Weekly email Feb 23rd 2009

Morning everyone,

We're into the last week of the month, and gearing up for a couple of really exciting weeks, not least because we're starting to plan for Easter events and get ready for baptism and confirmation services.

Easter is now on the horizon, the shops have been selling chocolate eggs for weeks now, and Lent starts this week - are you feasting on pancakes tomorrow? There'll be a small change to Cafe Breathe during Lent, in that we'll run from 7 - 8 pm each week in Room 1 at TMC so that anyone that wants to can join the Lent studies at TMC from 8 onwards. In Holy Week we'll be running an extended cafe with an Easter story theme for the week. As part of my preparations for Easter, I'll be committing to updating my other blog (http://andytookthese.blogspot.com/) at least twice a week - we talked about prayer and fasting yesterday morning in the Yr9+ group at St P's and how Lent is there to help us develop self discipline in all sorts of fields.

This Sunday there's a circuit celebration for the Methodist churches in the area, and we have a celebration at St P's as well as we baptise 4 children and teenagers as part of the 10.30 service. If you aren't going to the Methodist celebration, please do come along and support the Rodgers family, Eleanor and Sarah. Confirmation is also now fast approaching, and there's a series of reminder dates on the youth blog here: http://totonyouth.blogspot.com/2009/02/confirmation.html. If you want to be confirmed, we need to know by next Sunday please so we can finalise arrangements.

And so on to this week:
Monday: It's the last of the confirmation classes tonight at 6.30 at St P's.
Tuesday: If you were at Rock Solid last Friday you'll know that one of the girls is having surgery today, please keep her in your prayers. (No name mentioned for privacy, many of you will know who she is). Please also remember those who will be worrying while she's in hospital - family and friends.
Wednesday: Ju Yeon and I will both be in George Spencer at Lunchtime for CU, and then heading for Starbucks where Rachel will join us. Ju Yeon will be there to talk to anyone who wants to have some say in what we do at Easter (sleepover, dawn service etc) and Rachel and I will be there to answer any last minute questions about baptism and confirmation, or to catch up for anyone who missed a session or wants to double check anything. You can talk to either or both of us!
Thursday: Ju Yeon is leading assembly at Bispham with support from me, and we're both in at George Spencer for Showcase after school. Cafe Breathe is on in the evening, but see above for the shorter times.
Friday: Play and Praise, GYM and Rock Solid are on at the normal times. Parents, please pickup from GYM at the back door as we'll be setting up for a drum workshop before RS. There are no extra spaces at RS this week, we'll open the register again from the week after.
Sunday: There's a service at St P's at 10.30 (see above) and Breathe is on at the usual time in the evening, 7-9 pm. There will be joint Sunday school groups again at St P's this week.

This week is also National Eating Disorders Awareness Week, and there is a really good website here - http://www.b-eat.co.uk/YoungPeople/Home. If you or someone you know is affected, this is a good place to start.

Looking beyond this week, the Alton Towers info is available to download from the Toton Churches website here: http://www.totonchurches.org/ - follow the links to the youth work pages and it's at the bottom.

In the meantime, have a good week and hope to see you around.

Andy