Sunday 19th February

Sunday 19th February
As many of you are aware the contract for Abbeygate is currently being amended (one detail only) so this coming Sunday's worship event will be held at the Colchester Arts Centre at 10.30am as normal. (The amendment is advised by our solicitor to guard us from being stung by dilapidation costs at the conclusion of the license.)

With the focus on prayer there will be time to seek God together, share bread and wine during Communion and prepare for our ongoing life together. Naomi leads us in a time of opening worship and Janie brings an interactive message on the theme of prayer and faith. Read Luke 11, 1-13 and Mark 4, 26-29.

As there is no session on the stage this week for primary aged children, quiet activities (puzzles/colouring etc) will be available for children to do at their parents' table.

Barn Church
Youth Alpha continues 5.30-7.30pm across at Assington; David Lasky will be speaking on Who is Jesus?
Meet at Matalan at 5.00pm for transport.
Please pray for each of our young people as they seek to introduce their friends to a living relationship with Jesus.

Sunday 12th February

This Sunday, Feb 12th, might be the last in the Arts Centre for a while as the Licence for Abbeygate has now been written and we are getting ready to sign!

Be at the Arts Centre at 10.30am for DNA worship, where Janie, Nick, Sifa and Ida will introduce music and Patrick Ramazani will challenge us with a message in response to his reading of Haggai. Naomi will lead children's activities. We expect to be built up and strengthened as we engage with God's Word.

Barn Church Youth Alpha starts this Sunday!!!!! The young people are buzzing. We will be meeting at matalan at 17:00 and returning home the normal time. We will be playing a game outside in the woods so bring warm clothes and good suitable shoes. David Lasky will be sharing a small talk and then we will have small group discussions followed by food.

Congratulations to those who made it through the snow last week to the Arts Centre; some of the people in the minibus had a wild time pushing the vehicle out of the service station at Tesco!! Others found plenty of snow outside the Arts Centre to throw snowballs at one another.

Sunday 29th January

This Sunday, DNA will meet in the Colchester Arts Centre at 10.30 am. Naomi Snelling will lead songs; following prayer will be the final readings and talk in the series on Rebuilding the Temple, while the children go on the stage to do some creative activities. Check out Ezra chapters 1-6 for a sneak preview!

The International Christian Fellowship will be gathering to hear the story and the songs of Henry Olonga, the Zimbabwean former international cricketer, who famously wore a black armband to symbolise the death of democracy in Zimbabwe. They'll be feasting on an American lunch afterwards while they discuss Henry Olonga's presentation. Call Enoch for info 07969 210284.

Barn Church will be meeting at Matalan at 5.00pm to go to Assington for their usual gathering; the group is preparing to launch Youth Alpha in a few weeks.

On Tuesday evening, 31st January, at 8-9pm, there will be a special prayer gathering about the move to Abbeygate 2, hosted at the Watsons home. Please come along - all are welcome. If you are unable to come, why not set your alarm for 8pm and offer an "arrow prayer" to God? Call Carey on 07809270857 for info and directions.

Wednesday morning 10am will continue with weekly prayer at 52 Wellesley Rd for all DNA mission, people and needs. All are welcome.

Venue Change Sunday 22nd January

The Arts Centre called on Wednesday night to announce that the winter beer festival was about to start today and that the Arts Centre would not be available this Sunday. This was contrary to our earlier advice that the beer festival was on next week!

So........... we have booked the Celtic Rose Centre on the corner of Guildford Road/East Hill for this Sunday, 22nd January, at 10.30am. (Set up team please arrive for 9.30am; leaving time 12.30pm). There are plenty of chairs and a space upstairs for children's activities.

This venue is well known to the families who come to Messy Church and we are very grateful that it is available at such short notice. Parking is not easy on Guildford Road, but you will usually find spaces in the roads off to the left.

It is the week of prayer for Christian unity and our visiting speaker is David House who leads the Salvation Army citadel on Butt Road- yes the same David House who has recently offered us 100 sturdy chairs for use in Abbeygate- so please treat David with great kindness, warmth and friendship! He will be speaking on Luke 9, 1-17- a fantastic message for DNA at this moment about Jesus sending out the 12 on mission and miraculously providing resources to feed the multitudes.

David Beales will be up the hill at St James the Great, doing his best to condense a sermon into the requested 10 minutes!

We know that this frequent change of venue is causing disruption and sincerely hope that we will soon be settled for a while at Abbeygate 2. We await the delivery of the License with eager anticipation. Please keep on praying that God's Spirit will lead us to the places of his choosing and will keep our eyes fixed on Jesus in the meantime.

