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The Magazine of
Eastgate Union Church, Louth
(Baptist and United Reformed)
www.eastgateunion.com
In this month’s edition:
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You are the Church
Breaking News from the Paetzolds
The Big Church Weekend Camp
If you enjoy walking…
MARCH 2015
From our Pastor
Dear Friends,
In recent weeks we have been reminded about the importance of the Word
of God - the Bible in our lives. The Bible is much more than simply a book
filled with information about God that is helpful for those who read it. In a
recent sermon we started with this quote: “The Bible is …” The Bible (in it’s
original language) is the Word of God inspired by the Holy Spirit and written
by human hand, it is something we can trust implicitly and can live out every
aspect of our lives shaped by it.
In his book, “Taking God at His Word”, Kevin DeYoung writes that “the
most effective means for bolstering our confidence in the Bible is to spend time
in the Bible.” Simply, the more we read the Bible (all of it, rather than just the
parts we like or understand) the more we will experience the reality of God
speaking through it and be willing to trust all that it says.
As we read the Bible we will observe several important characteristics of
God’s Word. These will include recognising the “Sufficiency” of Scripture,
that is, that the Bible provides everything we need in terms of God’s revelation
of Himself. In other words, we need not look elsewhere to know who God is
beyond the Scriptures and where they point us.
We will also recognise the “Clarity” of Scripture - ironically the technical term for the clarity of Scripture is “the perspicuity” of Scripture! - when
read as a whole, the message of Scripture is obvious. This does not mean there
are not parts that leave us wondering, but the central message is not cloaked in
mystery, nor are the requirements of Scripture laid out in it’s commands.
Another characteristic of Scripture that is difficult for some to accept is
that it is “Authoritative”. God’s Word revealed in Scripture is the “final
word” in all matters! You will recall that at the close of the Bible there is a
clear warning in regard to adding to or taking anything from the Scriptures (see
Revelation 22:18), and Jesus himself says something on this matter in Matthew
5:17-20.
Ultimately we will recognise the “Necessity” of Scripture. This is most
profoundly communicated through the life of Jesus and the way in which He
uses the Scriptures. We note that when confronted by satan in the wilderness
(see Matthew 4:1-11), Jesus doesn’t call down power from heaven to deal with
him, rather he states, “it is written …” He resorts to the Word of God! He recognises what is said of the Word of God in Isaiah 55:11: “So shall my word be
that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall ac-
complish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent
it.”
As I have said on numerous occasions. I am convinced that one of the
most important issues that will define the Christian Church in the immediate
future will be the place of the Bible. The reading of the Scriptures with a heart
to both hear and obey the voice of God will define the Church that is destined
to be the beautiful bride of Christ. I long for a time when all believers “delight
in the law of the Lord and on His law [they] meditate day and night.” I would
strongly implore you to prioritise carefully reading the Word of God, not just
on your own but alongside other believers. Please don’t hesitate to ask for help
in finding resources that can help, and especially getting involved with any of
the groups that already meet to read and explore the Bible during the week.
Every blessing,
your friend,
Chris
News of the Family
Those who are in need of our prayers:
We offer our prayerful sympathy to Freda Draper whose sister has died.
Sue Banister had had ongoing problems with her throat in recent months pray that she will very soon receive the correct treatment that she needs in
order to make eating normally a possibility and pleasure again.
Bernice Jones is much better, but is still in hospital in Lincoln - having been
there since early September and having had two major operations. She is now
having physiotherapy to enable her to walk again. She is hoping to be
transferred to the rehabilitation unit with the aim to be able to leave the
hospital by April. She will then be living with her daughter in Manby until she
is able to live independently. Please pray for her continued recovery.
Remember Alan Dyson in your prayers as he struggles with cancer and a
problem with his legs;
also Dennis Snowdon as he continues to recover form his time in hospital at
the end of last year.
Also please continue to pray for Beryl Walters, Michael Henderson , Brian
Moore, Joy Morris, Nigel Gash, and their partners and families.
P.T.O.
Our thoughts and prayers are with June & Colin Lambert: Colin’s daughter,
Maggi, who recently had a bone marrow transplant, was rushed into
Addenbrook’s hospital where she is still at the time of writing.
The Christianity Explored Course has got off to a good start, with a number
of folk attending. Please continue to pray for all the participants as they journey through Mark’s Gospel.
Please continue to remember those unable to join us regularly for worship:
Joe Moore and Paul White.
Birthday Greetings for March
4th
11th
12th
14th
15th
17th
Abigail Overton
Dave Brewster
Heather Grierson
Duncan Doughty
Ann Smith
Trish Woodward
21st Philip Greenfield
24th Dave Flegg
Mac Litterick
28th Peter Mansergh
31st Sue Litterick
CHURCH AGM – Wednesday 25th March
A reminder that the Annual Election of Elders will take place at the AGM
and all nominations must be in to the Secretary by Sunday 1st March please.
