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  • Frances Shaw: Save the date!

    So with joy and anticipation I saved the date – for a significant birthday party, for a wedding anniversary celebration, for friends coming to stay, for other outings and trips.  Now of course they’re all postponed – or in some cases we like to think postponed, but really they are cancelled. So my diary now has lots of things crossed out, with not so much to go in, or even pencil in relating to gathering together, or meeting for a coffee; just lots of question marks.

    I noticed in our reading for last Sunday, Pentecost, the disciples had gathered ‘all together in one place’. Gathering is important to us. We can refer to the words in Matthew where Jesus says, ‘For where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them’. Sometimes this sentence is used in a bit of a jovial way, or as a sort of apology, when only two or three people turn up at a meeting – Jesus is there anyway. The context in Matthew’s gospel could well be one of persecution, when to ‘gather’ was quite dangerous, and this provides a very different focus for these words.

    I really do miss gathering on a Sunday at church – not just to meet people, to see friends, to share, and to care, but gathering with a purpose – to worship and engage with God. Our BHC online services are great – wonderful, imaginative and encouraging to faith, but I do miss ‘going to church’. Maybe this is something to do with physically going, moving from one place to another, putting myself in the ‘right’ place. Trying to engage with God at my desk, in front of a screen, my work screen, just isn’t the same for me.  This is more to do with me than the nature of the product.

    Half of me is hanging on to get back to some sort of normality – that is, the way we were and did things before. The other half is telling me to ease myself gently into recognising that actually we aren’t going back to how things were before – and I find that hard.  It’s also hard because we don’t yet know what our ‘new normal’ kind of church gathering will look like, and that’s unsettling. It will be the same, but different – same buildings, but used in a different way.

    Although the end may seem tantalisingly close, there won’t be a big celebration party. The natural world will recover, and there are already signs of a greener planet, with new life, in its broadest sense emerging. We will be able to gather.

    God is still there – save the date.

     

     

  • Jill Johnston acknowledging Pat Hilton’s valued contribution as a Pastoral Assistant

    Following the very sad loss of Pat Hilton, I would like to acknowledge Pat’s very valued contribution as one of Busbridge and Hambledon’s  Pastoral Assistants. For many years she was a very faithful member of the classic service pastoral team always willing to contact people and be there to listen and help whenever necessary. We are a very close group as PA’s and dearly miss her friendship, wise and thoughtful insights, her depth of knowledge from years working as a nurse, also volunteering at Send prison assisting Lesley Mason and earlier working as a Samaritan.

    Her deep faith, kindness and compassion shone through in all she did, never complaining about her own illness and right up to 10 days before she died was still ringing other people to offer pastoral care, at a time when she would have been the more natural recipient of such care.

    Thank you Pat for being the person God made you, we all miss you.

  • Sunday 24 May 2020



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    This week’s ‘A Word from’ : Connected by a big Heart - Clare Haddad (LLM)
    This week’s ‘A Word from’ : Connected by a big Heart – Clare Haddad (LLM)

    BLESSINGS THIS WEEK
    We’re aware that people are under financial pressure. Thank you to everyone who had found that they can continue to give to God’s work at this time. We’re hugely grateful to all of you. Special thanks to some, particularly at Hambledon, who usually give weekly via green envelopes and haven’t been able to do this in services; so you have contacted Andrew Dunn with your giving. Thank you so much.

    We’re pleased to share that the Church Family Support Fund has made a series of gifts to local people in the past few days. Please pray for those who have been blessed in this way.

    Special thanks this week goes to the Unplugged team and Anto for a great live Unplugged last Sunday. It was well worth being part of.

    Since CYF has moved online the ministry has grown!  Our Ichthus group for 14-18s has doubled in size since Anto first started last summer, and there are more and more Pathfinders on zoom every Sunday.  Initial Zoom sessions for Explorers (7-11s) have been really well received too, and our little ones love the YouTube videos.  So, we are still reaching and teaching 100+ young people once or twice a week, and this year we are also aiming to keep activities going over the ‘stay-at-home’ holidays.  

