Harvington
Baptist Chapel

For your diary

Mothering Sunday

26th March special service led by James Nicol. Flowers for all the ladies.

Fellowship Group

Tuesday 21st February 8 pm Andrew & Karen's home, last in winter series.

Good Friday Reflection

14th April 7pm in the chapel.

Easter Day

Hallelujah! 16th April 11.00am Hugh will lead our celebration.

Walk into Spring

Saturday 6th May 1 pm meet at chapel. Last time the top of Broadway Hill, this time the bottom, circular walk passing through beautiful gardens, a bluebell wood Buckland village and back to Broadway, a tea shop (well a farm that sells tea!) halfway and a pub at the end - what more could you want?

Any items for June newsletter by end of May please - many thanks!

EVER BEEN NUDGED?

The Microsoft Publisher programme gives the facility to 'nudge' a block of script or illustration into just the position you want it to be. Its not drastic but fine tuned action which does the job! When I look back on my life so far I am aware of the way God has kindly nudged me through

• the Sunday School at the Congregational Church in Heywood where I had been christened, to which I was sent irregularly
• the nuns at the Convent School in Rochdale
• confirmation in the parish church in Heywood
• Ted and Nora Fisher on the farm at Shop we went to on holiday
• the neighbours who invited my sister and I to a Billy Graham Rally in Manchester in 1961 – a wet and windy night when BG was ill and his brother-in-law spoke – what was said made so much sense and I went forward at the end to commit my life to the Lord
• ending up in Nottingham University accommodation office with nowhere to live because it had been decided, the day before I was due to start at the School of Agriculture, that I needed to do an extra Intermediate Year at the main campus. Perhaps the wife of a young Bank Manager who had committed suicide and wanted a student stay with her and her young children would have me? She did and through two students who lodged with her baby sitter I was invited to the Christian Union -- nudged again into a group with whom I felt totally in the right place.
• meeting Hugh!
• baptism at the Brethren meeting in Loughborough

I could go on with lots of nudges as we went to live in Nigeria, then Brunei, produced two children, ended up in Kent and had another. Hugh was a post-grad student and then started a business. We became thoroughly involved in a very small Baptist Church in our village and in village life in general. Then the bewilderment at having to leave Brook and move to Harvington. But our house was bought by the Monk family who used Bishops Move the removal firm and it felt as if God was saying, 'OK this is a big nudge but just trust me'. Twenty one years in Harvington have gone very quickly and we are filled with awe at what God has done for us and we thank Him for his amazing goodness. So what's the message? If you're being nudged, respond and trust God, you'll never be the same again!

Liz

From 'The Sacred Diary of Adrian Plass – ON TOUR'.

The context of this extract is that Adrian's fictional son (Gerald) is responding to a question that has been raised in a church regarding the credibility of someone's deathbed conversion experience. Gerald reads one of his famous scriptural rewrites for Evelyn whose mother has died having said that she would like Jesus to look after her – 'If he will have me.'

One of the criminals who hangeth there hurleth insults at him: ''Art thou not the Christ? Save thine self and us!''

But the other criminal rebuketh him saying, ''Do you not fear God, since you are under the same sentence? We are punished justly, for we receiveth what our deeds deserve. But this man has done nothing wrong.''

Then he saith, ''Jesus, wilt thou remember me when that thou comest into thy kingdom?''

Jesus replieth to him, ''Mmmm, like to, but, er, couple of points. Thou speaketh as though such an simple question might provoketh an simple answer. In fact it dependeth on such issues as thine specific and personal theology, the depth and quality of thine prayer-life in general and the regularity and faithfulness of thine quiet-time in particular. Moving on. As an pretty-well baseline condition, hast thou repented and made confession of thy faith and dost thou have the blessed assurance that one might reasonably expecteth from a truly born-again believer? Hast thou distinguished in thine own mind between spirituality and religion, and dost thou hold to an eschatological philosophy which embraces that which hath been divinely revealed by my words and by Holy Scripture? Speaking of which, hast thou undertaken appropriate exegetical study of those portions of holy writ that are pertinent to thine desire for salvation, oh, and – fancy that I should forgetteth such an crucial one – Canst thou offer written or circumstantial evidence that thou hast passed through the waters of baptism in an sound denominational setting?''

The man saith dolefully, ''I'll take that as a 'no' then, shall I?''

… Evelyn, if I was you I'd go and read how Jesus really spoke to that man,' said Gerald. 'I think you'll find it more or less boils down to ''Yes''.

A Thought

To each is given a bag of tools,
A shapeless mass and a book of rules,
And each must make, ere his time is flown
A stumbling block, or a stepping stone.

I don't know the author of this little poem. Someone wrote it in my autograph book a long time ago!

Chris

Once again I thank our chapel friends for taking me for a lovely day out in February. We went to see the snowdrops at Colesbourne Park. It was foggy when we started out, but by the time we arrived we were bathed in blue skies and sunshine.

To see the snowdrops of every size and description was a joy to behold. The looked like white sheets spread across the hills. Also the blue lake and waterfall were something! I walked that much my poor old legs almost went numb. But it was worth it. I must give thanks to God for in this world of sadness he puts a lighter side to enjoy and cheer us up. So I say many thanks and God Bless -

Irene

Recipe Corner

One sweet, one savoury this month as requested!

Easy Shortbread

12 heaped tbsp. Plain flour*
0.5 teaspoon salt
3 heaped tbsp. Caster sugar
1.5 heaped tablespoon ground rice
8 oz butter

1. Melt the butter in the pan, transfer to bowl.
2. Sieve flour and add with all other dry ingredients to the melted butter.
3. Spread the mixture on a Swiss roll tin, pressing down. Prick all over with a fork.
4. Bake for 30 mins at 375f (190c)
5. Sprinkle with sugar and divide into slices while still hot
6. Keeps well (if it has chance!) In an airtight tin.

* You can use all wholemeal plain flour, or white plain flour, or half of each.

Chris

In January Carolyn organised a soup lunch - which actually was much more than that! But as requested here is recipe, such as it is! for

Watercress Soup

2 packs or 2 largish bundles of washed watercress, chopped in food processor if you have one
1 mild finely chopped onion, and couple cloves chopped garlic
3 or 4 large potatoes, peeled and diced
Plenty of good chicken or vegetable stock (about 2 pints, add more liquid if needed
1 small pot cream (any kind, then again if you're not counting calories, a large one would work!)
Plenty of seasoning, including freshly grated nutmeg

Cook onions/garlic and potatoes for about 5 minutes in melted unsalted butter until pale and translucent.

Add stock and cook for further 10 mins, then add other ingredients, remembering to add cream slowly, stopping when desired shade of green!

This is even better for non veggies with some chopped grilled bacon sprinkled on top.

Special Birthdays

Recently both Lena and Flossie celebrated their 90th birthdays with us - at the other end of the scale we have one of our youngest members will celebrate his last birthday before starting school on 29th May.

BMS News

A very BIG thank you to Vicky who works hard to keep us up to date with Mike and Daveen's news. Please keep news of Trapia in your prayers. It is hard to believe living in Britain as we do, that anyone would get up at 1 am to watch the first rain fall! We talk about the driest winter here for years but we do not live that close to natures extremes to fully comprehend dependency on it for survival, as Vicky said at the AGM, atleast the animals can eat now even if there is not enough for a harvest.

Can you help? Stamp collection raised £9,800 in 2005 towards world mission, please keep collecting and putting your used stamps in box in porch. Other collectable items are