THOMAS MEMORIAL CHURCH

On Sunday, the service at 11 am will be conducted by Mr. Scanlon.

120 and Counting!

It is almost three years since the aid project at Hebron Baptist Church, Saundersfoot, got underway.

The ladies of the church began knitting squares for blankets to be sent first to Ukraine and then also to Rwanda.

Soon news of the project spread and many people started donating double knitting wool or giving gifts for the purchase of wool. People locally also began knitting and several other Baptist churches in the county also contributed to the project.

A lady in The Midlands, who celebrates her 100th birthday this week, also joined the project and three blankets have been made from the squares she has knitted.

In addition to the blankets, more than 100 hats, jumpers and other knitted items have been sent overseas and have been greatly appreciated.

Several ladies involved in the project have shown interest in forming a craft group which will make items to support charities serving those in need.

The group will be meeting in Hebron Church Hall at 2.30 pm on the third Wednesday of the month.

The first meeting will be on Wednesday, February 18. If any ladies would like to join the group and have an interest in knitting or other crafts which could be used for fund-raising, you are invited to call Janet Standing on (01834) 811697.

METHODIST

CHURCH

In Sunday's reading from Isaiah 40, from verse 21, Isaiah pictures God as living up in the heavens looking down seeing us like ants.

Do we find it more comfortable, the preacher, Rev. Alan Jenkins, asked, to think of God that way, rather than down here amongst us? There need be no conflict, he said, between religion and science, for God is present in all aspects of our lives. Everyone matters to God, old, young, male, female, black, white, wealthy, poor, healthy, sick. No-one should say 'I am too insignificant for God to notice me'.

There will be no service at this church on Sunday as there is a united service at Carew Methodist Church, where the president of the Methodist Conference will be preaching.

Hebron Baptist Church

There was a very warm welcome on a bitterly cold morning last Sunday. Mr. Anthony Standing led the opening worship including, prayer, welcome and the announcements for the busy week ahead. The speaker, Mr. Mick Quirk, read from Ephesians 1 v 1-13. Miss Helen Standing was the pianist and Mr. and Mrs. Taberer were the welcome stewards.

Mr. Quirk began his message by asking 'What's in a name?' Emmanuel, God with us, Wonderful Counsellor, Prince of Peace, Lion of Judah are just some of the names written in scripture to describe the Lord. In Ephesians 1 v 6 (AV), Jesus is described as The Beloved, and in Matthew chapter 3, 'This is my beloved Son'.

Beloved means precious beyond words. In John 3 v 16, we read: 'For God so loved the world that he gave his only son that whosoever believes in him shall not perish, but have eternal life.'

When we begin to realise what the Son meant to the Father, we get a glimpse of the cost of our salvation. When we think of Abraham being willing to sacrifice his son Isaac, we can identify with Abraham and understand how he must have felt. But can we identify with God giving up his Beloved Son who was persecuted, rejected, accused, beaten and mocked?  It was the Beloved Son who carried his cross to Golgotha.

What the Father hated most he laid upon his son whom he loved the most. God made him to be a sin offering for us. God spared Isaac but he did not spare his own son. This shows the depth of the Father's love to us, we who are of sinful mind and hostile to God. Yet God sent the Son to be a sin offering and to live in us as his redeemed people. (Romans 8).

There is nothing that can make God love us more and nothing can make him love us less. It is a love that is lavished upon us, poured out without holding anything back.

Jesus prayed: 'You have loved them even as you have loved me.' Do we love God? Do we tell him? Don't let your love grow cold; remember what he has done for you.

On Sunday, at 11 am, the speaker will be Mr. Martin Dudgeon, of AsiaLink. Young people will have their own activities in the hall during the message. There will be no mid-week activities this week. Bible Study on Mark's Gospel will commence next week. A warm welcomed awaits you at our services and activities. For more information, call 811697 or visit http://www.hebronbaptistsaundersfoot.org.uk">www.hebronbaptistsaundersfoot.org.uk