Stoke Ferry Methodist Chapel

The Stoke ferry methodist newsletter

Revd Matt Finch 01366 387602 mattfinch@pleko.co.uk

Jan 7th 11.00 Church Fellowship Service

Jan 14th 11.00 Hazel Miles

Jan 21st 11.00 Matt Finch

Jan 28th 11.00 Don Gates

Christmas is over; the New Year is upon us. All the turkey is finished off and the presents are now firmly part of our new post Christmas world (except for the ones we did not want). But just what is new about the New Year other than another number added to 2006? It would be easy to be cynical about the resolutions people make, the goodwill and good intentions as the clock ticks into 2007. However, I would want to say all the best in your resolutions and courage to be different in this next 365 days.

As a Christian working in several churches and having been in lots of different places around the world, it has always been clear to me at the heart of my faith is a God who is all for new beginnings. When I travelled India, I spent sometime with the Leprosy mission, where I saw people who had lost arms and legs to the awful disease. People who had for so long been unloved being of a new beginning and wanting to become a follower of Jesus. In Ibiza, where as part of a team, we saw many hundreds of young people, taking drugs and looking for their next partner to go to bed with. A sad place in many ways, yet, we also saw many people being offered a new start and a way out of their addictions through the Christian faith. And here and now in this community and the churches I serve, I see many people who are offered a new start and an opportunity to try again.

It is not that God offers a new start and then suddenly everything is ok. It is more that when our good intentions fail, when the swear box becomes full or the struggle being overweight continues, we are given the opportunity to try again, and again. In the knowledge that we are loved by the God who not only created this world but also created each one of us. If there is anything we can do for you in pushing towards changes you are trying to make this year please do not hesitate to contact us!

Every blessing in this New Year- say one for me! I'm off to give up caffeine for the two-hundred-and twenty-second time!

Matt Finch