A Testimony Page 3

News of the Church Family Page 6 Church Meetings / Dates for your Diary Page 7 Letters and emails Page 8 Ealing Foodbank Page 9 Shirley Goodnest Page 10 Chinhoyi Page 11 In the beginning . . . Page 16 Ealing Churches Winter Night Shelter (ECWNS) Page 19 To Autumn Page 20 Collection Point Page 22 Rotas Page 24

W5 5QT

November 2018

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EALING GREEN CHURCH (Methodist and United Reformed)

Ealing, London W5 5QT Telephone (020) 8810 0136

Web site http://www.ealinggreenchurch.org.uk/ Email egcadministrator@btconnect.com

egcsecretary@btconnect.com Contributions to Unity unitymagazine@hotmail.com

Ministers Rev. Rachel Bending 07986 461787 Rev. Susan Male Church Office Manager Mrs. Sarah Hunter (020) 8810 0136 Church Secretary Position Vacant Church Secretariat Hector Chidiya Choir Leader Mrs. Fleur Hatherall (020) 8248 6774 Organist Mrs. Fleur Hatherall (020) 8248 6774 Communion Steward Ms Nora Masih Unity Magazine Mr. Lee Horwich (020) 8567 2851 Unity Distributor Mr. Peter Chadburn (020) 8537 1966 Ecumenical Officer Mr. David Groves (020) 8933 8315 Bible Reading Rota Church Administrator (020) 8810 0136

The Church Office is open on weekdays between 10am & 3pm except on Wednesdays, when it is open 1pm – 6pm.

UNITY contributions:

All contributions gratefully received. Please email them to: unitymagazine@hotmail.com

Last date for contributions for December’s Christmas issue - so I don’t have to rush it too much - Sunday 11th November

If you are new to the church, the following groups meet on a regular basis, either weekly or monthly: Afternoon Bible Study Thurs (date TBA) 1.30 pm Monday Fellowship (fortnightly)

2nd & 4th Monday of each month

2:00 pm

Choir Practice Friday 7:00 pm Luncheon Club Thursday 12:00 am-1:15 pm

Full details can be found in the weekly notice sheet

You are welcome to come to any meeting.

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A Testimony from Sue Dear Friends

After I gave members at Ealing Green Church my testimony during a morning service, it was suggested that I put the sermon in the next Unity magazine. So here goes … and whilst I am putting it together for Ealing Green, I will do so for Kingsdown too, especially as you have only heard the shortened version! This version too is truncated but needs must …

I grew up in Baughurst near Basingstoke, with my parents and my younger brother. My parents, though believers, do not attend church, but sent the two of us to Sunday School at the local Anglican Church, saying that this was what they had promised when we were baptized.

I grew up partially through the Sunday School and partially as a choir girl (though we were always called Choir Boys in those days), an altar server, and a Sunday school helper. At different times I had contact with the Methodists because for a time we had joint Sunday School with them, and also as a Choir we had joint evening services.

I was confirmed when I was 11. My brother was confirmed when he was 11, and I was 13, and he then decided that he had done church and stopped attending. Probably because I attended without parents the people there took me under their wings in all kinds of church activities, and the church became like a second family……..another place, as well as home, where I could go and feel accepted.

By 16 I was teaching the youngest children in Sunday School, and also visiting different denominations to find out what the differences were, an interest which has remained with me, and fed me, ever since, extending as an adult to an interest in different Faith Groups, as well as different denominations.

At 16 I left school for a sixth form college for three years. The first year was spent re-sitting my O Levels since I had only passed four on leaving school and this was not enough for A Levels. Sixth Form widened my experience. With friends I continued an interest in Christianity, but also hung out in the social studies library, discovering, like many teenagers of the day, left wing politics.

When I was 19 I was reading a book by Karl Marx about his views both on Education and on Religion. I know that I thought that rebellious because I knew that he believed that religion was the Opium of the People. I am sure all would have been well had I not woken up one morning during that nineteenth year to discover that I had lost most of the sight in my right eye overnight, and out of the blue. (The same thing happened with the left eye two years later). My sight was much worse then than it is now – not because things have got physically better since then, but because I have adapted, as has technology. The condition I have, called Starguardts Disease, is also called Juvenile Macular Degeneration. It is genetic, but symptoms are like those that some older people experience with Macular Degeneration.

