deacons' elections

The following were elected as deacons as a result of the recent ballot and were appointed to serve for three years from the AGM on 26 May 2010 :

· Matt Baines
· Andrea Mill
· Robert Mill
· Daniel Onifade
· David Polland
· Craig Smith
· Brian Wilson

Andrea, Craig and Robert were re-elected; the others were new appointments although David has previously served on the diaconate. Pray for them as they begin their new terms of service with the continuing deacons Sam Kawamura and Paul Watson.

We also give thanks for the service of Barbara Toal on the diaconate over the past three years.

Robert Mill

EXPRESSIONS WORKSHOP FOR WOMEN

Emotions play a huge role in our everyday life, and no doubt our life would be a dull and insipid experience without them. However many of us find it very difficult to identify and express our emotions. Therefore the expression workshop for women organised by Andrea Mill on Saturday 8 May was a fantastic opportunity to experience the world of emotions. We not only had a chance to identify different emotions but also could explore how we can express our feelings in a healthy way. It was a very interesting experience as there were women of different ages and backgrounds and each one of them had something unique and valuable to share. We were free to express our thoughts or concerns out loud in front of the whole group or when working in pairs.

The participants I had a chance to talk to found the workshop a very interesting and enjoyable experience. They really enjoyed the fact that they could openly discuss and share their thoughts concerning emotions and also that we looked at them from God’s perspective. Yet another participant said that after the workshop she is able to express her feelings at least for herself even though she still might not be able to express them to others, which is a step forward for her.

I believe that after that workshop we are all amazed by the fact that it is a liberating experience to be able to talk freely about our emotions and also that it brings people together more. After all we live in the world were people wear masks and superficiality is daily life so let us break that ‘rule’ and be real and true and honest about our emotions, a God-given part of our personality.

Lucy Kurtyka

Fishing Trip

On the 5th of June iFriends (International Club) and people from Bristo Baptist Church went fishing at Markle fishery at East Linton. It ended up with a fish party that we had in the church on Monday, two days after the trip. Mahboob from Kashmir, who loves fishing and does it quite regularly, and I were responsible for the event.

In the beginning it was quite hard to gather people because many of us had never fished before and didn’t know what to expect. A few weeks before the trip we got an email from Mahboob with instructions on what to do and what to take with us. All we had to do was to follow the instructions and pray for the weather. After many weeks of planning and preparation, finally we did it!!!

The weather was absolutely wonderful! Leszek, our Polish friend who goes to Bristo, said: “The weather was really sunny. Even after a couple of days my skin was still red and white around my eyes because I had had my sunglasses on! Brian was laughing at me and calling me a panda.” I myself had sunburn as well, as I didn’t use any sun protection for a while. Fortunately the majority of the people who went with us were more sensible than me.

We had 15 people all together! Most of them went fishing for the first time in their life, but we all worked as one team! Leszek said: “It was a really amazing fishing trip. I was surprised that people from different countries, religions and cultural backgrounds can have such good fun all together helping each other. For example Mahboob, who was helping everyone especially the children David and Michael, treated them like his own sons. I caught only one fish but it was enough to make me happy. I will never forget this trip.” It was amazing indeed! Even an old fisherman whom we had never met before was helping us with fishing rods and sharing his own experience and special tricks. People were chatting, sharing their food and catching fish.
When I asked Diego from Spain to share his opinion about the fishing in one sentence he replied: “Awesome!!!” He also said that the fishing day was a good experience and the weather let us enjoy the nature. And I agree with him! Awesome is the right description of the fishing day we had!!!

Unfortunately not everyone caught a fish that day. One of them was Richard, from Scotland. In spite of that he still enjoyed the time. He said: “I’ve never been fishing before so this was a new experience for me, and I loved it a lot. It was also a great opportunity to spend time with others from the church, and also those who come to the International Club. I didn’t catch any fish, unfortunately, but in the whole group we caught more than enough fish which we shared later!”
After the fishing we all decided to have a fish party at church, at our club. As we didn’t know how many people would be coming, I was a bit worried about the food for everyone. Miraculously it was more than enough food. Almost everyone brought something. The food was absolutely delicious!!! As everyone who went fishing with us is really special and was helpful in different situations they each got a gold (plastic J) medal and a wee handmade card. It was amazing to see that these little things made people happier and a little bit more special.