    If anyone wonders whether delivering CYF (or any) ministry online takes less time, please think again!  Planning and recording, as well as delivering the live sessions is fully occupying our CYF team (paid and volunteers), and for variety as well as support, we are looking for people who can give a bit of their time too.  Leaders have found that contributing one piece of the session weekly is a lot easier than planning and delivering their whole monthly session ‘solo’ – and it’s great fun being part of the CYF team.  So please, if you would be willing to record something, help to lead online sessions, help for Bible studies etc, please contact anto.ficatier@bhcgodalming.org for more details.

    PRAYER Opportunities & Resources

    Please take a look at the PRAYER area of the web site which provides details, ideas and encouragement for prayer together and individually.  We are meeting at least once a day on zoom to pray, and the sessions are open to all.  The Prayer Ministry Team, the Emergency Prayer Chain, and Listening Prayer are all still available via prayer@bhcgodalming.org.  Coming up:

    PrayerFest 0-30 in 60.  Please come and join us in the prayer zoom this Sunday at 5pm to pray for children and young people in our churches and wider community.  Many young people, children and families  are finding this time of lockdown a real struggle and with schools starting to think about some of its pupils returning – there is a lot to pray about.  Contact:  Shan Hallam Shan D Hallam e: hallamshan7@gmail.com. 

    Thy Kingdom Come: Ascension to Pentecost. 

    Thy Kingdom Come is a global 11 day prayer campaign which started yesterday and runs til Pentecost on 31 May.  The challenge this year is ‘Light Up the World with Prayer’.  Your small group may be using the web site resources to pray and the 9am Morning Prayer will be participating too.  See www.thykingdomcome/global.

    FRIENDSHIP with the community

    Last week Margot attended a (Zoom) meeting run by Waverley Borough Council, which also included various volunteer community groups, help-lines and a local mental health charity, together with staff from Surrey County Council and the Citizens’ Advice Bureau.  All had heartening stories to tell of armies of volunteers and the kindness of people in the communities helping those in isolation or quarantine.  As we enter what is being called the Recovery phase, some are still very busy; others (like us) are finding that the requests for help have levelled out.  This has inevitably left some volunteers feeling that they have not been used as much as expected.  If you are one of those who has not been called on to help yet, please accept our apologies – and be encouraged by the possible explanation that this time of crisis has brought out the best in us all, so that we have all become good neighbours – and good Samaritans – to those in need.

    Kindness for Keyworkers. In the immediate future, Penny Naylor and Judith Hawkey will be grateful for help with an initiative for care home staff and teachers in our local schools.  They are putting together small tokens of love (hand cream and chocolate) for key workers in our local care homes and school staff.  If you would like to make a contribution, please send by BACS and use ref: key workers.  Or get in touch (coronaresponse@bhcgodalming.org ) if this sounds like something you would like to be involved with.

    #CreativeKindness.  Penny has received a number of lovely items to pass on to older people we know that aren’t on the internet and are finding harder to stay connected. Thanks for those who’ve supported their children in creating these messages to spread some cheer.  Do keep them coming. Please see the details on the web site. 

    Worship Playlist
    For those who love our well known hymns, here is a spotify play list you might find it helpful to ‘like’ for your own worship/listening.  Click the icon above. Thanks to Alan Harvey for compiling this one.

    Don’t forget

    If you are not connected in some way and would like to be, please let us know  (e: catherine.garner@bhcgodalming.org).  The Coronavirus Response team is ready to help those self-isolating— Email: coronaresponse@bhcgodalming.org.

    The CFSF is receiving donations AND applications for financial gifts.  Details on https://www.bhcgodalming.org/c19-givingandsupport.  

    If you have anything to post, thoughts, prayers, musings—remember the BHC Together facebook group is yours to do so! 

  • Clare Haddad: Connected by a big heart

    Clare Haddad: Connected by a big heart

    Although many of us have not gone very far, if anywhere (!), for two months the Coronavirus Lock Down means that we find ourselves in a “different place.”  Of course the pressures on some of our brothers and sisters have been enormous as they are locked down in a big family twenty/four seven.  All those meals to put on the table, all that extra washing and cleaning, let alone home schooling: that must be very demanding if not exhausting. Others with serious health issues find themselves “shielded” on their own or with one other and very dependent on family,  neighbours and the local authority to get  shopping and prescriptions.  I do hope that if that is your situation that you have relaxed into being a VIP and adjusted to being confined to your house and garden “for the duration”.  Ten days before the lockdown I phoned our daughter at university to explain that she was unlikely to be able to come home for a long time. I am proud that she has been able to cope well and we enjoy our phone chats. God bless children and young people with patience and resilience and ways to experience His joy!