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When this happened to me I was totally rocked. I think it took me at least 10 years to fully find myself again, and to adapt. At the time, and remember I was only 19 and would not think this now, I believed that God had taken my sight away because I had been reading communist books which he did not want me to read. I believed he was punishing me. I was very hurt, bitter, and angry – with God and the World. I stopped going to church. No-one ever came to ask me why, and I grew more and more angry with God. I never stopped believing in him, but simply shouted at him and shouted at him and shouted at him.

Somehow during this upheaval, I still managed to look to the future. I was well supported by family and friends, including Phil for a great part of it. God MUST have been in there too looking back, but I did not know that at the time.

At 19 I started to attend Teacher Training College. I qualified when I was 23, by which time I was already engaged to Phil, who was doing a Geography degree at the same College. Phil and I lived briefly in Highgate where I had my first teaching job, and then moved to Leighton Buzzard, getting married when I was 24. As a teacher, still bitter and angry about my sight loss, I found myself wanting to discourage faith, and ashamedly admit that I did so.

In Leighton Buzzard we moved into a ground floor maisonette below Kevin (not his real name). Kevin was an alcoholic and was quite difficult to live under. We were young and did not know how to deal with it. I used to tell him that he could not depend upon God to help him get better, as he supposed, because the only person who could help him was himself! This was all based upon my own feelings that God would not help me with my sight loss.

Kevin had begun to attend Trinity Methodist Church in Leighton Buzzard, and was attending a confirmation class. He used to show me the handouts his minister gave him. I used to read them and enjoy tearing their arguments apart for him. I was good at it. I had a strong church background and knew my stuff! The only trouble (or perhaps blessing) was that God was stronger than me. I would spend Sunday afternoon tearing apart the confirmation classes, and then travel into London to school on the Monday morning each week. As I sat there for the long journey each week I found myself picking holes in my own arguments of the day before. Week by week this continued, and week by week I began to refute my own anti-Christian arguments just a little more, until bit by bit, and with some discomfort, I realised that I was beginning to respond to God again. That is not to suggest that I was in a good place with him. I was not!

On one occasion when we had found living under Kevin difficult because of his alcohol dependency, Phil and I felt out of our depth, and asked if there was anybody who he trusted enough to allow us to talk to about the situation. He agreed that we could approach his minister. Consequently, we got to know her, although having heard about my antics with the membership class topics, I don’t think she thought we were ripe for conversion. She was, however, wrong. One week, Kevin dared me to go to church, and I decided to go on the basis that I wanted to spy on the woman minister. I had never come across one before and

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wanted to see what a woman minister was like! An interesting idea - but I guess my future is all her fault!! 😊

I went to the church and sat in the balcony. The Minister was leading a Eucharistic Service, which made it familiar to me, having been Anglican where every week was Communion. It came to the point when people were called to communion. I came down with the others, but was not in a good place with God, and therefore did not receive, instead going for a blessing. That is of course an Anglican interpretation, not Methodist.

I knew nothing of the Charismatic movement and nothing of the Holy Spirit. I was, and am, a very reserved and quiet person. I had no inking of what was about to happen to me. As I knelt at the communion rail, I received a blessing from the minister - and much more than that from God. As I knelt, I felt God’s power rush through me in a way I had no comprehension of. I felt myself, though kneeling, thrown (gently) backwards, and would have fallen if I had not grabbed the communion rail to support me. Nobody would have known what was going on, but at the same time I heard a voice within me, which I knew instinctively was God. It said, “This is where I want you!”, a phrase that stayed important later also as I discerned my Call to ministry. And it became rather a question of which side of the communion rail God wanted me! At the time of that service, I had not attended church for some 6 years. After it I attended weekly. I never looked back. I just wanted to be where God wanted me to be.

It was not easy, and I was not easy! I was still disturbed by my sight loss, still angry, still bitter and scared! I rebelled in the church community – especially in my reactions to Jesus’ healing ministry, to the church’s healing ministry, and to the Biblical stories of healing. Although I feel called to healing ministry, I STILL find it hard. That is another story, but perhaps I think, I am called BECAUSE I find it hard!

The church simply welcomed me. They offered to listen. I rejected them. Eighteen months later I sought out the people who had offered - and they listened. So it is worth being patient!

As time went on, this WAS 28 years ago, I began to grow in the church. It held me, it nurtured me, it trusted me, and gave me opportunities to explore myself and God. I taught junior church, led the youth group, was a church steward, and became a local preacher. They allowed me to grow through all of that. Although I had been very difficult at the outset, they did not make me wear that badge forever, but allowed me to develop and grow, something for which I will be eternally grateful and share for its importance to any church community.

