Into the Wilderness

This morning, we read 'The Dark' by Lemony Snicket. 

We all have places that scare us, challenge us and tempt us. We might do everything to avoid these places, but sometimes we have to face the wilderness and walk through it.  Laszlo learns this, in The Dark. 

His 'wilderness' is the basement of his house. He is afraid of the dark and when the nightlight in his room goes out he has to venture into the dark basement. There he finds a drawer full of lights. After he finds the much needed light bulb, the dark is always still there, but does not bother him.

Like Laszlo, when we venture into our wilderness we find what we need to make it through as well as God’s reassuring presence. 

In our bible story today, Jesus spent 40 days in the wilderness. We wondered what scary things he had to deal with. Maybe spiders? (Lukas didn't like the spider in my box very much!) Perhaps there were snakes? (There were a few people who shuddered when Lizzy pulled the wriggly, rubber snake from my bag!) Almost certainly Jesus had to cope with wild animals, being totally alone, and the deep darkness of the nights. After all of that, he must have grown fearless and ready to face whatever truly scary stuff came his way!

Sometimes, for us it can be tempting to take the easy road, to not push ourselves out of our comfort zone, or put our hand up to help others. Perhaps doing something that scares us (like speaking to someone we don't know, standing up for someone who’s being bullied would be a great challenge for Lent.

Let us pray:

Loving God,

Thank you for always being with us, everywhere we go.

Help us to remember that, and that even in the dark and scary, wild places in our lives, you are right there loving us.

Amen.

Check out our artwork, inspired by 'The Dark'. 

'With God's help, we can face our fears.'

'God is with me in the dark.'

This one was a father-son collaboration between Eric and Lukas. I love the ghost and spider! 

'With God's help, we can face our fears.'

'God is with me when I'm scared.'

Lukas has created his own artwork here, complete with a scary, green ghost!

Lizzy and Beth got creative with theirs.

'God is always with me.'

'God's love shines through me.'

The shading on this one is very clever. This poor guy looks like he's truly been in the wilderness!

Proud artists!

Get Well Soon!

Last Sunday, our Awesome Kids made 'get well soon' cards for Anne. Thanks Carol, for sharing these. 

Sending lots of love and hugs to Anne!

 

Picnic pic!

We had a fabulous time at the park on our Parish Picnic last weekend. Here's an action shot of the lolly scramble!

 

CHYPS Youth 2023

Our first CHYPS Youth for 2023 kicked off with games at St James' Park. Such a beautiful night!

 

Awesome Time in action

 Check out these photos from Awesome Time last week... and the amazing bird feeders we made!

Parish Picnic!

 Join us after church on Sunday for a picnic at St James Park. See you there!

Chapel Street Youth is back for 2023!

 We're kicking off Youth Group with a walk to the park this Saturday night. 

Meet at the Chapel Street Centre at 6.30pm. Make sure you have shoes suitable for walking / running around. We'll head to the park for some games of frisbee and ball tag, and return to the hall for supper and devotion time.

If you know of anyone in school years 7 to 13 who might like to come, please invite them to join us!

See you there!

Blessing of the Backpacks

Last Sunday, we had our Blessing of the Backpacks. 

As is our tradition at Christchurch North Methodist, our young people brought along their schoolbags and gathered at the front for a special blessing to mark the beginning of the school year. 

Liam was presented with a bible as a reminder that the love of his church family at the Chapel Street Centre, and the love of God goes with him as he starts secondary school.

We invited our congregation to write a short note of encouragement, support, bible verse or snippet of advice for our young people. We photocopied them all and made little 'books of encouragement' for each young person to take home with them. 

Thank you to our congregation for being so supportive of our youth, we really appreciate you!

Awesome Time Sundays 10am!

 

Join us on Sunday mornings at 10am

at the Chapel Street Centre!

Dates for your calendar:
Sunday 5 Feb - Awesome Time 10am with Dave & Heather
Sat 11 Feb - CHYPS Youth 6.30pm (Years 7-13)
Sunday 12 Feb - Awesome Time 10am with Richard & Jillian
Sunday 12 Feb - Parish Picnic after church at St James' Park
Sunday 19 Feb - Awesome Time 10am with Carol & Maureen
Sunday 26 Feb - Awesome Time 10am with Mel & Izak

Blessing of the Backpacks

 Join us on Sunday 29 January, 10am at the Chapel Street Centre for our Blessing of the Backpacks. Bring your schoolbag, kindy or preschool bag and we'll have a special blessing to mark the beginning of the school year for 2023.

Joy!

 I think this photo sums it up.

Happy Christmas, everyone!

Youth Christmas Service

 

On 11 December, the children and youth from Christchurch North Methodist Parish led a Christmas service at the Chapel Street Centre. 

The theme was ‘Joyful Giving’ and we explored how we can give joyfully; spreading love and hope this Christmas. 

We focussed on the Christian World Service appeal, raising awareness and support for climate action and access to clean water. We were also grateful for donations towards our Support A Family appeal and the child our parish sponsors through World Vision. 

Our young people were generous in sharing their time, gifts and talents to spread the joy of Christmas too. Highlights were our brass ensemble, a sister act singing ‘Silent Night’, and some talented young poets. We’re fairly sure we’re the only church in Aotearoa to have a resident ventriloquist-donkey act! 

We also had the premiere of our 2022 Christmas short-film, which you can watch on YouTube at: 

https://youtu.be/G0JG3pvKuSY

Here is a link to the service:

https://youtu.be/0hYev_VAy4g

or you can watch the full service on our Facebook page:

Christchurch North Methodist Facebook

Massive THANK YOU to all our young people!

