Racing through the year with certain dates as markers can be challenging! Already we have sent out books for World Book Day to our children, mums are getting Mothering Sunday presents now and next week the Easter Eggs will start to go! This means that we are already a third of the way through the year.Time definitely appears to speed up year on year. More important though is the generous support that you all keep giving us. All these gifts that have gone out really do make a difference and are only possible because of you.With the Easter Holidays rapidly approaching we are pleased to be heading to Arundel Cricket ground again to spend the day with the Cricket Foundation. The families really enjoy their time there with activities based around sport and forest school. This is real change for some of the families who rarely get to play in open spaces. There are also farm visits to feed lambs, activity days and a host of other things all planned across Sussex to ensure that our families have the best of holidays.We are pleased that we have appointed an assistant practitioner for the Midhurst and Petworth Deaneries, who will join us on the 2nd of April. This appointment was made possible because of a very generous donor who has undertaken to support the work. This additional resource in these Deaneries will be a great benefit and we are very grateful to the individual concerned.With best wishes for Easter and many thanks for your continued support.Martin and the FSW team
Update from Kevin and Jen in Israel 24 January 2024 Dear Friends The Christmas season was subdued, with very few public events other than the traditional services due to the ongoing war. We thank the Lord that all our planned activities took place without interruption or incident. Our Church Services have restarted in Jaffa now that the Lutherans have reopened their church building, and so we return to Jaffa on Saturday mornings and then drive back to Jerusalem on Mondays. These trips entail leaving extremely early in the morning so that the drive is only 45 minutes and not two and a half hours, which is the standard time once morning traffic commences. It is also safer to travel earlier in case of rocket attacks, as you can at least pull off the road more easily than when you are at a standstill in traffic! Moving forward, and after much prayer, discernment, and discussion with our colleagues here, we intend to return to live in Jaffa on the 3rd of February. We will then assess what we can pick up again, what we will have to start all over, and see what opportunities there are to continue ministry in what looks to be a sustained period of war. On a positive note, we have a waiting list of young families who want to come to the toddler group ‘Little Lambs’ when it restarts, and many of our congregation will be returning to Israel in February. Please pray the Lord shows us where he wants us to focus our time. The year has flown, and we need to renew our visas. This process is never straightforward, and there will be added complications this year, with many of the public service departments understaffed due to the ongoing conflict and people called up to serve. Please pray that we can renew the visas without issue. Once we have the visas, we hope to be able to visit the UK to have a short break. It would be good to see folk, and so we hope to arrange something for when we come back, all depending on when the Visas are issued. Thank you for your continued prayer and support of the ministry here in Israel. We feel very upheld by your love and prayers and are praying for you all as well in your own ministries and Christian life. Blessings, Fr Kevin and Jen Please pray: · Give thanks for protection and provision during the time of war. · For the encouragement of people in Jaffa to restart Little Lambs and meet again. · For the Visas to be renewed without issue and on time. · For healing for Kevin’s back problems and renewed strength. · For our continued safety in this time of war. · For restarting the ministry in Jaffa and discerning the Lord’s priorities there.
March has been a busy month for our Church Pantries. On average we gave out 64 bags of food each week in the Church Pantry, 20 each week at Georgian Gardens and 8 each week at Rustington Primary School. A couple of new initiatives to tell you about. Our friends at "With You in Mind" have offered some free counselling sessions to our Pantry users and Steve and Jacqui from CAP are going to run some Money Coaching courses for anyone that feels that they would benefit. Our cupboards are looking quite bare, so if would like to help, we are very short of tinned meat, tuna, jam, hotdogs and toilet rolls. Thank you so much for your support every week. The Pantry Team