Jordan Dodsworth

2008, C&C, Christmas

Advent / One more Week to Go.d

In C&C - 2008 on December 8, 2008 at 9:19 pm

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.

Now this Is Church!

In C&C - 2008 on November 23, 2008 at 3:22 pm

This weeks post is two weeks worth of Chips wrapped up into one – which I have tentivley titled ‘Now This is Church’.- and I glanced at the Keep in Touch and noticed that under ‘The Week Ahead’. it mentioned that next week is the first Sunday of Advent (which for those who didnt know is the countdown to Christmas) and another thing, if you dont know – where have you been?

This week we were sadly missing a few of our Congregation through a selection of reasons – Francesca and Victoria are spending the weekend in the mainland doing a bit of shopping (nothing like a bit of retail therapy) – well if you ask a girl that is! – and of course those who are unwell, recovering or just unable to worship with us today were missed greatly but no doubt we will see you all again soon and everything will return to normal.

Because we were also missing Dean – Maureen cooked lunch all by herself – Well Done! and some of the girls pulled together to help her collect and clean the plates afterwards… good work – but before all of that the small group that was Church & Chips went down to the lower floor during the meeting to practice the drama peices for the Christmas Carol Service. – we were missing a few main characters and I and some others had to stand in — it was fun though, but honestly – please come back! we need you!

We read it all so well that we even began to practice it with props and something tells me Vicky will want to practice it without words sometime in the future – so please put the 14th December in your diaries and come and join in the celebrations at the Hall for Christmas… we might even have a visitor ?!?

If I was to say… The Basil Fawlty Walk… Would that make you come… not even out of curiosity?

This weeks meeting was led by Captain Kelvin as usual and he got us very much involved in the running of things this week as he led us in belting out an ‘accoustic’ version of ‘Abba Father’… well actually it was Vicky – Corps Christmas Album anyone?

Now back to the reason I have titled this Blog ‘Now this Is Church’. – well, you see my reasoning is that any Church that can hold its spirit when it is missing so many people is a proper Church.. any Church that has a strong youth following – and leaders that shepard the young’uns in the best way possible is a Church.. and a Church that gets involved with each and every of its members is a proper Church – and to me – Clifton ticks all those boxes and maybe more … on the subject of getting involved (sorry, this week is a little less co-ordinated than usual as stuff zooms into my head, which I must write down before it goes zooming out the other side!) Last Sunday evening saw Graham and Vicky lead the evening worship as a duo – and because Graham has an awesome nose for awesome sermons he got his House Group involved (the best one, may I add) and we performed ‘A Sermon in Drama’. based around the Parable of Talents (this was epic, and if you missed it you missed quite an evening) and it all fitted quite well seeing as it was the Talent Scheme Ingathering too!.. unfortunatley I cannot really explain it to you because you really had to be there to experience it – but here is some Prior warning.. Graham is leading Evening Worship again next week..

After a fully satisfying meal of Fish Fingers and Chips we all let of some steam before returning home to the impending doom that is Homework left to the last minute and another ugly week of School / College / Work .. or in some cases retirement — but I cant see how that’s boring to be honest!

Hope everyone has a brilliant week this week and also if you have a spare minute checks out the Corps Website – which is now live and ready over at www.saclifton.co.nr - we hope to have it all finished in the coming weeks so it becomes somewhere for everybody to connect with but at the moment its an ace place if you have lost your Keep In Touch.. (or is that just me!)

First week of Advent – Crikey… someone want to tell him to slow time down?

Jordan

The Colour of Love

In C&C - 2008 on November 9, 2008 at 2:42 pm

Today marks Rememberance Sunday, a day in which we remember those who have fought and are fighting to keep peace in the world. today The Junior Soldiers followed the band into town to watch the Parade held at the War Memorial just down from Clifton.

We watched as flags of many colours were raised in honour and the Guernsey Concert Brass marched and played ‘The Last Post’ before the cannon was fired to mark the two-minuite silence – the silence resonated around the surrounding area and not even the wind stirred as together, we marked the lives and sacrifice given in defence of England and The Channel Islands.

The Band was made up of members from both L’islet and St Peter Port Corps who flew the Salvation Army Flag and led the hymns during the wreath-laying – the crowd came from island-wide to join the service and we joined in singing a selection of Hymns from our Naval and Army songbooks as well as something from the Royal Air Force.

After the Wreaths had been laid and the War Memorial was a sea of Red Poppies – The Colour of Love – prayers of rememberance were spoken and the uniformed Sea Cadets performed some kind of Royal Salute.

After the service had ended The Band led us back to the Hall as we spent some time in thought about what we had just witnessed and how it has changed the world forever. – When we arrived back at Clifton we spent some time chilling out, as we waited for today’s feast to be served and the younger children to return from Sunday School – Johnathon began to sell his Chips Newspapers which are published on a weekly basis and are likened to the Keep In Touch with a more colourful young-person orientated feel.

When everyone was finally back together in the bottom room of the Hall, this weeks lunch was served – Pizza and Chips .. this must have been a hit with everyone because most people managed to scoff two whole slices of Pizza and a plateful of Chips – the moral of that story is ‘Make More Pizza’.

After our crowd of Hungry Hippos had been fed and watered until they could’nt take any more (well.. we ran out of food to be honest!) Vicky began to talk about… yes, here it comes Christmas and we began to plan this years performance to be featured during the Corps Carol Service in December which includes a bit of a blast from the past – and a couple of classic television characters.. but thats all im saying right now – put the date in your diary because this is one of the best events our Church puts on and if your lucky you might get some Mullied Wine and a Mince Pie or two at the end!

This week has been brilliant and I am sure the weeks to come will be too

I hope to write more in the next couple of weeks – and keep the Blog on your visiting lists as I have been working on some Christmas Decorations which will really spice up your computer screens in the run up to one of the best times of the year (others being, Easter, My Birthday..)

Thanks very much for your amazing support, all your comments both online and in person – it means alot.

Jordan

C&C, Harvest Festival 08'

Oh Oh Oh, How Good is The Lord?

In C&C - 2008 on October 12, 2008 at 1:27 pm

Sunday October 12th, for thousands just another boring Sunday where you get up, have breakfast and clean the house – but for those who attend Clifton Community Church and many other Churches around the world it is a day in which we give thanks for everything – Food and Life and Water – then again, its not just a day – its a festival.. a celebration – a big old party! and because of this amazing day the whole fellowship celebrated together, in an interactive experience – with lots of food and praise, with a little drop of playdough!

The Church & Chips group was much smaller this week – with many of our regular faces missing, through school or home life, but although the group was smaller we still had a merry old time – we spent theAf fellowship time Praying and Singing and playing games – memory games, creative games and games in which the prizes were Mars Bars! – whoever told you Church couldnt be sweet was very wrong!

Kelvin led the celebration – with Victoria on the Piano – and of course I would like to convey my thanks to the team who spend their mornings serving us Toast & Tea – every single one, Anne and Sylvia and Hazel – who were also responsible for the brilliant Harvest loaf which they spent Friday evening whipping up!

The whole point of Harvest is to give thanks for what God gives us – the resources we are handed by the holy hand to keep ourselves living, conveying his message and looking after his creation. and as I mentioned above we gave thanks by singing LOUD and PROUD.

We also spent some time in prayer, visual prayer – writing our thanks on leaves shaded with rich autumnal colours which we then dressed the bare branches of a birchy tree thing with – see another thing to be thankful for.

After we closed the meeting with one final prayer – lead and response – before we parted for another week of our normal lives, apart from each other. but still in the minds and hearts of others.

Because of the small gathering of Children we had at the hall this week Dean and Maureen – our resident ‘Gordon Ramsay’s’ made lots and lots of food, Sausage and Chips to be precise and everybody managed to have at least 2 servings, (Morgan Breton ate a total of ten sausages) – after everybody was full – Dean and Kelvin took them upstairs so they could play 40:40 and let their creative juices flow with the Playdough – of course our musically talented (if thats the word?) had a little rattle with the drums… even when the parents arrived they were busy upstairs… doing what, I will never know!

so thats another week in the lives of our brilliant children and the leaders that shape their lives with Jesus and if you come back next week, we may have more!

