WHEN IS A CHURCH NOT A CHURCH …..
..when it is a Fish and Chip Shop!!

Yes, Woodlands was turned into a Fish and Chip Shop for the week beginning the 26th July and, it can be safely said, everyone had a marvellous time.
We had 40 children attend who not only came on time each day but arrived 10 to 15 minutes early, because they were so eager to come! It was called ‘Rocky’s Plaice’ and the whole week was centred around the story of Peter and what happened to him after the death and resurrection of Jesus. Each day was a different story – Ascension; the coming of the Holy Spirit; the healing of the man who could not walk; the story of Dorcas and the story of Cornelius.
We had craft sessions; singing; story telling; DVD; Games; Bible work and drama. The story telling and the Bible work both emphasised the same Bible story and the DVD also told the same story again in a different way. The drama was acted out by three of the leaders – Jennifer Maratos, Carol Sills and Nigel Bunce and told the story of two trainee chefs aiming to become Superstar Chefs. The whole thing was highly amusing with a lot of slap-stick and comedy, which all the children and the other adults really enjoyed.
We really couldn’t have had the Holiday Club without the help of people from AURC and also friends who do not actually come to our Church. To all these people, we are extremely grateful. Once again, the children who came were really well behaved and joined in everything we did with great gusto and were really disappointed when the week came to an end.
Our thanks go to all who helped provide the resources for the week, both in money and in answer to our appeal for specific items.
We do hope that through the activities of this week, we have helped the children who came to learn more about the Christian faith and more about Jesus and that some of the things which they have learned were be taken home to their families.

NEWS FROM AQUABOX

In June we delivered our latest three filled Aquaboxes to Wirksworth. This will be our last delivery on behalf of the church for a while, although we will continue to maintain contact with the centre to deliver the many generous donations we receive. Indeed, on this visit, as well as supplying many items for the filling of boxes, thanks to money received we were able to purchase two Aqua 30s, the water units intended for schools and communities. We as a family also bought a standard Aquabox.
Recent reports have highlighted the poor response to the Haitian earthquake disaster by the international communities, but Aquabox reacted swiftly to the emergency, and continues to do so. No less than 2600 boxes of aid, and 83 Aqua30s were sent out. And the work doesn’t stop. See www.aquabox.org for the full extent of their activities.
The all new Community Aquafilter Unit
We were surprised to find that the Wirksworth centre has expanded yet again. We knew it originally as one unit in an industrial estate, it has now taken over three units! The reason for this is an exciting development in the water purification process, promoted by The Safe Water Trust and Cleadon and District Rotary Club. They have developed a new reverse osmosis pump filter system that is replacing the old chemical purifiers. The pumps have a very long life, using filters that can be re-used again and again. Two years of trials have resulted in the need for the new pump assembly area that we saw at the centre. The new Aquafilter Family box will deliver 1 litre a minute and serve a family for two years, whilst the Aquafilter Community box (replacing the old Aqua 30) will deliver 300litres/hour. for a total in excess of half a million litres. That works out as £1 for a minimum of 2000 litres of pure water that exceeds the EPA standards. Not bad. In fact, fantastically good.   Jim and Kate

CHRISTIAN AID COLLECTION 2010

A very big thank you to all of you who contributed so generously of your time and money during Christian Aid Week! Special thanks go to our band of hard working collectors who have the difficult job of knocking on the doors, although this can be quite rewarding. Also the team of bankers, who share the load of counting and banking the money, do a great job and make your organiser’s job considerably easier.

In addition £1,627 of the sum collected was Gift Aided.
The total of £4428.59 shows an increase of 19.6% over the 2009 figure, which is very pleasing.

AFTERNOON TEA May 22nd 2010

The Pastoral Group would like to thank everyone who contributed in so many ways to make this such a successful event. It was again good to see over 70 members of AURC gathered together and enjoying themselves. Thanks must also go to all those who kindly made a donation as the sum of £255.00 was raised. This was divided between the Tikwere Nursery School in Malawi and the Lutheran School in Bethlehem.

