Hope and Optimism

There is a great deal of hope and optimism about following the election of Barak Obama as 44th President. Let's pray for the President elect that God will give him the wisdom to lead well.

LIFE WITH GOD

To date, we have 38 people signed up to share in the weekend above. I suspect that a significant number of folk just haven't got round to filling up the sign up sheet in the church. 38 is a very encouraging number but I'm hoping that there will be considerably more people signing up over the next 2 weeks.

Souled Out Thank you

We would like to extend a huge thank you to you all for helping support the Souled Out event that took place at the Iron Works on Saturday. We had around 450 people there which was a great encouragement to all the team who worked so hard to make it happen. We would be grateful if you could communicate our thanks to the people in your church & organisations & also let them know we have this week confirmed another 2 dates for next year, Saturday the 14th of March & Saturday the 13th of June. We are in the process of confirming our speak for March & look forward to announcing them soon!
In June we will have Pete Gilbert, an evangelist based in Farr who travels in the UK and abroad working with churches on leadership strategy/, team dynamics, discipleship & evangelism. Pete is responsible for the vision, direction and strategy of DNA, along with training and development issues - both in the UK and internationally. Pete is a well-known evangelist, who has been involved for many years in missions and training. An author and speaker at many events both in the Uk and intentiaonally, he works with church leadership teams on areas of evangelism, discipleship, church structure & leadership development. Pete and his family are based in the King's Fellowship, Inverness. DNA serves churches, develops leaders and makes 21st century disciples - http://www.dna-uk.org/.
The next events will not be called Souled Out as by then we will have our own name & branding in place. If you would like someone from the team to come & speak to you your Church or Organisation about what we are doing then please let us know & we would be delighted to come along.
Chris
On behalf of the organising team, help us spread the word!

Money, Debt & Family Life

Many families see the effect of financial difficulty and debt. In fact relationship experts reckon arguments about money are one of the major areas of disagreement amongst couples. Yet families can find themselves in debt for all sorts of reasons – poor lifestyle choices, separation, bereavement, unemployment.
If you are concerned about money here are some very helpful sites to visit or contact the office.

www.careforthefamily.org.uk/supportnet including 8 ways to help your child when you are in debt as a parent. (Printed version available in the foyer)
www.lookingatlife.org.uk good practical advice on money matters for those in their 20s and 30s.
www.quidzin.org.uk aimed at giving parents the knowledge to raise financially confident children.

Coming in the New Year – “The Money Secret”
A 6 week short course on understanding money, including dealing with debt.
Based on “The Money Secret” by Rob Parsons
Available in the Church library in book and CD Audio form.

To Lesotho

I'm writing this at 11pm, concious of the fact that Robyn and Palesa are now well on their way to Lesotho. Sunday morning was very special for us as a congregation as we celebrated together the remarkable way in which God has called them to go to Lesotho and the way He has provided for them. It has been wonderful to see the way that God has given vision and then provided as Robyn has taken steps of faith. Resources always follow vision!

The church was absolutely packed on Sunday morning, so I wondered whether it would be possible to introduce a number of interactive dimensions to the service towards the end. I needn't have been worried! In one part of the church we set up a table with bush tea and fat cakes (tesco dough nuts!), two basics of life in Lesotho. A sacramental act to identify with Robyn's new ministry.In another part of the church we had tables with post its for people to write prayers, and tables with candles for them to light as a symbol of their prayers being offered. It was heartening to watch the crowds of people gathering in different parts of the sanctuary, as the worship group continued to lead with various songs of worship. We have come a long way as a congregation over the years. It was great to see people sharing in such a relaxed way. I gathered up all the prayers on Sunday night and I will post them to Robyn to remind her of the love and the prayers which accompany her as she begins this adventure for God along with Palesa.

SOULED OUT

Souled Out got off to a very promising start on Saturday evening. Some 500 people of all ages and stages packed into The Iron Works. The band was excellent and the choice of songs was sympathetic to the breadth of the gathering.

I saw the advert above for a GRACE service and it made me think of the challenging talk given by Jean F Larroux. How do we present ourselves to others? The encouragement of the talk was to be real and to realise that our wounds and our failures are an important part of the story of God's grace in our lives. The next event takes place in March. I'm looking forward to it already.

Stations of Grace

Dot Walker has been exhibiting at an artistic event in Glasgow called Stations of Grace.23 artists created pictures illustrating biblical or historical events which show God's grace in action. It would be wonderful to have an artistic event like that at Hilton Church at some point in the future. Hopefully, we will be able to see Dot's picture at some point soon.

Doodle

Do you find it difficult to arrange meetings because of all the challenges of different peoples diaries? Iain Ross may have just the answer for you! We have really struggled to get a suitable date for a meeting of The Lighthouse Management Team. Today Iain has sent out a doddle for us to fill in. What a great idea.

