Prayer Night

Way back on the 9th we had a prayer night at ours. Jo arrived with 'three bags full' of wood and chopped up Christmas tree, so we decided to try and build the biggest indoor (fireplace) fire known to man! Before we knew it the fireplace was roaring! Just as we were thinking of praying Ros dad knocked on the door and offered to tow our broken down car to the garage...So our prayer was delayed for a little while! Those left waiting in our house watched a program about Free Range chicken, which brought up much good discussion when we arrived back. We then...finally...prayed! we prayed for each other and the different situations we were facing. We could feel Gods' peace enter the room as we sat in silence afterwards.

Secret Message

"Jesus' secret message in word and deed makes clear that the kingdom of God will be radically, scandalously inclusive. As we've seen, Jesus enjoys table fellowship with prostitutes and drunks, seeming to shift the locus of spirituality from the temple (which he says will be destroyed) to the table of fellowship and reconciliation."

"Yes, Jesus hid his message in parables: 'The kingdom of God is like a man who planted a seed... it's like a man who had two sons... it's like a woman who put some yeast in some dough.' But his message took root (like that seed), precipitated reconciliation (like that father and his younger son), and began infiltrating and transforming humanity (like yeast). And as a result, if you asked Paul, 'What is the kingdom of God like?' he didn't need to repeat Jesus' parables. Instead I have a hunch about what he would have said.

'Let me tell you a story about my dear friend Onesimus... Or better yet, 'Come with me to Colossae, and I'll introduce you to a community that includes two friends of mine, Onesimus and Philemon. I want you to get to know them and hear their story. Then you'll know what the kingdom of God is like.'

Is this beginning to make sense? Can you see how the secret message of Jesus is meant not just to be heard or read but to be seen in human lives, in radically inclusive reconciling communities, written not on pages in a book but in the lives and hearts of friends? Can you see how the kingdom, originally hidden in parables, began to be hidden in new places - in the stories of real people... Can you imagine yourself and your community of faith as a living parable where the secret message of Jesus could be hidden today."

Brian MacLaren's The Secret Message Of Jesus

Community Meal 2008!

Happy New Year!

Our first community Meal at the Newmans & Togwells' community house!
It was Megans Birthday and we all celebrated with an amazing birthday cake made by Emma!
After a great meal we broke bread and and shared wine together and took the oppertunity to finally pray for the Togwells and Newmans. It was my first time in he house at 'daytime' and the beautiful sunlight was shining in from the park view extending from their garden. We then prayed over all the rooms in the house. It was great to walk up the stairs and see people hidden in various rooms, scattered and praying all over the place in this truely beautiful house. So excited for what God has done, and its only just begun!
Megan, Poppy, Angel, Emma, Phil, Ian, Helen, Esme, Lewis bless you guys!
Amen!
J0N

New Years Eve House Crawl!

The 'Crawl' began at Jo's, with a huge feast beautifully decorated with candles and drapes!













Then it was on to Dewi & Sarahs...











...where magically we found ourselves in CUBA sipping margaritas and having salsa lessons from Dewi & Sarah...who also gave us a special salsa performace!











Lastly the party moved on to Dan's for more dancing, lots of balloons and the big
00:00!!

Games Night (27th DEC)

Dewi & Sarah hosted their second, (annual) games night! The evening began with Richard defending his title as world champion of 'Scene it', followed by 'Articulate', and then a poker game that took us long into the night, finishing at 3am with Gell claiming the victory by an 11 high card! :)
Great to see Hannah & Niall (below). Big thankyou to Dewi&Sarah!!
J0N

Togwells&Newmans House Warming Party! 22nd DEC!

The Big Christmas House Warming Party lasted all day from 11am till late/early where the Togwells and Newmans entertained 114 guests throughout the day in their new home! Heres yet another little extract from Toggietales...



"Pete and Alma (above) live a few doors away. When they arrived, Pete handed me a bottle of wine as a house-warming gift... I almost dropped it when I read the label - ACACIA HILL. "Why did you buy this wine?" I demanded, probably a little too crazily. Pete muttered something in reply, as I hurriedly explained... "We're thinking of calling our house 'acacia' - it's incredible that you would buy this wine... one, I admit, I've never heard of.""

...go here http://toggietales.typepad.com/toggie_tales/2007/12/christmas-house.html#more to read more!

