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© Copyright Harleston Grapevine 2008
Down at DC3…
… our youth asked if they could run an entire meeting themselves – and we handed over without hesitation. They did a fantastic job! They welcomed people, served the coffee, helped with the PA, organised the worship, chose the Bible verses and guided us to the take-home message. It was one of the most creative meetings we have ever had. Pretty much everything was a first for us. We discovered new and outrageous things about each other by playing ‘Human Bingo’, made a worship wall (a 15ft long piece of paper, on which everyone from aged 2 to 82 could write and/or draw their praise to God), and had mixed-age discussion groups over brunch. We hope to give a regular slot to these ‘youth-take-overs’, so if you come along one Sunday (10.45am at the High School) you might be stretched and challenged by our under-16s.
Also, in the last Grapevine we touched on how Christmas can be a difficult time. Well, New Year can also be a let-down! We get our hopes up for a fresh start, only to find that the same old problems come back to bite us. And when our best intentions are dismally short lived it can be tempting to make excuses, lower our expectations, or give up completely. But as our youth reminded us so well, God can bring about real, radical, deep-seated change in us. He offers us a new beginning with him with every breath that we take, no matter how many ‘new beginnings’ we have already clocked up. Our flaws and the fall-out from our mistakes still need to be sorted out, but each time we turn back to God he helps our lives to come right. So everyone in DC3 Harleston wishes you all the best for 2009; may you have a Happy New Year every day!