Jordan

Fishy Tails

In C&C - 2008 on September 28, 2008 at 3:13 pm

Welcome to the second of two Blog posts this week – as I catch up on my backlog of Church & Chips Blog – it just bugs me when I don’t write anything, seems like a waste of ideas.

Today was good in many ways – first, was the fact that we were treated to a nice light and tasty breakfast in the form of Toast & Tea, many thanks to Hazel, Sylvia & Anne for working hard to serve us with countless slices of bread… mmmm.. toasty.

Another thing that was good was the return of some of our group, they have been missing for quite a while, so our group gently grew this morning. – Which is a good sign that, although you stop coming to Church, God is always there. Gently guiding you back to his family – carefully shaping our lives to his plans like a careful sculptor working on his latest masterpeice.

Due to unforseen curcumstances, the Sunday School groups couldnt be run the way they are usually – and of course we are thinking of Anne and her family as they fight through, along with the other members of our congregation (no. bad word, Fellowship) who are ill or just couldnt be together with us this morning.

Yeah, so – the Junior Soldiers moved into the Community hall (the one with the brilliant TV and sound system) and watched one of the ‘Story Keepers’ retellings of some of Jesus’ life, today we looked at some of Jesus’ teachings, sermons and miracles

-Feeding the 5000

-Raising a Child From The Dead

-Showering Zaccheus with God’s Forgiveness

After we watched the episode, Anne Watt asked us a few questions – just to make sure we kept our brains in gear!

After our lesson we rejoined the meeting, to close in prayer and praise together with Kelvin – after the meeting we went downstairs to enjoy Fish Fingers – with a massive side of Chips. to finish the day off a group of us played Pool and some of the guys even created a Church & Chips band – lets see where that goes.

Next week looks good people! – See you there.

Jordan

Sunny September Sunday

In C&C - 2008 on September 28, 2008 at 2:45 pm

You guys are lucky today – because of my lack of posting ability last weekend I have decided to give you all a treat and post two articles right now, thats right – two whole posts full of Church & Chips goodness!.

So… if I look through my minds eye, check back to last week, well as you can tell from the title it was a nice sunny sunday morning and our Church & Chips kids all flocked to the hall for another morning of learning about the amazing man – who gave his life, wiped our sin then rose again, just to prove a point that many already knew. He was, he is ‘The Son Of God’.

Last week was a bit of a change, as Kim went downstairs to help her mum lead the Junior Soldier group in an extravaganza of Music, Dance and Praise – all set to a Biblical Parody of ‘Don’t Feel Like Dancing’ by the Scissor Sisters – which was appropriatley titled: ‘Dont Stop Praisin’ – or something along those lines anyway. I, on the other hand experienced Roy’s teaching group for the first time, it was alot smaller than usual because Felicity, The Twins and Tariq were sadly missing – but we had fun playing games and learning about our Religion on colourful magazine pages, which we then went on to show during the showcase-y bit just before the end of the meeting.

After Kelvin closed the meeting in Prayer, we went downstairs and indulged in another top class meal from Maureen and Dean, – because this is a report that I started a week ago I honestly cannot remember for the life of me what we ate! – sorry guys – check out this weeks for a mouth-watering description of our gourmet food.

After lunch, we let of some steam as a group before another week of School/Work/College – reading the cheese-filled jokes from that weeks Kids Alive!, that is one of Johnny Barnes’ favorite moments I think.

I also gave in too one of my secret passions, the art of Bopit! Extreme 2- which is one of the coolest most addictive games ever invented by human kind.

For more Church & Chips Wordyness check out this weeks Blog Article – havent thought of a decent title yet.. but its usually at the top of the homepage

See you in a sec,

Jordan

Sunday Socks

In C&C - 2008 on September 14, 2008 at 4:47 pm

After a few weeks well earned rest, so I could just catch the thread of my thoughts again I am here to bring you the next in our compelling accounts of Church & Chips.

With alot happening recently we have had dwindling numbers in our group, whether its the so-called summer weather or just having better things to do with your summer holidays, now that that’s all over for another year and people are starting new school years, or schools for some people – with new teachers and atmospheres we have managed to regain some of our crowd – and it was quite fitting, seeing as it was the last offcial week of the Cadets visit to the Island, many people have said that their ministry has brought a different angle to the dynamic of our Church – and I quite agree. – its been brilliant having you over, and although this isnt quite goodbye I just thought I would give you a mention!

Anyway, as usual the morning kicked off with some good clean fun on the Games Consoles, along with some time to blow off a little steam before the Morning Worship meeting began, Everyone had a good natter this morning because, as I said above some people had just rejoined the flock – we also had some completely new people, well person join our group this morning for the first time… just to get a taste of why Church & Chips is such an awesome combination.

Cadets Rob & Georgina led this morning’s meeting, which was centred around a core value of our religion – Forgiveness - Vicky read one of Jesus’ parables out to our fellowship, and we also spent some time in reflection, exchanging our IOU slips for a gold coin, which symbolises how, if we ask God for forgiveness he will always forgive (of course, the coins were filled with chocolate!)

Once we had spent that important time in praise together, the two younger ministry groups split for their teaching, which followed the same core values too – In Anne’s session we created some poster art – with drawings and words to illistrate what we had been learning about, some of the group then presented this to the Corps during the final moments of this mornings meeting.

We closed the meeting with a Prayer song Benediction – Wonderful Lord, and followed the enticing aroma of Chips down into the bottom of the hall to enjoy the part that makes our Youth Church such an amazing place – the food – we are one of the only churches on the island that marries both Good Worship with Good Grub (sounds like a bad resturant advert! ). on todays menu was Chicken Fingers, Chips and Beans cooked by resident chef Maureen – who was on her lonesome this afternoon as Dean was working.. but it still tasted good enough for seconds!

After the feeding time, kids ran around having fun – and listening to the distant beating of drums as another of Bens famous Drum ‘Riffs’ vibrated the floors! – Johnny explained to eager listeners how to fake your age to get yourself a profile on Facebook! and Victoria had a smile on her face! , always good.

as for the title of todays blog – ask Morgan Breton – or just ask me about my socks next week!

Another amazing week at the ‘Best Church in the World’

See you soon

Jordan

Rules Made To Last

In C&C - 2008 on August 17, 2008 at 3:22 pm

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! , 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

In C&C - 2008 on July 27, 2008 at 2:35 pm

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

In C&C - 2008 on July 20, 2008 at 5:35 pm

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

In C&C - 2008 on July 13, 2008 at 7:29 pm

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

In C&C - 2008 on July 6, 2008 at 2:30 pm

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

In C&C - 2008 on June 29, 2008 at 3:08 pm

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

In C&C - 2008 on June 22, 2008 at 4:03 pm

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.

Daddy Day.

In C&C - 2008 on June 15, 2008 at 9:39 pm

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

In C&C - 2008 on June 8, 2008 at 3:00 pm

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.

In C&C - 2008 on June 1, 2008 at 3:25 pm

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

Dedicatorias | Dedications

In C&C - 2008 on May 25, 2008 at 1:53 pm

This week has been very kind to most – with Manchester United winning the Football (it was close though!) and no more work until September…. wait, thats just me! … although it is Half Term so we were in a more relaxed mood than usual – because we have no school, no homework worries and we can look forward to a nice break before finishing up for Summer. – and wait… it doesnt stop there adults. Bank Holiday Monday!

Before the meeting we all let off some steam – playing a bit of SingStar, Pool and Buzz! before we joined the rest of the congregation upstairs… and some welcome visitors were here too Neil, Liz and Family came to worship – and they made an impact ‘Jordan, We have a new drummer’ ’Whos Drumming Jordan?’.

I always enjoy worshipping together at the start, because it is very light-hearted and everybody takes anything in their stride and everything seems to be possible – we are a family and anybody who has a problem with that can jog on! – We sang some very uplifting and powerful Hymns today, some of which are my favourite… because of their words, and the messages they convey.

Before we travelled downstairs to explore the world of God, we prayed together, thanking him for the week just gone – and of course the week ahead. Anne led this weeks Junior Soldier class, talking about – Dedicatorias, or in English Dedications we even acted out a mock Dedication Ceremony to show the kids what the Salvation Army does to welcome brand new life into the family of our oh so Awesome God… and we learned some embarrassing facts about Kim in the proccess, it was fun!