I’m really thankful to God for giving us perfect weather and giving us free time to enjoy His creation, protecting us from accidents and helping me and Mahboob to organise the event and find the right number of people, giving us a chance to catch some fish and to cook a tasty meal on Monday, helping us to work as one person and making our friendship stronger and for many, many other things He does for us!

Tanya

Property Group

The members of the Bristo Property Group over the past year have been Stuart Rendle, Brian Wilson, Robert Mill and Craig Smith. We were also delighted to be joined in the few months of 2010 by Leszek Kurtyka who looks after the Church gardens.
The team meet monthly, and have been together for a number of years now. We have good relationships and work well with each other. This is a group of folk who love the Lord, who are also pro-active and happy to take ownership of tasks; willing also to see them through to the finish.
2009 - 2010 has been a good year for the Property team, with quite a number of jobs dealt with and completed. These include:
· replacement of the Manse boiler (which was 25 years old)
· arranging for signage to go up onto the notice boards at the front of the church. Many thanks to Caroline Connell for her eye catching designs
· improving the fire safety signage around the church and liaising with the Arch school to arrange fire drills
· repair work to the plumbing in both the Gents toilet and the Baptistry
· implementing the various requirements of this year’s follow-up Health and Safety inspection
There are also a few items that are on-going, one of which is the Church garden. This is kept very tidy and well tended by Leszek, and it has attracted very positive feedback from people within the church.

Craig Smith

Praise Band

This year we have been blessed with many musicians and this allowed some of us some time off from the rota. I am genuinely pleased with the musicianship of people involved and the work and commitment these people put into the Sunday services. We have had a practice morning once in this past year where we learned many new songs and fellowshipped together; with some good organisation this could become a regular feature. Recently we had a look at the sound desk and fixed a few problems so we are looking forward to an improved aural experience for the band and the congregation.

This coming year, we are going to be losing Agnes, Pedro, Tanya (the interns) and Richard going off to university. This will create a vacuum in the band but I do believe we would be able to find people in the congregation that would fill the gap. We are always looking for new people to play/sing and also we are looking for people to operate the PowerPoint during the service. Please let us know if you are willing to volunteer, training will be given. I would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone involved and ask the members of the congregation to do likewise for their hard work. Thank you.

Sam Kawamura

Sunday School

Sveta and Tanya continue to teach the younger age class with David, Eva and Lennox. This class continues to use the ‘Go Teach’ material which has proved very successful with this age group. Lucy and Linda lead the older class with Cyrus, Michael and Tafadzwa, using Scripture Union ‘Light’ material. Michael moved up to the older class just after the Easter Holiday. Both classes include a time of prayer, which the children participate in after discussing prayer requests.

We have continued to explore ways in which the children can take a more active part in morning services and they took part in Christmas and Easter dramas, along with adult actors.
We had barbecues at Yellowcraig and Vogrie Country Park last summer. These were well attended and similar events are planned for June and August this year.

The Sunday-School will break on 27th June (last session) and resume on 22nd August. The crèche will continue to run throughout the summer holiday, when required.

Please continue to pray for the Sunday School and those working with young people in the church.

Linda Watson

Bethany Report

The people at Bristo were this year involved again in both the Bethany Care Shelter and the Bethany Care Van.

Bristo is one of a large number of churches that actively support the Care Shelter. We are also one of the larger contributors to the service in that we provided the church as a venue for ten nights during its months of operation, between November and April. On two of those nights ‘Team Bristo’ provided the food, which we cooked on the premises, catering for between 40 – 50 people. We provided a main course and dessert, and served the food to exceptionally hungry service users.

