Dad's Trip

Last weekend 32 dads & uncles, joined by their 52 children braved a weekend of camping at Badaguish, near Aviemore. Surrounded by the beautiful scots pine forest at the feet of the Cairngorms, we had a great time with lots of laughs and fun together. It was good to make new friends and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves.
Kev

ALL ONE IN CHRIST

I wasn't leading or preaching this morning, so I had a little more time than normal to take in what was going on. I arrived early (circa 9.15am) and noticed that the old manse hedge (which has grown a bit unruly!) had been cut back. Thanks Murray for doing this. Kevin McPhee was already there getting organised for leading worship, and our church officer Mike Robertson was sorting out chairs, heating and various other important practical matters. Norma Fraser was working on the hospitality for after the service, and the welcome team arrived soon after.

Chris was in the sound desk preparing the multi media equipment and Morag Macritchie was in the large hall preparing for Sunday club. So many different people, most of them not mentioned here, working hard to get everything ready for worship at 10.30am. Today, one of our elders, David Whillis led the service based around the theme of Love from 1 Corinthians 13. A familiar passage, but one which spoke with fresh power to us, as David underlined the importance of not losing sight of our basic calling to love, as Jesus loved. Hopefully, the sermon will be on our website to listen to later this week. I came away from this morning, challenged by the message and encouraged by the sense of so many people sharing and serving together at Hilton. I count it a privilege to be part of all that is going on.
Duncan

Women’s retreat, September 14th and 15th

For 22 hours, some of the women of Hilton had a relaxing, refreshing time at Fairburn Centre. The food and home baking were lovely and everyone enjoyed having time to get to know each other better. We were a very mixed group of different ages, plus some who had been around Hilton a long time and others who were very new. Sheila MacLeod gave us food for thought. We sang and had readings. On the Saturday afternoon some of us learned archery, others played golf and more had a relaxation class. It all passed too quickly.

Ingrid

Second go at Life

The Bible says that Christians should build their house on rock, not on sand, but has nothing to say about building it in virtual reality. Taking that as a sign they should not be afraid to venture out there, Church leaders in Britain have bought an island in the virtual world of Second Life.
With the slogan 'Have a second go at life', the Churches' Advertising Network is encouraging young people and others with no experience of Christianity to sign up to Second Life and visit the island. READ MORE

DM

Radical Islam

Second Service Update

The team responsible for the new service at Hilton Church beginning at 11.30am on 28th October met last night to pray and to talk more about plans. The whole evening was very dynamic with many ideas being discussed and prayed about. We sense a hunger for a very simple style of worship together with the opportunity to experiment with a variety of different formats.

A team of three will be responsible for planning each week, and we hope it will provide a supportive enviroment, encouraging new faces to be involved in the services. We have planned in such a way that everything can proceed without the involvement of people currently attending the service at 10.30am. However, if the possibility of being involved in such an exciting new initiative appeals to you, we would be very happy to have you involved.

DM

Emergent Kiwi provokes again

Fantastic ideas for worship are coming thick and fast from Steve Taylor. I hope the posts from New Zealand this week will encourage you, like me, to favourite his blog, so that you can regularly receive the stimulus of a church leader thinking outside the box.
DM

Tasting the Kingdom

In response to Duncan's post, this is something the Evangelism Team would certainly support. However, I personally would like to be assured that we would all make a conscious effort to invite non-Christians. There must be lots of hungry people, who would like a nice dinner on a Sunday evening, hanging around the Hilton area. And who knows their souls might be hungry as well.
Doda

Allelon

If you warmed to the recent blog on hospitality within the kingdom, you can listen here to a conversation with Steve Taylor. The Allelon website has a vast array of resources which are well worth having a browse through.
DM

Latest earthquake news from Peru

Hello again,

A good number of you have been to Ica with us and will probably remember the trip to the Ballesta Islands and the beautiful Hotel Paracas from which we departed on the boats. That hotel is no longer. It crumbled during the two minute long earthquake and only minutes later was covered by the 20 ft. tidal wave. Perhaps from bits and pieces left, they can rebuild. Who knows?

