Page 1 ChristChurch ChristChurch

Wrexham Newsletter Jan 2015

January

Key Events 10 th Leaders Relay

Meeting th th 15 /16 Ichthus

Leaders

Conference th 17 Junior Church Meeting

st 21 Leadership meeting and

Huddle 23 rd /24 th Welcome to the January edition of the Feeding the ChristChurch Relay magazine. Roofless 24 th Christians Scripture Focus for January – Luke 2

Together in 19 But Mary treasured up all these things and Wrexham pondered them in her heart. United Service at St Giles 51 Then he went down to Nazareth with them th and was obedient to them. But his mother 28 CtW Open Meeting at treasured all these things in her heart. Trinity 31 st Missional Ponder the words and works of God

Communities throughout 2016 and be ready and (no morning celebration) willing to move with him in the New Music prophetic Evening Page 2 ChristChurch Wrexham Leader’s Log PONDER HIS WORD, PURSUE THE PROPHETIC.

It is fascinating that twice in Luke`s account of the birth and early years of Christ, Mary is portrayed as someone that ponders (prayerfully reflects) upon what God is doing and saying ( Luke 2:19 & 51 ). Whilst we may be blessed in the moment as God speaks or acts, as we dig deeper, through pondering and prayerfully considering what God is up to, then greater blessing, guidance, encouragement or revelation can follow and flow.

PONDER God`s word & works, PURSUE the prophetic.

Mary discovered a means of not only engaging with what God was doing in the moment but also getting more and more out of it over time. The words, scriptures and actions became an ongoing source of nourishment, encouragement, understanding and sustenance. A pondering heart, like hers, can help us keep focussed on what God is doing and keep us well-resourced and ready to play our part.

Another striking feature is that nearly all of the other characters in the Nativity narratives are used prophetically. When God is on the move the prophetic is bursting forth all over the place – scriptures, songs (worship), words, dreams and acts (gifts). Take a look at how God uses Mary, Zechariah, Elizabeth, Joseph, angels, the Magi, as well as Simeon and Anna. All are used in differing prophetic ways.

Scripture reminds us that God does not do things without revealing it to his servants and also that we are ALL called and equipped to move in the prophetic realm ( Amos 3:7; 1 Corinthians 14:1. 31, 39 ). What we need is openness, willingness and sensitivity to the promptings of the Holy Spirit. These are all dependant on our response to God and the disciplines we exercise in our relationship and ongoing pilgrimage with him. God has not made it diffic ult, but He needs us to be disciplined. Page 3 ChristChurch Wrexham Moving in the prophetic is simply hearing a message from God and passing it on to the appropriate source – person, people or place – at the right time. Like the shepherds we are to be carriers and heralds of the message of God. God entrusts the prophetic to us so that He can communicate the good news of Christ – the saviour – to the world .

My hope and prayer is that throughout 2016, we at ChristChurch, would be a people that ponder well God`s words and works, so that we can move powerfully in many different prophetic guises to make Christ known in Wrexham.

May God bless and reward us in this privileged task.

Love and prayers,

Every Blessing, GARETH

Important Reminder !!!

At the end of each Sunday celebration, we are asking people to help put things away.

This can often be left to the same faithful few each week so if more folk HELPED we could all enjoy a cuppa & chat.

Chairs & tables don’t need to be moved but other items – info on the notice table, Sunday school equipment, music stands, lectern etc – need to be put away.

NB Mugs also need to be returned to the kitchen!

2016 Diary Dates – put the dates for the Congregational meetings in th th your diary now - they are 13 March, 17 July, and 13th November Page 4 ChristChurch Wrexham Pilgrimage Organised by Richard Sharples

Pennant Melangell May 11-16th – Led by Richard Sharples, this pilgrimage will entail walking from Wrexham to Pennant Melangell over the course of four days (Monday through Saturday). After each of the first three days pilgrims will return to their homes, but on the Saturday we will stay over in Llangynog, and be joined on the Sunday by a group of pilgrims from for the final short distance to the shrine itself; returning home that Sunday evening, the day of Pentecost. The cost for the first few days will only be that of travel.

Although I hope we’ll form a group to walk the whole route, it is possible to walk bits of it, or simply to join us for the Sunday at Pennant Melangell.