Both of these nights were fun and full of fellowship as we cooked, served and then tidied up.
It’s worth noting that this service took on a particular importance to the service users this year after the closure of the Council’s Cowgate night centre this winter. After its closure the numbers coming to the Care Shelter increased fairly significantly.

Bristo also continues to contribute a team to man the Care Van every month, to serve rolls, soups, teas and coffees to service users as part of a consistent Christian witness on the streets.
Some people might be surprised to know that not all the users of the service are homeless. These are people who were homeless at some stage in the past, but who continue to come to the van to continue with relationships they’d had previously on the streets.
Although this is a fairly low-key ministry, the beauty of it is that it meets the basic needs of homeless people at the point of their need, and it does it on a consistent basis.

Our thanks go to Bethany and also Edinburgh City Mission (who partner with Bethany to provide the Care Van) for giving Bristo the opportunity to minister to the poor and vulnerable in Edinburgh and so align ourselves more fully with the heart of our Lord.

Craig Smith

YOUNG PEOPLE’S MINISTRIES

Encounter

Encounter was a cell group for our older teenagers. Over the previous years, attendance had steadily declined. As of 2009’s AGM we had a core group of four members. Of those four, one child has since stopped attending church at Bristo, and of the remaining three we would usually see only two at the most on any given Sunday evening. When Encounter took a break over the Summer holidays, it was decided in dialogue with these three that we would not resume the group in the autumn. It was not an easy decision - Encounter was an enjoyable and positive group - but we agreed that it had run its course. Each of those remaining teenagers, Adam, Lena and Richard, are committed to attendance and participation in the life of the Church. Richard now attends the Tuesday evening Cell group and the new ‘Journey’ course.

‘Journey’ for Teens

‘Journey’ is a catechetical course written by our Pastor, Jim Purves, for people who are looking to find out what it means to walk in the way of Jesus Christ. It explores such questions as “why are we here?”, “what gives life meaning?”, “what is baptism about?” and “is church membership important?” I have been developing these materials for use with our teenagers. This has been catalysed by Tafadzwa, a young man with a strong desire to be baptised and Richard, who is in the process of seeking God’s will for his life. It has been a pleasure to meet with these young men to study the bible, discuss the big questions of life and faith and pray together.

Café Church

Last December we embarked upon a joint initiative with the youth of Granton Baptist Church. ‘TFT’ Café Church meets on ‘The First Thursday’ of every month in Costa Coffee in Stockbridge. There young people between the ages of 14 to 25 years of age, discuss relevant topics from Christian point of view. It is intended as a space for young people to invite their non-Christian friends to, especially those who would not go near a church building. Of particular benefit to our group is the opportunity to meet Christians from another church and background. Attendance was low at first and has grown in increments. Tanya and Richard have been regular participants, while many of the teens from the IT club have started coming.

When asked what he thought of Café Church, Richard said that he likes mixing with people from other churches as well those who don’t go to any church, the discussion and of course, the hot chocolate!

Please pray that the teens from IT club would attend more regularly and invite other non-Christians.

Matt Baines

IT Club

He has showed you, O humanity, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.
Micah 6:8 (NIV, adapted)

The themes of Micah - God’s concern for justice, mercy and humility - have been core to the times we have shared with the young people at IT club this year. Topics covered have included human trafficking, fair, trade, war, peace and social justice. Discussions have been wide-ranging, deep and often quite personal as the young people would bring their personal frustrations and concerns relating to the topics. It has been a great privilege to see the young people really getting involved in discussion and responding in ways both creative and practical. I personally hope to see more development in the area of social action with this group in the future.

Special events and trips have included cinema trips, bowling, nature trails, meals out and a Narnia themed Christmas Party. The highlight of last Summer was a Photo Safari competition, that took us on a journey of discovery around the Old Town. We really enjoyed having David and Agnes Nemeshegyi acting as our special guest judges for the competition. We have also enjoyed sharing in a walk up Arthur’s Seat and film nights with the ‘iFriends’ group and others from the church family.

