The World’s Greatest Storyteller – The Worlds Greatest Story

This week’s Church & Chips was full to the brim with excitement as each and every happy face was alight with expectation as the final week of Advent falls upon the world. not only that but they were each riding an adrenaline rush like no other, after their stellar performances at the Corps Carol Service – and of course, the fact that the schools have broken up for Christmas – a time of relaxation and celebration for thousands throughout the world.

When Graham picked me up this morning the bus was alive with activity, chatter and general happiness – even if it was a small group of children who had taken root in the back seats – each and every person was alight and ready for action – and after chilling out when we arrived at the Hall with some Tea and Toast provided by Sylvia and Hazel (not forgetting their band of helpful volunteers) – after we had let of some steam we headed upstairs to join Kelvin, The Band and the rest of our Congregation for a morning of Christmas Worship and Praise – the opening section of the meeting was a balance of new and old, as the Children sang ‘We Wanna Celebrate this Christmas!’ (which featured in the Vauvert Primary School Carol Service), but as I mentioned above, the opener was a balanced affair thanks to an older hymn called ‘Joy to The World’. – to be honest I was surprised that song wasn’t hijacked with the much more comedic version written and performed by a certain Bart Simpson. – glad to see our Youth know when the time to be serious arises.

Sylvia and Hazel led the Primary Sunday School this week – continuing work on those amazingly enlightening ‘Bubbles’ sessions – no doubt touching on the reason I have given this Blog the title of ‘The Worlds Greatest Storyteller – The Worlds Greatest Story’. Yes you’ve guessed it – The Christmas Story.

Dean, Roy, Sara and I led the Junior Soldiers and Older Youth groups with a session concentrating on The Christmas Story too – the group worked on colouring pictures of Mary holding the Baby Jesus after his Birth, but also got their brains into gear with quite a challenging set of Wordsearches, Crosswords and Bible Verse Puzzles (which included some Bible Study based work)

As usual the time flew by and we were soon back in the main meeting closing proceedings with a reprise of ‘We Wanna Celebrate This Christmas’. – this time with actions kindly relayed by some of the Vauvert School girls.

For the last time in 2009 we all charged downstairs to a meal of Chicken Nuggets and Chips – and the arrival of Victoria kept everyone in high spirits for the week ahead (not that the impending arrival of Santa didn’t do that anyway) and we closed the final Church and Chips on a happy note, everyone took home selection boxes and a festive double edition of Kids Alive to keep them company over those frosty festive nights.

With just one final anecdote to add before I sign off for the Final time in 2008…

Hope you have had an Amazing year and I hope with all my heart that 2009 brings you all the happiness in the world and everything you have achieved with The Lord in 2008 is carried over, and most importantly built on by his holy hand.

Thank You from the bottom of my heart for your continued support, because knowing that the writings of this Blog are read by so many people just empowers me to write more.

Hope to see you next year as we get our shorts on and prepare to ride that ever so liberating Jesus Wave in 2009!

Jordan Dodsworth.

Advent / One more Week to Go.d

Yeah, I know – This Year is slipping away faster than the water you try to hold in your hands when you wash your hands. and It only seems like yesterday that I was writing the first entry into this blog, a blog that has attracted so much support and the medium in which I can feel God working with every word, every comma and every full stop… hope you have enjoyed reading this as much as I have enjoyed writing.. and with a few more weeks till Christmas we are making sure 2008 goes out with a Bang! – yes, if you havent already worked it out Im talking about The Corps Carol Service – which is set to blow the roof off Clifton like it does every year – the Adults and Young People have been working their festive socks off to get the sketches together, along with the help of two grumpy old men and the EC Sock Stockpilers! – you will have to come to be in on the joke! – there is room for everyone, with the chance of some free mince pies and a visit from the jolly one.

This week was a week for the record books as we had one of the biggest turn outs of the winter season – with the return of old friends and the welcoming of new ones.. with some Prayer, Praise, Fun and Sausage Rolls inbetween.

This week we focussed all our attentions on practicing and polishing off the Christmas Carol Service sketches – which promise to be the best yet – Unfortunatley I have already dropped too many hints – and dont want to spoil the sketches completely – so all I can say is you need to be there – from 4:00pm to see our Church at its best – telling one of the greatest stories ever known. The Christmas One.

After we had run through the Christmas stuff a couple of times we all returned upstairs – to close the meeting with Kelvin and his group of Merry Men (aka The Band) – of course – because the young people are such a group of jumping beans they soon came streaming downstairs to enjoy an afternoon of ‘Rock Band’ (one of, but not the coolest Guitar simulations ever created) and running around like mad men (men, haha) until the parents came to take them all away for another week of School – and with only 10 days left until the schools break up for Christmas – no doubt next week will be a busy one – not that it doesnt look like one anyway!

You may have noticed that I have adorned the Blog in some festive-themed decorations and have even given you a little white snow to really get you in the Christmas Spirit – seeing as we wont see any here on the Island – I thought I might sprinkle some here – cause Im nice like that!

Have a Good Week and Hope to See you Next Sunday

Jordan.