This term in Wright Robinson College we are taking R.E. Lessons as part of their curriculum looking at crime. We are really passionate about young people knowing the Truth about Drugs and not believing the lies modern culture tell us.
Check out our new website where you can watch videos, leave comments and discuss any issues regarding drugs with us: www.theliesandlows.com
A week later on Good Friday Jesus is executed on a cross. Finally the zenith of the week is Easter Sunday where he rose again, conquering death after having paid the ultimate price for all the wrong things we have ever done!
This Friday at 8pm until 9.30pm we will be holding a special Communion service at the Hall. All are welcome (if your 16 years and above) to remember what Jesus did for us so significantly so many years ago.
On Easter Sunday we meet at the normal time of 10.30pm, and we would love to especially welcome you and your families to this special service. (Then you can head home to start eating the mountains of Chocolate!)
Our other activities:
Kids Club & Youth Club are not on over the Easter break but will be back in the term!
Baby Church is still happening this week on the 3rd but not the week after. Same with Toddlin on Thursday.
On Wednesday at 10.00pm until 1pm we have a special Family Drop available for families with both Pre-school & Primary age children.
Just a quick note to say that the following activities are CLOSED for a Half Term break:
But here are 3 great things due to be run by FC United in East Manchester over the Half Term. To book or to ask for more details, please contact them directly on 0161 273 8950 as we’re not running these ourselves: -
Our church life (Openshaw Community Church) continues as normal during Half Term, with our Sunday gatherings of lively worship and solid Bible teaching at 11am at The Salvation Army, and our mid-week Community Groups also running as normal. Message Prayer Day is also happening from 10am at Ivy Manchester on Monday 13th Feb. For more details on any of this, please phone our office on 0161 371 5044.
On a different note, we have a write-up of a great story from a local young man who saved someone’s life from a smoke-filled house in Openshaw. For more details on this local hero, please click here.
Hope to see you soon…
We really enjoyed taking 15 young people to Altrincham Ice Rink last Friday. It was a nice change from our usual Youth Club set up on a Thursday night. The skill level varied but generally the youth really showed us leaders up! While some of us were gripping on to the outside for dear life, others were gliding around at high speeds! Fortunately no one was hurt or injured and overall we had a lot of fun. Thanks to all the volunteers who made the trip possible.
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Kids Club – Lots of games, Bible stories, craft and toast time for children aged 4-10 years old*, Tuesdays 3:30-5:00pm, £0.30 per child. Back on Tuesday 10th January @ 10am. *Parents/guardians must drop off and collect, and the children need to be willing to participate in the activities.
The shop and church office is round the corner at 1319 Ashton Old Road, with the shop being open 10am-5pm, Monday to Saturdays. The Shop/Church office is 0161 371 5044.
All activities are at our Church Hall, 10 Fairfield Road, unless otherwise stated
We had aimed to put together roughly 20 food bags to give to people – some of them agency referrals, others came to see us, others still we knew already were struggling for toys or presents.
In the end we exceeded this and managed to distribute food bags to 29 different people/families, plus additional gifts of toys to families who could only afford to pay the usual bills over Christmas. Here are 4 examples of people we have been able to help thanks to your generosity: -
As the busy Christmas period cranks up to the big day, I’m reminded that the God I believe in gave the most generous gift ever to the human race – click here to read some more thoughts on this from my blog. This act of great generosity makes anything we do look pretty small. But we who are Christians believe that a generous God calls His followers to be generous with others in our time, in our generation, in our world.
And so thank you for playing your part in helping us to do something for over 30 households. This includes the wider Salvation Army, Ivy Manchester and The Message Trust for donating toys and money for our efforts. Thanks also to everyone – to , to our own volunteers, to other churches, projects and people – who works hard to seeEast Manchester become a better place.
And to everyone reading, on behalf of Openshaw Community Churchand our team of Eden staff and volunteers, I’d like to wish you a very Happy Christmas…
Pete Askew, Community Projects Manager
Next year we hope to take our team on a trip to South Africa. We need to raise £20,000 to take 15 people across on a trip we hope will provide an amazing life experience like nothing they have experienced before. It is important to point out, that we are not going to be staying in 5 star luxury accommodation and we are not going to be having the holiday of a life time! We have contacts with Churches in South Africa who are willing to put us up on their Church Hall floors. We have set the target at a very modest £20,000 to include plane fairs, passports, transport and food.
As well as asking for help to reach our target, the lads from the team will be fundraising themselves. One of the things we are doing in March 2012, is running the Silverstone half-marathon together.
We really want this trip to provide such an insight into the problems young people face across the globe. It is so easy to not think about these issues when all you know is your own locality. We hope to broaden the horizons of our lads not just through playing football but emotionally and spiritually too. If you would like to know more or help us raise some cash, then please contact us here.
Eden Openshaw F.C. at the NCFF Tournament in Bristol 2011
As we get stuck into the new football season, I wanted to write about a new season for our football project too. What started as a few lads organising a kick about, evolved into a fully-fledged community outreach project and now an 11aside footy team to boot! It all started three years ago on Wednesday night at Wright Robinson College at 9pm.We still play at that time but we have managed to scramble together enough lads who love the game and who want to play 11aside football.
The friendlies are one thing but when we took the team down to Bristol in early August for the ‘National Christian Football Festival’ tournament, we really had upped our game. More importantly we actually started to look like a team! Our first two wins in the tournament included a win against Eden rivals from Westwood. Confidence was high but it didn’t last when we met an established league team and experience won the day, despite a late goal from our lads. Impressively we came third before the playoffs, where we met Eden Westwood again… a late equaliser led to a Penalty shoot-out which we lost by one goal! The following day’s aches and pains was felt by all but showed how hard we had worked to get where we finished. Overall, Sam and I were really pleased with the overall performance, further demonstrating the skill and potential our lads have.
This team is comprised of local lads off the estates of East Manchester. The improvement we have seen each one of them show goes far beyond the pitch of play. They demonstrate respect, fair play, honesty and team work and these are things that have been getting better and better as the weeks progress. We know we are not perfect but I would say we are a working masterpiece!
The future for Eden Openshaw F.C. has been helped and secured with some recent funding from Manchester F.A. and Manchester City Council, who have paid for a new kit and for the team’s entrance into a new league starting at Wright Robinson College on Sunday’s called the ‘City Central’ League which is affiliated with the ‘Manchester Amateur Sunday Football League’ (The oldest amateur Sunday league in the world). We are really excited about what the future holds for the team. I want to thank everyone who helps and supports the team because your involvement is highly valued. Please keep praying that God moves powerfully amongst our lads so that we might see lives saved and our community restored!
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