During todays session, we also spent some time exploring the Word of God in our brand new Bibles which make the scriptures seem fresh, and exciting while keeping the meanings there and giving the Children a true taste of The Bible (reminds me a bit of Harry Potter… odd).

After we rejoined the adults in the Worship Hall. (Flags and all) we told them what we had been doing – and Anne got quite a hard slap from Kim – we prayed together, sang together.. and Neil ran drumming lessons (hes quite good you know)… as usual (thanks to Maureen) we had a nice meal after the meeting, it was pretty quiet afterwards cause everyone went off to pay 40:40 (Even Roy and Kelvin!), as everyone enjoyed the company of some of their best mates before venturing off into the world of no school, homework or moaning teachers.

I apologise as this weeks Blog isnt the usual Quality – but I will get it back soon – im just a bit tired.

Have a brilliant week – check back next Sunday for another dose from your favourite church youth group!

This is the best Church! Period.

Jordan

Sensational Soldierships

In C&C - 2008 on May 18, 2008 at 3:03 pm

Today (Sunday 18th May) really had a double meaning for us at Clifton Community Church because not only is it The Day of The Trinity but we also welcomed three more Junior Soldiers into the fold. – hence, I have called this weeks blog Sensational Soldierships. These three young people were supposed to be enrolled during our Easter Sunday Extravaganza, but unfortunately couldnt make it, so we gave them their own special day instead.

Todays Worship was led by Victoria & Kelvin and through the mediums of Song, Prayer and Scripture we celebrated The Day of The Trinity, which is a day in which we explore more about how God can be three. The Father, The Son And The Holy Spirit. This is important to Christians because they can draw comfort and love from these three elements of our Oh So Awesome God!, The hall was alive with praise this morning and we worshipped together – more like a family than a congregation, and that is one of the many things that attracts me to Clifton Community Church, and has kept me part of it since I was a young child.

You can meet with people who you know hold real respect and love for you, and you dont need to hold back any part of yourself, which to me, is one of the most important things about a real friendship – I can draw support and love from any member of the Church at any time – this is what I hope the new Junior Soldiers will soon find out as they journey with us. They are at the foot of the Jesus Wave – just waiting to dive in.

and with the help of members of our Corps, and most importantly God – they will find out things about themselves and Jesus that will change their lives forever. They have become Gods Children. Saved from Sin and bathed in Hope.

Hannah, Jordan & Morgan took this step today, making a heartfelt promise to God at the Mercy Seat and reading that promise aloud, receiving support from both the adults and children which surround them. Roy Prayed for them as Young Peoples Sergeant Major – and as a friend – bringing them to God through a prayer which everybody has prayed at some point in their lives. After the Enrollment Ceremony they sat down to applause, and a sea of hands, raised to show who will be praying for them – I have experienced that myself when I was Enrolled, and it is a sight that fills you with love for even those you may dislike or not even know.

After all the Junior Soldiers had been given their Badges we went downstairs to our Sunday School Classes, our Junior Soldier group was lead by Kelvin and the returning Dean and together we read some scripture in the brand new Exciting and Colourful Study Bibles and played a game Directions which illustrated how – even through all the noise and bustle of Sin, and our daily lives we must still listen to the Word of God, because he knows the way we should go, and never makes mistakes.

After we had finished exploring the Bible we shared a small, creative Prayer Time – in which we just asked God for help for the week ahead, as we do not know what we will face – some people will have a rotten week, others a really brilliant uplifting week but one thing stays constant and is living in our hearts whatever WHATEVER is thrown at us.

We finished the meeting off as one group – singing ‘How Good is The Lord’ as our final song before going downstairs to enjoy a good meal – and to do what Kids do best, Have fun together weather its Church & Chips News, A Game of Pool or a Thrashing on Guitar Hero…. also, Our Wii Froze…

Have a Brilliant Week – See you next Sunday for More C&C Blogness….

Jordan

Locked & Loaded: Prepare For The Pentecostal Revolution!

In C&C - 2008 on May 11, 2008 at 4:49 pm

Sunday, 11th May – Alot has happened to us in the past couple of weeks – We have been Liberated and had our first proper Music Festival but one of the most important things happened just today, all those years ago after Jesus had ascended back to his rightful place in Heaven his apostles followed his commands and started to spread the messages and teachings in which God had given us through Jesus – our medium for God to Human Contact, God in human form as it is said. – this event is called The Day of Pentecost – I could say it was the formation of the Christian Religion but that happened hundreds of years after the Death of Christ.

Today I was one of the first Church & Chipper’s to arrive, due to the fact I thumbed a lift to the hall with Victoria, Kelvin and the Girls, and as people started arriving – the Guitar Hero started going and the clatter of those poor pool balls on the table as the Rives got hold of them and played the first game of the day was like (this is going to seem old and soppy) a warm hug on a cold day! for me because I enjoy sundays very much – as does Dean, who again was missing due to work in one of our neighbouring Channel Islands.

In Church we celebrated this together by really getting to grips with The Trinity – and the concept of God being three things – The Father, The Son & The Holy Spirit as a group and in our Sunday School Classes. We started the meeting by having what I would call a ‘Creativley Open Discussion’ about what we thought the Spirit really was, and some of the words and phrases such as Carer and Helper really put this concept into context for me… as a young person who is not even at the crest of his journey with Jesus.

Before Victoria got into all the sermony bits of todays meetings which dont really translate into child-friendly teachings we sang a few hymns which just illistrated what we would be exploring together and of course, shared a prayer time to prepare for whats ahead and to thank for the week which has passed.

In Our Sunday School Class – Junior Soldiers – we explored the Trinity in our usual attractive and creative way, and read the Grace, which was a first for some of our JS’, Todays class was lead, as always by Anne LM and Kelvin, with the welcome addition of Sara who is over on a flying visit to the Corps – today’s little fun activity come Scientific Experiment (that sounds like what my Mum calls me!) was to see who could keep a single ice cube and ice cube for the longest (we used the three stages of Water to illistrate the point of the Trinity to those who had trouble understanding the full version) – after this we met some transformers… odd that I cant remember what we used them for, but still and finally drew out circular family tree thingies to show that we are more than one person:

Jordan Dodsworth

Is a Son

Is a Nephew

Is a Brother

Is a Friend

Is an outstanding Blog Writer – (sorry just had to put that in!)

After we did this Anne ventured into an area in which she has never tried during Sunday School before – and I have to admit she managed to carry it off rather well, A quiet Prayer Time in which we sat in a circle on the floor (Rather like Circle Time, Man! I havent had to cross my legs like that since Primary School!) and wrote personal prayers to share with the group – Even Emma (Who is very shy) plucked up the courage to speak during that time of intimate communication with God, you could really feel God near (another Cup a Soup Hug type moment for me).

After all this we went back upstairs and joined together to sing a final hymn, and a prayer time which included Grace – led by the Junior Soldier Group, then – as suspected we had an ill-fated (for me) discussion about the Sunflower growing Compettion, which I am losing! – I have never found something im better than Victoria at!, she even checks my grammar in our text conversations, no doubt she does it here as well!

We left the meeting behind as we went downstairs to finish the morning off with a well recieved meal – this included the family favourite Fish Fingers – (I could have done with two slices of bread!) and chips, or in somebodys case Chicken Nuggets!, but the meetings messages were never forgotten (so I tell myself every week)!

783 Words: Its offcial – I have no life!

Jordan

God Is……. [Insert Really Good Adjective Here]

In C&C - 2008 on May 4, 2008 at 3:26 pm

Today (Sunday, 4th May) is the day of the Ascension, and Jesus returned to the Heavens to take up his place on the throne – on the right hand of the Lord. We came together to worship and celebrate this momentous occasion in which Jesus completed his task to show us the error of our ways and bring the world back to God.

During the time in which we were together celebrating Jesus’ amazing descent back to the kingdom in which he is ruling as a king – we prayed, sang and played a weird game of Runaround with loads of pointless questions that could only have come from the brain of Victoria.

The Children then came downstairs into their sunday school groups to continue work on either Bubbles or Mobilize – the Junior Soldier’s worked on how you can show respect to God through Prayer and Worship – Together, in groups of two we paired some statements from The Bible to descriptions of God, and I have to admit – I got most of them wrong, (Thats Monkey Brains for you, Eh Victoria!) We also let our artistic sides loose by creating Posters showing some really BIG words with real IMPACT to describe God.

