Dear Friends,

I was having a conversation with someone about my future destination or where I can see myself in God’s future ministry? Well, thinking of these questions led me to recall my past. Where I was in 2001 when I accepted Christ as my personal saviour, where I am now and where I will be in God’s future ministry?
​
I have the record of all those people whom I talked to and tried my best to tell them about Christ’s love. Some are now a very strong believer, still in touch with them , and some are still struggling but felt the spark of Christ’s light in their lives. As Paul wrote in his first letter to Corinthians 9:22 “To the weak I became weak, so that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all people, so that I might by any means save some.” And that is not because of me but because of God and the Holy Spirit who works through you and me to enter other people's world so they may experience and know things from their point of view. Those are the best movements and always give me more strength in my life when I tell people about God. 

Friends, it is not easy to reach the destination God had set or ordained for you, you will have to sail through the storms. There’ll be days when you wonder how you’re going to make it, or you just sit and pray to God saying sorry God I am not able to make it, but by God’s grace you will. Our lives' storms reveal how well we know the Lord. In hard times we discover the strength of our connection we have with God.

So, no matter where we were in the past, we came through yes, Praise the Lord, where we are in present, we will sail through in this storm too, and where we will be in our future, we will be serving God and winning the souls for His kingdom, through His Holy Spirit. So, be strong and courageous and we will sail through this storm.

Just sit in a quiet and peaceful moment and reflect in this question in your lives that where you will be in God’s future ministry? And how will you tell His good news and His love to the world? As it's not the job of collared people only but the job of all God’s called people.
​
May, God almighty will continue to be your strength and shield; in Jesus’ mighty (Amen)

Lots of love and blessings.

Rev Kathreen Shahbaz

Dear Friends

Happy New Year!

I was just wished a happy new year by someone in the church centre this morning, and after a brief debate as to when it is that we should stop further greetings until 2023, reckon as this my first letter out to everyone in the new year, I can just about get away with it!

Of course for many, new year, and the resulting resolutions can soon be a dim and distant memory. I was back at the gym yesterday after too long a gap,  and together with other longstanding members, was amused to see a number of fresh faces, togged out in new lycra and training shoes who had recently become members. Amused, as we know in a couple of months time, we shall see these new faces no more! Resolution time is traditionally a boom period for health clubs and gyms who recruit the bulk of their new members in January and who slowly slip away when new year resolve becomes a dim and distant memory, and other things get in the way.

This is such a shame, as a concern for our bodies should be a regular concern, rather than just a yearly and occasional one.  I’ve been pondering on the final few verses of Luke chapter 2 recently, looking at the brief insight we have into the childhood of Jesus and his development, starting with his time in the temple, and finishing with the curious and intriguing verse;
"And Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and man.” v52.

Actually, my pondering and being challenged has been to the extent that I’ve proposed that as a congregation we spend the rest of the month looking in depth at these aspects of life. This coming Sunday we’ll look at Jesus in the Temple and why being in “the Father’s house” was and is important for us all. In the following two Sundays we’ll then look at what it might mean, both for us as individuals, and as a church, to grow in "wisdom and stature” , and “in favour with God and with man”.

So I pray, that together and apart,  God will indeed bless our minds and bodies (gym or otherwise!),  and our relationship with Him and others this coming year!

Keep safe
Keep in touch
Keep the faith.

Simon

Dear friends,

So, finally Christmas day is over for the world, after all the busy schedule, wrapping, packing, decorating the house and counting down the days with uncertainty of the circumstance about what is going to be next? Is it going to be a lockdown or how are we going to celebrate church services on Zoom or in Church building is all done. Finished holidays and back to normal life but with the New Year instead of 2021 we are in 2022, Praise the Lord.  New year with new resolutions.

Making new year resolutions is routine now. Maybe some people are much stronger than me and you have many resolutions for every new year and succeeded and well done to you all. But, in my case, I tried and tried for the first few weeks or months very strictly to work on my resolution to remember but I keep forgetting to follow 100%. I am still on that same resolution. Today, I will share with you all what my resolution was and is still that same and it will be the same until I achieve that 100%.

