HAPPY EASTER !!!!

Want to see something freaky?
Check out this American cartoon clip that tells the story of Easter day / Jesus’ resurrection.



I know what your thinking:
Did those radio active albinos really just use the dark side of the force to kill those soldiers?
Where did the choir come from? And why are they hiding off screen?
Did any of this really happen?

Click here to see for yourself.
Then click here and here to read some of my favourite bits from the bible.
I just LOVE how Jesus comes back from the dead and makes breakfast with his mates!

Have a great Easter everybody!

THIS WEEK....

Apologies for the lack of action on the page lately, it’s been a busy old week.
The high lights were the Stop the Traffik prayer sleep over last Saturday/Sunday and Mike Pilovatchi from Soul Survivor speaking at the church on Wednesday night. He talked about following God when life sucks.
You can order the CD for £2 from Broadway if you missed it, it’s well worth it!

This week:
Friday night – NO YOUTH ALPHA!
In a change to the advertised stuff youth alpha is not on tonight. Sorry about that folks. There are a lot of people away for the Easter holidays & we felt it best to cancel.

Sunday morning – YOUTH ALPHA IS ON!
Sarah & Wendy will be hosting the last session of the term & finishing up our work together on the Old Testament. Should be a good one so make it a priority.

Everything will be back after the holidays, Free* Café is back on the 18th April, YA Friday is back on the 20th and YA Sunday is back on the 22nd.

This Week....

We’re going ‘Stop the Traffic’ crazy this week
At tomorrow’s Free* Café’ at Broadway Baptist Church we’ll be playing this video:



And asking people to sign the Stop the Traffic declaration.
You can click here to sign it yourself.
Or click here to read about the chocolate campaign

(Free* Café is for anyone in school years 6 to 11 and is open from 3.30pm to 5pm)

On Thursday lunch time Solid Rock meets at Chesham Park school in the old Drama studio. After chatting about Mario last time this week it’s Kermit the Frog’s turn.



On Friday lunch time there’s TGIF in H5 at Chesham High school (this week presented by little me ☺ )
Youth Alpha is on as always from 7.30 – 9.30pm here at good ol’ Broadway Baptist Church. In a change to the advertised program we’ll be thinking a bit more about prophets tonight.

On Saturday there’s the Children’s Easter Craft Morning at Broadway. It runs from 10.30 – 12.30pm, contact our office for details (click here for our contact details).

Then Saturday evening is the BIG ONE,
the Stop the Traffik prayer sleep over at the King’s Church in Amersham.
The event runs from 8pm to 9am, there’ll be games, DVD’s, a whole bunch of fun and a lot of prayer, so don’t miss it
(for school years 7 – 13).

The best thing on the internet this week:

Now that Star Wars is a 'saga' and Indiana Jones is set to appear for the 4th time, that must make Back to the Future the best movie trilogy of all time.



Here's a video I saw this week of Biff from BTTF singing about questions,
or as I like to call it:
THE BEST THING ON THE INTERNET THIS WEEK!

This week....

Been a bit lax on the 'this week' front lately, so here goes:

Wednesday there's F.B.I. (those in the know...know), 3.30pm - 5pm
@ Broadway Baptist Church, Le' Chesh

Thursday, Chesham Park school at Solid Rock
I'll be looking at Mario. Specifically at what the Bible might have to say to the world's most famous plumber and platform hopper. If he was real, and not made of colour pixels.
Solid Rock meet in the old drama studio at lunch time.

On Friday there's TGIF in Chesham High school, room H5 at lunch time.

Then in the evening we'll be thinking about suffering at Youth Alpha. Not suffering at Youth Alpha you understand, more, er, you know, talking about suffering whilst we are at Youth Alpha, well not 'whilst we are at Youth Alpha'. Er. You get the idea, right?

Youth Alpha is 7.30 - 9.30pm at Broadway Baptist Church, Chesham, Bucks.
The last two weeks have been pretty heavy going so this Friday we're aiming to make plenty of time to chat and have a laugh.

Then Youth Alpha is back on Sunday morning during the church service, 10.30 - 12pm. This week we're looking at the prophets.

Enjoy!

Tonight

Youth Alpha tonight is all about sex.
Yep, really.

Well, sexuality anyway.
We’re going to be discussing what we think is God’s best for our sex lives and looking at the bible for some guidance. It’s going to be interesting.

For school year 7 - 11 @ Broadway Baptist Church, Chesham. 7.30pm - 9.30pm.
Call us if it's your first visit so we know to expect you. Click here for our contact details, address and stuff.

Youth Alpha this Friday

When I was at school the entire cast of Grange Hill sang a special song about saying "No" to drugs. It had a little rap bit in it and everything.

In 2007 you've got an entire Youth Alpha session to talk about Drugs and Alcohol.... now that's progress!

