We held our Sunday morning service at Woodlands Park School on Sunday 20th October. We feel we do all age services fairly well, with plenty of interaction and activities and simple messages for all abilities, so we wanted to make it as easy as possible for people to come. With this in mind we are experimenting a couple of times this year with holding a service on the estate in the local and well-known school location. Before this we had posted invitations to the estate, and knocked on some of the doors to personally invite and make connection. We had also prayed through the local roads in church and at a midweek zoom prayer meeting.
In the event we had a couple of new families visiting us who had spotted local publicity. We give thanks for God bringing them. And we give thanks that we were able to manage the challenges of setting up in the school and working out how to run the service, welcome people well, and provide refreshments, as well as tidy up and clean! We pray on for further all age service opportunities such as the Christingle and Christmas services, and the February service back at Woodlands Park.
In a different style, we also held our service of remembrance and thanksgiving on the Sunday evening of Remembrance Sunday. It was moving to have a number of people there from St Mary’s Maidenhead as well as our own local community. Rachel Meynell spoke of the power of God to enable us to experience his love. It was a wonderful time of following up on those families we have known through funerals, to encourage Christians in the hope they have and to point those who don’t yet know Jesus to the one place that there is hope.
White Waltham Church
Please pray with us for the opportunities of the Christmas season coming. In church services, in Christmas Unwrapped, in school services and lessons, in the carol-singing in the parish.
Please pray with us for continued wisdom as to when to faithfully step out with activities and services, and when to say no because we are a small church and we need to look after each other well and be realistic as well as hopeful with our gifts and resources.
Please continue to pray for growth in number of committed church family. We continue to run at a loss year by year, and to need to increase our parish share, which we are able to do for now but this is obviously not the long-term plan.
Please give thanks with us for the loving family there is here which is particularly felt when someone goes through hard times.