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JUNE 2004

Dear Friends

This month our Thanet Bible Week takes place at St James’ (please see elsewhere in this magazine for further details). I am so grateful for the vision of those who set up this annual event a few years ago. The Thanet Bible Week provides us with a marvellous opportunity to hear excellent Bible teaching from gifted speakers. I do hope that we will make full use of this year’s Thanet Bible Week. (Wed. 9th to Sat., 12th June).

It is so easy for us at a church like St James’ to take Bible teaching for granted. In some parts of the world, people would walk miles to hear the Bible taught. Also it is easy for us to under-estimate the impact of the Bible on people’s lives, even our own lives – if we rightly respond to it.

Here is the account of how the Bible changed one group of people because they found it to be a source of certainty by which to order their whole lives. It is an incident connected with the mutiny on the “Bounty” in 1789. After setting Captain Bligh and 18 loyal sailors adrift in an open boat, the mutineers returned to Tahiti, where they persuaded 12 Tahitian girls to accompany them aboard the “Bounty” and set sail with no other plans than to avoid capture.

Their first landfall was Pitcairn Island, an extinct volcano with steep cliffs. It was uninhabited and had luscious vegetation, so the mutineers decided to make it their new home. What they planned to be their own version of heaven on earth proved to be a nightmarish hell, which lasted for 10 years. One of the men had taken the ship’s copper kettle ashore and it was used to make strong alcoholic drink by distilling plant roots. The whole island was drunk for weeks on end. Some of the sailors went out of their minds, one committed suicide by jumping off a cliff, and all of them lived a life which was no better than that of animals.

After several years there were only two men left, Alexander Smith and Edward Young. Young, who was the older man (despite his name!), was ill with asthma. Both these men had been forced to live apart from the women, because the women had captured the men’s firearms, had moved to another part of the island with the 18 children and threatened the men with death if they followed. Edward Young knew he was dying and in despair searched through his belongings to see if he could find anything that would remind him of the peace and the sanity of his early life in England.

In the ship’s chest he found the “Bounty’s” Bible and began to read. Alexander Smith could not read, so Edward Young decided to teach him by beginning at Genesis and going through each chapter word by word. By the time they reached Leviticus they were aware of their own need and had begun to pray. Before they reached the New Testament, Edward Young had died, but not before Smith had learned to read. For Alexander Smith, reading the New Testament meant the discovery of peace, forgiveness and restoration.

Even at a distance the children had noticed the change in the living habits of the man, and soon the women and children had returned to see exactly what had happened. In 1808, 19 years after the mutiny on the “Bounty”, a ship from Boston discovered the community on Pitcairn Island. When the captain of the ship returned to America, he took news of the only mutineer to survive and of what he called “the most perfect Christian society that he had ever seen”.

So there is one example of how the Bible proved to be a source of certainty for people who had lost their way – to such an extent that it changed their lives most amazingly. May we today value God’s word and make the most of every opportunity to hear God’s voice in the Bible.

With warm Christian greetings,
Yours,
Robert Bashford

FROM THE CHURCH REGISTERS
We welcome into God’s family:
Baptism: 16th May Holly Louise Bryant
We extend our prayers and sympathy to the relatives and friends of those committed to God’s care:

Funerals: 27th April Marion Cooksey, aged 93 years
28th April Frank Clark, aged 90 years
29th April Joan Lambkin, aged 75 years
30th April Peggy Donovan, aged 83 years
7th May Tom Dixon, aged 80 years
21st May Kay Clifton, aged 82 years

MAY SERMON TAPES
All tapes of the sermons preached on Sunday mornings and evenings in May are available on request from Elizabeth and Nigel Hadley (Tel: 831067) as usual. Tapes £1 each.

