Issue 16 September-October 2011 Issue 26 May—June 2013

Cricket, crafts and Christ!

Sue Stafford tells us about a team visit

to see Child Action Lanka; St John’s

newest mission partner.

I n January this year five of us, past or present members

of St John‘s, set off together for Kandy, Sri Lanka,

home of Child Action Lanka. We managed to arrive

there within hours of Jeff and Sheila Wattley who had

flown out a few days earlier at the start of their sabbatical.

It felt exciting to be making a team visit and we had a sense

of God leading us to go but, as before, not a definite plan of

how our time or skills might be used there!

It was a joy to meet up again with the children and families

who come to the centres as well as Debbie, Dilshan and the staff team. We joined with

the church family at Dilshan‘s church on the Sunday morning and Jeff started

his first Sunday away from St John‘s by sharing God‘s word with people

through a translator and presenting them with a gift of a picture from the

church family at St John‘s as a symbol of our new partnership.

Over the days and weeks of our visit we became involved in a number of

ways...help with finance and computer systems (clearly not me!), health care

screening and advice, work with individual or groups of children and advice to

staff on how to best help those with special needs, staff training on under-

standing and managing behaviour and support and counselling of some of the

children and staff. One specific goal that was achieved was every child being

photographed and given the picture to keep...most of the children have never

owned a photograph of themselves. Additionally many of the older ones en-

joyed making a frame

for their photo! (thanks

to Sheila Wattley and

Linda Emmett for un-

dertaking this daunting challenge!)

As well as time spent in Kandy four of us travelled to the CAL project in Nu-

wara Eliya, the tea plantation area, to offer similar support. Richard Emmett

accompanied Dilshan on a road trip up to Kilinochia in the north and took the

several laptops that had been generously donated, as well as offering valuable

agricultural advice on how the land there might be developed to allow them to

be self supporting. Richard was very popular with his cricket team in Kili when

he managed to bowl out a youngster on the first ball!

After others returned to the UK there was opportunity for me to visit CAL‘s

new project on the east coast near Batticoloa. This work started in September

(Continued on page 3)

Editor’s Bit

transform May—June 13 Page 2

about

The magazine for members of St John‘s

Church in Egham. It is produced bi-monthly,

with the aim of helping to connect and build

our church family. Its purpose is to provide

information and encouragement on church life

and our family – specifically to show how God

is transforming situations and people.

It‘s not designed for people who don‘t yet

come to St John‘s. But, if when you‘ve

finished reading your copy, you‘d like to pass

it on to a friend or neighbour, then that would

be great too!

Editorial

We welcome items for inclusion or ideas for

stories. Ideally these should be submitted in

an MS Word document, hi - res JPGs or

other elect ronic f o r m , a n d s e n t b y

e m a i l t o transform@stjohnsegham.com

The team

transform is edited by Alison Berry and

Laura Evans-Jones, with the support of a

wider team. New skills are always welcome!

Advertising

We accept adverts each issue both from

within the church family, and a small number

of external advertisements. Acceptance of

any advertising is at the discretion of the

editing team, and the acceptance of an

advertisement in transform magazine is not

necessarily an endorsement by the editorial

team of the service or product offered.

Deadlines The deadline for submissions to be

considered for the next edition of transform

(July/August 2013) is 12th June.

I had the

real honour

of meeting

Her Majesty

the Queen on

6 April, when she and His Royal

Highness, the Duke of Edinburgh

came to my workplace - Mars

Chocolate in Slough. I was with a

small group of fellow employees

and we talked briefly about the his-

tory of chocolate, of the cocoa bean

crop and the process of turning co-

coa beans in chocolate – all in less

than 90 seconds! Although I was

acutely aware of the ―once in a life-

time‖ element of this close encoun-

ter with the Queen (an OBE proba-

bly isn‘t heading my way any time

soon!), compared to some of my

colleagues I was incredibly relaxed

about the event. I had woken up in

the morning thinking ―I‘m going to

meet the Queen today‖….then had

another, almost immediate next

thought of ―but I already know the

King of Kings, and that will always

beat meeting the Queen‖. I defi-

nitely enjoyed my one minute in the

presence of an incredible monarch

(she was impressively attentive and

exuded warmth through her smile),

but I have eternity to spend in the

presence of the King of Kings. The

Queen probably meets many hun-

dreds, if not thousands of people in

a year, and I‘m pretty sure she

won‘t remember our meeting; but

God Almighty, the Lord of Glory –

he‘s known me since before the

world began and calls me ―friend‖.

