Maunday Thursday

Maunday Thursday is when we remember that Jesus washed his disciples feet, and then celebrated communion with them as part of the Passover meal. Tomorrow evening, we are going to have an informal time of worship and sharing in the Light house at 7pm to which all are welcome. It will be led by Sharon Klassen who has just arrived from Canada to spend 1 year working alongside us at the Light house. This will be a chance to meet Sharon and to reflect on this very significant moment in Holy week.

LIGHT HOUSE

The Lighthouse has been growing rapidly over the past year, but it still remains quite vulnerable in times of staff holidays etc. We have a very committed, but relatively small volunteer base to draw from in times of crisis. Today was such a day, with Shona taking the lead, with the rest of the MacPherson clan, along with Stuart and Sharon. There is no substitute for learning under pressure - lunchtime was a steeping learning curve for us all! We're back on again tomorrow, so hopefully the lessons learnt today will make for a smoother operation tomorrow. I enjoy the buzz of being involved in a project in its infancy, when you are continually faced with challenges which keep you looking to God for the answers!

EASTER SUNDAY DECORATION

Jonathan is having a Cross made as a focal point for our Good Friday Service. For those on Sunday morning who would like to, please bring a streamer or coloured ribbon to decorate the cross during the service.

ELECTION HUSTINGS

Subject to polling day being, as expected, on 6th May, a Hustings Event for the Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey Constituency, sponsored by churches in Inverness, Nairn and the surrounding district, is planned to take place in the Town House, Inverness at 7.30pm on 28th April. Seating in the Town House is limited, so you are advised to get there early! All candidates known so far to be standing have agreed to attend and answer YOUR questions. You can submit your question EITHER by email to: mhtml:%7BCE3CE512-2B83-4B4A-BAB9-CD35478E238A%7Dmid://00000033/!x-usc:mailto:inbsforum10@btinternet.com Or by post to: Election Questions, Crown Church Office, Kingsmills Road, Inverness, IV2 3JT. Questions selected from those submitted will be put to the candidates at the meeting. Further details from the Rev Peter W Nimmo, tel. 01463 250 802.

SPREAD THE WORD looks like an interesting project.

die and be raised

In the course of my foraging about for various Easter worship resources I came across this nugget from Walter Brueggemann.

HOLY WEEK

I'm working on the Easter Sunday morning service today, and wondering if anyone reading has either of these 2 cd's?

HISTORY MAKER

A facebook campaign has been launched to have History Maker at No 1 for Easter Sunday. More details here.

earth hour

THE SCENE WAS SET :
KITCHEN TABLE READY WITH 4 CHAIRS - 2 BIG BOWLS OF POPCORN - A BIG BOWL OF SWEETS - 8 ICED CAKES MADE ESPECIALLY FOR THE BIG OCCASION.A BOARDGAME READY TO PLAY.CANDLES LIT.
A HUSBAND,DAUGHTER AND GRANDSON AND MYSELF ALL SEATED WAITING PATIENTLY.
FOR WHAT ?
THE ANSWER IS : 8.30PM ON SATURDAY NIGHT AND THE WWF's EARTH HOUR WHEN WE SWITCHED OFF ALL THE LIGHTS (AND EVEN THE HEATING) FOR ONE HOUR.
WHAT FUN WE HAD AS A FAMILY PLAYING THE GAME EATING AND ENJOYING THE CANDLELIGHT. WE WERE ALL QUITE SAD WHEN THE HOUR WAS OVER.
WE MIGHT EVEN DO IT AGAIN BEFORE NEXT YEAR.
MARGARET

TRAINS

"Let the train take the strain!" I had to go down to Edinburgh for some meetings on Thursday, so for the first time in many years I decided to take the train. It was comfortable and on time, and I was able to work on both legs of the journey. It was also considerably less stressful than 3 hours of driving each way on the A9. I try to keep my journeys south to an absolute minimum, but I will certainly be more enthusiastic about taking the train in the future.

MSM

In all the various activities of the last week, I forgot to mention that we had another really good MSM day at Hilton Church. We have over 40 people doing this fresh expression course. Next month, we are joining up with the Glasgow course at Aviemore for a residential weekend which should be interesting.

