St Peter's Yaxley

…reaching out in love and faith

The Light in the Darkness

by

Christmas! One of the first indications we are nearing the big day is the appearance of lights. Fairy lights on trees, lights outside houses, candles in windows, shopping centre lights. Perhaps this all helps to brighten the darkest time of year in Europe.

When we walk into a room, we can’t do anything until we turn on a light. For many this time of year can be difficult. Turning on a light reminds them of relatives or friends no longer present, reminds them that their circumstances are poor, money is tight and the future looks bleak, it reminds them of their loneliness. We are told that loneliness is one of the greatest public health challenges of our time. Dark days may lead to depression which artificial light makes no difference to.

The wonderful thing about Jesus Christ is that His coming into the world brings light and hope. How is that? God has shown up. In an unexpected place; a country under military occupation where there was poverty and oppression, through unexpected people; an awkward family situation with Mary and Joseph unmarried, a difficult start; to become refugees as they fled to Egypt because of a tyrannical king. Why did God do this? Simply because He thought we were worth it. What other king would give up His throne in order to show Himself to us in human form, would be prepared to be vulnerable and experience life with all its difficulties in order to be with us, would offer us a relationship with Him so that we might not be alone and would give us life and hope?

Jesus IS “Immanuel” which means God with us. He IS “The LIGHT in the darkness” John 1:5. Christmas is not just a “once upon a time” story. No, it is Jesus breaking into the world to save us! “Christ the Saviour is born!”

We would love for you to join us at St. Peter’s this Christmas to celebrate the birth of Christ our Saviour. With a range of events and services we hope that you will find community, peace and love amongst our church family, and in Jesus Christ.

God Bless,

#followthestar

Young people taking a lead in mission

by

Mission Academy Live_logoThe Talking Jesus research found that one in six of young people wanted to know more when a Christian friend talked to them about Jesus.

In response, the HOPE Revolution Mission Academy Live groups are encouraged to pray for six friends, asking God for opportunities to talk about Jesus with them.

One girl from St. Peter’s Church in the Cambridgeshire village of Yaxley, near Peterborough, is part of a Mission Academy Live group. She has been praying for six of her friends and invited them to a Neon-Glo Party, staged as part of the Mission Academy initiative.

Mission Academy Live is series of 10 innovative, video-based sessions. Each session provides teaching, with time for discussion and testimony in small groups. The focus is on peer to peer evangelism, all leading to a practical response in today’s context. As well as meeting as small groups in villages, towns and cities, they are encouraged to join a Regional Hub.

Regional Hubs are bringing Mission Academy Live groups together for large-scale evangelistic events in 2018. These events – youth fun days, Neon Glo parties, a worship outreach service, or a celebration event – offer the opportunity to celebrate all that God has been doing through the small groups, whilst also providing a large-scale evangelistic event for the young people to invite their six friends.

The Peterborough Hub held a Neon Glo Party in March with music, dancing, and crazy activities, with a guest DJ, glow bar, inflatables, football cage, performances, games, an inspirational message and more.

The girl from St Peter’s Church, Yaxley is part of a group led by Suzanne Delegate, from the church. Suzanne says, “In October we went to the Soul Survivor evening at Kingsgate Community Church in Peterborough, where I heard about Mission Academy Live.”

She signed up and downloaded the six Mission Academy Live films.

“I wanted to share them with our older group” she says. “Unfortunately, most of them were doing exams. So I prayed really hard, as I knew that these films would be so good for our kids. I approached our Vicar and suggested that I do a stand-alone, 10 week session, once a fortnight for our year 7-9s.”

Suzanne led the group with two other leaders. She was thrilled at the response: “The first session I had six young people around a kitchen table sharing hot chocolate and homemade cookies.”

“The feedback from the parents the following Sunday was amazing.”

One parent said that it wasn’t really something that would interest her daughter, but after the group she said: “I don’t know what Suzanne did, but whatever it was she has captured the attention of my daughter. She couldn’t stop talking about the evening.”

Suzanne says, “I only showed the first film and talked about it. Thanks to Mission Academy I have captured the attention of seven young people.”

Pete Skivington, the Youth and Children’s Pastor at Lighthouse Community Church in Sheringham, Norfolk, has also been using the Mission Academy Live videos. The groups of three or four watch a video each week, discuss it and pray for their friends, asking God for opportunities to share faith with them.

“The majority of them are needing confidence to talk about their faith,” Pete says. “We have found it really beneficial. You can run it with just a handful of young people. They encourage each other and they are encouraged to know they are part of something bigger up and down the country.”

Roy Crowne, HOPE’s Executive Director says, “Mission Academy Live is ideal for village churches. Three or four young people can watch the videos together and can pray for their friends. The Regional Hubs can organise larger events, which serve the local church with an event individual congregations couldn’t manage.”

To find out more about Mission Academy Live, click here.

The greatest adventure of them all

by

I am writing this having just returned from my final night shift this year with the Peterborough Winter Night Shelter.

Peterborough Winter Night Shelter is a project set up in order to provide additional beds over the winter for the homeless people in and around Peterborough. Over the course of the winter the project has provided over 500 beds to around 50 different guests. It has been based in 7 churches in the area including St. Mary’s Stilton where I have been volunteering. St. Mary’s have done a brilliant job of hosting as I imagine have the other 6 churches. Part of the motivation for the project is to provide hospitality to and bring hope to those who are homeless.