And the King of Kings that I know is

the one who has the power to trans-

form lives and situations yesterday,

today and forever. I‘m sort of hoping

that He‘ll have created some amaz-

ing chocolate in

heaven to go with that

wine ever-flowing too!

transform Editor, Alison Berry

A Royal Appointment

“On his robe that covers his thigh he has a name

written: KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS”

Revelation 19:16

By Royal Appointment : Her Majesty the Queen meeting some of the Mars team

transform May—June 13

Focus on New Ministries

Page 3

C hristians Against Poverty is a national debt counselling char-

ity working through a network of centres based in local

churches. CAP offers hope and a solution to anyone in debt

through its unique, in-depth service.

CAP aims to show God‘s love in action by providing sustainable pov-

erty relief through debt counselling, advice and practical help. CAP‘s

unique ‗hands on‘ approach empowers people to help themselves out

of poverty and be released from the fear, oppression and worry gen-

erated by overwhelming debts. The charity operates through a grow-

ing network of UK centres, all opened in partnership with a local

church. CAP began in 1996 when John Kirkby, armed with a £10

donation, started to help people in his local community who were

trapped in debt.

In the Autumn we will be introducing a valuable new ministry at St

John‘s; the CAP Money Course. This course will give people in the

church and the community the tools to get their finances under con-

trol at a time when many are feeling the pinch. Jesus taught so much

about money be-

cause it affects

every area of life

and if it is out of

control, it has the

power to destroy

lives. The CAP

Money Course

empowers people

to give and save

more as well as preventing

the destructive effects of

unmanageable debt.

Six members of St John‘s

have enthusiastically agreed

to become CAP Money

Coaches and run the

Course. They will be

trained by CAP and then will

organise courses to meet

the needs of our community,

with the first course ex-

pected to be run in Septem-

ber. So that we can all un-

derstand the scope and po-

tential of the course, a member of the CAP Staff will be joining us at

St John‘s on a Sunday in September and will talk to us about the

course and how we can all help to make it a success.

For those who realise that they have a debt problem, the Money

Course gives access to CAP‘S Debt Counselling service. Once we

have the CAP Money Course established, we plan to introduce a

Debt Counselling service at St John‘s and this is being actively pro-

gressed at the moment. CAP‘s Debt Counselling service has been

used by God to bring many people to faith and we trust that we will

also have the joy of seeing people not just lifted out of debt, but

brought into a new life in Christ. In all this, it is our intention to work

together with the other churches in the area to ensure that the bene-

fits of these new ministries are made available to as wide a number

of people as possible.

Chris Matthews introduces a

new ministry for St John’s

Money, money, money!

2012 and the charity is reaching out to five rural communities most of whom have no electricity or running water so

depend on shared wells. These people have been affected by both the long war and tsunami and continue to know

poverty. The centres here offer a simple meal which for some children may be their only predictable food , support

with education, a chance to play and the experience of being treated with love and respect. Over 500 children take up

this opportunity and often walk long distances in the heat to get there but come on a rota basis at present as more staff are needed to

cope with the numbers. There are many needs here but CAL has a specific vision to purchase and renovate an old bus and equip it with

computers to teach the children a much sought after skill that may help them out of the poverty trap.

On this trip I was struck by the way the work is growing

and how God is leading CAL to reach more and more chil-

dren. This of course leads to an ongoing need for support.

It has been wonderful to see the response to the Lent Pro-

ject back here in Egham and this sacrificial giving will

make a life changing difference to the children there! A

total of £9303.51 + gift aid was given through our

church Lent Project! The directors of CAL have been

―amazed and speechless‖ by your generosity and when

decisions are made about how the money will be spent I

will pass on the details to you. A very big thank you from

the children and staff of CAL as well as from me!

If anyone would like more information on CAL or has

an interest in visiting or volunteering with them

please do get in touch with Sue Stafford on 01784

451647

(Continued from page 1)

Lent Project Update

A team from St John’s (past and present) on their visit to Child Action Lanka

Family Focus

Page 4 Transform May—June 13

Cathie Mayes

Rose & Kitty Lee

..TAKING THE child in his arms JESUS SAID TO THEM ―WHOEVER

welcomes one of these little children IN MY NAME

welcomes me AND WHOEVER welcomes me DOESN‘T WEL-

COME ME BUT THE one who sent me” MARK 9:36-37

Our testimonies

Rose: I believe in God and in Jesus, who died on the cross to

save us from our sins.

I know that God loves me and listens to me when I pray and I

want to be baptised and follow God for all my life.

