90TH CELEBRATION

The Celebrations

Traditionally the Home League only allows you to celebrate your 90th birthday with cake and sandwiches, and that traditional happened again this week, as Maisie Saunders celebrates her 90th on Monday next. Over twenty people gathered for the party which not only included food, but also party games. We are grateful to Maisie for having this birthday, and also to Pat Hall for arranging this.

SUNDAY 8TH JANUARY 2012

Good to see people returning after the festive holidays and today our hall was full for our celebration meeting. Sadly, though, this meeting was the meeting we bid farewell to Lieutenant Nicola who concludes her time in leadership at Crawley in the next few days. The lieutenant has been appointed as leader of The Salvation Army in Herne Bay. To start the meeting Captain Ian thanked Nicola for her ministry in Crawley and especially with our close links at Horsham and especially her support in launching childrens ministries. The children shared some words of thanks, after which people prayed for her. We were able to present Nicola with a financial gift from us. Nicola looked at the importance of us recognising what God has done and is doing, and seeking not to be too tied up in our grumbling and complaining as that takes our eyes off what God is wanting us to see and celebrate. We were encouraged not to whine but to shine, and songs included:- Immortal Invisable, We Bow Down, Wonderful Counsellor, The way its gonna be, Everyone needs compassion. The band and singing group also contributed to the meeting. At the end many people came forward and prayed before the Cross that God would enable them to shine like stars.

Later in the day, MESSY CHURCH was held at the Ifiled West Community Centre, which also focussed on shining as stars.

CVM DAY CONFERENCE

Fifteen men met together for a half day conference, led by Dean Gray from Christian Vision for Men. As part of the day Dean shared his powerful story, and then shared inspiration for the men gathered in living out their Christian Lives. There was opportunity for sharing, off loading and listening, and we are grateful to Gerry Slessenger and Roger Moore for arranging the event. After the conference we enjoyed a light lunch together

DON'T FORGET THIS CRUCIAL DAY BEING HELD ON SATURDAY

CONTACT GERRY SLESSENGER OR ROGER MOORE IF YOU WISH TO ATTEND.
WE NEED TO KNOW NUMBERS FOR CATERING PURPOSES

SUNDAY 1ST 2012

The Card we were all handed to follow today 

Our Captains led us in Worship this morning, which was informal, and started with refreshments, which gave us all time to catch up with one another. A block of songs started our celebration with Rejoice, Rejoice, Rejoice; All Hail the Power of Jesus' Name; Jesus is the Name we honour. This was followed by a time of sharing and encouragement which lifted the Name of Jesus high, and a selection of slides looking back over 2011. Captain Susan then led us in a time of singing together in GREAT IS HE. Concluding our meeting, we explored STABLE LIFE, which concluded our journey through Advent. We look at the letters of Stable to look at what foundations we need to have in order to live the stable life. Married alongside that we looked at Scripture and songs were linked to them.

Submission - all there is of me, Lord
Trust - when we walk with the Lord in the Light of His Word (trust and obey)
Availability - I, the Lord of sea and Sky (Here I am, Lord)
Belief - All things are possible
Love - Love I ask for
Eternity - Sing the wondrous love of Jesus (when we all get to heaven)

We also used the song, Who is He? during which time people came forward and made their prayer and committed their lives to God before the Cross. Others prayed after the meeting as well.

We sought to start the year of well, laying out just what we need be applying to our lives - and indeed as we journey through this anniversary year together.

PRAYER DAY

The year ended with the corps leadership, members and friends coming together to spend sometime praying for the call placed on us as a church community in these days. Praying through the mission, vision and purpose statement for the church, we journeyed around four zones which enabled us to focus well on these things. A place to celebrate the love feast was also featured, plus a book to place down any word that God may have laid on our hearts. We are grateful to our prayer ministry officers, Adam and Pat Hall, for arranging and oversighting the day.

