We organised the ‘Light Night’ as a safe alternative for children and their parents in which they could enjoy playing games and other activities rather than indulging in ‘trick or treat’ around the houses.
The main hall was decorated with strings of fairy lights hung across the room which provided atmospheric lighting for the evening.
The seventeen children and associated parents and helpers began the evening by playing games which were loosely organised by Phil and kicked off with Newspaper Hockey which was followed up by Chinese Laundry and Musical Chairs.
Alan then told the story of Gideon’s defeat of the Mideonites, taken from Judges 7, highlighting light and darkness.
Afterwards, the children went through into the back room where Lesley organised the making and colouring of paper torches before the evening finished with light refreshments organised by Hayley and Kerry.
Some of the kids and helpers enjoying refreshmentsView from the other end of the table
We had around 45 people at today’s Family Service, which was chaired by Phil Bray.
The theme for this month was Celebrating: The Year of Jubilee and began with the singing of I will sing the wondrous story and prayer.
We also enjoyed a Royal Family themed matching pairs Jubilee Quiz and more singing before John Davies came up to speak, picking out the theme of Jubilees from the Bible.
Our next Family Service is on 17th June and will be followed by a BBQ.
Tonight we held our Annual Meal for those who come along to Parkside and we had around 40 people along to enjoy an evening of food and fun.
As usual, different people had signed up to provide a variety of Starters, Main Courses and Desserts and we had a good range of food on offer.
With only a handful of people unable to make it, we took the opportunity to take a group photo of those there and Phil Bray balanced somewhat precariously on the window sill in order to get the image below.
Once the photo had been taken, it was time to get on with the food!
A good selection of desserts was on offer.
After the food had been consumed, as is traditional, the men took charge of the washing and drying up.
After the meal, Paul had organised a small group to sing a comical variation on the song My Favourite Things, centred around old age.
We also did some more singing, before Ben took to the stage to play a couple of tracks on his Dad’s guitar.
Overall it was a great evening and a good chance to spend some time together informally.
This morning a group of us met up for prayer before we headed off to the High Street to hand out invitations for our Carols by Candlelight, held today at 5pm. We had a good time in the town and handed out well over 500 invite cards in less than half an hour.
Invitation for this year's Carols by Candlelight
Afterwards we regrouped and shared a coffee in Costa Coffee before heading home.
This is the first time that we have held a carol service on Christmas Eve and we were delighted with the response. Earlier in the week a group of us had gone carol singing, also for the first time, around the local roads and had handed out mince pies and sweets. This had also been very positive and well received.
Great night carol singing by candlelight. Mince pies, sweets & invites to our Christmas Eve carol service well received.
Some 80 people gathered with us this evening for our Carols by Candlelight service to enjoy a tradition mixture of the Christmas favourites and listen to something about the real meaning of Christmas.
A few of the crowd at today's Carols by Candlelight service
The service was led by Alan Michael and began with the singing of Hark the herald angels sing, followed by prayer and a welcome to all.
The second carol was Silent Night, which was followed by a reading from Jeremy, based around the first subject in our ‘Step into Christmas’ series – Christmas: The Plan.
Some of the younger children from Sunday Club came up to sing Away in a manger. This was followed by our second reading, read by Phil Bray and set around verses to highlight Christmas: The Person.
Our fourth carol was Once in royal David’s city. After the carol, poems that the children had written about Christmas were displayed on the screen in the form of video clips showing them being read by their authors.
This was followed by our final readings which highlighted Christmas: The Purpose and were read by David Angell.
Our fifth carol was O little town of Bethlehem. After this, David Hedges came up to speak. He highlighted God’s present at Christmas – the sending of the Lord Jesus Christ into the world – and how easy it was to lose sight of this in among the distractions of Christmas.
Our final carol was O come all ye faithful which was followed by prayer.
Alan and David handed out presents for those who attend Sunday Club and explained that there was something for everyone to take away with the refreshments offered after the carol service.
Among other giveaways was a Parkside fridge magnet for 2012, which also proved somewhat popular.
2012 fridge magnet calendar
Overall, it was a tremendous evening and really encouraging for us all to see the hall full. It’s definitely something that we’ll look to repeat next year.
Following the cancellation of last year’s Young People’s Carol Service due to the snow, it was good to meet up with others once again.
We had around 60 people in for this years carol service which was hosted by Phil Bray and Brian Sparks and was dubbed #YPCarols on Twitter. We were also pleased to welcome Iain Bailey as our speaker for the evening.
Below are some tweets from the night:
Just 5.5 hours to go until tonight's #YPCarols! We'll try and live tweet tonight as well! See you there.
Parkside Christian Fellowship 