At some point soon, we’ll need to book accommodation for the Saturday night, so I would appreciate firm bookings for that night and an idea of interest overall by mid- January. Please register your interest with Richard ([email protected] or 01978 290006)

Shoeboxes! Last year’s shoe box campaign began with a grand opening on the 30 th October 2015. It was attended by many volunteers, also Lesley Griffiths, Ian Lucas and 8 or so of the men who were on the very first trip to Romania 25 years ago. The video of that trip was shown, it made for very harrowing viewing and quite a few folk were in tears – pictures of children rocking in cots, or lying in urine sodden beds, but their faces lit up when given shoe boxes or sweets.

For the latest shoe box venture we were fortunate enough to be able to use part of total fitness gym again, which was very convenient. We had a great team of volunteers and the atmosphere was buzzing, music playing – tea/coffee whenever and bacon sandwiches on a Friday morning! We also have a warehouse in Rhos-on Sea and they managed to do 7,950 boxes – these have all gone to Romania.

For the Wrexham warehouse we did 8,819 boy/girl boxes, 616 home boxes and also sent out 103 cartons of blankets, clothes and soft toys etc.

The grand total being 17,385 gift filled boxes to bring a little happiness to children living in poverty. Boxes are also going to Belarus and I am going out to deliver them, mainly to orphanages, on 5 th Jan.

Many thanks to all who did a box last year and also to the children who made them in Church, I think that went down well. Maybe we will repeat it in November. Start buying items now for your shoeboxes, the sales are very useful – Primark usually sell off their hats and gloves – when the weather improves!! Dorothy

Page 5 ChristChurch Wrexham International Christian Fellowship Wrexham ICFW (in association with Christians Together in Wrexham)

What is ICFW? - ICFW is an informal gathering of international people from all faiths and none – migrant workers, asylum seekers, long term residents and their British friends.

When does ICFW meet? -We meet every Sunday at 4pm at the Methodist Church Regent Street.

What does ICFW do?

Let those who have attended past and present tell you:- “After joining the group I have learned to pray with others and share my problems with them. We all talk to God about them.” Sagarika, Sri Lanka “ we share the word of God, talk about the challenges we face and pray together” Essienette, Cameroon “ We read the Bible and pray together…we also share food from our different home countries from all over the world.” “ This is an amazing family of different colours, languages, culture and experiences. We share, we discuss and we pray for each other and make friends…” Joseph, India “ I am learning more about God. Praise the Lord for giving me this opportunity to know Him and move towards light from darkness.” Raj , India

“We are a family.” Xav, Zimbabwe

Once a month, there is a ‘Sunday Special’ when one of the group shares about their home country. People’s birthdays are celebrated as well as the official birthday of ICFW each May: also there are Christmas parties and this year a New Year’s party! Other activities have been a couple of film evenings and several outings – to Whittington Castle, Moel Famau, Lake Vyrnwy and even ...... climbing Snowdon!

Starting on 7 th Feb ICFW are planning to run the Christianity Explored course.

How did ICFW begin? - In April 2013 David Fewster and his wife Ulla, retired missionaries who served in Thailand, were watching a DVD which a Thai Christian businessman friend had given them and the Lord spoke clearly to them, telling them that they should reach out to the to the internationals living in Wrexham. They had experienced living in another country where they had to learn the local language Page 6 ChristChurch Wrexham and culture, had to get used to a very different climate and very different food. This meant they could empathise with those from other nations in our town. So on the first Sunday in May 2013 ICFW began meeting on a Sunday afternoon in their home. Two months later ICFW moved to the Manna Christian bookshop and then in December 2013 moved to the Lounge of the Regent Street Methodist church, where ICFW still meets today.

Why ICFW? Over the years Britain has sent thousands of missionaries to all parts of the globe. Now, in our day, the globe has come to us. Here in Wrexham there are literally thousands of people from many different countries and the challenge we local Christians face is to reach them with the wonderful Gospel of the Lord Jesus. If the Lord lays this work on your heart, please pray for us. We want to see people coming to faith and being discipled. We have found it to be a transient group as people have to return to their home country because of visa issues, or because their time of study at the local college or university has come to an end, so the time they are with us is very precious. Lucy Fogg

CEFN MAWR CHURCH-PLANTING/MISSIONAL UPDATE - Paul Day

As we have shared previously, the Mawr Christian Fellowship is unlike our other Missional Communities at CCW. It was started by Congregational Church and is still supported by them. In March 2015, I was invited to take on the leadership with a remit to fulfil the original vision of planting a new church to serve the Cefn area. By then, God had drawn a variety of people from a number of villages between Wrexham and Oswestry from a variety of denominations. Thankfully, all are evangelicals, but we aren't all charismatic in theology and experience, and won't see eye-to-eye on every issue, but we are focusing on what unites us so that we can reach others for Jesus.

