Outreach

OutReach le Va a r Cla

Growing God’s Kingdom by knowing Jesus and making him known

ke Heads - Greenside - Woodside - Mar/A rns - Dy u b l a pr 201 - Co k 3 o o r wc a r -C

St John’s Community Hall, Greenside

What’s On Mondays:

4-5pm CHILDREN’S BADMINTON Contact Claire Lapworth (sharparlo@aol.com) 7.00pm SLIMMING WORLD Contact Amanda Greener 01661 831299; 07894 284343; amanda.j.greener@hotmail.com

Tuesdays:

4-5pm CHILDREN’S BADMINTON Contact Claire Lapworth (sharparlo@aol.com)

Wednesdays:

7 – 9pm ADULT DANCING (7-8pm beginners; 8-9pm Improvers) Contact Jean Hodgkinson 4137989. jrrobhod@blueyonder.co.uk

Thursdays:

9.30 -11.00am FOOTPRINTS (pre-school play & learn) Contact Rachel Spencer: 0191 6596714 / 07976 757116 6pm – 9pm Crawcrook Judo Club Contact John Pattison 0191 4476836.

Saturdays:

9am – 12noon Crawcrook Judo Club Contact John Pattison 0191 4476836.

St John’s Community Hall availability

Mon: 9am - 4pm Tues: 9am - 4pm Wed: 9am - 7pm Thurs: 11.30am - 5pm Fri: 9am - 6.30pm Sat: 12noon - 10pm Sun: 12noon - 10pm

Badminton

The junior badminton club now runs two nights a week in St Johns Community Hall. Sessions are taken by a level 2 qualified coach, on Mondays and Tuesdays 4-5pm. The club has already achieved success when they were the winners at a Badminton England organised festival in Sunderland last December. The club is currently full but if your child is interested in playing badminton then please email Claire Lapworth at sharparlo@aol.com If you are interested in booking the newly refurbished Hall with its brand new kitchen facilities for an event, please visit

www.greensideparish.org.uk

and go to the tab “St John’s Community Hall”.

There you will find a booking form.

Alternatively email:

sjch@greensideparish.org.uk or call: 0191 4782085 for enquiries.

Clive’s Page

It’s Outrageous!

It’s Amazing!

Yes, God’s Grace is not only outrageous, but it’s also amazing! What is grace? Grace basically means undeserved love, just like the love poured out by God on Good Friday when Jesus died on the cross for all humanity. His grace was poured out for all to receive, just like the rain pours out from the skies. And people can either receive it or shelter themselves from it.

For us to understand why God poured His grace out to us we must understand the position we are in. Imagine a pillar about three metres high. Let’s call this pillar a Goodness Scale Pillar and on it we place a mark where we stand in the goodness scale.

Many of us will possibly place the mark somewhere in the middle of the goodness scale. We are not as bad as those who have committed atrocious crimes who will be at the bottom of the scale, yet we are not as good as those who spend their lives helping others who are placed at the top of the scale.

But if you imagine the pillar extending from its three metre height into infinity - that is where the goodness scale of God’s love is.

That certainly means that we all fall short of the perfect love of God, even the best of us. That is why we need to receive the outrageous and amazing Grace that comes from God. Easter time is certainly a time when God’s people remember the Amazing and Outrageous Grace that has been, and still is, being poured out of heaven. This grace takes away the sins of humanity, this grace cleanses

us from unrighteousness, and this grace broke the sting and power of death as demonstrated on Easter Sunday by the raising of Jesus from the dead.

This outrageous, amazing grace is continually being poured upon us, what we need to do is receive it. You may ask ‘How do we receive this outrageous Grace?’ It is simple. Just ask!

Father God, I thank You that Your Grace is amazing and outrageous. I thank You for giving me this opportunity to receive Your grace – I now receive it. I am really sorry for rebelling against You and Your ways. Please help me to understand more of Your love for me and all humanity. Thank You that through Jesus I have an opportunity to be forgiven for the past sins I have committed.

Father God I now turn from my old ways and commit my life to Jesus. Help me to understand more of Your ways and the outrageous and amazing Grace that You have poured upon me. Amen.

May God richly bless you

www.greensideparish.org.uk Facebook: GreensideParish Twitter: @GreensideParish Clive: 0191 4138281 email: vicar@greensideparish.org.uk

zzzzzzz Sleep at last!

Sleep is something we all take for granted isn’t it? We close our eyes, fall asleep and our body gets the rest we need to recover from the day and to face the next day. Not the case though if, like me, you suffer from chronic insomnia. In that case, you get to realise why sleep deprivation is used by special forces as a method of torture. If you ask my Mum, she’ll tell you that I was never a good sleeper even when I was a baby or toddler (I’m now in my 30s!). But over the last few years my sleep levels have declined.

overwhelming desire to read my bible. On went the light and down came the bible from the top bookshelf in the spare room. I brushed away about three or four years worth of dust and sat back down thinking “what now?” I thought back to the reading from the previous week’s service and decided to start there. However, not being a regular bible reader (the amount of dust was testament to that!) I had no idea where in the bible that was. So I started to flick, looking for it.