I would like to mention Johnathon Barnes – who is the only Junior Soldier who has completed every Bible Reading Challenge Anne has set, which in total amounts to about 5, I know he enjoyed the box of Snaps Anne gave him – thanks for Sharing mate!

I titled this weeks blog ‘God Is….. [Insert Really Good Adjective Here] and would like you to leave your responses on the Comments. page.

After we were called back upstairs to rejoin the meeting, we cast our minds back to the Sunflower Challenge – not many peoples Sunflowers have actually come up (that sadly includes mine!) – we then closed the meeting in Prayer and Kelvin read out this weeks Benediction.

Of course I dont remember much after that as we all stampeded down into what I am beginning to call the Zoo Area for feeding time, courtesy of Dean & Maureen – today we dined on Chicken Fingers and Chips. and even through the cackles of laughter, punchlines of bad jokes and the reppetive lyrics of ‘Shout At The Devil’ you could tell that the messages were still in the hearts and minds of those around.

I hope you have a good week and enjoy celebrating the Liberation of Guernsey in a sensible way on Friday and check back next week for another dose of Church & Chips

Jordan

Sunflower Sunday

In C&C - 2008 on April 27, 2008 at 2:40 pm

On Sunday 27th April 2008

The Man Behind The Magic Returned….

Bringing a Fresh Blog Post with him!

As April is slowly coming to a close and everybody is settling back into normal routines after the Spring Holidays one thing stays the same Church & Chips – and this weeks Church & Chips was small, but loud and the theme of the teaching was all about the Creation, but most importantly The Creator.

We gathered together before Worship, as always and met up with friends – some we dont see at school or work and chatted, played games and basically we were ourselves, because sometimes you can find yourself overwhelmed during the week and its good to get your feet back on the ground (or is that just me?)

Because I have been away and missed Church & Chips last week – it was the first time in a month or so that I saw Victoria, Kelvin & The Girls – and we swapped stories of our holidays, accompanied by the odd poke and anaconda picture.

We started Worship together this morning – Victoria was multitasking due to the absence of the Band as they played with the Scouts at a special march. Victoria led the meeting and played the piano – which even for a lady, seems quite hard!

After we had welcomed new friends in our visitors from Maidstone in Kent, Victoria showed the whole meeting the picture in which I have a massive (not sure if its fully grown or not) Anaconda on my shoulders. – Our Hymns focussed on Creation with All Things Bright And Beautiful and other school assembly classics and after indulging (Nice Word! Indulging!) in some prayer time the kids and the poor souls who were teaching us went downstairs to explore our amazing cause in more kid friendly detail.

This included playing a game that is very similar to Pictionary – drawing animals and stuff that God created during the Creation Week and making cool Creation Posters, depicting some more of the amazing creations – some of the pictures included Cute Turtles and Amazing Sand Dunes. Finally, before we went back upstairs to join the final stages of Worship we prepared some plant pots – two each – with some Sunflower seeds to begin a compettion to see who could grow the biggest Sunflowers, one of the two pots were given to a member of the church so that we affectivley became little Garden Buddies, Anne told us to ask the people we gave them too how their flowers were getting on – it will be interesting to see whos survives the slugs – and the test of time.

After we joined in with the closing of worship – which included my favorite hymn ever!, unfortunately I have forgotten what it is called – and some more Prayer, You can never get enough Prayer.

Downstairs we dined on Sausage & Chips, prepared by Maureen – (Dean is working in A) and had a bit of fun before the dawn of a brand new week – which will bring fresh challenges for all!

Jordan

Greetings from Planet God

In C&C - 2008 on April 13, 2008 at 2:50 pm

Today (Sunday, April 13th) was again full of laughter and fun as we rounded off our first week of Spring Break. the weeks seem to be going by so quickly – before you know it you guys will be back at school (I know I wont cause Im in Tenerife!) but enough about me and more about Church & Chips…. although if you want to know about me im quite happy to start my own personal blog….. wait too much? – I thought so…

Anyway, Graham led the Morning Worship this Morning as Kelvin, Victoria and The Girls are still away on holiday – I would also like to point out that today is Victoria’s Birthday (ahh the joy of Facebook!). Grahams meeting was all about how Powerful and Good our Lord is and we started Worship with a selection of Hymns, Prayers and other exciting forms of worship (that sounds cool!) including one of the Church’ (as a whole) favorite action songs ‘Wonderful Lord’ – which is a more relaxed type of action song with its point extenuated through simple, yet powerful Sign Language.

After we had opened worship as one group – the smaller youth groups – Primary & Junior Soldiers, split to spend some time working on the Sunday School courses ‘Mobilize’ for the JS’ and ‘Bubbles’ for the Primary. In the Youth class Anne helped us to understand what the Bible and God say about how to handle Bullying in any way, shape or form. – as a group we discussed the Cons of Bullying (their are no real Pros) and unleashed our inner artistic talents by drawing bullies and victims in everyday situations and affectivley ‘Putting Words in their Mouths’. After we had finished the lesson and filled in this weeks page in our workbooks (which included a rather pretty sunflower!) we had a bit of a Kids Alive! fight – using the rolled up newspapers to – well I will leave your imaginations to do the rest of the work.

Ben & Stuart told the congregation what we had been doing downstairs – and because it took them alot of courage to stand up in front of everybody, some of the people they have no contact with they sat down to a round of applause – you should have seen their faces, smiles! smiles! smiles! and we also explored (I think its the Creation, they are doing at the moment) with Roy and his Primary group.

Graham closed his meeting with a little prayer, a good old sing song and of course we said Grace together – The Best Church in The World – missing some vital people – but still praising!

After the meeting we went downstairs to ‘Chow Down’ on Chicken Dippers – and of course Chips! – we looked forward to another week together, i wonder where it goes sometimes Anybody Else?

Finally, before I sign off – There will be NO C&C Blog Post next week or until the 25th for that matter as I am going on Holiday – a well deserved and hopefully enjoyable rest before my exams start in a few months time – yes I am already pulling out my hair!

See You Soon

Jordan

Memory Lane

In C&C - 2008 on April 8, 2008 at 1:25 pm

Today is Tuesday, I usually post this on a Sunday – yet, technology being technology my Dog chewed my laptop charger cable – fusing it, so I have managed to get hold of my brothers laptop – and even though it is late its still here!.

This post is entitled Memory Lane because of the people who came to Clifton last Sunday – people who are close to the hearts of everybody in the Church and seeing them again was amazing, of course I am talking about James, Penny, Adam & Abbie Van Cleef – they came last weekend to visit us and instantly I saw the change – Adam is taller than me!, thats not fair!

While the little family reunion was in full swing upstairs – the Church & Chips gang were downstairs playing Guitar Hero and looking forward together to the mornings worship and the two weeks of complete and utter freedom because we had just broken up from school for a very late spring break.

Even though we were together on Sunday we were still missing some people – Kelvin, Victoria and the Girls are away – and even though our friends from Blackburn were here we didnt completely forget the guys who usually run around like madmen (the girls) the blonde who tickles me until I nearly wet myself (Victoria) and Kelvin – who is just Kelvin.

We all met upstairs for Worship together – Vicky led – singing songs, praying and worshipping as one group the Bible Explorers (remember to take notes along the way!) after we sang, and danced and worshipped together we split into our normal Sunday School groups Primary & Junior Soldiers and worked on exploring our God in a more child-friendly way with Anne & Anne! – some of us passed the Bible Challenge but that wasnt the most important thing – we continued on our theme of Biblical exploration using language and on of my all-time favourite bible passages John 316 – (im using the word exploration too much now!).

We were set another Bible Challenge for next week but because I dont want to be in trouble for cheating Im not going to post the answers – I rather like my face.

After Worship we all went downstairs and enjoyed lunch and mayhem together – in that order – thanks to Dean, Maureen & Roy who make the lunch possible and continue in their jobs as zoo keepers on some occasions.

On Sunday I also went to the meeting in the Evening – because I heard a rumor that Roy was leading and I enjoy Roy’s meetings because anything goes – I enjoyed the meeting because of the time of Sharing – James spoke of his memories of Clifton which is what I mean by Memory Lane, and James, if you ever read this – MY BROTHER IS STILL THE SAME!