Stoning the prophets

Over the past 2 months we have been looking at the minor prophets at our evening services. On Sunday evening, Hector Morrison was preaching on Nahum. He told us that he had never preached on Nahum and on being asked, only one person from the congregation could ever remember hearing a sermon on this very marginalised minor prophet! We were therefore in very new territory on Sunday evening. I wonder what other obscure passages or books we can find to preach from! On Sunday evening we discovered that Nahum has a very relevant message for us today despite its origins in the 7th century BC. Thanks to Hector for opening up this challenging prophet for us.

BLOGGING FAST!

I have intentionally fasted on the blogging front for a few weeks! But there is just so much going on around Hilton Church these days that it would be a shame not to blog a little over the next few days. A number of folk asked about the blessing at the end of the service for Robyn and Palesa. I found it as a link on Jonny Baker's outstanding blog which you can read here.

Keri and Angie's latest newsletter

Click here to download Keri and Angie's latest newsletter.

Accomodation Needed

Carlo Colloredo works as a chef in Ballifeary House for the elderly. He is a Christian, is very personable and his English is excellent. He has started coming to Hilton Church and hopes in due course to do a Theology course. He is looking for accommodation. If anybody has a room, or knows of a room that he could rent let me know and I'll pass on Carlo's details.

Barry

Lesotho Calling

On Tuesday, 4th November 2008, Robyn & Palesa are travelling to Lesotho to begin setting up a crisis centre for street children - THAT’S RIGHT - tommorrow!
To celebrate this amazing step in their lives (as well as all of ours - we HAVE to support them) the church had a special commissioning service yseterday.
PS - Please remember to collect, complete and return your standing order and gift aid form

Light House Update

Hello, Gwen Barlow here, back after the half term holidays with an update of how the Light House is progressing. First of all here’s a few photos…


Click here to start

The café kitchen is now almost complete, just the espresso coffee machine left to be commissioned which is due to happen next week and cooking utensils to be sourced and purchased. The café itself still requires a few finishing touches, blinds for the windows for example, but the plan with the café is to make a start in December by opening weekdays from 10am till 2pm – actual dates, times and menu yet to be confirmed… watch this space!

As for the meeting rooms, they will be available for Kingdom Kids, Teenscene and Nitelife to move in Sunday 16 November as officially the first groups to regularly use the Light House! The plan is to also start letting out the rooms to groups outside of the existing church groups as soon as possible, but this is unlikely to happen until the New Year.

I continue to give thanks and praise to God for His abundant blessing in the Light House. I continue to be amazed and thankful for the generosity of folk, for the gifting of their time and/or material provision. So much has been done already in the building of this new centre and yet there is still so much to do to get it up and running that I have to keep reminding myself how we need to keep taking things day by day, step by step.. and that at the centre of it all is Jesus. It reminds me of a song…”One more step along the world I go... keep me travelling along with you”…

Blessings!

Gwen

Money Matters

In the midst of the continuing global financial meltdown how can I as an individual cope with my own finances? There are many reasons, sometimes outwith our control, which can see us in financial difficulty. So what can I do? For good practical advice here is a new web resource. www.red2black.org.uk

Children's and Youth outreach

I was speaking to someone after the service a few Sundays ago who said that they didn't really think we had a lot of children at Hilton until they all left to go to their various groups - creche, Kingdom Kids, Sunday Club and Teenscene - then suddenly the church was half full.

We have a huge amount of children around the church on a Sunday morning and a great team of folks involved in all areas of that work. We give thanks for this and pray that it would continue to grow and that these children will know the love that God has for them.

What about the outreach work to the children and young people of our community I hear you ask, how is that going? Well here is the answer: Hyphop (for P1 to P5) started back a few weeks ago and we had 37 children and it was great. MYC (Monday Youth Club for P6/7) also started back recently and we had 26 kids and it was great. The only problem is though we have a very small team of people helping with these two groups - we had five leaders at Hyphop and only two of us helping with MYC.

So, at the moment we just don't have enough people to be able to keep running these groups. At Hyphop we need at least 10 people (2 per group) and MYC needs at least three people if we are going to be getting the numbers of children we had on the first night, and I think we will, if not more.

Is this something you could help with? Please. Hyphop runs every 1st and 3rd Friday from 6pm till 7.15pm and MYC every 1st and 3rd Monday from 6pm till 7.15pm.

Please contact me if you would like more information or to say that you would love to help.

Thanks
Chris Watt
Youth and Children's Worker.
Click here for contact details.

Milton Homegroup

Here is the Milton Homegroup enjoying a visit from Robyn and delightful Palesa this evening at our meeting. Robyn was able to give us a very interesting insight to her hopes and dreams and few concerns for her new life in Lesotho. One thing we were very sure about was that God was certainly working in her life and she was willing to answer that call.
We were pleased to be able to give her a donation and to assure her that she would have our prayers in the coming months and years. Thank you Robyn
Margaret Johnston

PRAYER TWEETS

Albert Bogle is a good example of a church leader who is continually innovating and pushing the boundaries. I note on St Andrew's website, which you can read here that they now have a prayer site on line called PRAYER TWEETS. There are often very good ideas on Albert's personal blog called italker which you can read here. Albert is also the Chairman of The Vine Trust. The picture is of Albert tucking into one of Peru's speciality dishes - guinea pig! I'm afraid I just couldn't eat it!