As I was leafing through the pages some words just seemed to jump up at me. I stopped and read them, then read them again as the words hit I have a job that has very high levels of stress. me. I began to cry (again!) as the meaning and I work very long hours and frequently witness situations that are deeply distressing and at times relevance to my life took hold: ‘Don’t worry about tomorrow for tomorrow will sickening. Understandably, this isn’t something that can be left at my desk when the office closes. bring its own worries. Today’s trouble is enough for today.’

It’s something that whirls around in my mind throughout the day and night. For the past two I sat and read those lines countless times, or three years I have been pretty much surviving thinking about how often I worry about what on 1 - 2 hours broken sleep per night and this is waiting for me at work the following day, or was beginning to take its toll on my mental and week, or month and how that keeps me awake. physical health both of which were declining I eventually fell asleep and I slept for 7.5 hours quite significantly and rapidly. that night - more sleep than I often get in a whole I have only recently started to attend Holy Spirit church in Crawcrook, having had several failed attempts at attending various churches on and off for a number of years. After a service two weeks ago I was asked if I would like to receive some prayer, at which I promptly burst into tears.

That act of kindness and compassion in itself was wonderful; I have always been the one who copes, the shoulder to cry on, the one who steps in to help, but increasingly I have felt very much alone and on the outside of everything. I’m not sure what changed, but up until that point, deep down, I have never felt like anyone outside my family cared enough about me to want to think of me (no offence to anyone who has!) I sat down and cried even more while Lucy & Laura prayed for me, and it was like a huge weight was physically lifted from my shoulders. I felt like the heavy burden that had been dragging me downwards was lightened.

Over the next few days and nights I could feel something change in me, and one night I got the

week. Over the following nights I have slept for up to (and sometimes over) 8 hours, and even if I wake up through the night I think of those words and that God will not give me anything I can’t cope with, and have found I readily fall asleep again.

I am rebuilding my physical health and my mental well-being, it’s going to take some time but sleeping well is making such a difference.

However, the biggest help is knowing that I am not alone, that God is with me no matter what and that he has a plan for me.

I thank God for all he is doing in my life, and for the wonderful people whose actions have shown his love to me.

This testimony was supplied by a member of our church. If this speaks to you in any way or for more information, please contact Clive on: 0191 4138281

God and Curry

at Bradford - Men’s XCEL Conference The XCEL conference is an annual event from the Friday to the Sunday, for men who are supposed to be tough, full of action, ‘made of slugs and snails and puppy dog’s tails’, to spend time in worship with other men from across the country and the world.

Church is often thought of being mainly for women - men can find themselves significantly outnumbered in traditional church congregations.

Part of the trip to Bradford is the opportunity to socialise with other “men of faith”, regardless of where they are on that journey. A big attraction at the conference is the opportunity sharing of the “C” word. Yes CHRIST certainly, but also CURRY!! This interests the real men, who think nothing of taking on the challenge by consuming - something that can strip paint, kill every disease known to man and even conquer man flu. Maybe the last bit is a bit of an exaggeration.

The real brave men set off early on the Friday for Bradford so that they could fit in two curry experiences, Friday AND Saturday. The less brave arrived later and missed the Friday curry, claiming the demands of work or some other excuse. Travelling by car is a great opportunity to get to know each other better, talk about issues and seek advice.

There are about 2,000 attendees at the XCEL conference, men of all ages (from 12 to 81 - including a man with 15 grandchildren!) and walks of life. Overall though, we had a common purpose, just to worship and learn more about God. We often hear of individuals being unified for a single purpose but not that often about those who come together to hear about loving your neighbour,

working to improve life for others with no expectation of a reward.

The message of the weekend was (apart from where to get the best curry!) was a simple one, God wants us to see us enjoying ourselves, he takes great pleasure in seeing us play. A family that works, plays and has fun together stays together and that is also true when you are part of the church family. So we all should work, play and have fun together more.

How often do we play to win, to show off, to teach, deliberately to lose to help someone feel good about themselves or just to enjoy ourselves?

It is not getting old that stops us playing, it is by stop playing that we become old.

Back next year for more curry, fellowship and much more God

If you’re interested in coming along, you’ll be most welcome!! Please contact Rev Clive on 0191 4138281 Douglas Ball - Trainee Christian

What’s On in Greenside Parish Key Services

Art Stop

at Church of the Holy Spirit, Main Street, Crawcrook

Footprints

1st Sunday: Morning Worship 2nd Sunday: Holy Communion

at St John’s Church, Greenside Road, Greenside

3rd Sunday: Holy Communion at Church of the Holy Spirit, Main Street, Crawcrook

4th Sunday: Morning Worship

at St John’s Church, Greenside Road, Greenside All services begin at 10am with Children & Youth Ministries running every week.

