FIRST WEEKEND IN FEBRUARY

Its been a very busy, but exciting weekend for the church community here in Ashford. We started with our annual quiz night, which this year was held for the first time at the East Stour School. Over fifty people attended, and there were about eight teams. This year we saw some new faces sharing with us which was great, and the winning team was the Mission Team who took the MUG from the Flame Youth Group who won the MUG last year. The assistant senior leader, Carl, led the evening and arranged it so well as always. Carl is such a blessing to this church community and a great blessing as part of our church leadership and ministry as a whole.

Sunday a bursting full hall welcomed the day of celebration together, and being the first Sunday in the month we held our Family Day. Our Senior Leaders led worship, and our guest speaker for the day, Lieutenant Colonel Royston Bartlett, who in his ministry has travelled the world, and is now the Secretary for Communications for The Salvation Army in the UK and Republic of Ireland, spoke. Our Family Day meal was brillaint, and served over 70 people, again of all ages. THE EVENT, our monthly informal meeting, featured the colonel speaking on his travels with The General, the International Leader of The Salvation Army, which was one of his previous appointments.

An additional part of today was the presence of BBC TV who were recording our celebration meeting, interviewing our senior leader and also gary and jan chittenden, members of our church. This is for a report they are doing on the TV looking at how churches are reaching into new estates, and they wanted to feature how The Salvation Army are seeing God do things. Again this week we have seen new faces, and a very full hall, again reflecting people of all generations. This is amazing, and we just thank God for what He is blessing us with. We have amazing leaders, amazing family, and amazing facilities. Watch out for the feature on BBC TV later in February. We will include information about this nearer the time.

THANK YOU to everyone for making this weekend possible. You are deeply and dearly loved by God, and us all.