The names of all nominees will be publicised in the Church Notices from
Sunday 8th March onwards for your prayerful consideration before the elections.
Church Appointments:
If you are intending stepping down from any particular role at the AGM please
let Carol Irwin know so that vacancies can be publicised.
Currently, the following roles need filling:Magazine Editor
Publicity
Health & Safety Officer
If you are interested in any of these roles, or perhaps have ideas on how
they could be developed, please see Carol or Chris in the first instance.
You are the Church
Taken from UCB “Word for Today”
sent in by Audrey Moore
If you think the unemployment statistics in the country are bad, take a
look at the Church. Twenty percent of its members give eighty percent of its
income, and do eighty percent of its work. The rest are happy just to be spectators. It’s easy to sit back, criticise and say, “Why doesn’t the Church do
something about the problem?” Hold on there: You are the Church: you do
something about it! You say, “But I left my Church because I don’t like the
way they do things.” You didn’t leave God’s Church, which is the body of
Christ, did you? So instead of talking about what your Church doesn’t do,
look in the mirror and ask yourself, “What am I doing for the Lord?” Do you
know what an Armchair Manager is? It’s someone who analyses the game
when it’s over, criticises the players, complains about the referee’s calls, and is
content to sit in the stadium and be a spectator rather than a player. Hello! It
takes commitment to spend hours in practice knowing you’ll be booed by the
crowd, tackled by opponents, and will leave the field beat up and covered in
dirt. The Bible says that the job of your Pastor is: “To equip God’s people to
do His work and build up the Church… This will continue until we all come to
such unity in our faith and knowledge of God’s Son that we will be mature in
the Lord, measuring up to the full and complete standard of Christ. Then we
will no longer be immature like children…” (Ephesians 4:12-14 New Living
Translation). Think about it!
From the Editor
Heather Grierson
Just a reminder that the April Edition of this Magazine will be the last one
I write! So far no one has come forward to take it over; and to my knowledge
no suggestions have been made about how to maintain good communications if
no one comes forward and Magazine production stops.
As I wrote in the January Magazine, I feel our Magazine is really worth
continuing with, as it reaches folk who do not attend every week and therefore
don’t always know what is going on. And also a surprising number of Church
folk still do not use the Internet. It is also a useful tool for mission, and helps
us keep in touch with “fringe” people.
If anyone thinks they might possibly be interested in taking over, or if you
have any other suggestions about effective communication at The Church on
the Corner, please come and talk to me.
The job could also become more of a team effort, with different folk being
responsible for, e.g., folding/collation/stapling and distribution.
WHO’S WHO AT EGU
Age (Exact or approximate)
59
Your immediate family
Wendy, my wife
Place of Birth
Born in Ilford, Essex
What brought you to Louth?
The Wolds, countryside and lovely “market
town”
How long have you lived in Louth?
15 months
Peter Andrews
Your job
Managing Director of a property investment company
Spare time interests
Dog walking!
Favourite Books
I like James Paterson novels
When/How did you first come to faith in Christ?
As a teenager at Ilford High Road Baptist Church. I was baptised at age
17 there
Favourite Bible Characters
Joshua and Caleb for their trust in God and their perseverance
Favourite Hymn
My Baptism hymn, “O Jesus I have promised”
When did you first start to attend EGU?
November 2013
How long have you been a member?
Since March 2014
What first attracted you to EGU?
I have always attended Baptist or URC Churches
Where can we meet you in our fellowship?
Sunday morning, Men’s Bible Study, Prayer Meeting
What “jobs” do you do in our Church?
I’m on various rotas, and involved in setting up for the Soup Lunches
Are you involved in the wider Church beyond EGU in any way?
Several Christian Charities and two Churches in Essex
Walking in the Wolds
Julia Gibson is once again organizing three
Walks to help raise money in Christian Aid Week
(which is in May) - you will be able to choose between 3, 15 or 30
miles, according to your level of expertise.
In preparation for that, Julia will be holding three Practice Walks in
March and April (see below), all starting from Louth Methodist Church. She
asks that you let her have your email address if you intend going on any of
these, in case she needs to cancel any of them at short notice.
All walkers will need stout footwear (preferably boots), water and waterproof clothing. In addition, Julia advises that you take with you food (bananas
are the thing), whistle, sweater, emergency food, and trousers to be carried if
shorts are worn.
If you would like to part take in any of the Practice Walks please contact Derek Gibson (07917305270) or Julia Gibson (01507 354626, Wed-Fri
8am-4pm).
For the “proper” Walks during Christian Aid Week, Julia is hoping
participants will gain sponsorship, and walkers will be asked for a minimum
donation to Christian Aid of £5 for the 3 mile walk, or £10 for the 15 and 30
mile walks. It is suggested that walkers donate at the Practice Walks too. Details for the Walks during Christian Aid Week will appear in the April Magazine.