You will be happy to know that our Ica well is working to capacity and with monies received the water truck continues giving away this precious commodity which people have little of at best of times. Some of you will remember having been, or having heard of Cachiche, the home to renowned witchdoctors and centre of demon worship. There is no evangelical church there. The priest closed down the Catholic Church. You will recall the palm tree with seven heads, the unscheduled porno play 10 year old kids put on in their school for a work team we took there and where we started an S.U. meeting. The earthquake tore the place apart. I asked Marco whether he and his team felt brave and confident enough to open an emergency feeding centre there if asked to. It took him, not two seconds to say 'claro que sí' ('of course'). So I consulted with Willie McPherson, Executive Director of our partners, the Vine Trust of Scotland, to see whether they would allow us to stretch the $50,000 they had sent for the 4 soup kitchens in order to add a 5th. His immediate response was met by great enthusiasm by Marco Cordova, our Ica-Pisco staff worker in charge of our Relief Efforts.. 100 more kids from no less than Cachiche! Praise God!I need to make a few clarifications. In Scripture Union we are all encouraged to be very careful about the facts we give out. That is why you often get a polite, I'm sorry, I don't really know when you ask for statistics. I quoted our local newspaper in giving 253,000 as the number of homeless. Last night I heard the BBC broadcast report over 200,000 so I now question the accuracy of my first report. Actually, I never know how people come up with any of these numbers. Guestimates, I should imagine. Second correction. My first report gave 8.0 as the magnitude of the earthquake. We now know that on the Richter scale it was 7.9. It is good to see some of our older and now trusted abandoned boys assisting in the Rescue-Relief efforts. They have the inside track on suffering, so are well suited for the part they play. I will be going to Ica this week and hopefully will be able to send you more up-to-date photos afterwards. Thanks again for your support during this time!

Paul & Marty

ASBO JESUS

Jon Birch is a talented cartoonist who regularly posts pictures on his blog, ASBO JESUS. The one below is well worth thinking about.

DM

Hospitality in the Kingdom

We had our first leadership team meeting (kirk session) since the summer, last night. The meeting primarily consisted of hearing reports from the various ministry teams and then praying together for the work. The evangelism team report reflected on the fact, that while the Impact Cafe's have been a very positive initiative, they have not achieved their intended purpose in terms of outreach. I have just read the following piece below from Steve Taylor in Christchurch, NZ and wonder if this is something we could try from time to time in the evening.What do you think Evangelis and worship team?
DM

Tasting the Kingdom
Church on Sunday, (that is Digestion, our evening church service) happened around a meal. People bring food and we sat at one long table, complete with tablecloth and candles and sparking grapejuice. We do this about once every 3 months.
Just as we started, there was a furtive movement in the foyer. I went out, and a man was huddled in a corner, and wanting a food parcel. "Sure", I said, "at the end of the service. But why not wash your hands and come and join us. We're eating here tonight and there's even roast chicken."
He sat among us, enjoying his share of first, seconds and thirds. He laughed with us, and listened as we broke bread and shared. He left with a full belly and a food parcel.
The regulars were curious. I told them he might just be an angel. I think we were more blessed than he. He got to eat food in human company. We got to taste the reality of the radical hospitality offered at the wedding banquet of the Kingdom.

TSUNAMI PRAYER

May God bless you with discomfort at easy answers, half truths, superficial relationships, so that you will live deep within your heart.
May God bless you with anger at injustice,oppression and exploitation of the people so that you will work for justice,equality and peace.
May God bless you with tears to shed for those who suffer from pain, rejection, starvation and war so that you will reach out your hand to comfort them and change their pain into joy.
And may God bless you with the foolishness to think that you can make a difference in the world, so that you will do the things which others tell you cannot be done.