We have a core group of ten teenagers in the club, mainly girls in year 5 at high school. It has been good to see Francesco, one of the teen-aged school-leavers, take on more responsibility in the group since the summer. Our coaches this year have been Tanya Alexeeva, James Trimble, Pedro Gonzalez, Adam Connell, Richard Allison and Matt Baines.

We have also received support on occasion from Sveta Barclay as well as Sally and Sam Kawamura. We are very grateful as a group for their availability and friendship. We were sad to have seen Katy Cracknell and David Purves leave us in the Autumn, but pleased to receive correspondence from Katy - as well as a stuffed toy wombat! - and to see David upon his visits. This summer we will be sad to see Tanya and Pedro leave us. We will miss all their hard work and friendly faces.

We would be grateful for your prayers as we seek the way forward for it club. Big changes are on the horizon. I will be looking for new adults to join us as coaches on a regular basis. Most of the group will be finishing high school in the coming year. Pray that this will be a fruitful year and that the teens will continue to take on deepening levels of responsibility in the group, and that they will be challenged to respond in increasingly deeper ways to the call to follow Jesus. Pray for wisdom for the adults in the group to lead the group forward in the most God-honouring way possible.

Matt Baines

iFriends

What is iFriends ?

iFriends (International Club) is a club that is based in Bristo Baptist Church. There is a mixture of Christians from Bristo and people who come to Edinburgh to study or to find a job. It is a sports club where people have a chance to enjoy some exercise, have a nice chat with people from different countries, learn about different cultures and share your own. In addition we have the chance to introduce people to Christ through our fellowship and giving a good example of Christianity.

A Short History

When I came to Bristo in the beginning of January 2009, “iFriends” did not exist. There was a badminton club which was run by David, Adam and other people from Bristo who played there on Mondays. At that time we no longer had many people after the summer.

We were thinking how to change this situation and finally found the solution! We started inviting people from “Home from Home” to play badminton with us. These people started coming every Monday and they invited their friends. When we became good friends we started going to the countryside together, celebrating each other’s birthdays and having goodbye parties as well as making international evenings. We had some traditional meals, music, photos and souvenirs.

One day we decided to change the name of our club because we didn’t play only badminton. At first we had very many different ideas. Then we decided that ‘iFriends’ was the most suitable name for us. Today we have a huge number of friends from different countries.

What we did over the past year

Over the past year we have had a good number of people who come to the club almost every Monday. As we progressed, we formed a team of interns, people from Bristo and international people from the club who do all the setting up, preparations and planning. Diego with other friends from the club started working on our own website, that we are trying to improve just now.

We play badminton, table tennis, pool and other games that are in the church building. We also had so much fun having a trip to Loch Lomond. “It Club” and “iFriends” had a walk in Holyrood Park which was also very enjoyable and exciting! On Saturdays (about once a month) we watch a film and that is a good opportunity for Christians who are not able to come on Mondays to have fellowship with people from the club.

We had four international evenings (Iranian, Russian, Indian and Scottish) that were organized by Bahareh, Tanya, Janu and Brian respectively. In these events we had an opportunity to learn something new from each others’ cultures. We also had Christmas and Easter parties that gave us a chance to share Bible stories and have much fun playing games and eating traditional food for these days!

Almost every Monday or every second Monday we end up having a birthday cake celebrating our iFriends’ birthdays. They were very touched by that even when they expected it! We also play some music and do some art and many other things that are interesting for everyone. Before the end of my internship we had a fishing trip which is going to be on the 5th of June 2010 (see separate article).

The fruit

Going to “iFriends” gives the chance for fellowship between people from the club and church people and everyone participating has become very good friends. We have also seen an increasing openness to Christ among our friends. They sometimes ask us to pray for them and often share their problems and happiness with us. Some of them even started going to church occasionally.