6pm Prayer Fellowship meets at the Vicarage

Wednesday Worship Parish Prayer:

8.15am at Holy Spirit, Crawcrook Holy Communion: 9:15am at Holy Spirit, Crawcrook

Every Tuesday (term time only) 1pm – 3pm Holy Spirit Church Hall, Crawcrook Thursday 9.30 – 11am St John’s Community Hall

Home Groups Monday Woodside 7.30pm Contact: 01661 835718 Tuesday Kepier Chare 7.45pm

Contact: 0191 4138446 Wednesday The Folly 7.30pm

Contact: 0191 4136111

Dene Holm, Old Main Street, 7.30pm

Contact: 0191 6596714

Horsley Avenue 7.30pm

Contact: 0191 413 52 45 Thursday Heathfield Farm 7.30pm

Contact: 0191 4139066

Ryton Ladies Netball

Monday 7.30pm-9.30pm Charles Thorpe Comprehensive, Ryton

Holy Communion:

9.15 am at Church of the Holy Spirit, Main Street, Crawcrook

Coffee Stop

Every Tuesday (term time only) 10am – 2pm Holy Spirit Church Hall, Crawcrook

PUPPET MINISTRY TRAINING DAY

by One Way UK

at St John’s Community Hall, Greenside Road, NE40 4LF (opposite St John’s Church)

on Saturday 9th March 10am – 4pm.

·

A practical hands-on fun & inspiring day suitable for adults & children alike.

Performances & demonstrations on how to use various types of puppet · Basic & advanced puppet manipulation skills · Resources available for purchase

Cost £13.50 Call: 01472 241068 or 0191 4782085 to book.

Bring your own lunch & a puppet if you have one!

Youth of Greenside Parish We believe that all of the Christian message and the experience of knowing God is not simply for adults but for young people too!

We therefore do our best to offer opportunities for all ages to explore what it looks like to follow Jesus, filled with the Holy Spirit in a radical, fun and relevant way.

With the commitment of fantastic voluntary workers we are able to ensure there is always a great opportunity for you, your child or teenager to join this adventure with us.

Run by Leanne and Rachel, they say

Footprints is welcoming for parents and

friendly for children. We enjoy hearing the sound of children playing and mums chatting together! Footprints is for all pre-school age children in the area. There are craft activities, story telling and refreshments for our children and their parents and helpers.

We aim to provide you with an environment where young children can play, craft and have fun too.

Short Craft Sessions, which usually involves lots of colouring and sticking. The children take the craft home (when it has dried a bit!)

Rest and enjoy some free play, coffee and chats.

Stories read by leaders of ‘Footprints’ and sometimes members of our church congregation Songs – a mix of Children’s Worship Music and General Children’s Nursery Rhymes

•

Friday Rock (School years 3-6) During

term time we spend Friday evening together in dicussion, games, craft and cooking. We are commited to learning about and making a difference to other young peoples lives via sponsoring a child through a charity.

We also attend X:SITE North East.

Impact (11+) We try and gather as often

and when ever we can! From breakfasts before school, midweek small group, to wider fortnightly social gatherings. Our aim is to learn more about life with Jesus through a work based more on investing in relationships rather than a programme.

We also attend YFC North East Wired event.

If you would like to get involved, contact Youth Minister Andy Hawkins on 0191 4611807

• • •

Fully Rely On God Is our work on Sunday at St. John’s during term time. In the hall we use a mixture of worship and games to explore the Bible.

Jesus And Me Is our work on Sunday at

Holy Spirit during term time. Using a mixture of crafts, art and creative resources we explore the Bible.

Death has lost its sting!

Easte Sundar y Family Servic e fo llow Coffee ed by and All We Cake! lcome

Palm Sunday 24 March

10am at Holy Spirit church, Crawcrook

Monday 25 March

7pm Holy Week Evening Meditation service at Holy Spirit church

Tuesday 26 March

7pm Holy Week Evening Meditation service at Holy Spirit church

Wednesday 27 March

7pm Holy Week Evening Meditation service at Holy Spirit church

Thursday 28 March

7pm Holy Week Evening Meditation service at Holy Spirit church

Good Friday 29 March

9.45am Good Friday March of Witness starting Greenside Methodist chapel.

1.30pm to 3pm Good Friday Reflection at St John’s church, Greenside.

7pm Holy Week Evening Meditation service at Holy Spirit church, Crawcrook

Easter Sunday 31 March 10am Service at St John’s church,

FAMILY SERVICE Greenside.

6pm Prayer at the Vicarage.