In short form I candidated I for the ministry with their support, entered foundation training and pre-ordination training, completed it, and began ministry in Harrow and Hillingdon in 2008. I was where God wanted me.

Now I am here and again I feel I am where God wants me. More than anything in the world, I want to be where I can help others to grow as my church helped me to grow in relationship with God whether through Boys brigade, Sunday

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worship, Contacts with people through Night Shelters and (hopefully) Food Bank Café’s, care homes, the university, anywhere!

So that’s the (truncated) story of one person’s journey (so far) with God, a God who is still at work in all of us, moving us forward, opening us up to each other, to himself, and to others.

Let us enjoy this together!

With many blessings

Sue

News of the Church Family Please pray for Peggy Allaway who is fairly well in herself, but remains rather unsteady on her feet, so she does not go out. She manages well with the help of carers. Peggy reminded me that she prays for all at Ealing Green every day in her quiet time. She sends her thanks for Church flowers, prayers, phone calls and messages.

Eileen Johnstone, (Charles Kenny’s wife) has just had surgery. Please pray for her speedy recovery and relief of pain.

We send our sympathy to Ann Hughes, and her family, on the death of her mother, Shirley Phimister who attended Ealing Green for many years.

For several months, we have been pleased to welcome Nyarai’s mother, Betty, to our Services at Ealing Green. However, she returns home to Zimbabwe on 30th October. We will miss her. Please pray for good health and a safe journey for her.

On the 24th October, Penny Pedley was, at last, expecting to have her hip surgery. Please pray for Penny for healing, as she recovers from her operation.

We pray for those mentioned above and for all who carry the burden of illness and for their families and friends.

Gill Hatherall

Don’t worry about avoiding temptation. As you grow older, it will avoid you.

Winston Churchill

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I was going to write and say what a lovely late summer we are having. There has been just enough rain to keep the average up, but happily we had it all in a couple of miserable days and that's left the rest of the time with mostly sunny skies and warmish, at least for October, days. But today it's still sunny, but the wind has changed, so it's coming from the north. A reminder that summer is over and cooler times are coming.

There's a lot of instability around at present (do I hear the word 'Brexit'?). The present economic situation, despite politicians claiming that Austerity is at an end and Universal Credit is a good thing being well executed, which is not promising for many around us. The Food Bank is one way of helping out and there are a few words about it in this issue of the newsletter. Please think about it when you are next food shopping.

The other thing is the ECWNS, otherwise known as the Ealing Churches Winter Night Shelter. Austerity, or the economic situation in general, has left many more people than it used to, literally, on the streets. The winter night shelter is our attempt to help is such a situation and, although a small effort in the overall situation, it is, nonetheless, a valuable one and one that we can all contribute to. Again, there is more, later, in this issue.

Another thing that colder evenings may urge you to is a wood burning stove. I had thought that these were just the latest and more environmentally sound development of a wood/coal fire. Apparently not. They generate quite a lot of pollution. As a result we will be more sparing about sitting in front of it for the coming winters, despite making our front room snug when it's cold outside.

For a more cerebral evening, you may want to consider the Free Churches Group lecture. On the 8th of November the Rev. Dr. Joel Edwards will be talking on' Martin Luther KIng Jr. - Disobeying with Civility'. In our present fevered political atmosphere (did I hear the word 'Brexit', again?) a bit of civility would probably not go amiss.

Oh, and don’t forget to buy your poppy for Remembrance Sunday, on the 11th.

God bless you

Church Meetings / Dates for your Diary The next church AGM will be on the 2nd December.

As well as preparing the reports booklet for the AGM Sarah will be printing a new Church Directory, please can you check your current entry and let her know any amendments. Any folk who are not in the Directory, but would like to be, should contact Sarah in the Church Office.

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Letters and emails

From Claire Southall

I completed the Ealing Half Marathon on 30 September – not a record time, but I ran all the way including the hills!!!

Thank you so much if you sponsored me, and thank you Gill for being there at the roadside to cheer Paula and I on!

I raised £700 plus Gift Aid for Premier which will help us to keep broadcasting the Gospel.

Claire

Ealing Foodbank

Dear Ealing Church

On behalf of Ealing Foodbank, I would like to thank everyone for their very generous harvest donation.

