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.

BROCHURE NOW AVAILABLE



Our Brochure now for sale

 In readiness for our anniversary year next year, a special brochure has been put together and is now available. The brochure celebrates the life of our church today, and shows all we have to celebrate in our 125th year. We are grateful to those who have contributed towards it, as we are for the lovely comments about the brochure and how much our people are enjoying it. HOWEVER we want to share this with everyone, so if you could like a copy, contact us now. They are for sale at £3.50 each from our church office.

It may be next year, but the event is a month away now, and we look forward to welcoming SALVATION BRASS as part of our 125 anniversary year celebrations. Tickets for the Saturday evening celebration are FREE, but you will need to get them in advance. Contact us now! Sunday Celebrations are at 10.30am and 3.30pm and there will be a Sunday Feast inbetween, as well as open air ministry. We pray for this event and that God will use it to bring Glory and Honour to Him.

SHELLEY UPDATE

We are pleased to inform you that Shelley Gallagher is (hopefully) returning home today! What a Miracle. Thank You Jesus. We pray continued strength and health for Shelley and also her family.

Our New Flag

During our meeting this Morning, Captain Ian dedicated to God a new flag which will fly outside our worship hall, to replace the fraing one that we currently have. In these moments, the Captain reminded all that this is just a piece of material, and there is nothing magical in it; yet the significance of what it stands for, should be that which we proclaim not just in the material, but also in our lives. We were encouraged in having a stable relationship with God, that we lived out the proclaimation of God as Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

Sunday 11th December 2011

The Third Sunday in Advent welcomed a full hall, as we focussed on STABLE RELATIONSHIPS. In this we celebrated the new life of Molly O'Grady, as she was dedicated to God by mum, Sarah and dad, Blake, in a special moment of our meeting. The full dedication had taken place some weeks ago at Nanas and Grandpas home, and now the O'gradys were able to share with the wider family this special event. Songs today included:- O Come all ye faithful, Born in a Stable, The Little Light of Mine, Light of the world you stepped down into darkness, Be near me Lord Jesus, Joy to the world. Captain Susan sang beautifully Mary did you Know? In his address, Ian explored Matthew 2 and the relationship we can have with God. During times of prayer people knelt or stood before God at the Mercy Seat. We thank GOD for another time of great fellowship, family and company.

Christmas Festival 2011

Every ticket was sold, and about 200 people filled our hall for our annual CHRISTMAS FESTIVAL. Carols were sang, accompanied by band and piano, and gave the gathered congregation opportunity to sing about the blessings of Christmas. Our band and singing group as ever gave so much to the event, and our children and youth were part of our 'finale' which talked about the Great Light. Some of our older members of the church also took part in this, and it was directed by Barry and Karen. Karen's daughter, Katy, sang Silent Night. Les Daniels read from the Scriptures. The Leechpool Primary School sang some great songs and reminded us through narration of the Gospel message and it was good to have them as part of our event again this year. Cameron Lonie, accompanied by Grandad Neville, presented some Clarinet solos which were very well received. Our corps officer team saw through the evening, which was attended by the High Sherriff of West Sussex and the Chairperson of Horsham District Council. An appeal was given, giving people opportunity to give towards our Christmas Campaign. £1000 was collected, and with tickets sales, the event made a profit of £1500, which will go to helping other people. We were blessed through so many parts of the evening, and in that too the time and commitment of those who took part. Thank you everyone for making this a very special event indeed.

Introducing our new kitchenette. For sometime we have needed to replace the kitchenette in the coffee lounge, and this week this work has been completed - very nice!!!

Updates

We have been inundated with requests in regards to Shelley. Captain Susan has been to visit and reports that Shelley has now moved from ITCU to HD Unit at Redhill Hospital. Shelley was able to chat with Cpt for a period of time, which is great. We thank God for this strength to carry Shelley through - we have all been concerned. We continue though, to pray for Shelley, for Madeline, Jim and Luke, and the wider family as well.

Netta is now home we thank God for, and residing for a short period with her daughter.