Practice Walks, all leaving from Nichol Hill at 9.00am
- all in the Lincolnshire Wolds:
7th March
9.5 miles
4 hours
28th March
15 miles
6 hours
18th April
15 miles
6 hours
Welcome to Ineke!
On Sunday 1st March Ineke Haaring will be with us at EGU!
Ineke has been at New Tribes Missionary College in the recent past, both
as a student and as a member of the kitchen staff. She has since then been out
to Papua New Guinea, but is currently back in her homeland, the Netherlands.
She will be sharing something of what she has been doing in Papua New
Guinea during our worship.
Breaking News from the Paetzold family!
Christiaan hurt his knee quite badly when he very “creatively” kicked
mud from his shoes! After a lot of thought, prayer and more prayer we have
come to the decision that we all need to go down to South Africa (Alfred was
going to fly down next week for three weeks). We have peace that this is
God’s will. With Alfred’s conference and us being here alone for three weeks
we feel that this is the best for us as a family. Accommodation for the 4 of us
was difficult in Lichinga and to stay here would have been hard.
The children and I will then be in SA until we leave for the SIM training
in May. Alfred will fly back up as soon as we have our visas, hopefully end of
March.
A lot of unplanned travels lie ahead! Not quite what we had envisioned
for 2015, but we know God is in control and we trust Him! We have already
seen how He opened many doors in just a few days – a miracle indeed in this
bureaucratic paperwork country!
Please pray for Christiaan as we travel down…. And for safe travels - it
is the RAINY Season...!
We praise the Lord that we managed to get an appointment with an orthopaedic surgeon on the 24th of Febr! We also have a place to stay and managed
to renew our work permits – all in 2 days!!
Although we didn’t plan this crazy trip, we realize that the Lord is still in
control. We are even getting excited about the visit! We have been in Mozambique for 8 years now and have only gone on very short furloughs, so this will
be quite a different experience! We really pray for a good break even though
we need to see doctors! We can relax because we know that God works everything for the good to those who love Him and are called according to His purposes! (Rom 8)
Greetings in Jesus’ Name, Alfred & Belinda Paetzold
From Liz & Ragnar Niclasen in the Philippines:
Dear Friends at the Church on the Corner,
It is with thankful hearts that we send out this note. Thank you for praying and keeping in touch - it means so much. God has been so good to us in
blessing us with folks like you to cheer us on.
The 14th of January was a very exciting day - final reading of the
Kankana-ey New Testament! Thank once more for praying us through each
step. We are very, very thankful for how smooth it went. Now we are working
on 2 additional books - Psalms and Proverbs. It would be our dream to someday have the whole Bible on audio, but that is many years down the road, as so
far only 40% of the OT has been translated.
Being able to make two trips into the tribal area this past month was a
HUGE blessing. We had a visitor from Germany who was very interested in
visiting a tribal church. Since the area where we lived for many years is not a
possible day trip, we took her to the nearest location where there is a small
group of believers (2-3 hr. drive), and then returned the following week to
share at their Thanksgiving Service. What an encouraging time - hearing their
stories of God's faithfulness in their lives over the past 20 years brought tears
to our eyes.
God also gave us another opportunity to meet some fellow workers with
the Igorots. People from many areas on Northern Luzon meet together each
year to study His Word and work on strategy for the upcoming year. Ragnar
was asked to share at this recent BIBAK Conference. It was encouraging to
hear what is going on with other organizations and a wonderful surprise to meet a
lady there from our village of Lenga. Her sibling was the Catholic Catechista in
our village and caused us endless headaches. Now her sister is a believer and
faithfully attending the BIBAK church. God continues to do miracles!!
This is just a bird's eye view of a few things that have taken place this
month, but our blog has been updated with pictures and more details of each
activity, plus a few more exciting happenings.
(www.rockyandlizniclasen.blogspot.com)
In Christ's Amazing Love,
Ragnar and Elizabeth
A Rabbi said to a precocious six year old boy,
“So your mother says your prayers for you each night?
That’s very commendable. What does she say?”
The little boy replied, “Thank God he’s in bed!”
☺
The Big Church Weekend Camp
John Eedle
This will be held at Woodthorpe Leisure Park, next door to the Garden
Centre, from Friday 7th to Sunday 9th August.
Please get in touch as soon as possible, so I can book the right amount of
pitches. To give an idea of the cost, it will be around £20 per pitch per night.
Plus an extra £2.50 per night if you have an awning. I may be able to get a
group discount and will let everyone know later on.
There are excellent facilities there: lovely walks, a big park for the kids,
golf, a driving range, fishing lakes and a really nice restaurant and bar.
The youth are trying to raise money to make it more affordable for everyone.