Kim and Vicky sang and we saw a glimpse of Puppetry Genius (no, sadly it wasnt me) as the puppet who has a striking resemblence to me performed ‘People Need The Lord’.

Thank You to all who take the time to read this and lets hope that The Van Cleefs can come back soon.

See you all next week

Jordan

C&C, Easter

The Jesus Wave

In C&C - 2008 on March 30, 2008 at 3:13 pm

We are on the Crest of The Jesus Wave.

Today (Sunday, March 30th) was the day The Clocks went Forward so it was no surprise that only a few of our Church & Chips group actually turned up. Those who did had a really brilliant time because the tone was different this week… last week was the celebration of Holy Week – and most importantly the Ressuerection of Jesus and New Life. But this week was very relaxed, messages of last week still in the minds of adults and children alike but we just took some time to relax and worship in a way that was comfortable for us – both old and young, and to either resume or begin our journey with God in which we will discover something new every single day.

Around 10 young people were part of the service today, which was led by Kelvin because Victoria was away in Cyprus – we had a laugh and a joke before we went upstairs and I asked a few people after the service and they seemed to enjoy it – I certainly did! then the Primary and Youth Groups (Including the New Junior Soldiers! – well some of them) all went downstairs to discover what they would be learning about in their sunday school class. – because Victoria was away, Kelvin stayed upstairs and led the rest of the meeting, leaving the two Anne’s (Le Marchant & Watt) to help us start on our new Mobilise! Course Books – mainly talking of the Bible and how it helps Christians of any age in daily life. we read a Bible verse ‘Your Word is a Lamp to Guide me’ and played a little game with what seemed like a small Library of books!

Anne Set us a little challenge to complete this week – a little Bible Exploration Challenge – and me being the complete and utter Rebel I am (or think I am) I have decided to help everybody out and post the complete Bible passage on the Blog! so here it goes:

THE CHALLENGE: Read Nehemiah Chapter 8 – Verses 1-3 and copy out Verse 3 for next week

THE ANSWER: ‘All the people of Israel gathered together in the square by the water gate, they asked Ezra the Teacher to bring out

The Book of the Teachings of Moses, which the Lord had given to Israel – so on the first day of the seventh month, Ezra the Priest brought out the teachings for the crowd, Men, Women and and all who could listen and understand had gathered’

We also worked on a small peice of Drama about a young girl called Mary who was facinated by the Bible and wanted a copy for her own in her native tongue – so she saved every penny she got from doing various chores and jobs for six whole years, then walked over 20 miles to go to the town in which the Bible seller lived, she got a bible and the man who had sold it to her was so inspired by her love of God and need for a Bible that he went on to build one of the biggest companies for Bible translations.

We then went back upstairs and performed this drama to the gathering (I dislike the word Congregation – plus I never spell it right) After we finished the drama piece we sang ‘One More Step’ – a Hymn I remember from my primary school days and it was refreshing to sing it again – Kelvin closed the meeting in Prayer and we went downstairs to socialise with our mates and eat dinner (which was prepared solely by Maureen as Dean had to work!).

Just a little word before I sign off:

I am away on the 15th April for 10 days so although the Church & Chips will be continuing over Easter – their will not be a blog post until I return on 25th April. and also I believe that our previous Salvation Army Captains arrive on the Island on Friday (James & Penny Van Cleef) so no doubt we will see them this Sunday and that Kelvin, Victoria and The Girls are away in England for the Easter Holidays.

If you are a Facebook user you can become a Fan of the Blog on our Official Fan Page and receive updates and exclusive content! – just type us into the search box!

I Hope you enjoyed this weeks Editon.

Jordan

We are on the Crest of The Jesus Wave. We will be together when it Crashes down.

Bringing Heaven With it!

C&C, Easter

Are You Amazed? – The Story of The Ultimate Sacrifice….

In C&C - 2008 on March 23, 2008 at 4:32 pm

All The Nations of The World will Be Amazed.

He still had the scars, the wounds – to show us that he was ready to sacrifice himself for the Future of the Earth – but that didn’t matter to him, what mattered was he Rose from the grave to show his power – to show everybody that he was truly the Messiah, The Son Of David – The Son Of God and that by giving up his life in the flesh to defeat Sin.

That was what we came together to celebrate – and it really was a celebration – not only was the regular congregation there but they brought family members and friends to join in with this inspirational time, The Children came together to celebrate too – but before I get into the amazing ‘Resurrection Rock’ we watched an amazing, I mean utterly Amazing video that really put into perspective the final days of Jesus’ before WE – yes WE put him to death for something we didnt understand at the time, I didn’t mean us literally I meant our ancestors.. but you get the picture.

The Children put this time into a fun, new and exciting way – singing their favorite Worship & Prayer songs – praising Jesus in a way that really made sense to them. As well as singing we listened to them really give their hearts to Jesus using Testimonies and Prayer – You could really feel Jesus working in the people who were gathered at Clifton today – from the smallest to the biggest, from the youngest to the oldest.

Victoria led the Enrollment Ceremony which saw 7 New Junior Soldiers welcomed as fully-fledged members of the Salvation Army, with the flag flying and everything! and Francesca sang ‘Abba, Father’ which touched many hearts and Roy and I both prayed for the new members (Roy prayed in a more conventional way, whereas I… well you all know what I did).

Afterwards the Group of Children Prayed and shared Testimonies – which ranged from Thanking Jesus for Busted, to Family or the funniest Toilets! and I shared mine, which I shared for the first time in the Four years I have been Enrolled as a Junior Soldier and when I wrote it…. it seemed wrong and over the top, but judging by the reaction it got… it seemed to be just the right words at the right moment. for everybody what was said came from the heart – we spoke freely about our relationship with God and every single person in that hall enjoyed every second of it.

After the Children’s Invasion had been cleared from the stage – which had been set with the scene of Jesus’ Tomb in which he had risen from – STUFFING THE ENEMY and showing his absolute Brilliance!, Victoria spoke about the other really cool thing about Easter – Which can sometimes cloud the real purpose of the festival. THE CHOCOLATE! and put her points across using something that we can all relate to – and hopefully, if you are reading this – those words really meant something to you – they did to me, well the whole day meant the world to me. It was an eye opener and it has changed my life forever – for the better.

We are on the crest of the Jesus Wave – and we will be together when it crashes down – bringing Heaven with it!

I hope today meant as much to you as it did to me.

feel free to download the special wallpaper I designed using elements of those amazing worship video – I will post some new ones on the forum later this week – the new forum is located at www.thechipshop.co.nr

C&C, C&C 1st Birthday, Easter

Palms & Psalms.

In C&C - 2008 on March 16, 2008 at 2:54 pm

Welcome to another Edition of the Offcial Church & Chips Blog – We have now generated over 380 hits and I have posted an article a week for 3 months! – It is now offcial, I have no life outside Clifton.

Again I have to apologise for the lack of Chipwrapper again this week – although it didnt stop it getting printed eh Kelvin! this break is due to my computer being a computer and not working when you need it most.

Today (Sunday March 16th 2008) is Palm Sunday the beginning of the Holy Week and remembering Jesus’ final week living on his Fathers Creation and it is a day that his held dear by many as in this week Jesus took our Sin and wiped the floor with it ‘Stuff the Enemy, God has set me Free Now!’ - we are celebrating as one this week, the most important events in the Christian Calendar.

When I arrived Jordan & Morgan were wrestling – that ended in a bit of turmoil – and Francesca, Felicity & Hannah had ripped part of the pool table Cloth – I just knew it was going to be a day to remember. Guitar Hero has been played into the ground over the past few weeks and Francesca continued her domination – she really needs to change her difficulty!

We went upstairs when everybody, minus a few – had arrived and joined with everyone to celebrate Jesus riding a Donkey into the town in which would later become a place that he would have a deathmatch with sin and come out on top! he road in as a king and came out as a saviour – What a Man!

We sang a few hymns that really set the tone for the day – including the round that got so many of the boys excited then split into two groups – Primary & Youth – to work on our Sunday School classes – the younger group working hard on getting to grips with the story of the Palms with the Amazing Bubbles childrens activity storybook.