    Early on journalists and others stressed the imperative of having fairly strict routines: almost as if we might lose the plot without routine. I was amazed by the industry going on in our road with large deliveries of shingle, turf and compost arriving to different houses in the early weeks. I think there was then, but less so now, an element of displacement activity where people threw themselves into big gardening or DIY projects to blot out the worry if not fear that the invisible threat of Covid-19 brought us all. We have prayed for some people known to us who have been hospitalised and very sadly not all of them have recovered but mercifully most  people we know have remained well. Being so far unscathed makes social distancing, virtual church and lack of freedom to plan forward strangely surreal.

    For me, once the urge to clean the house every day diminished, I have had little routine apart from a daily long walk around our village, greeting and chatting to people at a distance. Acquaintances have become friends, cakes have appeared out of nowhere and my banana bread and flapjack have got new takers (always untouched post oven). There is a definite enlivening of the community and a breaking down of barriers between people of different generations.  I strongly believe that God is in these new friendships and the greater personal  inter-dependency. Two things stand out as moving me profoundly.. These are the well supported weekly Clap for NHS staff and Carers and the VE Day 75 years  front garden parties with neighbours sharing at a distance their photos and family stories of the Second World War. Although we need to be two metres apart when outside our homes we are actually becoming closer.  One of the latest pictorial messages from our Government  shows two people spaced by  two opposed arrows marked  “Stay 2 metres apart”  but  where the arrows meet there is a  big heart. We can read this as love for one another and also as God loving us all in the midst of the pandemic. May we all find comfort in messages and signs of love and kindness and mutual support at a time where handshakes and hugs are on hold for the moment.

  • A thought on the Zoom outage on Sunday 17 May

    Pause and give thanks – Who uses Zoom at 10am on a Sunday morning?

    >
    “Rather than complain, let’s be thankful for Zoom.

    Who uses Zoom on a Sunday at 11am? Maybe people connecting with prayer, peace, church and Christ?

    Maybe this could a brilliant hotspot map of the spiritual heartbeat of the UK right now? What a bright light!

    Let’s give thanks for what it might show and thank Zoom for trying to fix the issues. Thank you people at Zoom.
    — Simon, 17/5/2020”

  • Mid-week ‘thought of the day’ – 29 April 2020

    Dear all,

    It is heart-warming to know how much you are all caring, sharing, supporting, praying, worshipping and growing in fellowship in Christ. We’re hearing more and more stories of church members connecting together in new ways. We know that many of you have welcomed a call from a home group leader and the response to ‘would you like to fold in to a home group’ has been amazing. Thank you once again to our home group leaders. You play a crucial role in the leadership of BHC as we head into the future.

    We’re gradually expanding the faith, teaching, worship and fellowship that we can offer online. We’re doing this because we think that our church family might be doing these online things for a while to come. We’re offering some online short-courses and one off practical faith events; we’d encourage you to be part of them, partly to bless those who are putting such effort into them for all of us.

    We’d like to give particular thanks this week for Matt Toombs. Matt and the Explorers team create an incredible weekly ‘padlet’ for the young people. The work behind it is phenomenal. Also, a quiet thanks to Jacqui R and all the wonderful saintly supporters who are caring for many in and around Hambledon, Hydestile, Enton and beyond. Do pray for these people.

    We’re beginning to turn our thoughts to what ‘normal’ life, worship, faith and fellowship might look like in the months to come and even further ahead too. Like much of the UK exploring how life might be changing; we’re asking what “BHC MkII” might look like under the Holy Spirit’s leadership. Some research has been started into this and you can read an interesting theological and practical article which has been forwarded to us by Rev Catherine McBride.

    https://www.dur.ac.uk/digitaltheology/ewo/sections/

    What can we return to? What have we learnt God is growing afresh and which we need to explore further? What can we set aside as we live together for the Kingdom of God and look forward to Christ’s Return? If you’ve got thoughts, do send an email to Simon and Simon.

    In the love of Christ,

    Simon

  • THE BIG WAVE!

    The Big Wave
    You too can have your moment as a YouTube star!