Back in February I was part of a group of 12 people from St. Peter’s who went to Rwanda. We were involved in several projects including building a house for a single mum called Costasie. Costasie had been ‘squatting’ with family and friends for years having no home of her own. Here is a short video of Costasie greeting us and then receiving the keys to the house. I guarantee this will warm your hearts.

My thanks to all of you who helped to fund the cost of this house which has brought new hope to Costasie and her family. We also visited Taciana for whom we built a house on our last visit three years ago. She told me that, after three years, she is only just getting used to the fact that no one comes to collect her rent at the end of each month. Again, her house has given her new hope from a very difficult past.

This month we remember that Jesus died for the whole world, every one of us, and that he rose again. Jesus’ resurrection gives us basis for the Christian faith and the certain and new hope that there is a better future for us all. Sometimes we will see a glimpse of this better future in this life. For all of us this better future is not realised fully until the life which is to come. As CS Lewis writes in The Last Battle, the final book in the Narnia series, “All their life in this world […] had only been the cover and the title page. Now at last they were beginning Chapter One of the Great Story which no one on earth has read; which goes on forever; in which every chapter is better than the one before.”

You would be more than welcome to join us to remember Jesus’ death on Good Friday at 11.00am and to celebrate his resurrection on Easter Sunday, April 16th, also at 11.00am. For details of our other services or those in other local churches please contact me.

May you know the joy and hope of the risen Jesus Christ this Easter and always.

With my prayers,

Jon Randall (Vicar) 01733 240339; vicar@saintpeters.co.uk

Read this article in the Yaxley Gazette.

Rwanda is beautiful

by

This February, a team of 14 of us from St. Peter’s Church, Yaxley went out to Rwanda in Central Africa. As part of our journey, we recorded our thoughts, reflections and took photographs to share the impact that this truly remarkable country and its people had on us.
Here’s Shane’s story:

I have experienced extreme lows and ultimate highs. I have been face to face with joy and jubilation, death and despair. I have laughed, I have cried, I have felt lost and alone and I have made some good friends. My faith has been tested and it has grown stronger.

This journey was more than just heading to Africa to help some people who need it; it has opened my eyes and made me appreciate the life I lead, it has shown me the real importance of friendship, in family and in forgiveness. It has made me love life and see it from a different perspective; I have learnt not to take it for granted. I have seen beauty in the darkest of places here.

For a country which has been to hell and back, a country which has seen the worst that mankind has to offer, a country that had no hope, yet has risen from the ashes and flourished. The nature of the people of Rwanda is strong, courageous, loving and forgiving.

This journey is something I will never forget; I will never forget the lives I have touched and the lives that have touched mine. The smiles, the waving, the shouts of “Muzungu”, the heartbreaking stories, the uplifting stories, stories of forgiveness, stories or triumph, stories of desperation. I will always remember the singing, the dancing, the laughing, the tears and the love.

I have had my heart ripped out and then – to the beat of the drum and singing of the children – it’s been gently put back in. I thank God for this opportunity and opening my eyes to the real world and for making me a stronger and better person.

If I could sum it up in one simple way I would simply say… Rwanda is beautiful.

Shane.

Who is my neighbour?

by

‘Love your neighbour’ ranks as some of Jesus’ most famous and challenging words and which, in the aftermath of the EU referendum, seem particularly pertinent.

If my Facebook page was anything to go by, the debate and its subsequent fallout revealed much division between people. Sadly, opposing views were expressed not always with love and and respect but with animosity towards those who think differently. Indeed, I’m sure that whichever side of the debate we fell, we are equally troubled to hear of the rise in crimes against many EU nationals. In this divisive climate I wonder if it might cause us to ask the same question as it did when Jesus first uttered these words two millennia ago: ‘but who is my neighbour’?

It was in response to this question that Jesus told the parable of the Good Samaritan, a tale in which the most unlikely of people goes out of their way to help another. The story narrates a chance encounter between two men whose relationship should have been characterised by hatred and hostility but who are brought together through an act of love both given and received.

Whilst Samaritans in our day evoke images of dedicated people waiting at the end of phone lines to help those in dire need, to Jesus’ hearers it would have been very different. Samaritans were people to be greeted with fear and suspicion and even hatred. Yet in Jesus’ story it was the Samaritan who turned out to be the good neighbour, it was the Samaritan who reached out in love.

What I love most about Jesus’ parables is that they don’t tell us how to think or to act as much as they paint a picture of a different world to capture our imagination; they allow us to see our world through God’s eyes in which fear can be replaced by love, despair by hope and darkness by light.

The EU debates and referendum have shone a light on the deep divisions in our country and there are clearly many wounds to be healed and many relationships to be reconciled. At a time which has been characterised by such division the parable of the Good Samaritan may be a timely reminder for us to consider the question, ‘who is my neighbour?’ and how can we reach out to them not in hostility but with hospitality and with love.

As always, please remember you are all welcome at any of our services at St. Peter’s – details are here or give me a call.

With my prayers.

Mark Fuller (Pioneer Minister) 07766 310509; markfuller@saintpeters.co.uk

Read this article in the Yaxley Gazette.