The Year of Home Coming

Could there be a better comment on home coming than Luke 15:11 - 32? Rob Parsons has written a very readable and signifcant book on the subject called "Bringing Home the Prodigals." He says, "I have concentrated in this book on those who have children - of whatever age - who are prodigal. But of course there are many kinds of prodigal - brothers, sisters,husbands, wives and friends."

Hilton Primary goes green.

I attended Hilton Primary School Board last night and heard all about how the school is becoming environmentally friendly. One of the learning support auxiliaries, Marie Sims (may have spelt that wrong) has put in a tremendous amount of work over the past year and a half and has already created a vegetable garden and sensory garden in the school playground.

The school is involved in a few environmental projects and we can help with one of them. They plan to build a greenhouse out of 2 litre plastic bottles, no you are not seeing things....a large greenhouse made from used plastic 2L bottles. They need another 3000 before they can start, so get collecting folks. If you have any around the house then please empty them first and bring them into the church and leave them in a box in the foyer and I can take them round to the school.

Another of their projects took place today and I tagged along and snapped some photos. 25 children from the school went out into the community this afternoon and picked up litter. What an example these children and the school are setting in doing something like this. It was brilliant. Look out for the courier on Friday as there maybe an article and a few photos. For the meantime though here are a couple of my photos. Chris

Rescue package for HBOS & RBS - but what about you and me?

"People will have to think about money in a different way. You can't spend your future before you earn it." says Alvin Hall. In the maelstrom of the current crisis what can you and I do? How shoild we think and act at a personal level? You could do no better than read the words of Jesus in Matthew Chapter 6 verses 19 to 34 about money, possessions and priorities. And Care for the Family provide some very accessible advice at www.themoneysecret.info including inviting us to read "The Money Secret" by Rob Parsons.

Listening

Learning to Listen
"In my view, one of the gretest skills that we are losing in this country is the ability to listen; there much noise and chatter but not much concentrated listening."
Sandi Toksvig BACP President. BBC Presenter.
"Learning to Listen" - is a 2 day course (1st & 8th November 10am-4pm) which can help you to understand the dynamics of good listening, its healing effects and it will hone your skills for listening in eveyday life.
Being held at Hilton Church Inverness. Pick up a brochure, call the office for more details.

The Greed Creed

I saw this cartoon critique by Jon Birch on the current global financial crisis. It was revealed today that the head of the failed Investment Bank Lehman Bros, was paid $300 milion dollars over the past 8 years. How much is the work of any one person really worth? On the day on which the Stock Exchange had its biggest fall for over 20 years, there is clearly a lot of hard questions being asked about the way the world of finance works. There are clearly going to be very hard times ahead.

Year of homecoming

Did you know that 2009 is year of homecoming. You can read all about it here. I received an interesting invitation from the Mission and Discipleship Council today. In 2009, there is a plan to hold a Film Festival called "Home movies." Films will be shown in community centres, churches and cinemas. (Perhaps we could host films in the Lighthouse?) All the films will focus on the idea of "home". Categories include, children, families, young people, adults and older people. What films would you like to nominate for such a festival that have a link with "home"? You can leave your nominations on the comments section.

Micah Challenge

Our series on the Minor Prophets - Stoning the Prophets - continued on Sunday night with a look at Micah. There is an interesting campaign linked to this minor prophet which you can read all about it here.

30 seconds or less

A meeting took place this morning to look at some plans for Christmas services. Here is an interesting challenge. A competition to tell the Christmas story in 30 seconds or less has been launched.

Songs of hope

Our worship today was marked by a deep sadness and questioning, prompted by Iona's death. Our 2 worship leaders,Stephen Hutchison and Elaine Watt helped us all so much through their choices of songs to sing. I found the following words especially helpful.

When I'm faced with anguished choice, I will listen for Your voice,
And I'll stand on ev'ry promise of Your Word.
Through this dark and troubled land
You will guide me with Your hand
As I stand on ev'ry promise of Your Word.
And You've promised to complete
Ev'ry work begun in me—
So I'll stand on ev'ry promise of Your Word.

Hope that lifts me from despair, love that casts out ev'ry fear,
As I stand on ev'ry promise of Your Word.
Not forsaken, not alone, for the Comforter has come,
And I stand on ev'ry promise of Your Word.
Grace sufficient, grace for me,
Grace for all who will believe—
We will stand on ev'ry promise of Your Word.