HELP REQUIRED
Is there anyone who could spare one hour once a month to help with the dusting in the Church on a Friday morning between 9 and 11. Also we are in need of some more people to go on the reserve list for refreshments on Sundays. If you can help please ring us after 7pm any evening. Thank you.
Margaret and Steve Todd

SERMONS IN JUNE
6th June 8.00am “The mind of Christ” (Phil.2:5-8)
10.30am “Refusing to compromise” (Dan.1)
6.30pm “Temptation is for real” (1 Cor. 10)

13th June 8.00am “The exaltation of Christ” (Phil.2:9-11)
10.30am “Only God knows everything” (Dan.2)
6.30pm “Men and women in the church”
(1 Cor.11:1-16)

20th June 8.00am “Working it out” (Phil.2:12-18)
10.30am “The finger of God” (Family Service)
6.30pm “Fellowship at the Lord’s Supper”
(1 Cor.11:17-34)

27th June 8.00am “Two model Christians” (Phil.2:19-30)
10.30am “Your life in God’s hands” (Dan.3)
6.30pm To be announced

THE GARLINGE STAFF-MEMBER PROJECT

This article is a short update on last month’s piece.

Thank you to all who have expressed interest and support. A number of you have said that the presentation at the Annual Church Meeting in April was helpful – copies of that presentation and The Servant Church Trust leaflets are still available at the back of the church.

We focused our praying at the May Main Church Prayer Time on Garlinge, including the Project. Thank you to all who came – it was an encouraging time.

We have decided to include an extra monthly prayer meeting for Garlinge, starting in June. It will be on the first Saturday of each month at 8.00am in the Old School Hall. All are welcome to come. You don’t have to pray out loud, if you would prefer not to. But if you (a) believe that God hears and answers prayer and (b) want to back the ongoing and future work in Garlinge in prayer, then please do come along.

The first of these Garlinge prayer meetings will be on Saturday 5th June at 8.00am in the Old School Hall.

Robert Bashford



CROSSLINKS
The PCC have decided that as a church we are to take on support for “Crosslinks”, which is a major Anglican missionary society. Last October we had a visit from Jonathan Leeson (Regional Representative for Crosslinks) at our Christian Encounter meeting and he explained about the work of Crosslinks. Crosslinks used to be called Bible Churchmen’s Missionary Society (or BCMS for short), and some people may know the society by that name.

We have a responsibility to support the work of the Gospel worldwide and not just in our parish (important though it is). And wherever possible, it is good to express that support by getting behind specific individuals in prayers and giving. And so we support Mike and Debby Hulmes (working with Arab World Ministries) and Lucy Burrows (working in South Africa with YWAM).

The particular person whom we are going to support through Crosslinks is Sam Owen, who is going to work in The Gambia. He is likely to be going out some time this autumn. We shall have a chance to meet him at the Christian Encounter meeting on Wednesday 23rd June. We are changing the published programme in order to include Sam before he leaves. His subject is “Taking the Gospel to The Gambia”. Do come along if at all possible that evening at 8.00pm – or book in for the optional meal beforehand at 7.00pm.
Robert Bashford

HOLIDAY CLUB 2004
The Holiday Club in the Easter holiday went really well, for which we must thank God. For two days we had 45 children and for two days we had 42, any more and we would have needed a bigger hall!!

On Friday at lunchtime nearly all the parents came and Robert did the last talk.

Thank you to all at the Church who have been so supportive during the build up to the Holiday Club with their prayers and making food for the Friday and giving us money to buy extra food.

These are the people who worked in the groups: Lindy Hammond (she did the songs as well!), Elaine Jaquiss, Miriam Plank, Marion Myers, Luke Spanner, Michael & Pam Toogood, Ruth Flanders, Barbara, Rachel and Sarah Bashford, Faith Smith, Elizabeth Hadley, Yvonne and Julia Ruddock, Cilla and Helen Floyd, Margaret and Catriona Saker. God really used these people because when the teaching was going on you could hear a pin drop!

