News
Forthcoming Events
A concert by the Middleton Festival Choir will be held in church on Saturday 13th March at 7.30pm.
Tickets are £3.00 or you can pay at the door.
On Saturday March 20th we are having a FAIRTRADE FUNDAY .
Starting with a coffee morning at 10am where you can taste a variety of teas and coffees and then an Afternoon Tea Dance from 2pm to 3.30pm,tickets £2.
There will then be a Mad Hatters Tea Party at 4pm to 6pm ,tickets £2.
Tickets are available from Julie Smith Tel 487797
Saturday 27th March 10am to 12noon;
Easter Eggstravaganza, once again we are having our Easter coffee morning with the Easter Egg Tombola, a raffle ,homemade cakes and good coffee.
A new face in church: Stewart Shaller is training to be a reader and will be licensed in November. His home church is St Mary's at Acklam. His photograph is in the gallery.
LENT COURSE
This year we will be following the York Diocesan Lent Course recommended by the Archbishop, “It’s All About Love”.
The course will take place on Thursday evenings (starting on the 25th February) and Monday afternoons (from 1st March) each week during Lent. The venue will be the Zetland Rooms at church. Depending upon numbers, we will separate into one or more discussion groups at each session. Each participant will be given a booklet for them to follow each session. See the vicar for more information.
CHURCH OPENING TIMES
St Peter’s will be open over lunchtimes (11.30am to 1.30pm, Mondays to Saturdays), for anyone who would like to call in for prayer, quiet, a chat, a cup of tea/coffee or to have a look around the building.It will be ‘staffed’ by a team of 3 or 4 volunteers each day to make this possible. If you are interested in helping them, please contact the vicar.
MIDDAY PRAYER MEETINGS
During our daily ‘Church Open’ Times (Monday to Saturday, from 11.30am to 1.30pm), we will be holding a short service of prayer and reflection. These Midday Services will take place at 12.15pm each day – all welcome. (On Thursdays this will normally take the form of Prayer for Justice and Peace).
TIM AND KATE LEE and the JIGSAW KIDS MINISTRY.
We first came to know of the Lee family when they became our Church Mission Society (CMS) link partners in January of 2007, and in person when they visited St Peter’s in June of 2007, when they told us of the work they were doing with the street children of Manila in the Philippines. Most of us who attended the meeting in church that day were appalled by what we saw and heard about the lives of these children, and again by what Julie Watson had to tell us after her visit to Manila and Jigsaw, along with other Link church representatives.
Tim and Kate had seen a great need and had stepped in to help fill that need. And so began the Jigsaw Kids Ministry Project.
Kate, in her latest link letter uses Mark 4: 30-32 “The kingdom of heaven is like this, a man who sowed a seed in a field, the seed grew into a big tree and the birds lived in it’s branches” as “the perfect picture” to describe Jigsaw.
Tim and Kate had taken and planted a seed among the poor and needy street and squatter camp children in Manila. The seed has grown. Jigsaw has given children and families at risk from poverty and abuse, a place to go which offers love, security, companionship and self esteem, a place where children are the focus away from the slums, the squatter camps, or the streets,.
Jigsaw runs kids clubs, bible study groups, feeding programmes, school sponsorship and homework clubs as well as offering help in medical and social emergency situations.
After six years of work, Jigsaw now has a fully trained staff, all of them from the local squatter and street communities that Jigsaw works in, and it has grown to become an Independent Christian Organisation. They now employ 20 staff members and work with an average of 950 children a week.
The programmes they run are provided free of charge. The seeds have now taken root. The staff at Jigsaw Kids Ministry have had training in Children’s work, in management, in welfare and bible study. The team is now a strong one, with a wish to see their own communities changed and the lives of their children transformed, and have proved themselves capable of planning and delivering excellent programmes, and dealing with crisis and problems.
Tim and Kate feel that the job they went to the Philippines to do is nearly finished, and they are no longer needed on a permanent basis.
Jigsaw must continue to grow and develop, and be culturally relevant. To that end, Tim and Kate must let go of the reins, give Jigsaw space and time to grow, and let the local staff they trained take over. CMS has also recognised this need and will continue to support this plan.
The decision made, Tim and Kate readied themselves for the transition to the local staff and all that that entailed, and for leaving Manila.
This does not mean that their time with Jigsaw is at an end. There is still a long way to go, and they will continue their support of and for Jigsaw, and will continue to visit as often as is possible.
Tim, Kate and children, James, Rebekah and Grace are now back in Britain. Tim is to go on to University to do an MA in international child development. Kate, as well as caring for her family, hopes to teach part time. CMS have asked that Tim be part of a team that helps to network other Children’s Projects around the world.
They are both committed to and remaining within the field God has called them to and will continue to campaign for the rights of abused children. Their work, and Jigsaw’s development is far from over.
What happens next?
Tim and Kate Lee have made such a huge difference to the lives of so many very unfortunate children.
To remain as church mission link partners, they need our help. As well as the backing of CMS, they need their link churches and supporters, that is, us and others like us, to continue our support and our prayers for them. They would like us to continue with our commitment as a church to the work they have been called to do.
Freda Clegg