Advent 2022

Bike theft (along with the secure bolts attaching it to the church outside wall), health concerns (mostly dealt with) and a second bout of covid, a disastrous wild camping trip (but in beautiful Highlands with good company), broken things, climate change inaction and war, poverty, observing hostility towards refugees, too much to do and not enough time to do it.

Visits with family and friends, Easter holiday by train to Barcelona, camping in Dorset, new friends and experiences for Jamie, good NHS treatment, plenty to do and enough to live on, mended things, collaborative advocacy for neurodiverse psychologists, Jamie inspiring people to take climate action (see below), church and community support for refugees, helping Debbie's sister Heather move into her first flat - on the first floor, where one day she received a leaflet offering to install a conservatory!

It goes without saying that we're very proud of Jamie. If you want to know more about why and what he's been up to, you can read about him here, here or here (but please bear journalistic licence in mind and don't hold him to all vows reported), see him here at 18:35 and 39:55 (bottom left), or listen to him here.

If you are bored and want to know more of our news (and don't mind repetition or befuddlement), click here.

We've been inspired this messge from the Methodist Church this year.

"Perhaps you have sometimes felt on the edges...are not religious...are struggling with the cost of living or see people close to you struggle and wish things were different...are young and sometimes feel patronised...are older and sometimes feel ignored.

The Bethlehem stable has room for all people, including you...God wants all of us to take our place and receive love, wholeness and peace."

For more, see this video.

If you would like to join us in supporting refugees and asylum seekers (who we expect to see more of as the climate becomes more unsettled in coming years), two excllent charities we can recommend are Upbeat Communities (working locally to Derby) and Welcome Churches (working throughout the UK).