Page 34 - link magazine

34 The Link Magazine • March 2006

ASSiJRrt^ A day in the life.., in ministering to the community
Rev Mike Haslam is the new Church of England minister responsible for North Swindon, covering the St
Plumbing ti Heating
Francis Worship Centre in Taw Hill, the Church of Blunsdon St Andrew and works closely with the Church
of Christ the Servant, Abbey Meads. By way of an introduction he describes a day in his busy schedule.
A local reliable 'Q iphe
& friendly service Yesterday finished at 1.30am, try- together, I buy the children some Bath, stories, prayers and bed
viuMeEe ing to sort service rotas, marriage chocolates and my wife some flow- for the children and then at 7.30pm
24 YEARS EXPERIENCE preparation material, conference ers to make up. I'm out again for another Baptism
Installation & Servicing NC & LPG 3 planning and I can't remember At 9.15am I enter the maze of visit, one of forty to be done each
Boiler & System Upgrades 3 what else. It was another late Priory Vale and visit a couple to year. It's an amazing opportunity
Breakdown & Maintenance 3 night and recently there have been talk about their wedding. We have to meet people, share faith and
Bathrooms, Showers & Wt Rooms 3
Power Flushing / Descaling 3 too many. around twenty weddings a year at welcome them into the commu-
DIY Assisted Projects 3 Today starts grumpily at Gam St Andrews and I love doing them. nity of the church.
when I tell the children to stop One of the great things about the
For ALL your plumbing, heating &
gas requirements call Assured on making so much noise. It contin- service is that it's the couple who
ues in the same vein, through marry each other; all I'm there to
01793 700 820 breakfast and the school run / walk. do is help two very nervous peo-
assured-plumbing.co.uk It's so bad that, once I get my act ple say the right words.
I manage to fit in a brief first visit
to Bridlewood School to fix up a
time to return. Then I drop off a
0Zire certificate and gift for a baby boy I
baptised the day before. I still find
it bizarre driving around Priory
bathrooms Vale: you pass Victorian town
houses, Georgian terraces Regency
avenues all in three minutes.
kitchens
St Andrew's Ridge is another
Complete installation maze but I find my way to another
Very competitive prices wedding visit. And then I take an The rest of the evening is taken
hour out and go to the gym at the up with preparing for the meeting
Insurance quotes
district centre where I bump into of our Church Council the next
Free estimates
two of the people I've already vis- day. I want to share some of my
All work guaranteed
ited in the morning. vision for North Swindon, stuff
The Year 3 children at St Francis around creating community, shar-
01793 824518
School have written themselves in- ing faith and allowing our lives to
07771 998924 vitations to the Baptism of Rosie be transformed by the love of God.
email: [email protected] (the name they have given to one I certainly don't have all the an-
of my daughter's dolls). They come swers about how we actually do
up to St Andrews and it's good to all of that. But it starts with being a
show them round the church and welcoming church, which we cer-
to 'baptise' the doll (without get- tainly are, and with the call to pray,
ting too wet). to listen, to laugh and to allow God
Back home, running late, to pick to bless us.
up the children from school. It's • Revd Mike is never too busy to
then a familiar balancing act of hear from you and can be con-
spending time with them, trying tacted on 07817 703929 or mail:
to work and cooking tea. [email protected]

Discover the elements of faith

Rev David Earnshaw, minister at Freshbrook Evangelical Church in-
vites you to explore the ins and outs of being a Christian.
The BBC once had a competition 3 Who is Jesus Christ?
for a mini-story consisting of no 4 Why all this emphasis on
more than fifty words. One of the the cross?
highly-commended entries went 5 What does it mean to believe?
as follows: A few weeks' ago Channel4 gave
"Nice to have you hack, Son "- "Nice to be two programmes to Prof. Richard
back, Father"- "Sorry they gave you such Dawkins to declare his beliefs (or
a hard time, Son" - "You told inc what it lack of them). His much-publicised
would he like. You said it would be tough. conclusion was that those who
The strange thing is, when it came to the believe in God have a view that is
crunch, it wasn't the nails, but the kiss." 'intellectually pathetic, puny and
For five Wednesday evenings in measly.'
March, we at Freshbrook Evan- What he didn't tell you is that
gelical Church will be looking at around half of the world's scien-
the very core of the Christian faith, tists believe in God! - who dares
and what it is that the Bible defines call them 'intellectually pathetic?'
y
as Christianity. Wh not come along and find
We won't be able to reduce it to out what the Bible has to say about
fifty words, but during the five itself rather than embrace second-
weeks we will look at: hand ideas by those who haven't
1 The Biblical view of God. thought seriously about what it
2 What the Bible has to say means to be a Christian?
about mankind. See right for course details.