Kitty: I believe in God, who is my father and my friend and is

very powerful, loving and kind.

I believe in Jesus, who died on the cross to take away our sins.

I believe in the Holy Spirit, who helps me live a Christian life.

Dear God, please bless me on my baptism day.

I was baptised when I was 17, believing that Jesus came down to earth, died on

the cross and rose again. At least I believed all that in my head but somehow

didn‘t seem to quite believe it deep down inside. At church, I used to see peo-

ple getting so excited, especially when they were singing hymns, and I really didn‘t

understand it but I went along with it, as intellectually I agreed with everything

about Christianity.

A few weeks later, the pastor starting talking about Heaven and Hell and posed the

idea that if you‘re not 100% sure that you‘re going to Heaven, you should ask God,

and if you don‘t get an overwhelming sense of certainty, then ask God to convict

you with the way to get to heaven. I did that, but didn‘t really feel any different.

Every week during the service there was a regular point when the person preach-

ing would say ―Jesus died for me‖, using their own name to make the point that

Jesus would have come and died, even if it was just for that one person, and it

would have been worth it. On one particular day, as that point in the service drew

near, I was thinking ―here we go again‖, but when Dave said it, it was as though

something just clicked, and I started crying, as there was a feeling deep inside,

which I can only explain by saying it was the Holy Spirit convicting me. It was

amazing; I knew then that I understood the elements in the Bible to be true; not just

in my head, but in my heart – and that‘s what‘s made it real for me

Therefore, as the Bible says that we should believe and be baptised, now that I

actually believe, I need to get baptised. Cathie

Family Focus

Page 5

Transform September—October 12

Transform May—June 13

The God that Changes Lives in Egham

Our testimonies

Following their baptisms and renewal of

baptism vows in March, Audrey, Emily,

Cathie, Rose & Kitty share their encourag-

ing stories of their journeys to faith in

Christ….

Rose: I believe in God and in Jesus, who died on the cross to

save us from our sins.

I know that God loves me and listens to me when I pray and I

want to be baptised and follow God for all my life.

Kitty: I believe in God, who is my father and my friend and is

very powerful, loving and kind.

I believe in Jesus, who died on the cross to take away our sins.

I believe in the Holy Spirit, who helps me live a Christian life.

Dear God, please bless me on my baptism day.

I ‘ve always been a Christian but I always felt as though there was

something missing. About a year and a half ago, Jackie

(McGovern) moved in next door to me and began bringing me

back to church again and so to her I owe a big thank you as

before that I couldn‘t get here.

I started praying and asking God to show me the way, as I knew I

hadn‘t quite reached the point I wanted to with my faith, and He

answered my prayer. In the middle of the night, He sent Jesus to me. I saw Jesus as plain as

I can see you today. He was sitting in front of me with his arms outstretched and beckoning

me towards him. I felt myself being drawn forward and when I got to him, he said ―welcome‖ – just the one word,

―welcome‖ – and sat back with a beaming smile on his face. I knew that God had sent him to answer my prayer and

show me the way. When he welcomed me, I felt the most incredible feeling – I felt enveloped in warmth, in love and

in protection, and I knew that from that day on that no-one or nothing could ever hurt me because Jesus was with

me and he would always protect me.

And that is how it‘s been ever since - it‘s changed my life, and made me, I hope, a better person. I see the good, not

the bad in everything now. I used to be very critical and I‘m not now. I haven‘t suddenly become a wonderful person,

but I‘m better than I was! I want to thank the friends I‘ve made here at church, but especially I want to thank my hus-

band who has been very tolerant of my bad temper in the past, and I hope he‘s enjoying my good temper these

days! Audrey

Audrey Silver

W hen I was younger, if you'd have asked me if I was a Chris-

tian, I'd have said ―yes‖. If you'd have asked me if I believed

in God, I'd have said ―yes‖. If you'd asked me if I believed in

Jesus, I would have said ―yes‖. But if you'd have asked me why, or who

Jesus was, I wouldn't have been able to answer you.

At 17 I realised that all I believed in was a name. If I was to believe in

this God I had to get to know Him, to find out why He created me. If

there is a God - I need to learn about Him.

If there isn't a God - I need to stop saying I believe in Him. What's the

point?

So I went to church. I met people who were confident in God. I was chal-

lenged. I asked questions. I read the Bible. I prayed. I found answers. I

went to a Bible study. I kept asking questions. I found more answers. I

understood. I believed. I kept studying the Bible. I kept praying. Jesus

game me answers. Jesus gave me hope. Jesus gave me confidence.