    We’d love to see as many of you as we can waving to us in our service on Sunday 24 May. To do this is simple!
    Film a 1-2 second video of you waving.  We won’t broadcast names, portrait or landscape is fine, Dave can work with different formats (we think).  Send it to david.preece@bhcgodalming.org by 10am on Thursday 21 May.

  • Sunday 17 May 2020

    Character that forges hope: Romans 5: 1-5



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    the images above link to youtube or zoom meetings. You can also Select any event in the web site calendar and click ’location’ To access the zooms/Youtube. 

    The Notices

    Pioneering the New Church during and after Covid-19
    There was a great turn out for Monday evening’s session led by Ed Olsworth-Peter as we looked at Pioneering the New Church, and what might things look like for Busbridge&Hambledon Church in the future.  It was inspiring to hear from lay pioneer minister, Emma Major in Reading, and we thank her for sharing her experience of founding a forest church, and lessons learnt. Ed kicked off with the questions: 
    · What was essential to church before lockdown?
    · During lockdown, what are we doing without?
    · What have we learnt (so far?)

    Then: what will and won’t we want or need to resume? And what might be taken forward out of lockdown?

    This is only the start of the process to discern God’s new purpose for us and we will be coming to you all for input to create our new being.  If you have any thoughts to share on these questions email: church.office@bhcgodalming.org.

    Church Family news

    Dudley Hilton writes: “Catriona, Robert and I are enormously grateful for all the messages of love and support we have received since Pat’s death on 25th April. Her funeral is to be held at the Guildford Crematorium on Thursday 21st May at 1pm. Under the current restrictions it has to be private, but it will be streamed live. If anyone would like the link to join it please email Dudley at DudleyH2020@gmail.com (not the email address in the last Church address book, which is no longer valid). We will be holding a Thanksgiving Service to which all will be invited once circumstances permit.”

    We were delighted to hear last week that Rev Clive Potter’s wife, Janet, is home from the ICU. Thank you to everyone who has been praying.

    No more 10.30am Coffee Breaks. As of Monday 18 May, the daily zoom chats have stopped, as there are now so many other opportunities for zooming with church friends.  If you are not connected in some way and would like to be, please let us know  (e: catherine.garner@bhcgodalming.org).  More people than not have responded positively to the contact made by home groups to ‘connect’ or  ‘fold in’.  Not all have signed up for bible study, but home group leaders have found that people have been really happy to have been reached out to and to be in contact with a group within the church family, perhaps by occasional email or social zoom. “I think sometimes we assume that people may not want to be reached out too, but this has not been our experience.”  Mark Puddephatt.  Oddly, this time is proving to be a great opportunity to get to know new people.

    The Big Wave
    You too can have your moment as a YouTube star!

    We’d love to see as many of you as we can waving to us in our service on Sunday 24 May. To do this is simple!
    Film a 1-2 second video of you waving.  We won’t broadcast names, portrait or landscape is fine, Dave can work with different formats (we think).  Send it to david.preece@bhcgodalming.org by 10am on Thursday 21 May.

    We had a wonderful turn out to the VE day Tea Party and sing along last Thursday and those who attended really enjoyed the songs from the wartime era, and an excellent poem written especially for the occasion by Chris Payne. 

    EVENTS COMING UP

    Unplugged is returning, live on zoom—Sunday 17 May at 6.30pm.  Anto will lead a short ‘service’ on zoom including a message, a worship song recorded by the Unplugged band, and a drama based on the parable of the vine from the FUSE team— Of all the videos doing the rounds in lockdown, this might be the funniest!  All very welcome to join.

    Groups for all ages continue online.  Our young people are participating really well, and parents are so grateful to the CYF team (staff and volunteers) for their ongoing commitment. 

    Busbridge Church Prayer Walk
    Our almost qualified, LLM Philippa Baker has designed a very moving prayer walk for people to follow around the Busbridge Churchyard—if that’s where your outing for exercise  takes you.  You need a smart phone to guide you, or follow the signs, or use it remotely from home.  The pdf is here to scroll as you stroll, and there is a QR code on the sign when you get to the church so you don’t have to fiddle with finding the URL.  

    Film Discussion: The Lunchbox. 8pm on Wednesday 20 May
    Next week’s film recommended by Pri Burford is The Lunchbox available on iPlayer. It is an absolutely beautiful film starring Irrfan Khan who (you may have seen in the news) died recently and who was, to my mind, one of the great screen actors. He wasn’t well known to Western audiences but across most of Asia and the Middle East, a worthy superstar.