Janie and Dave

Sunday 15th January

This Sunday worship is at Colchester Arts Centre at 10.30am. The theme is based around Haggai chapter 2, continuing to apply the idea of "Rebuilding the Temple" to our circumstances

Sunday January 8th

This Sunday's worship will be at 10.30am at Colchester Arts Centre.
The theme will be build on last week's Treasures of Darkness, looking at Haggai 1.

Barn Church will be on in the evening. Meet at Matalan 5pm.

Happy New Year!

Christmas Day Message

To read the Christmas day Message go to http://davidbeales.livejournal.com/

Christmas Day: 10am (note the time!!)

Please join us for Christmas Day worship at 10am, Colchester Arts Centre.
Worship will include:
Creativity- video, graphics, poetry and photography
Space- for personal reflection and prayer
Christmas songs - old and original
Interactive Bible reading- from Matthew 1, 1-16 (go on, look it up and see if you can get to the end without falling asleep!)
Holy Communion
It should last an hour in length.

Dave's blog- Seven O's of Advent

For the next week, Dave will be posting some Advent reflections on his blog at http://davidbeales.livejournal.com/

From early in the Christian era, Benedictine monks focussed their pre-Christmas meditations on 7 titles for the Messiah from the Old Testament.

Each day for a week before Christmas Eve, they looked at one title and prepared their hearts for the coming of Christ by addressing songs to Christ using the titles as names... “O, Wisdom, O, Lord etc.”

This year, rather than write blogs on the 12 days of Christmas, as I have done over a couple of years, I’m going to attempt a bit of benedictine-style reflection on “Who is this baby?” over the next week.

The photo here is "solitude on a sandbar". Lots of revelation happens when we open our souls to the possibility of silence and solitude.

In case you’d prefer to do your own reflections rather than read mine, here are the themes for the week-

Dec 17th Wisdom
Dec 18th Lord
Dec 19th Root of Jesse
Dec 20th Key of David
Dec 21st Dayspring
Dec 22nd King of the Nations
Dec 23rd God is with us

Christmas Festivities!

Over the next week a bunch of different groups are gathering to share food, faith and fun in the lead-up to Christmas!

Look out for Jessica McCarty who arrives in UK on Friday 16th December to serve with the UWM team. Please make her feel welcome; she'll be around for a few days before heading north for Christmas with friends and will start work in the new year.

Saturday 17th December, 5.30 pm at 34 St Augustine Mews, International Christian Fellowship will meet together for Christmas celebration with African food and a film called Flywheel. Call Enoch Kunarajah 07969210284

Sunday 18th December, 3.00-4.00pm Carol Service at Trinity/CO1, Trinity St. Having rung the council today, they have confirmed that Culver St West will be closed to traffic from 10.30am-4pm this Sunday, so please don't attempt to drive down to Trinity St just before 3pm. Do invite friends and family; there will be a band leading carols, drumming and drama, international music, video clips from 2010's BBC Nativity- all in an attempt to tell the Christmas story in a way to engage people who don't know it well. Please bring some mince pies or other nibbles to share; the young people from Barn Church will help to serve the food at the end. Call Janie or Dave Beales 01206 530934

Monday 19th December, 2.00-5.00pm, Barn Church Christmas Swim at Peyton Hall. Meet for a lift at the Lower Castle Park Gates near the boating pool, at the end of St Peter's St. Contact Isaac Lasky 07715357624

Tuesday 20th December, 2.00-4.00pm, Children's Christmas party at Celtic Rose Centre, Guildford Road. Call Emily Collins 07928969449.

Christmas Day 25th December, Christmas Communion, 10 -11am at the Arts Centre.

Our Christmas donations this year will go to Beacon House centre for the homeless. You will find information about what is required below. DNA is growing a close relationship with Beacon House as we seek to serve some of the needs of homeless people in the area. Feel free to bring donations over the next three weeks leading up to New Year.

Below is a list of our current needs. If you can help
please bring along to DNA or contact Beacon House.

MEN'S JOGGING BOTTOMS, MEN'S TRAINERS
SIZES 8 - 12,
DETTOL ANTI-BACTERIAL SPRAY URGENTLY
REQUIRED
Desperate
Men's Boxers Small and Medium Size
Men's Shoes sizes 8 - 12
Men's T Shirts
Men's belts sizes 30 - 36"
Ladies knickers sizes 10 and 12
Ladies T Shirts/Tops
Men's socks
Kitchen Roll
Need
Shampoo
Men's Spray Deodorant
Ladies shoes/trainers sizes 7 - 9
Toilet Rolls
Cup a soup
Dessert plastic spoons
Travel size toiletries (not soap please!)
CHRISTMAS APPEAL
We would be grateful for boxer shorts (small/medium),
socks and chocolate to be given as presents to our
clients. For some of them it will be the only presents
that they will have - and we would be very grateful if
they could be wrapped as well!
90 - 91 East Hill, Colchester, CO1 2QN
01206 761960
Web:www.beaconhouseministries.org.uk

