A change of plan!

I'm afraid that our church picnic and baptismal service to Dores Beach had to be postponed today. 25mph winds and torrential rains gave us no other choice. We are going to hold it on the first sunny Sunday afternoon after the school summer holidays.

'Joseph' at Hilton Primary

Tonight saw the third and last performance from the children of Hilton Primary School of the fantastic west end musical 'Joseph and his amazing technicolor dreamcoat'. The past three nights have seen the whole school, at one point, on stage being part of the show. All the cast, dancers and choir members were amazing. It was an amazing thing to be involved in and an experience I will never forget and one that I am desperate to do again. So who knows what show will be next...watch this space!

Check out the Inverness Courier next week (maybe tuesday) for a write up about the show.

Chris

PS: do you recognise anyone in the photo?

HILLWALK

There are many keen hillwalkers in Hilton Church. A few years ago, we had a great day together walking on some of the hills in Glen Affric. We thought it might be a good idea to try and organise a days hillwalking for a Saturday before the end of the summer. We have pencilled in Saturday 30th August, and we will seek to guage the level of interest over the next couple of Sundays. We would aim to have a walk which would be suitable for a wide range of abilities across the age range.There will be a sign up sheet in the church. You can also express your interest by way of commenting on the blog.

Great News from Kinmylies.

After nearly two years of searching and advertising, we are delighted to report that following an interview last weekend, which exceeded our expectations, the interviewing panel of six unanimously agreed to offer the post of Youth Pastor in Kinmylies Church to Anne Gunn for three years.

We are further delighted to report that Anne has accepted the offer and hopes to start work with us around the beginning of the new school year in August - probably on Monday 18th August.Anne is 28 and a fully qualified Primary School teacher from Aberfeldy. She has considerable and varied work experience with young people at home and overseas, and is currently teaching in two schools in North and South Uist. She has a clearly defined call to full time Christian service within the church in Scotland and we believe that she brings many gifts to this new work with young people in Kinmylies.

Please pray for Anne as she makes preparations for finishing her time in Uist, finding accommodation in Inverness, moving, settling in, making new friends and starting work here in August.We are deeply grateful to the Lord for the way he has led us to this appointment - we had to learn patience - and look forward to seeing all that he has in store for the church and parish over these coming months and years.Thank you all for your prayer support in this new venture!-P-- Peter & Kathleen Humphris

1040 window

Andrew Jones has posted a fascinating reflection on the power of the internet, and the opportunity it presents to the church to reach 1 billion people.

The work begins!

Rok Construction moved onto the site on Monday morning to do some preparatory work.At 8am on Tuesday morning, Iain Ross and Alan Brown had a site meeting with the Rok Team to go over some of the details of the work. By mid morning, the wall between the church and the old manse was demolished, and by Wednesday lunchtime diggers were moving major amounts of earth from the front of the building. It's great to see the work forging ahead so quickly from the beginning.

Loch Ness Baptisms 22 June – all welcome!

Yes, on 22 June we have two adults being baptised by full immersion in Loch Ness – now that must be some kind of serious commitment to the whole principal of baptism! This will be at Dores Beach and we will be having a church picnic (please bring your own picnic) at the same time. We will start around 1pm and probably have the baptisms around 2.30pm depending on the weather. This is a great chance to bring some friends and family to see and share something very special.
We hope this little video might get you thinking too…

Here's another video of a full immersion baptism up in Orkney...

Licence terms of this video

Frenzy 2008

What an amazing event.....Frenzy 2008. Ask any of the young folk who were there and they will tell you just how good it was. As Duncan mentioned at church this morning, we didn't get back into Inverness until after 1pm, but by the time we had dropped everybody off at their doors it was 2.45 before I got home, and probably a wee bit later for the folks over in Kirkhill. It was a very long day but a very enjoyable one.

Frenzy is a fantastic event for all ages. It is extremely well organised and has something for everybody. I was volunteering on the Scripture Union stand this year, handing out SU Holiday brochures and speaking to lots of folk about the work of SU. SU had made t-shirts with our names on the back....I was very excited about this....even more excited when they said I could keep it...woohoo. After about 5 hours or so my time on the SU stand had come to an end, just in time to hear David Crowder Band. This was the band I really wanted to see and they were brilliant. These guys really know how to get a crowd going.....before we knew it Stuart and I were linked (football huddle style) with another dozen or so guys and girls, and with the other 8000 or so folks in the hall were bouncing as high as we could while singing "we're gonna dance like we're saved"....it was brilliant. What an experience.