They'll also be the usual mix of games and fun stuff.
Usual time, 7.30pm - 9.30pm at Broadway Baptist Church in Chesham, Bucks, (UK)

Click here for a link to a very well put together page that looks at what the Bible says about drug use. It's well worth a look as it's more intelligent then "Just say No".

There's no Youth Alpha on Sunday morning but we do have an All Age Service at Broadway. See you there!

Let's write a letter everyone!

This lady is Rachel Corrie, she was an American peace protestor.



She was killed in 2003 when a military digger ran her over during a protest against the Israeli army demolishing Palastinian homes.
I know what you're thinking “Palastine/Israel, it’s to complicated.”
Either that, or you've picked a side and your sticking with it.
But check this out:


The Church of England made money out of the machines that killed Rachel Corrie and destroyed people's homes.


I’m not trying to hype this up or play with your emotions here. Rachel’s story puts a human face to a big issue.
The machine in question is a military digger made by Caterpillar Inc (same brand as the boots and t-shirts). Part of their business makes and sells military vehicles and the UK Anglican church have £2.2million invested in the company.

The bottomline: UK churches make money out of weapons of oppression.
Anybody got a Bible verse to back that up?



Please make up your own mind on this issue. But add this to your consideration:
The Christian community in Israel told the UK church that Caterpillar's profitting from what is going on in their neighbourhood is a bad thing.
There are plenty of people in the UK Anglican church who agree so last year the General Synod (Anglican leaders) recommended that the church disinvest in the company and that they should be more fussy about where they put their money in future.
Thing is……. that was 12 months ago
and there’s no news of anything happening since. click here to read what the CAAT Chrsitian Network have to say about the issue and what they have been doing about it. Or Google Caterpillar Anglican Synod and find out for yourself.

We hear a lot of bad news stories from all over the world and it's easy to feel powerless to do anything about them. But this one is do-able. The Anglican church CAN make sure they don't profit from violence and oppression, in the middle east or anywhere in the world.
But they might need a bit of encouragment and a few reminders.

YOU can do something.
Here’s the address for the Archbishop of Canterbury (the boss of the Anglican church). Write to him and let him know how you feel about this.

The Archbishop of Canterbury
Lambeth Palace,
London
SE1 7JU

FLAMIN’ STROOF!

Last night was a whopper at Broadway Baptist Church.
Elaine Storkey, president of Tear Fund gave the first presentation in the Lent Lectures series. The series is put on By Churches Together for Chesham, a big group of lots of churches, in Chesham. The clue is in the name people!



The evening was really something. It was probably the most well argued, convincing and disturbing presentation I’ve seen. Forget that Inconvient Truth movie!
Elaine spoke about a lot of things including climate change, fair trade, arms dealing, third world debt and how they are all connected. It’s hard to sum up all that she said, but here’s the best I can do:

“ If you live in the UK,
buy things in shops and ride in a car or plane ever - CONGRATULATIONS!
You are making an active contribution to global poverty.
So unless you truly believe that your life is worth the same as 10 poor people's
WAKE UP AND DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT.”

Like I said, it was disturbing.



Here's my top 3 biggest shocks – I like to think of this as the “Wake up and smell the coffee list”:

1. Elaine said she had been on a trip to Congo. There’s been a war there, torture, rape, boy soldiers, hell-on-earth-type stuff. She was at a meeting with representatives from 50 Christian denominations (Catholics, Anglicans , etc) and they wanted to know why their ‘brothers and sisters’ in the UK church had forgotten about them. One of the group had been to the UK recently to see the Archbishop of Canterbury and had watched our TV news with interest. He wanted to know why all the news stories were about Iraq and the Beckhams.

OK, so in the UK we’re really into this one war and celebrity trivia, but why is the UK Church no different? Why are we preoccupied with those things too?

2. At the same meeting a rep’ said “Congo isn’t a poor nation, we have a lot of natural mineral resources. One thing we don’t have, and you won’t find anywhere in Africa, is munitions factories (places to make guns, bombs and bullets). Why does your country sell weapons to our tortures?”.

I’m stuffed if I know a morally upright answer to that. Do you?

3. Poor people in the UK are more likely to be malnourished then poor people in many developing nations.



Here’s what I want YOU to do with this information:

Pick something that you think is wrong, e.g. climate change.

You’re on the internet right now, so go to Google.

Type in a few key words and “Christians against” (e.g. Christians against Climate Change).

Check out some of the web sites. Find an organisation that sounds good to you then get involved with it.

Email our local MP.
Sign online petitions on Tony Blair’s very own web page.
Write a letter to Nike saying “Your trainers are officially uncool until you start paying a fair wage to the people who make them. So don’t expect to sell anything to me or any of my friends until then”.
Write to Tesco and say “I’d rather food cost a bit more and you valued farmers as much as you value me as a customer. Sort it out!”.

Or come up with your own ideas – but do something today.

(check out the next post for a very specific suggestion)