| Services
and Events During November and early December 2008 |
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| You are very welcome to join us for any of these events | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Wigmore's
Supported Charity for 2008-2009 |
| For
the 12 months starting October 2008 our main supported charity will be
a local one: The Luton & Dunstable Hospital's Neonatal Intensive
Care Unit (NICU)
Appeal. One in ten babies needs specialist care when they are born. Each year the NICU treats over 600 premature and critically ill babies. The existing unit was built for 20 cots, but an increase in the birth rate and advances in neonatal care have increased the demand for cots and the unit now has 29 cots in the same space. Despite this increase, the team still has to still has to turn away about 20 requests for a cot each month as the Unit is completely full. As an interim solution, the hospital has built temporary accommodation alongside the existing NICU to house an extra six cots. The L & D is one of only three hospitals in the East of England which can offer the highest level of NHS care to the sickest and most vulnerable newborns. A new NICU is planned, to house a further 17 cots. Building work is scheduled to start in early Summer 2009, and be completed by Autumn 2010. It will include some essential overnight accommodation for parents where they can be supported in preparing to care for their baby before they go home. NHS funding will cover costs of the building, standard equipment and staffing, but the hospital wants to raise £1.5 million for specialist equipment. The full cost of kitting out just one intensive care cot is £100,000 - but once the new cots are running (bringing the total to 37 cots), the hospital will be able to support significantly more babies every year. |
| Getting
To Know Each Other |
| We have recently started to participate
in a series of short events in and between the various churches in the
East Luton Area. The idea is that Christians from different
denominations should meet together in each of the churches in the area,
to get to know each other better and learn more about the different
traditions, worship patterns and emphases that we share as
Christians - but which sometimes separate us. Meetings have already taken place at Sacred Heart RC Church and our own Wigmore URC/Methodist Church, and there is a further meeting arranged at St Francis Anglican Church on 12th November. Meetings at the remaining churches in the area will continue during 2009. |
| Getting
To Know Ourselves |
| As
well as learning about our fellow Christians in other local churches we
are also trying to get a deeper understanding of the people we share in worship
with at Wigmore Church. So during the Autumn and Winter months we are
holding a series of fellowship meetings in different houses, with
varying themes and formats. The first meeting was in October, hosted by Ian and Valerie Alderman, when we discovered the wide range of different musical tastes the people in our church have. A further meeting will be held on 20th November - in Bob and Wendy Squires' home - when the subject will be Religious Education and whether Faith Schools are a good or bad idea. You are welcome to come and join in the discussion - or simply relax and listen. Further meetings will be arranged in the early months of 2009. |
| A
word in your ear ... |
| The
Methodist church has recently launched an online daily Bible study
called A Word in Time.
It is available
from their web site here.
Each day's study follows the readings in the Methodist Prayer
Handbook and includes a Bible reading,
some
background and explanation of the text together with some reflections
and questions to ponder and reflect on. Each audio file is available in two formats: a high quality version for those with a broadband internet connection and a lower quality for those using a dial-up connection. Either file format can easily be downloaded onto your computer or MP3 player so that you can catch up with your daily Bible study at a time that's most convenient for you. These Bible studies are ideal for sharing with anyone who might not have access to the daily Bible notes or does have access to the internet. Try it here ... |
| Our
Guides Have A New Web Site |
| The
5th Stopsley
Guides - who meet at Wigmore Church on Thursday evenings - have a new
web site. You can visit it here,
or follow the link
on our Activities
...
Thursday page. |
| WaterAid |
| WaterAid was our
main supported charity from October 2007 to September 2008. During this
period we raised approximately £980 towards their work. In our all-age worship service on 4th November 2007 Aileen Stewart gave us some facts about water - which you may like to be reminded about: We often use water without much thought - because for us it's normally there on tap! For some people in other parts of the world, however, water is a precious commodity - it's in short supply and often takes much time and effort to obtain. Here are some facts from Aileen to set us thinking about the way we each use water, about how scarce it is for many people, and how the money we will raise in the coming 12 months can be used to help other people through WaterAid.
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| Wavelength Extra |
|
The
7th edition of Wavelength
Extra (Easter 2008) was distributed in March to
homes
in
the
community around the church, to inform
readers about our church community, our faith,
organisation and services.
You can read a copy of it online here
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| The PDF files requires a reader
for
documents in PDF (Portable Document Format) to be installed
on
your computer. You can download and install a copy of the free Adobe
Acrobat
PDF Reader from www.adobe.com (It is available for a number
of different platforms including MS Windows, Apple Macintosh
and Linux based systems.)
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| Welcome Leaflet |
|
We
have recently revised and reprinted our Welcome Leaflet,
which provides
information about Wigmore
Church and
Community Centre for people who are new to the Church or
the
area. Copies are available in the foyer of the church building, but you
can also read a copy of it online here.
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| Our Jigsaw Puzzles! | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Here's another one for you to try - with an summer seasonal flavour ! When you've completed it please let me know your time. You can download it from here and run it on your computer (it will only work on a Windows-based PC, not an Apple Mac) It's virus-free, but you should always check any file you download - using the anti-virus program on your computer (You DO run anti-virus software on your system, don't you! - and update it frequently!!) Just download and run the executable file and the puzzle will appear ready for you to solve Download the latest jigsaw puzzle here (File size: 575kB. Click on this link and save the file on your computer, then run it) Please let me know how long it takes you to solve it. Here's a list of our earlier jigsaws to download if you missed them:
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