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Moving House! It's certainly all go! In a couple of days time Suzannah and I will be moving from Wareham (where I will no longer be working from September) to Upton - where I already spend a fair bit of time.
The idea is to free me up a bit to do 3 things:
(1) To spend more time in the community of Upton (which will be easier when we live there!) and particularly to build on the exciting new growth that we are experiencing at Upton Methodist Church.
(2)
Primarily, to spend more time expanding and developing my
work with children and young people – particularly in the local
schools. This is the stuff that I really enjoy doing! I’m very
grateful for the excellent relationships that I already enjoy with
our local schools and I’m looking forward to pursuing new
opportunities both here and in other schools as well.
(3) To be used as something of a resource person for children’s and youth work by the other Methodist churches in the Poole and Swanage Circuit.
Well that's the idea anyway. It's exciting stuff!
16th January 2004
Under Construction! Find out about
this year's Circuit Youth
Weekend to Southampton which will be happening next month. We
are hoping to take even more young people this year and to hire a
coach! The theme of the weekend is Under Construction... by
God The Builder!
Site Tidying! You may have noticed that I've tried to reorganise the site a bit. Current events (like the Circuit Youth Weekend) and regular favourites like ACTIV8 and The BIG BUG Club have their own top-level link at the top and bottom of each page; most other things can be accessed by the three new sections:
School Groups - for info on SPACE and Sound Out!
Children's Events - for info on previous holiday clubs and workshops etc.
Youth Events
- for info on previous activities for young people e.g. last
year's Circuit Youth Weekend.
20th December 2003
Go M.A.D. 2! You can now read a
short report of November's Children's Workshop afternoon run
by our Circuit Youth Team (ably assisted by several other
volunteers). There are also a few photos to look at.
Read
all about it here!
New Members at Upton! I'm
delighted to say that I'll have the great privilege of confirming
6 new members of Upton Methodist Church during our Covenant
Service on the first Sunday of 2004. We've had a number of people
join us over the last 18 months or so and they continue to do so.
In an age when we hear a lot about dwindling congregations it's
good to know that there are some places that buck the trend. I
thank God that Upton is one of them!
Circuit Youth Weekend 2004! Early
next year I'll be posting details of our next weekend away for
teenagers. The weekend itself will be Feb 13th-15th (Valentines
Weekend!!!).Watch this space for details.
Finally from Suzannah & myself ... HAPPY CHRISTMAS and a peaceful New Year!
12th October 2003
Go M.A.D. 2! Back by popular demand we'll be running our children's afternoon craft workshop and evening worship event once again. This year we'll be back at Ashley Road Methodist Church in Poole. Check out the details here.
6th August 2003
Seaside Rock! Read all about our
recent Children's Holiday Club at Upton this Summer.
Seaside
Rock went really well - over 80 kids turned up each day
and seemed to love it! We also had a cracking team of leaders and
helpers including several young people (some of them from ACTIV8).
I've also put together a
Photo
Gallery which will give you a flavour of what we did!
Membership Course. I'm pleased to say that I'm able to run another 'Exploring Membership' course at Upton again this Autumn with at least half a dozen interested people.
22nd June 2003
Seaside Rock! Read about our
Children's Holiday Club in Upton this Summer. We're hoping to make
Seaside Rock even bigger and
better than The Light Factory
last year.
Tidying up. The Engaging Worship page has now been taken off the main menu but is still accessible here. The All Age Worship Road Show seems to have been well received by a number of Circuits in our District.
18th April 2003
24th March 2003
Site Housekeeping. I've moved some stuff around a bit just for the sake of tidiness! I'm also hoping very soon to have a report on Way To Go (our recent Circuit Youth Weekend) so keep watching this space.
29th January 2003
Way To Go! The next 'big thing' will be the first Circuit Youth Weekend that I've led since moving here in 2000. It'll also be the first one this Circuit's had for a few years. We are going to Portland thanks to the kind hospitality of my friends Chris and Nicola Briggs and hope to take as many of the young people in our Circuit as possible. You can read all about it by browsing the Way to Go page.
Site Tweaks. I've decided to remove the live news feed from this page as it didn't give me any control over the stories that it displayed or the pages it linked to. I've also updated the activ8 and Sound Out! pages.
25th November 2002
Go M.A.D. We ran our latest
Circuit children's workshop on Sunday 24th November. 65 children
attended - many were from Upton who'd been to The Light Factory in
the summer. We had an exhilarating afternoon and evening featuring
craft, music, dance and drama. See the
Go
M.A.D. page to read a short report and be sure to browse the
photos in the Go M.A.D. Gallery!
