St Peter's Yaxley

…reaching out in love and faith

Hello & Thank You

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I am writing this just a few days after I was licensed as Priest-in-Charge (Vicar) of St Peter’s Church, Yaxley by The Bishop of Ely.  It was an incredibly special service and friends and family came from all over the country.  There was also an unexpected surprise, as people from The Wenlock Team of Parishes which were my previous parishes in Shropshire came to support me for this service.  The community of St. Peter’s Church worked incredibly hard to ensure everything ran smoothly and I would like to thank them.  Along with friends and family and so many people from St. Peter’s Church community, were also many different representatives from Yaxley.  I would like to take this opportunity to thank each and every one of you for being there and part of such a special evening.  It is going to take me a good while to get to know people, names and places, but do say hello if you see me out and about and I will eventually get there!  Thank you for coming to support me.

Simon and I are really excited to be in Yaxley and part of the St. Peter’s community.  People have been so helpful as we try to find our way around the village and this side of the country.  I was ordained 6 years ago and have been in Shropshire for these 6 years and before this, I was a nurse working mainly in cancer care for 13 years.

Thank you for your welcome to the village and I am looking forward to getting to know people here.

With every blessing,

Rev Sarah (Vicar)

01733 248690 / 07498 230858

vicar@saintpeters.co.uk

Fostering & Adoption Support

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You may have seen in our social media recently the statistics around children in care in the UK. This year 40,000 children will be taken into care, that’s twice the amount that can be seated into the 02 arena! In Cambridgeshire there are currently over 700 children awaiting loving homes.


Due to the circumstances around the need for adoption and fostering, many adoptive & foster parents face major challenges with children who have multiple difficulties, such as special educational needs, attachment disorders and insecurities. Therefore, parents can become physically and mentally exhausted; which is why a group of people from St. Peter’s Church are getting together to discuss ways in which we, as a community, can support these families who are doing something amazing. We will be guided by the charity, Home for Good, who’s core aim is to find a home for every child who needs one, but we also need help from the community.


We are holding an initial meeting in September at SPC, to discuss ideas of what the support will look like and our hope and prayer is that this will also be guided by others in our community who want to be involved. If you are an adoptive or foster parent, please do come along and talk with us about how we can help support you. If, like many of us involved in this initiative, you’re not an adoptive or foster parent but it is on your heart – come along and chat, share ideas or just listen. Everyone has gifts to offer and we would like to use these gifts to provide the best support that we can for families in our community who are working hard to provide for children who otherwise would not have a loving family.


We look forward to meeting you in September! Look out for the meeting date on our social media and on the Yaxley Gazette Facebook page and if you express an interest with us, we will ensure to inform you of the meeting details, once confirmed.

If in the meantime you’d like to hear from the charity who will be assisting us, you can listen to their talk from their visit in June, by clicking here. 

Try something new in 2019

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Happy New Year!

It’s that time of year where we are thinking about our new year resolutions; maybe giving up smoking, drinking, chocolate or shopping. These things all focus on giving up something but we can also focus on becoming part of something and in turn helping others.

St. Peter’s Church in partnership with Deafblind Enablement run a monthly informal group, named Impaired Senses, for anyone with sensory loss, which we would like to invite you to. There’s two ways to take part and join in the fun:

If you, or anyone you know is finding it harder to see or hear and would like to join a friendly group for games, raffle, fellowship and refreshments, then please come along and meet us.
Alternatively, you could become a volunteer and join the team from St. Peter’s who provide this community group for the village and surrounding area.

The group takes place, as follows:
Where: St B’s Hall, Main Street, Yaxley, PE7 3LZ
When: 3rd Saturday of the month, 2-4pm
Cost: Nothing but a smile

Our next meeting is Saturday 19th January 2019.

We would love to meet more people and with enough volunteers we are able to assist in transport needs, just let us know your requirements. We even have a summer trip to the seaside for fish and chips! For more information on the group please contact Debbie on 01733 686969 or email debbie@deafblindenablement.co.uk

In addition to this group, we work in partnership with Cambs Deaf Church to provide a Signed Service on the 4th Sunday of the month. We are blessed to have two people attend who sign, and can offer both BSL and SSE. Our next Signed Service is Sunday 27th January 2019, at 11am.

May the year ahead hold many blessings for you.
God Bless

Together We Are A Community

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The term community gets used a lot these days but what do we actually mean by community?