Next came Chris Tomlin. We sing a few of Chris Tomlin's songs in church, in fact we sang one this morning "How Great is our God". The next 45 mins or so turned out to be the best of the night, even better than David Crowder Band, sorry David if you are reading this blog. Having 8000 or so people of all ages, all singing their hearts out for God, is an AWESOME experience.

Words are really no good for explaining this event, it really has got to be experienced. Hilton young folk have been trailblazing for our congregation these past few years at Frenzy, so next year I think we should organise a bigger bus and take you all down to Frenzy 2009........

Chris

Love for Lesotho

Meet Lerato

Lerato lived with his parents in a 'decent' house, basic but warm and with two bedrooms. He went to a good school and was doing well. Then his parents got sick one after the other and died two years apart - Lerato was orphaned when he was 10. He found himself on the streets – where life is hard. Lerato gets food any way he can, and struggles to keep warm at night. Orphaned children rank low in Lesotho and have very few rights – when he was twelve, Lerato and his friend were gang raped by security guards. Lerato is now fourteen and still living on the streets. We can help him…


As many may know, I intend to move there with Palesa in October to set up and run a crisis care centre for boys like Lerato who are living on the streets, giving them safety, nourishment, medical care and the chance to go to school. Above all, I would like to give the boys a hope for the future, and the knowledge that they are not forgotten, that Jesus loves them and that people do care.


We had a meeting last Thursday for those who were interested in helping me from this end – a great team of folk!
We are now aiming to raise awareness for the work by producing a leaflet, creating a website and getting in touch with the press to do a feature on the work that I will be doing. We are also hoping to raise some funding for the running costs of the centre through giving folks the opportunity to set up a standing order to help Lerato and other children like him.

If you would like any more information, or would like to donate any amount of money, however small, please get in touch.

Robyn Hammond

The power of imagination

This morning I'm finishing off a sermon for Sunday on discipleship based around Luke 6 v12-17. I am going to introduce one of the lifeshapes - the triangle - which I learnt last November while visiting St Thomas' church, Sheffield. An inspiring church which is well worth visiting.

One of the points I want to particularly focus on is the fact that our vision of discipleship will in large measure define how we do it. I was particularly struck this morning by a quote from JK Rowling's lecture at Harvard University yesterday in which she said,

“We do not need magic to change the world; we carry all the power we need inside ourselves already – we have the power to imagine better.”

I think God has given us all the resources we need to imagine our lives and the world better.

The clearance begins!

An awesome team turned up tonight to start clearing the former manse. So many folk volunteered that Iain Ross was eventually forced to say that we had enough help! It has been so good to see the level of interest and enthusiasm increasing over the weeks and months. Thanks to everyone who helped and expressed a willingness to help.

The calm before the storm?!

Grand designs eat your heart out....! We think you will be pleasantly surprised with the transformation soon to start on the current site of the old manse! Don't miss the emerging transformation live here on Hilton Blog.

Who are you a disciple of?

"Who are you a disciple of?" That is the question I am asking on Sunday morning. We learn from many different people in our life. I am focussing on Luke 5, and the call to be a Jesus learner, as Peter was. I have been trawling around the internet to find a quotation by an MTV executive. I haven't found the quote yet, but I did find this outstanding Lausanne paper on discipling young people which you can read here. Linday Howie of Inverness Youth for Christ is one of the authors. It is a big read, but it contains a very comprehensive reflection on the experience of young people worldwide.

LOVE YOUR ENEMIES.

"Conflicts are resolved through talking to enemies not friends."

This is what Desmond Tutu said today on a visit to Gaza. He called Israel's blockade of the Gaza Strip an "abomination". You can read the full BBC report here

If we build it, they will come!

On the 6th of December, we had an evening of prayer for the community cafe project. Stuart wrote a stirring piece for the blog which I took a look at again today. I did so, because when I went down to the church this morning, I found that Rok Construction have placed their work cabins next to the old manse, ready to begin on 16th June. A project so long in the planning, and yet in the end getting to the starting line of construction so quickly. It is an exciting time to be part of all that is going on at Hilton Church.