"Every Promise of Your Word"
Words and Music by Keith Getty & Stuart Townend
Copyright © 2005 Thankyou Music

DISCIPLESHIP

I was present last night at one of the most encouraging meetings I have been at for years. It was a meeting to learn more about how we can effectively encourage/mentor/disciple the teenagers of our congregation. 20 teenagers in Hilton Church have signed up for our mentoring programme which has now been running for 1 year.Jamie Grant gave an outstanding presentation on the essence of Discipleship and we had a very valuable contribution from Drew Kuzma from Youth Inclusive. One of the key points which came across during the evening was the fact that the majority of us feel that we have never been discipled intentionally as followers of Jesus, and we don't have the kind of relationship with more mature Christians that we are seeking to establish with the teenagers. It is a fact that Discipleship has not really been on the agenda of the Church in Scotland in recent generations.

The reality, however, is that we are where we are, and it is wonderful to see such a large group (16 last night) who are committed to intentional discipleship. I believe they can be the means of completely changing the landscape in terms of discipleship at Hilton Church. Let's pray for God to bless this movement towards intentional discipleship across the generations.

The LIGHT House

Hello, Gwen Barlow here to let you know that after weeks of suggestions, consideration and prayer, the new centre has been named... The LIGHT House. This is so appropriate in terms of our Christian witness being LIGHT in the community. The design and colours of the building accentuate this LIGHTness so well.
My second week in the role of manager has again seen tremendous encouragement and support for the centre. Various folk came over to the centre from Time Out on Wednesday and were impressed and buzzing with ideas for its use, 2 young mothers from the Hilton area came in and offered to volunteer to help, an elderly lady from just around the corner even dropped in for a cup of tea in the cafe (pity it's not ready yet)! Thank you to everyone who have put their names forward as volunteers.
The kitchen installation was finally completed today with the installation of the water heater and the espresso coffee machine and the chairs and tables arrived at the beginning of the week, ten sets - flat packed! Thanks to everyone to helped to assemble them!
Another few steps forward to getting the building used...
I'll continue to blog regular updates on progress and in fact, very soon The LIGHT House will have a blog all of its own.

Blessings!
Gwen

WELCOME HOME SIMON!

Simon has been busy mullet hunting in the US of A! He has just returned and has posted some wonderful pictures of Salvation Mountain which you can find here

LIFE WITH GOD

A few weeks ago we launched the publicity for our Life with God Weekend in November. I had some contact with Philip Noble today regarding some of the arrangements for the gathering. It is now only 7 weeks away.You can read fuller information about the weekend here I am really hoping and praying that many people from within the congregation and beyond are putting the weekend aside in their diaries.

Bana Trust

There is a great deal of activity going on in the background as Robyn and Palesa prepare to leave for Lesotho at the beginning of November. The website is currently under construction. Hopefully the Trust members will make some posts on the blog in the coming weeks.

Souled out!

Get involved! Souled Out in Inverness is looking for volunteers to help at the event taking place at the Ironworks on Saturday 1st November. This is a fantastic opportunity to get involved in this exciting new event in Inverness. Volunteers must be 17+. Interested? Contact Marion Taylor.Tel: 07841718711 Email: marionctaylor@hotmail.co.uk

IONA FRASER

Iona died peacefully in her parents arms yesterday. There are no words really to adequately express how sad we all feel. We hold Jonathan and Susie in our prayers as they go through this time of terrible loss.

O Christ, you wept when grief is raw,

And felt for those who mourned their friend;

Come close to where we would not be

And hold us, numbed by this life's end.

Paul Newman

Dave McCarthy has a very touching piece in his blog this morning about one of Paul Newman's most memorable roles.You can read it here .

Impact Cafe

Wasps trained to seek out drugs in Columbian airports, the gospel shared through an episode of Dr Who and Life Boat Stations that become comfortable clubs. These were some of the surprising and wonderful ways in which the Cafe service went on Sunday night. There isn't another cafe now until the last Sunday in November, but I'm already excited about what we may learn from the prophet Zechariah!

It's about relationships - stupid!

A comment on the current bank bail-out in the US from Bill Coffin in SmartMarriages says “How big is $700Bn? It is equal to the cost of divorce and out of wedlock pregnancy over the last six and a half years.” In the UK, the cost of Northern Rock and now Bradford and Bingley is about four years of UK family breakdown.

The problem with both these analyses is that they are not alternative uses of the money – they are additive. The “toxic mortgages” are heavily skewed towards un-married couples who subsequently split and then defaulted. As a society we have encouraged this lifestyle, and as a society we are now picking up the cost – twice!

It is salutary to reflect that the apparent success, and now fragility, of the western capital system is built on foundations outlawed within Muslim banking circles, their system being based on the ancient biblical system which outlaws usury (lending for interest). This doesn’t mean they won’t lend money – it means that they build a relationship as the basis for any transaction in which risk and return are openly understood, and shared appropriately. The heart of the system is relationships, not interest rates.