And lastly, a big thank you to Daphne Dickens for all the drinks and supplies she made us every day!
Emily Spanner

WOMEN TOGETHER

THE SUMMER EVENT
Tuesday 29th June
at 7.30pm
in
St James’ Church Centre

A SUMMER BUFFET

A warm welcome to both men and women

Price: £3.00 per ticket

Food for thought: ‘Grace is not a blue-eyed blonde!’
Speaker: Michael Toogood

For further information please contact
Emily (833289) or Kate (221235)

THANET BIBLE WEEK - Wednesday 9th – Saturday 12th June 2004

Evening Meetings
Wednesday and Thursday 9th and 10th June at 8.00pm – Dr John Benton (Chertsey Street Baptist Church, Guildford)
Wednesday “Why is it worthwhile being a Christian?” – Rom. 5:1-11
Thursday “How can I make progress in being a Christian?” – Rom 6:1-14

Friday and Saturday 11th and 12th June at 8.00pm – Rev. Paul Williams (Associate Minister, All Souls Church, Langham Place, London)
Friday “More righteous than the Pharisee?” – Matt. 5:17-30
Saturday “Children of the heavenly Father?” – Matt. 5:33-48

All evening meetings in St James’ Church

Seminars – for church leaders and workers

Thursday 10th June, 12.30 – 1.30pm - Dr John Benton: “How to encourage small churches”

Saturday 12th June, 12.30 – 1.30pm - Rev. Paul Williams: “Keeping first things first – the priority of evangelism”.

Drinks provided – please bring own lunch.


FATHER’S DAY – JUNE 20TH - We need Fathers Too”
Yes, of course mothers are indispensable – but we need fathers too!
I was just three years old – but I remember it as if it was yesterday! It was a grey, bone-chilling day when we stood on the platform of our village railway station. My father, in Royal Artillery uniform, kissed my mother, three sisters and me goodbye before climbing aboard the London-bound train. We waved until the train was out of sight – and then he was gone! It was five years before we saw him again!

With thousands of others, my father was sent to the disease-infested jungles of south-east Asia. Arriving too late to save Singapore, the regiment was redirected to Burma, in an attempt to foil Japanese plans to capture that country’s valuable oil fields. In the event, the British forces were driven back to the borders of India. Eventually, under new command, and at great cost, the XIV army fought back, and eventually succeeded in liberating the entire country.

On rare occasions we received letters from my father. I remember two letters particularly- one that was partly burned, and the other that was stained with blood. Whose blood we never discovered.

Five years is a long time in the development of a child. Thankfully, my father eventually returned home, unlike those of my two friends, whose fathers died in the jungle. But I missed a father’s discipline, example, guidance and companionship at a crucial time of life!
* * *

Both boys and girls need the role model only a good father can provide. As a society, we are more aware of these things now. For a son, the father hopefully provides the example of his own future responsibilities as husband and a father to his children. A good father also provides a pattern that his daughter may want to keep in mind when seeking a husband some time in the future.

As ‘Father’s Day’ approaches, it is sad to reflect that it isn’t so much war that separates children from their fathers these days, but the breakdown of marriage. Some 2,000,000 children will be separated from one parent or another this year.
* * *
Some of us have discovered that there is a Father who is more reliable, faithful and loving than the best of earthly fathers! He is the Father of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the Father of all who put their trust in Him. He loves us unconditionally. He provides for our needs generously. He forgives us freely. The most famous prayer of all – the ‘Lord’s Prayer’ – tells us that! The Bible says, “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation, shadow or change’ (James1:17)

Father’s Day is a time to say ‘thank you’, but it also a time to trust the Father’s love and promise to provide throughout the coming year, and all eternity to come!
Michael Toogood

SO WHO IS RESPONSIBLE?

Further to the varied reactions to the film, “The Passion of the Christ”, the age-old question still remains – “Who is responsible for the death of Jesus?”

In the book of Acts (2:36; 4:10; 5:30) it states that the Jews were responsible – whereas Acts 2:23 is more explicit – “This man (Jesus) was handed over to you (Jews) by God’s purpose and foreknowledge, and you (Jews) with the help of wicked men (Romans) put Him to death on the cross.” So – are the Romans responsible? Maybe, but see Isaiah 53:10 – “The Lord was pleased to crush Him ….” is God Himself also responsible? John 3:16 says, “God loved the world so much, that He gave His only Son…” again, Isaiah 53:6 – “The Lord laid the iniquity of us all, on Him(Jesus). Then we find in John 10:11 Jesus says, “I am the good shepherd who lays down His life for the sheep..” and in Rom. 4:25 we read “Jesus was delivered to death for our sins.”

