Christmas message

Hello.

I was thinking about writing something about Christmas, but then came across this Christmas talk via Twitter, and thought you might like to read what the bishop of London had to say...

Christmas and climate change

Only by imitating God's generosity and responding to his call for community can humanity survive

a Happy Christmas and a peaceful new year everyone!

Advent 09 - reading nine

It's Christmas in just over a week and we have arrived at our last advent reading:

John 1:1-14

If Christmas day is the detail, this passage is the big picture. The birth of Jesus was the beginning of God's rescue plan for humanity, kept in his heart from the beginning, spoken about through the prophets and realised through his Son, who was God, is God from the beginning and through all time.

But how is this great event, how is Jesus, who is God, perceived? In two ways, according to the dictionary:

Jesus (Christ) noun

(the title given to) the man who his religious followers believe is the son of God and on whose teachings and life Christianity is based

AND

Jesus (Christ) exclamation

an expression of surprise, shock or anger.

So for some Jesus is the Light of the World and for others he is merely a word used to express anger.

I would like to suggest that we are not only called to celebrate his birth, but proclaim it too, so that others may experience the light and love of God.

How do we do this? There are many ways, forgiving someone, giving time and money to a good cause, speak directly about Jesus to someone are to name but a few.

Perhaps this Christmas we might take some time to ask God how and what he wants us to do this Christmas and in the year to come, to enable his love to flourish in our part of his world.

An extra: fancy thinking about the Christmas story in a different way? Try this: Nativity Icon

Advent 09 - reading eight

We have made it to the penultimate of our nine traditional redings for Christmas, and this week it is:

Matthew 2: 1–12

The Magi, wise men, travelers from the east... were probably people who watched the skies for signs and events, so when Jesus' star rose, they recognised it as something of importance, and not only followed it, but brought what they thought might be appropriate, with them: Gold for a King, Frankincense for deity and Myrrh for sacrifice and burial.

How right they were.

As you may have noticed in my previous post, this year does seem to be a time where people are stopping and looking. Looking to see how there must be more than buying stuff, more than broken communities, more than a broken environment.

Perhaps it is a sign. Or maybe we can make it one. As people begin to search for more, maybe we can be a star, leading them to Jesus.

Maybe, this advent, in the way we speak and act, we can bring appropriate gifts to Jesus:

the Gold of our lives given to the King

the Frankincense of our worship offered to our God

and the Myrrh of our lives given in service to Jesus.


And what that means for each of us may be different, but what ever God is calling us to do, now is the time to do it.
I mean, if the wise men had stayed at home, just like if the shepherds had stayed in their fields... they would have missed meeting the Saviour of the World.

Fusion3:16 Christmas, Advent and all things green

Perhaps its the Copenhagen climate conference, but this Advent, the theme definitely seems to be consumerism versus community.

And there seem to be so many people with helpful advice on how to go about living more responsibly, reconnecting with people around you, fighting off the crushing "requirement" at Christmas to buy far more than we ever need.

So many in fact, it can dazzle you into complete in action. I mean, lets face it, Christmas is busy enough.

So perhaps we should all pick a few things each, and not worry so much about the rest. In the Turnbull house, we have bought our Christmas meat (and will get our veg) from a local farm shop, as suggested by the Living Lightly web site, have asked a few people (not everyone, I have to say) to buy us Present Aid presents and some people are getting cakes instead of cards this year.

And what about Fusion3:16? Well, we are having a variety of events such as: Viaticus, the Junction, raising money for a cow, the Christmas wrap event, the Christmas meet up and the Christmas party and midnight mass to help us all remember that Christmas really is about Jesus, about God's love for us, and being part of a community.

What ever we do, with which ever organisations ideas or help, however big or small, it certainly seems to be time to stop talking and take action.

And if you are interested in the whole climate change/change of lifestyle thing, here are some more people (other than the links above) talking about it: Breathe, Superbadger, the Prince of Wales, nigels ecostore.

Advent 09 - readings six and seven

You may have noticed you didn't get an advent reading last week... so to make up for it you have two together this week.

Our first reading is:

Luke 2:1-7

Such a quiet thing, such an everyday miracle. No Choirs of angels for Mary and Joseph at Jesus' birth... (the shepherds saw the angels).

In the middle of hardship, worry and pain, in poverty and obscurity, God Almighty himself steps into human history.

And all you would have heard way the cry of a baby.

It is no different today. We see so much difficulty around us. Hurt, hardship, worry, poverty. And we can wonder where on earth God is. It can seem so very hard to see His presence and hear his voice.

But he is born again in every act of forgiveness, every kind word in the face of adversity, each commitment to love, persevering where others have stepped away.

And we may wonder what is the point of unseen patience and forgiveness that only we know about? But there will be a day when Jesus comes again and all those unseen things will become visible. (Matthew 10:26)

We continue in faith, even though Christ's presence might feel as obscure as his birth, because now we only see in part, but one day we will see in full. (1 Corinthians 13:12)

Our next reading is:

Luke 2:8-16

This passage gives me great hope. Is it kings, rulers, intellectuals or pop stars that God chooses to announce his birth to?

Oh no, they were shepherds.

