Origami is not for me!

Decembers Food for Thought was very busy we had approximately 70 people!
And we had a lot of new faces, which is always lovely to see.

We were also joined by a number of beautiful angels from Rainbows, so thanks to them for turning up in costume.

Rockface performed a short play about 3 Angels discussing the birth of Christ...in a contemporary way. I think we should do more drama, so if there are any budding actors out there please come forward ;-)

Hamish explained about Alpha, (and you can see the advert for alpha on this blog). don't forget there's an Alpha staring in January in Farley/Pitton, and we plan to start one later in the year, so watch this space.

Susan (the better half) lead us in how to make angels from close pegs and stars from folding card. I had a go at making the star though, I had real problems with my folding and had to call in one of the 10 year old helpers to sort me out...therefore Origami is not for me!


Lots of angels and lights were made which we lit when we prayed and sang silent night

When the service ended we all tucked into Curry, hot dogs and mince pies. We pretty much ate all the food.

I'm hoping there are lots of the Angels hanging on various Christmas trees across Winterslow, and when you gaze upon the wonder you or your child made, remember Christ this Christmas (and sing him happy birthday if you like)

Angels and Lights 2nd December

Wheres my Sheep?

We had a great time at the Treasure hunt, all be it a little wet.

When everyone arrived back we palyed a "Generation Game" style activity where opposing teams had to make a sheep in less than 5 minutes from various materials.

Jeremy....don't give up your day job! However you were a good shepherd....unlike someone else who will remain nameless...;-)

After all the fun and acitivities we settled down for some fellwoship time with a hot meal ( Chilli, Veggie Chilli and Hot dogs)

Look out for the posters and flyers for the next FFT on the 2nd Decemeber, the theme is Angels and Lights

Alpha Advert

Food For Thought -still on despite the bad weather

If the weather is going to be bad weather ,we have plans for some fun activities indoors.

We having a hot meal today, Chilli and Hot dogs.

So please still do come along.

TTFN

Klynn

Why not come and join us for a short Treasure hunt around the village, followed by a short interactive fun service and then a scrumptous hot meal (vegetarians, nut and gluten allergies catered for)

On a Mission from God!

Well we did it last night! Yes Hamish and I sang at last nights Stars in your eyes.

We were Jake and Elwood Blues, aka "The Blues Brothers"
We sang "Everybody needs somebody" a gut buster, fast paced, pulse racing song that aged me 10 years.

Hamish and I are available for bookings , birthdays, anniversaries, barmitzfer, and baptisms. Speak to Sue Harwood our agent.

(photos to follow)

FRUIT SALAD!!

Well what can I say... what a great day!

Hamish led us with a talk on John 15:1-8 "I am the True Vine", and explained that as a Church we are all together in the vine, we then showed our "togetherness" by adding our thumbprint onto a large picture of a vine. Hamish explained as our thumbprints are individual to us , so to does god know each of each individually and that we all are loved equally.

And then we attempted to recreate the 1970 Kids games show "Runaround" , but we called it FRUIT SALAD! with some interesting and fun results. All the questions were based on fruit and referenced diligently from the bible, I was however challenged on one question as I wasn't "nerdly" accurate enough.

Every time a team got a correct answer a piece of fruit was awarded then brought back tot he table to make a delicious fruit salad.

Next month 28th October bring walking shoes and wet weather gear as we are having a short "walking" treasure hunt around the village, followed by a hot meal.

Look forward to seeing you then

God Bless

Klynn

An "Open Door" to a "Messy Church"

Last night I journeyed west to the outer edges of Wiltshire to Calne, in order to visit another Wiltshire Fresh Expression called Open Door.
Lucy Moore the guest speaker for the night , who wrote “Messy Church” went on to speak enthusiastically about her experiences in setting up and running a Fresh expression in Portsmouth, that meets on a Thursday once a month after school, and shared with us some of the practicalities to consider as well as a number of discerning words.

What I took away from last night is that we are all at least “doing” something, and that we are generally learning as we are going along. But with all that said and done, God is at the heart of what we do and why we do it, and as Lucy put’s it God likes to have messy fun too!

I think, we could all learn a lot more from each other, but more than that I think we can be a constant source of encouragement when we feel things aren’t quite going as planned etc. We can gently remind each other, it’s not our will be done but his !

So thank you Rachel for organising the series of talks, and thanks for Lucy for travelling so far to talk to us all.

God bless

Klynn

We're Back!!

I hope everyone has had a great holiday and like me is sooooooooo enthusiastic about returning back to work !