As a society in the west we have built a society on a premise of having whatever we want, in the belief that there is no cost – a banking and finance system that sidelines the importance of relationships, and a mortgage market that ignores the impact of relationship stability, a “sexual market” in which gratification is set above care for the relationship.

The heart of a successfully functioning human society is relationships, and the pinnacle of these in terms of commitment, mutual care, and self-sacrifice is marriage. Until we shift our thinking onto a relational basis we shall continue to build sandcastles in the air – and the tides of history will quietly sweep them back into the sea, all over again.

DRUG RAIDS IN HILTON

The BBC website is reporting the following: "Police in Inverness have arrested four people and seized a "significant" amount of drugs during raids in the city's Hilton area. " You can read the full report here. Inverness is nolonger (if it ever was!) sheltered from these bleak realities. There have been 4 drug related deaths in the last 2 weeks.

The Story Teller

I found a great idea here from Roddy Hamilton. A story teller to tell the good news stories from a congregation. In many ways, the blog has that purpose and potential, but a great deal more is possible as you will see from Roddy's suggestions.I was hearing from Margaret Lamond, that last Thursday evening The Guild had an inspiring time during which many of the women told stories of their lives and their service to Christ through the Church. We need to make space for more stories to be told. One of the challenges in my experience is creating an enviroment in which people feel able to tell their stories. Despite lots of encouragement from me, very few people appear to be prepared to share their stories and thoughts in the blog. So often we hang back for a variety of reasons. I am struck by the fact that the most commented blog which I regularly read is ASBO JESUS. All Jon Birch uses are cartoons, and yet it seems to free people up to share in large numbers.

PLEASE PRAY

Jonathan and Susie Fraser phoned early this morning to say that Iona had suffered a major set back over night. She has now been in ITU for 6 weeks. The infection she picked up 3 weeks ago is still causing major problems. They would value your prayers.

HILTON SHOPS

I took a picture of the Hilton shops this morning before going into church for the service. The shops are immediately opposite the Church. Sunday is the only time in the week when the area is quiet. The Co-op, the Post Office and the new Butchers together with the Hairdressers provide a great service to the wider community. Gwen has been visiting them all this week. We hope to work closely with them in the development of the cafe. Perhaps, I'll try to do a feature on each of the shops over the next while.

Emerging Church

Tomorrow we are going to be reflecting on Luke 10 v1-12. Jesus sending out the 70.What does this say to us about the shape of mission and of the church today? There is a great deal of discussion these days about the emerging church. If this is something new to you, then a good introduction can be found through looking at the Fresh Expressions website. This is an initiative of the Church of England."It aims to help Christians of any denomination think about ways of starting and growing fresh expressions of church in their area."

JAMIE GRANT

We have a good day in prospect at Hilton Church tomorrow. One of the highlights of the day will be the ordination of Jamie Grant to the eldership. Jamie is an outstanding leader within our congregation. He regularly preaches, is involved in leading a homegroup and gives a great deal of time and effort to many different dimensions of service within the congregation, He came to Hilton Church nearly 5 years ago along with his wife Iwona and their 3 children, Gosia, Debbie and David. They have all made a telling contribution to the life of Hilton Church.Jamie is a lecturer at the Highland Theological College in Dingwall and he regularly speaks at conferences both National and International. We are thankful to God for him, and appreciate the wisdom and joy which are so evident in his life.

John & Olive Drane

It was a real privilege and pleasure to have John and Olive Drane sharing with us at Hilton Church last weekend. I follow a number of blogs on a regular basis and I noticed that Steve Taylor from Christchurch, NZ was doing a seminar in Adelaide, Australia this week, in which he was highlighting a book by John Drane. You can read about it here. The network of relationships in the christian community across the world is amazing.

The Scottish Northern Convention

The Strathpeffer Convention of 1984 was a major turning point in my life spiritually. It set me on a new course for my life which ultimately led to Parish ministry.Now called The Scottish Northern Convention, it begins this Saturday with a youth event. A significant number of our musicians are going to be leading the worship there which is great to hear. There will be bible teaching sessions taking place throughout next week, and if you have some free time I recommend a visit. You can find full details of the week by reading here

Hilton Community Centre

In establishing our new cafe and centre, we have received a great deal of encouragement and support from Hilton Community Centre. This afternoon, Gwen and I went to visit Maureen Ross, Chairperson of the Community Centre. We have a great deal to learn in terms of running a Centre and Maureen very willingly gave Gwen a variety of helpful insights into the operation of a centre for the public.

21st century prophets

"To a bystander like me, those who made £190m deliberately underselling the shares of HBOS, in spite of a very strong capital base, and drove it into the arms of Lloyds TSB, are clearly bank robbers and asset strippers," Dr Sentamu told the annual dinner of the Worshipful Company of International Bankers. "We find ourselves in a market system which seems to have taken its rules of trade from Alice in Wonderland, " he said.