Jesus opened my eyes.

Why do I believe that God is real? Because so much of the time I see

Him working, doing exactly what He said He would do.

Now I choose to follow Jesus, to be His disciple because Jesus created

life, so to live life fully we should listen to His teaching. So I want to be

fully immersed in water because I have repented. It is a sign that how I

lived before, without Jesus, has been washed away.

Emily

Emily Saunders

transform May—June 13 Page 6

Happy 40th Birthday Playbox……..

As Playbox celebrates its

40th Birthday, Sam Harris

talked to parents and staff

involved with Playbox

about this wonderful min-

istry to children and their

families...here are some of

their stories!

M y involvement with Playbox began almost seven

years ago when I was asked to become Chair of

the Management Committee. As part of that role,

I spend one morning a week at Playbox as a volunteer in

the staff team.

It is fascinating to watch each new intake of children being

nurtured and encouraged by the love, care and profession-

alism of the staff as they develop into confident almost five

year olds who are looking forward to their next adventure,

starting school.

Hilary Davies

I h a v e

worked at

Playbox for

5 years and it is

a p l easu re

working with the

children. As

members of

staff we are

privileged to

have the oppor-

tunity to get to

know not only

the children but

their families as

well.

Heidi Blake

Playbox is registered and inspected by OFSTED

and is a member of the Pre-School Learning Alli-

ance. The group is owned and managed by

Egham Parochial Church Council although the

day-to-day running is in the hands of experienced

and qualified staff—the joint supervisors are Sian

Williams & Sarah Merifield.

O ne of our friends and past supervisor at Playbox, Carol

Peters, asked for a short article, well what can we

say......

All of the staff at Playbox were (and still are) friendly and made

us feel so welcome that we didn‘t hesitate for all three of our

children to go to Nursery there. Zoe attended from 2003 to 2005

– she says ―I remember story time in the small side room when

we all sat around in a circle and listened to Carol or Val (James)

telling a story especially as this was when some of us were cho-

sen to be the juice and biscuit monitors. This was my favourite

part of the day.‖ She also liked arriving at Playbox in her Disney

princess outfits. When chosen to be Mary in the Nativity she said

she only would do it if she could be a princess! Luckily one of

the staff coaxed her to take part.

Alex and

Ryan at-

tended from

2005 to

2007. Being

i d e n t i c a l

twins this

caused much

amusement

to many of

the staff at

the time who

had trouble telling them apart and would wait for them to select

their name off the board so they could then try and remember

what each of them was wearing! The boys talked in ‗twin lan-

guage‘ to start with and Alex needed speech therapy but nothing

seemed to faze the staff and the boys had a great time. ―I liked

playing outside the best and the big slide indoors‖ remembers

Alex. ―and I loved it when were allowed to play on the computer‖

adds Ryan.

There are so many happy memories and although our children

are now all at school we are still in contact with many of the staff

past and present. Zoe has recently started secondary school

and has re-established friendships originally made at Playbox.

We still enjoy many of the events : the holiday club and Christ-

mas Craft afternoons being firm favourites. We would like to

congratulate Playbox on 40 years....here‘s to another 40!

Lynne and Mark Adams

.........1973-2013

transform May—June 13 Page 7

Lent for Lanka

I was brought up in an

Atheist family – despite

being baptised when I

was only a few weeks

old! My only experience of

church was at school and

that was all about keeping

quiet and still, and wearing

a dreadful yellow school

hat!

Some 20 years later both

my boys went to Playbox

and Playtime. I felt comfort-

able, welcomed and cared

about at both. But I didn‘t

really think about the Chris-

tian side of it,

When Matthew (aged 5) said that he wanted to be baptised I suggested that he and I should actually go to church to find out what being

baptised was about. I asked the people I knew from Playbox about St John‘s and how one went about ―going to Church‖! This was in De-

cember 2000.

When I walked into St John‘s for the first time it was loud and friendly with lots of familiar faces. Nothing like my childhood experiences.

The Playbox and Playtime leaders seemed to make sure that I didn‘t get left alone in Church or in the centre for coffee. Louisa

(Hodgkinson) found me some children‘s Christian books which explained the structure of the service and what communion was about. I

went to the ladies Alpha course – where Kathy (Owtram) and Alison (Berry) were very patient with my endless questions!

When I got confirmed (Spring 2002) I was a bit concerned when we were each allocated a row for all our ―guests‖ . I knew tha t no-one in

my family was going to attend, so I did feel sad that I didn't have anyone coming for me. I went off to rehearse with the other candidates.