I think Winterslow has substantially added to the Winterslow carbon foot print by all the BBQs we have had this summer, thanks must go out to all those wonderful hosts who catered for us all.

On the 23rd September we will be starting Food For Thought again, but with even more energy and fun, so don't forget to invite your friends and family and don't worry about food,we have enough to go around everyone ( at least twice!!)

Watch out for the "Getting Fruity" posters

which are going to put up around the village, all will be explained on the 23rd

Hopefully, will see you there?

Bub Bye

Klynn

More Food for Thought………..

For all the men out there, "The Mother of ALL BBQs"

There are three letters synonomous with summer – (and let’s face it S U N it ain’t, well not for 07 anyway), - no, I’m referring to, of course, B B Q, the now great british tradition of alfresco cooking and eating, where men take over the culinary frontline and women take a back seat ( to prepare the salad, pour the drinks, lay the table etc etc., yeh, you’ve heard that joke!).

As I write this it’s 2pm the following afternoon, plates are washed, glasses packed away and the dog has finally given up her all night ( and I mean all night) vigil of circling the barbeque in the hope that she may still find one last forgotten morsel in the flower borders.

Food for Thought has run BBQ’s all through August and – well – it’s been great! Thankyou to everyone that opened up their home to friends, neighbours and friends of friends and all those children! It’s been a great opportunity to meet new faces, catch up with old friends and have fun together. We’ve had everything from glorious sunset dips in the pool to swift dashes through the rain from chef to house, sausages in one hand, brolly in the other.

By the time you read this September will be well underway and we’ll all be looking forward to getting Food for Thought back on the agenda. For those of you who don’t know what we’re about check out the blog. Our first meeting will be on 23^rd September. As always , all are welcome and we mean all. Old, young, singles, families. We’re here to create a place where you can explore faith comfortably, no judgement, no pressure, …..a place to find some food for thought. See you there!

Food for Thought - brightens up a rainy Sunday afternoon!

Well, we've reached the six month mark for Food For Thought (FFT), and I have to say our last meeting before the summer hols was a lot of fun. With 80 people and a bouncy castle packed into the village hall, we kicked off with Alison leading us in some energetic song and dance moves.

Then Susan led the activity on the tables ( a cross between Blue Peter and the Generation game) with a challenge to each table, to create a 'home in a shoebox' in just ten minutes. All ages took part together, diving into old magazines, scraps of fabric and glue etc. with some amazing results.
The Cubs and Beavers had created a wonderful picture, that scrolled out across the width of the village hall, with images of the homes and buildings which house our community.
The children had a great time on the indoor bouncy castle, whilst the men were busy on the BBQ.



The kitchen was abuzz with tea and coffee and in general everyone seemed to be having a good time.Watching all this interaction, - a community sharing together,- brought Acts 2:46, a very special passage to mind.

I will always remember the day finishing with Michael trundling his BBQ through the rain and wind to the car, still with his little Chef's hat on..he reminded me of someone....Papa Smurf I think...but I'll let you be the judge of that!

New dates

Hello Everyone,

These are the next Food for Thought dates,

23rd September 2007

28th October 2007

2nd December 2007

27th January 2008 ( 1year anniversary!)

24th February 2008

30th March 2008

but don't forget about the August mid-week BBQs!

1st August@ The Crosslands (Tim's Birthday on the 12th I think?)
8th August @ The Harwood's (Jeremy's Birthday
15th August @ The Alibocus' (my Birthday on the 18th)
22nd August @ The Barratt's
29th August : Still looking for a venue!

Looks like a lot of birthdays in August, so there's bound to be a lot of cake at the BBQs!

and as you know I love my food, especially Curry so here's some food for thought in the form of the Curry charts:

At number we have:

