Carol service

Please pray for the carol service on this coming Sunday and for carol singing in local nursing homes on the Saturday! thanks love charis x

Happy Christmas from Charis!

Dear friends just a note to send you Season’s Greetings from Tramore, and to wish you all a Happy Christmas and a great New Year. I also want to fill you in on what I have been up to this past year and what I hope to do in the year to come. Thanks to you all for your continued support, love Charis x

Luke 2:11

“This very day in King David’s hometown a Saviour was born for you. He is Christ the Lord.”

# It is hard to believe that I have been working here in Tramore with European Christian Mission (E.C.M) for nearly 2 years now!

#   It has been a year of ups and downs, it continues to be great to be able to tell boys and girls the good news about Jesus (as my job), but it can be hard to be restricted in what I can do due to manpower issues!

#  I was at my first E.C.M bi-annual conference this year (in Croatia), it was good to meet some of the wider ECM family and also nice to fit in a couple of days in Venice on my way there too!

#  I continued to run a kids club in a local estate up until last term, when we had to pause it as I did not have enough people to help run it, and I wanted to start some schools work, please pray we will be able to get it started again in 2015

#  I was able to run three 5 day clubs in July /Aug with the help of united beach missions.

#  I was recently in 2 local schools with the amazing Journey presentation and I hope to follow up on this and do more schools work in 2015

#  I had to move house again during the year which was hard as I had just settled into the other house and it took a lot of work and energy to move again and I am still not fully settled in yet (please note my new address), hopefully I won’t have to move again in 2015!!

#   My good friend Claire got married in November which was a happy occasion but we have lost her to Northern Ireland!

#  Family news: My sister Joanna and her boyfriend Gavin moved to Australia in July so we will be missing them this Christmas. My Niece Hannah turned 1 and my nephew Ethan turned 4 in Nov.  My mum continues to have ongoing health issues but she never complains and always has a smile on her face, she continues to help others as much as she can and is a real inspiration to us all!

#  I want to thank God for His continued financial provision and support through 2014 and to thank all of you who faithfully support me with money and in prayer.

I hope you all have a great Christmas love Charis xx

Happy Christmas!

Amazing Journey

We were in 2 local schools last week and over 600 kids went through the presentation! Thanks SO much for all your prayers and thanks to God for His help. I was really wrecked from a week off for my friend claire's wedding and then came back and was straight into schools so I was worried I would not be ready or able for it all. Thanks again for all your prayers and support love charis x

School bookings

So far we have 3 days booked in local schools 2 in a school of 400 on the 19th and 20th Nov and 1 on the 21st in a larger school but we are just going in for a day and we will have 180 kids , I am still waiting to hear from the other school in Tramore but since it is half term I won't hear from them till next week, please pray they will be in touch very soon and pray for wisdom as regards contacting other schools and for my preparation too thanks charis

Taxes

I am in the middle of doing my taxes right now as I am self assessed for tax, I used to do my own taxes when I worked with the amazing journey but it has been a few years since I last did them so I am hoping I mange to do them without too much pain and that things have not changed too much since I last did them.

New Prayer letter

Hi all, just a note to update you on my news and to ask for your continued prayers. I hope you all had a lovely summer and that you had good weather, the weather here in Tramore was beautiful. It’s hard to believe Christmas is already just around the corner! Please find all my news enclosed.  Thanks so much for your continued support and prayers love Charis xx

                          
                              Moved AGAIN                                                                     

 I moved and then went straight into summer work after I moved so I’ve not yet had a chance to unpack everything! It has been very stressful and unsettling to have to move again, this is my 4^th move in 2 years so I’m even unsure if I should even unpack! Please pray I will feel settled soon and that I will get the last things unpacked.

King’s Kids    

 Kid’s club would normally be starting back this month but I decided that I needed to take a break from the club for a few months so that I can have the time I need to focus on starting up schools work. I Then found out that 3 of my helpers couldn’t help this year and so there would just be me and 1 other lady every second week so the decision was taken out of my hands. I do hope that club will start back again in Jan but this will depend on helpers. 

                     The Summer                    

Last summer we did 1 summer club/camp in conjunction with Beach Missions and this year we were able to do 3!