My new year resolution every year is John Wesley’s prayer.
There will be hard copies available in the church if anyone wants to keep this treasure and give it as a new year gift for yourself and your family.

A Covenant Prayer in the Wesleyan Tradition:
  
I am no longer my own, but yours.
Put me to what you will, place me with whom you will.
Put me to doing, put me to suffering.
Let me be put to work for you or set aside for you,
Praised for you or criticised for you.
Let me be full, let me be empty.
Let me have all things, let me have nothing.
I freely and fully surrender all things to your glory and service.
And now, O wonderful and holy God,
Creator, Redeemer, and Sustainer, 
you are mine, and I am yours.
So be it.
And the covenant which I have made on earth,
Let it also be made in heaven.  Amen.

If we just read Wesley’s covenant pray and reflect on each and every single word and make this prayer our own prayer and follow Christ’s teaching that is written in Luke 9:23.

Then he said to them all: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me.

And another one of my favourite prayers from one of my favourite saints, St Julian of Norwich stated in her book “Revelation of Divine Love” chapter 5 page 40.  

“God, of your goodness, give me yourself; you are enough for me, and anything less that I could ask for would not do you full honour. And if I ask any thing that is less, I shall always 
lack something, but in you alone I have everything.

May we ask to God in this new year of 2022, for God’s presence in our life, family, churches, communities and in our world because In God alone we have everything. Amen.  

Lots of love and blessings.
​
Rev Kathreen Shahbaz

Dear Friends

“One more LFT before Christmas!” Whether it has been “sleeps”,  "lateral flow tests" or a combination of the two that we have been counting down, Christmas Day is now just around the corner! Whether joining us tomorrow in person,  through Zoom, or simply in spirit, I pray that you will find hope in the light that continues to shine in what has been considerable darkness for many this year.

Keep safe
Keep in touch
Keep the faith.

Simon

Dear Friends

As Christmas approaches, I get a little wary of the oft used narrative that God "left the splendours of heaven to live amongst us in this grotty planet", and that "we are terrible human beings that require a 180 degree turn around, to win his approval". After all, we were made in the image of our creator, who made both us and this amazing earth. To me, the miracle of Christmas is the commitment of God to his world, who in Jesus says: “What I wan't more than anything else, is a body like yours.”

With this in mind, I share with you a poem I came across recently - I love it, and hope you will too,  taking encouragement from its' simple but deep message.
​ 
I Like What I See
The Father knocks on my door
seeking a home for his son.
           ‘Rent is cheap’, I say.
‘I don’t want to rent, I want to buy’, says God.
            ‘I’m not sure I want to sell,
            but you might come and look around’.
‘I think I will’, says God.
            ‘I might let you have a room or two’.
‘I like it’, says God, ‘I’ll take the two,
you might decide to give me more someday,
I can wait’, says God.
            ‘I’d like to give you more, but it’s a bit difficult;
            I need some space for me’.
‘I know’, says God, ‘but I can wait – I like what I see.’
            ‘Maybe I can let you have another room,
            I really don’t need that much’.
‘Thanks’, says God. ‘I’ll take it - I like what I see’.
            ‘I’d like to give you the whole house, but I’m not sure’.
‘Think on it’, says God, ‘I won’t put you out;
your house would be mine, and my son would live in it,
but you would have more space than you had before’.
            ‘I don’t understand that at all’.
‘I know’, says God, ‘but I can’t tell you about it;
you have to discover it for yourself,
and that can only happen if you let me have the whole house’.
            ‘A bit risky’, I say.
‘Yes’, says God, ‘but try me’.
            ‘I’m not sure; I’ll let you know’.
‘I can wait’, says God -
‘I like what I see’.

    Margaret Hlaska OSF

Keep safe
Keep in touch
Keep the faith.

Simon