35. Poppadum Preach - Madonna

34. Korma Chameleon - Culture Club

33. Bhaji Trousers - Madness

32. King Prawn Massala Drinks Are Free - Wham

31. Dansak Queen - Abba

30. Korma People - Pulp

29. Tikka Chance On Me - Abba

28. When I Phall in Love - Nat King Cole

27. You Can't Curry Love - Diana Ross and the Supremes

26. Korma Police - Radiohead

25. Things Can Only Get Bhuna - D:Ream

24. Tears On My Pilau - Kylie Minogue

23. It's Bhuna Hard Days Night - The Beatles

22. Brothers in Naans - Dire Straits

21. Girlfriend in a Korma - The Smiths

20. Pilau Talk - Doris Day

19. It's My Chapati and I Cry If I Want To ? - Dave Stewart/Barbara Gaskin

18. I'm a Bhaji Girl - Aqua

17. Sag Aloo - Black lace

16. Take That and Chapati - Take That

15. Bhuna Round The World and I Can't Find My Bhaji ? - Lisa Stansfield

14. I Don't Want To Dansak - Eddie Grant

13. Dansak on the Ceiling - Lionel Richie

12. We Are Jalfrezi - Sister Sledge

11. Vindaloo - Abba

10. I Don't Want to Go to Chutney ? Elvis Costello

9. Rice Rice Baby - Vanilla Rice

8. Jalfrezi Jalfrezi Nights - Kiss

7. Tandoori Deliver - Adam and the Ants

6. Love me Tandoor - Elvis Presley

5. We Don't Have to Tikka Clothes Off ? Jermaine Jackson

4. Bye Bye Balti - Bay City Rollers

3. Bhuna to be Wild - Steppenwolf

2. Livin' Dhal - Cliff Richard

1. Raita Here, Raita Now - Fatboy Slim

TTFN :-)

Klynn

More Food for Thought…….

Let’s face it, summer’s arrived and it’s time to lay back and slow down, so no more rambling articles this month, no moral dilemmas, just a few snaps to browse over.

Talking about browsing (wait for the link!), head to the internet if you’re pooter literate and get a load of the FFT blog, www.foodforthought.gb.com, it will give you the low down on all summer events. Happy holidays!

Just to get the record straight, Alison doesn’t

normally wear voluminous, cerise shower caps,

she was merely getting into character for the Pentecost Rap (that’s her story anyway!)

Mid Week August Bring and Share BBQs

We have 3 hosts for the August midweek Bring and Share BBQs .

We only need 2 more venues so if your interested in hosting a mid week BBQ on the 22nd or 29th of August then please let me know

Klynn

Barbecue Joke

After 4 long months of cold and winter, we are finally coming up to summer and Barbecue season. Therefore, it is important to refresh your memory on the etiquette of this sublime outdoor cooking as it's the only type of cooking a real man will do, probably because there is an element of danger involved.

When a man volunteers to do the Barbecue, usually on a Saturday, the following chain of events is put into motion:

Barbecue Routine

1) The woman buys the food.

2) The woman makes the salad, prepares the vegetables, and makes dessert.

3) The woman prepares the meat for cooking, places it on a tray along with the necessary cooking utensils and sauces, and takes it to the man who is lounging beside the grill - beer in hand.

Here comes the important part:

4) THE MAN PLACES THE MEAT ON THE GRILL.

More routine....

5) The woman goes inside to organise the plates and cutlery.

6) The woman comes out to tell the man that the meat is burning. He thanks her and asks if she will bring another beer while he deals with the situation.

Important again:

7) THE MAN TAKES THE MEAT OFF THE GRILL AND HANDS IT TO THE WOMAN.

More routine.....

8) The woman prepares the plates, salad, bread, utensils, napkins, sauces and brings them to the table.

9) After eating, the woman clears the table and does the dishes.

And most important of all:

10) Everyone PRAISES the MAN and THANKS HIM for his cooking efforts.

11) The man asks the woman how she enjoyed ' her night off.' And, upon seeing her annoyed reaction, concludes that there's just no pleasing some women....

Footnote

If the Barbecue catches fire then the man gets out the hosepipe.
Meanwhile, the woman calls the fire brigade.

Even More Food For Thought……………

More Food For Thought……………

Thursday evening, late back for dinner, we burst through the door and my ten year old son flies into the study,

“Blast – I missed Sam!” -

“What do you mean?” (I’m in the hall struggling with bags) -

“I was meant to meet him at church” -

“Huh?”

“To pray together.”

Now at this point I put the bags down and a bemused and somewhat stunned look comes over my face – bear with me! –

“We were meant to meet and pray together, anyway, it doesn’t matter, he needs prayer points but I’ve already got loads, I’ve done tons of praying”

Ever had that feeling that time has stood still and you’re hovering in another dimension? Sam’s a lovely boy but I wouldn’t put him down as a big prayer. The lesson in theology from the study goes on ……….

“With all my praying I‘ve enough points for a really thick skin – to protect me from attack!”

Wow, it was slightly surreal, but it was good, made sense, Nils would be proud.

“It’s great, I’ve so many prayer points I can go and attack people now and steal all their stuff – yeh – I’m well sorted!”

