WHAT'S GOING ON? .. THE MINISTER WRITES:-

A number of exciting things are happening at Tottenham
Baptist Church. Here I want to explain a little bit more about them....

Aiming for Excellence - Modernising our church halls.
Thank you to those of you who came to the church on a very icy Saturday morning to discuss the improvements we need in our church halls. Ten people came and others sent apologies and their thoughts. We need to "aim for excellence" so that the improvements we make will be useful in the long term, durable, and so that we can take pride in what we achieve.

Pastoral Care Team.
As well as improving the buildings we want to improve our fellowship within the church. What we are doing is asking people who are gifted in aspects of pastoral care to be encouragers and visitors within our congregation. They will meet together occasionally but the most important thing is that they will be looking out for new-comers, and keeping in touch with people who are sick or are unable to attend church for a period for whatever reason. Of course, this kind of caring work is going on all the time, but people do get overlooked and forgotten about, and hopefully by organising this better, we can care for and encourage people more consistently.

Breaking down Walls -Strengthening our cross-cultural fellowship.
This is another initiative to help us improve the quality of our Christian fellowship. This project is already underway and will last for a month. I have called it "Breaking down Walls" after the title of a book about two pastors in a multi-ethnic church in Chicago who set out to increase the level of love and fellowship between members of their congregation who were from different ethnic backgrounds. There are 4 parts to this Breaking down Walls project. Firstly, the preaching on Sundays is being drawn from the themes in the book. Second, Rosemarie Davidson-Gotobed, our London Baptist Association Racial Justice Co-ordinator is taking a 4-week course in Racism Awareness on Wednesday evenings. Sadly there is a lot of racism around in our community and it is important that we understand how it happens and take steps to ensure there is no scope in our church for this kind of prejudice. In the two meetings we have had with Rosemarie already we have found her to be a helpful and good-humoured facilitator to help us think through our own prejudices Thirdly, I am collecting - -people's stories focusing on their experience of living in a multi-ethnic community, hoping then to publish them in a booklet. Fourthly, I hope that some will feel able to organise fellowship meals where you invite 5 or 6 people of different ethnic backgrounds into your home and share conversation and food.

The Minister's Sabbatical.
I shall be going on Sabbatical from 23 April until 15 June. Every 7 years Baptist Ministers are entitled to study leave of between one and three months. I am going to Cameroon in West Africa for 7 weeks to share in Baptist life there and complete a research project looking at how the ecological problems in Cameroon impact on Baptist life and witness. Augustine Njamnshi, who has worshipped with us in the past and lives in Yaounde, Cameroon, will be my host, but I will be travelling around meeting pastors of other churches and also spending time at the Baptist Seminary in the North West Province (thankfully the English speaking part of Cameroon!). Itinerant speakers will be covering our services during the period I am away and I hope you make a special effort to come and support them. Often a different speaker can help us to hear God's word to us in a fresh way, so do come to church as regularly as you can and be open to hear from God. Also join in our Mid-week meeting which will be led by Thornton Reid. His Bible studies are always a joy and a blessing and you will learn many new things if you make the effort to come and join in. Do make a special effort to watch out for one another and encourage one another and pray for one another during this time. It really will bless me if I can come back after 7 weeks and, as I relate to you the good time that I will have had in Africa, you also can relate to me the good time that you will have had without me!

Tottenham Baptist Church in Cyberspace.
Thanks to the efforts of Jim McGlynn you can now read Focus on the internet. This means that you can now read Focus from virtually anywhere in the world. You can go into an internet cafe in Bangkok this afternoon and read Focus, so amazing are the wonders of modern technology. Type in:-www.freespace.virgin.net/jamesimac.mcglynn/tbc  and you can read it online, download a copy into Microsoft Word (or whatever you like to use) or print it off.
Well done, Jim.com!

SPURGEON'S CHILD CARE

Thank you to all those folk who took home the Christmas Tree envelopes for Spurgeon's Child Care. The total to date is £95.27. This will be sent off to Spurgeon's very soon......with perhaps some more?

FROM THE "COUPON LADY"

As I always do each year I would like to thank those of you who give money-off coupons that I am able to exchange for cash. Also thank you to those of you who give monetary gifts and gifts of tea, coffee, sugar, biscuits and juice towards refreshments that we have on Sunday mornings and various occasions throughout the year. So, at the end of December 2000, I was able to give our Treasurer £126.60, which was £22.20 more than the previous year, towards our Building Fund. So keep looking in the newspapers and magazines for money-off coupons and just give them to me and I will exchange them. If you are not sure about them, don't worry, just see me and I will explain.

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Front page,Click on a page:- The index is on page 2,
page 2, page 3, page 4, page 6, page 7, page 8,