The warehouse is now looking much healthier than it did in September which means we can continue supporting those Ealing residents who sadly need to visit a foodbank.

Please be assured that all donations will find a good home.

Best wishes Hilary Padmore Warehouse Coordinator Ealing Foodbank

From Colin and Merle Paige

Hello all,

On Wednesday 17th October, Merle and I became Great Grandparents!

Yes, our granddaughter Lauren Duvel and her husband Michael became the proud parents of a healthy 3.9 kg daughter named Kate Sophia, in Pretoria. I'm attaching a photo of Lauren's mother - our daughter Sharon (who now becomes a granny of course!) - with little Kate at one day old!

Very best wishes to all at Ealing Green from Merle and myself.

Colin

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Ealing Foodbank

Would that it weren’t necessary, but today foodbanks are a necessity to help those within our society who are affected by the present economic situation – or just the way things have worked out through no fault of their own. Even more than the existence of foodbanks, we need people who can donate, so please consider whether you can donate any of the things listed below.

The Ealing Foodbank relies on your goodwill and support, so thank you for all your donations.

To help you keep up the good work, you can receive a regular up date to the shopping list by email. Just drop us a line to request this, contact

info@ealing.foodbank.org.uk

Over 90% of the food distributed by foodbanks in The Trussell Trust network is donated by the public – that’s why your food donations are absolutely vital to our ability to give everyone referred to us a balanced and nutritious three day supply of food. Our shopping list below shows the food items that we are in need of right now.

The October shopping list includes:

Breakfast cereal UHT Milk 1 litre packs Tinned meat and fish Long life sponge puddings Potatoes – tinned and instant long life fruit juice and squash ketchup and mayonnaise nappies – size 6 only (small packs0 shower gel and hair shampoo shaving foam and razors

(we have plenty of tea and coffee)

If you are happy to drop off food donations, please see the table below for our food collection point locations:

Location of food donation point Opening hours St Mellitus Hall, 1 Church Rd, Hanwell, W7 3BB

Monday 1030-1230 Wednesday 1330-

1530 Friday 0930-1130

This is our central store, and can

be contacted on 07769 759 756 Please do not drop

food in at the cafes if at all possible!

Tesco, Hoover Building, Western 0600 – midnight Front of store near

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Ave, Perivale,Greenford UB6 8DW

1000 – 1800 (Sunday)

exits (Tesco shoppers only)

Waitrose, 2 Alexandria Rd, West Ealing, London W13 0NL

0800- 2100 1100 – 1700

(Sunday)

Near the checkouts

Sainsbury, 2-14 Melbourne Ave, London W13 9BZ

0700 – 2200 1100 – 1700

(Sunday)

Near the far exit

St Peter’s Church, Mount Park Rd, Ealing W5 2RU

Mon – Sat 0830 – 1800

St Andrew’s Church, Mount Park Rd, Ealing W5 2RP

Mon – Fri 0900 – 1700

St Stephen’s Church, St Stephen’s Rd, Ealing W13 8HB

Mon – Fri 0900 – 1300 and Sunday morning Tuesday 1:30pm – 3:30pm

Saturday 10:00am -12:00pm

Holy Cross Church, Ferrymead Gardens, Greenford, UB6 9NJ

Sunday (After the service) 10:50am –

11:20am

We always welcome donations and promise to use them to provide help to people in crisis. Occasionally we send food to other nearby foodbanks to support their work particularly if they experience shortages. This ensures your donations go to help people wherever in the UK they are.

Please contact Fleur (or myself) if you have any questions about donating food.

Lee

Shirley Goodnest A mum was concerned about her kindergarten son walking to school. He didn’t want his mother to walk with him. She wanted to give him the feeling that he had some independence, but yet know that he was safe.

So she had the idea of how to handle it. She asked a neighbour if she would please follow him to school in the mornings, staying at a distance, so he probably wouldn’t notice her. She said that since she was up early with her toddler anyway, it would be a good way for them to get some exercise as well, so she agreed.

The next school day, the neighbour and her little girl set out following behind Timmy as he walked to school with another neighbour girl he knew. She did this for a whole week.

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As the two walked and chatted, kicking stones and twigs, Timmy’s little friend noticed the same lady was following them as she seemed to do every day all week. Finally she said to Timmy, ‘Have you noticed that lady following us to school all week? Do you know her?

Timmy nonchalantly replied, ‘Yeah, I know who she is.’

