LAY - EVANGELIST'S NEWSLETTER, WINTER 2007/2008

“But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

Acts 1:8

The Alpha Course
St. Mary’s fifth Alpha Course began on Thursday, September 27th in St. Mary’s Centre; finished on November 29th at Mark’s house; and doubled in size on the way! Seven people had expressed an interest in the course; and initially four attended, with one dropping out after two weeks, due to over-commitment on his part. After a few weeks we moved the meetings to Mark’s house, as the group was quite small; and then three more ‘guests’ came along, including two spouses; and most weeks there were five or six participants. We held our Celebration Supper at my house on December 6th, and it was felt by all that the course had been both enjoyable and successful. Three of the participants have joined our post-Alpha home group (see ‘Alpha Follow-up’).

Mark and I plan to run St. Mary’s next Alpha course (No. 6), in Autumn 2008. We are not holding a course before that, due to lack of time and manpower; and will be meeting after Easter to plan it. We will be paying particular attention to finding more ‘helpers’, hopefully some from previous courses; organising publicity well in advance; and covering the course in prayer.

On October 5th I attended a dinner at Holy Trinity Brompton, hosted by Nicky and Pippa Gumbel to say ‘thank you’ to those involved in running Alpha courses throughout the country. It was most encouraging, meeting other Alpha leaders and helpers in an informal setting, and having the chance to talk personally to the Gumbels, who took the trouble to speak to everyone there. Inspired by this I would like to attend the annual Alpha conference, held in May; especially as this year there will be seminars concerned with the integration of Alpha ‘graduates’ into the local church.

ALPHA Follow – up
Our initial follow-up home group from the first Alpha course continues to grow. It has trebled in size, with three from the last course attending, along with a member of St. Mary’s congregation. We are also hoping to integrate members from the Late, Late Breakfast Alpha from last Spring, who also want to continue to meet. Finally someone from our first Alpha course has expressed an interest in being confirmed this year. All of this is very encouraging.

Evangelistic Prayer Group
Sadly, we have found it increasingly difficult to meet up as a group this Autumn.
Some of us however are hoping to attend the recently formed Churches Together prayer group that meets monthly, and focuses on outreach.


Women’s Ministry
We held our December ‘Keep in Touch’ coffee morning at Jo and Colin Parker’s house, and it was well attended; with approx. £150 raised from the sale of Fair Trade goods. Special thanks must go to Anna Beecroft, and also to Colin for his hospitality, and his help in making the morning such a success.

Jo Hargrave, Jo Parker and I are due to meet up in late February to finalise the programme for 2008. Due to additional commitments we have decided to limit the number of events this year, and at the moment we are thinking of holding three ‘Keep In Touch’ coffee mornings; two ‘Dinners at Dish’; and one ‘’Women’s Breakfast’ - with the option of holding more if it is successful. We also aim to be self-financing.

At the moment we have one definite date, and that is for a coffee morning to be held on Monday, March 10th at Jo Hargrave’s home, 14, Venmore Drive at 10am. Anna has kindly offered to supply Fair Trade goods, which should be very useful with Easter in mind. Our women’s events always seem to end up with chocolate! We will not be holding an evening Women’s World Day of Prayer service this year. Once again this is due to lack of time and resources; and we certainly wouldn’t rule out holding one again in the future.

I recently attended two events connected with women’s ministry, which proved to be both inspirational and helpful. In November I spent a weekend in Coventry at an ‘Activate’ conference. ‘Activate’ is the successor to ‘Christian Viewpoint’, which some of you may remember; and is an organisation for Christian women that focuses on informal, non-threatening outreach in everyday life. The speakers included Fiona Castle, and Diane-Louise Jordan.

As part of my research into women’s breakfasts, I was also invited to a women’s breakfast at Saffron Walden’s Anglican church, and spent some time talking to the dedicated group of women who have, over the past few years made these monthly Saturday morning get-togethers such a success. Both of these events illustrated to me the importance of building a strong base from within the church; mutual encouragement and support; perseverance; and above all, prayer.


If you would like any further information, or have any questions concerning this newsletter please do not hesitate to contact me on 872715, or email me at: suegoodman@stmarysgreatdunmow.org.uk.


A very Happy New Year to you all.

Sue Goodman, January 2008