Since September, I have been preparing weekly Bible studies and teaching, to help us to understand the task before us. The group seems to have enjoyed the training we’ve done covering topics such as how Jesus discipled and trained the Twelve, especially his emphasis on building godly character that reflects God's love for all He has made. We have also learnt about the "journey of faith" with the help of the Engel Scale that shows the steps people need to move through from no belief in a supreme being (-10) to a mature faith that is being lived out through service and the discipling of others (+5- 6). Members now recognise that we can't expect to move people from no faith to serving faith IN ONE SERMON OR CONVERSATION! We also considered the version of the Engel Scale known as the Gray Matrix - which speaks of those who are open to the gospel, churched or unchurched, and those unchurched and dechurched people who Page 7 ChristChurch Wrexham can be closed to the gospel. This will help us to see where our time, interest and efforts are more likely to bear fruit. We also learnt the vital importance of quality relationships as most people come to faith through family or friends. We have seen changes in some group members with regard to how they can share the good news, with more discerning methods evolving.

We planned two Christmas Outreach Events: 'Making your Christmas' Craft Event at Ty Mawr Barn on Saturday 12 December with a Nativity theme so that participants knew more of the Christmas story. God had said it would be a "quality not quantity" event with good connections rather than big numbers - and that's what we had, with about 12 adults and 20 children. It was manageable and meant we had good conversations and our "Team" worked well together. The Monday before, Gill and I enjoyed a rare (these days) walk over the Aqueduct and got into conversation with a Llangollen family. Our conversation naturally led to an opportunity to invite them to the craft event - and they came! At the event, another family we had met before were first through the door and the Dad chatted with a couple of our guys who lead worship and often play at local pubs. He invited them to his local in Cefn (The Hollybush) to play at their next Open Mic. session. We're going to see if this is an opportunity for the group to support. We believe our "guests" went away thinking God is good and Christians are o.k. We were able to give out colourful tracts, invitations to our Cefn Carol Service and a Christmas card/invitation to our next Craft Event for Valentine's/Mothers' Day on13 Feb.

Our Carol Service on Thursday 17 th Dec had a choir of about 15 pupils from our local Ysgol Cefn Mawr. The school's Head came in support plus two teachers with the choir. We had several parents and members of the community, and a recently retired couple who have moved to Newbridge.

In late January, we plan to follow an evangelism training course I'm hoping to put together from various sources including past teaching I have done. We are also prayerfully exploring having a Real Easter Egg Hunt and craft event on Easter Saturday.

We hope to start a monthly CafeChurch or similar fresh expression of church from September or even sooner if we get a critical mass of interested people. Please pray for Gill and I and our co-leaders from Cefn, Colin and Rowena Brown, who are members at Gwersyllt. We need wisdom regarding our outreach and the timing of starting a regular expression of church. The unity of the group is vital too... and good health, especially for Paul who has had minor ailment after minor ailment since he took on this leadership role. Thanks for your interest and prayers so building a bridge far - we're sure they are between helping. church and community

Page 8 ChristChurch Wrexham ChristChurch Monthly Rotas 3rd 10 th 17 th 24 th 31st communion Offering communion Setting Up - Rob, PA - Eth, Colin Eth, Colin Adrian IT Rob Rob Rob Rob Music Group Elizabeth John John Huw - Leader Celebration Andrew & Sue Sue Paul Leader Elizabeth Missional Andrew & Community Speaker Gareth Gareth Gareth Elizabeth Ffion, Andrew, Marilyn, Paul, Gill, Tea John, Elizabeth, Dorothy, Elaine Mandy Myra Charlie

LO Helper Early Marilyn Val Sue Celebration Little Ones Sally G Dorothy Clare ACT at ACRC Junior Jean & Andrew & Discovery Liz J Church 1 Church HCRC Lucy Liz Junior Kev Lesley Bekki Church 2

If you have any queries please call Gareth Jones - ChristChurch Senior Church Leader on 01978 354805, or see

www.christchurchwrexham.org.uk [email protected] www.facebook.com/christchurchwrexham twitter @ChristChurchWxm we meet at the following locations Acton Community Resource Centre Hightown Community Resource Centre Overton Way Fusilier Way Acton Hightown Wrexham LL12 7LB Wrexham LL13 7YF

Our postal address is ChristChurch, c/o 7 Heol Penally, Little Acton, Wrexham, LL12 8JT