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.

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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.