Editorial - pre Christmas edition 2008

For some weeks now, our pastor has been encouraging us to read our Bibles as “the diary of the confessing community”. The early Christian church, as described in Acts chapters 2 and 4, was not only a confessing community but a living community in all senses of that phrase. From chapter 2 we read that the Christians were all together (v. 44), had everything in common (v. 44), gave to anyone as they had need (v. 45), met together (v. 46), and ate together with sincere hearts (v. 46). The fruit of all this community style living was that everyone was filled with awe (v. 43a), many wonders and miraculous signs were done (v. 43b), they enjoyed the favour of all the people (that’s Christians and unbelievers alike!) and the LORD added to their number daily those who were being saved. Need I say more? Let’s start ‘living community’ and wait and see what God will do among us!

Robert Mill

FROM THE PASTOR

Dear Family in Christ,

By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another (John 13.35).

Living Community is at the heart of church, for us. A huge challenge. Yet there’s something that changes us for the better, when we try and live as community. We were created by God as social creatures. We are meant to have others to relate to. It’s part of what makes us human.

And it was into community that Jesus called people. Not just to be individual followers. But to be people who are shaped and changed by contact and even conflict with those around us. Learning to forgive. To be reconciled. The deeper dimensions of love. Following Him into the community of people. And drawing others into the heart of a group where Jesus is the centre.

When we try and live community, in this way, not only are we challenged and changed as individuals, but we become part of something dynamic. We start to see that church is not simply an organisation, but a living organism. There is beauty to be seen and enjoyed when we work at it. A beauty that draws those seeking our Lord.

Keep at it.

Your brother in Christ,

Jim

LOM mission trip 2008

This year a team of 7 went to Lom - Jim, Jennifer, David Purves; Maureen Johnston, Jeanette Lumsden, Janis White and Curt Harrier.

BULGARIA MISSION TRIP (cont.)

On the Saturday the team visited the village church in Mominbrod, where Maureen and Jennifer shared, while on the Sunday Janis, Jeanette and Curt shared during the morning service, while Curt and David led a youth event in the afternoon. It is always a joy and privilege to go to the church in Lom — this is the sixth year of sending teams to Lom from Bristo.

BULGARIA MISSION TRIP (cont.)

One of the highlights of this year’s trip was on the Wednesday afternoon, 22nd October, when the small hall in Lom Baptist Church was temporarily turned into a beauty salon. About 30 ladies from the church squeezed into the hall to receive a little pampering from Janis, Jeanette, Jennifer and Maureen, who offered the opportunity for a haircut, foot or hand treatments or a chance to try flower arranging. After a cup of tea and some Scottish delicacies, the Lom ladies were given little cards with pictures & bible verses about beauty. After small group discussion they shared what they thought the implications were for their everyday lives. They focused on the need to develop inner beauty by walking closely with God and bringing beauty into the lives of others by caring for them in practical ways, putting the needs of others before our own and sharing the good news about the beautiful things Jesus has done for us in bringing us salvation. At the end of the meeting, the ladies were encouraged to take the flower arrangements they had made and other little presents to people who needed to know about the beauty of Jesus. One lady pointed out that they should not give them to friends as the Bible encourages us to love our “enemies” and several ladies described later how they had given the gifts to people they found it difficult to like or to sick people and had had opportunities to talk about God's love to these people.

BULGARIA MISSION cont.

Some prayer points emerging from the trip:

