amazing grace

the journey home

GREENBELT TALKS

Greenbelt is one of the major highlights in the calendar for me. It's a long weekend of spiritual refreshment and inspiration. I have just noticed that the GB website has recently made all its talks from 2009 and before available free to download. This is an amazing resource, with a vast number of different speakers to listen to.

17

We had a turn out of 17 for the stated anual meeting last night. The meeting was led for the final time by our chairman Mike Robertson. Mike begins his probationary year for Church of Scotland ministry in July at the Barn Church, Culloden so he will soon be leaving us after 7 years of very committed involvement at Hilton Church. We had a very positive meeting. After a very challenging year in terms of the economy, we ended up with a modest surplus. In the middle of the year we were projecting a significant deficit, so we have much to be grateful for. We were also able to reflect on significant improvements to the buildings this year. The accesses will be completed by the end of this month and the solar panels will be on the Lighthouse and the Church by the end of June. We also made some new appointments to the Board. Iain Ross becomes chairman, Claire Wheeler takes over as Clerk, and we welcomed Iain Gunn and Donald MacDonald onto the Board. The meeting was completed within one hour which I think we all appreciated.We like short meetings! There might only have been 17 there, and we may have a relatively small Board, but the spirit and the level of action and commitment from those involved is second to none.

stated anual meeting

We have our stated anual meeting tonight at 7.30pm. This meeting is a legal requirement for all charitable organisations. The elders and members of our Board require to approve the anual accounts which our treasurer Julie Douglas will present. Despite the hard financial climate we have continued to develop the ministries of Hilton Church, and over these past few months we have embarked on major projects to install solar panels and disabled accesses. We are grateful to God for the resources and the people we have been blessed with over the past 12 months.

These meetings are generally very spare in terms of attendance, so we'll see how many turn up tonight. It's Mike Robertson's final meeting as Chairman. Mike has been an outstanding chairman and we will miss his good humoured leadership of our meetings and activities.

It takes a great deal of commitment to lead the financial and property dimensions of a congregation's life. We are very grateful to Julie Douglas (treasurer) and Alan Brown (property team leader) who along with many others, have given so much time and effort to the life and witness of Hilton Parish Church.

IAIN ROSS

Congratulations to our Lighthouse Board chairman, Iain Ross, who has been nominated for a major volunteer award for his work with the Junior section of Inverness Golf Club. The picture above sums up Iain well. He is always up for getting involved and helping. Here he is doing a bbq for the street pastors last August. Here is the citation which covers the impact of his leadership:

Inverness Golf Club came on board with ClubGolf in 2008 to coach and make even better players of the 130 members it already had.
Volunteer Iain Ross, Junior Convenor at the time and now ClubGolf co-ordinator, has been responsible for restructuring the club’s junior coaching.
Year-on-year he has helped increase the numbers of coaches to eight at Level 1 and two at Level 1 advanced, offering a programme delivering coaching to every club junior regardless of age, gender or ability. He has recruited female coaches specifically to encourage girls to play. As a direct result girls make up 20 percent of the junior coaching numbers, a huge increase from two years ago.
Iain has contributed up to five hours a week over four years, spread between planning, coordinating and hands on coaching.
“Iain has invested a huge amount of time to lead the development and implementation of our junior coaching programme, especially for our younger, beginner members,” said the club’s Secretary Manager, former Scottish international, Ewan Forbes
“He has made a huge difference to our junior coaching; since he started it in 2008, our junior ClubGolf coaching has grown from next to nothing to over 60 youngsters.”
Ewan and the club’s four professionals play an integral and essential part in the ClubGolf programme, becoming increasingly involved as the volunteer coaches deliver more youngsters to the standard where they need professional coaching.
The whole coaching team encourages juniors to play more often, improve their handicaps and performances and stay in the club membership, an effort which they seeing paying dividends over next few years.
Working with Ewan, Iain has persuaded the committee to install 18 forward junior tees, an innovation has seen a huge increase in the number of juniors playing golf with parents outside the normal coaching times.
This, coupled with having over 60 young juniors regularly using the club which has helped make the club atmosphere even more vibrant.
A further incentive for Inverness juniors is the opportunity to play for the club team in a Ryder Cup style competition against their counterparts from Swedish club, Rya. Such were the bonds formed for the inaugural event hosted they hosted in 2010, that last year the Inverness juniors made the return trip. They won and were delighted to receive the trophy from ex-Celtic legend Henrik Larsson.

The awards cermony takes place in Glasgow this Friday evening.

Recovery course @ THE LIGHTHOUSE

Many of you know that we're running an addictions Recovery Course in Hilton Lighthouse. We had a great first night last Wednesday and were pleased to see folks we've met out on the streets as well as people from the community, friends etc.
Would you prayerfully consider helping us out in a few practical areas, or passing this on to someone who may be able to help? We'd be very grateful of help on just one Wednesday afternoon or evening, or maybe on a few different occasions, during April, May and June:
- food preparation (late afternoon, food hygiene certificate required)
- food service (early evening, no certificate necessary)
- washing up and clearing up (evening, no certificate necessary)
This is a great opportunity to be a part of helping to transform people's lives. What a privilege! Please give it some thought. If you'd like to help out, either just once, or perhaps on several occasions during the course, then please contact DODA DENNIS and NOT MYSELF:
email: dodadennis@hotmail.com
tel home: 01463 225 883
tel mobile: 07729 788 610
Please also pass this on to others who may be able and willing to help.
many thanks and huge blessings,
Mark

Guests from South Africa

This morning we hosted a group of pupils and teachers from J E Malape Secondary School in South Africa who are spending a week visiting the Highlands as the guests of Charleston Academy. A group from Charleston went out to South Africa in 2010. Aileen Thomson invited them to the service this morning, and they came along with a number of pupils, staff and host parents. It was absolutely thrilling to hear them singing during our time of worship. It was a tangible reminder of the global nature of the Church, and a morning we won't forget in a long time.