Now – yeh, you see – I see what you’re thinking. The philosophy starts to crumble and I go into the study to try and make sense of life. Samuel is on Runescape.com – the internet game world where he and his class mates meet up to chill out after the only too real world of school. Do any of the rest of you find this weird? Anyway, hopes of a son in the priesthood vanish and I shove Samuel over to create myself a character, - if you can’t beat’em join’em. Half an hour later I’m still wandering around in a virtual forest. I’ve made three fires, burnt my prawns twice and driven a pick axe into an unsuspecting miner who happened to walk in front of my iron ore (I’m attempting to smelt a sword, I haven’t even found church yet). Well, hey ho! What can we learn from all this? You know what - I’ll let you decide.

Back to the reason for writing this article. Food for Thought (FFT)! Come, COME - it’s great!– well so says the feedback handed in from the last meeting. Loads of “Yes we want it to continue”, “yes, more of the same” etc etc. “More cake!” (I question the sanity of this one - lack of cake is not one of our problems). We’ve got loads of good stuff ahead. June 24^th will be our last meeting before the summer, a bit of a celebration that we’ve made it this far, BBQ, fun for all the family etc. Summer will be regular picnics, BBQ’s etc. Next term maybe smaller groups in addition to FFT where we can ask the big questions in open and free discussion. Who knows, keep watching, we’re currently building the FFT website, www.foodforthought.gb.com so take a look. Anyway, back to June 24^th, get yourself along, bring the children, gain more prayer points and you never know what you can do! Enough prayer points and you certainly won’t burn your prawns!

Food for Thought –What in Heavens’ Names That?

Why don’t people go to church? - that’s the question we set out to answer almost a year ago when we first got together to establish Food For Thought.

According to my mother-in law the answer’s simple. Posed with the question on recent stop while globetrotting between Trinnidad and Sweden, she paused thoughtfully over her coffee and answered – ‘It’s drafty!’

Well……...mmm..you know, - I’m not buying it. There’s got to be more to it than that. Having sat through a match at Old Trafford with the snow settling on my head there’s one thing for certain – it takes more than a draft to put people off.

So what is it,- people don’t believe in God? – well, see – that doesn’t hold up. 98% of Winterslow village in a 1998 survey, given the choice, registered themselves as Christian rather than ticking the box , no religion. You believe in God alright.

OK –they’re just not interested!

If anything – the opposites true. On John Humphries recent radio 4 programme – Search for God, the BBC was inundated with more emails, texts and letters than they could cope with. Listening figures soared. They didn’t know what hit them. Not interested? I doubt it.

Well - OK, maybe we don’t have all the answers but my guess is that there is no one answer. There are many, - big, small, profound and downright trivial. We know, - we wrote them all out, just to see how many we could avoid. Everything from weak tea to threats of eternal damnation. I don’t know which is worse! No seriously, we filled a big page – and we made that our starting point.

So why do we want you to come? well you know, - you don’t have too, but it would be nice. We,ve got good coffee, short sermons, maybe no sermons, chilled out dress code, stuff for the children to do. But really, the biggest reason, because we know it’s good. We know that life can be spiritual, that it works well with God. You don’t have to agree, we don’t ask you to – it’s your journey, it’s your choice. But Food for Thought might help, help to think through the questions that matter – and have fun together. First meeting January 28^th, village hall, minimum drafts, good coffee, we’ll even go easy on the damnation- hey we might not mention it at all. Come and try it, no pressure, you might like it. We really hope you do!

Susan

More Food for Thought!

Attack of the giant muffins!

No seriously though, muffins and coffee, off to a good start!

The age old equation,
children happy = everyone happy

Man, those sounds are JUMPIN!

More tea vicar!Well, Deacon actually, I’ve just always wanted to say that.

Village Hall, 27th May
4pm, See you there?
You’ll be most
welcome!

More Food for Thought………….

I wish you could be with us at one of our appraisal meetings, getting together after a Food For Thought service, to see what worked, what didn’t, what needs changed etc……..

How can we get baguettes fresh enough on Sunday afternoon? how can we prevent children falling over power leads? Who will source sixty good sized pebbles for the prayer session? ( anyone whose been to March’s meeting will understand this?), how big should the words be on the screen?

On second thoughts perhaps you wouldn’t like to be there, they do go on a bit! But feedback is good ( Food for Thought – feedback, get the connection, good eh!) and we need as much of it as we can get. So far, what we have got is positive, and we hope it will continue that way.

But meetings aren’t just about ironing out the small issues, finding solutions to the practical questions, they’re about the hard questions too. How do we talk about God in a way which is relevant, how do we talk about prayer in a way that will feel comfortable to those who find it difficult ground, how do we care for those who come, …really care for them, how do we make this a place for people in Winterslow, a welcoming, fun and unthreatening place to meet together and talk about spiritual things.