Future plans

I am planning to ask the church and “It club” about having a “Day of Art”. In my opinion, we have many people in our church who are very talented and I am sure that they have something they could amaze us with. I have not decided the date of this occasion yet, but it will be approximately at the end of June. Before I go back to Russia I would like to discuss the future of the club with its members.
Thanks
I am really thankful to God that I have had a chance to serve Him through this ministry. Many thanks to Jim Purves and Bristo Baptist Church deacons for inviting and supporting me here. Special thanks to the Purves family who became my Scottish family. Also thanks to the following: to the team of interns David, Agy, Pedro and David Purves (who helped a lot before he went to Oxford) for their hard work and help; to Brian Wilson who hardly ever missed Monday night (!); to Richard for his excellent work and Matt for helping us to organize some special events together with “It Club”. Finally thanks to people like Cheryl, Adam, Leszek, Lucy, Ivor, Bahareh, Mahboob, Diego, Sveta, Brian and Lena for coming regularly and many other people who became a big part of “iFriends”!!!
The way forward
Generally speaking I am really happy with everything we do in the international club. There may be small improvements to be made but in my opinion the only real issue is how to find new people who are going to organize everything after I go back to Russia. We also need to find somebody who can help Diego in working on the website.

Tanya Alexeeva

PRAYER POINTS

· Pray for the new deacons’ court (for list of deacons see p. 12), that they would be given wisdom to work in harmony to discern God’s will for the congregation
· Pray for those recently baptised — Jess Tait, Cao Yuan, Richard Allison, Buki and Tafadzwa Msengezi — and for the congregation to support them in their spiritual growth
· Give thanks for the work of the interns, Tanya Alexeeva, Pedro Gonzalez and David Nemeshegyi, and that God would bless them as they return to their home countries of Russia, Argentina and Hungary
· Pray for the work among internationals, particularly the future direction of our International Club iFriends begun by Tanya and others
· Our work among young people, particularly Sunday School leaders and pupils and the IT Club for teenagers
· Continue to pray for wisdom concerning the future of the building
· Pray for Christian events and witness in the forthcoming Edinburgh Fringe Festival
· Christian life, discipleship and witness in an ‘age of austerity’ in the Western world
· The work of Bethany Christian Trust and other agencies working among homeless and deprived people
· Our ongoing relationship with the church in Lom, Bulgaria

deacons' elections

Please note that Sunday 2nd May is the final date for nominating folk to the deacons' court. Anyone who is a member can be nominated by any other 2 members for 3 years of service as a deacon. Hand in nominations (with the nominee's permission!) on Sunday morning or evening, to be passed on to our secretary. As only Sam and Paul continue in office, please pray and think about who is suited for sharing in this responsibility in being a member of the group that, together with the pastor, coordinates what's needs to be attended to in the congregation's ongoing life and mission.

EASTER 2010

FROM THE EDITOR

Recently on a Tuesday evening I had a nasty fall while walking to catch my bus home after work. Amazingly however I got off with just a few scratches and a sore right hand. The following evening was cell group and I got there early. Next to arrive were our relative newcomers David and Eunice. David shook my hand in welcome and because it was a very strong firm handshake I yelled in pain ! David was very apologetic and I apologised too because he wasn’t to know the hand had been injured the previous day.

However, God always works for the good of those who love Him (Romans 8: 28). As the evening went on I realised that my previously sore right hand was sore no longer! God must have worked through David’s handshake to put right whatever had been hurt in the fall!
Whatever you are going through at the moment, no matter how difficult or painful, expect God to work in you through it with His refiner’s fire.

Robert Mill

FROM THE PASTOR

And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God,

to those who are the called according to His purpose
Romans 8:28 NKJV.

Each year, Easter becomes more and more central to me, in my understanding of the Christian life. By ‘Easter’ I mean the whole season leading up to the recalling of Good Friday and the celebration of Easter Sunday. Why is this?

For one thing, it is the focus of the Gospels, described by one theologian as ‘extended passion stories with short introductions regarding the life of Christ’. The Gospels focus on Easter. When we see how nearly half of each of the Gospel accounts is given over to the last week of Jesus’ life on earth, we can see that from the very outset of the church, this period in the life of Jesus was focal.