The little girl said, ‘Well, who is she?’

‘That’s just Shirley Goodnest.’ Timmy replied, and her daughter Marcy.’

Shirley Goodnest, Who the heck is she and why is she following us?’

‘Well.’ Timmy explained, ‘every night my mum makes me say the 23rd Psalm with my prayers, ‘cuz she worries about me so much.

And in the Psalm it says’ Shirley Goodnest and Marcy shall follow me all the days of my life’, so I guess I’ll just have to get used to it!’

David Groves

Chinhoyi

In these pages I often refer to Ealing Green’s support for a clinic in Zimbabwe, roughly 120 kilometres north west from the capital, Harare. This summer Nyarai and family were in Zimbabwe for a holiday, part of which was to be spent on Lake Kariba. Chinhoyi was not far off their route, so Nyrai and the family very generously agreed to drop in and see how the clinic was managing.

You may have heard about Zimbabwe and the overthrow of Robert Mugabe, who has run a once prosperous country into the ground. Since the election the new Prime Minister, one of Mugabe’s henchmen, Emmerson Mnangagwa, somewhat less-than-fondly known as ‘The Crocodile’, promised a new start for the country.

Unfortunately killing protesters and maintaining the same faces in the cabinet as Mugabe had has not encouraged western investors to come back to the country.

Zimbabwe has defaulted on repayments of past loans making it impossible to obtain any financing to kickstart the economy except at undisclosed and probably very high, rates of interest from third tier financial organisations.

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Inflation is now well over 100%, recalling the worst days of Mugabe’s reign, and the press is being muzzled to stop reporting of a cholera outbreak which the country has little ability to counter as hospitals are bereft of even the basic necessities, much less the medicines to combat it.

So much for the gloom, and there is plenty of it, Nyarai and the family found a

group of people in Chinhoyi doing their best to fight against the doom that I have described. The church has run a clinic for over 10 years on the basis of donations from, amongst others, Ealing Green. The person responsible for appealing for funds and travelling to surrounding countries to buy whatever medication he can get for the clinic is my contact, Stanley Mudzingwa, who is doing God’s work if anyone is.

Nyrai found that, despite all the deprivations and lack of material, the clinic is a shining beacon for many people in the area. By area I don’t mean the immediately surrounding area, I understand that people will walk for a day or more to get to the clinic. They know that, unlike at government hospitals, where waiting doesn’t mean that you will be seen much less attended to, at the Chinhoyi clinic even if they have to wait a long time, they know that someone will see them and do their best to help.

The equipment in the clinic is not really up to the task and the ever growing numbers, and Nyrai had some concerns about the sturdiness of an examination table in one of the rooms, apart from some other concerns. That said the clinic is doing amazing things with the limited facilities it has and can get hold of. The building is now way too small for the number of people who are now coming seeking help. There is some effort being put into converting some of the nearby manse into a more suitable place, but that costs money and time, so changes are being made

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as and when possible.

I have included some of the photos Nyrai was able to take during her family’s brief visit.

The pictures show the church and the welcoming smile that those, who have trekked to the clinic receive on entering.

The cramped conditions and limitations (and quality) of the medication

storeroom are there for all to see.

The building in the pleasant surroundings is the manse, which will, when conditions permit, become part of the clinic

This is to thank Ealing Green for its support – and if anyone knows of NHS medical equipment becoming available – please let Nyrai or myself know.

Nyarai and Lee

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In the beginning…….. Following on from my last article and the comments I have received I’ve decided to initiate, via UNITY, a study to help with one of the main points that I raised – that of obeying the final command of Jesus and taking the gospel to those outside the church. As I mentioned in my article this involves far more than simply telling people that “Jesus loves you” something which, I suspect rarely, if ever, works.

The first thing I wish to address is how do you get to the position where you can discuss your beliefs with others. Everyone must develop their own techniques but one that I have used over the years is to let people know, indirectly, that I have a faith and attend church. When I was Technical Director of a telecommunications company, a 24-hour business, I used to tell technical staff each weekend that they could contact me any time if problems necessitated but my phone would be on silent between 11.00 – 12.30 on a Sunday when I was at morning service. In the case of a real emergency they could text me and I would contact them as soon as I could. Indirectly I was informing them I attended church regularly.

