{"id":1972,"date":"2018-09-18T11:18:10","date_gmt":"2018-09-18T10:18:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.clincarthill.org.uk\/?p=1972"},"modified":"2019-10-02T15:31:47","modified_gmt":"2019-10-02T14:31:47","slug":"ministers-letter-september-2018","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.clincarthill.org.uk\/index.php\/ministers-letter-september-2018\/","title":{"rendered":"Minister&#8217;s Letter &#8211; September 2018"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><em><strong><sup>20<\/sup><\/strong>Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, <strong><sup>21<\/sup><\/strong>to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, <\/em>for ever<em> and ever! Amen. (Ephesians 3: 20-21 NIVUK)<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">It was the week before this years Holiday Club, and I asked how many children had registered. I was told 3, with the assurance that, \u201cthat\u2019s 2 more than we had this time last year\u201d.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">I\u00a0confess that I began to feel increasingly anxious about the attendance at the Holiday Club, fearing that it would end up feeling like a bit of a flop. I, therefore, began to pray, \u201cGod, if we could just get 30 children, like we had last year, that would be fine\u201d.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Wonderfully, by the end of the Holiday Club week, I believe we welcomed around 70 children in total, with the highest attendance going to 48 on the Wednesday. I was in awe \u2013 not only had God answered my prayer, He had done so beyond what I had asked, or even what I imagined might be possible.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">What can we learn from this?<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The first, I think, is that prayer works! I have been wondering why we had such a successful and well attended Holiday Club. We didn\u2019t really do anything differently this year: we planned the same, advertised the same, held the Holiday Club on the same week.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">So, what made the difference this year? I believe it is because we had a much greater and concerted effort of prayer before the Holiday Club. This, for me, is a very powerful example of the fact that prayer works, and God answers prayer!<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The second thing is that, not only does God answer prayer, but He does so beyond out imagination or expectations. If you\u2019d told me that we would engage with 70+ children in the same breath as telling me we only had 3 registered, I would not have believed you. I would have thought it impossible. Yet, God confounded my expectations, and did a much greater thing than I could imagine.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">I believe God is trying to show us what He can do when we turn to Him and earnestly pray for the ministry of our congregation. He can help us achieve things beyond our imagining!<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">I hope this example can act as an encouragement to us, to marshal our prayers and seek God\u2019s hand in the ministry of our church. If we do, we cannot begin to imagine what God will achieve, for it will be immeasurably more; not so that we can glorify in ourselves, but so that He will receive all the glory throughout all generations, forever and ever!<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">May God bless you,<br \/>\nStuart<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>20Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, 21to him be glory&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[288],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1972","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ministers-letters"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8z2vw-vO","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2930,"url":"https:\/\/www.clincarthill.org.uk\/index.php\/july-2020-informer\/","url_meta":{"origin":1972,"position":0},"title":"July 2020 Informer","author":"Stuart Love","date":"25 July 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"The July 2020 edition of our Church magazine, the Informer, can be accessed by clicking here.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Minister's Letters&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Minister's Letters","link":"https:\/\/www.clincarthill.org.uk\/index.php\/category\/ministers-letters\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.clincarthill.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/Informer-Summer-2020-1-e1591694242668.jpg?fit=874%2C226&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.clincarthill.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/Informer-Summer-2020-1-e1591694242668.jpg?fit=874%2C226&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.clincarthill.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/Informer-Summer-2020-1-e1591694242668.jpg?fit=874%2C226&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, 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Letters","link":"https:\/\/www.clincarthill.org.uk\/index.php\/category\/ministers-letters\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.clincarthill.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/Informer-Summer-2020-1-e1591694242668.jpg?fit=874%2C226&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.clincarthill.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/Informer-Summer-2020-1-e1591694242668.jpg?fit=874%2C226&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.clincarthill.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/Informer-Summer-2020-1-e1591694242668.jpg?fit=874%2C226&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.clincarthill.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/Informer-Summer-2020-1-e1591694242668.jpg?fit=874%2C226&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":2771,"url":"https:\/\/www.clincarthill.org.uk\/index.php\/may-2020-informer\/","url_meta":{"origin":1972,"position":2},"title":"May 2020 Informer","author":"Stuart Love","date":"1 May 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"The May 2020 edition of our Church magazine, the Informer, can be accessed by clicking here.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Minister's Letters&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Minister's Letters","link":"https:\/\/www.clincarthill.org.uk\/index.php\/category\/ministers-letters\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.clincarthill.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/letter_wide-114373157624ef432f57452b56c2eb19289fd314.jpg?fit=1200%2C674&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.clincarthill.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/letter_wide-114373157624ef432f57452b56c2eb19289fd314.jpg?fit=1200%2C674&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.clincarthill.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/letter_wide-114373157624ef432f57452b56c2eb19289fd314.jpg?fit=1200%2C674&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, 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Letters","link":"https:\/\/www.clincarthill.org.uk\/index.php\/category\/ministers-letters\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.clincarthill.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/Informer-Summer-2020-1-e1591694242668.jpg?fit=874%2C226&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.clincarthill.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/Informer-Summer-2020-1-e1591694242668.jpg?fit=874%2C226&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.clincarthill.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/Informer-Summer-2020-1-e1591694242668.jpg?fit=874%2C226&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.clincarthill.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/Informer-Summer-2020-1-e1591694242668.jpg?fit=874%2C226&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":3717,"url":"https:\/\/www.clincarthill.org.uk\/index.php\/reading-the-book-of-isaiah\/","url_meta":{"origin":1972,"position":5},"title":"Reading the book of Isaiah","author":"admin","date":"3 October 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"We would encourage you to join in with us reading a chapter the book of Isaiah every every day through to advent. This will tie in with the Minister's programmed study of Isaiah during the Sunday morning services over this period. The reading plan is attached here.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;News&quot;","block_context":{"text":"News","link":"https:\/\/www.clincarthill.org.uk\/index.php\/category\/news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.clincarthill.org.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1972","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.clincarthill.org.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.clincarthill.org.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.clincarthill.org.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.clincarthill.org.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1972"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.clincarthill.org.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1972\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1973,"href":"https:\/\/www.clincarthill.org.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1972\/revisions\/1973"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.clincarthill.org.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1972"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.clincarthill.org.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1972"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.clincarthill.org.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1972"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}