HOOK CHURCH NEWSLETTER
Aug 2021
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Contents:
Amazing Acts - Paul
Hook Ladies - meet and chat - Hazel
A Letter from South Side Academy - Toby
You think the Christian life is boring - read on…- Jackie
Hook Wanderers update - Toby ward-Smith and Andy Edwards
The Day of the Christian Martyrs - Bob and Barbara Stoneham
Thank you - Rosemary Bunce
Little Rascals and Youth Leaders to pray for - Tim
Family News - Brailsford family
Poems - Deborah Stevens
AMAZING ACTS
I’ve been enjoying our Sunday evening sermon series on Amazing Acts. It’s wonderful to see the different kinds of people God uses to reach different kinds of people!
I’m encouraged that God can use any one of us to reach anyone else. That means me, that means you.
So let’s keep our hearts open to the Spirit’s prompting and our eyes and ears open to the people around us.
Love from Paul
2. Hook Ladies - Meet and Chat - First Event!
At last the big day had arrived!!
As it had been raining for most of the week, we were concerned that our first meeting after 15 months would have to be cancelled – but no, once again God answered our prayers and the evening was warm and sunny!
It was lovely to be able to meet up in Anne’s garden, for our first get-together after a long break. Anne had arranged the garden with tables and chairs, we chose where we wanted to sit and the circles gradually got bigger and bigger as more ladies arrived! About 22 ladies had signed up and as they each arrived there was a feeling of it not actually being so long since we last met up! We enjoyed a laugh and a good catch up after our long break and ate and drank (our own refreshments this time) and enjoyed the pretty and peaceful surroundings.
Just to keep you all updated, the time had come to change the name from Natter & Nosh, so we are calling it ‘Hook Ladies Meet & Chat’ for the time being unless anyone has any brainwaves - then do let us know!
We will advertise our next event once it has been arranged and ladies of all ages are very welcome to come along. The evenings are informal and very friendly so do give it a try. It’s been exciting how many ladies who don’t normally come to church come along and eagerly look forward to the evenings. Hopefully before long we will be able to invite speakers back so we can hear their interesting and often lively stories. Hope to see you next time
Hazel Brown
3. A LETTER FROM SOUTH SIDE THEATRE ACADEMY
South Side
Theatre Academy.
It seems like such a long time since I last penned an article for the newsletter, and so much has happened since then at South Side Theatre Academy, that I could write hundreds of pages for you! Fear not, I won’t put you through that!
Over the past 18 months, despite COVID, we have continued to flourish and now find ourselves the busiest we have ever been, with all our classes packed full, regular productions and loads of holiday projects, alongside some exciting new opportunities.
As lockdown struck, we were gutted! We had just thankfully finished our production of Aladdin JR and were set to welcome over 80 young people to the church during the Easter Holidays. However, we took it in our stride and loved working with our young members via Zoom until July at no cost to them! As restrictions eased, COVID threw up an incredible opportunity to work with Tolworth Girls School, running workshops with their pupils and 5 mind-blowing West End stars. It’s fair to say I was star-struck!
As classes returned to in-person in September, we welcomed back the majority of our members, and these have continued to grow ever since. So much so, we’re so excited to have our Saturday morning classes starting at Lime Tree Primary from September and new 1-2-1 LAMDA Exam classes. And you can register for a 2-week free trial now!
Alongside our classes, it has been amazing to finally return to the stage in a COVID secure way, with productions of It Snows and Oliver! JR playing to socially distanced audiences. The shows must go on! And as we head into the Summer Holidays, we’re so excited to be working with 14 West End stars both at Hook Church and Tolworth Girls, whilst also running a magical Beauty and the Beast project for ages 4-7. Places are still available on all our projects!