Dr Sentamu noted the contrast between the bailouts to banks and the lack of funding for efforts to eradicate poverty. The US Treasury has proposed a fund worth up to $700bn (£382bn) to buy back much of the bad debt held by banks and other financial institutions. The Archbishop acknowledged the need for stable financial systems if poverty is to be eradicated but quoted commentators who said: "One of the ironies about this financial crisis is that it makes action on poverty look utterly achievable. It would cost $5bn to save six million children's lives. "World leaders could find 140 times that amount for the banking system in a week. How can they tell us that action for the poorest is too expensive?"

You can read the report here

ALPHA

We had the fourth evening of the current alpha course last night on the questions "How and why do we pray?" As always, there was a great sense of sharing and listening. The experience of being involved in a course again has been thoroughly refreshing. On a wider note, the course which is being run in partnership with the Hospital chaplaincy meets in the new Health Sciences building which you can read about here and here. It is a remarkable suite of buildings, rather hidden on the north east part of the Raigmore Hospital campus. If you are ever in the area, it is well worth a look.

The glass is half full!

For the last few weeks we have had a gift event. The funds raised will help towards the costs of fittings for the Centre such a furniture and AV, as well as set up costs for the cafe. The Project Team are asking for £20,000. By Sunday, we had raised just over half the required amount. In my experience it is very rare for the funds to be raised ahead of schedule. Much of the funding for re-developing the Centre came in when we were right "on the wire!"

The amount of envelopes from individuals/families (47) indicates that as a Project team we still have a way to go in terms of envisioning the congregation. Hopefully a greater number of people will begin to see the bigger picture as the centre moves from planning to action. We will keep the gift event open and continue to exercise the faith and optimism which has taken us this far.

"My God will supply all your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus." (Philipians 4 v19) In our experience, we have found God's resources to be more than ample for our needs.

IMPACT CAFE

Before you know it, another month has passed and it's time for another Impact Cafe. This Sunday night we are going to be looking at the wonderful minor prophet Jonah. It is one of the best known stories of the Old Testament and it has so much to say to us about the nature of God. Jonah was given a message by God to bring to the people of Nineveh. During the evening, we will be reflecting on the question "What is our message from God today?"

Mark Hadfield from Street Pastors will be sharing,as will Gwen Barlow. What is God's message today in our streets and in our cafes? There will be music from our youth as well as Peter Noble. A night to look forward to.

A little bit of hoovering!

Our new centre manager, Gwen Barlow is now into her third day of work. It's great to see her enthusiasm and to hear all the thoughts and ideas which are beginning to flow. She even had a little time this afternoon for a spot of hoovering! It would be good to have a centre blog to record the daily life of the project. I think we'll need a name before we can do that. Roll on the next project team meeting.

Who will walk the dog?

The domestic repercussions of the financial crisis have already hit home says the Telegraph. Just ask the City wives. The knock-on effect the strain and upheaval will have on the couple's marriage will emerge in time. For now, Sandra Davis, head of Family Law at Mishcon de Reya, points out that the stress caused by money woes can expose deep fault lines.

"With the financial markets lurching from one crisis to the next, city workers will be more concerned with their immediate employment prospects than with their relationships," says Davis. "Lehman Brothers employees and their wives are waking up to the reality that their stock is a busted flush, and the trophy wives of other investment bankers will be looking to cash in their chips before their husbands' stock options and deferred compensation go the same way. Either way, the outlook for the unhappily married appears fairly bleak."

Masters of the Universe, even those brought to their collective knees, evoke even less sympathy than estate agents down to their last des res, but this is no time to observe that it would take a heart of stone not to laugh at how the mighty - or more precisely, the mightily rich - hath fallen.

Of course, the big boys - and girls - at the top understood they were in a high-stakes business where risk was the name of the game, a game, they have belatedly discovered, where there really are losers as well as winners. You may have little sympathy for the City suits, but spare, if you will, a thought for their wives.

Not only have they lost status, but their army of support staff is in severe jeopardy: whether the nannies, cleaners, dog walkers and personal trainers? What will become of the independent schools where they send their children, even the charities who benefited from their conspicuous largesse?

sunday services

John & Olive Drane shared in our weekend which marked the beginning of the new cafe centre. They led our two services on Sunday, and as ever they left us with plenty to think about and much to build on.

The morning service was based around the Festival of Tabernacles and John 7. Water was central to the service and the climax of our time togther was the pouring out of our bottles of water into large basins at the front.

The evening service was based around Luke 24 and the Road to Emmaus. The service culminated in the opportunity to engage with a variety of prayer stations where many items linked to the gospel passage were placed.

I was struck by the simplicity of the services and the way they engaged so many people in a variety of different ways. There was movement and an opportunity to involve all our senses. It was quite different from an average service, and yet what was being done would not be difficult to build on.This blog offers the opportunity for you to comment about your experiences on Sunday. What did you make of it all? I would love to hear from you via the comments section.