Time will tell, but we’re learning all the time. Someone asked me to mention where children come in. Children are welcome, and we really mean, welcome. This is one place where you don’t need to worry, you don’t need to worry about noise, moving around, finding something to entertain them. One of the primary reasons for setting Food for Thought up was to provide a meeting where families who don’t maybe go to church could feel comfortable and experience God together, on everyone’s level. So bring the children, please, they’re every bit as much a part of what we’re doing as you are.

It just remains to say a big thankyou to the Methodist Church for their reference to our meeting in the last magazine and to reiterate how much we pray Gods blessing on their new venture, Souper Church as well. We now know that having one type of service is no longer enough to connect to everyone’s experience of God, we need choice, ….choice of styles, times, venues etc and more choice is something to celebrate.

By the end of January this year, 600 churches had registered their involvement in providing a fresh expression of what church is, groups in housing estates, mums from toddler groups, Saturday night discussion churches, coffee and Sunday papers breakfast churches. Why not come and see if our fresh expression of church is right for you and your family.

……….More Food For Thought

Well, with a couple of Food for Thought services under our belt we can now safely say, perhaps it wasn’t such a crazy idea after all. Yes, people do indeed want to think about God, they do enjoy church in a fresh way; they do like doughnuts (we’re certain of that!) So where do we go from here. Keep doing what we’re doing I guess. Six services down the line, we’ll sit back and think… think, is it something our community wants, is it something we need? Time will tell, but so far your response has been, yes, we think it might be.

So who has come so far? People who go to church, people who don’t go to church, people who are curious, people who saw the leaflet through the door and thought, maybe… just maybe, this might have something for me. People whose friends go, people who come alone, people with children (lots of children!). People like us. Just ordinary people, enjoying some time, some food, some music and some thoughts together. We welcome suggestions, things we’ve left out or could do differently ...........but so far, you seem to like it.

“Nice relaxed atmosphere”

“Not one of my children was bored, even my 13 year old son”

“Music was nice and modern”

And it goes without saying, people liked the food!

Well, onto Food for Thought number three. Will the hall be packed out again,? Perhaps, perhaps not. But you know, numbers are not really important to us. What is important is that we’re offering choice. All Saints church is brilliant, it’s full, it’s vibrant. Along with all of our village churches it has supported our community for centuries….but it’s not for all. We at all Saints know that. We know that to offer a place for others to meet God we’ve got to get out of that building and do something new. Something in a fresh way, in a place where you feel comfortable, where you feel at home. It would be so great…..if you could come.



Susan

More food for thought….

By the time you read this (articles are always written a month in advance), we will be meeting to review how our first Food for Thought gathering has been received. All the months of careful thought, planning and expectation managed to culminate in a flurry of last minute panic and “Why did we ever get into this” thoughts. Why did we ever get into this? Good question! We’re a funny mix of people, I’m sure no-one would argue with you there, solicitors, housewives, artists, chemists, teachers, a mixture of ages, backgrounds and interests, so why are we meeting in the village hall on a Sunday, why at four o’clock, why aren’t we dozing under the Sunday papers after a morning of hymn singing in the beautiful, historic surroundings of all Saints church?

Actually - the answers quite simple. We know not everyone in this village, -the friends we know and love, the faces we greet – not everyone can feel comfortable in that beautiful old stone building on the hill. For some, childhood memories have removed any chance of contact with the traditional church again. For others fears of not matching up, not fitting in or simply, not identifying with the language of traditional church life has meant that, when life raises questions, the traditional church, sadly, is not always the place they turn for answers.

The Anglican church recognises this and at the turn of the millennium, began to explore new ways, new “fresher” expressions of being church. This has resulted in groups of people, all over the UK meeting in schools, toddler groups, supermarkets and homes to explore together, a faith in God. And so, our group came together. All different people, but all committed members of All Saints in Winterslow. For us the traditional church has great warmth and meaning, but we know that not all people can see it that way. And so we decided to set up Food for Thought. New, but familiar premises, a new time, to suit more people and hopefully, a new approach. We won’t have any structured service to get lost in, no dress code to uphold, plenty of stuff to keep the children happy and engaged, and no pressure. A place for you to explore and enjoy God, at your own pace, in your own way.

Oh, and the Food thing. - doughnuts and coffee, sharing meals together, BBQs in the summer… sound good? Why not come this month and see what we mean, if there’s something you think we could do differently, let us know, we’re learning as we go

Susan