20 July 2008

We give the assurance of our thoughts and prayers to all who are unwell, awaiting or undergoing treatment, or anxious or grieving for the loss of loved ones.

Easter Offering Appeal

This year's appeal raised £139.50 which has been sent to the Fund for World Mission.

Church Website

You may have noticed that it is not always the same picture of our premises on the homepage of the church website. If you have any relevant picture you would like added to the selection, please contact Margaret.

Church Photographs

1. Just a reminder from Avril that we should not have any photographs of present children in the albums without their parents' permission. If parents are willing for the photos to remain, will they please sign the backs of each photograph. If not, please remove the relevant photographs.
2. The space beside each photograph has been left for the owners of each photograph to write in the information they want known (and / or write on the back of the photograph).

Methodist Relief and Development Fund (MRDF) update

Our District Office has recently circulated the following intimations :

• Prayer Request for Zimbabwe : MRDF is currently supporting an appeal for humanitarian aid in Zimbabwe. Due to the sensitive political situation, field operations have been suspended. Staff will resume work when it is safe to do so.
• Burma : MRDF is helping to support a relief effort following the Cyclone Nargis which hit Burma in May. More funds will be sent in the coming weeks, there is still more work to be done.
• China : £16,000 has been donated through MRDF to help provide food following the earthquake which struck Sichuan province on 12th May. Further support involved in the reconstruction of houses, schools, clinics and 20 drinking-water or irrigation systems is continuing.
• Global Food Crisis : MRDF is looking at increasing the ways that people can access food in the long term across all the communities that it works with, particularly through providing agricultural training and credit schemes.
• In India there is work with farmers to enhance the soil's fertility.
• In Cameroon support is being given to villagers to enable the purchase of equipment to improve their yields and farmland. This is being done through micro-credit schemes.

Scottish Churches House

The new edition of the Newsletter is on the downstairs noticeboard: copies can be downloaded from the website or obtained from SCH.

For details of forthcoming events, please see the Programme on the downstairs noticeboard, or contact SCH, Kirk Street, Dunblane, FK15 0AJ; tel 01786 823588; email : reservations@scottishchurcheshouse.org.

Support other Organisations

Scottish Bible Society

Our support through the Bible-a-Month Club is invited in July for work in Papua New Guinea. See library area noticeboard for more information.

Our prayerful attention is drawn this week to

• projects in Russia to provide Scripture resources for school teachers, also Bibles for Sunday School teachers and for the military;
• Scripture distribution in Kazakhstan to prisons. children's summer camps, and orphanages;
• greater use of the revised New Testament in Kyrgyzstan;
• translation of the Old Testament into Uzbek, and work on audio Scriptures in Uzbekistan.

Feed the Minds New Project (4) - Global Rescue Mission

This series of workshops in Sierra Leone aims to develop the ability of young people to read and understand their surroundings, and to encourage them to actively participate in the processes that lead to development of their communities.

Workshop topics include culture, literacy, newspapers and the media, political writings and persuasion.

Forthcoming events

Prayer Points for this week

• The President-designate (for 2009) Rev David Gamble, and Vice-President-designate, Dr Richard Vautrey;
• ecumenical relationships in Scotland, nationally and locally;
• projects in the North Lancashire District (Methodist Homes);
• The Leprosy Mission's work in China, Korea and Laos;
• work with rural women in Cameroon through AHURTOD - local volunteer organisation (Feed The Minds);
• work through projects with women worldwide (Christian Aid);
• Bible Society work in Papua New Guinea;
• we pray with and for the peoples of Belize, Guatemala, Honduras. and Mexico;
• we remember fellow Methodists in the Wisbech Circuit (East Anglia District) and in Wishaw (Lanarkshire Circuit).

• 13 July 2008
• 27 July 2008

© 2002—2008 Dundee Methodist Church Scottish Charity number: SC037954.