Cream Tea,  Saturday (26/07/08)

Another food fest, with scones by Appointment!

Sandra off to see the Queen (22/07/08)

Sandra Mattock (Oadby and Wigston Citizen of the Year 2008) is off to Buckingham Palace to see the Queen  on Tuesday. She will be taken to the event by the Mayor in his own limo to attend a garden party with the Queen.  

East Midlands Group (11/07/08)

The bi-monthly meeting of the East Midland's Churches took place at Central Avenue with ourselves, The Lighthouse, Selston, West Bridgeford and Trinity Lane Hickley represented.

After a time of prayer and worship the churches shared news and prayed for each other's needs. There are many encouraging things going on in the East Midlands at the moment. It's an exciting place to be. 

Sunday Night Alternative "Your Favourite Hymns" (06/07/08)

Graham put together and led the service in which people shared their favourite hymns, choruses, poems and readings and the reasons why they were so special to them. Kyle led the worship on the guitar with Alan accompanying on the African drum. It was a great service and we look forward to the next one.

Sunday Morning (06/07/08)

We had 38 people to the Sunday morning service, a record for a normal service. Get herre early for a seat!

BBQ (05/07/08)

Graham and Elaine ran the BBQ with a whole host of sausages, beefburgers and chicken on offer. they did a grand job and what's more, the rain held off until we had finished! We raised £78 for the building fund too.

Coffee Morning (05/07/08)

Phill and Carol hosted the coffee morning this month. Many thanks to all who brought such wonderful cakes and things to share. We had a great morning , despite the rain, and raised £78 for the Building Fund and charity.

Alan's Funeral (30/06/08)

The funeral took place at Gilrose at 10am Monday morning. It was a lovely sunny day which was apt to say goodbye to a lovely sunny man. Unfortunately, Alan Robinson was very unwell and unable to take the service, so Phill stepped in at the last minute.

The service was well attended, and Olive rang Phill afterwards to convey thanks from the family.

Death of Alan Sykes (22/06/08)

It is with great sadness we report the death of a much loved long-term member of the congregation. Alan had been a part of the congregation for many years, and a faithful attender. Despite sufferring from Parkinsons Disease over the last couple of years, alan still attended almost every week until fairly recently when  he suffered from numerous chest infections. He died peacefully on Sunday morning at the Royal Infirmary after a final bout of illness. He leaves his wife Olive and 2 grown up children. Alan will be foundly remembered for his great faith, commitment, prayer and wonderful jokes. He was heavily involved in music (which he loved) and healing ministries for many years.

The funeral is at Gilrose next Monday. We are planning to have a proper celebration of his life and ministry once the main hall is completed.

On the Road for Jesus and the CMA head for Ireland (14/06/08)

Zippy and Ellie (David and Elise) are heading over to Ireland on a week long mission with OTRFJ and CMA. A group of about 8 is heading over to Ireland by motorcycle and will be sharing the Gospel and carrying out various activities to show Jesus' love in actions as well as words. Please pray for them as they step out in faith in the Emerald Isle.

Death of Revd Hugh Thompson

It is with great sadness that we have to report the death of Revd Hugh Thompson, who was minister of Central Avenue in the late 1980s and early 1990s. He succeeded Bob Hartman at Junction Road and was the first minister of the church at Central Avenue.

Our thoughts and prayers go to his wife Dianne and her family. A short biography will appear in the next issue of the Grapevine.

June Coffee Morning (07/06/08)

We had a great morning on Saturday for our June Coffee Morning. Many thanks again to Graham and Elaine for running the vent and to those who helped in the kitchen. many thanks also to those who provided the cakes for sale. Many were sold before Graham even had a chance to get them out of the tins! We raised over £100!

BUILDING WORK PRESSES

The special insulation and pine cladding is all up and the recessed lights are now in place. The main hall is really taking shape. Well done to Alan and the Buiding team for all their hard work.

Work is progressing fast on the building. Have a look at the Building News tab for some new photoes.