Health & Hygiene

On Monday, I spent the day at Inverness College doing the elementary health & hygiene course. In 1996, 21 people died following a church lunch! The source of the e-coli outbreak was John Barr's butchers shop in Wishaw. From time to time, I help out at the Lighthouse, so it was helpful to go on the course and have my awareness of all the health & hygiene issues increased.

To err

"To err is human, but to really foul things up requires a computer!! So writes a friend who has just lost a lot of vital data.

STATED ANUAL MEETING

I'm just back from the stated anual meeting. Mike Robertson encouraged folk to come along to the meeting and he wasn't disappointed. We had a record turn out, and heard an encouraging report from Jean Barron on the finances of the church. We have continued to meet all the financial targets that we budgeted for, so we have much to be grateful for. In the coming year, we have some major upgrades of the buildings to do, including a major re-wiring programme, which will require substantial funds. We have a new treasurer - Julie Douglas - together with new Board members, as well as a recently appointed chairman, Mike Robertson, and clerk to the Board - Lloyd Arthur, so we look to the coming year with a lot of optimism. God has been so good to us in terms of providing for all our needs, and we trust him for the year ahead.

THANK YOU!

Today, I was really concious of all the work that quietly goes on in the background which is so vital. Steve was busy in the garden tidying up all the winter debris. It's work like this which will ensure that the garden is available for use this summer. In the church, John, Ken, Bob and Donald were continuing their work on the sanctuary floor. On Monday, they stripped back the polish and today they were applying a fifth coat. It looks fantastic. Then I met Jean who was printing off copies of the accounts for tonights Board and Stated anual meeting. We haven't had a treasurer for a whole year, and without Jean's meticulous book keeping we would now be in dire straits! These 3 examples are indicative of the magnificent work which quietly goes on throughout the year, and makes Hilton church such a good place to be part of. So many people are ready and willing to play their part.

Christians thrive as a minority

Thanks to Simon for the link to this fascinating article by Frank Skinner in The Times. I agree with Frank, (I don't necessarily agree with all that he says!) in that I think so many of the things about the decline of the Church in the UK are actually a positive.

MATT WAKELING

On Sunday morning, we prayed for Matt who is soon to leave for 4 months service with Oasis in Zimbabwe. If you would like to keep in touch with all he is doing, you can follow here.

Assisted suicide

Following the consultation process last year, Margo MacDonald MSP introduced the End of Life Assistance (Scotland) Bill in January. This is now going through the parliamentary committee stage and will likely be debated in the Scottish Parliament in the autumn. If passed in its present form, it would legalise euthanasia and assisted suicide in Scotland.

The majority public opinion favours such legislation. Do you agree with it? Where do you stand on the issue, and how do you decide? What should you do now?

On Tuesday 13th April, from 7.30-9.30pm in the church, Dr Stephen Hutchison, Consultant Physician in Palliative Medicine, will give a presentation about the Bill, and Dr Jamie Grant, Vice Principal at Highland Theological College, will present a theological view.

EARTH HOUR

100 countries. 2000 cities and towns. A billion people.
The world's greatest climate change event ever!
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Sign up and switch off your lights on 27 March at 8.30pm to show world leaders that we need them to act decisively on climate change.

Globally, 2000 cities and towns a record 100 countries are already signed up. Here in Scotland, Edinburgh Castle, Inverness Castle, the Falkirk Wheel and the Scottish Parliament will go dark for Earth Hour.A record number of councils, companies, organisations and thousands of individuals have signed up too.Without doubt, WWF's Earth Hour 2010 is going to be biggest and best yet. We really do hope we can count on your support.
*********************************
Put your community on the map. Sign-up now to WWF's Earth Hour:
http://earthhourmap.wwf.org.uk

Too busy!

I remember some years ago, reading Eugene Petersen, and being challenged by his assertion that busyness was not a symptom of commitment within ministry, but of betrayal! "How can I lead people into the quiet place beside still waters if I am in perpetual motion?"

There are times for all of us when it seems that there is just too much to do! I'm in that place this week. Along with various meetings, I am struggling to get a seminar prepared for the MSM course on Saturday, as well as doing some preparatory work for Sunday. Last month, in a similar situation, I started writing my sermon at 6.15am on Sunday morning! I want to avoid that scenario this month. I also have a meeting of the Commission for St Columba New charge this evening. I think I will need to be a bit more careful with my diary, but so often that's easier said than done, when there are so many things happening.