Which gives me great joy in knowing that God announces himself to us ordinary people (and to kings as it happens) and that we too may go and see the thing the Lord has told us about.

But we do need to go and see. What would have happened if the shepherds had said "oh that was a lovely time of fellowship with the lord" and gone back to their sheep?

They would have missed meeting Emmanuel, God with us. God in action, God in the world, Jesus the hope of the nation and the saviour of our souls.

They would have missed him.

If ever we have an experience of God, whether big our small, some quiet revelation, some beautiful outpouring of the Spirit... lets not just go back to what we were doing before, lets go see what Jesus is doing in the world, lets be part of what He is doing.

So we too can witness the presence of God, entering his world, just as the shepherds did.

Guest blog: RWANDA DIRECT - IPSWICH NEWSLETTER

**please note, if you want to help with fund raising for the cow, please let Karen know!**

RWANDA DIRECT - IPSWICH NEWSLETTER

Secretary: David Meikle, 172 Nacton Road, Ipswich IP3 9JN email:davidandrosie@dsl.pipex.com

Treasurer: Jonathan Parratt, 13 Tovells Road, Ipswich IP4 4DY email:jonoparratt@orange.net

NOVEMBER 2009

Dear supporters,

We would like to begin this newsletter with a story told by Katherine Sharples who visited Rwanda earlier this year. She kindly took out a Laptop for us for the Theological College. She spent her time in the Kigeme Diocese, one of the poorest in Rwanda. She was asked to visit parishes and teach on ‘Servanthood’. As part of her teaching she re-enacted the time when Jesus washed the disciples’ feet. All went well until she arrived at a small and remote village. She asked for water to be able to wash feet, and a lady from the village had to walk a 40 minute round trip to get some.

How we take things like water for granted, while our brothers and sisters in other parts of the world continue to struggle.

Which is why the theme of this Newsletter is fittingly, self sufficiency.

You will be pleased to know that the Container we sent out at the beginning of this year eventually arrived and was opened in July! At last Ceformi (a Technical College in Kigali which provides teenagers with a skill to enable them to follow a trade) and a similar College in Gahini, which is in the process of getting off the ground, now have some tools to help them with the task. Japhet Ndoriyabuya, the new Director of Ceformi, sent me some pictures of the students at work with the tools we sent.

We are so grateful to be linked up with ‘Tools with a Mission’ who provide the reconditioned tools free of charge. We pay for the Container space.

Another Container sets off to Rwanda in December. This time we have booked space for Scripture Union in Rwanda. We discovered that they support 6 groups of Widows and Orphans in some of the remote rural areas. We are sending 15 sewing machines, and 15 knitting machines to enable them to make a living for themselves, and hopefully lift themselves out of poverty. Please pray for the safe arrival of this Container, and for a successful outcome for these groups.

SU staff on Retreat at Karambo, paid by RD

In addition, Jean Baptiste is concerned to make the library at SU Headquarters a good resource for Pastors and other Church leaders. Therefore we are also including 10 reconditioned desktop computers in the Container.

While on the subject of computers, thanks to Andy Isles’ sponsored walk, a gift from a CMS supporter, and a further anonymous gift, we were able to send 3 new laptops to the College for their IT course. As we said above, Kathryn took one out for us. The other 2 were taken by the young people from Martlesham, Kesgrave and Rushmere, who also took 3 reconditioned ones out for SU! We are so grateful to our

Couriers. If anyone reading this knows of anyone visiting Rwanda, we would always like to know in case we have more to send!

Again the reconditioned ones came through TWAM, and have been a Godsend to SU. Here is part of a letter received from Jean Baptiste: ‘The laptops have been very helpful. One of them was able to receive a flash disc is now used by our Accountant. She is a lady, and the laptop helped her to stay with her family in evening hours. She used to work until late in the night, but now for urgent work, she uses the laptop while staying with her family. Others are used by the volunteers who are now finishing the writing of the Bible reading notes.’

And finally, while on the subject of ‘self sufficiency’, the Theological College has a good bit of land, and their desire is to be self sufficient in food, to provide for their students. This year they had a particularly good harvest of sorghum, providing plenty of porridge for the students! They also now have a cow which is about to calve. However to provide sufficient milk for the students, they need more!

SO! We would like to be able to give them a Christmas present of another cow! A good cross breed cow costs in Rwanda £900 to buy, so that is our aim. Will you help us? When thinking of Christmas presents, will you remember Rwanda, and give a gift for the cow? Any amount, large or small would be welcome. It would be good if together we could raise the £900. Any gifts can be handed to Jonathan, or any other member of the RD team.

In addition we are planning to have a ‘cow’ walking through the Cornhill on December 19^th, to raise awareness and hopefully add to our funds for the cow! For this to be successful we need volunteers to be the cow! We have got the costume! Also we need people walking with the cow, giving out leaflets and collecting money. CAN YOU HELP?

I was hoping to get a picture of Louis Muvunyi (College Principal) with the 1 cow they have before this newsletter, but sadly it hasn’t yet arrived. However hopefully it will arrive soon and we will have posters available to help advertising!

I think that is all for now.

Please continue to pray and do all you can to help our brothers and sisters in Rwanda help themselves.

Paul, Catherine, Jonathan, Andy I, Phil, Jane, AndyT, David