United in Jesus

A lady who regularly meets with us at the United in Jesus celebration events we hold, and with a clear heart for the area surrounding us in Townhill Park, Southampton; has forwarded a request seeking help for a planned outreach into Townhill during the school summer holidays. Obviously time is short, and a committment of help is needed before she can continue to turn the plans for the event into a reality. Therefore if you will prayerfully consider this request, should you be willing to offer your service, please contact her in the first instance. Her email address is: helenpain@btopenworld.com

The following is the message forwarded to me:

Outdoor Community drumming event in Townhill Park, July 28th, 5.30-8pm

Many of us have been praying for the people of Townhill Park for some time but few of us live there, so it is difficult to get to know people. I am convinced that any venture in Townhill Park must aim to encourage people to discover their talents and enable them to grow in confidence through leading any initiative, with ourselves acting as ‘servants’ – facilitating and supporting. I believe that this approach will enable the gospel to be shared naturally and in a way that people can engage with.

This approach requires building relationships of trust, and the event on July 28th will, I hope, be a first step towards us forming some relationships as well as providing an enjoyable evening for people of all ages.

It will comprise participatory drumming with African drums, led by an organisation who is experienced in such events, and who claim that they always ensure people are having fun! We will also need some craft activities, such as making shakers or streamers, and some squash and refreshments.

There is great urgency in this appeal for assistance, due to the short time scale which was unavoidable in order to have the drummers. Please could you ask as many as you can, to offer whatever help they feel they can offer.

Help required:
We need named people within the next few days for the following:
Some people willing to be part of the organising committee
First aider
Safety officer: a fancy name but this person has to think about health and safety issues and be alert and responsible for any problem that arises on the day.
‘Noise level’ steward: all immediate households will be specially invited but this person would be the first-line mediator if a resident came to complain.
Fire safety officer: we will need someone to have a portable fire extinguisher (not sure is this has to be a proper one or a bucket of water!!)
Someone who can design and print about 500 fliers and 15 posters for the event.

We also need:
Stewards on the evening: about 30
People to deliver fliers to all residents in Townhill Park
People to take responsibility to organise either the refreshments, craft activities or some other suitable activity
A megaphone
30 badges for the stewards (or loan of a badge-making machine).

Please pray that the Lord will prompt enough people to make this event an effective way for more Christian contact with those who live in Townhill Park. Thank you.

Helen Pain
Email: helenpain@btopenworld.com

We would like to announce that our next celebration meeting will be held at Moorlands Community Centre, Townhill Way, on Friday 4th July at 7.30pm, and all are warmly invited.

As always, there is no agenda other than to openly celebrate our faith in Christ by worshiping Him together freely. We will also set aside time during the meeting to pray for the local community, our churches, our local schools, and our own families, that Jesus be glorified through all.

The meeting will close with light refreshments and the opportunity to get to know one another on a more personal level, that we may begin to work side by side more closely in seeing the Kingdom of God established where we are.

Please feel free to bring along children, friends or relatives, saved or unsaved. But please be aware that our main priority is to minister to the Lord first and foremost, so our fullest effort and focus will be on acheiving this task. Please be aware that those who are not fully committed to seeking and serving the Lord may find this atmosphere quite uncomfortable.

At last we now have facility in place to establish a proper online “community” at United in Jesus, and it is called “United in Jesus - Live!”

Although the main website will remain unchanged, the online community will run as a secondary website within the United in Jesus webspace, and will be totally interactive for every registered user. To register takes only a moment, and simply requires half a brain and a valid email address!

The benefits of registering as a user are:

• Each user will have their own blog within the “Live!” community, and each time they make an entry, it will be syndicated through the rest of the site.
• All users will be able to make important announcements that take prime place on the front page of the site.
• All users can create their own user polls on any subject they wish, ask any questions they wish, and give a range of options to vote upon. The polls results will then be available publicly.
• All users can start up a threaded forum topic to open debate with other users on any subject, also they will be able to reply to existing threads.
• All users will be able to send and receive emails directly to and from other users, without having to disclose email addresses to one another. United in Jesus-Live! simply acts as a go between.
• All users can share their testimonies about the wonderful things God has done in their life directly through the site, and also a place for prayer requests is also being put into place.
• All users will have direct access to a host of quality RSS feeds on varying topics that are syndicated directly from external sites.

It is our hope to create a thriving online community at United in Jesus that knows no boundaries, but creates an intimate family atmosphere. Please take the time to register, and actually make use of this service, for you may be very surprised at the distance this content realistically travels.

God bless,

John Dunning.