31st March 2024
By Justin Dyche in Sunday Service on 7 April 2024
Hello everyone on this Easter weekend,
My subject for this email is rather early, we have another day of waiting before Easter arrives, and I always think this Saturday between Good Friday and Easter Day should be a time of reflection on the despair of the disciples at what had happened, and remember, in spite of Jesus’ predictions, they were not expecting Him to be alive the next day. If we miss out on the despair of this day then our joy will be diminished, if we truly want to experience the excitement of the women who discovered that “Jesus is alive!” we need to try and enter in to their sense of loss.
We have been blessed with some special times of worship over the last few days, including our final Lent Groups, the Maundy Thursday service and two very different services on Good Friday. The fun and creativity of the Hot Cross Bun Feast, communicating the wonderful news that the death of Jesus is a sign of how much God loves us, contrasted with the quiet reflections at Rockingham on Jesus’ seven words spoken from the Cross. We still have some wonderful Easter worship to look forward to, and then there is Spring Harvest, to which many are going, some just for a day and others can watch at home – see below.
Don’t forget the clocks go forward on Saturday night, so the times for services on Sunday are BST, an hour earlier than you may be expecting.
EASTER DAY SERVICES
7am SUNRISE SERVICE at Rockingham. This is always a special time, gathering early in the morning, just at the time the women would have been discovering the empty tomb. The service includes Communion and is followed by breakfast rolls in the Village Hall.
10.30am ALL AGE COMMUNION with BAPTISM at St Columba’s – always a highlight of the church year and this year even more so with the Baptism of Chuka and Njideka’s baby, Kamto. The service will include children’s activities and is family friendly, but there are no ENERGIZE groups. It will be available to watch at home via this link:
https://youtube.com/live/eu5-dIvFB4U?feature=share
There won’t be a Prayer Meeting on Sunday as many of us will be packing for Spring Harvest.
SPRING HARVEST
First, for anyone who is interested, you can find an online programme by going to the following link, registering with My Spring Harvest and then you will have access to the full event programme. This will be vital for everyone who is going to Skegness.
Log in or Sign up for MY Spring Harvest – home of the 2024 event programme – Spring Harvest
Second, you can still join us at Spring Harvest as a Day Visitor. The best days are Tuesday 2nd – Thursday 4th April and to get the most out of the day arrive by 10am and don’t leave until after the evening meeting at about 9pm. Day tickets cost £44 for adults (15+), £32 for 5-14 year olds, and £24 for 2-4 year olds. You can book your tickets for Skegness here:
https://ecevents.uk/sh2024-day-visitors/days/Site/Register
Do let us know if you are coming and we can look out for you.
Third, if you can’t get to Skegness you can watch five days of worship, teaching, community, encouragement, and inspiration, online at home. You don’t have to watch live, with a Spring Harvest Home ticket you can catch up and watch it all until the end of April.
You can see the full details of what is available before you buy a ticket here:
FINAL-SH-Home-Programme_2024_dft3.pdf (springharvest.org)
If you would like to buy a Spring Harvest Home ticket, costing £27.50 just go to this link:
Spring Harvest Home 2024 Registration – Spring Harvest Home Registration (ecevents.uk)
Once you’ve bought your ticket, you’ll be sent the link to join with your unique code. Spring Harvest Home can be watched anywhere with WI-FI, in any browser – or cast to (some) TV’s.
NEXT SUNDAY 7th APRIL
We just have one service next Sunday, Holy Communion at St Columba’s at 10.30am with a special Easter Activity for children.
ATTACHMENTS
Please find here the latest Prayer Update from Hope From Above and Steve’s Puzzles and Other Stuff issue 110, about which Steve says: This mag includes a great story of a boy delivering leaflets for his church who stopped a lady committing suicide when the Lord pressed him to keep knocking at her door. An extract from my sermon of 1993 about Thomas who I believe gets a bad press and the Lord, did, too! A hidden birds puzzle that kept Sue and I busy for over half an hour trying to find the last three. A humming bird rescued by prayer. An Eternal Wall of Answered Prayer being built and lots more fun things to enjoy as you sunbathe this weekend!!
May you know the joy of the risen Lord in your heart this Easter,
Ian
01536 400225
07903 644609