Thanks from the Jovwira Foundation

(Tikwere Nursery School)
The Guild has recently donated £60, which is to be put towards kitchen equipment at the Tikwere Nursery School. Queen Gondwe wishes to thank all members of The Guild for this very generous gift.

LUNCHEON CIRCLE CELEBRATES

On April 16th the Luncheon Circle celebrated its 25th Anniversary when Graham Brady MP was invited to make a presentation to Kath Napier-Hemy. Kath has led the Luncheon Circle since its inception 25 years ago and its success is very much due to all her hard work over the years. Although she has recently handed over the reins, it was felt appropriate to recognise her service at this occasion.

The presentation consisted of a bouquet of flowers and a framed picture which included beautiful words entitled the ‘Circle of Love’.

NEWS FROM THE TIKWERE NURSERY SCHOOL, MALAWI

Following our fund-raising, mainly at the Beetle Drive and Hot Pot Supper in February, the Tikwere Nursery School now has a roof. Queen (Ed Gondwe’s mum) has written on behalf of Jovwira Foundation to say how grateful she is and wishes thanks to be passed on to you all. The photograph below shows the new roof which has now been painted red and you will find other photographs on display at Woodlands.
We will continue to raise funds until the school is fully completed with doors, windows, flooring, toilets, kitchen, outside play area etc and donations can be given to Sue Jesson at Woodlands at any time. We are also still collecting pens and pencils and we have asked Queen to let us know what equipment would be most useful. We will keep you posted on the progress of the building and what else we can do as a church to help this very worthwhile cause being pioneered by the Jovwira Foundation.

TRINITY HALE INDOOR BOWLING CLUB

This year we managed to get new members and our time bowling has been very enjoyable and exciting.
The Jeff Yates Shield was a very good match final between Gordon Harrison and Stan Davies. After eight ends it was a draw and so a deciding end was played which Stan won by one. Everyone enjoyed watching and we appreciate the support of old members and Revd Brian Jolly who kindly presented the Shields.
Once again our Coffee Morning was very well attended and successful. We have to thank the church members for all their support and help. We hope everyone enjoyed the morning as much as we did.
It has been a very good Season and we look forward to re-starting on the 1st of October.

EASTER BREAKFAST AT WOODLANDS

The breakfast was, as usual, extremely enjoyable and successful. There were 28 adults and children present and the food was admirably cooked (as usual) by Jennifer and Mike Maratos and for this we thank them!

HAITI DISASTER APPEAL

During January collections were held at both our churches raising the splendid total of £1265. A large proportion of this was Gift Aided increasing its value to £1544.23. In addition a donation has been made from our Communion Benevolent Fund of £300 giving a grand total of £1844.23. More good news is that the G7 nations have cancelled Haiti’s debt and they are urging the IMF to follow suit.

HOT POT AND BEETLE DRIVE AT WOODLANDS

Saturday the 13th February, saw us celebrating St. Valentine’s Day with a Hot Pot Supper and a Beetle Drive. It didn’t matter that we had to explain to a lot of people just what a Beetle Drive was!
There were about 53 people (old and young) present and, I think without exception, everyone enjoyed the fun involved in a Beetle Drive. The food, as usual, was excellent – various forms of Hot Pot followed by cakes and drinks.
The purpose of the evening was to raise money to be put towards the cost of a new roof for the Tikwere Nursery School in Malawi, so you can imagine our delight when, at the end of the evening, we found we had raised £630 – enough for the roof, doors and locks.
One of the highlights of the evening was the fact that our member Ed Gondwe’s father, Geoff, had returned to Manchester to be present at this event and he was able to talk to us and explain a little more about the Nursery School. He stressed, that the roof is not the end, there is still the floor to be put in, windows, kitchen, toilets etc., before it can be called complete.
Thank you to everyone who supported this event in any way and let us hope that we can raise further money for this cause whilst also having a good time together.

The Outward Giving for 2009 was as follows:-

Christmas Collections
In addition to the above outward giving the following amounts were raised over the Christmas period:-

This was rounded up to £840.00 to be distributed equally between our 2 nominated charities.

As such this resulted in additional donations of £420.00 being made to the Genesis Appeal and the Counselling & Family Centre, Altrincham (formerly Family Contact Line)