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For more information about Harvest events go to www.stalhambaptist.org.uk Welcome To Community Scene IN THIS ISSUE Hello Welcome to the second edition of Community Scene produced by Stalham Baptist Church. You can also find all the local news on our online magazine www.communityscene.org.uk Page 4 Send us all your news about all the great things High School News going on in our area and we will get it online. A really big thankyou to Steve English, who has Page 5 produced all our great cartoons. And Roger Social Media Newman at our printers Century Print High Page 6 Street Stalham for all his help. You can contact us at The Local Library [email protected] or phone With Something for David Child on 07799262645. Everyone Page 7 Help Centre Page 8 From the editor Your Local Museum We often hear the expression USE IT OR LOSE IT . Page 9 I moved to Stalham in 1976 from North London, it was the best thing I ever did a great place to Dr Who a Woman bring your kids up and Stalham was then and Page 10 still is a vibrant community . SWAN Ladies Group However, we are starting to lose things. Banks, police station, businesses and support Page 11 organisations. Coffee and Chat Look at what's going on at Stalham Library so Page 12 many things aimed across the age spectrum. So can I suggest WE USE IT or as the financial Town Council News squeezes bite we may LOSE IT. And Street With that thought in mind perhaps we could try Defibrillators to support many of the excellent competitive businesses in the High Street and wider area. Page 13 David Child Rainbows And After School Clubs Page 14 Minutes Stalham Academy Page 15 to A Sunday Service Save A Life Welcome See Page 12 Community Scene Harvest Festival 2017 3 www.communityscene.org.uk Another Great Term at Stalham High The content of our recent newsletters is testament Assembly, Mr Roy Turley, the former Headteacher, to the great work being carried out by students and who had introduced the event as a way of staff at the school; I am very grateful to all of them maintaining the focus of the Year 11s who had to who have helped to make every single event of this remain in school after their exams until the end of term the great and pleasurable the term! success that each one has The feedback from Year 11 as a whole been. Writes Headteacher Martin was great and we hope that it was a Budgett. fitting way to say a fond farewell to a It is also a great testimony to the group who have experienced much school in general that, touring the change during their time in school, and school with the increasing number of who have come through that time prospective parents and their children, demonstrating key Growth Mindset or other visitors to the school, always qualities to help them reach this finds productive and focussed classes, transitional point in their compulsory and brings forth comments such as education. “what a lovely school this We are looking forward to their results is”. Indeed, as we conclude the year, day in August, and wish them well in I reflect on those very words as they were their futures! my own first impressions of this wonderful In addition to our Year 11s, we say fond school, and remain as my first thoughts and farewells to Mr Malcolm, Mr Naudot, Mr Daubie, Ms observation to anyone who will listen. McGahey, and Mrs Jermy who are moving on to What is always so uplifting, too, is the wealth of pastures new, at some distance in Mr Malcolm’s praise bestowed on our students for their conduct case as he fulfils a long-term ambition to emigrate both in school, such as on the Year 11 Leavers’ Day, to Australia! We thank them all for what they have or when out on visits, for example our Year 10 done for the life of Stalham High School, over a Historians who recently had the privilege of being substantial period in Mr Malcolm’s case. the only school party in The Tower of London and As I said to the school in our final assembly, I have were approached by Japanese tourists, believing been very proud to be their Head this year and they them to be official representatives of the Tower! too should take pride in themselves. Together we Highlights of this term including the great Sports have generated an ethos upon which we can build Days and, of course, our Leavers’ Day. This is next year and, after our summer break, we look clearly a well-embedded part of Stalham folklore, forward to welcoming our new Year 7s to be a part and it was a great privilege to have with us at the of the developing success story of our school. Down Memory Lane The 1938 Floods The North Sea Surge of February same family in Sea Palling. 1938 inundated 7,500 acres, far In 1938 the local milk man more land was under water than survived by standing on top of his the catastrophic floods of January car waiting for rescue and for a 1953 when seven people perished bet the two brothers pictured including three children from the below cycled on penny farthing bikes from West Somerton to Horsey Mill and back. The local community watched from the flood line cheering them on. Their worry was cycling off the road into the ditches unseen below the water . It was not until April of that year the breach in the sea defences was secured and the flood waters subsided. Community Scene Harvest Festival 2017 4 www.communityscene.org.uk Stalham Baptist Church Scene #PrayFor[Insert name] The world today is greatly influenced by the power preference but even by many of those who do not of the Social media because it has the capacity to believe in God. Some atheists have admitted they instantly connect billions of people. One minute prayed “sometimes” and other nonbelievers in God you may share a piece of information with a few have admitted they pray regularly. This does not people on their social media platforms and the prove that everyone prays, but does point to the next minute the information could be human instinct for prayer, one which ‘trending’ in ways you never one Swiss theologian calls our imagined. The Social Media has the “incurable God-sickness”. It shouldn't power to mobilise and unite people, be a surprise for us when we see our some of who have never met face to family or even friends who may not face, around different issues be religious, praying or retweeting happening around the world. #PrayFor hashtag. What I’m interested in is how the PrayForLondon Christians believe that since all Social Media has united people in human beings are made in the grief. In the recent terror attacks, PrayForHumanity “Image of God” (Genesis 1:26-27), we tragedies, and natural disasters, are designed to reflect and relate to many people have turned to the God. All human beings have some social media to express their grief knowledge of God available to them using different types of hashtags or changing and therefore by prayer, they seek to respond and Facebook profile pictures to match the colour of the connect to God. For Christians, prayer is not merely flag of the country affected. “#PrayFor…” hashtag a way of getting a list of things from God in our is one such way people have expressed their time of need and distress. It is a way to get hold of solidarity and support with the victims and their God Himself! It is their way of connecting and family. When tragedy strikes, it is panic mode and communicating their emotions and desires to God in most people normally turn to prayer as their first a loving daily relationship. response to help. Next time you see #PrayFor hashtag on social Most of us remember media do remember to actually pray and above all #PrayForManchester,#PrayForLondon, ask yourself what the prayer means to you. Is it a #PrayForParis, #PrayForKenya etc. mere response to crisis or does it come from a deep trending on social media soon after they were hit trust in God and his perfect will for you? by terror attacks or natural calamities. #PrayFor is therefore not just meant to make the prayer “And without faith it is impossible to hashtag to keep trending and capture the attention please God, because anyone who comes to him of the world, but it’s meant to mobilise people to must believe that he exists and that he rewards actually pray, think and act appropriately those who earnestly seek him.” according to their abilities. Hebrews 11:6 On the other hand, there are people who criticise @#PrayForJerry the usage of #PrayFor hashtags because they “Don’t do God”. They question how many people Jerry Otieno wife sharing #PrayFor hashtag actually pray and if they Simone and Elsa do, what prayer would achieve. To them, #PrayFor joined Stalham hashtag is an exercise in futility because prayer to Baptist Church in them is a desperate adventure which achieves May. absolutely nothing. The logical conclusion they Jerry is working as arrive at is that people ought to concentrate on Assistant Pastor offering practical help and donations instead of along side Ron tweeting and retweeting #PrayFor….. Skivington Whatever your view is concerning #PrayFor, you can agree with me that one lesson we can learn from its usage is the simple fact that people pray.