Amongst all the excitement and growth, we’ve seen over the last 18 months, within it all is the most important part of what we do and why we do what we do! The young people! We have been blown away by the courage, patience, and resilience our young people have shown. Regardless of whether their shows have been cancelled, they’ve been made to isolate or just stuck inside, they have come through it all! And we couldn’t be prouder. Now more than ever young people need these opportunities to be free and explore, doing what they love! And it has been incredible to see them all doing that and growing throughout the last 18 months.
Before I finish, I’d also love to share 2 amazing witnesses over the last year, relating to the church. The first, is it has been incredible, welcoming Carrie Bexley to the team on Work Experience. She has been an incredible witness to all the young people. And secondly, it was amazing to see a member of our Seniors class attending church youth group the other day. It is amazing to see God doing his work throughout our classes!
If you have any questions about South Side or how to get involved then please do get in touch! We’d love to hear from you!
Stay safe and see you soon!
Toby Ward-Smith
4. You think Christian Life is boring - read on…
July 1995 and I was at Heathrow Airport praying with friends before taking a flight to Nairobi. When I became a Christian some 18 months before this at the age of 51, I knew my life would change but I had not anticipated to what extent and the joy it would bring. By then, I had been widowed for several years and my son and daughter were adults and independent. So, how did it come about that I would be flying off to live and work in Kenya for a year?
Jer 29v11 says “For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord.”
I was still a new Christian when a local pastor, who also represented Africa Inland Mission, came to preach at the church I attended. He also gave a brief resumé of the mission and left some magazines. I took home a magazine and read a challenging article expressing the need for “senior” volunteers. Whilst I was very interested, what could I offer? After all, I had no medical or teaching skills and was still finding my way around the Bible. Not only that I had a good job with company car whilst my family, many friends and church work kept me busy. However, over a period of time this article kept gnawing at me until I finally shared this with my dear friend Pam, Keith’s late sister She listened to my reasons WHY NOT replying that I must at least make contact with AIM. I rang their office and was invited to meet them for an informal chat. When I commented that I had little to offer the mission, a large file appeared in front of me full of administrative vacancies, many of which I had the qualifications to fill. So my argument did not stack up!! To cut a long story short, I was invited to apply as a volunteer, was vetted and accepted to go somewhere in East Africa. I had a choice of assignments and the one that I felt best suited to was at the Guest House of AIM in Nairobi. It did not happen immediately as I had a trip booked to visit my sister in Australia in January 1995 but upon my return, I started the practicalities of leaving my home for a year and all that it involved. I also had to give notice to the company where I had happily worked for 17 years, have the necessary vaccines, buy an open-ended return ticket and many other tasks. Now, don’t be put off by these practicalities if you feel called to do something similar, God opens doors, and shows Himself to be working behind the scenes (Rom 8 v 28 a familiar verse is applicable). Praise God that just one phone call to the airline materialised with a generous extra luggage allowance for both outward and return journeys.
Are you still with me? The next day I arrived in Nairobi around 7 am and was met by Jim a retired American missionary but still working with his wife Gloria (they became my dearest friends and latterly of Keith too). He drove us straight to Mayfield, the Guest House and it was breakfast time. I was introduced to the 22 Christian Kenyan staff ( I wondered if I would remember their names let alone pronounce some of them) but I got know the boys and their families well and grew to love them over the next year. There were no managers in place at that time and I had the use of the Managers’ apartment, an unexpected luxury. This was my home for the duration of my time there since the prospective managers had to defer taking up the position and I held the fort. I started work the following day behind the reception desk and Gloria patiently began teaching me the bookings system, and calculation of the guests’ bills with different rates, which were the most important admin jobs together with the allocation of rooms. Finding room for guests was a juggling act at times and no wonder we wrote in pencil (pre- computerisation) so we could make changes. However, there was a host of other tasks and often it was necessary to think on your feet. It could be that a guest needed their car fixed, perhaps a taxi to the hospital, arrangements for airport transport – just a few of the many facets of the job. Once, at 1 a.m, I had a distress call from 3 people stranded at the airport and was able to arrange transport to collect them and by God’s grace, unusually as most times the 21 rooms were booked, we could host them. We worked on a rota and our little team was made in Heaven – we got on so well and became such good friends despite their scepticism about the arrival of this “Brit” as they were Americans! Since marrying, Keith & I have visited them several times in the States and enjoyed wonderful fellowship.