The Youth worked hard on ‘Ressurection Rock’ which has become more of a home-grown production than first thought! with the group learning the full routine to ‘Jump Up!’ (we remembered stuff we forgot there!) and wrote testimony’s and prayers to be spoken in the meeting alongside the welcoming of new Junior Soldiers – thats right – its finally here!

Do you think we will get to the number of JS’ as Dunstable Victoria?

When we had done as much as possible downstairs we came back up to join the meeting again – finishing it off with another rendition of the round and a final Blessing that was in the air hours after the meeting had finished. – once downstairs we had lunch, played pool and hid bags (or was that just me) and generally enjoyed each others company before another week of School (and in some cases Work). We didnt play with anything on the middle floor but used the chairs and tables to create quite a remarkable fort!

This week will see a long weekend (Bliss!) with Good Friday, The Church & Chips 1st Birthday and Easter Sunday hitting home – please remember to check the Blog on Saturday as well as Sunday as I am on location for the blog and hope to catch every last second of Bowling action for your eyes to enjoy – you never know we might be able to debut the blogs picture gallery if I can get hold of a camera!

Have a Good Week – Keep Praying – Easter is on Its way, lets not forget its message.

thanks for the continued Support.

Jordan.

The Spirit is Moving…

In C&C - 2008 on March 9, 2008 at 4:14 pm

I would just like to take some time this week before getting into the Blog to apolgise to the readers as due to unforseen cuircumstances I was unable to attach last weeks Chipwrapper.

On a lighter note the Blog has hit over 337 Hits as I write this week.

The Spirit Is Moving…

Today (9th March 2008) topped off a brilliant weekend for me this weekend – after the fun and chaos of Friday Night into the brilliantly inspirational Saturday in Jersey with One Way UK and this amazingly uplifting Church & Chips – the message of Easter is really getting into peoples minds as we get ready to ‘Take the Sting from Death’ with Jesus.

Today started like any other day – with Francesca enforcing her Guitar Hero record and the rest of the gang running around or watching one of the many pool games – some of them coming out with better results than the Football this weekend.

Upstairs we looked at the Final Self Denial country Paraguay and Adults & Children alike leaving their offering money boxes or envelopes on the table to be sent to people who really need it to extend their relationship with The Lord and hopefully build a Worshipping community a little bit like the one we are part of every week

Salvation Army Clifton: The Best Church in The World.

Paraguay really touched my heart today as I think that having the oppurtunity to Praise Jesus is nearly as important if not more important than having access to a constant source of Education and Lifeskills and the money we gave last year helped them to build a bigger Corps Hall – resulting in the community growing – The Lords Family never stops growing.

After closing the Self Denial Appeal with Prayer Time lead by Kelvin we all had a good sing song – then – disaster struck – Victoria announced she was leading the Youth Sunday School, this was met with an unexpected (and unprovoked I might add) chant of ‘We Want Kelvin’ leaving Victoria confused.

We soon got over it and began to practice for our Easter Performance – choosing songs and writing heartfelt Testimonys to be read and performed during our Easter Sunday Celebration – Which will include the Enrollment of new Junior Soldiers and a family mealtime.

When we returned upstairs to join the group – The Primary Group where explaining to us about Zach – He has a long name which I cannot spell so Im not going to try. How he was a tax collector and he heard that Jesus was passing through the town in which he worked and went to speak to him – they ended up having dinner together.

Downstairs we had a meal of Pizza & Chips and enjoyed socialising with the friends we have made over the first Year of Church & Chips – yes Church & Chips has been going for one whole year! more details on how we are celebrating that will be revealed in due course! – if not I will tell you anyway.

The Cranium Super Fort ended up as a swordfight with Both Victoria, Dean, Roy and I feeling some pain at the hands of the little magnets on the end of the foam tubing!

Thanks for a Brilliant Weekend – all who have been involved – and of course the amazing support you have given the blog over its founding months – now three months in please still keep this on your reccomended reading lists as your hits make this worthwhile.

Jordan

Mothers Day: Church & Chips Style!

In C&C - 2008 on March 2, 2008 at 5:07 pm

Today (2nd March 2008) is Mothers Day – The day when we take some time to really apprieciate what our Mums do for us on a daily basis, from the most extraordinary stuff to the things we take for granted. Before I was picked up for Church & Chips I made sure I gave my mum a hug and her card – before leaving her with the Dog and darting off to enjoy what has swiftly (along with Friday Nights) become the highlight of my week. – What have you done to make your mum feel extra special today?, leave your comments at the bottom of this page.

I was exploring the blog today – just before I wrote this weeks Church & Chips Report – and I noticed that the hit count has a special connection with the Junior Soldiers this week 316 the reason for this being that we got to grips with the Bible this week in preparation for the Enrollment of the Junior Soldiers on Easter Sunday and we read my all time ultimate favourite bible verse in the universe John 3:16 along with 2 Timothy and some from the gospel of Mark.

This morning Roy, Dot, Alf and Myself were the first people to get to the hall – closely followed by Victoria, Kelvin and the Girls and from that moment our feet never touched the ground – we let off a little bit of steam this morning with Francesca trying to take pictures of us running around like headless chickens – and Felicity trying to barracade Morgan into the Boys Toilets!, when the whole crew (but a few) had arrived we joined the Adults in the first stages of Worship – the landscape outside was an ugly grey but we carried on regardless – letting the light of the Lord wash over us – cleaning away our impurities and touching us like only he can before the day (and week ahead).

Before we went downstairs Kelvin asked us why we think our Mums are special – and he got some mixed responses – from I Dont Know’s to She Gives Me Money! and we carried those thoughts downstairs , only switching the focus to Jesus and how he loves us in a special way – expressing that love in The Bible and in Prayer.

The Primary Group looked at Bringing The Children to Jesus – the story in The Bible of the Follower who thought Jesus was too busy to speak to the Children, Jesus told him that was not the case and that the Christian Faith will grow through the Generations – and The Children are the very Beginning.

We had Lunch together and had a good old time with the traditional Chicken Nuggets & Chips and although we were in a different mood – brains switched into ‘Have as much fun before school starts mode’ the messages of the day where still floating around – Even when the funky Cranium & Twister Moves! dance games made an appearance!

Hope you have a Good Week and Remember to Download your printable Chipwrapper to read at Work.. or whatever! and sign up for the new C&C Offcial Discussion Forum which I have christened The Chip Shop

Hope it all goes well this Week! and Thanks for the Comments & Continued Support of The Blog -

Couldnt do it without you……well I could – it just wouldnt be as fun!

Jordan Dodsworth & The Motley Crew!

The Chipwrapper – 24th Feb 08 -

Twisty Moves!

In C&C - 2008 on February 24, 2008 at 5:00 pm

Another little Page Hit update: 299 – Thank You to all who take the time to read this every week.

Lets try and hit 300 and more this week.

I have titled this weeks Report ‘Twisty Moves!’

In what way was Church & Chips different this week to last week?
The group returned to its normal numbers – just in time to practice for the Easter Service.
The hall was alive with the sound of Music, Chatter and Organised Chaos as this morning as we all gathered together – as a Community Church – to praise together in the run up to the much awaited Easter Celebrations.

The Pool table was as busy, yet compettitive as it always is – the mix of two playstations hanging in the air – Francesca running away from Johnathon and Lauren throwing a well-aimed kick at anybody who insults her or her mates.

Morgan being his normal self – kicking and punching and a bad attempt at breakdancing.

After all that down in the basement of the hall – the whole zoo came upstairs for this weeks sing-a-long, in which Victoria told us about the 3rd Self Denial county Mozambuique (Sorry to all if I spelt that wrong) and its work to help children and its young mothers in the country get the love and education they need to have a better life – with two weeks left of this charitable event keep checking the reports in the Self-Denial section of the site.

Once we had helped start the meeting off we went downstairs to explore more of our Lord – the groups exploring different things – while thinking about the upcoming Mothering Sunday and Junior Soldier Enrollment.

The Sausage and Chips went down like a kid in a candystore – with everybody scoffing down the food like they had never ever seen anything remotley like it before!

The group then practiced 2 songs that are due to be performed as part of Cliftons Easter ‘Production’ and some soloists where chosen – this will be better than Christmas maybe?

and with that I will take my leave – I apologise if you find this weeks report lacking in quality but I am a little bit off my game – lets hope Twister Moves comes out next week eh kids!