Greetings from the Congo

It was great to welcome David & Ruth Shepherd back to Hilton Church on Sunday. They have been in Uganda and the Congo for a month. While they were there, they met up with Matthias and Sabine, and the following is a message from them, to all of us at Hilton:

Thank you so much for all your cards and greetings sent via Ruth and David to us here in Nebobongo. It's such a privilege to see that so many of you keep us in your prayers for the work in the north east of the Congo. We are doing well, had a lovely break in Kenya and are going back with new encouragement and joy to our place of work.

We are quite encouraged by what we hear of Hilton and we continue to pray that new people will find Jesus as their Lord and Saviour and others will be strengthened through fellowship.

God bless you all,

yours from Nebo.

Matthias & Sabine.

Charlie Fraser socialising already!

Charlie Fraser pays his first visit to the Lighthouse along with his mum and dad!

KUSI

When our workparties visited Kusi in 2005 and 2007, the journey from Lima took 9 hours on the bus. There is now a scheduled flight which takes 1 hour, which makes the journey so much easier. On the return flight we had some amazing views of the highest mountain in the Peruvian Andes.

Evening worship

I have just come home after our evening service. Very concious tonight of how blest we are in terms of the leading of worship. The music and the singing at both our services today was so uplifting. Tonight Jamie Grant was preaching on psalm 32. I love the psalms and particularly appreciate the insights that Jamie is able to impart. His sermon will be on the church website in next 24 hours and is well worth a listen.

PRODIGAL SON

How do you say something new about such a well known story? That is the challenge for tomorrow! One book which has really inspired and given me new insights is THE RETURN OF THE PRODIGAL SON by Henri Nouwen. It's one of the best books I have read in recent years.

ROLE PLAY

Last night I was leading a session on building community for the Invest course. I asked Shona to share in the evening and to co-ordinate some role playing based around key words for building community like welcome and hospitality. I was frankly astonished at the quality of the drama that the various groups put together in response to the various words. We really need to use drama more at Hilton church. It is such a powerful medium for communicating with.I've asked one of the groups to share their drama piece at our morning service tomorrow.

Parish Development Fund

The Parish Development Fund provides much needed funding support for the Lighthouse. This weekend our manager Michelle Hamill is attending the PDF Project Workers’ Residential at Carnegie College, just outside Dunfermline. It will be a good opportunity for Michelle to meet up with many other Project workers across Scotland.

Lighthouse

We're hosting a Church planting training course called Invest at the Lighthouse this weekend. I've just spent the last few hours in the kitchen helping to prepare food for it. Thank you Jamie Oliver! I was totally astonished at how busy the cafe was. It was quite manic for nearly 3 hours over lunch. Alison, Stuart and Shona did a quite marvellous job coping with all the orders. It's great to see the Lighthouse so busy.

It's a boy!

It's a boy! We're delighted to hear the wonderful news from Jonathan and Susie, that Charlie Fraser was born at 9.45am weighing 8lb12 . Mother and baby are doing well.

youth inclusive

Drew Kuzma and Brian Irvine from Youth Inclusive, along with their PA, Evelyn have moved into our offices along with Jonathan and Elna. Youth Inclusive are doing some outstanding work with young people in the area. We are delighted to be able to provide them with some office space and to seek to work more closely with them in this important ministry.

Beauty tips for ministers

I've seen it all now! You can read two church mice's take on this here. I was looking for a post on the blog called "lost cause!"

WATER is life

How many times have you accessed water today? Did you give it much thought? Many people in Peru have no access to a public water supply. I've heard it said that the residents of the shanty towns spend one third of their income on water. Trucks delivering water around the shanty town areas are a common sight. While we were in Ica we hired the water truck above and gifted the water (10,000 gallons ) to the residents of a shanty town. I'm more appreciative of water now, having seen the struggles of so many people just to get water.

