Parish of Westborough – Guildford

Rae Barbour of St Francis Church spent two days in the kitchen baking up delights for a cake sale held after our morning Service this week, raising £200 to be donated to the Nav Jivan Project. Nav Jivan is an area that sits in one of the poorest parts of India.

The people of St Francis started a charity which supported the work carried out at the hospital for many years. Through the love and commitment of Rae and her Late husband Harold who were passionate about this project, dedicated themselves to raising funds. From yearly garden parties, afternoon teas and cake sales all to support such important work.

Over the years enough money has been raised to include the building of a maternity ward, duly named St Francis. The connection was made through Dr. Colin and Mrs. Wendy Binks, missionary's that served at the hospital for many years, and often visited St Francis Church when in England.

The connection was made through Dr. Colin and Mrs. Wendy Binks, missionary's that served at the hospital for many years, and often visited St Francis Church when in England.

Baptism of

Hazel Marie Dokubo

And

Matthew Ditum

“Let the children come to me” Jesus said “for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these”.

And indeed the children did come to begin their journey as children of God, when on the 10th July Hazel And Matthew.    were Baptised. Witnessed and celebrated with a full church members family and friends.

We pray that as they grow so they will also grow in the knowledge and security of Gods amazing love , goodness and saving Grace.

Celebrations for the Queens Birthday

A celebration party for the queens 90th birthday party was held at St Francis with an afternoon tea on Sunday 29th May. There was a right royal quiz, musical entertainment, a raffle and even a prize for the best head adornment!

Thank you to all who supported the Queen’s celebration tea and hope you had an enjoyable afternoon. We made £170 for the Diana fund in Kenya. I would like to say a big ‘thank you’ to Mike & Penny, Angela & Dougie and Val & Dave for all their support and hard work before, during and after the tea, and an extra big thank you to Marie who baked up a storm and brought tins of cakes.

Children of st Francis church and 1st st Francis Rainbows donate 100,s of toys and books to the Royal Surrey Hospital appeal

Richard west from St Johns Stoke, came to preach at St Francis as part of the celebration for the 150^th Anniversary of Lay ministry.

Jamie, who comes from our church and parish before he went off to university and attends when he is home is taking part in this amazing event. What an inspiration. Let us pray and give them all our love and support in this wonderful cause.

A group of students, Jamie included, will be visiting 24 churches in Exeter on Saturday the 28th of May, between 07:30am and midnight. At each church, we will pray for the unreached people, missionaries, church planters and the persecuted Church of a specific country of the world, in the hope that they will be rescued from physical hardship and shepherded into eternity by the love of Jesus.

To help this happen, we are also accepting sponsorship, with money raised going to Doulos Partners, an organisation which works with church planters across the world to make people Christians. Below is a link to our fundraising page, and a link to a map showing our route:

Exeter Prayerthon 2016- Donations page

Route Map

Below a timetable showing where we will go and which countries we will pray for, as well as local needs we will pray for in between.

Prayerthon Schedule

07:30-08:00 Prayer and worship at Christ Church (Japan)

2-5min journey time

08:05-08:35 Prayer and worship at Prophet Elias Orthodox Church (Turkey)

5-10min journey time

08:45-09:15 Prayer and worship at Belmont Chapel (Burma)

3-5min journey time

09:20-09:50 Prayer and worship at Sidwell Street Methodist Church (Bangladesh)

4-5min journey time, praying for:

 Exeter Spiritualists at their meeting centre

 Exeter's Muslims at their mosque

09:55-10:20 Prayer and worship at Seventh-Day Adventists (Sri Lanka)

5-15min journey time, praying for:

 Exeter's “Christian Scientists” at their church

10:45-11:15 Prayer and worship at St Sidwells Chapel with Exeter Mothers' Union (Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, and families across the world)

6-15min journey time

11:30-12:00 Prayer and worship at Southernhay URC (Egypt and Libya)

4-10min journey time

12:10-12:40 Prayer and worship at St Stephens Church (Saudi Arabia and the Gulf States)

4-10min journey time, praying for:

 Organisations helping the poor at the ruined St Catherine's Almshouses

12:50-13:20 Prayer and worship at River Church Exeter (Nigeria)

7-15min journey time

13:35-14:05 Prayer and worship at St Davids Church (Afghanistan)

6-15min journey time, praying for:

 Exeter YMCA

 Exeter Community Centre

 The old school chapel which we will pass

14:20-14:50 Prayer and worship at St Michael and All Angels (Eritrea and Sudan)

6-15min journey time, praying for:

 Guildhall Shopping Centre

15:05-15:35 Prayer and worship at St Pancras Church (Pakistan)

3-10min journey time

15:45-16:15 Prayer and worship at St Martins Church (Iran)

2-5min journey time

16:20-16:50 Prayer and worship at Exeter Cathedral (Indonesia)

2-5min journey time, praying for:

 St Petrocks homelessness support charity

16:55-17:25 Prayer and worship at St Petrocks Church (India- Delhi, Bihar and India in general)

2-10min journey time, praying for

 Adherents of Eastern religions at the Chinese healing shop

 Organisations supporting ministry staff at the ruined Hall of the Vicars Choral

17:35-18:05 Prayer and worship at Sacred Heart Catholic Church (India- Rajasthan)

1-5min journey time, praying for:

 South Street Baptist Church Centre

18:10-18:40 Prayer and worship at South Street Baptist (India- Uttar Pradesh)

7-10min journey time, praying for:

 The non-Messianic Jews of Exeter at their Synagogue

18:50-19:20 Prayer and worship at St Mary Arches Church with Unlimited Church (China- Beijing, Tianjin and China in general)

2-5min journey time

19:25-19:55 Prayer and worship at St Olaves (China- Tibet and Xinjiang)

1-5min journey time

20:00-20:30 Prayer and worship at the Mint Methodist Church (China- Qinghai, Sichuan and Guanxi)

10-15min journey time

20:45-21:15 Prayer and worship at St Mary's Steps (Somalia)

20-30min journey time, praying for:

 All the unsaved of Exeter　at the ruined medieval exe bridge chapel

 Bridge Books, a Christian bookshop

 Riverside Church and Centre

 Buller Road Evangelical Church, which faces closure

21:45-22:15 Prayer and worship at St Thomas Parish Church (Iraq and Syria)

4-15min journey time

22:30-23:00 Prayer and worship at St Thomas Methodist Church (North Korea)

10-20min journey time, praying for:

 A converted ex-Catholic church, now a private residence

23:20-00:00 Prayer and worship at St Thomas Baptist (Israel, Palestine, Jerusalem and the World)

During the next 8 days St Francis church will be open for anyone wishing to use it for a quiet time for prayer or reflection.

• Twice a day prayer will be led for one hour by myself 08.00 – 9.00am, but the church will remain open after that, and between 7.00pm – 8.00pm

• Stay as long or as short a time you wish.

• There will be prayers written down at various prayer stations to give you ideas or you can use the church for your own private prayer.

• Write a prayer for yourself or someone you know, please do so and someone will pray for that person each day of the week.

v  If you are unable to come to the church please write the prayer or the name of someone on the leaf provided, you can ether  hang it on the tree yourself or pass it to someone to do it for you.

Tea and coffee will be available.

IF you have never prayed before please do not let that stop you coming in.

Prayer Stations around the church

CELEBRATION TIME!!!

To the Glory of God we will be celebrating Diane’s ordination to the diaconate, which in practice means, 1 year as Deacon and the following year we pray another service to the Priesthood.

Due to the building work currently going on at the cathedral the service will be held at the beautiful building of Charter House Chapel, on the 3^rd July,

Everyone is invited. For practical reasons it would be a wise idea to hire a coach depending on how many people wish to attend, Could you please sign up on the sheet and indicate if you wish to attend and if you wish a seat on the coach. There will be a charge for the coach but not for the service.

Following the service there will be a Celebration Afternoon Tea.

Where we can continue to celebrate with Diane. Let us keep Diane, David and the Family in our prayers during this lead up to a very special time and for her future ministry.

Arch Bishop’s call for Prayer

The week between ascension 8^th may and Pentecost 15^th May, the Arch Bishop’s Justin and John have invited all churches to join in with a special week of prayer. Churches all around the Anglican Communion will be setting up venues for prayer to be said 24hours a day for 8 days,

This is a wonderful opportunity for us to join in, over the next couple of weeks Diane and I will be preparing for this amazing venture.  A signup sheet will be being displayed for people to indicate the time they would pray.

There will be a variety of ways to encourage our prayer time, especially for those who are not used to praying, such as,

• Lead prayer, morning and evening.

Stations with ideas for praying the Lord’s Prayer.

• Creative spaces for private prayer,

Prayer sheets for those who are unable to come to the church but can commit to pray at home, (even for those who suffer from not sleeping at night!

• There will be prayer walks incorporated for one of those hours most days.
• We will be inviting the preschool parents to write prayers and the rainbows also, which will be placed on the Prayer Tree which can be used for guidance for people who come to the church to pray.

This is an important part of church life and this gives us an opportunity to really connect with God as his people.

I believe we will hear and see of great things both large and small of what God will do through this commitment of his people

Look out for the list and sign up for an hour or more if you can.

Let us also remember it is a privilege that we have a God who wants a relationship with us and is always ready to hear our prayer.

For more information, visit: www.thykingdom.co.uk

Thank you to everybody involved, £500 was raised through our Lent lunches at St Francis for the flood appeal to help the community suffering from floods in Radcliffe earlier this year.

The Radcliffe Parish Church of St Mary, in Church Green, was among the worst-affected locations hit by the devastating floods. Out in the parish,  the sheer and utter devastation to people’s lives and homes could be seen everywhere.