This week our Foodbank ‘Drop-in’ centre opened for the first time and we received our first ‘client’. There was real need in this family and we pray that God will help all involved to resolve the difficulties speedily.

Helen Gallagher, Foodbank Co-ordinator, has also been having a busy time. Here is a quote from the Foodbank’s Facebook page:

Sunday was a busy day for us! Across Medway many churches came together with joint services, marking the culmination of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity. In Twydall the churches gathered at Holy Trinity to worship and hear about the Foodbank. It was a joy to share & pray with them. In north Gillingham, at St Augustine’s, the Bishop of Rochester, James Langstaff spoke about the importance of churches working together to bless and benefit the communities around them. The Foodbank was again highlighted and our DVD shown. In Strood the churches gathered at All Saints, Frindsbury to celebrate together and hear about the work of the Foodbank. We are so grateful for the practical support and encouragement of more and more Medway churches as we develop the Foodbank and take it forward together. Thank you, one and all!

The Salvation Army would be pleased to hear from any suitable persons wishing to volunteer for work with the Foodbank. Anyone interested should contact us. Our ‘Drop-in’ centre is open on Mondays and Fridays between 10.30am and 1.30pm and is situated in Church Street.

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Serbian friends Nevana and Sasha will be visiting us next Sunday (29th). They are recipients of the Shoebox Appeal organised by Blythswood Care to which our Ladies Fellowship contributes each year.

Last year’s contribution

The ladies are organising a tea at 4.30pm on Sunday which will be attended by Nevana and Sasha who will be staying for our evening meeting and speaking about the effects of the appeal in Serbia. This promises to be an excellent evening so join us if you can at Church Street. Here’s how to find us.

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Join us if you can for the Prayer and Praise gathering next Wednesday evening (18 January – 7.45pm start). This is in support of the new Medway Foodbank which has now opened in Strood (Strood Community Project – High Street) and will be opening in our Church Street premises on Monday 23 January.

Members of all Medway churches are welcome and we anticipate a good evening together in which we will focus on prayer for this new venture as it gets off the ground.

Here’s how to find us:

Click on the maps to enlarge

A collection basket has been placed in the foyer area at the hall into which can be placed donations of ‘in date’ tinned (or at least non-perishable) food for distribution by the newly formed Medway Foodbank.

Donors should be aware that large (jumbo) size tins are not particularly helpful as this support is intended for meeting short term crisis needs, so this time small or standard is much better. The Foodbank will be particularly grateful for any donations received. A sample shopping list is shown below:

The following is taken from the Medway Foodbank Facebook page and is printed here to thank those members of our corps who helped in the collection last Thursday.

“Well, what a day we had at Asda, Chatham! An amazing team of volunteers, from seven different churches, gave out hundreds of Foodban shopping lists, and received over half a ton of donated food for families in crisis in the Medway towns. I felt privileged to be part of it. A BIG ‘Thank you’ to Clare, Jenny, Trish, Don, Roger, Sandra, Alan, Mags, Jenny, Carol, Linda, Graham, Murray, Val, Emma-Leigh, Louise, Justine, & Peter. And Thank you, Asda shoppers – you came up trumps!

One lady approached with a trolley of shopping. She took one small bag from the top saying, “I only came in for salad – the rest is yours!” and gave us the trolley! Another couple came to talk on their way out, after doing their shopping. “This is such a good idea that I’m going back in to buy some things for you!” said the lady while her husband stayed and asked more about our work. A woman came up and asked, “Now, which things do you need most – I’m going to spend £x on food for you.”  Twenty minutes later she came out with enough to fill a large box! We filled 5 cars (boots and seats) with many boxes of food.”

Helen Gallagher, Medway Foodbank Coordinator

A capacity audience greeted Lt. Col. Ray Steadman-Allen (OF)* on the occasion of his 89th birthday celebration concert at Maidstone last weekend.

Lt.Col. Ray Steadman-Allen

Participating in the concert were Chatham Songsters and the South London Fellowship Band under the leadership of Songster Leader Adrian Horwood and Major George Whittingham. The special guest soloist for the evening was Brett Baker (sponsorship by ‘World of Brass‘), principal trombone of the world famous Black Dyke Band.

L to R: Adrian Horwood, Major George Whittingham, Brett Baker

The Band

The Songsters

The concert, which was arranged to promote Lt. Col. Joy Steadman-Allen’s Parkinson’s Project, comprised entirely the music of RSA and began with the march ‘ Crown of Conquest’ which heralded the entry of the guests. During the programme the Songsters contributed ‘Vesper’, ‘Marching Along’, ‘After the rain’, ‘Whosoever will’, ‘This age of rockets’ (with the band), ‘God of all wonders’ and ‘What a friend’. The Band’s further contributions were ‘Wonders begin’, ‘Lord of the Sea’, ‘Neath Italian skies’ and ‘His guardian care’. The band also featured in accompaniment to Brett’s beautifully executed solos, ‘Concert Piece for Trombone’, My story and song’, ‘Share my yoke’ and ‘The Eternal Quest’.