We will organise a bbq for the Saturday lunch time. This will be a bringand-share meal, open to anyone else who doesn't want to camp as well.
John and Helen Eedle are organising this event and would appreciate
early responses to avoid disappointment.
Telephone them on 01507 327239 or 07743 789500.
Life Attitudes
A five session Course on
The Beatitudes
started on 23rd February,
10.30am Mondays in Church Hs, Upgate
and from 26th February
2pm Thursdays at Trinity Centre
A booklet is available if ordered in
advance - phone Paul Hill on 605222
run by the Anglicans - all welcome!
A Sunday School teacher asked,
“Johnny, do you think Noah did a lot
of fishing when he was in the Ark?”
“No,” replied Johnny, “How could he,
with just two worms?”
Need a Wheelchair?
Marilyn Machin has a spare
wheelchair which she is willing
to lend out to people needing
one, for example for visiting
relatives.
You can contact Marilyn on
(01507) 601476
Computer Operators
We are always looking for
additional helpers to man the
computer on Sunday mornings.
If you would be interested in
learning more about it, and/or
would be interested in some
training, please see John Eedle.
Calendar for March
Sun
1st
10.30am
Tue 3rd
Thu 5th
Fri
6th
Sun 8th
Sat 14th
Sun 15th
Sat 21st
Sun 22nd
Wed 25th
Sun 29th
7.30pm
7.30pm
2.00pm
10.30am
10.30am
12 noon
10.30am
7.30pm
10.30am
Worship led by Heather Grierson - including the visit
of Ineke Haaring, formerly of New Tribes
Deadline for Nomination of Elders
Elders’ Meeting
Churches Together Quarterly Meeting
Women’s World Day of Prayer - at St. Mary’s, Upgate
Communion Service led by Rev. Chris Ray
Away Day for Christianity Explored Course
Mothering Sunday Family Service - Rev. Chris Ray
Soup Lunch
Worship led by Rev. Chris Ray
Church AGM & Election of Elders
PALM SUNDAY Worship led by Rev. Chris Ray
All material for the April Magazine needs to be with the Editor by
Sunday 22nd March at the very latest please.
Minister’s Diary
1st
3rd
9th
11th
- 2nd Holiday
Elders’ Meeting
Meeting with Mentor in Lincoln
URC Ministers’ Meeting
in Sleaford
14th Christianity Explored
Away Day
25th Baptist Ministers’ Meeting
in Grimsby
Church AGM
+ Christianity Explored each Tuesday
afternoon & Wednesday evening
Friday 6th March
Women’s World
Day of Prayer
2pm
St. Mary’s Church, Upgate
Reflections delivered by
Rev. Kate Toogood
Bring a bright scarf!
For more information on the
Women’s World Day of Prayer visit
www.wwdp.org.uk
“150 Years”
A few copies of our History are still available at the back of the Church, price
only £1. Please help yourself, and hand your £1 to Heather or Seith Grierson.
Minister
Secretary
Treasurer
Magazine Editor
Rev. Chris Ray
10 Elm Drive
Mrs. Carol Irwin
24 Oak Close
Mrs. Audrey Moore
North Elkington
Mrs. Heather Grierson
52 Chestnut Drive
Email: handsgrierson@btinternet.com
Worship Group Caroline Isherwood
Youth Team
Carolyn Ray
Tue. Bible Study Pat Robinson
Thu, Bible Study Annie Farrow Smith
Thu. Hsgroup
Carol Irwin
Room Lettings
Carol Irwin
Craft Circle
Dorothy Ingham
Brownies/Rainbows Pam Elliott
602692
604007
606706
605066
343349
602692
610464
609932
604007
604007
600907
601151
CHURCH ACTIVITIES
Sunday
10.15am Open Prayer Meeting in the Lounge
10.30am Morning Worship;
+ Children’s & Young People’s Groups
Communion 3rd Sunday
Monday
Tuesday
Wed.
Thu
Fri
Sat
2.00pm Craft Circle - in the Sanctuary
10.30am Tuesday Drop In - at the Church
7.00pm Ladies’ Bible Study - 23 Eresbie Road
7.30pm Elders’ Meeting (1st Tuesday)
10 - 12 noon Coffee Morning in the Lounge
“Sunbeams” (Mums & Toddlers) in the Church Hall
7.30pm Men’s Bible Study - Church Lounge
7.30pm Church Meeting (4th Wednesday alternate months)
10.15am Bible Study - in the Church
1.00pm Flower Arranging Class in the Church Hall (fortnightly)
4.30pm
6.00pm
6.00pm
9-10am
Rainbows
Brownies
Worship Group Rehearsal in the Church
Prayer Meeting in the Sanctuary
OUR MISSION STATEMENT
God calls us to be a Worshipping, Caring, Growing Family,
committed to following and serving our Lord Jesus Christ.