    We will be considering in our discussion:

    • What are the key elements in deep friendships?

    • Can we ever really be friends with those who are very different from us in age, class, race, culture, religion? 

    • What are the barriers to and the enablers of true connection and friendship?

    • Is it possible for men and women to ever really be just friends?

    Watch the film before Wednesday. Men are welcome too, and we’re trying a different night of the week. These discussions are proving to be really fruitful during lockdown.  
    Email ladies@bhcgodalming.org for the zoom meeting details.

    PrayerFest 0-30 in 60.  Please come and join us in the prayer zoom room next Sunday at 5pm to pray for children and young people in our churches and wider community.  Many young people, children and families  are finding this time of lockdown a real struggle and with schools starting to think about some of its pupils returning – there is a lot to pray about.  Contact:  Shan Hallam Shan D Hallam e: hallamshan7@gmail.com. 

    #CreativeKindness.  Penny has received a number of lovely items to pass on to older people we know that aren’t on the internet and are finding harder to stay connected. Thanks for those who’ve supported their children in creating these messages to spread some cheer.  Do keep them coming. Please see the details on the web site. 

    FRIENDSHIP with the community

    Fruit picking work at Tuesday Farm
    A number of young people responded to the offer of work Tuesley Farm this summer, and are due to start fruit picking  as soon as next week!  We are really grateful to Hall Hunter for offering support to local people, and for employing the students who Anto put forward.  Hall Hunter are have no more vacancies at the moment, but do contact anto.ficatier@bhcgodalming.org in case they need to call on a waiting list in the future months.

    Why Pray?  If anyone is asking (and we think they are) please refer them to the web site.  Andy Spencer has put together some info for people who might be thinking about this for the first time.  Please pass the word on and look out for the posters going up around Busbridge. 

    Don’t forget

    • The Coronavirus Response team is ready to help those self-isolating— Email: coronaresponse@bhcgodalming.org.

    • The CFSF is receiving donations AND applications for financial gifts.  Details on www.bhcgodalming.org.

    • If you have anything to post, thoughts, prayers, musings—remember the BHC Together facebook

      Prayer Ministry team available

      To contact the EMERGENCY prayer chain, email prayer@bhcgodalming.org  or call 01483 421267.

      Listening prayer is available mid-week.

      For more information contact Jeannie Postill t 01428 687968

       

  • Shock

    SHOCK… Wait, Magnolia trees and Sing a new song

    People matter: No-one left behindIt is a shock to know that we are in the midst of something profound. It is all about people. It is people who we are collectively trying to protect, love and save; people’s jobs that we are trying to preserve; people’s futures that we are seeking to secure. It is sacrificial NHS and other people who we clapped and cheered at 8pm on Thursday evening from our bedroom windows… and near to us someone was even blowing a bassoon – what a great sound, and oh so Godalming! It is people we collectively lit a candle and prayed for at 7pm last Sunday night alongside over 3 million other people across this Land. It is people we pray for daily at 11am (set your phone) and 5pm if you hear the Busbridge Church bell toll. The message is that, even in the shock and even if you are isolated, you are not alone because people is plural. No-one is left behind.

    There is a verse in the Bible which is termed ‘I’ but it was written for public worship; as people together. It was written after a time of huge upheaval and wondering what was happening. It looks back to the attitude that was needed in that upheaval and shock.

    I waited patiently for the Lord; he inclined to me and heard my cry. He drew me up from the pit of destruction, out of the miry bog, and set my feet upon a rock, making my steps secure. He put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God (Psalm 40:1-3).

    Purposes changed
    Some will recall that I had an accident in our garden. I had climbed our overgrown magnolia tree and was merrily minding my own business sawing large branches off it. I had no idea that things were about to change. At some point in the afternoon, whilst I was not paying attention and thought nothing could go wrong, I managed to saw into my leg quite significantly. I was in a terrible predicament and I was not in the best place to get help. I needed to refocus and fast.

    I managed to get down from the tree and alert people to help me but then the most incredible thing happened. I was lying on the ground, compressing the wound and focusing on my leg when all of a sudden one of my fingers locked and went into spasm. I remember lying there looking at my finger and thinking “well that isn’t very helpful”. I may have used a few choice words in there too.