THIS SATURDAY

CHRISTMAS DAY 2011

It takes months of preparation, and our intention is always to make it the best day it can be - so that Christmas is Happy for so many more people. Again this year we have sought to do that and we trust we have been able too, brilliantly supported by so many of our own church leaders and members, and a brilliant team of volunteers who served as part of the team. The day starts with preparing the centre for the day and the drivers are out and about collecting people to bring them for registration at 10am. Margaret, our administrator is there to see everyone in, and an opportunity for refreshment sets everyone ready for the day ahead. At 11am our annual Family Celebration begins, and here not only our guests and volunteers for the day, but also our church family come together, and thus year our theme was STABLE FAMILY, concluding our advent series on STABLE MOMENTS. This fitted in well with the address which the Queen was to give later in the day on addressing the importance of Family. Our Captains led the celebration, which was attended by about 130 people of all ages. The children featured and spoke to Captain Sue about their gifts and they were given some more. They sang to us AWAY IN A MANGER and also We want to celebrate this Christmas. Other songs and carols included:- Ding, Dong Merrily on High; A Starry Night; Long time ago; Once in Royal David's City; Father God I wonder; Christians Awake. During the meeting, which was attended by many who would not normally attend Church, the Captain encouraged people to receive the Gospel this Christmas. Looking at Family, we explored how name and position does not matter; how money does not matter; how what we have done does not matter - we all have a place in the Family of God, and are invited to the Stable to meet with Jesus. In time of prayer and reflection many people came forward to celebrate their place within the Family of God, and placed their name on the FAMILY TREE. For some this was an important time as they recognised that they belonged and mattered to God and were very much a part of the Christmas story.



The tree where many people placed their names celebrating that they belong



Some of the family then made their way home at the conclusion of our celebration or to meet with family, while everyone else stayed and we hope enjoyed the day. Tony the Magician returned and entertained people before we all sat down for our annual Christmas dinner which was served at 1.15pm. In all 141 meals were served, and three courses provided. Those attended varied from those who would be alone, to families struggling, to couples without family. Our table hosts entertained our guests and there was a booklet to work through to use the time wisely. After dinner a short time of looking through the quiz questions took place and then Captain Susan shared some music. After this we watched the Queens speech and during this a team were busy serving drinks and making up a bag of food for people to take home and enjoy for their tea. Once the queen had concluded, presents and other goodies were presented to our guests, before Captain Ian concluded the day by explaining that we do what we do because of our love for Jesus and His love for them and one another. Ian then prayed and our guests made their way home by 4pm, and the team then got the hall all cleaned up and all then went home feeling that we had done our best to make this the day it should be.

We cannot thank the team enough for all they did to make all this possible. We are so grateful, and we trust everyone really enjoyed their Christmas Day 2011. Some volunteers have already booked for next year!

CHRISTMAS EVE 2011

Capturing a little of todays events

AN ARMY OF PEOPLE gathered together throughout today from 8am-8pm to make sure that Christmas is the best it can be for as many people as we can make it. The day started with a large group of people coming to peel potatoes, carrots and parnsips, wrapping presents, making up parcels and more, to fulfil part one of the day. Then a meal was shared together. The team then continued with preparing the kitchen, with sorting out the centre, before then starting to receive donations from local stores at the end of their day. These then went into parcels, before another team arrived to deliver the parcels and get these out to as many people as possible. Over 100 parcels were delivered to people throughout Horsham and Crawley. For some, within minutes, they were ringing to thank us for blessing their Christmas. We are so blessed today with people engaging in the true 'spirit' of Christmas, and thinking of others, beyond all that they had to do and prepare. It was so lovely to see so many of our own church family giving this time, and not just leaving it to other very giving volunteers. We now wait for tomorrow. 11am Celebration for all ages, followed by serving Christmas dinner for 140 people! If you want to join us.....please do!

Captain Susan Woodgate

Captain Susan is pictured here as in the County Times, during the making up of parcels for schools ten days ago. Today, a team of people will be busy making up toy parcels and food parcels to be delivered by a volunteer team tonight to many needy homes, over 100 in this area. This is in addition to well over 100 which have been given to local schools and family centres.

CHRISTMAS EVE is always a busy time at the Salvation Army, and starts now - a further team will be preparing veg and other things towards Christmas Day meal, which this year will serve nearly 150 people (including our volunteer team). Others will be involved in collection donations from local stores, as offered, and contributed towards making Christmas Day all that much better for people throughout Crawley and Horsham.