Jordan

The Chipwrapper – 17th Feb 08 -

‘Dean!, Where’s The Sauce!’

In C&C - 2008 on February 17, 2008 at 6:42 pm

Before I write about this weeks amazing Church & Chips I want to thank Dean & Maureen who make the dinner! and without them I wouldnt have been able to title this blog:

‘Dean!, Where’s The Sauce!’

The blog has currently attracted: 255 Page Hits.

_________________________________

It seems this week that not only Graham is away as the Church & Chips group was smaller today than I have ever seen it before (Didnt matter though – more Chips for us).

With Francesca running around taking pictures with her camera and Morgan and Jordan battling it out in what seems to be a weekly pool match! – and Felicity…well, being Felicity we all had buckets of fun before we went upstairs… this fun included Yours Truly being truly smashed at both Guitar Hero (I was on Hard!) and Wii Sports Tennis by one of each of the Lang Family children.

We then acsended on the Worship Hall to join with the rest of the adults in the meeting, singing some of my favourite songs ever! ‘We Wanna See Jesus Lifted High!’ and ‘Raindrops’ – both being songs I havent sung for quite a while!

Victoria then talked about how her sorry excuse for a football team ‘Bristol Rovers’ managed to get in to the next round of the FA Cup – advancing for the first time in I dont know how long… (I so hope Man United get them in the next round!)

writers note: Bristol Rovers are not as sorry as I imply above – im just trying to wind her up

The Sunday School Groups then went down to the class areas – this happened extremly quietly - do you think those missing people had anything to do with it?

The older group (In which Francesca loudly pointed out she was the only girl in) went over the Activate! course to make sure that all six sessions are complete in preparation for the enrollment of some new Junior Soldiers… The Chips Blog hopes to be given the exclusive to this Clifton event of the Year

The aroma of Chips and Pizza enveloped us (nice use of words their Jordan!) as we went back into the main group to close worship in Prayer and have a jolly good Sing-song!

Victoria had explained more about The Self Denial Appeal earlier in the meeting – this week we looked at Pakistan and the work of the Salvation Army to help train Sunday School teachers in poorer countries. – for more on this, Week 2 of the C&C SD Reports follow this blog post.

The scripts and CD’s for the Easter performance of ‘Ressurection Rock’ were given out and practicing will begin in the near future… a few weeks actually!

Remember you can download the ‘Chipwrapper’ for this week from here to read on the bus or wherever takes your fancy.

I hope we get the whole crowd back next week – Conga Sunday is coming – more details of that in the coming weeks!

Hope you have a Brilliant Week

Jordan and the Rest of The C&C Crew!

C&C, Self-Denial

Jesus – Our Eternal Superhero

In C&C - 2008 on February 10, 2008 at 4:05 pm

My thanks go to Kelvin this week for two reasons, one for leaving a comment on The Blog and for taking the time to print ‘The Chipwrapper’ off every week to reach the members of the Church who don’t have access to the internet.

Enjoy the Double-Post this week, one post detailing this weeks Church & Chips and one talking of the Salvation Army’s ‘Self-Denial’ Appeal.

Thanks to all who are helping the blog increase in page visits – this weeks total is: 200

Dont forget to download the Chipwrapper to read while the kettle is boiling.

I hope you enjoy this edition as much as you have the past editions , I have entitled this

‘Jesus – Our Eternal Superhero’

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It is that time again – Welcome to another Edition of The Church & Chips Blog and Chipwrapper – and with it being half term I felt alot better when I walked into the Hall this morning. We began our morning as we do most mornings by having a little bit of a social gathering before the meeting started – the pool game between Alycia, Morgan & Lauren being one of the most suspense-filled we have seen since the After-School Club Pool Tournament Final last year – Lauren and Morgan coming out on top.

We then came upstairs to join in wit the start of the Worship this morning – Victoria talking about the importance of the Salvation Army’s ‘Self-Denial Appeal’ in which everybody is getting involved in helping Bangladesh and other countries get the funds they need to help with several projects to make life much better for the Men, Women and Children, who may be thousands of miles away from our Corps but are still part of the family.

The Corps taking home money boxes and envelopes to fill with the money they will save by stopping themselves having thier luxuries. – To find out more about this amazing appeal I have written an extra blog article this week – just go to the Blog homepage and click on Self Denial: Guernsey Give It Up for The Lord!

The Worship flags made another appearance today as the children circled the hall waving the colourful material around – clearly enjoying the spirit of The Lord, who clearly was close by us all as we worshipped him.

The other amazing feat of the Morning being, the action song in which the adults joined in with (Dean, Keith, Graham & Kelvin) gracing us with their amazing air guitar skills. (If only somebody had a video camera!)

Victoria led the Worship today – Talking about Jesus, and again that is all I can say as I go downstairs and concentrate on the Activate! Junior Soldier Course which tied in really well with the comments and discussion about Self-Denial as we tackled the ‘Hot Potato’ of Giving – we explored the word of God in the Bible as a whole group (Corinthians 2) which spoke about Giving & Greed. – We wrote out really special Prayer labels which could be hung somewhere and read everyday.

We then went back upstairs to join with the closing stages of Worship – singing Wonderful Lord which is like a slow action song and a prayer combined. – one of Doug Horley’s Best.

After the meeting we followed the enticing aroma of Chips! and did what we do most weeks after the meeting, scoffing our faces with truckloads of chips and enjoying each others company as we look forward to the free week ahead.

We will see this lot again on Thursday as we Celebrate Valentines Day together in Clifton’s answer to ‘The Love Tunnel’ – check the Keep in Touch for Details.

Remember to download this weeks ‘Chipwrapper’ as it is only avalible for a week from Sunday.

Remember the Self Denial Article!

Hope you enjoy the week and remember to check back next week for the next editon – documenting the movement of the church I have proclaimed as: ‘The Best Church in The World’

Jordan Dodsworth and The Rest of the Church & Chips Crew

God’s Instruction Book

In C&C - 2008 on February 3, 2008 at 4:02 pm

Thank You to Liz – Who spent some time on The Chips Blog sharing her thoughts – it is all very supportive. Again I would like to express my thanks to those who are helping the Blog’s Hits to keep climbing – we have hit 145. – hope you enjoy this weeks edition entitled – God’s Instruction Book.

Dont Forget to download this weeks Printer Friendly Edition, for you to read in the bath… it might get a bit wet though!

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Welcome to another Edition of the Church & Chips Blog – and Chipwrapper – (that is my name for the printed edition) – Today, Feb 3rd 2008 is the first Sunday of February and the week before the start of Lent and the build up to Easter – The Celebration of the Crucifiction and Resurrection Of Jesus. If you would like to share with us what you are planning to give up for Lent just drop a few letters of the English Language in the Reply box below. anyway, today’s meeting was led by Victoria – and upstairs she spoke about The Bible – Gods Instruction Book and both the Good and frankly Weird advice it gives – she began by talking about silly warnings on everyday stuff. My favourite being ‘Do not fold buggy with Child Inside’ and ‘Do not spray in Eyes’.

Downstairs, the Primary and Youth Sunday School Groups extended knowledge about the topics in which they are tackling in the discussions – The Youth Group spoke more about Activate! – learning more about the Church, this week Kelvin & Anne spoke about the meanings in the Salvation Army Symbols – The Flag and The Crest – talking about what the 3 colours mean and what different elements symbolise. The Youth Group are exploring the Salvation Army for the Junior Soldiers Enrollment, they need to know more about the Church before they can make the promise to The Lord and lead their lives the way it was written.

After the classes we all returned to have a good sing-song, with reflection and prayer in the closing moments of today’s meeting – The group of Children sang ‘I Am Incredible’ which is an action song with a real powerful message, and that along with ‘Jump Up!’ (A Friday Song) and a few others really sets you up for the week ahead.

After the Meeting – both the Primary and Youth Groups went downstairs to enjoy another meal with a side-order of Chips, this time it was Sausage…mmmmm – the hall was alive with chatter and the clinking of knives and forks – of course we performed our exciting, never boring Grace – and no it wasnt the one from The Simpsons.

The Cranium Fort made another appearance this afternoon – another set of blockbusting structures and creations were thought up and built by our budding constructors – Guitar Hero - another popular game saw some fierce, but friendly compettion – maybe we could set up a Tournament? and a newbie to the ranks being Connect4 Flip! – not sure how that works – so again this week was full of fun – and I’d like to think that the messages heard today are carried through to affect the week ahead.

