A To Z Blogging Chalenge 2022 - Theme Reveal

I will be participating in the Blogging From A To Z Challenge once again this year and I'm really looking forward to it. This will be my fourth participation having previously joined in in 2012, 2013 & 2021.

In my first Challenge (and last year's) I couldn't think of a theme so decided to keep things random, but this year, as in 2013 I have a theme. Hooray!

Sparring

It was great to be able to spar at Boxing again this morning. It's been a long time since we've been able to do this, so it was good to be at it again.

It might seem like an odd thing to be doing and enjoying (especially at my age), but there is something very satisfying, I guess almost cathartic, in stepping in to the ring to hit (and be hit) by someone else, but it really is a lot of fun, especially knowing that you both chose to be there and are keeping things under control.

Pure Joy

I will never tire of the joy of delivering blessings to others, especially the joy of delivering food to the two Soup Kitchens in Macassar which The Gathering supports.

This month we were able to give them a few boxes of peanut pastes, rice, soya mince, jam and washing up liquid each, plus an ice cream tub full of sweets for the kids which were left over from The Gathering's Soup Kitchen lunch back in January.

Fans

It was good to finally install some industrial quality fans in The Gathering's premises this morning.

Previously we had two domestic quality fans in the front and one at the back, and to be honest they were a bit rubbish. 

So it was a blessing to be able to use some of the money left over from the Soup Kitchen Christmas Lunch to buy five new good quality fans that will do a great job at cooling us all down. It's just a shame I only got to install them at the end of summer.

Robbery & Kidnapping In Firgrove

 Please stand in prayer with the community of Firgrove as we have recently experienced a truly shocking crime.

Firewood

I always get ridiculously overexcited by our annual delivery of firewood, especially when it arrives in the middle of our hottest month and it seems impossible to think that we'll actually need the heating.

I think one of the things I like best about the wood delivery is that the garage smells heavenly for a few weeks after as the wood continues to season, though this year's lot is already incredibly dry.

Delivering Blessings

Pastoring a church is never easy and it comes with a lot of challenges, but it also comes with a lot of joy and blessings.

One of those blessings is the joy of getting to deliver boxes of food to four of our local primary schools, knowing that the most vulnerable children at each one will be taken care of with a meal before lessons each day.

Life really doesn't get much better than that!

Pray Continually

We are so thankful for life at The Gathering at present. 

As a church we've been praying for the spiritual growth of our members for a long time and we've seen these prayers answered spectacularly. Just this morning Errol shared a word rich in scripture, passion and practical application which greatly encouraged the membership. Seeing someone raised up in to leadership and ministry and then flying in these areas is a joy to watch.

Local Church

Since the New Year an old question has kept popping up every now and then, which is odd because we're fairly certain that we've answered the question many times before and have moved on. We also feel the answer is fairly obvious, but maybe it isn't as obvious as we thought it was. 

So, here's the question: Why do you persist with church?

Thank You!

To those of you who helped to make this a possibility once again, we thank you form the bottom of our hearts.
 

Church In Action

It was gutting to get a phone call late in the afternoon yesterday informing us that the home of some of our Soup Kitchen regulars had been on fire, with the household losing everything they had.

But it was also a blessing as the community knows that in such circumstances they can turn to the church for some genuine relief and assistance.