This focus also tells us something about where the emphasis of early Christian teaching lay. As Richard Bauckham points out in his recent book, Jesus and the God of Israel, it is in the face of a struggling Jesus that the true divine identity is revealed. What does God feel? Look at Jesus. What does God do about suffering? Look at Jesus. What does the future hold for men and women? Look at Jesus.

It is when people are caught in the midst of adversity and difficulty that we begin to see what their character is really like. So it is with God. The New Testament message is that when we look at Jesus Christ, we meet with the full divine identity of God. There is no looking over the shoulder of Jesus to see what God is really like, hiding behind Him in some remote heaven. Jesus Christ is Immanuel: God with us.

And this is the immensity of what we are both called to participate in and also to celebrate in and through our living. To know God is to be drawn into a participative harmony and closeness with Jesus Christ. To receive the Spirit of God is to be energised for a deeper and truer participation and harmonisation with the life and ministry of Jesus Christ. To enter salvation is to be drawn into oneness with Jesus Christ in the process of enduring the pain and suffering that comes with ownership of what He stands for, holding on to the hope that we will one day fully share in what He has become. Passing through the Cross into the victory of resurrection.

In declaring the revelation of God in the face of the suffering Christ, we acknowledge the revelation of this self-emptying God who comes to us and the whole world out of love. In celebrating His love for us we affirm the truthfulness of what He has for every man, woman and child in this world, worked out in the passion of Christ and met with in our own personal experience. Easter is the spectacle of God’s faithfulness worked out in the flesh and blood of a man who represents each and every one of us.

In His love,
Jim

TREASURER’S REPORT

It’s almost the end of another financial year at Bristo. The next four weeks are going to be busy. I have to make sure everything that needs to be paid this financial year is paid, and paid out from our accounts before the 31st March. I also need to keep a track of, confirm and record any monies due to us this financial year, but not yet paid, so that I can record it properly on our accounts ... Then finally - and this is no small task! - I have to prepare the first draft of the accounts to present to the Deacons, and to the inspector.

Church accounts are quite difficult to track and monitor. There is no guarantee week to week how much money will come in to the weekly offering. Expenditure is slightly easier to monitor. Each month there are bills we have to pay, minister’s stipend, tax/NI, bills, council tax etc. Then there are one-off bills, insurance, BU General Fund etc. The rest of the payments are for specific things done throughout the year to support the church work, including sundries (paper towels, loo-rolls etc), piano-tuning, licensing costs, office materials and all sorts of other things. The way I track this through the year is through the budget. We try to work out how much we need to spend each year, then I work out how much we need each week to meet this target, then I track each week how much we are spending and try to marry the two sets of figures together. It really only comes together at the end of each year when everything is in, and everything has been spent, but at least I can track how things are going and see if we are overspending on anything.

So how have we done this year? Income is a little down on last year, but not enormously so. What we haven’t done very well with is our special appeal to Lom. We send £3500 to Lom each year to support their winter soup kitchen. This year we raised £1100 for the Lom appeal, so the remainder of the money has been sent from church funds (there is still time to give to the appeal though!)

Expenditure wise we’ve kept pretty much to budget. The only significant overspend was £7500 on repairs and refurbishment when we budgeted to spend £5000. This year we had to spend a little more money on safety work in the church, and with the building being so old, it’s difficult to estimate the knock-on effects of having repairs made to the church. The refurbishment costs also include all the work done to refurbish the sanctuary.

The full and final accounts will hopefully be ready early in April, so if anyone wants further details please get in touch.

Election of Deacons

Our annual election of deacons is due to take place at the end of May. Appointment as a deacon lasts for three years with effect from the Annual General Meeting, unless foreshortened by decision of the members. Of the present deacons, Robert and Andrea Mill, Craig Smith and Barbara Toal complete their current 3-year term, while Paul Watson has completed two years and Sam Kawamura has completed one year. It is open to those in full membership of Bristo Baptist Church to consider prayerfully any addition to the diaconate.

This note outlines the responsibilities of members and deacons and sets out the procedures to be followed and the timetable for this year’s election.