The timeber cladding ready to be varnished

The roof is on and the tiles have been cleaned and put back on.

KAITLIN RETURNS TO THE US (12/05/08)

After seven months of hard work, Kaitlin, our Youth Worker from the USA has returned home. She has made a fantastic contribution to the church and made lots of friends here and will be greatly missed. She will be returning to the UK in the Autumn to take part in the MNet course and will be interned at another church in the Midlands.

CELEBRATION SERVICE (04/05/08)

Our first Evening service for a couple of years. We hope to have a  monthly service on the first Sunday of the month. Each service will have a different theme, content ans . structure. The first service was a good old fashioned praise service featuring a mixture of traditional and contemporary music. The next one will feature favourite hymns, poems and readings.

David led the service (his first time in leading at Central Avenue), and like Graham who led for the first time in the morning service, both did brilliantly.

COFFEE MORNING (03/05/08)

Another successful Coffee morning. thanks to Graham and elaine for running it and for all the cakes people brought in. A special thanks to Sandra and jan for the home made cakes too.

We are now looking at what charities to donate the money to.

KYLE AND MINDY ARRIVE (02/05/08)

Kyle and Mindy, our Missionaries from the US ahve arrived safely. They flew in to Birnmingham International Airport last Friday after a short stop over in Dublin. A little jaded after over 18 hours of travel, they soon started to look themselves by the next morning at the the Coffee Morning.

They were welcomed at the Sunday morning service and interviewed by Alan at the Celebration Service in the evening.

They are part of new Mission International and will be working alongside the church for 3 years in the first instance (though they hope to stay longer). At present, theyare living in the ground-floor flat next to the church.

Kyle first came to the church 5 years ago as part of our first Summer Team. Kyle and Mindy have been married 2 years and are expecting their first  child at the end of this year.

JOINT SERVICE WITH THE LIGHTHOUSE AND CMA 20/04/08

We had a great joint service with our Brothers and Sisters at the Lighthouse church in Oadby. It coincided with our Biker Service. We were priviledges to have the president of the CMA (Mike) give an address on what the CMA does. Pete (Sofa) also gave a powerful testimony and Jan sharedabout her miracle. Phill preached on faith in Action.

Many thanks to Fran for leading the worship brilliantly, and for Ricahrd for leading the service. Remember, Richard is getting ordained at the delegates's conference in June!

FELLOWSHIP GROUPS

After a long absence, the fellowship group has started off again. At present, we are meeting bi-weekly in member's homes and enjoying prayer, fellowship and study.

We have suffered from a lack of Bible Study Leaders for a long time, which is one reaswon why the Leanring Zone has been concentrating on Bible study skills for the last 12 months.

We now have soem new leaders who will be preparign and leading studies. As more people join the groups, we will launch new groups to keep the numbers in each below 10.

To date, we have met in David and Elise's house and at Graham and Elaine's house and were greatly looked after in each.

SUNDAY SERVICE IN REAR HALL

Until further notice, all services will be held in the Rear Hall. There is currently no access to the Reaar Hall from the front of the church and so you are requested to wlak down the side of the church. A ramp has been built to allow wheelchair access. No handrails have been fitted as yet owing to the access required to move materials into the church and building site area.

Please bear with us during this time. 

BUILDING WORK - THE ROOF COMES OFF! 01/04/08

See Building News tab for more pictures!

BUILDING WORK STARTS (30/03/08)

After the Sunday Service and a faith lunch, a group of volunteers and our friends who have been helping with the building work got started in getting the main hall eady for the building work.

The hall was cleared, the carpet tiles pulled up, the wall behind the baptistry demolished and the windows taken out. Building work is now well underway.

See Building News tab for more pictures!

EASTER BREAKFAST AND SERVICE (23/03/08)

Despite the harrowing experience of looking after so many kids for the weekend, Grahama nd elaine donned their aprons and valiently went to work producing another first class Easter breakfast. We were, as usual, packed out in the coffee bar, and the smell of bacon and eggs permeated the whole church.

