Worship led by Mrs. Gwen Nicholl on Sunday started on a note of praise, with the call to worship from Psalms, "It is a good thing to give thanks to the Lord", and the opening hymn, 'All things praise thee Lord most high'.
In her talk to the children, Gwen said how easy it is to make mistakes and how foolishly she had mistaken an artificial plant for a real one. In life, too, we often judge people by appearances.
Robert Storer read from Samuel about the anointing of David to be king, the least likely to be chosen from among his brothers, but the one that God had seen to be worthy.
The New Testament lesson, read by Mrs. Kay Apps, was from Phillipians 2 'Christ's humility and greatness'. The sermon based upon the text beginning 'The Lord sees not as man sees' continued the theme started in the children's address.
Illustrations were drawn from the life of Jesus and the value that he put upon seemingly worthless people: the woman at the well, blind Bartimaeus, Matthew the tax collector, Mary Magdalene and Simon, who denied Jesus and yet went on to do great things; Saul, the persecutor of Christians, who became Paul the Christian leader, and a modern day illustration of the young soccer hooligan, who became a Christian pastor.
Thank you Gwen for sharing these thoughts and for leading worship so beautifully.
This Sunday at 10.30 am, worship, which will include the sacrament of holy communion, will be led by Rev. John Humphreys, who will be paying his last visit to St. Johns as URC moderator for Pembrokeshire.
During the following week, the singing group will meet on Monday at 7 pm in the small schoolroom. The meeting for prayer and Bible study will be held in the vestry at 10.30 am, while on the same day the Good News free library will be in the small schoolroom from 10 am - 12 noon. The young people's Pilots group resumes its meetings after the Easter break from 6.30 - 7.30 pm.