The picture, which is full of water, was taken on a visit to the Iquazu Falls in Argentina.

asbo jesus

another great cartoon by jon birch

CHRISTIAN MEDICAL FELLOWSHIP

On Friday evening, I attended a promotional event at Raigmore Hospital hosted by the Christian Medical Fellowship. The aim of the evening was to highlight the medical work being pioneered by the Vine Trust in the Amazon region of Peru. There was about 70 people there for the presentation. Hopefully, many of them will be inspired to link in with this great project. The key note speakers were Sian Jones, Iain Whyte and Philip Kiln (all from Hilton Church) and Calum Munro who was a member of our first workparty to Peru (and is now Educational/Expedition Director at the Vine Trust). They all spoke so well and shared about the differences that the project had made to their lives and to the lives of the Amazonian people. I felt very proud of them all. It us so inspiring to see the difference that can be made by just a few people deciding to do something together. You can find out more about the Vine Trust here

BABY STEPS

The last two weeks have been very difficult for Iona and agonising for her parents,Jonathan and Susie. Just when it seemed that everything was right for Iona to move out of ITU, she got an infection which became a very serious issue. We are delighted to hear that Iona is again making progress. The word which is being used is "baby steps" so there is a way to go yet. Iona and her parents are constantly in our thoughts and prayers, and we hope that the improvement continues in these next days and weeks.

LIFT OFF!

I notice that the blog has been quiet since last Thursday. We had such a busy weekend that there really was no time for any sort of journal of the events.Personally, I collapsed into Monday morning and so today it's time to pick up the various threads again.

The cafe opened for people to come and have a look on Saturday afternoon. The afternoon was all I could have hoped for and more. The place was full of people up until the last half hour, and there was a great buzz as people shared together. Thank you to Peter Noble, Audrey Whyte (and friends!) and Julie Keen who did some singing sessions, to Olive Drane for her story telling and to Philip Noble for his string and things! The hospitality by those serving in the kitchen was also outstanding.

Gwen Barlow began work as Centre Manager yesterday. The building phase ends and a new chapter begins. We wish Gwen every success in her new role. I took the picture just before everyone arrived on Saturday. Hopefully we can post some pictures of the event later.

WATER

The service on Sunday morning at 10am is based around the theme of the Feast of Tabernacles, a major thanksgiving point in the year around harvest time. The high point involved the pouring out of much water. It also involved rabbis staying up all night and juggling with flames, but we'll give that a miss!

Can you remember to bring a small bottle of water for each person in your group, and perhaps an extra one for visitors.

OPEN AFTERNOON

Tomorrow afternoon (Saturday) from 1-5pm we are having an open time at the new cafe centre. (The sooner we have a new name the better!) It will be an opportunity for people to have a look around the new centre. We will be serving drinks and eats, and a variety of folk will be singing in the cafe throughout the afternoon. Olive Drane will be doing some story telling and John Drane will be doing some personal card readings from the Jesus deck. There will also be face painting. All in all, we hope it will be an afternoon to enjoy together.

CELEBRATION

At about 9pm this evening, we popped a few bottles of champagne and celebated the end of the painting and cleaning. A great team turned up tonight and worked really hard to get the job done. Thank you to everyone who helped. If you feel that you missed out tonight and would like to help, we are setting up tables and chairs at 6pm on Friday night.

500 posts

Tonight a large team will be gathering at the new centre (we hope!) to tidy up and to do the last bits of painting. All the floor coverings have gone down this week and engineers are completing the wiring and fittings for the audio visual system. I'm looking forward to seeing it all finished. It's been a long journey to this day. PICTURES ABOVE are before and after.

On another matter, I notice from the counter that this is the 500th post on the blog. I hope it serves as a useful tool to keep people in touch with what is happening around Hilton Church. It's a good way of telling our story as a church as we go along.

Ideas and Volunteers!

Hello! Gwen Barlow here just to let you know that starting this Monday I will officially be the Hilton Church Community Centre’s “Development Manager”. What does that mean?!! Well, it means now that we have this fantastic new resource in place, I’ll be working, alongside the Project Management Team, to develop the use of building. It started out as the “Hilton Community Café Project” but has actually become more than a café since it also has several meeting rooms which is why we’ve started calling it a “centre” instead.

The church’s vision for the centre is one of outreach and a tremendous opportunity to share the gospel with the wider Hilton Community; but as you may appreciate, we do have quite a blank sheet of paper in terms of the details. So.. I welcome your thoughts and ideas about the centre, its direction and what you would like to see happening. I can’t guarantee that all ideas can be implemented by any means, but all are certainly welcome, big or small..

We are also looking for any volunteers that would like to be part of the team working at the centre, perhaps in the cafe or in some other role at the centre.

On either of these issues, please don't hesitate to contact me. My email address and phone numbers are gwen@miragemedia.co.uk tel: 01381 629008 or just come and have a chat with me after the morning service this Sunday. I won’t be at the service every Sunday morning at Hilton since I’ll be over in Beauly with Rob, where he’s currently doing his ministry training placement; but whenever you see me please don’t hesitate to come over and chat.