1. Pray that the church in Lom can have a greater missionary spirit as the members often feel that they are paralysed by their own worries about their families, the struggles of daily life & concerns about the future and this distracts them from praying for and witnessing to others.
2. Pray for the new home groups which have started recently and which are attended by a number of people who are not Christians but interested in finding out more. Pray too for George and Natalia who would like to start a home group and have several friends who want to come. So far it has been hard to find a good time to meet as George is the director of a school and often works until 2 or 3 a.m. doing administration for the school. They would also like to involve their children in the group.
3. Pray for Nikolai and Ani whose youngest granddaughter was born recently with spina bifida - the next few weeks are critical.
4. Pray for Violeta (a little blind girl) Nikolai ( a 10 year old boy, recently diagnosed with diabetes) , Pavel, Marieta, Jordan, Ani, Kamelia, Anka, Goritsa and her aunt, all of whom have health problems.
5. Pray for the people who use the soup kitchen which starts this month and for the ladies who work in it (Gina, Ivanka, Lydia and others)
6. Pray for the young people who attended the youth meetings while the Bristo team were in Lom - some for the first time and others who hadn't been for a long time. Pray for wisdom, strength, health and energy for Steffi, a young mother who leads the group and who is studying for a masters degree while teaching English and also caring for her little boy.
7. Pray for Mimi, who teaches Sunday school and is currently expecting her second child.
8. Pray for Elizabet, one of the deacons, whose husband died 3 weeks ago.
9. Give thanks for the recovery of Dr Fillipova from serious ill health and pray for continued strength and health for her as she serves many in the community.

Jennifer Purves, Janis White, Jeanette Lumsden, Robert Mill

BIRTH

Congratulations to Daniela Benjamin and Jason on the birth of their daughter Johanna on 15 October in Inverness, a brother for Lennox. Johanna was blessed at our morning service on Sunday 2nd November.

AMSTERDAM 400?

Are you interested in history? Do you celebrate birthdays? Or does a holiday in Amsterdam appeal? For any and all of these reasons you may wish to attend this event from 24-26 July 2009 as Baptists from Europe, the Middle East and Central Asia come together to celebrate 400 years of continuous witness. In 1609 a group of persecuted English believers fled to Amsterdam and formed themselves into the first Baptist Church. Now Baptists worldwide number 100 million.
Because of the size of the venue – the RAI, Amsterdam – total numbers attending are limited to around 1,700. So early booking is advised and participants must register. In issuing the invitation, Tony Peck, European Baptist Federation General Secretary, writes:
This is a unique, once in a lifetime opportunity to celebrate God’s faithfulness to the Baptist movement over the past 400 years and to catch a vision for the call of Jesus Christ to be His witness in the region today.
I have one leaflet/registration form but these can be downloaded from the website www.amsterdam400.org . Flights are available from Scotland (including Edinburgh) to Schiphol Airport. If you decide to attend, please get in touch with Bill Slack at the Baptist Union of Scotland so that he can link you with others who may be going from Scotland.
Christine Lumsden

TREASURER’S REPORT

We’re now just over 6 months into the current financial year, and financially we continue to do well.

Our targets for the year were very challenging.



Church Offerings

50000
Tax Refund

7400
from Fair (in lieu of rent)

2400
from Fair (bills)

1200
use of Halls

10000
Total

71000









We knew at the start of the year that we were facing building repair and maintenance costs of thousands of pounds. Our fabric fund was used up last year and we hoped to be able to meet these extra costs from our weekly offerings, rather than having to dip into our reserves. The challenge facing was a weekly offering of £1000, significantly up from last year, and to date we’re averaging over £1150.

We still need to be careful. There are still five months of the year to go, and we’ll only really know if we’ve met our targets at the end of the year. The programme of building repair work has now mostly been completed, and though repairs to the manse cost a little more than expected as additional repairs needed to be done, we now know exactly how much the repairs cost and we can still meet them within our budget.

Our harvest thanksgiving appeal has been a tremendous success. We have so far been able to send £5000 to LOM both to support the soup kitchen and as a gift to accompany the team that recently visited Bulgaria. There is still more to be sent, at least £1000 from gift aid. Thank you again for your support for this most important piece of our church work.

Our next special collection will be the Christmas Tree envelope appeal to support the Bethany trust. Bethany is dear to many of us, and through the Care Shelter and the Care Van work we can clearly see the importance of the work carried out by Bethany. There will also be an opportunity to donate clothing such as hats and gloves.
Paul Watson

BMS CO-ORDINATOR

For some years Dr Gill Schärer has been our BMS co-ordinator responsible for keeping us informed of the work of BMS, particularly with regard to our link missionary. As Gill is no longer able to continue this task, we are seeking a successor. Is the Lord calling you to this task? Are you enthusiastic about BMS? Could you inform and encourage others in the fellowship? If this description fits you, please speak to me.
Christine Lumsden

VISIT TO PRAGUE

In the half term holiday we flew to Prague in October to visit Tima and Yulia at IBTS. Both are well and send their greetings to the church. They’d just returned from a whistle-stop tour of North Yorkshire. North Yorkshire is sponsoring Tima’s candidacy for the ministry, and Tima and Yulia had been invited to visit a number of churches in the area to see the types of church work that was being carried out.