When the Jews shouted “His blood be on us and on our children!” Was/is this necessarily a curse on the Jewish nation? Could it not be just the opposite? The blood of a sacrificial lamb speaks of atonement and reconciliation.

No one nation is responsible for the death of Jesus – the sins of the whole of mankind are responsible – so rather than holding that Jews, or Romans or whoever else nailed Jesus to the cross, each of us must realise it was our personal sin which brought Jesus from the glory of Heaven to the cross. Jesus went to the cross because of my sin …. so ….. who is responsible for the death of Jesus? I am.


Peter Reed



JESUS SAID: “Are you so dull? Don’t you see that nothing that enters a man from the outside can make him ‘unclean’? For it doesn’t go into his heart but into his stomach, and then out of his body. What comes out of a man is what makes him ‘unclean’. For from within, out of men’s hearts, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly. All these evils come from inside and make a man ‘unclean’.” Mark 7:18-23



MARK’S GOSPEL – DISCOVERING THE TRUTH ABOUT JESUS CHRIST!

The evidence for John Mark’s claim that Jesus Christ is the Son of God continues to build. In our last study we saw how Jesus claimed divine authority – and demonstrated it over every realm – human, demonic, physical, social and spiritual. All were subject to Him.

Study 3: Jesus the Teacher

· Read Mark 4:1-34
Jesus began His ministry by warning the people that the Kingdom of God was near! (1:15). In order to reveal the nature of this Kingdom, and who may belong to it, Jesus told a number of stories, called ‘parables’.

1: The parable of the sower, the soil and the seed, 3-8
This story likens different kinds of soil to human hearts, and illustrates the reasons why the Word of God isn’t effective in bringing everyone who hears it into the Kingdom of God. Can you recognise your own heart?

2: The parable of the lamp on a stand, 21-25
In this story, Jesus likens His teaching to the common practice of placing an oil lamp where the whole room can benefit from its light. Jesus said His teaching made crystal clear truths that had been previously hidden. His hearers must receive and respond to such teaching!

3: The parable of the growing seed, 30-34
In this parable, Jesus warns against dismissing the power of His teaching, by likening it to the mustard seed – the smallest of all seeds – yet grows into a large tree, which offers shelter to all who take refuge in it.

These stories have great importance. We must guard against dismissing Jesus as just a fascinating story-teller! Mark realised this and follows these stories with a further stunning display of Jesus’ divine power
· He calmed a storm at sea, 4:36-41
· He healed the uncontrollable demoniac, 5:1-20
· He brought a dead girl to life again, 5:21-43

History is full of those who claim to have special knowledge and insight into eternal mysteries. But only Jesus Christ can support His claims with acts of divine power



SUMMER FETE

This year’s Summer Fete will be held on Saturday 3rd July and the theme will be a Medieval Fayre which, it is hoped, will encourage suitable costume and hats for all to wear (not compulsory!).

A quiz will be on sale at the back of the Church before the event and as ever, help will be needed to ensure the grounds are suitably cleared and decorated and that the various stalls will be sufficiently staffed.

Donations of full bottles for the Bottle Stall together with books, cakes, toiletries, toys and puzzles, bric-a-brac, garden produce, plants and jewellery together with offers of help or ideas would be very much appreciated. Please let us know
Teresa & Wally Merry

FOR SALE

Omeron Blood Pressure Monitor – with cuff for measuring blood pressure and pulse. £30.00.

SATURDAY SHOP

The Saturday Shop in May raised £210 of which nearly one half came from the sale of plants and vegetables. Later sales of remaining plants may well increase the total.

Our thanks as usual to all who contributed to the standard shop sales but special thanks to those who worked long and hard to produce such a superb range and quality of plants and vegetables.


DEADLINE DATE - Please may all articles for the July magazine by with the Editor by Sunday 20th June. Thank you.

JUNE DIARY

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