St. Joseph’s Church, Merry Hill, Wolverhampton

We’re gearing up for the Wall-E holiday club in 10 days time or so. How exciting! But wow, a lot to do…. A big shout to the amazing team who have been painting massive backdrops for the last few weeks, they are fantastic! Thank you so much guys for all of your hard work….

So what is it really all about… apart from a robot called Wall-E. Have a look at this great resource, thanks to “Damaris Trust” who are the best people out there when it comes to films, culture and Christianity….

Derbyshire Prayer Update for March

Dear friends, sorry for no monthly news for a while.  We thought a visit might be appreciated instead!!  It was great to see many of you.  Sorry if you were one of the ones we missed.  We have lots to praise GOD for first:

Praise God for a good time in the UK and Australia.  For seeing family and friends, safe travel, wonderful welcome and good meetings, renewed friendships and great hospitality.  We managed to be in Devon when the snow hit with only local meetings planned and no long travels for a while.  Also managed a sort of circle and ‘only’ covered 3,000 miles this year in the UK.  A great reduction!

And some prayer requests:
Pray for us settling back after so long away.  It has been great to have a few days to catch up with things, unpack and get a hand over from Sue who relieved me.  (I’ve also had toothache for the last week, and had a big back tooth pulled today – so I’m a bit fragile right now!)  I’d value prayers as I start a full timetable over the next few weeks.  Pray also for Sue and Chris as they return to the UK this weekend.  Pray they adjust quickly as they move between such very different cultures.

We have 12 wonderful students on pre-diploma with a possible 2 more.  I tested many of these students in November, and Kate has tested others since.  Pray I get their levels right quickly and can help and encourage their English to grow sufficiently to enter Diploma in just 5 months time.  Pray for Kate teaching Study skills or the first time.  Our timetables are full.  Pray for energy and right priorities.

We have a possible couple wanting to teach English at Msalato.  Pray for them as their application progresses.  I met them, they would be great!!

Even though Dodoma looks green and lush at the moment, everyone is worried about the food situation.  The rain is spasmodic and isolated, not widespread.  Storms are sometimes very violent and crops get destroyed and top soil washed away.  (Just yesterday I saw a storm was coming to Msalato and so headed home to avoid it.  They had a torrential downpour for over half an hour; 9km south at MAF there was hardly a drop).  Pray God will send gentle consistent rains so that a harvest might be possible, and that there will be enough food for this dry area and this poor country.

Tim has returned happily to work and routine.  He has been asked by MAF to advise on a difficult relationship problem.  Pray for wisdom for him as he gathers information and presents his ideas to MAF UK.  Pray for the parties involved.

With our love and thanks,

Carol and Tim

Phil introduces Mothering Sunday’s service, with Liz speaking – and Justin gives us a unique view on the job of being a mother.

Here’s our very first proper podcast. You can now pick up all St Jo’s podcasts via iTunes on your PC or Mac. Simply fire up iTunes and then go to the iTunes Store. Either browse to the “religion and spirituality” and then “St Joseph’s Church” podcast, or search for “Wolverhampton” in the iTunes Store; then subscribe or get individual episodes.

I missed last week’s but managed to get along to the first and this Wednesday’s 6.30-7.15 Lent Prayer session that Phil and Liz have been leading. Both have been great – intimate, open, and a really special time. This week after opening prayers and a great Bible reading – Collossians 4:6-7, I think, with that wonderful line about overflowing with thankfulness – we split up into pairs and prayed for our spiritual lives as seen as a journey down a river. Many thanks for running these and I can recommend them. Thanks too to those that have been with us in spirit if not in body.

Meanwhile a couple of website updates. First at last I have managed to get full-screen video to work, after making ridiculously heavy weather of it and completely missing a simple option in the site admin screens. You can now click on the “full screen” button on video clips and it’ll work.

I’d welcome more feedback on how well the video streaming is working. I have tried to balance the quality (not high, which you will see very quickly in full-screen mode) with it streaming without pauses and so on. If you get loads of pauses in the playback, please let me know (preferably telling me what kind of broadband service you’re on).

Last one is that I am hoping that Si Kemp will have an opportunity before too long to get the new gadget plumbed in to the church AV system so we can easily record the services without straining the PC that drives the screen. We’ll then put them up on the website – but if I get a chance I will then work out how to get them available via iTunes Podcast subscriptions too. If you have iTunes you’ll then be able to – I hope! – subscribe to the St Jo’s Sermon Podcast and have it delivered to your PC, Mac, iPod or iPhone without having to do any fiddling around.

Thinking about coming to New Wine this Summer?  Over the last few years a group from St Jo’s has gone to the New Wine Summer Conference for a week’s holiday, camping, teaching and lots of fun!  A group is going this year to New Wine at the Bath and West Showground outside Shepton Mallet in Somerset between 2nd and 8th August (Central and South West , CSW or Week B).  We would love more people from St Jo’s to join us.

Check out the video at http://www.new-wine.org/ for an idea of what the week involves!  Its a great opportunity to receive in-depth Bible teaching, experience different styles of worship, go to some really interesting seminars and chill out with Church family.  The kids work is awe inspiring – being both large scale but also having a great leader-to-kids ratio meaning that children get the experience of a small group setting whilst being with hundreds of people their age.  The traffic-free site also means that they can have a lot more freedom than at home.  There is a great ‘Marketplace’ with lots of Christian resources and organisations, cafes, an arts venue for creativity and lots of world mission groups.

St Jo’s will be allocated a ‘village’ to camp in and generally we make a big circle shape so that we have space in the middle for socialising and playing!  You can bring your own tent or hire a tent or caravan which is put up for you.  It is also possible to use our area as a base and stay off site at a local B&B.

The best thing to do if you are interested in booking for the week is check out the New Wine website and talk to those of us at St Jo’s who have been.  There was a big show of hands on Sunday (15th March) as to who had been over the years!  Hilary Bannister co-ordinates our bookings so ask her for more details as to how to book.  The prices go up a little at the end of March – so its best to book before then for the best deal.

Tracey and I  are big fans of the Summer Conferences and would be happy to chat more – get in touch with us!

Geoff’s confirmed we’re good to go for the next Pints of View on the 29th March at 7.30 at the Merry Hill (pub!). See the PoV page for full details.

Meanwhile don’t forget the Quiz Night, Friday 13th March in the Church Centre. Tickets are £5 but you do get a fish support for that!

The Explorers and Pathfinders groups went off to Dovedale in February 2009, and thanks to Simon we can proudly present Dovedale 2009 – The Video! Enjoy! (Don’t worry when you don’t hear anything in the intro – the music kicks in before too long…)