We had a fantastic service with 50 people in attendance including a number of visitors. Jan had an impromtu music group for the preservice music made up of a number of kids from the sleepover. The kids spot went really well and the whole service had a great joyous feel. Essentially what easter is all about, a fresh start and new life.

What a fantastic weekend.

KID'S FUN DAY AND SLEEP OVER (22&23/03/08)

Our first sleepover at the church! Something Graham and Elaine have been planning for ages. We met up on Staurday morning and started the day by outlining the rules of the weekend, playing some games and some craft work. After lunch we headed off to the Meridian Bowls for an afternoon of ten pin bowling. Everyone had great fun and several of the kids scored over 100!

After tea (pizza and chips) and some more games we had our evening prayers and lesson led by Graham on the theme of "Light in the Darkness".

Following supper and rehearsals for the kids spot for the Sunday service, everyone settled down to sleep (eventually). It snowed overnight, and in the morning everyone helped etting the church back to looking more like a church and less like a tornado had passed through.

A special thanks to Elaine and Graham for all the behind the scenes preperation, fire drills, rules and all the other paperwork and planning they had to do. To Lynne, Sylvia, Kaitlin, Carol and Phill for helping out.

There are rumours that Graham and Elaine are thinking of another sleepover sometime in the next 20 years (Possibly after they have retired!). Stay tuned!

GOOD FRIDAY MORNING SERVICE (21/03/08) 

We had a really powerful and moving service on Good Friday morning, with an excellent attendance (25) including a lot of visitors. The service ran like our Chirstmas one, without interruption, simply telling the story of Jesus' Passion from the Gospel of Mark and a couple of moving poems. We were also blessed by someone making a commitment after the service. What a way to celebrate Easter.

CARE AND SHARE GROUPS (09/03/08)

Owing to the building work going on in the church building, the Learning Zone will be taking a break over the summer. What we will be doing, and hopefully putting into practice some of what we have been learning, is starting off our Care and Share Fellowship Home Groups. We will be running at least one group on Thursday evenings, but if we can get a couple of volunteers, we hope to be running groups at other times too. They will run at people's homes and the group will run it's own Bible Studies.

However, as part of our "Raise the Roof" campiagn for the summer, we will be encouraging each group to spend a lot of time in prayer, listening and waiting on God and asking for refreshment and power so that when we come back into the building with the new roof raised, we will be able to "Raise the Roof" in prayer and worship.

Great things have been happening in our church, even greater things are about to happen!

NATIONAL LEADER'S DAY AT HINCKLEY CHURCH (01/03/08)

Alan, Phill, Carol, Graham, Elaine and Kaitlin went to the Hinckley church on Saturday for the National Leader's Day. We had a great day of fellowship, inspirational worship, prayer and hearing of how greatly God is blessing our fellow churches around the country. God is doing some amzing things in our movement at themement.

There were talks on how the movement had reached where it is today, going back through the history of the Fellowship and the vision for churchplanting.

Many thanks to everyone who organised the day.

OADBY AND WIGSTON CITIZEN OF THE YEAR (24/02/08)

Many of you know just what a huge amount of work Sandra does, lokking after Maxine, running her ladies club, looking after her neighbour , making jams and serving in the coffee bar. Well, her next door neighbour was so thankful, she wrote a four page letter to the Mayor of Oadby and Wigston and as a result, Sandra has been made O&W citizen of the year.She will be receiving a plaque in May, and in July will be taken by limousine to see the Queen at Buckingham Palace! Well done Sandra, you deserve it!

March Coffee Morning (23/02/08)

A week early as the leadersare off to Hickley on the first week in march. Raised another £50 for the Building Fund. Thanks to Graham, Elaine, Sandra and Kaitlin for serving. Sandra for some lovely cakes, and Alan for the curry puffs!

Alysen's Farewell Service

We said goodbye to Alysen. There was a party with the Mum's and Tot's group and a farewell lunch at the church. Alysen is now Small Group Pastor at our Bourneville church. Many thanks to her for all her hard work here over the last two and a half years.