The Salvation Army Chatham

Now that the children are back to school following the Christmas and New Year break all our regular activities have restarted and corps life is pretty much back to normal.

A lighted cross, shines out above our platform from where our worship is led each Sunday

We look forward eagerly to the ministry we shall receive in the year ahead. This Sunday our meetings followed the theme of ‘Vision – Hope in our villages, towns and cities’ as we approach Vision Sunday next week-end. On Saturday a ‘vision’ of 10 years ago was lived out in the form of a reunion for mums and children who had attended Mummy and Me during that time. Many of the old and new regulars joined for a party and it was amazing to see how the children had grown, some now 11 years old.

My, how they’ve grown!

A news item on this subject will be published during the coming week.

In the morning Major Kathy chose songs 833, 126 and 734 from The Salvatioin Army Song Book together with 42 and 851 from Songs of Fellowship. She also introduced a song entitled ‘Give Me a Vision‘ which was first published in The Musical Salvationist inOctober 1991. This was used at two points during the meeting. The Singing Company sang ‘Blessed be the name of the Lord’ and the Songsters ‘To Sing of Jesus’. Scripture chosen was Romans 12 and Kathy spoke in her message about work/life balance. She said there is a lot of tension between ‘be’ and ‘do’. Tensions are produced because our minds say we want to ‘be’ and our bodies want to ‘do’. Paul described some of the characteristics of sacrificial love in verses 9-13 of the reading. These refer to our relationships with other people and must be present in our lives continually. Within the list are three exhortations to ‘be’. Jesus taught his disciples how to pray, not how to preach so we must make others our priority. We are not only called to ‘be’ but also to ‘do’. Then we can make a difference. We can be a conduit of hope to others.

Major Kathy

The Songsters opened our evening meeting with ‘God so loved the world’ followed by ‘Jesus, name above all names’. Major Kathy included songs 732, 730, 621 and 727 from The Salvation Army Song Book and 755 and 1346 from Songs of Fellowship. The Band‘s contribution was ‘The Lord id Gracious’. Using John 3 as her scripture Kathy said, in her message, this year we will hear a lot about hope. What does John 3:16 mean for us? The Israelites panicked when Moses went up the mountain. They forgot all about God’s providence. In the same way we can see only fears instead of facing God. How easy is it for us to ‘lose our faith’ and be confused? How often do we run away when God is there and wants to help? How often do we search in all the wrong places? God’s love is faithful and unending. “FOR GOD SO LOVED THE WORLD THAT HE GAVE HIS ONE AND ONLY SON, THAT WHOEVER BELIEVES IN HIM SHALL NOT PERISH BUT HAVE ETERNAL LIFE”. Phenominal love encompassing the whole world.

Next week-end will determine the vision this corps has for itself in 2008. We pray God’s guidance and blessing on all the discussions that will take place and the plans that will be made. Please join us in those prayers at this vitally important time. The Leadership Team will be meeting on Saturday to develop the vision and Sunday will be spent confirming our resolve in this area.

We would, therefore, like to remind those wishing to worship with us next Sunday that our meeting times will be different from normal. The morning will be at 10am as usual but the afternoon/evening meeting will begin at 4pm when the visions outlined by the Leadership Team on Saturday will be presented. During this time Captain Denise Cooper will be entertaining the children. This will be followed by a Faith Tea at 5.15pm and a short period of worship from 6 to 6.30pm. Looks like it will be an exciting time.

Captain Denise Cooper