On other occasions, when things were difficult, I used the opportunity to project my beliefs in my actions. In one incident, after a very difficult 48 hours (when I worked continuously to shift equipment because of an American telecomms company going into liquidation) one of my staff remarked to me saying “How come you remained calm during these two days and stayed cool even when the “other company” were being deliberately difficult?” My response was “My faith has taught me to react to difficult situations in such a way that we can achieve the best possible solution whatever the situation”. The books I carried around with me and in my bookcase, the things I didn’t do, the fact that I didn’t swear or make lewd remarks all served to show (I hope) that I was different. All of this I would attribute to my beliefs which gave me the opportunity to discuss my faith when the occasion arose.

You too will be able to use the events which arise in your own life to demonstrate you are different to the “norm” which you can then use to introduce your beliefs without a heavy-handed approach that will probably turn most people off.

Early on in any discussion about your faith the subject of the Bible will arise. It can be in the form of a genuine question or it can be a (sneering) comment such as “So you believe in an old man in the sky or (referring to the Bible) a book of fairy stories. Since the “book of fairy stories” deals with “the old man in the sky” it is with the Bible that I want to start.

It is essential that you have a sound knowledge of the Bible such that you are able to deal with any questions or arguments which arise. It is this aspect which I wish to cover as a starting point in what I hope will consist of several studies.

It is essential that you understand, and KNOW, that the Bible is a UNIQUE BOOK.

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Consider:

(i) The Bible is not one book but a collection of 66 books written by (ii) 40 authors all of which, but one (Luke), were Jews (iii) It was written over a period of around 2500 years.

The 40 authors came from all walks of life with varying degrees of education:

(i) Fisherman (Peter, James and John – poorly educated) (ii) A tent maker and rabbi (Paul – very highly educated) (iii) A doctor (Luke – highly educated) (iv) A lowly shepherd who also looked after fig trees (Amos – very poorly

educated). (v) A military leader (Joshua – fairly well educated) (vi) A king (Solomon – well educated) (vii) A tax collector (Matthew well educated) (viii) The senior councillor to an empire (Daniel – royal blood and very well

educated) (ix) A political leader of 2.5 million slaves seeking freedom (Moses

extremely well educated in both Egyptian and Jewish matters)

Neither were all of these authors perfect men. Amongst them was:

(i) A poet, adulterator and murderer (David) (ii) A king with 700 wives and 300 concubines who invoked heavy taxes,

used his own countrymen as slaves such that, following his death, this led to the breakup of the county into two states – Israel and Judah (Solomon)

Many of the authors met violent deaths including:

(i) Beheaded (Paul and James) (ii) Crucified (Peter, Matthew and others) (iii) Being bound and forced alive into a hollow tree and the tree then

sawn in half whilst still alive (Isaiah) (iv) Thrown from the pinnacle of the temple and then beaten to death with

clubs (James, brother of Jesus) (v) Stoned to death (Stephen)

The books were written in three principal languages:

(i) Hebrew (ii) Aramaic (iii) Greek (into which all books were eventually translated before being

translated into other languages, principally, English).

The books were written on three continents:

(i) Asia (ii) Africa (iii) Europe

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Taking all the above into account no other single book can compare with the Bible. It is useful at this junction, particularly bearing in mind the people you might be talking with (I will deal with this at some other time), to point out that the Koran was written over a period of 23 years by the Prophet Mohammed and consists of 114 chapters (called Suras). The second book you may need to know something of is the Hindu Bhagavad Gita written in the 4th – 5th century BCE and consisting of some 40 chapters written by two authors. Note Isaiah alone has 66 chapters!

Could I ask you, as a start of this venture, to understand and memorise the above? This understanding and memory of the uniqueness of the Bible will provide you with the confidence to engage in discussions with others as to the origin and basis of our belief. I hope to discuss later, the knowledge that, whilst each book is different, each of the 66 books combines to provide a continuous account “starting in a garden and ending in a city of gold”. Reading the Bible is, at the beginning, hard work but I have found that the more you read and understand the content, reading the scriptures becomes very addictive. Did you know that you can find a reference to Jesus in almost all the books of the Old Testament?

One final request. At some stage, if you are to be successful, you will need to know the structure of the Bible. Could I suggest that, as a starting point, if you don’t know the names, order and purpose of the books in the Bible you make a start to memorise the names of each book now. We will discuss their groupings and purpose later. I learned the names of the books in the Bible when I was 9 years old in the Sunday school at the Andrew Fuller Baptist Church (Kettering). If you learn just two books a day you can complete this in a month. If you have problems or wish to discuss this, please talk to me. However, I would suggest you first learn the names of the first two books (Genesis and Exodus) on day one and the second two books on day 2 (Leviticus and Numbers). On day two you should then be able to recite the first four books. By day three you can recite the first six books. Thus, each day you are reinforcing the knowledge gained from the previous days at the same time as learning the names of two more books.