Audrey Whyte

China Today

At Hilton, we have been thinking about the remarkable growth of the church in China over the past 50 years. Alan Hirsch's blog contained the following information today:

LED BY A booming Pentecostal population, the number of Christians in China has mushroomed in the last half century to make it the third largest Christian nation in the world, behind only the United States and Brazil. About 900,000 Protestants lived in the country at the time of the Communist takeover in 1949. Today China has about 111 million Christians, about 90 percent Protestant and mostly Pentecostal, according to the World Christian Database, published by the Center for the Study of Global Christianity.

Religious data is notoriously imprecise in an officially atheistic state, and other estimates go as low as 70 million and 40 million, in line with the CIA World Factbook. Even those conservative estimates, however, translate into Protestantism in China growing roughly 4,300 percent over the last half-century, most of it since the Cultural Revolution in the late 1960s and 1970s.
By 2050, there will be 218 million Christians in China, 16 percent of the population, enough to make China the world's second-largest Christian nation, according to the center, which estimates 10,000 conversions in China every day.

This growth, however, has largely bypassed the Roman Catholic Church. Current estimates put the number of Chinese Catholics at 12 million, compared to 3.3 million in 1949, which means Catholicism has just kept pace with overall population growth.

Meaning of life?

Collecting books? No, read them!
Reading them? No, think about!
Thinking about? No, do something for God and for your neighbour!
Karl Barth, Basle, 2.11.1954

Brace Yourself

Three Weeks Today!

Three weeks today, the workparty of 35 from Hilton Church departs for Peru from Edinburgh airport at 5.50am. Ahead of them, 2 weeks of labouring at Puerto Alegria on the Amazon and Kusi in the Andres. An opportunity to make a difference in the lives of abandoned boys through their efforts. Last night, the team had a spanish themed pot luck supper in the old manse. Calum Munro from the Vine Trust was there to go over final arrangements and anwer any any questions. There is a great deal of excitement and anticipation amongst many of the team members together with a little anxiety about facing a new experience. Please pray for them all as they mke final arrangments for this adventure ahead of them.
DM

Scottish Northern Convention 2007

Jamie Grant will be speaking at the Sunday evening meeting of the Convention. During the week, one of the keynote speakers will be Bruce Milne from Vancouver. His daughter Maggie and son in law Jacob were in our congregation for a year sometime ago, when Jacob did a teacher exchange with Laurence Phin. Bruce is a gifted preacher - well worth a trip to Strathpeffer.
DM

THE FEEDING OF THE 400

Following the devastating earthquake in sourthern Peru, the Vine Trust funded several feeding stations. Some of the most vulnerable children are now receiving 2 good meals a day

Paul Clark writes, 'These children are being fed 2 good meals a day at our soup kitchens. Just an hour ago I had a phone call from Marco, our schools worker in charge of the distribution of food. He asked permission to move one of the four feeding centres, because the bulldozers have come into the area to remove the rubble. The Government is, I believe, in spite of the news contrary to this, doing its best. There always has been corruption here, and so it is sad, but not surprising to see donated food and clothing being sold.'

Caring for Ex-offenders

The will be a meeting on Wednesday 19th September 2007 at the King's Factory, Smithton, jointly sponsored by Prison Fellowship and Caring for Ex-offenders, to discuss how churches might help Ex-offenders. Caroline Crombie will speak on her experience in Aberdeen is running such a scheme. As a result of running Alpha courses in prisons many prisoners give their lives to Christ, when they are released it is all too easy for them to slip back into old bad company and habits. To try to break this cycle Holy Trinity Brompton (Alpha) has set up the Caring for Ex-offender Scheme as an independent operation. Churches are encouraged to sign up to the Caring for Ex-offender scheme, and the meeting is to explain what is involved. In the scheme someone will meet the prisoner at the prison gate on release and help them make contact with a church in the scheme in their home area. For the scheme to work the Church - not just one or two individuals in it - have to sign up for the scheme. Do you think your church would be interested? Come and hear more on the 19th. Contact for further questions David or Ruth Martin (Prison Fellowship Inverness) 01463 237949