HTC

Congratulations to Murray on his appointment as Vice chair to the Board of Highland Theological College:

At its most recent meeting, the Board was delighted to hear that Mr R Murray McCheyne, a solicitor practising in Inverness, had accepted the invitation to be the new Vice Chair. We are
delighted with this appointment and wish Murray well in his new role within the Board. It seems quite fitting that in the Highlands of Scotland, where the name Robert Murray McCheyne is still revered, we should find ourselves with his namesake on our Board of Governors! Murray, as he prefers to be called, is in fact descended from a brother of the 19th century Scottish divine, McCheyne, whose Memoirs and Remains and other books of sermons are still avidly read by many Christians.

Cusco home

I had intended to visit the Vine Trust's newest home near Cusco on my trip. Sadly, the home was very badly damaged by the floods just before my departure. The building which was constructed with mud bricks is now structurally unsound and will require to be re-built. A new site is currently being researched, well above the river level. SU Peru are also hoping to lease a large house in the area to accomodate the boys in the interim period. At the moment, the boys are still living at Kawai, an SU centre on the coast , south of Lima.

PERU BLOG

During my recent visit to Peru, we were accompanied throughout the trip by Billy Greenman, an SU volunteer from Michigan. Billy has a really good blog, which gives some excellent insights into the street boy ministry.

MUSIC

Hilton School for many years excelled at the local Music Festival winning several trophies for choral singing. It was an exciting experience for the children, and inspiring for the parents and the local community. Then the Council cut its budgets and Hilton School lost it's visiting music teacher. Hilton School nolonger participates in the Music Festival and a valuable life experience for the children is gone. Now I read today that the Council are considering cutting music tuition as well. For so many children, this will be another lost opportunity to experience something very precious and important in life. There are clearly some very hard funding decisions to be made in the coming months.I hope that music isn't lost altogether from the opportunities given to children within local authority schools, as a result of the cuts which are undoubtedly coming. Here's the petition link.

Sunday Lunch

Food and sharing meals has always been an important dimension of our lives as a Church. Over the past year, we have begun to share meals from time to time after the morning service. These events have been well supported - we enjoy the experience and atmosphere of a family meal togther.This Sunday, we're sharing in a pot luck lunch from 12.15. In our time together, we will especially be recognising and celebrating the work of Sandra Polworth, our church secretary for the past 8 years. Sandra has been a vital figure in the life of the congregation providing administrative support for many different ministries, as well as a warm welcome to anyone who ever came to visit. Sandra has now moved on to a new full time post, and together with Iain, they now worship at the Free North Church. Iain is employed by the Free North as a community worker, and is doing some outstanding work supporting individuals and families struggling with drug and alochol addictions. Iain and Sandra came to one of the first alpha courses we ran at Hilton Church around 1996, and it has been wonderful to see the way that God has led them over the years since.

ICA

The boys home in Ica was built after the earthquake of 2007. It was a highlight of the trip to see this wonderful home. The boys have a swimming pool in the grounds, and you can see the home itself in the background. The home was built through the financial support of Cupar Old Parish Church. They were doing a major re-development of their church buildings and they decided to tithe the funds raised. 10% of their funds, now provides a heavenly setting for 40 boys. What a difference a local church in Scotland can make to the lives of people in the developing world - Ica is testimony to that reality.

Kevin MacPhee

Kevin and Matthew enjoying the beautiful winter sunshine yesterday. It's marvellous to see Kevin recovering so well.

YOUTH VISION DAY

Jonathan Fraser, our youth minister, led a vision day for our Youth work on Saturday. All the parents, youth leaders and youth were invited to share. 12 turned up!! I think you have to be a very optimistic person with plenty of perserverance to be involved with youth. Jonathan began the day by showing this remarkable video clip about vision. At the end of the afternoon, 3 vision statements were produced by the groups. Over the next period of time, we hope to share these statements and to come up with one, which we can unite around as a church. One of our challenges will be centred around engaging the wider youth/families and leaders together with the congregation in this process. Perhaps we need to use some of our time on Sundays to try and work on these things together. It appears to be very challenging to get a critical mass of people together at any other time, as the numbers at N Kessock demonstrate.

LIGHT HOUSE

I've just been speaking to Michelle, and it's becoming clear that we are going to have a few challenges in terms of running the Lighthouse cafe over the next few Saturdays without some additional volunteer support. If you are reading this, and can spare a few hours, we would really appreciate the help. Tel 224477 OR michelle@hiltonlighthouse.org .