Duncan has suggested that I put a photo here for those of you who don't know what I look like and so here's the most recent one I could find of me at one of our daughter's graduation ceremony this summer..
Blessings!
Gwen

ABORTION & DOWNS SYNDROME

On Channel 4 News tonight there was a very startling article on the screening of foetus' suspected of having Downs Syndrome. New research has claimed that,

"For every three unborn Down's syndrome babies prevented from being born, two healthy babies will be miscarried because of the methods used to detect the condition.The research claims that, in detecting and preventing the birth of 660 Down's babies, 400 healthy foetuses are lost."

Abortion is a very emotive issue, but these statistics don't make comfortable reading. It would be interesting the know the responses of the GP's in our own congregation to this medical journal report.

Summer Postcard

Family support comes in a variety of ways - from organised courses, to "simply listening", to providing a service such as Toddlers etc. One of the simplest and most appreciated ways in which we have been able to help is through Hilton Family Breaks - a fund set up specifically to provide a holiday break for an individual or family who just need to get away. Applications are by referral through Social Work, the School or another agency. Since July this year 5 familes have benefitted from the fund. Are we making a difference? The summer postcard says it all:
"Thank you so much. We are having so much fun. The weather has been lovely. We have been to the beach and we love the night parties. see you soon."

help!

Iain Ross asked for help on Sunday from anyone in the congregation who felt confident about doing a little painting once the carpets were down. Yesterday, only Brian Gunn came to help and he was working away on his own all day. This is not an acceptable solution, so today Iain and I have been looking at how to respond to such a lack of volunteers. We plan to phone around tonight, to see if we can get a team together for Thursday night to finish off the little work that remains to be do. If you can help on Thursday night, its not too late to "volunteer!" You are also invited to come on Thursday night (same night!) to help tidy the building. We want everything to be in perfect order for the weekend.

BONO ON BELIEF

Fascinating interview with Bono which you can read here

What is your religious belief today? What is your concept of God?

If I could put it simply, I would say that I believe there's a force of love and logic in the world, a force of love and logic behind the universe. And I believe in the poetic genius of a creator who would choose to express such unfathomable power as a child born in "straw poverty"; i.e., the story of Christ makes sense to me.

How does it make sense?
As an artist, I see the poetry of it. It's so brilliant. That this scale of creation, and the unfathomable universe, should describe itself in such vulnerability, as a child. That is mind-blowing to me. I guess that would make me a Christian. Although I don't use the label, because it is so very hard to live up to. I feel like I'm the worst example of it, so I just kinda keep my mouth shut.

Do you pray or have any religious practices?
I try to take time out of every day, in prayer and meditation. I feel as at home in a Catholic cathedral as in a revival tent. I also have enormous respect for my friends who are atheists, most of whom are, and the courage it takes not to believe.

THE WEEKEND THAT WAS

Another Sunday gone. The morning was an opportunity to take breath after a tough weekend working on the Centre. A remarkable sermon by John MacLeod last night from the minor prophet Obadiah - Reconciliation and forgiveness. I'll try and get it on the blog before the week is out. Jonny Baker also appears to have been involved in an intriguing and very creative service at Grace this weekend.

We also spoke to Jonathan and Susie last night, and Iona is still in ITU. They are cautiously optimistic that things will move in a positive direction this week for Iona. Hopefully we will be able to welcome them all back to Inverness soon.

9/11

Amidst all the activity of this week, 9/11 (7th anniversary) on Thursday was a reminder of how fast time passes and how different the world is today because of it. On 9/11, 2001, I was at a meeting which was all about making a beginning to the project which has been the focus of the blog all week. It has been a long road! The image above is part of a series of images which you can see here

PRESS & JOURNAL TODAY

You can read a report of yesterdays events here

THE TWO TROJANS

Here is a good picture of two of the central characters in the project. Iain Ross and Lewis MacDonald have worked like Trojans this week. It was great to see them at 5pm this afternoon,so pleased and happy at the end of such a challenging week.

HANDOVER

At 4.30pm this afternoon, the building was handed over by Rok to our project chairman Iain Ross. After all the planning and hard work, the event felt a bit like a dream. The last 24 hours have been quite remarkable with a huge response in terms of volunteers to paint. If a good number turn out tonight, all the painting should be complete in time for the carpets and floor coverings being laid on Monday. Thank you to everyone who has helped.

PLEASE HELP!

I'm just back from an afternoon of painting at the centre. There were 6 painters this morning and another 6 this afternoon. If a good team turns up tonight we may just manage to finish it by tomorrow evening. If you can , please come along on Friday to help, morning, afternoon or evening. Bring a tray, rollers or brushes and we will give you the paint.

I have e-mailed my entire address book asking for help. If you could pass the word on as well, that would be great.