiritual Fathers.

Kelvin & Dean led our Youth Sunday School Group today, and we spent some time exploring what God had set out for us to explore, we played a brilliant circle-time type game in which the circle have to follow the actions of one person and another has to guess (I completely owned everybody with my action).

After the games the group worked on some drama type peices, both involving storytelling and ‘Audience Participation’ - it worked well with us because it involved shouting… and shouting is always good when worshipping God.

Kelvin then showed us how to make those cool little people… you draw one and cut it and you end up with loads…. pretty groundbreaking stuff, after everybody cut these people out (we ended up with some odd shaped heads, hands and legs - but we got there in the end) to complete Kelvins little craft activity. We wrote the words Jesus :: Jordan :: and two other names of the people we wanted to tell about God this week… seems hard but God will give us the strength to do the job.

We didnt go back upstairs into the meeting, we stayed downstairs and let the smell of freshly cooked sausage and chips envelope us as we played Pool, Guitar Hero 2 and just relaxed before another week of School… wait… NOPE (well the rest of you have!).. sorry for being big headed.. you know what im like

stay tuned, see you next week.

Enjoy

Jordan

G.O.D

Have you ever walked into a place and felt you are completely and utterly welcome?, hopefully you have experienced that… because, I have to confess - I feel like that every time I pass through those big white Doors to Clifton Hall and today was no different. From walking in at the beginning to walking out to face another week at the end, that feeling never left my heart.

Another thing that makes Church & Chips so special to each and every person who comes every week is that - not only are you learning about God and what he wants us to do with our lives - which are like blank canvasses, waiting for our futures to be painted on by the master artist but we are learning together as one big Family - (There you Go Victoria, hope that put a smile on your face). We are not split for the whole service - yes we do split during our teaching time - but we do assemble to learn and worship and praise.

I just hope next weeks ‘Special Visitor’ really gets a true taste of Clifton Hall as we join with L’islet Corps to worship together for one special week of United Praise.

Victoria & Kelvin picked up the reigns again this week after the inspirational visit of Jane Kimberly last week and led our meeting, and as always to begin our fresh morning of learning and of course (one of the most mentioned, yet important words to ever be typed on this blog) Praise - with quite a marathon of Traditional Hymns and Action Songs… and just has we went to sit down, to rest those tired legs - a nice quiet Prayer Time was placed on top. (Surely you put the most important thing first?.. what do I Know?!)

Downstairs in our Junior Soldier’s Mobilise. session we looked at another of The Salvation Army’s Doctrines. (posh, uneeded word for rules methinks.) which is focused on Abstinence. (Not drinking a single drop of Achohol) and how we enforce this rule, because of the damage it does to the human body but also the families who have to pick up the pieces for someone who has a drinking problem.

During the session, we had a look at the statistics and took some time to share some personal stories (no, we are not young drinkers!.. before all the complaints come flooding in!), and of course Anne Watt (Ex-CrimeKiller) shared some of her stories from when she was wearing that blue uniform.

Before we finished up and returned to close the meeting with the rest of the Congregation - we looked into what The Bible Aka. ‘Gods Mega Massive Instruction Book’ said on the subject of Alcohol and then shared this with the group upstairs.

As Usual Dean & Maureen outshone themselves with the C&C Post-Meeting Meal (Chicken Burgers and Chips) and we spent some time socialising before we all parted for the week ahead… another School Week and more exams for some people.. but of course our Liberator and his Father will watch over us.

Till Nex Wee

Jordan

I just want to take some time to wish Anne & Terry, Good luck with their new arrivals from Russia this Evening, and they will be in my prayers as they really brighten the lives of children who come from an area in which none of us have ever really experienced.

Set 2 Inspire.

Its the 1st of June 2008, its 3:45pm and its time for another groundbreaking C&C Blog Report Posty Thing. And this weeks caps of an absolutely brilliant weekend spent in the company of God who was really ‘Set 2 Inspire’, using the Ministry of Major Jane Kimberly to do it. As I mentioned some of us have spent the weekend at The Cotils for our Annual Corps Retreat, and although it has nothing really to do with the youth of the Church - because it is more of an adult thing… I thought it was important to mention it because of the visible impact it left on people, it really refreshed peoples hunger to be taught by The Lord. And it was obvious that he was working within us during the time we spent together - Thank You to all who made that time as special as it was… to everybody, old and young.

Jane led our worship today, which was a welcome change - and a rest for Kelvin and Victoria and although I didn’t get to hear alot of her message I do know that contributions from the retreat weekend were used as reflection material. - we started the meeting with one of the Corps favorite hymns ‘Shine, Jesus Shine’, and what a belter it was. The Hall was alive with the refreshing and powerful praise that makes Clifton such an amazing place to be on a Sunday morning. This was followed with a peaceful time of prayer… we made that special connection with God, asking for his watchful eye over our Worship and of course the week ahead. Which will challenge us - both our Spiritual and Physical beings, no doubt - until we meet again next Sunday. 

Today was another special occasion because Dean returned from one of his mammoth work trips from Alderney and we saw  the re-formation of ‘Boys Aloud’ as we sang one of our favorite Doug Horley action songs.. with the fun addition of a massive set of Blow Up Air Guitars and Microphones! (Church never gets boring!). Once we had really opened up worship in a truely Breathtaking and Exciting way, we parted ways into our seperate Youth Fellowship Groups to learn about our Lord and explore what God has to teach us at the beginning of our spiritual, lifelong journeys with him.

In the Basement we worked with Anne and Kelvin to read a Psalm (Im sorry, the number has slipped my mind) - we then worked as a team to illustrate the different verses on a big landscape poster to show the rest of the congregation at the end of the meeting… I believe it has been put on display somewhere in the Hall if you wish to have a look at what became quite a masterpiece. 

After we re-joined the group to close the mornings Worship - we showed off our illustrations of the Psalm and Kelvin read it out and explained the pictures a bit more… it was one of my favorite moments of today because we got to see what images the Psalm brought to the minds of different people… we had Geeks, Red Cheeked Kids and loads more - it really shows a more creative way to explore Gods Word. 

After we closed the meeting in Prayer - everybody went downstairs to enjoy a meal of Sausage and Chips and of course spend a little bit of time with friends.. in a more social envoirment.. some looking forward to going back to school, others dreading it, but they got to spend a little bit of relaxing time with The Lord and with his help and awesome power are ready for the week ahead…. 

until we meet again. 

Jordan