Anna's FirstServe Prayer Letter - November 28th-December 11th
Hello and happy December! Christmas season is officially underway and the decorations are up! It’s the most wonderful time of the year, but also the busiest! From weddings, to youth Christmas parties, to wreath making, to Carol service prep, it has been a hectic few weeks. Get comfortable because this is a lengthy one!
Personal Devotions
Over the last two weeks I have moved on from 1 Samuel to study Luke. This week I have been working through the Beatitudes in Luke 6. I have always enjoyed studying the words of Jesus, there is just so much to take away from every sentence. The Beatitudes are so applicable because they lay out for the disciple how regarding Jesus as our King translates into our daily lives and ethics. Jesus says that the poor, hungry, those who weep and those hated for His sake are the ones who are blessed. Why?
The poor must look to others for what they need. There is power and wisdom in this truth. Those poor in spirit recognise that they have no spiritual assets, and only receive them as the Holy Spirit works in their hearts and as they respond to Him. The hungry person seeks. We should be hungry to focus on Him and His righteousness as a hungry man focuses on food. Jesus promises to fill the hungry one with food that will both satisfy us and keep us longing for more. Those who weep will weep over sin and its effects. This mourning is the godly sorrow that produces repentance to salvation. When we weep like this, we can grasp a closeness to the Man of Sorrows, acquainted with grief (Isaiah 53 v 3). Finally, Jesus does not hide the fact that as Christians, we will face hardships for sharing the truth, but even in this we can rejoice and be exceedingly glad, because there is great reward in heaven for those who persevere and continue to run the race and keep the faith. (2 Timothy 4 v 7-8)
Christmas Craic!
I have had a lot of fun with the host couple I have been staying with for the last few weeks. They have a very strict rule that the tree goes up on the 1st December, so strict that all other plans are cancelled, no matter how urgent, followed by watching Elf. I arrived back from working at church on the Friday evening to being handed a Christmas jumper, socks and a hat and Christmas music blaring in the living room. There was even talk of recreating the iconic Elf spaghetti with maple syrup, but thankfully we all agreed that might be pushing it. It was quite an evening, but nice to have a bit of fun amongst all the chaos!
Youth
Youth work has become busy in the last two weeks as we begin to finish things up for Christmas. I was on Sunday school last Sunday, so we began the Christmas story with the kids and practiced through their nativity play, which they will do at the front of church next Sunday.
We also finished up SPACE last Sunday with a Christmas party, where we just played some games and ate food. We even went all out and brought the chocolate fountain which was great!
We will be finishing up Friday Frenzy and Oaks and Acorns for Christmas this week, so please pray for those who will attend those and listen to the Christmas talks given.
Wedding prep and wedding
Last Saturday we had a wedding at Regent for a couple in the church, so most of last week was spent decorating and preparing for that, which included some interesting tasks like ironing voil on the floor due to Regent’s lack of an actual ironing board, trying my not very arty hand at chalk boards with Claire, wrestling with what felt like millions of fairy lights as well as, you guessed it, setting out the chairs. I was also put on car park duty on the morning of the wedding, which wasn’t great considering it had been -5 degrees and had snowed the entire night previously. All that aside, the actual wedding went really well and it was really nice to be able to go and see all the work we had done for it come together, which was an answer to prayer!
Globe
On Monday evening Judith invited me to Globe. Globe is an international student cafe that runs every Monday in a nearby church where students can come and get to know each other and have a meal together. It was a brilliant way to get to talk to others my own age over a game of uno or just chatting in general, while also trying to stir up some faith based conversations!
Music
With all the Christmas events going on, I have been very busy playing piano and singing at various events at church. We had our ladies Christmas wreath making night on Saturday, which I will tell you more about below, where a group of five of us performed two songs during each session. I have also been playing during Sunday services, finishing up choir practises with the church Christmas choir for the carol services next week and I will be playing piano at both carol services. I also have the fun of playing piano at the Sprightly Seniors Christmas Party tomorrow! Matthew will be doing the talk so please pray for him as he prepares for this.
Homegroups
I went to a new homegroup last week, who happened to have their Christmas Party on which was great fun! I’ll be honest, there wasn’t much deep theological discussion this week, it was more like playing hum that tune and telling desperately bad Christmas cracker jokes, but it was a great time of fellowship and really nice to get to know people from church better.
Wreath making prep
I’ll say this as a disclaimer before I start this section - it should be common knowledge by now that I am not in any way gifted with crafts, and that theory has definitely been proven in the last week. I was put in charge of arranging all the foliage that we got given for the wreath making night, so most of last week for me consisted of chopping up people’s old bushes and Christmas trees, which made me feel like a complete grinch. I also went out on Thursday with two others from church to chop some holly from a nearby forest, which we concluded was probably not illegal, but it was best we stayed out of everyone’s eyeline. The things you do for the ministry…
Wreath making
We held the actual wreath making event on Saturday night, which went really well! We had two seperate sessions, one in the afternoon and one in the evening, so it was a long day, but so encouraging! We had around 70 at the first session and 50 at the second session. Four other girls from church and I sang two songs and then we had a short Christmas talk for five minutes. The talk was based on one of my favourite songs, which was one of the songs we sang afterwards - O come all you unfaithful by Sovereign Grace. I’m going to link the song below and would really encourage you to listen to the words. It has been such a great reminder that although we are unfaithful, we are broken, we are weak, God is faithful and He has provided us with the perfect sacrifice for our sin - Jesus, so that we may be presented holy and blameless before the Father. That we, though being unfaithful, may approach His throne of grace with boldness, forgiven and redeemed by His sacrifice.
Prayer Points
Please pray…
For those who attended the wreath making night, that what was said during the talk would make them think this Christmas, and that someone may come to know Christ as a result.
For the other Christmas outreach events coming up, including the Carol services, the Christmas breakfast and the various youth events.
As I leave Newcastle shortly and prepare to say goodbye to the friends I have made here.
Thank you so much for your prayer and support. God has left me in awe so many times this year already in the incredible ways He answers prayer, and I am so excited to see what He has in store in the coming months.
God Bless,
Anna x
“Look to the LORD and his strength; seek his face always.” 1 Chronicles 16 v 11
See you soon love Pap