Prayer

The Welcome Kids Weekend Away

This weekend (28th – 30th April) is the Welcome Kids Weekend Away . This year they will be at Walton Firs Activity Centre in Cobham. This is the first time we’re using this new venue and we’re hoping for a fantastic weekend of fun, games, activities, worship and teaching. The theme of the weekend is “Get to know God”.

60 children from school years 3 to 6 will be attending, along with 25 leaders. Here are some things to please pray for:

Pray for good weather because lots of outside events are planned

Pray that the children stay safe and have a good time

Pray that they meet with God and that their faith in him grows

Pray for the leaders who are giving up their weekend to serve this event

Pray that everyone gets some sleep

Don’t forget: Welcome Kids will still be running on Sunday morning to serve all the children who are not at the weekend away

The Alpha Course

Our next Alpha Course starts on Wednesday 10th May. Each week Alpha creates a brilliant opportunity for people to explore the key questions of faith over a nice meal. Obviously we love it when people invite friends to Alpha, and you are welcome to attend yourself too – just let us know.

Please pray:

For people in your life who you would love a chance to invite to Alpha

For lots of people to accept invitations

For people to meet with God and grow in their faith

For the course leaders and table hosts

For all the practical details, including the meals

If you want more details about this Alpha Course or want to sign up please click here

Some other prayer requests

Our main prayer requests are around Alpha and the Welcome Kids Weekend Away, but if you have time to pray for more then the please consider the following:

Compassion UK are with us this Sunday (30th April). Please pray that lots of children are sponsored and set free from poverty

Our ‘Freedom In Christ’ course starts on Thursday 11th May. It’s not too late to sign up for this. Please pray for people to encounter Jesus and find new joy and freedom in their relationship with God

Mike Deavin and myself are meeting with the architect of our building later this week to talk about future possibilities that could give us more space. Please pray for wisdom as we meet

There’s always a lot going on at Welcome Church, and we wanted to bring a few things to your attention for prayer. We believe God calls us to pray, that He hears us when we pray and that He answers our prayers … so please pray, and if you feel stirred with anything prophetic, please share it with us.

On The Radio Again

I’ll be doing the ’60 second sermon’ on BBC Radio Surrey and Sussex on Sunday morning again, at around 7.45am. If you’re up and awake, do feel free to tune in, and please pray that I can make a positive difference with this short but valued opportunity to speak about Jesus so openly.

New People

It was a real joy to be at our Newcomers Lunch on Sunday. We hold one of these each term and I continue to be amazed by how many people are there each time. In addition to our excellent table hosts and kitchen team (a big thank you to you all!) we had over 60 adult guests again this time (plus a number of their children) who came along to find out more about us and how to connect. Please pray that these new people will connect well to Welcome Church and quickly become part of the family.

We’ll be running our next Belong Believe Become course, starting on April 19th. This is mainly aimed at people who are new to us, so please also pray that many will come to the course and choose to make Welcome Church their church, and that they will go on to grow in their walk with Jesus.

New Babies

This Sunday is Mother’s Day and during our meeting we’ll be giving thanks for some of the new babies that have been born to people in our church over the last year or so. This can be a great occasion for guests to join us so please pray that guests will encounter Jesus whilst they are with us. Parenting small children can be very hard work too, so please also pray for the families with their new babies.

Buildings

Following our growth since Covid, Mike Deavin (our chair of Trustees) and myself met this week with the architect from our building project to ask the question: “What can we do to create more space for people on this site on a Sunday?” especially with regards to children’s work.

For reasons of space Welcome Kids Seniors and Welcome Youth now meet over the road in “The Cube” (above Useful Wood) on a Sunday morning. This is okay for now, but that site is earmarked for redevelopment in the next couple of years.

Please pray that we get clear answers from the architect about what is realistically possible and that we would have wisdom to know what we should actually do (if anything). It may be that in time we will be looking to go again with fundraising for buildings, but we’ll let you know in good time if that’s going to happen, or maybe God has a totally different solution for us.

Leadership and Vision

I’ll be in Peterborough with some of our team for a couple of days next week at an event called ‘Growing To The Next Level’. We’ve been engaging with this ‘Learning Community’ for a while now and it’s helped to shape and to focus some of what we do as a church. This time the focus is on “Missional Expansion”.

At this event we receive input from a range of speakers and leadership coaches from around the world, this time including Darlene Zschech from Hillsong Australia, and Josh Howard who comes from India and launched a movement that’s started over 16,000 churches in the last 8 years, along with many others.

Please pray that this time is useful and shaping for us as a team and as a church

Pastoral News

Barney Green and Adora Hutchins-Daff get married this Saturday. Please pray that they have a wonderful day and a great start to married life.

Please also pray for Richard, Vanessa and Arielle after the sad loss of 9 year old Callum last Saturday.

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