This was the start of an amazing year. My experiences during this time were many and varied associated with both work and leisure. I met some fascinating people with wonderful stories of their work in Africa as well as the sadness of losing colleagues or being evacuated from their place of work due to unrest. I had travel opportunities to visit parts of Kenya such as the Masai Mara, The Ark, Lake Nakuru and drove myself and a friend on a short holiday visiting Mission stations along the way. God’s provision when we found the petrol tank leaking and had a You think the Christian life is boring? Read on ….. puncture is another story of His grace. One of my colleagues spent a morning each week teaching me the bible using the Creation to Christ material (similar to Alpha) which was a great help to my spiritual growth.
One incident which is vivid in my mind is when I was in a small aircraft flying between missionary stations visiting friends when the plane was asked to make a detour. We landed on a bumpy grass "landing strip" where we collected a young Samburu warrior who had fallen into a fire and had facial burns causing temporary blindness. Together with his friend (both resplendent in traditional clothes, face paint and carrying spears) they were taken to a mountain top "hospital" where he could be treated. These people lived in mud huts with a fire in the middle and a hole in the roof for a chimney - they boiled milk and animal blood on the fire all day and this chap had suffered a fit causing him to fall into the fire. On another occasion I was driven in a ramshackle vehicle (advertised as a taxi, filled to capacity with sweating people and in a thunderstorm found out that the wipers did not work – scary) for many hours from Nairobi almost to the Ugandan border to stay in the village which was home to my Assistant. I must tell you that even for a short journey we prayed God would keep us safe on the roads and anyone familiar with African roads and the driving there will understand why! In the village I slept in a mud hut with chickens under the bed (safe from foxes) and just a kerosene lamp for light. My Godly hosts had generously built a structure enabling me to shower privately using buckets of water and were sensitive to the eating habits of westerners so I didn’t get served chickens feet and the like. Some village children had never seen a mzungu (white person) so I was the cause of some curiosity to them as I walked around the market. Church on Sunday was in a field with an awning to protect us from the sun. These dear folk were in their “Sunday best” but praise to God is universal as they sung their hearts out most beautifully in their local tongue. I was asked to give a short talk and this was translated by my friend David, who in turn translated the message given by his father. My family flew out for a quite different Christmas than normal, spent in a hotel in Mombasa with many other missionary families. To get there it was necessary to use a ferry and my son stood guard as our luggage was protruding from the back of the “taxi” - too small for 5 people and luggage despite a request for something larger! This was a special time by the Ocean with my 4 yr old grandson to play with. During my year in Africa I held fast to the verse in Ephesian 2 v 10 that if God has put us in a particular place to do work for Him, he will enable us to do this. - even if we feel under qualified. I also had really good health for the entire year.
I could write a book (in fact I am mentioned in one) but feel I must stop. Whether at home or overseas, to volunteer in a Christian environment is a very rewarding experience. I worked in Uganda in 2001, Kenya again in 2007 and since marriage, Keith & I have worked twice in Florida at the AIM retirement home, UBM Beach Missions and Pine Lake which is a Foundation Matters Christian camp near Derby. We have both carried out administrative work for UK Christian charities, and Keith’s work in prison is challenging and fulfilling.
With volunteer work, you get far more back in so many ways than you put in. Give it a try if you haven’t yet dipped your foot in the water, it will be a thrilling experience.
We have both carried out administrative work for UK Christian charities, and Keith’s work in prison is challenging and fulfilling.