Please let me have your comments so that I can include/deal with them in my next article.

Alan (Larry) Parsons

Answer to a school test question:

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Ealing Churches’ Winter Night Shelter (ECWNS)

As most of you already know, the Ealing Churches’ Winter Night Shelter starts in November and runs through to the end of March. The churches in Ealing, which include us, have organised themselves (ourselves?) so that every night one of them is open for homeless people referred from local charities for a hot meal, somewhere warm and safe to sleep and a breakfast the following morning. This year we are providing dormitory style accommodation for up to 14 guests from those who are sleeping on the streets, are at immediate risk of rough sleeping locally and the ‘hidden homeless’. For Ealing Green this is on Thursday evenings to Friday mornings from the 3rd of January through to February the 8th. It’s only one night a week for 6 weeks and is entirely manned by volunteers from our church working a couple of hours here or there, sometimes not even in the church, so it’s our opportunity to translate some of the principles of Christianity into action.

On average, guests stay with us for about 4 weeks before moving on – hopefully to more permanent housing.

Why are we needed?

In 2016-17, Ealing had 243 people recorded sleeping on the streets, and many more in precarious accommodation on friends’ floors, night buses, etc. ECWNS stands in the gap by providing for the most basic and essential needs for homeless people – sleep and food. A person who has been made homeless faces enormous risks as a rough sleeper including substance abuse, poor physical and mental health, and predatory criminals.

ECWNS seeks to minimise these risks by creating a safe space for homeless people to find temporary respite while helping them to secure more permanent accommodation. Providing temporary respite ‘buys’ some more time before guests become further entrenched in homelessness and are adversely, and sometimes irreversibly, affected by the risks presented by homelessness. Each guest is offered 28 days in the shelter, during which time ECWNS works with partner agencies (St. Mungo’s Broadway, Ealing Soup Kitchen and Acton Homeless Concern) and local housing services to look for a way to move on.

Volunteers

This year Lee and Jane Horwich are responsible for organising the shelter in Ealing Green. We would be grateful for anyone contacting us/coming to see us or filling in the form in the foyer to signal you are willing to help in whatever way (and there are many you may not even have thought about – do you have a washing machine you could wash some sheets in?). Your help will be more appreciated than you can imagine. Let us know if you have any questions.

Jane & Lee Horwich

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To Autumn

Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness, Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun; Conspiring with him how to load and bless With fruit the vines that round the thatch-eves run; To bend with apples the moss'd cottage-trees, And fill all fruit with ripeness to the core; To swell the gourd, and plump the hazel shells With a sweet kernel; to set budding more, And still more, later flowers for the bees, Until they think warm days will never cease, For summer has o'er-brimm'd their clammy cells. Who hath not seen thee oft amid thy store? Sometimes whoever seeks abroad may find Thee sitting careless on a granary floor, Thy hair soft-lifted by the winnowing wind; Or on a half-reap'd furrow sound asleep, Drows'd with the fume of poppies, while thy hook Spares the next swath and all its twined flowers: And sometimes like a gleaner thou dost keep Steady thy laden head across a brook; Or by a cyder-press, with patient look, Thou watchest the last oozings hours by hours. Where are the songs of spring? Ay, Where are they? Think not of them, thou hast thy music too,— While barred clouds bloom the soft-dying day, And touch the stubble-plains with rosy hue; Then in a wailful choir the small gnats mourn Among the river sallows, borne aloft Or sinking as the light wind lives or dies; And full-grown lambs loud bleat from hilly bourn; Hedge-crickets sing; and now with treble soft The red-breast whistles from a garden-croft; And gathering swallows twitter in the skies.

John Keats

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Kafka and the Doll - The Pervasiveness of Loss

Franz Kafka, the story goes, encountered a little girl in the park where he went walking daily. She was crying. She had lost her doll and was desolate.

Kafka offered to help her look for the doll and arranged to meet her the next day at the same spot.

Unable to find the doll he composed a letter from the doll and read it to her when they met.