Whatever you are doing, have a blessed day today. We do not await the birth of Christ tomorrow, for He has already been born into this world - but you may be awaiting the birth of Christ into your own world, your own life. If you have not yet received Him...... now is the day of Salvation. GOD loves you big time, let Him into the life that He created, and know what it is to truly know CHRISTmas - the presence of Christ - in your celebrations this year. It brings CHRISTmas all that much more alive.

THE HOPE IN COMMUNITY SERVICES open on a Thursday evening to serve crisis food parcels, a listening ear, refreshments, clothing and toiletries to people as they have need. We do so for an eight week session. The project, now in its sixteen month as a revamp of the previous drop in centre, is seeing more people than ever calling on our services and provisions. Tonight, again many people journeyed to our centre, and there we trust found some Hope. The reason we do this - because of our faith - wanting to put our faith into action and not just talk words, but put meaning into words and do the action as well.

STILL TIME

This year our parcel deliveries and Christmas Day meals will be bigger than ever - thats not a problem - God has and is supplying our every need. BUT we do want people to know there is still opportunity for us to provide parcels for people and also opportunity for people to register to come on Christmas Day. Contact us on 01403 254624.

Tuesday 20th December 2011

Today gave us an opportunity to come out from the busyness in our centre to share Jesus wider - and we did with the people of Kingsmead in Horsham, and Kerwin Court in Slinfold. In both places it was a blessing to see people joining in with us, and also seeing memories stirred. We thank GOD for this opportunity

CAROL SERVICE 2011

 For the first time in two years our Carol Service was not hindered by the snow. Our hall was bursting, and we think 200 people must have been in our centre today. The service was mixed, starting with items from the band, our singing group, and Katy Kinsella who sang O Holy Night. Carols sang included:- Angels from the Realms of Glory; O Little Town of Bethlehem; See Him laying on a bed of hay. Our toddlers also featured and sang for us Here we go up to Bethlehem. Our offering collected over £200 for our Christmas Campaign, with money being used locally and internationally. Following from this, our children took the floor at presented to us STABLE MANNERS. This was the first time for many years that we have had enough children to be able to take part in such an event, and was lovely to see the children doing this, but also bringing with them parents and friends. There was literally no room left in our building for anyone.

At the conclusion Captain Ian thanked everyone who had been involved in this in some way, and espcially Kate Gregory, Barry Dowden, Karen Everest, Captain Susan, Simon Reay and the adult support as well. We are very blessed as a church. To conclude the carol service everyone stood to knock balloons around and sing the finale song WE GONNA CELEBRATE THIS CHRISTMAS, which was an amazing fitting end to this event.

Tea and coffee was enjoyed by lots of people, and while that was being served Father Christmas appeared and gave sweets and gifts to all the children and young people who were able to be us. We thank God for such a special event, and an opportunity to share the Gospel further.

THANK YOU

We are so grateful for the amazing support we have had of our church members and friends in sharing The Gospel over this time, but also to the general public who have given amazingly financially and in food and gifts. We cannot thank you all enough.

Friendship Club

The final Friendship Club for 2011 was a pantomine - see the picture for our cast. You can see it was well presented, but that was the point of it. You see many do not know how alive the Christmas story is until we know who it is all about! We also had sometime set aside to thank the team for all they did to make Friendship Club and Friday Lunches the success they have been this year. This time last year we did not think it had a future.

CHATT-A-BOX PARTIES

Our centre was buzzing on Thursday and Friday for our annual Christmas Parties for CHATT-A-BOX, our parent and toddler groups. Craft and play started the event, followed by singing, led by Captain Sue. Then we had a special visitor, Father Christmas, who even joined in with the Hockey Cokey. He gave every child a gift, and afterwards we all sat and enjoyed special party food. It was a great time, enjoyed by all.

AN ARMY OF PEOPLE gathered together this week to prepare 80 family food and toy parcels, to go out to local schools this past week. We thank GOD we are able to bless people in this way, because of the wonderful kindness of so many people within our church and the wider community. We now work towards preparaing parcels to go out Christmas Eve. Theres a special place for everyone to get involved. Thank you everyone.

Our new flag now flies freely on our flag pole! Despite the heavy winds of this week,its still there. We continue to proclaim our firm belief in God as Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

Our hall has been beautifully decorated for our Advent Season.