Jackie Stenner
5. HOOK WANDERERS FC UPDATE
Just before lockdown hit we had started our new men’s ministry, Hook Wanderers FC, however with lockdown hitting this was put on the back burner. But ever since the ending of restrictions, the ministry has grown and grown, with now 33 men constantly chatting away in the team WhatsApp group, and also taking to the field regularly.
Every Thursday we have been taking to the pitch at Goals Tolworth in a 5-aside league, where we’re currently competing for the title. More recently, we have entered a mini 11 -aside league throughout July with teams including, Raynes Park United (from Raynes Park Methodist), Inter New Malden and Olympia FC. Why not come down and watch the lads play every Wednesday evening and Saturday morning at Prince George’s Playing Fields in Raynes Park?
Amongst all the great games of football we have played, it has been amazing to see God’s work throughout all that we do. A number of the team have started to explore the idea of the Lord or are even now active members in our church or other churches. Numerous team members have been brought in by friends, opening up opportunities to have great conversations about our faiths and the church. And we hope to create more and more opportunities over the coming months.
If you would like to get involved with the Hook Wanderers Ministry either off or on the pitch then please do speak to Toby Ward-Smith or Andy Edwards! We’d love to get you involved! We’re specifically looking for off pitch roles, including coaching, admin, and supporters!
Stay tuned for more updates on our social media channels on Facebook and Instagram (@hookwfc). If you haven’t already, do give us a follow!
Stay safe and see you soon
Toby Ward-smith and Andy Edwards
6. The Day of the Christian Martyrs
June 29th is the Day of the Christian Martyrs.
Release International and other groups put on this day to remember those who died for their faith.
This meeting has many facets, prayer, interviews and a Biblical explanation of what the word ‘martyrs’ means. That not all Christians who die are martyrs only those who actually are killed because of their Christian faith. For example being killed if their Christian village is raided or they are at a prayer meeting or church service. A martyr can be any Christian not just a pastor.
We then heard from a pastor who works in Pakistan bring hope and encouragement to those in prison for their faith, and those in hospital who have been beaten for their faith. He also helps our brothers and sisters with practical aid as well. Next was a sister from Nigeria who spoke of her experience as a Christian in Nigeria. As a 17 year old girl she witnessed her pastor being killed before her eyes. Her current pastor was also killed in 2020. Yet this sister has kept a fervent faith in the Lord and spreading the gospel. We next had a time of prayer, we prayed for Eritrea, India, Nigeria, Pakistan and Ski Lanka. The meeting was both moving and uplifting, which sounds strange, but our brothers and sisters show such faith and such strength in their love for the Lord and their help for each other.
We would ask you to pray for our brothers and sisters around the world who like those mentioned above are suffering for their faith.
Bob and Barbara Stoneham
7. Thank you
As always a big thank you to the folk who have contributed to this newsletter. During the last 18 months or so there have been a few changes within the church family, we have the addition of six new babies. We are introduced to Francesca and her parents in this issue but hopefully we will hear from all of them in future newsletters. Little Rascals have given us an update of how things are for them as they meet on a Friday morning, but again as before, hopefully we’ll be able to catch up with all of the youth groups in due course, after they restart in September. If you would like to contribute to the newsletter, email rosemarybuncehook@gmail.com anytime
Rosemary Bunce
8. LITTLE RASCALS
Little Rascals has a new look. Not only do we have a new team but the morning looks very different to normal. We now are able to set up, run the morning and set down all within a 3 hour period on Fridays. At the moment we set up between 9 and 9.40, we pray before the start which is 10am. The formal morning ends at 11am and then there is a team who packs up the toys and completes all the necessary Covid checks/clean. The new look also means a new ministry leader and some new members on the team. The new lead is Sandra (Fitzpatrick) and also includes folk who register, welcome, sing, tell stories and make sure no one is sitting on their own. From September we are looking forward to introducing the legendary cakes that have been a firm favourite of both parents and helpers at Little Rascals over the years.