U-Talk! The new fortnightly lunchtime group at Wareham Middle School is going well and regularly attracts at least 22 young people. Next meetings are Nov 26th and Dec 10th.
29th September 2002
FAQ! The Frequently Asked Questions
section now has something about why I think Jesus is worth making
a fuss about! There is also a new link in the Links section to the
brilliant new website all about Jesus - www.reJesus.co.uk
Wareham Middle Group! The new fortnightly lunchtime group starts on Tuesday this week (1st October). Publicity will follow shortly.
6th September 2002 Go M.A.D.
Go M.A.D.! Check out the new section devoted to the follow-up event to last year's Hands On Praise children's activity workshop and worship. Go M.A.D. (Make And Do) is the next project of the Circuit Youth Team and publicity will be going out in the next couple of weeks. We are hoping this year to make the event bigger and even better!
Sound Out! With a new term comes a new season of Sound Out in Sandford Middle School. The dates for the Autumn term are now on the Sound Out page (as well as on the poster in school).
New Group in Wareham Middle School! Hopefully in October this year I'll be involved in planting another lunchtime Christian group but this time in Wareham Middle School. Watch this space for more details.
31st July 2002 The Light Factory etc.
The Light Factory! We've just finished doing our children's holiday club at Upton last week. The Light Factory has been heralded by all as a great success. Over 70 children came along every morning and certainly went home raving about it. Parents have been very encouraging and appreciative and even the leaders had a good time!!! We're hoping that the club will have raised the profile of our work with children and families and will generate further interest in the BIG BUG Club, the Preschool and our All Age Worship. Read about it in the Light Factory section.
Light Factory Photos. Don't miss the brand new Light Factory Gallery which consists of three pages of photos taken during the week - no less than 75 images in all! Also be sure to read our favourable press coverage in the Poole Echo!
Site Tidying.
There is a new section called Children's Work which will be a repository for previous reports on my work with this age group. So far it contains the sections on last year's children's holiday club in Wareham (Groundbreakers) and the Hands On Praise afternoon workshop & worship.
Also the photos from the activ8 Pizza Party can now be accessed directly from the activ8 section.
My personal press cuttings from The Independent last year have now been archived but can still be accessed here.
9th June 2002 The Light Factory!
The Light Factory! Preparations are now in full swing for our next 'big thing' at the end of next month. This summer I'll be leading a childrens' holiday club in Upton. We'll be doing my tried and trusted favourite - The Light Factory. CPO (Christian Publicity Organisation) don't even stock the promotional materials for it any more (it came out about 10 years ago) so I've had to design my own. I've led holiday clubs for years but this one is for me without equal and this will be the 4th time I'll have run The Light Factory. We're hoping for a good crowd drawn mainly from the Infant and Junior Schools. More details can be found on the new Light Factory page.
12th May 2002 ACTIV8!!!
ACTIV8 Pizza Party! Suzannah and I
were really chuffed when 10 young people turned up for the launch
of our new teenage group. It seemed to go really well and the
young people were brilliant. Thanks to everyone who has encouraged
and supported us in this.
You can find out about ACTIV8
by going to the special section of the site and also have a look
at some photos from the Pizza
Party!
1st May 2002 Site Sorting, Preparing etc.
Services section enhanced. I've now got the full orders of service for Baptism, Dedication and Wedding put onto the services section. These are the most recent versions employed in the Methodist Church and are the ones that I use. The Dedication service here has been slightly adapted by myself.
ACTIV8 imminent! We are getting geared up for the launch of our new teenage youth group - ACTIV8 - in just a few days time (May 12th)!!!
All Age Worship Road Show goes to Basingstoke. Recently we took the Engaging Worship Road Show to Trinity, Basingstoke for an afternoon presentation and evening service. It seemed to be well-received and we were all encouraged.
4th March 2002 Youth Group, New Members etc.
Site Updated!!! I've finally got round to updating the site. Sorry for the delay.
ACTIV8 launch date fixed. Suzannah
and myself have fixed the date for the launch of a new teenage
group
that we will be running. On May 12th ACTIV8 will kick off with a
pizza party! It will meet fortnightly round our house on a Sunday
night from 8 - 9:30 pm. Full details can be found on the new
ACTIV8 section of the website.
New Members this Easter! I'll have the greatest joy of bringing 10 people into membership of the Methodist Church this Easter. Four of them are young people and all of them come from my 3 churches. It's good to know that we're bucking the decline trend!