In the Bible, God encourages us to take care of one another; through this we ensure a thriving community. Therefore, the idea of community comes from a sense of responsibility that we have for each other.

The community of Yaxley, along with the surrounding villages, have shown overwhelming care for each other through the support of the Yaxley Foodbank over the past year. A staggering 7145kg of food was donated between September 2017 and August 2018. We’ve also recently celebrated the Harvest Festival, where we’ve had fantastic support from the school communities in and around Yaxley.

The donations we receive help many people and families, and we would like to say a big thank you for your generosity in supporting local people in need. We would also like to thank everyone who signpost to Foodbank and all those who volunteer their time to help and be a friend to those in need. It takes a team, a community, to ensure the success of the project.

Without our sense of responsibility to one another, great community projects such as the Community Fridge and the Winter Night Shelter, and St. Peter’s projects like Yaxley Foodbank and Community Sunday, would not succeed. It is through the help and kindness of each other that we are able to improve situations for those less fortunate, and ensure our communities thrive.

Thank you again for your continued support for your community.

If you would like more information on the Yaxley Foodbank, or other community areas God has called St. Peter’s to invest in, please visit www.saintpeters.co.uk/community

Follow St. Peter’s Church on Facebook and Instagram to see updates on the Foodbank’s shopping list.

God Bless

Laura

 

Parish Communications Officer

07939 449255, lauraashley@saintpeters.co.uk

 

 

Together Let’s Build A Community

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This year saw my first experience of Community Sunday and I’m proud to have been part of it.

Arriving in church it was great to see so many adults and children, all in their ‘work clothes’, chatting about what the day may have in store. Some people had even researched how to correctly perform their assigned jobs, now that’s dedication (and also leads me to wonder what we did before Google and You Tube!). Before heading out to our jobs we joined in prayer for everyone involved in the day and also for those who were unable to help.

Armed with a bucket and paintbrush, our team headed out together in search of the fence that needed freshening up. The homeowner was20180513_123739 very grateful to have us there; she clearly took a lot of pride in her garden with various pots of blooming flowers and plants. Painting was something she was no longer able to do, so I was honoured to be able to do this for her. The first task was getting into the paint! Those containers are rather tricky to master but after a blood blister and paint splatter, we were in (who knew that first paint splatter would be the first of many)! Throughout the day we received visitors with gifts of bacon sandwiches and paintbrushes which were greatly received, the tips of how to paint were not, but did provide us with some giggles.

Upon admiring our finished fence, we felt we had more to give. We discussed what else we could do and with permission from the householder, we expanded our brief and painted another two fences. Still not happy that our work was complete and with a bucket of paint left, we once again spoke to the householder who agreed we could also paint her shed! When we left the garden, it was totally transformed and we had one very happy homeowner; it felt fantastic! The day had been a great way to get to know those in my team, and what better way than spilling paint on one another; a good ice breaker if ever you need one! The team worked in very different ways, we had the ‘slap it on the fence’ approach, the ‘fine detailer’, the ‘master shed painter’ and the ‘tidy upper’. We complimented one another perfectly. This was my first experience of painting a fence and despite being paranoid about spilling the paint all over this lovely lady’s garden, I thoroughly enjoyed it due to the company of my team.

20180513_133117The expanding of our brief meant we were the last ones to return to St. Peter’s and so unfortunately, we missed all the other teams returning. It did mean that we got to eat the leftover sandwiches and cakes and we were still served a well earnt cuppa. I also missed the Barbeque, due to family illness. I would have loved to hear all the stories from the day and will definitely be there next year.

I’d like to say thank you to Andy for organising the day; a great deal of time and preparation goes into this event, before, during and after. This day helps many people in different ways; help with jobs that people cannot carry out alone, company for those who may not see anyone at weekends, the church family get a chance to know one another a little better and who knows, for the people we meet and those they tell about us, this day may play a small part in their journey to exploring their faith and ultimately finding Jesus!

It shouldn’t go without saying a big thank you to everyone who took part; whether that be physically on the day, or by making referrals, providing food, taking photos or supplying tools and encouragement. We had 62 volunteers on the day; 39 adults and 10 children out on jobs and 11 support staff. Together we helped build a community, something we should all feel very proud of.

If you have any photos or experiences of Community Sunday you would like to share, please get in touch with me.

God Bless.
Laura Ashley (PCO) 07939 449255, lauraashley@saintpeters.co.uk