    Support soon arrived but all I was worried about by then was my finger. Why had it locked? The first person on the scene explained that my body had gone into shock. My ‘normal world’ of business as usual tree cutting seemed a lifetime ago yet it had been less than 2 minutes. Time seemed to flow at a very different speed and my purposes changed.

    Delivering wellI was told later that when the body enters shock it ‘locks down’ areas that are secondary to the main place of shock in order to preserve things for the future. This enables the body to concentrate its energy on the place needing it most. It increased the flow of blood to the brain so that the mind is able to think both fast and slow simultaneously. There is forensic focus on what is occurring but time seems to slow down so that decisions being made fast can be delivered well.

    I have heard the word ‘shock’ used many times in recent days. Shock at what it happening; or shock that things did not happen earlier; shock that a liberal democracy has put people in their homes; shock that some people seem ignorant of the enormity of the dangers; shock at losing jobs, homes, income; shock that something small, insignificant and invisible can strip away every vestige of normality; shock that we have to queue for the shops. Shock.

    The passage from the Bible is about shocking events. It takes us into a realm of fast-slow thinking; to wait on the Lord. To be ready, but to wait. To look forward but to recognise where we are right now and do things well and that require waiting with clear-thinking rather than rushing.

    Shock that releases perspectiveShock seems to be entirely destructive, fearsome and negative and when shock takes hold it can transfix and create inertia as we come to a grinding halt. It can also release and prepare the way. It releases us to concentrate on the most important things; things we had forgotten. We are enabled to reconnect to deep things about ourselves and loved ones that have long become overgrown to the point of losing their shape and purpose. It gives us time to consider and provides a fresh perspective about God.

    For me, the magnolia tree and whether it was quite the right shape mattered far less than what I thought of my family, my future and whether help would arrive. At that moment my priorities were reshaped and they have remained reshaped.

    The passage from the Bible puts everything into perspective. The writer sees that God alone can draw him to a new perspective which is about freedom. It is a freedom from being in a pit and a muddy bog where the feet slip and slide. The freedom comes from having firm footing beneath our feet and it is hope in God which provides this bedrock. The writer’s response is to praise God. God is praised not for anything having changed in their life. God is praised for His provision of salvation. God is the God who cares for His people in this passage. This is why they collectively gather and say “he has put a new song in my mouth”. It is a song of secure hope.

    I am not recommending climbing trees and hacking at the branches. I am recommending taking time to consider that the shock we are in will have profound consequences as we look to the future. Our faith in God gives us a unique hope to bring to this for people. We are unlikely to be able to simply go back to how things were before; and if we did, we would not have learnt a collective lesson as people, families and communities that we are not indestructible. The frailty and beauty of human existence that is forged and created by God as a reflection of his creativity is too precious to be squandered by climbing back into our proverbial magnolia trees and hacking away at what we used to do as if today never occurred.

    Join with me in waiting on the Lord, seeking God and considering the firm foundations that faith in Him offers at this time of profound change as we ensure that no-one is left behind in life, faith or provisions.

  • Sunday 10 May



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    9am Heritage & 10am BHC Online services on YouTube
    11am  Virtual Coffee—3rd Sundays (from 17 May):  
    hosted by Busbridge 8am and Classic and Busbridge 6.30pm 

    6.30pm Unplugged LIVE (Zoom) —The service and music for our young people, but it’s extremely popular with all ages.

    This Saturday – A reminder about the monthly Busbridge Prayer Group meets this Saturday at 8am. An hour to prayer about things we care about.

    VE Day Celebrations
    The bunting is up at Busbridge Church for those passing by, and Prime Time invites you all to join the zoom VE day Tea Party and sing along led by Lisa today, Thursday 7 May at 3pm. 

    Message from Simon
    We are beginning to ask the question ‘what might the future look like’? for us as a Christian community. There is much to go back to but there is also much to reflect on for the future. This is about lessons to be learned in areas such as leaning of God, laying down that which became redundant, living faith for tomorrow, and being a learning as a community under Christ. You might call it ‘BHC MkII’.

    Explore this with us and Rev Ed Olsworth-Peter on Monday 11 May at 8pm, as he leads a discussion on Pioneering the Future Church.

