Weekly Newsletter

Dear Church Family

PRAYER CHANGES THINGS!  I’m writing this on the evening of our May Day of Prayer and Fasting, and it has been a really fantastic day!  We spent an hour in Staff Meeting coming before The Lord to worship Him and pray for his church.  We read from John 14 about Jesus’ promise to send The Holy Spirit. We asked the Holy Spirit to guide us in our praying and we waited. We shared our joys and concerns with Jesus and we listened for His voice, and we heard Him speak into our hearts and minds – prayer is always two way, we can speak, but we must listen too!

And then … we’ve just finished our regular Christians Against Poverty (CAP) Prayer meeting where a number of people from our local churches join together on Zoom, to pray for our Swale CAP Debt Centre and Clients.  Again we worshipped, listened, and interceded; and again we experienced the power and presence of The Holy Spirit who reveals God’s heart for this ministry. Tonight we heard from Wendy the Centre Manager, that, out of the 9 Clients who started working with us this year, only 1 has not been able to go through to the end of the process, 1 is debt free already, 3 are at the point of deciding which route out of debt is best for them, and 4 have submitted all the paperwork to Head Office for their help and guidance. This is a really big change as normally at least a third of clients drop out even before the first visit!  Prayer really does make a difference!  If you don’t yet get the CAP Prayer letter and would like to pray for this aspect of our church’s ministry, please do email wendymartin@capuk.org  

In both times of prayer we heard The Lord speak so clearly into the situations we were bringing before him and in both times we were reminded of His goodness and mercy.  In particular this morning we spent time reflecting together on some of the prophetic words and pictures we have already been given, and there’s one we wanted to share with you again.

Jesus says to us at HTSB:

‘As you reach out to me,

my Spirit will flow greatly among you,

my power will strengthen you,

my love will heal you,

my grace will refresh you and renew you

for I AM building my church among you.’

This word was first given in the Autumn of 2021, but this morning it seemed even more wonderful and encouraging to us, because we could see how God has kept His promise over some very exciting and some very tough times!  

We pray that you too will spend time listening to The Lord for yourselves, your family, our church and our local communities as we continue to celebrate what God has done and is doing amongst us week by week!

Here are some things you may like to make a note of:

Just a quick reminder that our APCM (Annual Parochial Church Meeting) is at 7.30pm on Monday, 13 May in Holy Trinity Church.  Everyone is very welcome, but you can only vote if you are on the electoral roll.

Eileen James’ funeral will be at 2pm on Thursday, 16 May at the Garden of England Crematorium, Bobbing, followed by refreshments at Holy Trinity at 3pm.

Are you interested in being confirmed?  Confirmation is a mark of Church of England membership, and our deanery will be holding a confirmation service in September 24.  Email office@htsb.church if you’re interested.

With our prayers,

Ann and The Staff Team