Uppermill Kingfishers

Happy New Year!

ericamryan — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 09:19:09 +0000

Sorry, not been checking in here so much lately, but wanted to wish you all a Happy New Year. The first Little Fishes service of 2012 will be this Sunday, 8th, so that means that we will also have our first Kingfishers meeting that evening – 7pm. Be there, or be somewhere else!

Remember

ericamryan — Fri, 11 Nov 2011 15:09:20 +0000

Hi Kingfishers, don’t forget that it’s the Little Fishes service this Sunday – and it’s a special one because it’s also our Service of Remembrance, and a Parade Service for those of you in Beavers, Cubs or Scouts.

There’s also a Kingfishers’ meeting at 7 on Sunday evening, so we’ll hope to see you there.

Erica

Don’t just start . . .

ericamryan — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 21:22:57 +0000

During Sunday’s service, we also thought about the inspirational example of John Stephen Akhwari, the marathon runner from Tanzania who finished last at the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City. No last-place finisher in a marathon ever finished quite so last.

Injured along the way, he hobbled into the stadium with his leg bloodied and bandaged. It was more than an hour after the rest of the runners had completed the race. Only a few spectators were left in the stands when Akhwari finally crossed the finish line.

When asked why he continued to run despite the pain, Akhwari replied, “My country did not send me to Mexico City to start the race. They sent me here to finish.”

The attitude of that athlete ought to be our attitude. There is a “race that is set before us” and we are to keep running until we reach the finish line.

It’s always too soon to quit.

The clip about Eric Liddell had led us to Hebrews, chapter 12, verses 1 to 3 (we used the New Living Translation) and a commentary on that led us to John Stephen Akhwari – another Olympian. You can see his painful but inspiring finish to his race on Youtube too.

Running the Race

ericamryan — Tue, 11 Oct 2011 21:20:13 +0000

Well, we took the service this Sunday and it went really well. Lots of members of the congregation said nice things about it, and particularly about Thomas, who ended up being our anchor person between the different parts of the service, and organising the game with the littler ones at the beginning. Comments were also made about how well Hannah, Freya and Oliver read, and it was great to see you taking part.

The service was planned around this Youtube clip that we showed. It’s taken from a film called Chariots of Fire, which tells a true story about two athletes who competed in the 1924 Olympics in Paris. The actor you see here plays the part of Eric Liddell who went on to win the 400m at that Olympics. I put a part of his speech up on the screen for the end of the service, and you can see it here:

I want to compare faith to running in a race. It’s hard. It requires concentration of will, energy of soul. . . I have no formula for winning the race. Everyone runs in her own way, or his own way. And where does the power come from, to see the race to its end? From within. Jesus said, “Behold, the Kingdom of God is within you. If with all your hearts, you truly seek me, you shall ever surely find me.” If you commit yourself to the love of Christ, then that is how you run a straight race.

The questions we asked people to think about during the service were:

What is the race that Jesus wants us to run? How can we train?

What are you doing this Sunday?

ericamryan — Mon, 03 Oct 2011 20:15:06 +0000

Because we need you for the Little Fishes service – if we have enough of you, then you’ll be taking the whole service, but there’s only three definites at the moment, so that might be pushing it. I think I’ve managed to email all of you, but if you have been accidentally overlooked then please get in touch.

We need you!

Harvest

ericamryan — Mon, 26 Sep 2011 12:40:58 +0000

Church had a great Harvest get-together on Saturday evening. The barn dance was fun, and lots of people were up and dancing to the band. The skittles that the Kingfishers had made at our last meeting were much appreciated and the younger children there were queuing up to take part. Congratulations to Madeleine who won first prize of a chocolate orange!

Thomas and Freya did a great job of organising and running the bowling, and several people commented on their patience and hard work – well done.

Our new minister, James, took the Harvest all-age service on Sunday, which was very well attended – would have been good to see more Kingfishers there though 8o) I’ll try to be in touch this week to sort out who will be available to help take the Little Fishes service on October 9th.

Starting Over

ericamryan — Sun, 04 Sep 2011 09:10:36 +0000

It’s probably the teacher in me, but I quite like the fact that we get a new year in September as well as January – so many more possibilities. Anyway, after the church birthday and general summer winding down, here we are back in September, with lots to do and lots to think about.

Our next Little Fishes service is 9.45 next Sunday (September 10th) and that will be an opportunity to vote for your choice for the Church Project fund this year. We will also be meeting at 7pm that evening. We’ll be sorting out games for the Harvest Supper, making some plans, and having a chat to our new minister, James. If you bring enthusiasm, I’ll bring cake – I can’t say fairer than that!

Project Fund, and Beyond . . .

ericamryan — Tue, 19 Jul 2011 09:27:29 +0000

We had a discussion at a recent Kingfishers meeting about what happens to the money that we raise. We are not a fundraising group, but when we do organise events we try not to make a loss, which sometimes results in a small profit. In the past we have decided as we go along what to donate this money to – but it’s usually in quite small amounts, so we thought we’d change to doing things slightly differently. From now on we are going to pick a charity, and when we have a substantial amount (we thought £300) raised we will send it off to that charity. Jack suggested Macmillan Cancer Care as our first choice, so we’re happy to support that.

The Church as a whole has also been thinking about what charities we support each year and how we select them. The big thing that came out of our conversations was that we would like to have greater involvement with the charities that we select, and that we would like everyone to have an opportunity to nominate a charity that we could contribute to. If you would like to nominate a charity that you would be happy to “champion” at church if it’s selected then please contact Rosie, or Alison (or me and I’ll forward it!) or put a note in the Ideas box at Church. Don’t forget to say which charity you would like the Church to support this year, and give us some reasons why.

King of Kings

ericamryan — Sat, 16 Jul 2011 09:25:27 +0000

Hi Kingfishers, I hope that by now all of you will have received your church birthday gift – a voucher for the King of Kings bookshop. This is the second year that the church has given you older ones a voucher so that you can pick a book of your own, so you probably already know that King of Kings is based at the Salt Cellar, near Oldham Parish Church.

In case you’re heading into town to spend your vouchers during the holidays, you just need to know that it’s going to be closed for its summer hols, August 1st to 8th. If you don’t have a chance to get in there, then I think the shop is actually coming to us (or at least a selection of it is) for people to browse after the Little Fishes service in September.

Hope to see some of you for Paul’s last service (and lunch) tomorrow, Little Fishes and All Age services continue at UMC on the second and fourth Sundays, and Kingfishers will meet again in September, at the Little Fishes service and then again in the evening – we’ll have skittles to make and games to plan for the harvest ceilidh!

The First Goodbye

ericamryan — Sun, 10 Jul 2011 11:39:24 +0000

Today was Paul’s last Little Fishes service, and it was good to see so many Kingfishers there to say our farewell. Tom and Allan had a special rugby-themed ‘speech,’ and Steve led us in singing in a hymn which had been specially written for Paul. Emma, Hannah, Jessica, Lydia and Oliver were surprised to discover that they were a significant part of the choir for the day, accompanied by Freya on the cello and Tom on viola. Thank you to everyone, it sounded great (I know I shouldn’t really say that as I was singing too, but it did). Particular thanks to Steve who put it all together.

Next week, is the second part of our farewell to Paul, as this will be his last service as minister of Uppermill Methodist Church. We hope that a lot of you will be able to make it, and join us for lunch afterwards.

And before that, don’t forget it’s our last gathering of Kingfishers before the summer. 7pm at church and bring a rounders bat if you’ve got one!