'Please do not mourn me, I have gone on a trip to see the world. I will write you of my adventures.' This was the beginning of many letters. When he and the little girl met he read her from these carefully composed letters the imagined adventures of the beloved doll. The little girl was comforted.

When the meetings came to an end Kafka presented her with a doll. She obviously looked different from the original doll. An attached letter explained - 'My travels have changed me.'

Many years later, the now grown girl found a letter stuffed into an unnoticed crevice in the cherished replacement doll.

In summary it said: *Every thing that you love, you will eventually lose, but in the end, love will return in a different form.'*

Friendship Friendship is a priceless gift that cannot be bought or sold But its value is far greater than a mountain made of gold For gold is cold and lifeless, it cannot see or hear And in the time of trouble it is powerless to cheer It has no ears to listen, no heart to understand, it cannot bring you comfort, or reach out a helping hand. So when you ask god for a gift be thankful that he sends not diamonds, pearls or riches. But the love of a real true friend..

David Groves

August has the most birthdays, February has the least and most of the serial killers are born in November.

Just a thought

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Collection Point Our November Communion collection traditionally goes to support the invaluable work that CRISIS does helping those in our society who are homeless. Originally formed and operated as Crisis at Christmas, it has since expanded to meet the all year round need which has been further exacerbated by some effects of government policies. As experienced locally and inspiring the ECWNS, CRISIS helps many people who have slipped through the net and who are in most need of that lift to get them, literally, out of the gutter. Especially at this time of year it is something that we can all support.

Scale and impact

Our research into the scale and experience of rough sleeping including enforcement interventions.

Estimated number of people sleeping rough in 2016 on a single night in Autumn across England 4,134

This was up by 16% on 2015.

Prolonged periods of rough sleeping have a significant impact on someone's mental and physical health. The longer someone experiences rough sleeping for, the more likely it is they will develop additional mental and physical health needs, substance misuse issues and have contact with the criminal justice system (collectively known as complex needs). The more complex needs someone has, the more help they will need to move on from homelessness and rebuild their lives.

Rough sleeping is a dangerous and isolating experience. People sleeping rough are more likely to be victims of crime and almost 17 times more likely to have been victims of violence (in the past year compared to the general public). Women are particularly vulnerable, nearly 1 in 4 have been sexually assaulted whilst rough sleeping. Additionally, many people who rough sleep develop issues with drugs and alcohol.

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Accessing services

Many people who experience rough sleeping struggle to access the support services they need. For example, if someone has both a mental health and drug or alcohol problem, they can often be refused help by both mental health and substance abuse services until they have addressed either issue. Additionally, many mental health services will not carry out assessments on the street so it is often difficult for people who are sleeping rough to get access to the help they need either through mental health outreach teams or referrals to mental health services.

Getting people into appropriate accommodation quickly is important. Rough sleeping can be prevented if services work together to identify people at risk and move people off the streets as quickly as possible. The ‘No Second Night Out (NSNO) model’ is used by many local authorities to move new rough sleepers into accommodation.

In many areas, the lack of appropriate accommodation acts as a barrier for getting people off the streets. We think that the government should invest in a range of settled housing solutions to prevent rough sleeping occurring. We have published research that shows the effectiveness of different housing models and services for rough sleepers and people with complex needs:

Ending Rough Sleeping

Levels of rough sleeping are on the increase across the UK. To end rough sleeping, solutions need to address both accommodation and support needs.

We think that the Government should implement a cross departmental national rough sleeping strategy. This would drive a coordinated approach to reducing and ultimately achieving the goal of ending rough sleeping.

Crisis carried out a feasibility study in Liverpool City region on Housing First to help address rough sleeping in the region. Housing First is an evidence-based approach which supports homeless people with complex needs and histories of entrenched or repeat homelessness to live in their own homes. It provides a stable, independent home as well as intensive personalised support. This study provides a toolkit for other areas looking to implement Housing First in their area.

Please give generously.

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Church Rotas Could we have some volunteers for readers and the prayer rota – Please see Sarah or myself if you are interested/willing to help. Thanks, Lee

Remembrance Sunday - November 11th

November Preacher Reader Prayers Communion

Stewards

4th Sue Male Christine Edwards Helen Harper EL, AK, ET, LS

11th Christina Tom Johnson Fleur Hatherall Jane Horwich

18th Sue Male Alicia Moyo Peter Chadburn

25th Local Arrangement Elspeth Singleton Colin Hatherall This may not have been the answer the questioner was looking for, but numerically it’s difficult to fault: