Hopeful pancakes

Just back from a wonderful evening in Thrapston. The first update meeting on Hope 09 in Thrapston and with pancakes, this time at the Methodist Chapel in Market Road (big thanks to Wendy, Ray, Bessie & Sue for hours of work making this happen).

We celebrated another 5 events of Hope 08 that have happened since our last update meeting (all ones that had never happened in Thrapston before, but nowhere near all that has happened in Hope 08 recently):

• Prayer week. Happened in the first week of Advent (general consensus is that it was wonderful, exciting and life changing for many people - we will be doing repeats)
• Town nativity. It followed straight on from the end of the prayer week and St James was full to bursting. Everyone moved all around the church grounds and then back inside for the various scenes, followed by all going to the turning on of the Town Christmas lights (and boy they did need a PA for that as we brought so many extra people from the nativity with us).
• Holiday at Home Christmas Party (great fun. lots came and had a great time). This followed on from the Holiday at Home summer event which had been done for the first time. Both will be repeated.
• Senior Alpha course, being held at one of the sets of flats for the more elderly within the town. Has been wonderful with a great response (and requests from other sets of flats for one for them). Finishes next week. A spin off coming from a combination of Holiday at Home and Leslie's own  holiday experience
• CAP Money. We have run two CAP Money courses in Thrapston and one in Raunds. One more with dates fixed in Raunds (March 18, March 25, April 1st at 7:30pm at the new Community Enterprise Centre on the town square), more to come in Thrapston at the Nene Centre (dates to be fixed) and another later in the Summer at the Raunds Surestart Children's centre. People have also responded generously to my sponsored bike ride for Christians Against Poverty (£1249.50 at the moment).

After some worship celebrating all that God is doing here and the wonder of being invited to take part in his mission we started going through some of the projects coming up. Some are new, others repeats (that are showing encouraging developments):

• Town Prayers: Every Tuesday at 12:30pm in the Baptist Church Lounge. Amazing stories of change coming from this prayer meeting. Very friendly and easy to join in even if you have not tried a prayer meeting before.
• Aboda (see 42: Launch of AbodA Fresh Expression website)
• God's Big Picture. Another fully ecumenical Thrapston specific lent course responding to local needs. All the Churches are leading worship and discussion sessions. Starts on Thursday March 5th for 5 weeks and is in the Baptist Church Lounge at 7:30pm
• Who is this Jesus? A play/musical coming through collaboration between the infant/junior School and the Churches. Public performance at St James on Psalm Sunday (5th April) at 3pm
• Good Friday March (10th April). Starts at the Bridge Hotel car park at 10am and finishes at the Catholic Church (closing worshipo and Hot Cross buns).
• Charter Fair (Sat 27th June). Yes we are going to be doing some lovely things again this year after the tremendous response last year see 42: Thrapston Charter Fair.
• Prayer week. The preliminary plans are to have a big "We are praying for Thrapston" week leading up to the Charter Fair. Would end with us all going from the prayer week to join the march that launches the Charter Fair.
• Praise in the Park. The plans for this on the Sunday after the Charter Fair (Sun 28th June) are starting to look really exciting. The town Charter Fair committe want to support it and people have dreams of this becoming a mini Christian Festival! Whooo Hooo!
• Space2Be. This has morphed slightly but the committed group of about 14 are continuing to meet and prayer together regularly and are looking at new ways to take this idea of being a safe place (for quiet, being listened too and being prayed for) out into the community. Exciting ideas in prospect.
• Kids Summer Holiday Club. Good leadership already in place, theme sorted and planning going apace.
• Holiday at Home. Yes will happen, plans being made at present.
• Welcoming group. Plans being made for more welcome meals and oither events for people new to Thraspton.
• Jigsaw. The montly magazine produced by the Churches that goes to every home in Thraspton keeps improving in quality and security of funds. We keep hearing of people coming to events for the first time that they read about in Jigsaw.

After giving everyone a chance to sign up to show interest in the various upcoming events we closed with worship and tried to eat up all the food but failed :-)

So it looks at if the enthusiasm for Hope 08 in Thraspton has not died down but instead we will be doing even more this year. Still new people getting involved and still growing support from all the Churches.