Dear Friends

School’s out for Summer.

What a week, School leavers service in church plus events in the school. All lovely.

This comes on the back of our very successful Messy Church ‘Wild and Weedy’ last Sunday. What a lovely time we had, thankfully all outside – not too hot, not too cold – just perfect for the amazing and ‘messy’ activities we had to engage with. The ‘interactive’ Parable of the Sower brought all our activities together and we had a wonderful picnic with the children eating their fruit and veg kebabs they had made as one of their activities.

We will not be having a Messy Church in August so our next Messy Church will be at St James on 20th September.

We have our Community Dog Walk from St James on Sunday (26th) from 2.30 pm. I’ve looked at the weather forecast and although warm, it is not too hot to walk dogs, so that should be ok. If you want to walk but don’t have a dog, please still join us. If you don’t want to walk ,please join us at the church from 3.30 pm for cake and chat.

On another note we have a wedding on Saturday at St James for Michelle and David. David has very kindly used his firm to repair and paint both our gates to the church and they look really beautiful. Please spare a prayer for them as they begin their married life together on Saturday.

On Wednesday this week Places4People (the developers for the Harlow and Gilston Garden Town) came and did a volunteering day at both St Botolph’s and St Mary’s and the local village hall. They did a fantastic job of clearing around the front of St Botolph’s and around the church itself of weeds and they also tidied up all the yew bushes. It looks so lovely as you walk up to the church now. At St Mary’s we had a team that cleaned up the inside of the church, weeded the path up to the door and moved lots of wood that had been cut down ready for it to be taken away. The church smelt really fresh and lovely and again looked really lovely and cared for as you walked up the path.

At Gilston and Eastwick Village Hall a team were painting the inside foyer and toilet area. A big shout out for Places4People using their volunteer day this year for helping us.

As we go into the weekend we have our usual services:-

9.30 am Communion service at St James, High Wych

11.15 am our Family Service at St Botolph’s, Eastwick.

I hope I see you very soon. If you are going away on holiday, may God bless your time away with fun, relaxation and refreshment.

Every blessing

Alison