Christmas Movie 2022

This year's Christmas movie is brought to you by the young people of Christchurch North Methodist Parish. Thank you to our Awesome Kids and our Chapel Street Youth (CHYPS). Big thanks to our intrepid leader Angie, and to Izak for all his filming and editing!

Enjoy!

Click HERE to watch the Christmas 2022 Movie

Christmas crafts

 We've been getting Christmassy over the past couple of Sundays, making Christmas gifts for our family and friends.

Candy cane & chocolate Santa sleighs last week with Jill & Richard, and hot chocolate jars and herb & spice seasoning jars with Carol this morning. 

Youth CHRISTMAS Service coming soon...

Join us on Sunday 11 December

10am

at the Chapel Street Centre

for a wonderfully joyful Christmas celebration!

All welcome!

 

Courage

 

This week, we read the wonderful story JABARI JUMPS by Gaia Cornwall. 

We talked about what it means to have courage. We agreed that courage doesn't mean not being afraid... it's about stepping up and doing stuff even if we are feeling scared, anxious or nervous.

God says, have courage, for I am with you.

Livvie said, it's a bit like someone cheering you on saying, 'You've got this!' I think that's a pretty good explanation, and as Livvie said, we can help others find courage by saying, 'hey, you've got this!' and being a cheerleader for them too.

God's our biggest cheerleader. God's always with us, loving us. God's got us!

We created some pictures of scared faces to remind everyone that it's ok to feel afraid, and to just remember that God is with us, giving us courage and strength to do hard stuff.

A big thank you to Ella for leading our prayer this morning!

Chalk Artists

Last week, Carol got our Awesome Kids outdoors enjoying the sunshine to do some fabulous chalk art on the footpaths and carpark outside church. I love 'Zaccheus' in the tree and the heart art too! 

 

Blessing of the Animals

This week, it's St Francis of Assisi Day and Rev Anne will be doing a Blessing of the Animals.

Here are some photos Awesome Kids Emelia and Lily sent in of Storm (their latest edition to the family) a 14 week Border Collie; Tiggy, who turns 1 today and Soxy (2 years old). We think they are just beautiful!

Lucky

Meet Lucky!

As you know, we at Christchurch North Methodist Parish sponsor Lucky, through World Vision.

Here is a video Lucky has made for us.

World Vision thanks you for your loving and generous support.  

 
Please continue to pray for the safety of the children and that this life-changing work will continue for Lucky and all the children and families in Lucky's community in Uganda. 

 
Thank you for helping to change children’s lives for good. 
 
Kia tau te rangimārie - Peace be with you.

Storm Sunday

This week is Storm Sunday. 

The Bible describes many storms and 'stormy times' Jesus went through. We all know the story about Jesus stilling the storm (Luke 8.22-25) when he was in the boat with the disciples. Jesus calmed the stormy sea. 

In the storms of life, we can know that God is with us. God's loving presence gives us comfort, strength and hope.

I read somewhere that God's love is like an umbrella... just like an umbrella can give us a little shelter and comfort as we go out and brave the weather, God's love helps us to face all the storms of life. 

Jesus wants us to share God's love with others, and be a comfort and strength to people who are going through their own storms.

It reminded me of this book, "Tiny Miss Dott and her Dotty Umbrella", written by Michelle Osment and illustrated by Sarah Nelisiwe Anderson. Miss Dott works at the charity store, just like our very own Dot at the Budget Boutique! When Miss Dott goes to work at the op shop, she takes her umbrella in case it might rain. She leave it outside the door, and while she's inside her umbrella provides much needed shelter to a number of people. 

I hope that we can be like Dott's umbrella, and help give shelter and comfort to those who need it.

Prayer:

Lord, help us to remember; 

that when the winds are wild and clouds are dark, You are with us.

When the lightning flashes and the thunder booms, You are with us.

In the rain and hail and snow and gales, You are with us.

In the crashing waves and swaying trees, You are with us.

When we are frightened, anxious or stressed, You are with us.

When we are upset, angry or confused, You are with us.

Thank You for being our shelter and strength, 

for helping us in times of trouble.

God, help us too to calm storms, 

to bring healing and peace to people 

and all creatures on our planet. 

Amen

We Belong

It’s the first Sunday in our Season of Creation, today is Ocean Sunday. Mum and I thought we'd get into the mood by taking a visit to Sumner beach!

The book 'You Belong Here' by MH Clark and illustrated by  Isabelle Arsenault celebrates all the marvellous creatures God created… and reminds me of God’s most incredible and most loved creation - you! 

Our bible reading from Ephesians reminds us that we belong to God. We are loved, cared for, forgiven and encouraged to be more like Jesus. 

It’s not always easy… and of course we sometimes make mistakes. But God never gives up on us and no matter where we go or what we do, God is always with us, loving us - all the time.

The other bible reading this week is about Jesus calling us to go fishing. Appropriate for Ocean Sunday! But, he wasn’t meaning actual fishing for fish… but for people. Jesus wants us to share God’s amazing love with others, so everyone can know that feeling of belonging and know God’s love.

Challenge

To celebrate the beginning of our Season of Creation celebrations, go for a walk somewhere. It could be your local park, school playground, or you might take a bus to the beach for a stroll along the sand. 

Do something to celebrate and give thanks for that place. You might take a photo, draw a picture in the sand, do some leaf rubbings, collect pinecones or shells, or write a poem. You could even make a message in a bottle!

Prayer

Awesome God, thank You for stars and starfish, winds and waves and whales and sand. Thank You for all the magnificent and marvellous creatures in our world. Help us to remember that wherever we go, whatever we see and do, we will always belong with You and You will always be with us, loving us no matter what.

Amen.

Have an awesome week!

Blessings,

Mel