INSIGHT Dec 2018—Jan 2019

Christmas Blessings to all our

Readers

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Sunday 2nd 10.30am Rev John Henry—Holy Communion 6.15pm Jim Carrolle Sunday 9th 10.30am Bob Rogers—Café service 10.30am Hinton Court— Joan Rogers 6.15pm Rev John Henry—Holy Communion Sunday 16th 10.30am Nativity—Sunday Club 6.15pm Rev John Henry—Candlelight Service Sunday 23rd 10.30am Rev Keith Martin 10.30am Hinton Court—Rev John Henry 6.15pm Rev G.Bland Monday 24th 11.15pm Christmas Eve Holy Communion Tuesday 25th 10.30am Christmas Day Family Service Sunday 30th 10.30am Rev John Henry 6.15pm Rev Alan Coates

Sunday 6th 10.30am Rev John Henry—Covenant Service/Holy Com-munion 6.15pm Graham Cottam Sunday 13th 10.30am Jason Griggiths—Café service 10.30am Hinton Court—Thelma Hobday 6.15pm Pam Stenson Sunday 20th 10.30am Rev John Henry 6.15pm R.Andrew Ctg Sunday 27th 10.30am Sandie Dixon 10.30am Hinton Court—Rev Betty Bell—Communion 6.15pm Rev John Henry—Holy Communion

Come Celebrate Christmas with Guisborough Choral Society and Guis-borough Salvation Army Citadel Band! Guisborough Choral Society and the Guisborough Salvation Army Citadel Band present a wonderful concert of festive delights for all the family, from band mu-sic and traditional carols for all to sing to favourite classical and contemporary works for choirs. Enjoy yourself singing along to Silent Night • Good King Wenceslas • Once in royal David’s City • Away in a Manger • Hark! The Herald Angels Sing and other beloved traditional carols, or simply relax and enjoy the Christmas joy offered by the band and choir. Guisborough Methodist Church on Saturday, December 8th at 7.30 pm. Admission Adult £6 • Concession £5 • Under 19 £1 Tickets at Guisborough Bookshop, Serenity in Saltburn, WeGotTick-ets.com and at the door. Registered Charity 508845 Publicity 01642 493499

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From the

Minister

I love Christmas, when we ‘authentically’ get there; there is an annual debate as to when the tree goes up in the Henry Household, but all done in good hu-mour! However, I am really quite keen on the importance of advent and the prepara-tion leading up to Christmas. A time of preparing hearts and lives for the wonder of that truth captured in John Betjeman’s poem, ‘The Bells of Waiting Advent Ring’. I love the poem in a number of ways: some of Betjeman’s lines just absolutely seem to capture most beautifully the essence of the cold wintry nights … that are laced with the celebration at the heart of Christmas… He speaks of the holly in the windy hedge He speaks of public houses blazing – and of course he is not speaking about

them being on fire – but rather the large open fire within roaring on a win-ter’s evening…

He speaks of bunting – read for that Christmas decorations – saying Merry Christmas to you all…

And of course, he speaks ever so un-PC about those unwanted and misplaced Christmas gifts … Of inexpensive scent and the hideous tie… wow!

But it is the last verse that captures my imagination… That none of it – that is all the sentiment, the celebration, the festivity can in

Betjeman’s words… “with this truth compare that God was in Palestine”

And of course, Betjeman points towards the wonderful truth of Christmas That God entered our world in a wonderful way; recently I have been thinking about that more and more… that God, in Christ enters our world, to share in its suffering and of course also the victory that we see at the heart of the redemp-tion story. As the people of GMC, are we sharing in that story of presenting God to a deep-ly aching and hurting world. 2 Corinthians 5:19 New Living Translation has these words: For God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, no longer counting peo-ple's sins against them. And he gave us this wonderful message of reconcilia-tion. At the heart of the Christmas story is the wonderful truth that God loves us so much and that He shares that love in the profound wonder of the babe of Bethlehem, who became the saviour of the world. With every good wish for Christmas and the New Year. Love in Christ, Your friend and minister, John

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My book of the month is “What They

Didn’t Teach Me in Sunday School” by Rob Parsons and thank you so much to Viv Bee for recommending this to me. I really enjoyed reading this book. Each chapter starts with a reflection from one of Rob Parson’s Sunday School experi-ences and from there he moves into a deeper consideration of life and its im-pact on our Christian beliefs. I think this book is beautifully written; it has warmth, humour, humility and honesty. Rob shares his “deepest beliefs. Many of [which] have been carved out of times of pain and disappointment”. Yet the book is consistently positive and wonderfully encouraging. Hence, it looks at areas of life where we might feel that we fail God, but then Rob reminds us how God is always at our side……”God is for you! He is for you when you suc-ceed and when you fail……God uses not the successful but the weak: he has a plan for the failures”. Rob’s style of writing is comforting, as if you are in a room listening to him speaking, he is always reassuring and always encourag-ing. Hence, “Don’t spend the rest of your life wishing you could have done more….do today the small things you can. And when you plant that seed you never know where it will end”. Rob considers the issue of Church unity and how in his view “when a Church cares more about what matters to God than any-thing else, there is no end to what it can achieve”. The book gently addresses issues that affect all/most Christians. Hence, “when life goes well we feel close him, when it goes badly we feel distant”. The book finishes with a chapter on “Lessons of Life from the Letter to the Romans” and this is a fabulous chapter focusing on Paul’s do’s and don’ts for living a life grounded in God. Paul says trust that “God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you” if we let him……”Be alert servants of the Master, cheerfully expectant”! Brilliant! I think this is a special book, one to read and re-read!

Happy reading, Sally Wardell

FUNDRAISING FOR GUISBOROUGH METHODIST CHURCH

At our recent meeting of Church Council, we decided to hold a Church Bazaar

on the second Saturday of November 2019.

We hope that this will involve our whole Church Community, and prove to be a

very happy time, all working together.

We are just at the early stages of planning. Please would you speak to me re-

garding the ideas you have, especially what stalls to run, and whether you, or a

group would organise one of those. If you or friends are knitters and/or sewers,

or carpenters, or 'makers' of gifts, or artists, or potters,.....(the list is endless)

please start to plan, and let us know what is possible. Please pray about it. Our

God is a God of surprises !

Please would you put the date in your diary Saturday 9th November! Christine S

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Autumn is nearly over and we are looking onward to Christmas! We have been very blessed this year with the very generous har-vest donations from the local churches, schools, community groups and individuals. Our cupboards are full to bursting espe-cially with soups and beans! So if you wish to donate any food, ask us what we need first! ;) We are organised and focused on our big event of the year which is our Christ-mas Day Meal. So please let us know if you or anyone you know would:

• Prefer not to be on their own at Christmas and would to love to share things with a big friendly ‘family’ community; • For a variety of reasons might be struggling to provide the meal they feel their family deserves and would enjoy the treat of a three course meal followed by coffee, mince pies and chocolates; or • Have some time and energy to support our work through helping out on the day or before. We particularly need some more table hosts for the day and people to help with the cleaning-up operation at the end.

It is always a special event and everyone is welcome. We like to give all of the participants a gift bag at the end of the meal and would welcome donations of small toiletries, food gifts or other little trinkets. We are also having an Advent themed Get Set Go on Sunday Dec 2nd where we’ll have biscuit decorating, Christmas crafts and party food. There will be something for the whole family. It’s a good opportunity to invite someone who might not normally come into the church as they feel happy to join in because it’s Christmas. Dates for your diary: 1 Dec: Prayer Breakfast 8:00am @ 32 Thames Ave, Nick and Claire Wells house 2 Dec: Get Set Go “Advent” 3-5pm @ GMC 5 Jan: Prayer Breakfast 8:00am @GMC 20 Jan: Get Set Go “New Year” 3-5pm @ GMC

Thanks for the prayers and support, God bless, Shona, Juanita and Joanna <><

Charity No. 1086425

Bridge contact: 07890 228851 (Shona); 07436 110283 (Joanna); 01287 638771 office; E: staff@guisborough-bridge.org.uk

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Phew, what a couple of months! Firstly, let me say a big thank you for all your prayers and support over the last cou-ple of months as we have transitioned from the previous lay worker project to our new project. We had two prayer walks at the start of the project and these were very spe-cial occasions where God spoke to us about what he wants us to be doing in the commu-nity (so a special thank you to those who joined us for the prayer walks) Many of you will have been in church when I have shared the vision for the new project and will have received a copy of the vision document. If you haven't seen a copy yet, please pick up a copy from the church foyer or have a word with me and I will pass on a copy. The new lay worker project has two focuses. One focus is to continue the exist-ing work we are involved in and the other is to develop work on the North Guis-borough and Dorset Road Estates. We decided that it would be good to have a name for the work on the estates and have decided on the name 'The Beacon Project'. When we think about the existing work, the Tuesday toddler group continues with a good number of attendees. Sadly though, we have made the decision to close our Thursday tots group - but this isn't the end of our work with parents and toddlers. More on that later. We are continuing to develop our Sunday Club and I have shared a vision with the leaders about my desire to see the children become more familiar with the Bible and to spend more time with the Bible in their hands during our sessions. To that end, we are going to get each Sunday Club child a Bible of their own, which they will bring on a Sunday morning and will take home with them after Sunday Club. We will be getting them all the same Bible so that when we read together as a group they are all the same translation. I am still involved in work at Galley Hill School, delivering RE lessons and also continue as Chair of their governing body. My involvement in some work I have undertaken over the last few years has come or is coming to an end so that I have time to focus on new work at GMC and also on the Beacon Project. Work on the Beacon Project is developing rapidly. We have had our 'family and community' day at Sleights Court which was a way to engage with the communi-ty and to find out some of their needs. The day was slightly dampened by the weather, but a good day was had by those who came along. The day was split up into three groups, focusing on adults, toddlers and primary aged children. By

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the time you read this we will have started a parents and toddlers group at Sleights Court after previous discussions with families in North Guisborough. I have the privilege of now being able to deliver the RE curriculum to Key Stage 2 at Chaloner Primary School and I am in conversations about other involve-ment in the life of the school. We are also planning to have a 'Coffee, Cake and Carols' event at Sleights Court in the run up to Christmas as a way to share the real meaning of Christmas. And hot off the press, we are in conversations about multi-generational sessions looking at how we can encourage young people to engage with the older people in our community. We have come up with a series of phrases that express part of what we hope for the Beacon Project - these have been included on a banner to be used at our events - and are listed below: Believe we can make this a better place to be. Engage with people to help make changes that are needed / wanted. Actively work in our community to make those changes a real-ity. Care for the vulnerable, the elderly and the disabled. Offering opportunities for children and youth. Not forgotten. Guisborough matters!

‘Christian Caring in the Community’ We continue to cover all our work in prayer and strive to 'name the name' in all we do. I now have a work mobile phone which is 07561 582548 and my email address is layworker@guisboroughmethodistchurch.org.uk Please do drop me a mes-sage at any time if you have any questions about the work I am doing. Once again, thank you for all your support. Peter

Hi folks, thank you to Tuesday@8 for the offers of mince pies and helpers with the refreshments on our Christmas Fayre Late Night Shopping event on Tues 4th Dec. I could still do with one or two more helpers – especially for the second hour 6-7pm. So if you can help either 5-6pm, 6-7pm (or both!) and/or bring down some mince pies, do please let me know. Jenny

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1. North Korea is still No.1 for the 16th year. The citizens do not have a private life. They are watched continually and live in fear of being reported to the au-thorities for activities perceived to be subversive. Practising Christianity is one of these activities and punishment can be very severe. The regime aims to make religious observance unsustainable – it’s almost impossible for parents to share faith with their children. They register 94/100 on the persecution scale. 2. Afghanistan is not far behind 93/100. Conversion from Islam is forbidden, seen as apostacy, can result in death and brings shame on the family. Any who convert do everything they can to keep the faith secret. Afghans trust their reli-gious leaders, and for many families shame of conversion far outweighs love of family. 3. While violence remains high, non-violent persecution is daily reality for most persecuted Christians – it affects all areas of life. 4. Over 200 million Christians in the top 50 countries experience high levels of persecution or worse. 5. Over 3000 Christians have been killed for their faith in 2018, more than twice as many as in 2017–2000 of these were in Nigeria. 6. Each of the top 11 countries in the list are new places of extreme persecution (81 out of 100 points or higher) – this is more countries than ever before in 26 years of reporting. Full and free exercise of Christian faith is extremely danger-ous or not allowed. Churches may be banned, destroyed or under government control or where one’s Christian identity alone can be enough to be killed, im-prisoned or attract severe persecution. This is a huge increase – four years ago only North Korea was experiencing extreme persecution. Persecution is escalat-ing and international right to freedom of religion or belief is becoming denied or neglected and more and more countries particularly in the Middle East, Asia and Africa. 7. Religious nationalism in Asia has continued to increase in such as India and Burma and have brought Nepal into the list – first time since 2007. 8. The situation has worsened in a number of middle eastern countries such as Egypt, Turkey and Libya. I.S. fighters are being pushed out of Syria and Iraq but have the potential to make situations worse in neighbouring countries. 9. South-east Asia is an emerging hotbed of persecution with situations in Ma-laysia and Indonesia worsening and the majority Christian country of the Philip-pines facing increased tension. 10. Pakistan has the highest violence rating on the list – at least 700 Christians are abducted every year. This is greater than all the other countries put togeth-er. If conversion is the goal, kidnapping, rape, violence and threats are the means. 11. Many countries illustrate particular vulnerability of women—especially Paki-stan, India and Nigeria. India is causing grave concern. Since Prime Minister Modi 14 of Hindu extremist groups have been empowered by the rhetoric of the Prime Minister. They have publicly stated that aim to make India free of Christians and Muslims by 31 De-cember 2021. Last year 635 Christians were detained without trial, arrested and

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or imprisoned for their faith, 336 families have been forced to leave their homes while over 23,000 Christians have been physically or mentally abused. These are just the recorded incidents - in reality the figures could be much higher. Signs of hope Syria – more peaceful was as IS have been driven out of areas they held – but violence is still very present for Christians and many are still continuing to leave their homes. Iraq - one of two churches have been rebuilt or repaired (with help in one case from local Muslims) and services held. In some villages houses have been made habitable and some Iraqi have returned home and re-opened shops etc (helped by Open Doors, Barnabas fund and others). Tanzania It was number 33 last year – this year has dropped out of the list. There is still persecution but things have been improving since the election of a new prime minister who has cracked down on radical Islamic groups with many of their leaders in prison or in hiding. Ethiopia and Eritrea

The recent piece deal signed between these two coun-tries could hopefully be a means of the extreme perse-cution in Eritrea being eased. And still the church is growing – and the face of these Christians is amazing. They are determined to stand firm whatever they have to face. What an example all of us! And the one request they have for those of us who live in freedom is – PLEASE PRAY FOR US. Let’s both there-fore keep praying and support as we feel lead financial-ly to help our persecuted brothers and sisters to survive and stand firm. Thelma Hobday presented this info at the annual Open Doors prayer meeting in Saltburn on 3rd November.

Thank you to everyone for your support at our Open Doors service on 18th Nov. We collected £137 at the service for Open Doors which is wonderful. I can add this to the £135 our Monday Night house-group raised at our Sat coffee morning in October. If you missed the service but would like to give a donation, I’m happy to pass this on for you at any time. And do let me know if you’d like a copy of the World Watch List so that you can pray regularly for our persecuted brothers and sisters—this is the single most important thing you can do. House groups might also like to get the bi-monthly prayer DVD which has really informative short films to pray for specific people, countries and situations. A new WWL will be coming out in late Jan-uary—after being presented to the Houses of Parlia-ment. Jenny Tyrie

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Escape We are told very little about the childhood of Jesus, and what happened after the visits of the shepherds and the magi. We know from Luke’s gospel that the holy family visited the temple and met Simeon (Nunc Dimittis), who recognised the baby as the long awaited Messiah, and Anna, the old prophetess, who did likewise. Of course, Mary knew he was somebody very special, because hadn’t the angel told her this all those months before. She had had time to absorb the fact, and Joseph had had time to adjust as well. They must have stayed in Bethlehem for some weeks: the magi found them in a ‘house’, Matthew records that Mary went to the temple for her ‘purification’ (after the proscribed 40 days) and then Joseph had an important dream. He was advised to flee into Egypt to escape the wrath, jealousy and madness of King Herod, who had ordered all the children under the age of two to be killed. This is one of the legends that grew up around their flight.... As they trudged along the road with their precious baby, Joseph and Mary en-countered a farmer in his field, sowing wheat. He took pity on them and offered them some refreshment. They told him of their plight, and their fears of being followed by Herod’s soldiers. The farmer was horrified at their story, but then he realised his own potential danger. ‘What if the soldiers come this way?’ he asked. ’What shall I say?’ ‘Tell them the truth’, said Mary. ’Tell them you saw us pass by as you were sow-ing your wheat’. ‘Yes’, added Joseph. ‘Just tell them the truth’. And so the family trudged on. Darkness fell. The same darkness covered the family, it covered the farm, and it covered the palace of Herod and his soldiers, The farmer slept badly, haunted by that family and their fears. He rose early and went outside. To his utter amazement the seed he had sown the day before was now fully grown wheat and ready to be harvested. He quickly fetched a scythe and started to cut his wonderful crop before it could magically disappear again. As he cut and harvested his wheat, he heard the sound of approaching hooves. The soldiers of Herod were on the search path again. As they approached the field, they saw the farmer and stopped to speak to him. They described the little family group they were searching for. The farmer re-called the instructions from Mary and Joseph to tell the truth. He took a deep breath. ‘Yes’, he said, ‘I do remember seeing such a family pass this way, I remember I was sowing my seed in this very field at the time when I spoke to them’. The soldiers looked at the crop he was harvesting. They turned their horses round. ‘We’re wasting our time here’, they said and returned the way they had come. The farmer was greatly relieved, but was left asking himself, ’What child was this?’ .................... Jennifer Bolton

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CHURCHES TOGETHER IN GUISBOROUGH WEEK OF PRAYER FOR CHRISTIAN UNITY 2019

The Week of Prayer for Christian Unity starts on Friday 18th January 2019 and

runs until Friday 25th January.

Everybody is very welcome at the half hour daily prayer meetings and at the

United Evening Service at our Church at 6.15pm on the Sunday Evening, 20th

January. Our new Chair of District, Rev Richard Andrew, will be taking part in

this service.

The venues are as follows:

Friday and Saturday 18th and 19th Jan - private prayer

Sunday 20th Jan 6.15 pm Guisborough Methodist Church

Monday 21st Jan 12 noon Salvation Army Citadel

Tuesday 22nd Jan 12 noon St. Nicholas Church

Wednesday 23rd Jan 12 noon St. Paulinus Church

Thursday 24th Jan 12 noon United Reformed Church

Friday 25th Jan 12 noon Christian Fellowship at the Methodist Church

We shall be helping to distribute our 'Services at Christmas' Card for the Whole

Town at the end of November/ early December. Many thanks in advance for

your help for our section.

All good wishes, Christine Smith

24-7 Prayer….what next??

I have been asked to write a “report” on Guisborough 24:7 prayer week. Some pretty amazing things happened during the week. However the reports I’ve had back from people have been somewhat of a personal nature and of course I won’t go writing about those without permission. I wondered if people would mind writing me a little paragraph about their experience of the prayer space and emailing it over to me. Write about anything that came of it and anything that happened and if you wish, leave it anonymous and pop it in the red box on Sunday if you’d rather not email me. You don’t have to do this of course! It would just be nice for people to see what can come of these weeks of prayer. I’ve had requests from people from other churches who attended the space to have some sort of info on what came of the week. At a meeting in late October we discussed ideas for building on what we started—and as such we plan on having a Saturday day of prayer in early De-cember and a Thursday in January—see Pews News for details. Rachael Cort mrs_rachael_cort@hotmail.co.uk Don’t forget our 2 regular prayer meetings: first Monday of the month in the Allcock Rm at 6.45pm and Weds mornings 10am, Fellowship Rm

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Minister: Rev John Henry 632770 Senior Steward: Pat Anderson 636293 Pews News: Pam Walton 637041 E: gmcpewsnews@gmail.com Sat Coffee Bookings: Ethel Hugill 637925 Church bookings E: enquir-ies@guisboroughmethodistchurch.org.uk W: www.guisboroughmethodistchurch.org.uk/booking/ Church telephone number: 610349 Insight Editors: Jenny Tyrie 610937 Peter Crabb 630974 Insight email: insightmag@gmail.com Church & Circuit Websites: www.guisboroughmethodistchurch.org.uk www.clevelandanddanbymethodists.co.uk

Good Neighbour Scheme Phone 610349 Between 10-noon Monday to Friday

PRAYER CHAIN Phone anytime on: 637492, 610456, 633316

The next issue of Insight is the February 2019 issue, to be edited by Peter Crabb. P lease ensure items are put in the folder in the church hall, or e-mailed to insightmag@gmail.com by the 2nd Sunday in January(13th). It will be available to deliverers by the 4th Sunday in January(27th) in the pigeon holes at the back of the church.

Other events and activities Sat 1st Dec 8.00am Bridge Prayer Breakfast—32 Thames Ave GCF Sat 1st Dec 8.30am Circuit Prayer Meeting—Guisborough Mon 3rd Dec 1.30pm Women’s Fellowship—Advent service at St. Nicholas Mon 3rd Dec 6.45pm Church prayer meeting—Allcock Room Tues 4th Dec 5.00pm Tues@8—Christmas Fayre Mon 10th Dec 1.30pm Women’s Fellowship—Carols with Jenny Tues 11th Dec 8.00pm Tues@8—New Marske carols & supper Mon 17th Dec 12pm Women’s Fellowship—Christmas Lunch Tues 18th Dec 8.00pm Tues@8—Members’ evening Sat 5th Jan 8.30am Circuit Prayer Meeting—Hinderwell Sat 5th Jan 8.00am Bridge Prayer Breakfast—GMC Mon 7th Jan 1.30pm Women’s Fellowship—Jeanne Round Mon 7th Jan 6.45pm Church prayer meeting—Allcock Room Tues 8th Jan 6.00pm Tues@8 Christmas Meal Mon 14th Jan 1.30pm Women’s Fellowship—Audrey & Graham Johnson’s visit to China Tues 15th Jan 8.00pm Tues@8 Fellowship Mon 21st Jan 1.30pm Women’s Fellowship—James Patterson Tues 22nd Jan 8.00pm Tues@8—Roma, Richard and Elizabeth Mon 28th Jan 1.30pm Women’s Fellowship—Judy Lucas