Skip to main content

Goodbyeeee!


A secret farewell service! What a surprise! Actually I probably had to be told as (and this will come as no surprise) I was all on for organising my own “DO” Ha Ha! But what a “Do” it turned out to be! I can’t begin to thank everyone who came and made it such a wonderful experience, and for those of you who have taken the time to write to me.

When I started the job, I had never been so welcomed and as I leave I have to say I’ve never been so thanked!!! So many years of fun, laughter, prayers and tears (both of joy and frustration!)

Hundreds of children have been told the Good News in oh so many strange ways – a giant Christingle and noisy wacky nativities, puppets and action songs, wet fish and 5000 salt people, Noah activity days, Pirate holiday clubs, services and assemblies with pizzas or bread or chips and even ice cream, the many manifestations of Friends and Heroes sessions and pretzels, hot cross buns and lit up tombs, the list goes on.

You will all have your own memories of our children’s work, and to go back to my welcome service, I used a meditation about sowing and nurturing the seeds of Faith. I think we have been pretty good farmers, planting, tending and caring for our “kiddy” crops. The results are not always obvious, but the quality of the teaching and the level of support and encouragement these youngsters have received, will have left them feeling that our churches and the people from them have something special inside them. And some WILL come to know that special thing as Jesus, our and their Saviour.

God Bless all of you and Byeeee!

Love from Sharon
ex Children’s Ministry Enabler

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

HOPE Together & HOPE Revolution

Dear friends, You are personally invited to attend an exciting evening at  Bradford Academy  that we hope will bring people together from Bradford and Leeds to see how further  Unity, Prayerful Worship and Missional Transformation  can develop between the two cities. Back in July 2012, we saw over 50 young people, 12 leaders and several churches from across Bradford and Leeds join together in a 2 day pilot mission. We partnered with a local church in Bradford to share and witness to Christ's love in word and deed. In addition to this, we included young people in the conversation of ways in which to help connect both cities in the future. There are many people interested in exploring the potential of developing something on a larger scale, culminating in a week of mission across the two cities in 2014.   Your attendances and input will help shape the way forward: We would like to invite you to an exciting evening of information about HOPE Together and the y...

Godly Ways 8-10 March 2013

Godly Ways CODEC  and the  Dales Biblical Literacy Project  present: A weekend of Worship – Teaching – Workshops. WHEN : March 8th to 10th 2013 (Starts Friday evening) WHERE : Elm Ridge Methodist Church and Bondgate Methodist Church, Darlington and Ingleton Methodist Church SPEAKERS: Revd. Professor David Wilkinson  is a Methodist minister and Principal of St. John’s College, Durham. Well-known as a writer, speaker and broadcaster, David has wide-ranging interests, although he is especially concerned about science and religion. Revd. Dr. Peter Phillips  is a Methodist minister and Director of Codec, a research centre housed at St. John’s College, Durham. For many years, Pete served on the staff of Cliff College. He has a great interest in the New Testament and in communicating the faith in a digital age. Revd. Ron Willoughby  is an ordained minister with the Southern Baptist Convention in the United States, now living in this cou...

July message from Rev Phil

Dear Friends,      The Methodist Church makes provision for its ministers to take a three-month sabbatical break from the routine of ministry every seven years – this year, in my case! By the time you read this letter, I will have already started my sabbatical and I will be absent from the circuit from mid-May to mid-August.     This is not an extended holiday but an opening to do something different, as a way of being refreshed in ministry; an opportunity to ‘power down’ and to get away from a hectic, diary-driven ministry, in order to spend more focused time with God. It is a requirement and not an option for ministers to take their sabbatical break.     There have been two main aspects to consider in planning the sabbatical. The first has been to decide how I should use the time. For your interest, I am pressing on with studies begun through Leeds University (which could lead to the award of a PhD), reflecting on my wor...