Kerith West Wight Spring Update
Hope you're enjoying the sunshine as we are now fully into Spring! I'm excited because our wisteria is blooming and I thought it would die...! We're bad at gardening!
Pilgrimage Series
On Sunday Simon launched our new teaching series called Pilgrimage, going through Psalms 120-134 which are known as the Songs of Ascent. Songs that the Jews sung on their pilgrimage journey to Jerusalem. Over the course of this series we'll be looking at lots of topics that come into the life of a disciple of Jesus, as we track through the book 'A Long Obedience in the Same Direction' by Eugene Peterson. It's a great book so worth checking out. Katie suggested getting it second hand, so try that out and if not you can buy it here.
This Sunday - 30th April our Executive Pastor and Elder, Ben Oliver is continuing our series, looking at Psalm 123 (we're not doing them all in order 🤪).
I won't be there this Sunday as I have the privilege of baptising Noah Burton at Colwell Baptist Church! Many of you will know Noah who serves on our worship team each month. He is such a blessing to us as a church, and I'm so excited and honoured to be part of his baptism on Sunday. Please be praying for him, and Jack who is also being baptised, that it will be a really significant day for them, and that they would know the love and blessing of Jesus on them!
New Song
To accompany this new series we introduced a new song on Sunday - 'Highlands (Song of Ascent)' by Hillsong United. It expresses some of the ups and downs of following Jesus. You can check it out here on YouTube or Spotify or check out our Sunday Songs Playlist on Spotify, with all the songs we sing regularly on Sunday mornings.
Building Fund Gift Days
On the next 2 Sundays – 30th April & 7th May, across all of our Kerith Sites, we are holding Building Fund Gift Days to raise funds for each site's Building Fund. So I just wanted to say a bit about this. We've been meeting at the Memorial Hall since January 2019. It serves us well, but it won't take much further growth for it to no longer be practical. The parking is an issue, the kids/youth spaces are very limiting and we are limited in how and when we can use the building during the week for Social Justice ministries and anything else.
God is working among us and through us as Kerith here on the Isle of Wight. We're believing God will do more of what our mission statement says – 'bring people back to him', and that we will outgrow this space. We're believing he has big plans - more than we're aware of!
We don't know what God is calling us to next, but we want to be prepared to go where he leads. Part of that is having the funds available to access a different space when the time comes. So we've launched the West Wight Building Fund which we can give into at any time, either one-off gifts or regular payments.
If you are able to give, and want to invest in the future of Kerith on the Isle of Wight, please pray and ask God to lead you in your generosity. Giving is part of our worship and an opportunity to invest in the mission God has set us on as a church. The easiest way to do this is by clicking here to our giving page. Alternatively, you can put cash in an envelope – mark it as 'WW Giving Fund' and put it in our giving station box on Sunday.
Final Encouragement
As we've spoken about on Sundays recently, let's be praying in preparation for Sundays, that God would speak through us for the 'strengthening, encouraging and comfort' of each other. (See 1 Corinthians 14:3) We gather on Sundays to encounter God together and part of the joy of that is that we get to build up the family of God too.