Duties of Deacons
The deacons are responsible to the church for the day to day running of its affairs, seeking to guide the church as collectively we discern the Lord’s will as a congregation. They co-ordinate reports, bring recommendations to the church and implement its decisions. The deacons are also ex officio trustees of Bristo Baptist Church and so carry certain responsibilities under the charity laws. Above all, as the name (diakonos) suggests, deacons are servants of Jesus Christ and of this congregation, supporting the pastor in his spiritual leadership.

Qualities of Deacons
We read in Acts 6: 1-6 how the early church chose the first deacons. They were men of good report, full of faith, of the Holy Spirit and of wisdom. In 1Timothy 3: 8-13 Paul advises Timothy of the qualities he should look for in deacons. They should be reverent, holding the mystery of faith with a clear conscience, tested and found blameless. In other words they should be mature in faith, ready to listen to God and to the people they serve, seeking to encourage and care for others in service, and leading lives honouring to God.

Nominations
Nomination for election to the office of deacon should be submitted in writing to any of the present deacons, together with the names and signatures of two referees, the candidate’s express agreement having been obtained previously. Candidates, proposers and seconders should all be full members of Bristo Baptist Church. Nominations should be submitted not later than 6.30 p.m. on Sunday 2 May. Ballot papers will be distributed to members who participate in morning or evening worship on either Sunday 9 or Sunday 16 May. Arrangements will be made to issue ballot papers to the housebound or those prevented by illness from attending.

Procedure
Ballot papers should be returned no later than the evening service on Sunday 23 May. For appointment as a deacon of Bristo Baptist Church not less than 2/3 of the total votes cast must be in the candidate’s favour. Two of the continuing deacons will act as scrutineers and Dr Purves will give private confidential intimation to the candidates before the result of the election is announced at the Annual General Meeting on Wednesday 26 May.

The election of deacons is one of the most important responsibilities we have as church members and we each have a role to play. During the next few weeks may we all prayerfully consider the following questions:

• Is God calling me to this task?
• Whom has the Lord laid on my heart to nominate for this service?
• Let us all in humility draw near to God and seek His will as together we go forward in the power of the Holy Spirit that we may through love serve one another. (Galatians 5: 13).
  

Diary dates

Some events happening in our church and in our area over coming weeks:

Sunday 18 April - church meeting to update on redevelopment plans, together with church lunch, after morning service
Monday 19th April - Deacons' meeting
Sunday 2 May 6.30 p.m. - last day for nominations to the diaconate (for more details see pp. 6-7 this issue)
Saturday 8 May - Expression Workshop for women (see p. 9)
Wednesday 26 May 7.30 p.m. - Church Annual General Meeting
Sunday 30 May - Baptismal service

Friday 23 - Sunday 25 April
Mini CLAN Gathering for Lothian Region: Dalkeith High School. Speakers include Andrea Wigglesworth and Nigel di Castiglione. Details on CLAN web site www.new-wine-scotland.org
Saturday 8 May
CLAN Day Conference with Bob Johnson at Holy Trinity Church, Wester Hailes, 10 a.m.—4 p.m. Theme: “Courageous Faith”. Cost £10 (includes lunch). Booking form available on CLAN web site.

EXPRESSION WORKSHOP FOR WOMEN

There will be a workshop for women on Saturday 8 May to explore emotions, how we express or suppress them, what the Bible says about them and to look at how we can learn to express feelings in a healthy way. This is a good opportunity to invite non-Christian friends along. No charge but an offering will be taken for the Dalit women in India. Offers of help greatly appreciated. To reserve a place e-mail andrea.mill@blueyonder.co.uk 07974 824236.

Congratulations

Our oldest member, Arthur Brown, was 96 in January. Your editor Dr Robert Mill celebrated his 60th birthday with a ceilidh in the Bristo upper hall on Friday 5 February, and his wife Andrea graduated with Merit from her Certificate of Christian Counselling at Waverley Abbey (Farnham, Surrey) in January.