Lt. Col. Joy Steadman-Allen

Brett with the Band

Both daughters of Ray & Joy played important roles in the proceedings. Rosemary reminded us of the Christian environment in which Ray’s music has had such an important place, reading scripture from Romans 8:31-39 (a favourite reading of Ray’s) and offering thought provoking comment emphasising the message of salvation and hope we have in Jesus Christ, whilst Reverend Barbara made an appeal on behalf of her mother’s charity project which, through personal messages sent to many Parkinson’s sufferers around the world, brings so much encouragement to them.

Rosemary Barbara

At the end of the evening a cheque for £500, the proceeds from the concert, was presented to Joy.

Whilst this was a shared event with others we would like to offer the warm, affectionate, greetings of the Chatham Corps to Ray and Joy on this special occasion. They have both added so much to the richness of the fellowship of the corps and, in particular, have never lost their love for the many new Christians and other worshippers the corps has been privileged to welcome in recent times.

GOD BLESS YOU BOTH!

* Order of the Founder

Helen Gallagher, coordinator for Medway Foodbank has sent us the following exciting letter.

Helen

She writes:

We have signed up with the Trussel Trust and have now received the ‘set-up’ pack from them. I am beginning to get to grips with its very large contents! We are Foodbank number 129 in the UK and there is certainly a lot to do in the months ahead to get Medway Foodbank up and running.

I have also been moving into the ‘Hope in the Community’ office this week, and have started to work on our promotional material, website and planning our timetable for the autumn.  I hope to be able to invite you to a Volunteers Coffee Morning soon, so we can start to get to know each other properly. Watch out for details via your inbox!

In the last couple of days I have launched the Medway Foodbank Facebook page so that I can share news and events with supporters and friends. It is open to everyone and can be seen at

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Medway-Foodbank/108901829210389

Please feel free to share this link with your interested friends.

Foodbank Prayer & Praise
We will also be starting monthly prayer evenings at the end of September,  visiting each of our partner churches in turn. The first date for your diaries is  Thursday 29th September at  All Saints Church, Chatham  from 8pm. Address below -

St Paul With All Saints Church
Magpie Hall Road
Chatham
KENT
ME4 5NE

We will share more news then for prayer and praise.The Lord is opening things up for us, but there is a great deal to do to bring the Foodbank concept into reality in Medway. It will need lots of us working together in a variety of different ways, but what an exciting opportunity lies before us!

Helen Gallagher

Helen Gallagher was the guest speaker at the meeting of the Service and Ministry Purpose Group held last week.

Helen Gallagher

Helen, as coordinator for Medway Foodbank, gave a broad outline of the proposed scheme which is being developed using the model designed by the Trussell Trust. Churches together has ‘signed up’ with the Trust which is a Christian organisation with a franchise to develop Foodbank schemes nationwide. Over 130 are already in existence.

Helen explained the workings of the model identifying the collection process of the food, from supermarkets and the general public, the storage arrangements and the distribution to families with emergency needs through a number of outlets, probably four, within the Medway area. The Salvation Army in Chatham will be one of those outlets. An example of a scheme in action can be seen via a DVD presentation on the Trussell Trust website (click here).

Recipients of the emergency help will need to obtain vouchers which will be provided by professional agencies (e.g. doctors, health workers, citizens Advice Bureau, religious leaders, and others). Vouchers will not be available by self-referral. The aim is not to create dependency but to meet emergency needs.

During the next few months further development will take place and it is hoped that the scheme will be in place by the end of the year.

Volunteers will be needed and training will be given. Interested readers should contact us for further information.

In this week’s Monday Spot we reported the Promotion to Glory of Lt. Col. Sutton and promised an account of his ‘adventures’. This is a fascinating story and well worth the few minutes required to read it. Click here.

Lt. Col. Sutton

We can now confirm the arrangements for the funeral which will be at 2pm Friday 16 September at the Vinters Park Crematorium, Maidstone. This will be followed by a Service of Thanksgiving at the Salvation Army hall, Union Street, Maidstone and refreshments. Donations, in lieu of flowers, should be made to the Children’s Liver Disease Foundation.

The Divisional farewell to those entering the William Booth College for Salvation Army officer training will take place at Maidstone Corps (Union Street) on Sunday evening, 4 September. More details will be given in due course.

Maidstone Hall

Amongst those entering WBC this year will be our own Mark Scoulding and we look forward to attending the farewell in good numbers to ensure a great send-off. Be sure to put the date in your diaries!

Mark Scoulding

Readers may be interested to know that, in addition to her appointment to Chatham with husband Alec, Major Andrea Still also has a part time appointment to The Salvation Army’s Mission Department at Territorial Headquarters.

Major Andrea Still

In her role as Emerging Mission Officer Andrea will be facilitating a network of training, support and accountability for the Army’s 614 Inner City projects. To learn more about 614 click here or use the quick link at the top of the page. These duties will involve Andrea for two days per week alongside her duties as a corps officer with Alec. She is keen to encourage interest and will respond to any questions raised. She has also promised to keep this website informed about the 614 project from time to time. We pray for God’s blessing on Andrea in this exciting field of service.