Please pray for Little Rascals as we seek to build strong relationships with the parents and share the Gospel through the story, songs and the conversations we have. If you would like to help or provide a cake (from September) please contact Sandra (see churchsuite for address, or email ruth@hookchurch.org).
Please pray for the following ministry leaders of Friday Groups:
Little Rascals – Sandra Fitzpatrick,
Kidzone (3-7s – Jane Sapey,
Spectrum (7-11s)– Alan Rigby,
i.d. (11-18s)– Sam and Beth Lee.
Also Sunday School of Rock – Rachel Weber, Nicole Correia, Colin Neal,
Students - Marc and Becky Davies
Tim
9. FAMILY NEWS
INTRODUCING the Brailsford family
Firstly we would like to thank everyone for making us feel so welcome at Hook and we look forward to getting to know you all.
But here is a little introduction to us.
I'm Andrea and my husband is Jake Brailsford. We have a 3 month old daughter named Francesca and on the 25th July 2021 we celebrated our first Wedding Anniversary.
During the week, Jake works at Norden Heating and Plumbing Supplies in Epsom; he works in the warehouse with Goods In and Out. Whilst I am doing a Masters in Forensic Psychology at Goldsmiths University, London, to enable me to become a chartered Forensic Psychologist
We both come from Christian families and have similar testimonies in the fact that we came to Christ gradually through hearing and studying his Word over time. Since our conversions we have been very much involved in our respective Churches. I have loved being involved in children and youth ministries while Jake has enjoyed helping the church in practical ways.
In 2020 we were preparing to find a church upon our marriage and had heard about Hook though various people. We started watching the Services online and found it so spiritually satisfying and enjoyable, so we decided to continue and came along to Services in person when we were allowed. It became clear to us very quickly that Hook was the Church God wanted us to be at and get involved in and so we sought to become members. We look forward to the future with Hook and Jesus as our guide.
Jake, Andrea and Francesca
10. Poems
Our dear Father,
We thank You for Your keeping, every day of our lives.
We thank You for drawing us to Yourself, that we, such imperfect people,
may have the extraordinary privilege of relationship with You:
utterly wise, completely pure, and loving beyond comprehension.
You are the origin of everything good, everything perfect.
You do all things well.
Because You are forward-looking, Father God, we are a forward-looking people.
We look back only to see Your hand in our lives,
Your plan being worked out,
and how You have preserved us through trials
to bring us to this time.
****************
Our dear Abba,
Ordinary life which we knew and took so for granted has changed significantly...
an interminable time for so many clothed in human flesh….
only a blink of an eye for You who knows no end.
Our hearts go out to those who have suffered and continue to suffer
physically, emotionally, mentally from all that has has happened
all they may have lost,
and the changed landscapes of their lives.
May they know Your strength,
Your comfort, Your healing of body, mind and soul…
but most of all, may they know You in this changed world,
and that You do not change.
For those who have not yet given thought to You,
please use what has happened to give them cause to reflect, #
to speak to their minds and hearts.
What joy it would bring to see them live out the remainder of their earthly lives
hand in hand with Your Son as their Saviour, companion and guide,
and to know they will be safely with You for all time afterwards.
****************
Our dear Jesus,
With You, our Morning Star and Best Friend, every day is bright.
Your blazing light obliterates the darkest nights.
Please enable us to carry the light of Your love to everyone we encounter…
may Your light in us be bright and unmistakable;
may the difference You have made in us, and to us,
be evident and magnetic.
Guided by the Holy Spirit, may we be effective ambassadors for You.
Please give us opportunity to reach those who will perish without You.
We thank You for the hope of brighter days ahead,
and for the certainty of the brightest time yet to come,
when we get to meet You, our beloved Saviour, face to face.
We will drop to our knees in adoration….
we will bathe your feet with tears of joy and gratitude
for seeking, saving, loving and keeping us.
****************
Deborah Stevens