We gather for Worship event this Sunday, 11th December, at Colchester Arts Centre, 10.30am.
After learning an unfamiliar song, there will be a brief video introduction to Advent, then community prayer inspired by a "What would Jesus do?" banner photographed outside St Paul's Cathedral last week.
Holy Communion will follow and further worship music.
John Claydon will be speaking about a vision for the Body of Christ, taken from Ephesians 4, 11-16.
There will be time to respond prayerfully before a final song.
Advance notice:The Arts Centre is unavailable again on December 18th. Because of this, the DNA Carol event will take place at 3pm on Sun 18th Dec at Trinity Church, CO1 cafe on Trinity Street.
Our Christmas donations this year will go to Beacon House centre for the homeless. You will find information about what is required below. DNA is growing a close relationship with Beacon House as we seek to serve some of the needs of homeless people in the area. Feel free to bring donations over the next three weeks leading up to New Year.
Many thanks,
David and Janie

Sunday 4th December

This Sunday, 4th December, DNA will host students from Essex University at the 10.30am worship event in the Colchester Arts Centre, which will include a shared lunch.

John Orchard will be overseeing the worship
Viv Critchley has been masterminding the menus
Naomi Snelling will be leading music
Isaac Lasky will be sharing a message about God's Comfort from 2 Corinthians 1
Enoch Kunarajah is managing the transport- if you can help please call him on 07969210284

Look forward to seeing you then!

Happy B'day Sherry!
International Christian Fellowship - 27/11/11

Enjoying the Greek Cuisine

Sunday 27th November

Sunday 27th, 1st Sunday in Advent will be a Creativity Sunday, 10.30 am Colchester Arts Centre.
The story of the birth of John the Baptist will be told via narration, mime and crowd participation! Following on, children and families can choose from a number of craft activities that will be set up in the main hall. Adults, plus any who would prefer a much deeper look at Scriptures (Matthew 3 and Luke 3) about John the Baptist's approach to faith and ethics, will be directed to the stage area for teaching and discussion. We will gather together at the end for a song, prayer and blessing and have opportunity to share what we have been doing.

International Christian Fellowship will be sharing Greek cuisine and discussing the idea of the Kingdom of God. Meet at 12.30pm at Enoch's house. Please call 07969210284 for further information.

Barn Church meets at 5.00pm at Matalan for a start at 5.30pm for a game, then to probe the question "Who is Jesus?" with dramatic investigations of two stories from Luke's Gospel.

Sunday 20th November

This Sunday, 20th November, the Arts Centre is unavailable, so we will be meeting at The Lakeside Theatre at the University of Essex, starting at the usual time of 10.30am.

Transport will leave from the Arts Centre at 9.45am to arrive in good time at the Uni. Drivers can park in the Visitors areas in the South end car parks (free at weekends), accessed via Boundary Rd.

We look forward to a time of worship, fellowship and teaching from God's Word. Enoch Kunarajah will be the speaker, with a little help from his friends.

This coming Sunday, November 13th, we are meeting as normal in Arts Centre, 10.30am start

The worship event will include:
Remembrance Day focus
Creative Prayer activity led by Sydni
Christine Claydon sharing (Titus 2:1-14; Genesis 9: 8-16)
music and interview

INTERNATIONAL COOKING MORNING

The women gathered for a demonstration of Iraqi cooking by Souzan last Friday. As you can see, Come Dine with Me has nothing on this!!

"Messy Families" half term event - Highwoods Country Park

Several families were able to meet this week in Highwoods Country Park for an action-packed time, organised by Mark and Naomi Snelling. On arrival, children and their families were sent out in teams on a scavenger hunt, searching for a variety of different leaves, nuts, moss and twigs, followed by free play on the climbing apparatus and swings. After a picnic lunch together teams were sent out to build dens in the woods. A great time!

International Christian Fellowship 23/10/11

Messy Church

Calling all families (and the young at heart!)
We are planning to gather a group in half term for a few hours of activities and chance to have a chat in Highwoods.
When? Thursday 27th October What time? 10am - 2pm Where? Please meet at the visitors centre (off Turner road) What? Please bring a packed lunch and clothes you don't mind getting messy!! Please let us know if you're coming or have any questions.
Naomi -naypants@hotmail.com or 07793971931
Home - 01206 855252
Hope to see you there
Naomi and Mark x