WELCOME!

Welcome to the website of the churches of
St Michael’s and St Barnabas, Devonport.

We meet for worship every Sunday,
10.30am at St Michael’s.

For details of our social activities and all other meetings, see the side bar … together with links to our Facebook pages and all sorts of online resources.

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. (John 3:16)

News from Thika

The entrance to our link church in Ruiru

It is always great to hear news of our brothers and sisters in Kenya. Here are some highlights from the latest link newsletter, including news of a possible future visit:

General news
The weather in Thika has been very unusual. Following several years of very low rainfall and only one reasonable rain season in the last three years, leading to drought conditions, the October/November ‘short rains’ lasted right into January. There was some flooding and the cool conditions lasted right through into what is normally a hot and dry period. The big threat just now is the advance of huge swarms of desert locusts which have already caused devastation across Ethiopia, Somalia and parts of northern Kenya.

Thika Diocese reorganisation
The last few months have seen a lot of changes as the nine existing Archdeaconries have been reduced to four. They are anticipating good results from this reorganization and would value prayer for a smooth transition for all the changes that have taken place.

Exchange visits
In July Bishop Julius and his wife Esther will be hosted in Exeter for the week prior to the Lambeth Conference. They will be joined by ten other bishops and their spouses, two of them from dioceses neighbouring Thika. There will be a programme of events and visits including some open events giving us all a chance to meet them.

Plans are being laid for next year, 2021, when a number of parishes will be inviting visitors from their linked parishes to come and visit. So far around seven parishes have indicated that they would like to be involved so more ideas will be shared soon to get the ball rolling.

Family Party – Looking for Jesus – report

Today’s Family Party was fun! All ages enjoyed the craft activities – peg wise men and decorated and laminated real gold plates! It seemed a shame to interupt these activities at 5pm but we really needed to stop for tea, the adults were as reluctant to finish as the young people were, and both generations produced masterpieces!

As we ate, Lainey told us the story of the journey of The Wise Men to visit Jesus. We learnt about the perserverance of The Maji in searching for Jesus and how we can search for Jesus ourselves and ask him into our lives.

As a follow up to the story, we had a treasure hunt after tea – learning a memory verse as we searched, with real gold coins – with chocolate in them, as our reward!

We played a few more games towards the end of our party which were enjoyed by all.
The evening was finished with a wonderful rendition of Our God Is A Great Big God, sang as we marched around the church, playing musical instruments.

Before everyone went home, we had a quiet few minutes, when our young people were encouraged to say thank you to God for a good party. Our littleies were keen to pray and said ‘Thank you’ beautifully.

We had a bit of an age divide today and asked the teenagers who had attended, if they would like to stay for an extra half hour longer than the younger people, so that they could enjoy some time just for them, with some teaching. They were very keen to do this, so future Family Parties will end at 6-3Opm for year 7 and up.

Praise God!!

Next Family Party is PANCAKES!!! February 11th from 4pm, at St Michael’s.

Family Party – 14th January

Ladies’ Quiet Day 2020

Open Church coffee charity – January

New year, new start

The Vicarage home group restarts tonight at 7:30pm, where we will be praying ahead into the new year.

Other activities resume next week, including Open Church with a craft day on Tuesday, 7th, 10:30-3:30 … we meet to pray at 10am.

See the calendar for other activities. Every blessing for 2020 🙂

New Year resolutions?

Do you make New Year resolutions? How long do you usually manage to keep them?! If one of your resolutions for 2020 is to read your Bible regularly, or to set aside time for prayer each day, then maybe one of the following apps or sites may help …

Bible Readings

New for 2020 is the Read Scripture app from The Bible Project, available for both Android and iPhone.

Using videos and the ESV, the app takes you through the Bible in one year, taking 15-20 minutes each day. This scheme is thematic, so the bigger picture is always in focus (hint: it always points to Jesus!)

More familiar are two sites that offer online Bibles, in multiple translations. Both offer audio readings, but did you know both also offer apps for Android and iPhone and a choice of reading plans?

Bible Gateway and You Version offer similar functionality to each other, and access to a wide range of resources, including daily reading schemes and a search function for when you just can’t quite remember that quote you want to use … ! Try them both and see which you prefer.

An online only option is WordLive from Scripture Union, also available as a daily email. Taking you through the Bible in five years, each day has a number of options, including a thought to prepare you to read God’s word, a reading and comment, the option to go a little deeper, and prayer suggestions for the work of Scripture Union among children. WordLive is found from the tab at the top right of the home page.

Prayer apps

Also new for 2020 is Lectio 365 from 24/7 Prayer – based on the ancient practice of Lectio Divina, a way of using the Bible to shape our prayers. Using psalms and daily readings, and available in audio format, it focuses on seasonal rhythms, such as Advent or Lent, and uses times of silence and reflection, with suggestions for prayer.

If what you need is to keep your prayer list organised, then PrayerMate is the app you need. PrayerMate brings all your prayer points together, and it can be as simple or as detailed as you choose. Each day it offers you a selection of your topics, and you simply swipe through them as you pray. On your next visit, it takes up where you left off, so you can pray for as many topics as you choose without ever forgetting a prayer need, making it extremely flexible. PrayerMate also offers you seasonal devotions, daily reading plans and feeds such as The Church of England collect for each day and Operation World.

The first goal of our Mission Action Plan is that we all develop a pattern of regular personal devotions … if you need some help to get or to keep going, why not try one of these suggestions? Use the comments below to let us know what you think, or to ask any questions you may have 🙂