I personally enjoyed the huge amounts of chilli con carne, and the whisky Phil offered us that came from the House of Lords! Also, a few things I descovered... a whole day of washing up without rubber gloves on can make your knuckles bleed, as I noticed with Phils!?! Also... Gell knows a thing or to about polotics and Dewi knows a lot about Cuban cigars! :)

Christmas Storytelling Night 2007

It was a very Christmassy storytelling night, with lanterns lit across the garden and the entrance way, to shine through the atmospheric mist that had surrounded our home. The aromic smell of mulled wine lingered in the kitchen, with lots of Christmas nibbles waiting on the table to be nibbled on. Children were the first to take part in the Christmas storytelling, and we all gathered around the fire to hear: Thomas' brilliant version of the nativity (very well read), Richard's very funny 'A Christmas Carol' (complete with a very humourous Scrooge voice), Ros' Syrian tale of a wobbly camel on his way to see the newborn king (complete with cuddly camel), Esme's trick of falling off the chair a number of times and the word 'candle' said wonderously throughout the evening, Oscar's tale of the Bible rolled up into a few sentences (very well done, Oscar), Abi's very own written and coloured-in story of the the birth of Jesus, co-read by Dad, Nick (they made an excellent team, and it was an excellent story) and the grand finale, Claire's reading of 'Twas the Night before Christmas' which made all of us feel very Christmassy and excited!



After that, some feverish work by some elves was needed to get the place ready again for the next set of storytellers, and just in time, the fire was re-lit and the mulled wine was...mulled...Again, wonderful stories were told - funny, moving, thoughtful, magical and inspiring. There were many times where we all had our eyes shut, listening to the voice of the storyteller taking us to a new and wonderful place. To begin the storytelling, we cut the Panettone cake and shared it round...Sue and Drew started us off with a double act of 'Mog's Christmas' - a very endearing tale that was very well told with some first class comic timing, Janet (my mum) read an extract from 'The Dean's Watch' by Elizabeth Goudge - about an angel looking over the earth on Christmas Eve night, remembering Christmas' past - again beautifully told, Catherine pulled out all the stops with various voies with her tale, 'On Angel's Wings' by Michael Morpurgo that had most people very moved by the end of the story, Richard read us the most dramatic part of 'A Christmas Carol', told very...dramatically, Ros read her made up poem about a wobbly stair, and had a fun time getting everyone to say what they thought was under the wobbly stair...We were also very honoured to have 2 friends who I work with come along too, who enjoyed the stories and meeting everyone. One of the girls, Claire, told us the Irish legend of King Lir and his four children, who were turned into swans - a very beautiful tale, told in a very magical way - so thank you Claire!



Thank you to everyone who came and to all who contributed something. Looking forward to next year!
Ros

Poker night at Sue & Drews!

Drew won.

19th December

We had already organised to all get together and pray for the Newmans and Togwells at their new house! Unfortunatly Emma was rushed to hospital very suddenly a day before, heres an extract of what Phil described on his blog...

"...the whole day was a cycle of trolley-trips to the x-ray department, injections (the morphine, an anti-nausea drug, a huge dose of dye just before one of the x-rays, a saline drip...), conversations with the Doc/s, and Emma writhing in bouts of pain or throwing-up. Not a lot of fun,\I must confess. And even less for Emma.

At the moment, they think it's something to do with her kidney. Maybe stones? Although the dye-x-ray didn't reveal what it should have done if that were the case. So now they want to do an ultra-sound scan... tomorrow morning... which means she's still in the hospital, while I'm back home with our girls, and with Helen and Ian."

Ros, Dewi, Jo and I decided to use this time to pray instead, specifically for Emma and protection over the two families. We met in the Togwells and Newmans new living room and prayed! During the prayer we felt a really moving sense of peace in the room and we spent some time sitting in silence in God's presence. Jo found a great verse which she read out as a proclaimation and prayer. (Hopefully she'll be able to add it to this section of the blog).

We returned home that night and barely an hour later we got a text from Phil saying 'I don't know what you guys prayed but Emma's just been discharged from hospital...a good thing :)'

Heres more from Toggie Tales...
"According to the gynae consultant, the blood test was ok... and the fact that she'd had an ok day was a fairly good sign. "You will need surgery," she explained, "but I doubt you want it before Christmas?" Silly question.

Emma's got to 'take things easy', which is easier said than done (we've already told her off a few times today!), but she's feeling loads better. She's got an appointment early in January, and we guess that the surgery will follow on from that?

...if the cyst-mass isn't completely gone by then, of course, which is what we're now praying for. We'd love you to join with us, and with Angel especially... "Jesus, make Mummy better." :o)"
Amen!

