18th August 2024

By Justin Dyche in Sunday Service on 24 August 2024

Hello everyone,

There is lots of information in this email about events coming up, especially the International Food Fair on 31st August which promises to be an exciting day but does need YOU to come along and bring your family and friends to a fun afternoon of food from across the world – more details and lots more below.

Sunday 18th August
Just one service on Sunday, ALL AGE WORSHIP at St Columba’s at 10.30am. This will feature activities for children and is available as a livestream here: https://youtube.com/live/V1-8XlbIXXw?feature=share
There will also be the PRAYER MEETING at 6pm at St Columba’s.

Flowers Arrangers
Val Berridge has taken the lead arranging the flowers in church for many years and we are very grateful to her for all that she has contributed to making the church a more beautiful place to worship our wonderful God, using the beauty of God’s creation. Val has now indicated that she would like to take a step back from this role and we are proposing a rota of people to arrange the flowers. This would normally involve arranging the flowers one week and making sure they still look good the following week, before the next person comes in to repeat that process. In this way if we had six people you would only need to arrange flowers about once every three months. If you would like to be included on the rota please do let me know, this week if possible. If you want to know more about what is involved do ask Val, Miriam or Margaret Smith.

International Food Fair – Saturday 31st August
This exciting event is happening in just two weeks time from 12 noon to 4pm on 31st August, hopefully on the church lawn or in the Hall if it is wet. There will be food from Pakistan, Italy, South Africa, USA and Zimbabwe and you can sample one dish for £2.50 or all five for £10. Do plan to come along (I would suggest not having any breakfast that morning) and invite friends and family to join you for what promises to be a fun and satisfying day. Tickets are being sold after church and more details are available from Riaan.

Ride and Stride – Saturday 14th September
The annual sponsored cycle ride is happening on Saturday 14th September. At this point we are looking for people who would be prepared to join a group of cyclists riding in the morning to a selection of village churches around Corby, and who would be willing to collect sponsor money. This money is divided between St Columba’s and the Northamptonshire Historic Churches Trust, and there will be a Sponsor Form available in church if you want to sponsor the group. If you would like to cycle please speak to James Ireland who can give you more details and a sponsor form. We will also need people to sit in St Columba’s during the day on 14th September and there will be a sign up sheet for that soon.

Alpha
We are hoping to run an Alpha course in the autumn and would be interested to know who might be interested in joining it. Alpha is an introduction to the Christian faith, suitable for people who want to establish some spiritual foundations and for those with no previous church experience, so it is great course to invite friends and family to, especially as you can attend with them. At this time we don’t know which day of the week it will be happening on, as this will depend on the people who come forward. More details will be available soon but for now please do let me know if you, or someone you know, would be interested in joining an Alpha course this autumn.

Riding Lights Theatre at St Columba’s – Tuesday 15th October
We are hosting a performance by Riding Lights of a new production “Cups on a String” in association with the Christian education charity Transforming Lives for Good. This will be happening in the church at 7.30pm and more details will be available over the coming weeks but tickets can be bought now by going to this link:
https://www.ticketsource.co.uk/whats-on/northamptonshire/st-columbas-church/cups-on-a-string/2024-10-15/19:30/t-zzqnxyy

Sunday 25th August
Next Sunday we have HOLY COMMUNION at St Columba’s at 10.30am (no 9am service at St Leonard’s) which will include activities for children at the back of church.

Finally here is the latest mini SCANS. Steve writes: “In this issue you can read a story about an Iranian pastor imprisoned for 7 years and the amazing reflection he wrote on coping with persecution. His words are deeply moving and challenging – do read them and meditate on them. Then there’s an extract from “A brush with God” – one of my favourite outreach sermons which I last preached in 2013. It includes amusing anecdotes (feel free to borrow them!) but focuses on Jesus’ challenge. “Who do YOU say that I am?” – and what difference should that make to your life? There’s lots of puzzles (including some brand new ones) and some funnies.” Then Steve adds “Do give me some feedback. It can be lonely here in the scribe’s garret” please pass your thanks for SCANS to Steve at scansmag@btinternet.com

God bless you all in the coming week.

Ian

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