Look out for Clifton’s answer to ‘The Love Tunnel’ on 14th Feb (Valentines Day) 6:30pm – 8:30pm at The Hall where they are showing ‘Calamity Jane’ - Starring Doris Day – and if your a bit young for all that lovvey-duvvy stuff then Craft and Themed activties are waiting for you! (or you find it plain boring) also…. a prize for the best cake themed for the evening…better put the oven on then!

Remember that I have updated the Prayer Topics & Bible Readings page this week – I forgot to type it out last week – and that is where all the comments are if you would like to have a read or post your own.

I have attached this weeks ‘Chipwrapper’ – thank you for all who picked up a copy last week – and for those who came up to me and said Well Done! – it really put a smile on my face – and on the inside too!, sadly last weeks is no longer avalible but if you missed it I have kept a copy on my computer so if you speak to Me or Kelvin (if he doesnt mind) we can get you a printed copy. – I apolgise that this weeks editon runs to one and a 1/4 pages

Have Another Brilliant Week!

Jordan Dodsworth & The Rest of The Church & Chips Crew!

Reaching Out

In C&C - 2008 on January 27, 2008 at 5:34 pm

I would like to apologise for my poor spelling and grammar – this will be sorted during the week!

Before I write about another week of Church & Chips I would like to take some time to thank Victoria and Maureen who took the time to post their veiws onto the Church & Chips Blog. – Your support is valued greatly.

I would also like to thank everybody who has helped the Blog hit 124 page hits.

_____________________

Today (Sunday, 24th January 2008) we gathered at Clifton – the House of the Lord – “The Best Church in The World” to join together and link arms with the Lord to enjoy a morning of Worship – both adult and child alike – everybody is welcome.

The meeting was led by Victoria this morning – we were together for the first few hymns – the children getting involved with the waving of the worship flags and the action song, which the children learned at the PH2 Youth Club, We then split – the Primary continuing a long-running study on the Life of Esther, the Youth thinking some more about the Activate! Junior Soldier Preparation Course – What Is The Salvation Army? being the topic for todays session – we learned about William Booth – how he committed to Jesus at an early age and went on to build the faith – his church working internationally in 109 countries with a motto that really gets you thinking “Blood And Fire” the blood of Jesus and the Fire of the Holy spirit (See Kelvin, we did remember something!).

Upstairs had, as usual a more adult feel – but sadly I didnt catch what their “Hot Potato” was this week as I was to busy thinking about what was going on downstairs – but Im sure it was important – we all came back to the one place to finish todays worship off with a prayer, talking about reaching out to those who couldnt be at the hall to enjoy worship this week and asking God to Reach Out and touch them this week – see what I did there! – until we see them again.

The Church & Chips group went down to enjoy a dinner of “Chicken Nuggets & Chips” and enjoy the the usual social activities – as some people only get to see each other at C&C or PH2, some went upstairs to play with the drum kit – where others enjoyed some constructive fun with the ever-popular Cranium Super Fort - I have been promised pictures of this to add to the blog as the budding craftsmen built Cars & Buildings today!

Remember that the Prayer Topics & Bible Readings page has been updated with another uplifting week of Bible Exploration and Prayer to enjoy this week.

I would like to introduce our Printer-Freindly download – which is attached to this blog post so you can download the post and read it in Bed! -

sadly due to server space this Edition is no longer avalible – if you would like a copy – feel free to contact me

Hope you Have a Brilliant Week

Jordan Dodsworth and The Rest of The Church & Chips Crew!

God Is Pleased With You Today Because?

In C&C - 2008 on January 20, 2008 at 3:01 pm

Today (Sunday 13th January) was another day where we all gathered at our place of worship – ready to speak to the Lord before we all go our seperate ways and journey into the world of School, Work and Family for another exciting week.

Today the meeting began with an important statement, one I thought was so important that I titled the blog with it this week God Is Pleased With You Today Because?… and by all means add your reasons to the reply box below – anyway, we all went around and greeted people we may not have seen before, or had the chance to talk to yet on a personal level and spoke those kind words to each other. – then the adults in the meeting took some time to worship in a more adult fashion – learning, talking and singing with the Baptism of Jesus being their “Hot Potato” for today.

Downstairs the two Primary and Youth groups split – the younger group learning about the trials and tribulations of Esther, her husband and her religion Judaism – using the colourful and exciting bible story to extend their understanding of God and his amazing book for life, his plans and hopes for the world. The older Youth group spent some time looking at an aspect of the Activate! Junior Soldier Preparation course – learning about helping others and asking God to help them change something in their lives this week. The handpainting went down a storm with the children and left me thinking that the Lord seems to make his worship and learning about him better every week.

Todays “Cooldown” with the group dining on “Beefburger and Chips” and playing an assortment of games – be it virtual or physical (or in some cases problem-solving) with Cranium Super Fort had the group socialising but not forgetting the teachings of the day and the upcoming decision and enrollment of the 2008 Junior Soldiers.

This week saw the Closure of Church & Chips on Facebook – the current members being left to leave at their own accord and The Church & Chips Blog becoming the central source of C&C News and Updates – so check back here regulary as we hope to update it with Prayer Topics & Bible Readings and the Church & Chips Weekly Reports

We hope you All have A Brilliant Week

From All At Church & Chips

C&C, Commitment Sunday

Commitment Sunday 2008 – Joyful In Hope, Faithful In Prayer

In C&C - 2008 on January 13, 2008 at 10:32 pm

“Joyful In Hope, Faithful in Prayer” Romans 12:12

Today (Sunday 13th) was the Second Chirch & Chips of the year, but this may have been the highlight of many because today was The Salvation Army’s Commitment Sunday 2008 – a fresh year to follow the Lord – with a mixed meeting this morning with both the adults and the children celebrating Hope, Faith and Prayer together.

The meeting began with a sketch showing the power of Hope with a modern perspective (Batteries!) – the whole meeting was based around a core theme “Joyful in Hope, Faithful in Prayer”, a hot potato if you like and we really bit into it with the children telling the group their hopes for the future and the only two St Peter Port Junior Soldiers sharing their reasons for bridging the gap between them and The Lord “Making the Best Friend you will ever make”, and Francesca talking about her experiences of MaM Summer Camp – at the end of the meeting nearly every child was kneeling at the mercy seat, – praying and walking to the foot of the cross showing an interest in becoming a Junior member of the best church in the world.

The sight will stick in the minds of many forever, the prayer time was brilliant! – the whole experience seemed wrapped up in one song which Kim sang while we put our prayers at the front of the hall, we also shared a memory verse and some hymns and action songs to bring our praise to the Lord in the most exciting way possible!

Then the whole Youth Group came downstairs to enjoy the usual Video Games and brilliant food (Sausage And Chips) and played an exciting Cranium action game – with the messages of the meeting still in the air we all went home feeling refreshed and uplifted (well I did anyway!)

and thanks to today we now have the enrollment of some Junior Soldiers to look forward too in 2008 – this year has just begun and it can only get better for Clifton Community Church!

Remember to check our Facebook Group for all the latest madness if you are a Facebook User

Soon we will be posting some Readings & Prayer Topics into the blog – look out for those

Have a Great Week

From All At Church & Chips

2008, C&C, Church & Chips

First Church & Chips of 2008

In C&C - 2008 on January 6, 2008 at 3:48 pm

Today (Sunday January 6th) was the First Sunday of 2008 – meaning the First Church & Chips of a brand spanking new year, to celebrate the New Year we all brought one or a selection of toys and games in that we got for Christmas. One of the most popular gifts this year was The Nintendo Wii and its portable counterpart The Nintendo DS.

Church was exciting with everyone showing off their gifts and enjoying each others company before a brand new week at School – In the combined Senior and Primary Sunday classes we coloured in Self-Portraits and stuck them to the wall while praying for the Lords watchful eye over the coming year.

Afterwards we went downstairs and enjoyed a fun-filled afternoon of Computer Games and a great round with Max’ Caranium Conga with more to follow next Sunday.

Remember to check the Facebook Group for more on Church & Chips and you can add RSS sydication for this blog to make sure you get the latest from the blog and the weekly Prayer Topics.