Readers of yesterday’s Monday Spot were promised more detail regarding the installation of Majors Alec and Andrea Still as our new Commanding Officers.

Majors Alec & Andrea Still

The installation of new Commanding Officers arriving to take up a new appointment is an important time of commitment in which they are challenged about the way in which they will carry out that appointment. We have included below a copy of the ceremony of installation conducted by Lt. Col. Gillian Cotterill, one of our Divisional Leaders. Click on each image to enlarge to readable size. Click here to read the scripture portion taken from Ephesians which began the ceremony.

For more information please contact us or visit us at Church Street on Sundays at 10am and/or 6pm to meet Majors Alec and Andrea Still in person. Readers may also contact us for an appointment.

Here’s how to find us:

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The following Press Release has been issued to local media by the Press Officer for the London South East Division (Bill Shaw) concerning the appointments of Majors Alec and Andrea Still to Chatham.

Majors Alec & Andrea Still

SALVATION ARMY WELCOMES NEW
LOCAL LEADER(S)

The Salvation Army in Chatham is welcoming new leader(s). Majors Alec and Andrea Still have arrived to take over the Salvation Army’s work at the community church/centre in Church Street.

The official welcome meeting will be held at The Salvation Army hall, Church Street at 10am on Sunday 31^st July

Alec and Andrea have spent the last 6 years as leaders in the Bellshill Corps, near Glasgow, and have a particular experience of developing new expressions of Salvation Army work and ministry. They became Salvation Army officers (ministers) in 1992 after working as an engineer and a P.A. respectively. The couple married in 1988 and have 3 children.

Alec and Andrea are keen to get to know the town and to develop The Salvation Army’s ministry within the local community.

Alec said: “We are delighted to be in Chatham and to share in an exciting time in the life of Chatham Salvation Army. We are about to embark on some major building redevelopments, which in turn will lead to an opportunity to also redevelop the programmes we can offer to the wider community.”

Sunday worship takes place at The Salvation Army hall in Church Street at 10am and 6pm to which everyone is welcome. And there are many weekly activities including parent and toddler groups and youth activities. There is something for everyone and a warm welcome is guaranteed.

For further information on The Salvation Army in Chatham Corps contact Alec or Andrea on 01634 843 689, or call into the hall in Church Street

Alec and Andrea have taken over the leadership of the church and charity from Majors Drew and Beverley McCombe who are looking after The Salvation Army’s mission development at the national headquarters in London.

In addition to the information given in the above Press Release, interested readers may contact us.

Welcome Sunday for new Commanding Officers Majors Alec and Andrea Still, together with their family (Amy, Tom and Simon) will be 31 July.

Majors Alec & Andrea Still

The installation will be carried out by Divisional Leader Lt. Col. Gill Cotterill during our morning meeting (10am).

Lt. Col. Gill Cotterill

The evening meeting (6pm) will be led by Majors Alec and Andrea. Join us if you can for either or both meetings. Our hall is in  Church Street and here’s how to find us:

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Lieutenants Steve and Mel Scoulding share their thoughts about Commissioning Day at Westminster Central Hall (9 July 2011).

Steve & Mel

They write:

There are a few occasions in life when you wish that you could bottle each moment, so you could take it out again at your leisure and enjoy every detail. Today was one of those days as we celebrated our Commissioning and Ordination as Salvation Army Officers.

Coming at the end of two years of formal  residential training at William Booth College, which itself followed five years of journeying towards Officership, we were in some ways well-prepared. We cadets had certainly spent time in preparation and rehearsal, so that we knew what was happening when and could sing our Sessional and Dedication songs without too much difficulty. But it’s not easy to be prepared for the emotions of such a day.

The solemnity of Wednesday’s Covenant Day set a seal on what God has called us to by reminding us that covenants with God are sacred and not to be entered into lightly. The sense of peace that followed the signing of each Covenant was overwhelming and we looked forward with eager anticipation to sharing our Commissioning Day with family and friends.

A ramshackle band from the Friends of Christ Session serenaded us before breakfast, making sure that nobody overslept! Two coaches took us to Westminster and almost before we knew it, we were into our final run-through. Then it was time to meet up with family and friends, checking that those not yet there were on their way, before entering the Main Hall for the first meeting of the day.

We will never forget the joy of looking around and spotting so many familiar faces: from Chatham, from our placement corps of Reading and Bexleyheath, from our former workplaces and from those chance encounters  that God has made possible. The meeting seemed to move effortlessly towards Commissioning and before long it was our turn. Standing facing the Territorial Commander as he commissioned and ordained us, and gave us each an individual verse of scripture, was a particular highlight.

After an interval to once again catch up with family and friends, we were back in the Hall, this time wearing our new Lieutenant’s uniforms and Sessional flags, waiting to march out in celebration. The noise of the air-horns, the cheering and clapping, and the smiles on everyone’s faces was overwhelming. It felt like we marched on air because we were so well-supported! Our thanks go to you all, for your love, constant encouragement and your prayers.

The next chapter is just beginning as we prepare to lead St Helier Corps, Jersey, but we will never forget this very special day of celebration. We are truly blessed.

St Helier hall