When I returned to my seat the row was full of people from St John‘s – and the row behind them. I felt so embraced by everyone. In ac-

cepting Jesus into my life I had been adopted by a whole new family – a huge family that spoke the same language.

Working at Playbox gives me the opportunity to give to other families the way that Playbox gave support and care to my family. In the

things that they did and said the Playbox staff helped me to step through the doors at St John‘s and feel that I had been welcomed home.

Sian Williams

Chris Matthews explains more about this year’s

Lent Project in support of Child Action Lanka

P laybox has played a wonderful part in our life since Lily started

attending...her teachers are all lovely (they didn't pay us to

say that!) and her confidence and ability has come on leaps

and bounds as a result. Perhaps as important to us is its attachment

to St John‘s, a church at the heart of the community that we feel a

welcome part of. Lily will miss Playbox and the staff very much when

she makes the jump to primary school in September but we look for-

ward to our youngest, Harry starting in January. He is ready...I just

wonder if they are…

Adam, Debi, Lily & Harry Rush

Saturday 11th May 11th 2.30—4.30pm

in the Church Centre, Games, cakes &

activities for kids . Everyone welcome!

So many people contributed to this article that there will be more stories in the next issue of transform!

“ Children are happy, confident and making

good progress overall in their learning.

Excellent partnerships with parents and

carers help ensure that the individual

needs of all children are met.

Ofsted Report April 2012

O ur aim is to build a community of young people who will

become fully devoted to Christ.

To help us we are aiming to provide a number of differ-

ent opportunities depending on where the young people are on

their spiritual journey. For those already attending church and

are interested in spiritual matters we have two groups.

Outbreak (11-16s) meet in the Caddey during 2nd Service [term

time] and Core (14-18s) meet at Tim Sudworth‘s home on Sun-

day afternoons 3.00pm to 4.30pm [term time]

Both groups attend a

monthly Saturday eve-

ning Soul Survivor cele-

bration in Watford.

Since the beginning of

2013 we have focused

on providing more social

activities to which our young people can invite their friends who

are not yet Christians. For April, May and June we are using the

Caddey and church centre for ―at home nights‖. These monthly

evenings for 11-16s include games, craft activities, music and

food.

In the summer we will be at the Soul Survivor camp. This experi-

ence really does help our young people focus on either becom-

ing a Christian, or how to go on with God.

For our Sunday teaching we are using the Quest course which

is designed to explore the claims of Christianity and how it can

change lives.

Not only are our young people being encouraged to bring friends

but we are also giving invitations to local scouts, cubs and

schools. Some of our Explorers group will also join in.

Page 8

transform November-December 09 Page 8

transform May—June 13 Page 8

Transforming lives home or away

Youth Ministry @ St John’s

I ‘m thrilled to let update you with the news that I‘ve become

Latin Link‘s newest long-term missionary! As one of the ‗Stay‘

members of the Latin Link community, I hope

to spend 5+ years in Brazil. I first felt God‘s call

to Brazil at the age of sixteen and ten years

on, He has opened the doors for me to return

on a more permanent basis. He has been

faithful throughout this journey and with Him I

make plans for an exciting (and slightly warmer) future. I am still unsure of exactly how those plans will look, but I do know

that I will be back in Recife for Christmas with my Brazilian parents and friends.

I remember arriving in Olinda the second time to an unfamiliar city and culture, with a handful of acquaintances,

with whom I communicated via gestures and mime due to my then limited Portuguese vocabulary! Trusting in

God‘s provision then was a step of faith and a move out of my comfort zones. Now, I can testify to God‘s

provision of friends and family in a place which is becoming a second home. Wherever I settle in Brazil and

however my ministry with slum kids and students develops I am very thankful for both those homes.

In the meantime I still have essays to work on and my time at All Nations to complete. Please be

praying for inspiration and for God‘s continued guidance as I seek His will and to glorify His

name as I plan for Brazil and the future. The final lines of Isaac Watts hymn ‗When I Survey the

Wondrous Cross‘ have been a powerful challenge to me in the past few weeks. And so I

leave you with them:

‗Love so amazing, so divine,

Demands my soul, my life, my all’

To Brazil with love

An update from Hannah Cross on the next stage

of her adventure providing hope and transforma-

tion for some of Brazil’s most vulnerable children

If you would like to be a part of this growing ministry and can

commit to 2 to 4 hours a month why not have a chat in person

with either Tim Sudworth tim@stjohnsegham.com or Phil

Darby [socials] phildarby@hotmail.co.uk