IBTS itself is set in wooded hills about five miles to the northwest of Prague. In the autumn the IBTS campus is really beautiful with all the trees and the changing colours. The site is set in acres of forest and open land and is quiet and peaceful. We stayed in the Hotel Jeneralka, part of IBTS, in an apartment just two floors below Tima and Yulia. The accommodation was excellent, as were the huge breakfasts – enough to keep even two small boys happy! Each day there was a short morning devotion, and on Wednesday there was a communion service, and we were able to attend these. We also went to morning coffee where we were introduced to the staff and students, and we bring back greetings from these to Bristo. We met just about everybody at IBTS, even the four legged ones (the goats who are supposed to keep the grass short – but instead eat the trees!), and we had a tour of the EBF facilities on the site.

VISIT TO PRAGUE (cont.)

One interesting aspect of IBTS we learned from Tima. The Certificate of Applied Theology students (CAT) come from all over Europe, and come from all sorts of church backgrounds. People worship in different ways, wear different types of clothes, listen to very different types of music ... and when the group first meet there are tensions. The students all live together, and Tima says that one of the aims of the CAT course is to build a community of different types of Christians, with the aim at the end of the course that they become close friends and that they see that there are different ways to worship the same Lord.
Prague itself is incredibly beautiful. In the city centre itself, it seems there is nothing ordinary. All the buildings are incredibly ornate, many are painted or covered with sculptures. Buildings of different ages and styles are crowded together separated only by huge open oddly shaped squares and tight narrow winding roads. The city is very hilly and this helps to show off the city, as does the river and its many bridges. Transport is excellent, buses, trams, Metro ... everything runs to time and services are frequent. The trip from IBTS into the city centre takes only about 30 minutes.

We thoroughly enjoyed our time at IBTS and Prague, seeing our friends and seeing a little of the city.
Paul, Linda, Michael and David Watson

THE LEPROSY MISSION

Do you think of leprosy as an ancient or even mediaeval disease? Sadly it is still prevalent in many parts of the world to devastating effect. We were approached by The Leprosy Mission Scotland and were asked to consider inviting a speaker from the Mission to promote its work and raise awareness of the difficulties experienced by those affected, often in the poorest countries of the world. At the deacons’ meeting last month we agreed that the most effective way to do this would be through cell groups. There are leaflets available by the notice board to give group leaders or members more information should you wish to invite a speaker. Further details are also available from the Mission’s website www.tlmscotland.org.uk
Christine Lumsden

CHRISTMAS SERVICES

We will be having the following services over the Christmas period:

Thursday 25 December 10.30 a.m. Christmas morning service
Sunday 28 December 11 a.m. and 6.30 p.m.
Wednesday 31 December 11.15 p.m. Watchnight Service
Sunday 4 January 11 a.m. and 6.30 p.m.

MORNING OF PRAYER

Join us on Saturday 10 January from 10 a.m. till 1 p.m. for a morning of prayer at the start of the New Year. Soup and rolls will be served afterwards beginning at 1 p.m.

Meditation

A MEDITATION BY A CONTEMPORARY KAREN CHURCH LEADER

The Karen are a Burmese ethnic tribal group of 6 to 7 million people, 40% of whom are Christian. They have suffered continual harassment from the Burmese army for many years, and large numbers of them now live in large refugee camps along the Thai-Burmese border. Many of the villages devastated by the recent hurricanes and subsequent flooding were Karen.


They call us a displaced people,
But praise God, we are not misplaced.
They say they see no hope for our future,
But praise God our future is as bright as the promises of God.
They say they see that the life of our people is a misery,
But praise God our life is a mystery.
For what they say is what they see,
And what they see is temporal.
But ours is the eternal.
All because we put ourselves
In the hands of the God we trust.

Gill Schärer