TOM & JO!

This is TOM & JO! They are two incredibly giving and exciting people!
They are... 'London-city Farmers'!
In January they will be moving to Malawi to establish a 'model farm', to teach
and train farmers productive techniques to pass on in their villages.

On the 8th Dec we invited them over to ours , where we all squeezed into our front room to pray for them, have pizza together and hear a bit about the amazing stuff they'll be up to!!

I think we were all quite blown away and humbled by what they'll be doing. Was great to spend good time with them!

You can keep informed of what they're up to by checking out their facebook page, 'Tom and Jo are off to Malawi'

Bollywood Bonanza

Ros performing with her Bollywood dance class at the town hall in Ilford.

Newmas & Togwells move in!

We've all been praying long and hard for this day and on the 30th November 2007 both families moved into their long awaited community house in Romford!!! It was amazing to step inside the house and have a guided tour around the many rooms, currently filled with boxes but soon to take shape into a place I'm sure God will use for many great things to come! Not too long after, Emmas' new, dream cooker arrived (not for cooking 'dreams' but food :) ) and so I took this picture to mark the occasion! Heres to the Togwells and the Newmans and their Community House!!
For more info... check out Toggie Tales (see link)

J0N

Jons BirthDay!

Thanks to all who came and celebrated with me on my Birthday at Beekash/ Golden Lion!
I had a really great night! I've been trying to upload a great video clip of us all dancing to 'THE BIRTHDAY SONG' but its not been converting to Quicktime too well. For now you'll have to put up with a pic of me with a cigar Dewi brought back all the way from CUBA!

Free Women!

I thought you might like to see a recent restauraunt bill of mine. I know what you're thinking: does he go there for the chicken or for the free women?!

Rich

Christmas DATES!

Thursday 20th DECEMBER - 'No Limits Texas Hold 'Em Poker' event at Sue and Drew's - two Poker tables, a laptop with all the stats you can shake a stick at, and a night to gamble away your fortune.



FRIDAY 21st DECEMBER - CHRISTMAS STORYTELLING NIGHT -
6.30pm - 7:30pm : Childrens Christmas storytelling
8:30pm onwards : Christmas Storytelling, Grown Ups
@ Ros&Jons - ***
Telling tales by a cosy fire with ***Mulled Wine and homemade treats
Please come and share your favourite Christmas tales. Children are very welcome, but please be aware there will be an open fire!!
As part of the night, we would like to ask if anyone wants to contribute a donation
to the Salvation Army, who take care of people who are especially vulnerable at Christmas, they are very welcome :)


SATURDAY 22nd DECEMBER - HUGE All Day Christmas Party (aka house-warming)
40 Kingston Road, 11am till late.


Thursday 27th Dec Annual Games night at Dewi & Sarahs from 7pm onwards

Pub

Due to people moving house, praying to move house, working extremely hard towards final exams, a baby being born, work pressures and more work pressures we decided to try and get together and pray for each other. Unfortunatly, because we're all so busy, none of us could make it...even the hosts! :) So myself, Richard and Dewi met in the pub instead!
Rich had just been to a Fairtrade meeting, and we had some great discussion about Fairtrade boroughs and organic cotton farming!
Looking forward to seeing people tonight!!
J0N

Lewis Newman!

Lewis Roy Newman was born last week on the 17th October 2007, 11:10am!
Congratulations guys!!!

GUANABARA

Storytelling For Small Ones

Storytelling for Small Ones had a theme this time - TREES! We went on a journey to Ghana in Africa and found out about the story of the cocoa bean - with ACTIONS! Then we sat in the garden and drew our favourite trees. As you can see from the photos, we made a forest out of them, with Esme actually BEING a tree, wrapping it all around her!

after that, we listened to a story about The Giving Tree under the lilac tree. It was very beautiful but a bit sad as well, because the tree gave everything she had to a boy she loved...

...Then we dressed up in the TeePee Tent (thanks to Jo) and told our own stories! As it was Will's birthday (hooray!) we also had lovely cakes (thanks to Emma) and sang 'Happy Birthday' really loudly :)

Many thanks for all those who attended - the next one will be on Saturday 20th October at 2pm! Hope to see you small ones there again...

16/9/07

On Sunday Dewi, Rich, Myself, Ros and Catheryn all headed over to Sue & Drews new lovely home for a chance to get down to some serious scripture!
We looked at 2 Kings Chapter 22, which brought up some great discussion about the importance of the Bible.

J0N