20th December 2001 Site Enhancements
I've re-jigged the site a bit and added a few
extras. As you will see from this page (on the right) I've added a
live news feed to the site. This means that whenever you visit
this page as well as reading my news you can keep up to date with
the very latest of what is happening around the world. Just click
on a headline to open another window containing the full story.
I've also added a page about the Southampton
Methodist District All Age Worship Road Show that I'm helping to
lead from January 2002 onwards. You can find out a bit more by
visiting that page.
Finally, I hope you have a very Happy Christmas and a peaceful New Year!
3rd December 2001 Hands On Praise
There is a brief report on Hands on Praise
including some pictures taken during the course of the day.
Next week Suzannah and I will be treading the boards
in Wareham Parish Hall (no less!) in Wareham Methodist Amateur Dramatics'
production of Cinderella. I've managed to escape with a small
part this time. I play a French chef with a dodgy accent and even more
dodgy moustache! Suzannah is Dandini - the prince's friend and right
hand man(!) complete with clipboard (I'm sure it's only because she has
trouble learning lines!)
GOOD NEWS CONTINUES ... Interest is still mounting in
Church membership and I've now got a couple more people on board from
Lytchett Matravers. It looks like I'll be bringing at least a dozen folk
into membership next year. Five of these are young people. This will
involve all 3 of my churches and there will be membership services on
Passion (Lytchett Matravers), Palm (Wareham) and Easter (Upton) Sunday
mornings next year.
The Southampton District All Age Worship Roadshow that I'm leading is starting to shape up. My mate Andy is leading the ones in the east of the District and I'm covering the west (assisted by Gail and Chris). I've already got bookings for Poole, Basingstoke, and Bournemouth with negotiations proceeding with Portland and Weymouth. If you would like to invite us to your Circuit or simply to find out more about the initiative then please get in touch with me.
9th October 2001 Hands On Praise
Check out the new section of the site devoted to the
first main project of the newly relaunched Circuit Youth Team. Hands On
Praise will be an afternoon of children's workshops and games
culminating in an act of worship in the evening. It's intended for
children of primary age (i.e. 5-11 years old). I have a supply of
booking forms if anyone is interested!
Also Sound Out! (my lunchtime group at Sandford
Middle School) is hopefully going to meet fortnightly rather than
monthly.
GOOD NEWS ... It looks like I'll have the great privilege of making 12 new members next year (8 at Upton and 4 at Wareham). What is especially exciting is that 4 of these are young people.
20th September 2001 Site Updated
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9th August 2001 GROUNDBREAKERS!
Check out the GROUNDBREAKERS! page to
find out all about the tremendous week we had in Wareham doing the
Children's Holiday Club. If you have a few minutes to spare then please take
a look the
GROUNDBREAKERS
Story page. It is packed with lots of photos and facts which will hopefully give you a flavour of
what GROUNDBREAKERS! was all about.
Highlights:
| Average of 68 children there each day. | Many were not from Church backgrounds. |
| Several children asked Jesus to be their friend. | Brilliant team of leaders drawn from different Christian Churches in the town. |
9th July 2001 BIG BUG Club Party
Photos are here!
You can now see some photographic evidence of the BIG
BUG Club Party! More photos will follow soon.
26th June 2001 Groundbreakers! &
Services Sections Added
You can now check out the new
Groundbreakers
page which details the children's holiday club that I'm leading on behalf of
Churches Together In Wareham.
Also I've added the baptism service onto the new Services page. Other
services will follow in due course.
17th June 2001 Guest Book Added
Please sign my Guest Book and let me have your (kind) comments!
16th June 2001 BIG BUG
On Saturday 16th June we held a promotional party for the BIG BUG Club (Be
In God's Brilliant Upton Gang). We had a great time and there is a short
report of how it went on the BIG BUG Club page.
20th May 2001 Press Cuttings Added
I've added a page with my current bits from The Independent
on.
18th May 2001 Christian Resources
Exhibition
We went to the CRE at Sandown Park, Esher. The highlight for me was
actually meeting and chatting to a Christian speaker that I've respected and
admired for nearly 20 years - Dr. Tony Campolo. I turned up early to get a
good seat for his seminar and he came in and sat on my row and we chatted!
That made my day! He also spoke very well in his seminar - very challenging
stuff.
14th May 2001
The Website is launched
Well, it's not much but it's a start. Hopefully it will be able to
be developed as a resource for folk to access information about the
different pies I have my fingers in!