    BHC Online this Sunday

    Join everyone at 10am, or at your leisure, to watch the main service this week.  Dave is talking to us about how Paul’s letter to the Thessalonians can encourage us to stand firm and have hope—with a reference to his surfing days.  Thanks to Lydia Guest who has been interviewed this week, Mark Puddephatt for the reading, the Ford family for the prayers and Hannah Preece for the Lord’s Prayer in sign language.  It’s great to have different people involved, as they are for our regular services.  If there’s anyone else out there who can offer time and technical skills for video editing, we’d be keen to have you on the team.   Contact david.preece@bhcgodalming.org.

    CYF News

    Anto, Judith, Juliet and all our wonderful CYF volunteers have mastered the art of using the internet in so many fun and creative ways to keep our young people together and learning about the Jesus. (BHC even has gametag for FIFA on the xbox for Pathfinders to challenge Anto!).

    Unplugged is returning live on zoom—next Sunday 17 May at 6.30pm.  Anto will lead a short ‘service’ on zoom including a message, a worship song recorded by the Unplugged band, and a drama from the FUSE team.  All very welcome to join.

    Pathfinders and Ichthus seem very at home on zoom (ha!) and the numbers taking part in Sunday and mid-week bible-study sessions are growing.  This week the Explorers session will run on zoom too, so our 7-11s can see their leaders and friends.

    And we are seriously concerned that Juliet Gilbert might be snapped up by CBeebies if her Tiny Tigers videos keep going.  Last week she created a brilliant animated version of the wedding at Cana with lego figures.  So impressive!  You can catch up on all the Tiny Tigers and Ark videos from Juliet and Judith on BHC Godalming YouTube.

    Kids it’s your turn to join the wave of #viralkindness.  The BHC version is #CreativeKindness.  Penny’s been thinking about the older people we know that aren’t on the internet and are finding harder to stay connected.  We can still post things though, and would like to pass on messages with all things arty and crafty from our young people to those who need cheering up.  Please see the details on the web site.  We are also enlisting the children from Busbridge Junior and Infant schools to help too.

    Fruit picking work at Tuesday Farm (over 18s) 
    This might be good for students back at home for a long summer… Hall Hunter has received so many applications that it’s no longer accepting applications for work this summer. HOWEVER, they are keen to support local people, and due to our links they will consider those who are put forward by Anto on behalf of Busbridge&Hambledon Church.  You need to be 18+ and able to work 5 days a week for at least a month from May.  Contact anto.ficatier@bchgodalming.org ASAP.  Please share this opportunity to people and families you know might be interested (they don’t need to be church members).

    Community

    Why Pray?  If anyone is asking (and we think they are) please refer them to the web site.  Andy Spencer has put together some info for people who might be thinking about this for the first time, and can respond to people individually, or develop sessions if there’s a demand.  Please pass the word on.

    Watch this space for our prayer opportunities when you are out for your daily dose of fresh air.  Philippa Baker is working on a prayer walk in the Busbridge Churchyard, and Mark Puddephatt is setting up an orienteering challenge around Busbridge, based on Psalm 23.  We hope to have these ready to start next week.  Another reason to keep an eye on the web site!

    A slice of cake on us.  In Hambledon, the village shop is doing an amazing job of coordinating volunteers to delivery orders to those who can’t get out.   Shop orders are going out with a slice of cake from Hambledon Church with a message from Simon Willetts, just to say Hi, the church is still here and how we can support.  If you are a lucky recipient, enjoy! 

    Don’t forget

    ¨ 10.30am Coffee breaks for anyone to pop in and out. 

    ¨ The Coronavirus Response team is ready to help those self-isolating— Email: coronaresponse@bhcgodalming.org.

    ¨ The CFSF is receiving donations AND applications for financial gifts.  

    Elsewhere

    Christian Aid Week 10-16 May: Love Never Fails.  Please don’t forget it this year, and support in the way you usually would.  See caweek.org to give or take part in their other fundraising initiatives.

    Please pray for The Cellar café in Godalming as the trustees and management team pray to discern the future for its ministry in the town, and for provision and safety for its vulnerable customers who are missing the care and safe haven that The Cellar provides.

    If you have anything to post, thoughts, prayers, musings—remember the BHC Together facebook group is yours to do so!