CYC DAY OF PRAYER

The following invitation has come in from Inverness YMCA. It would be great if a good number from Hilton Church were able to be present to share in this time of prayer.

We are going to have a day of prayer in the CYC building on Thursday the 5th of June "this is for all ages"

The theme of the day is "Uniting to keep it simple"

Time 10am till 2.00pm

6.30pm till 9.00pm

There will be 5 main prayer points

1/ The work and outreach of the YM

2/ The Church in Inverness praying especially for the Churches without ministers

3/ The outreaches in the city YI, YFC, Healing on the streets, Street Pastors

4/ Camps, SU, Free Church, Faith Mission

5/ Mission field and Future outreaches like tent mission, Roots,Connect,Encounter

There will be an opportunity for personal prayer .We would ask that each congregation would have a minimum "there is no maximum" of 4 members to attend the day at some point, and it would be good if they could be together.this could be for 10min or 60min that's up to you.

Tea or Coffee will be provided free of charge

The parable of the talents

It's great to see various fellowships coming up with new angles on how to bring these gospel parables alive in our lives. My sister sent me this one from her church

Contemporary Bible Reading

A great contemporary bible reading for this Sunday written by Roddy Hamilton whose blog you can read here

Some upbeat chart music is playing in the background...

Voice 1 Ladies and Gentlemen… welcome to this years GQ Magazine best and worst dressed awards 2008… where at No. 16 we have future king… Prince William… that No. 16 on the worst dressed chart… Not so good for the next in line but other British Princes made a better attempt in the best dressed list… where Harry… Charles and Philip… all feature in the top 50 of this years chart…

Voice 2 Has anyone by fussing in front of the mirror ever got taller by so much as an inch? All this time and money wasted on fashion—do you think it makes that much difference?

Voice 1 As for the women… Kate Moss has been voted top of the pops in glamour clothing… taking back her top place from Kylie Minogue… Experts believe it was that shocking cat-suit Kylie wore on X-factor… that was her undoing… Close to the top of the worst dressed men chart we find Prime Minister Gordon Brown shooting into number three… but opposition leader David Cameron can take comfort in the fact that he didn’t only get to No 1 in the bi-election this week… but he’s also in at number 8 in the best dressed awards… his third consecutive year in the top ten…

Voice 2 Instead of looking at the fashions, walk out into the fields and look at the wildflowers. They never primp or shop, but have you ever seen color and design quite like it? The ten best-dressed men and women in the country look shabby alongside them.

Voice 1 Back at the women’s chart Madonna… Paris Hilton and Britney Spears all rub shoulders at the top of the worst positions… Interestingly David Beckham has once more figured in both lists of best and worst… being named 6th best and 9th worst dressed male… But who has made it to the top of the best dressed list… For second year running… Daniel Craig… the first blond James Bond… makes it to the top for the men… and for the women it’s Kate Moss… winning back her top place… But how many hours and fussing and dollars of grooming will they both have to take to keep themselves there…?

Voice 2 If God gives such attention to the appearance of wildflowers—most of which are never even seen—don't you think he'll attend to you, take pride in you, do his best for you? What I'm trying to do here is to get you to relax, to not be so preoccupied with getting, so you can respond to God's giving.

National Gathering

There will be many different perspectives on the National Gathering. You can read here the perspective of Archbishop John Sentamu, who preached on Sunday morning, as well as playing his African drums.

BBC iPLAYER

Tonight I watched last night's report from the General Assembly curtesy of bbc iplayer. The programmes last Sunday and then Wednesday, were well put together and give a good flavour of the breadth of life and viewpoint in the church of scotland. One of the most striking features of this year's assembly was a report on the number of congregations where there has been a major breakdown in relationship between the minister and various groups or individuals within congregations. There has been a fair amount written in recent months regarding "toxic" congregations - congregations which are bad for your health! Hopefully the Assembly this year has highlighted the issue in such a way that it will lead to these nightmare scenarios being addressed. If local congregations are falling apart, what message does that give to the communities they are seeking to serve.