Our Global Action Focus this week is Tearfund

Tearfund - Christmas Giving 

All our gifts during the Christmas period will go to Tearfund’s 2024 Christmas appeal to help drought-hit regions of Kenya, where families face extreme hardship. Malich’s family have little money or food because she lost all of her livestock due to drought; Agnes, a mother of five, struggles to provide for her children, often surviving on one cup of tea and a small portion of maize each day. At this Christmas time, we want to be generous towards those in our world who have the least. Please give at the back of church either by using the card machine or putting cash or a cheque (to St John’s Global Action) in the Tearfund box. Thank you!
 

Midweek Service of Holy Communion

The next date is Thursday 9th January, 10.30am. The midweek communion generally takes place every second and fourth Thursday of the month at 10.30 am. After the service, we enjoy refreshments together in the youth lounge. We would love you to join us! All are welcome. Autumn date Communion cards are now available from the foyer.

St John's Church Office Christmas Closure 

The Church office will be closed from Friday the 20th December until Thursday 2nd January.
On behalf of the entire staff team, we wish you all a very merry Christmas and a happy and blessed New Year!

Christmas at St John's 

We have plenty of fun and faith-filled activities at our church. If you are a member of the church, or part of the local community, we are happy to welcome you to these events. Click here for more details or see the Christmas leaflet and invitations in the church foyer.

Prayer Focus     

We meet for Prayer Focus in the Youth Lounge at 8 pm, on the first Wednesday of the month.
The next date is Wednesday 8th January. We hope to see you there.
 

December Newsletters

If you would like a copy of Ben and Jenny Naseman, Sarah Hopkins, StreetLight, Frank and Hennie Gray, Nora Norrish's newsletters, please contact the church office where we would be happy to provide a digital or paper copy.

Mince Pie's for Carol Services 

Dear Church Family, please can we ask for donations of small Mince Pies to be brought into the church on the morning of Sunday 22nd December. These Mince Pies will be placed out alongside tea and coffee refreshments at the two evening candlelight carol services on the 22nd and 23rd of December. Thank you for your support!

Church family Christmas greetings 

Sign up! The St John’s Big Christmas Card is available again this year at the back of the church for us to send Christmas wishes within the church family as an alternative to cards. 

Messy Christmas families event - This Sunday

Messy Christmas is this Sunday 22nd December 2.30-4.00pm. Please book via Hubb if you would like to come along to what is promising to be a fantastic family event! Please speak to Kev or Jeremy for more details.


 

Happy greener Christmas!

Would you like to take good care of God’s creation as you enjoy celebrating Christmas? St John’s Creation Care Team have put together some helpful top tips, and you can find them here.  

 

Beth Moore Course

An 8 session Beth Moore Bible Study James: Mercy Triumphs begins on 20th January at 7.30pm in the Youth Lounge. James, Jesus' brother, wrote a book with many topics - social justice, joy, hardship, faith, reversal of fortunes for rich and poor, wisdom, gifts from above, single-mindedness, the dangers of the tongue, humility, and prayer. It is a wonderful study, which some of us have studied before. We meet once a fortnight on alternate weeks to the Home Growth Groups. Cost £13 to cover the study book. Please contact Doreen Vowles if you are able to join us. 01202 884532 or 077 905 22093 and if you'd like me to order a Members study book for you. 

 

Wimborne Food Bank

The following items are in great need, thank you.



 

Postage Stamp Collection 

There will be a container at the back of the church for used stamps, these are being collected for M2C which helps people with secondary (metastatic)  breast cancer live  longer and better lives, and gives hope through clinical trial education, sharing knowledge, providing support and funding research.
Simply cut the postage stamp from the used envelope, being careful that you don’t damage the stamp.

 

Pigeonholes at the back of church 

A polite reminder to please check your pigeonholes at the back of the church, as these are starting to become quite full. Thank you. 

Request For Small Freezer 

Leah Wiltshire writes to say.. I'm wondering if anyone has a spare small freezer they either no longer need or are selling reasonably cheap? I'm in the process of signing up to donate breastmilk for the milk bank to use for NICU babies in hospital and unfortunately I don't have enough space in my personal freezer to store it. Thank you for your help.

@btinternet.com emails - update: 22 December

We believe the issue is resolved. Please let us know if you find different! Hubb have issued the following message: 

Update on issue with BT email addresses
As many of you are aware there has been an issue sending emails via the website to BT email addresses.
We've been monitoring the situation closely, and although we've been unable to get official confirmation from BT, the issue does appear to be resolved. We have reset all BT email addresses that were previously marked as 'bad' because of the number of rejections, so you should see that there are no longer any warning signs when viewing a user record that has a BT address.
Please do keep us informed if you see any further instances of this going forward.

Pastoral Care 

Our pastoral care team offer company and support to anyone in the church family who needs it. If you, or anyone you know, would like either to join the pastoral care team (via a safer recruitment process) or need support, please contact Gillian Mannouch on 01202 847911 or 07794 586608 or gillian@stjohnswimborne.org.uk.

GA Partner Sarah Hopkins marries Gavin Coleman!

Sarah and Gavin are getting married on Friday 21st December at 10am (GMT, 12 noon in South Africa). On behalf of the church, and at her link person Jayne Sharman’s suggestion, the Global Action Team is giving them a gift of a set of saucepans. If you would like to join us in watching the service, it will be available live on YouTube and you will be able to access it here. Please also pray for God’s blessing on Sarah & Gavin on their wedding day and in their future life together.

Help using the website

We can help you sign up as a member and get the very best out of the new website - please just contact the church office to arrange for someone to provide support, we would be only too happy to help!

Click here to find out more about how use the website. There are links for how to register, how to access the Members only area and how to use the rotas. If you need more help, just get in touch with the church office.

Register to access the Member Only Areas (My Area)

My Area below with a lock on members-only areas

You can register as a member and also download the app. All rotas now appear on to the site in the Members Only Area so you can easily keep up to date and organise swaps.
In the same area you can access the membership address book (not viewable to the public) and view the Church calendar. 

Please visit our Contact Us page to give any feedback.