Well I hope you have all had  a lovely and peaceful Christmas time. We certainly have, it has been great not to think about work and just enjoy the moment of Christmas and enjoy being with family and friends.

The snow is on the way out at last and for the first time in a month I can see the green of my lawn, the pond is still frozen though and there are patches of snow still in the garden and on the golf course beyond my hedge. The kids built a huge snowman last Monday a good 9 feet tall at least, but it now lies in a large pile of rather grey, sad looking snow. It is very foggy here at the moment as well typical December anticyclonic weather and a good time not to be on the river.

2010 has been a very memorable year for us, a year in which God has been moving very quickly in our lives, a year that has seen great change for us and a year that has brought us great joy in all the things that God has done for us and a year that has given us a great hope for all the things that God is going to do in this next year. It is great to move forward into 2011 with hope and expectation of what awaits us and as the snow melts back revealing what has been hidden from our eyes for such a long time now, you begin to forget what grass looks like don’t you, and it is so good to see it once again.  I pray that God will reveal to you at the start of this new year something that you haven’t seen for a while something that will quicken your heart and excite you and give you hope for what God has in store for you in this coming year.

We have a great and awesome Father God who just wants the best for us in every respect. Let’s expect God to do great things, let’s get closer to Him in our prayer life in our worship and the way we are 24/7. Let us return to Him, let us repent to Him, let us be renewed by Him and let us rejoice in Him…………..Jesus Christ your Saviour has come and the promise is that He will come again. Let us grasp a hold of that and work with renewed vigour and renewed strength in this new year to tell all peoples about the love of Our heavenly Father!!  

December 19th, 2010.  A fantastic time was had by all at this year’s Christmas Celebration.  This short montage of events illustrates the warm atmosphere and the fun that was had on the night.

The following music used in this podcast is available from http://www.jamendo.com and is released under Creative Commons licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/):-
00:00 – 02:27 Frozen Silence – Silent Night (Guitar)
02:27 – 04:25 Frozen Silence – Silent Night (Piano)
12:24 – 14:20 Armando Valente – Silent Night
21:55 – 23:35 Frozen Silence – Silent Night (Guitar)

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 23:44 — 7.8MB)

Hi all, did you manage to see the total eclipse of the moon this morning. It was a very clear night and very very cold, and at about 0630 the moon started to get covered with the shadow of the sun, ending up in being fully covered by 0740 just as the moon was dipping below the western horizon and as the sun started to lighten the eastern sky…………..Apparently this was the first total eclipse of the moon on the winter solstice for 400 years. The longest day is now nearly behind us and we can look forward to the nights getting shorter and the days getting longer, remember those balmy summer days………………….

Well I have had a few longest days just recently as I seem to have been on a succession of all night pilot jobs………..and tonight will be no exception as ships rush to get in and out of the Humber before Christmas……………….Thankfully I am off in a few days and will start a weeks leave on Christmas eve.

We had our Christmas with link on Sunday evening which proved to be a great success, Christmas worship, a nativity quiz, mince pie presents and wrapping of mince pies to give away as pressies…………….listen to the podcast to find out what was going on. Plus we had a good turnout despite the bitterly cold weather and snow……………….

We have had a lot of good evenings with church over the last few weeks…….and a lot has been going on as it does at this time of year……..We enjoyed a carols and comedians evening at the Lincoln Arms in Beverley organised by Beverley Community church. 3 Christian comedians ( yes we do have a sense of humour!!!)  mixed in with carols a great night. My favourite one liner of the night………….to be sung to a ukulele…………” I liquidised my Dad last night and now we’re drinking pop!”. 

How can you swallow a 4 foot long balloon………..where did it go too…………….

The young people have had a great time as well………………we all went to see dweeb playing at Momentum at Hull New life Church………what a fantastic band and the support band brought into being were v good as well……………………I managed to get stuck in the slush half a dozen times in 20 minutes picking up our yoof, but it was well worth turning out on a snowy, freezing cold, Friday evening to hear such good Christian bands and to see about 70 young people ( and not so young) dancing and enjoying themselves.

Did you hear about Frosty the snowman……………….He was caught in the vegetable aisle at the local supermarket picking his nose……………..

Hot off the press…………………….Link lads will kick off on Thursday 13th January at the Dacre arms………………….come and join the debate as we discuss topical issues over a couple of pints a plate of chips, mayo and Dacre spice………….I am really looking forward to getting started and doing something for the fellas……….we have lots of ideas………….not just drinking beer and chips but getting away and doing “mens stuff”…………………………………

The ladies had there Christmas bash a week or so ago, plenty of nice food nice wine and fellowship together in front of a roaring log fire. What could be nicer……………they are all desperate to get the sprouts on now though!

Things have started to settle down a bit now, the pressies have been bought, wrapped and distributed, the cards have been posted…………well nearly all of them, the schools have finished the teachers can start to chill out and forget about school for a few days,,,,,,,,( I am talking about my wife here)…………….and we can all start to enjoy this special time of the year when we celebrate the birth of Jesus the Saviour of the world………………..Have a lovely and peaceful Christmas and may Gods love surround you and your family this Christmas time…………..” For to us a child is born to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. and He will be called Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace………………..” 

January 9, 2011

7:00 pm to 8:00 pm

Our next  link meeting will be a prayer meeting at 7pm in the chapel hall.

Well here we are and not many days to go until Christmas, 11, I believe.

Don’t you just hate it when people say ” Have you finished your Christmas shopping yet?” and have been saying it for about 3 weeks, the question I need to be asked is “Have you done any Christmas shopping yet?” and the answer would have to be  No!!. I really have not had time to get around to it, there seems like so many other things that need to be done…………..I am now back at work so perhaps I will get time to start looking around the shops………………...

I just dislike the crowds and the HO HO HO and the jingly Christmas carols coming out of every shop door…………..Don’t you just feel like shouting “This isn’t what it is about. It is about celebrating the birth of the Lord of Lords and king of Kings and remembering that the maker of the universe felt it necesary to be born as man and live among us so that we might be free from everything that separates us from Him…………..so that we might find peace with Him…….so that we can live with him forever more in heaven. “

At the moment people are putting themselves under so much stress and pressure and overstretching themselves financially so that they can have a merry Christmas………………which is the complete opposite of what Jesus wants for us, He wants us to be set free from the stress and pressures of the world He certainly doesn’t want us to get into problems financially to celebrate His birth!!

All Jesus wants this Christmas is for people to stop racing around, trying to get ready for Christmas day, and just acknowledge Him as the Saviour of the world, to really understand what the words in the Carols say……………………and accept the love He is offering to mankind in a world that is very much broken…………