EASTER MORNING @ DORES BEACH

After some further reflection, discussion and emails, there WILL be a service at Dores Beach on Easter Sunday morning at 8am. In the last 24 hours, I have received a significant number of expressions of interest in helping with the event in a variety of different ways. It's always good to review ones commitment to anything that has been happening for a long time, and I sense a new energy and enthusiasm for the event emerging from contemplating bringing it to an end.

reverse missionaries

There was a fascinating programme on TV last night which you can watch here. Baptist Minister Franklin Small leaves his vibrant congregation in Jamaica and seeks to bring life to King’s Stanley Baptist Church in the Cotswalds where the congregation has dwindled to 17. It was from this area in England that a missionary brought the gospel to Jamaica in the 1800's. Pastor Small now aims to take the gospel back to its roots. His approach to mission contrasts sharply with the local congregation, which seems to be completely dislocated from its neighbourhood. It would be worth showing this programme in every congregation, and then discussing it together. Next week, the series moves to an urban priority area in Scotland called Blantyre. I will be tuning in!

ABERNETHY CENTRE

Yesterday, I received some publicity from the Abernethy Centre in Nethbridge. Their special offer of £88 for 2 nights accomodation and 1.5 days of activities caught my attention, and it set me thinking as to whether we could organise a mens activity weekend from Hilton Church. Could we put together a group of men who might want to go away in mid September for a weekend of outdoor activities. If you are interested can you email me asap duncan@hiltonchurch.org.uk

jubilee appeal 2012

EASTER MORNING @ DORES BEACH

For about 10 years, Easter morning has begun for us at 8am on Dores Beach. In the last couple of years, many of the prime movers in leading that Sevice have become very involved in the ministry and life of the Lighthouse. We are therefore very thin on the ground in terms of people who can give this service a lead and co-ordinate worship and catering. Over the past few weeks we have been considering whether this is the time to let this event go, and see what emerges on the other side. Easter is about resurrection and perhaps this service needs to die in order to rise again with a new sense of leadership and vision.

We're concious that just stopping it may cause a great deal of disappointment, so I am posting this today just to test the waters in terms of possible vision and interest from others to take it on this year. If you are interested in exploring this further, let me know soon.

LIGHTHOUSE VACANCY

We are looking for an enthusiastic individual to join the existing team within the Light House cafe, to help us provide a quality cafe service. The Light House is located in the heart of the community of Hilton and is part of Hilton Parish Church. In addition to providing high quality, good value meals for customers it offers facilities and catering for specific events.

In this role your responsibilities will include preparing and serving food, keeping the kitchen area clean and hygienic, receiving cash takings, washing down tables in the cafe area and generally maintaining the whole cafe clean and in line with Health and Safety legislation.

In the absence of the café manager you will also be responsible for maintaining stock control and supervising staff and volunteers as well as managing event bookings.

Previous experience of a similar role would be advantageous but equally important to the role is your ability to work flexibly as part of team to deliver high quality customer service.

The hours of work will be around 20 hours per week, although this will be discussed at interview.

Further details or to send a CV; please contact Annie Mackinnon, Light House Assistant Manager on 01463 224477 or email annie@hilonlighthouse.org

Closing date for receipt of applications is Friday 30th March 2012

INVERNESS MUSIC FESTIVAL

Congratulations to Peter who won the Inverness Singers Scroll (Songs from stage and screen) at Eden Court on Friday evening. He sang Mr Cellophane from Chicago.

half marathon

The Half Marathon was passing the end of our road this afternoon, so we walked down to cheer the runners on and to encourage those from the Church who were running. Julie was so fast that I didn't have my camera ready in time, but I did manage to catch Angus and Kieran. I was amazed at the number of people I knew who were running. It is certainly a popular event.

INVEST

Alan MacWilliam who has been leading the Invest course at the Lighthouse over the weekend, preached at Hilton Church this morning. Alan's text was the Great Commission from Matthew 28. It was an exceptionally stirring and challenging word, which I would highly recommend that you listen to. It should be on the church web site by this evening.

Lighthouse

Just had a really fun day at the Lighthouse. I received a phone call from our chairman at 7.30am to let me know that we only had one staff member for the day. Brian Gunn came in to help, and we also had a new volunteer from Tasmania called Lisa Peters. Stuart Wallace came in, as well as Brian and Drew from Youth Inclusive. We also had the invaluable help of Barry and Doda at lunchtime. All in all, the volunteer team coped brilliantly and had a lot of fun in the process. We were able to offer hospitality, friendship and a listening ear to many people thoughout the day which made it all worth while. Tonight we have a church planting conference beginning in the Lighthouse, and we are catering for 15 at 5.30pm. Another good day in the life of the Lighthouse.

loft clearance

Last night we cleared out the church loft as additional insulation is being put in today. We had a little mishap during the evening with a foot going through the loft floor. The picture is of our safety officer Laurence peering through the hole. Mike also discovered funding programme graph from long ago. We think it may be for the building of the Large Hall which opened in 1973. We also found some very fine pine chairs which we think may well have a place in the Lighthouse. I noticed a while ago that the Dores Inn have the same kind of chairs. They are much better quality than the ones we currently have.

LIGHTHOUSE EVENT FOR MEN