From The Friends Secretary – Freda

We are, as I write, having the toilets brought into the 21^st century. The Gents will now have four showers instead of two as they are used more than the Ladies which will have one new one. We also have new chairs and carpet in the worship area. We have overspent by £520 on the amount that we have received for the refurbishment fund. With God's blessing we will make it up as soon as possible.

The Car Boot Sales re-start on 17^th March. We decided to extend the normal Christmas and New Year closure until the work on the toilets was finished. Hopefully our regulars will all come back. Please pray for us as the Car Boot brings in much needed income.

We will soon be loosing Ian, who has been our minister for nine years, to Barnes Close. Their gain is our loss. We will miss Ian very much. We pray for God's blessing on him and hope that he will be very happy there. We know that he will keep in touch.

We would like to thank all friends for their continued support through prayer and donations. We hope to see some of you at the Garden Party.

May God bless you all.

Freda

News From The Rock

I suppose the big news is that after nine years I will be leaving The Rock Church Centre in July to take up a new appointment at The Community for Reconciliation, Barnes Close. It will be sad leaving Liverpool because I have enjoyed my time here and made many good friends.

Freda has referred elsewhere to the refurbishment of the showers and toilets Synod has agreed to release the money from the sale of the small piece of land last year and also kindly agreed to a small grant. We are very grateful.

If you have internet access you can keep up to date with all that is going on at The Rock by viewing our website at www.rockchurch.co.uk. At least one worshipper has found us by this method.

We thank God for

· Another three new members

· Rising congregations.

· New regular worshippers:

• Brandina, a Deaconess of The Church of Central Africa, Presbyterian from Blantyre in Malawi
• Julia from Eyam and working in L'Arche

· Two members, Wynne and Geoff leading worship for the first  time and wanting to do a basic preaching course.

· Maureen & Jim talking about the work of The Rock at GEAR

Swanwick conference.

· A fabulous church weekend at The Windermere Centre

· New chairs and carpet for the worship area.

· Refurbishment of the toilets and showers.

Take Time - submitted by Alice Blackham

Take time to think -
it is the source of power.

Take time to read -
it is the foundation of wisdom.

Take time to play -
it is the secret of staying young.

Take time to be quiet -
it is the opportunity to seek God.

Take time to be aware -
it is the opportunity to help others.

Take time to love and be loved -
it is God's greatest gift.

Take time to laugh -
it is the music of the soul.

Take time to be friendly -
it is the road to happiness.

Take time to dream -
it is what the future is made of.

Take time to pray -
it is the greatest power on earth.

There is a time for everything.

Farewell to Rev Ian Ring

All friends are invited to join us in saying goodbye to Ian. His final time of leading worship as our minister (editor's note: He's bound to back some time!) is Sunday 1^st July 2001 at 11.00am. A party is being organised for Friday 29^th June 2001 at a venue to be arranged. Further information will be available after Easter from Freda Spencer or the elders.

Our monthly Sunday evening worship with prayers for healing and reconciliation continue. We start at 5.00pm with afternoon tea, worship begins around 6.00pm and concludes by 7.00pm. Please come and join us, the dates until the Summer are March 18^th, April 15^th, May 20^th, June 17^th and July 15^th.

If you are free on a Tuesday lunchtime why not come and join us from 12.30pm to 1.30pm for our lunchtime worship followed by a lunch of soup and a roll. You could even stay on for scrabble, dominoes or simply to chat with others present.

From a 'Newcomer' - Julia Buckingham

I moved to Liverpool in October 2000 to live and work in L'Arche. L'Arche in Liverpool is a Christian Community of five houses and a workshop where people with learning disabilities share their lives with assistants from all over the place, Scarborough to South Korea.

As you may know Ian is involved in L'Arche. He befriends many assistants and The Rock welcomes us for sport on Wednesdays.

In our house, The Coracle, Nicky and Anne go to St Michael's, Ying doesn't go to church and Ian goes to St Anne's. Consequently I found it hard to belong to one particular church. Thus the thought of a 'free' lunch tempted me to go to The Rock one Tuesday before Christmas and the welcome has encouraged me ever since.

The Windermere Weekend - Lindsay Crawford

Lindsay provided a very full report of our weekend in Windermere, the highlights of which are detailed below.

On the weekend of 2^nd to 4^th February 2001 twenty three of us spent a delightful weekend at the URC Windermere Centre. Twelve of us set out by minibus at 10.30am and arrived in Bowness in time for lunch. The other eleven traveled by car and joined us for the evening meal. After lunch those in the minibus crossed Windermere by ferry and traveled through Far and Near Sawry, Hawkshead and Coniston to Ambleside for afternoon tea. From here we journeyed directly to Windermere by way of Troutbeck. Sadly the fog obscured most of the views during the afternoon.

After the evening meal Rev Peter McIntosh led us in a very interesting session entitled 'Who Are We?' This started with the origins of The Rock Church Centre and how it got its name (on the site of The Rock Lighthouse public house and in area where all the streets contain the word 'Rock'). We then looked at all our activities and outreach to the community which resulted in the surprising statistic that although we have only around thirty worshippers on a Sunday over eight hundred people pass through the doors a week - some on several occasions. The evening concluded with prayers led by Peter after which conversation continued either in the centre or in the nearby hostelry.

Following a good night's sleep Saturday morning began with breakfast after which we had Prayers and a session, again led by Peter, entitled 'Where Are We Going'. This Peter drew comparisons with Carver United Reformed Church, Windermere as we looked at our weekly programme of activities and how they worked ass outreach to the community. We also noted the impact of vandalism and hostility to God's work in the area of The Rock. One important aspect of this session was to look at our hopes for the future and how we demonstrate our belonging or commitment.

After a coffee break our minister, Ian, led a session in which we named Bible passages that we found difficult or had problems with. Ian then led us in an exploration of those passages as we tried to discern their relevance to us. This was a most successful session.

All work and no play is no good for anyone so after lunch we were free to explore the local area, go shopping or sit in quiet reflection and prayer. Following supper we had our session of entertainment which was great fun. There were quizzes, games, music, poetry and a modern version of the Good Samaritan performed by the children. The evening officially ended with prayers. However whilst some people carried on conversations in the pub others joined in a hilarious late night beetle drive.

Peter was leading worship in Carver URC on Sunday morning so he decided to involve us in it. Following a short time of preparation we went into the church. It was a good time of worship during which we looked at the outreach of both churches and shared in communion. Betty read the lesson, Karl helped Peter talk about The Rock whilst Jim and Maureen led some of the music.

Whilst we were in church the snow started to fall so after lunch we left a snow covered Lake District to make our way back to Windermere. It had been an excellent weekend. We returned home tired but refreshed and looking forward to the next church weekend - whenever that might be. On returning home we discovered that their had been eight visitors or new worshippers in worship at The Rock making a congregation of twenty one thatmorning. So both at Windermere and at The Rock it was an excellent weekend.