The 1^st week we did a club in a local hall which is near a large estate but despite giving out over 200 invites no kids from the estate came!  Thankfully we had about 15 kids each day some whom we knew from our church or from other churches and there were also some who came from one of the asylum centers here in Tramore and several of them were muslims, Pray that God will continue to work in their hearts.

The 2^nd week was a football club which we did in a local football pitch; we had skills and drills, then a half time talk and then matches. This week was planned with little notice as I had no venue for this week up until about 2 weeks before and so I was unsure how this was going to work out but it went well and we had about 12 kids each day some of whom live in the same estate as my colleagues Daniel and Inge, Pray that they will have contact with these families into the future. 

The 3^rd week was in the estate where we do the weekly kids club and so there was no problem getting kids to come along and we had about 20 each day.

Overall we had a great 3 weeks, it was tiring but good!

                              Baptism:                              

  Aoife is one of the young people in church and she was baptized in the sea here in Tramore in Sept.  Praise God for her testimony and about 20 of her friends and family that came to the service. 

     

      Tramore Bible church is now on Facebook, check out our page and follow us!  You can listen to and watch aoife's testimony on the church facebook page.   

                     Schools Work                 

     I am starting work in primary schools this month. There are 4 primary schools in Tramore and over 1300 pupils! That’s a lot of kids that need to hear the good news about Jesus!  To start with I am borrowing the Amazing Journey (AJ) equipment; this is an exciting one day Bible presentation that I used to work with and it has been into the schools here in Tramore in the past (but not in the last 7 years). I will offer this presentation to the schools first and then I hope to follow up with Bible Explorer. Bible explorer is for 1 hour a week for 5 weeks and the kids learn all the stories of the OT and over 70 hand signs so they can remember the sequence of events. I have not used Bible Explorer before but I did some training in this last year. Please pray for me as I start up this work 

Prayer and Praise Points:

Praise that the 3 summer camps went well and for all the kids that came

Praise for the young people in church who got involved with the camps etc over the summer

Praise that about  20 of Aoife’s friends and family came to her baptism in Sept

Praise for the children’s ministry training that BCM(Bible centered ministries)ran for us ; 15 came in total and 10 were from  the Tramore church

 Please pray for the schools work I will start in Oct/Nov starting with the  Amazing journey and following up with Bible Explorer in the new year; Pray for schools to take up our offer to come in, for helpers, for funds and for God’s word to speak to pupils and teachers

Pray for me as I prepare and deliver  lessons in schools

Pray for wisdom as regards kids club

 Pray for me to settle into my new  home quickly 

Schools

Hi all just to let you know I am contacting local schools at the moment about going in with the amazing journey presentation , please pray that we will get into many local schools and pray for helpers to do the presentation with me. I had a meeting with a principal this morning it went very well and he booked us to come into his school in November, please continue to pray for me as i approach other schools thanks charis x

on and off again

Hi all well you will be glad to know I have internet in my house!!! I actually had it for one or 2 days and believe it or not my line broke and I lost it again but it is back again now (hopefully for good but who knows!!) anyway I just wanted to let you know I am alive and well.thanks for your continued support and prayers charis

what I have been up to...

Hi all, I still have no internet in my house so I have not been able to update my blog in awhile but I hope to get internet in the next 2 weeks ( it is ordered, again!)
Over the last 2 weeks I have organised a children's workers training day, we had a baptism in church, and I have been away at a weekend in rossnowlough running the kids programme for the churches in the Westport area .  I had a very bad cold over the weekend and I was worried I would not manage but thanks to God's help ( and lots of cold medicine) I got through! I decided to stay up in Donegal sun and mon nights as I was not sure I would be able for the long drive home and I am glad I did as I was in bed at 4 pm yesterday till this morning! I am going to venture out now to have a look around. Thanks for your continued support and please pray for my trip home to Tramore tomorrow thanks charis xx

Coffee morning

Hi all just to let you know my friends Jenni and Robert Smyth are kindly hosting a coffee morning for me this coming Saturday the 6th September from 10 am till 1 pm just pop in when you can and stay as little or as long as you like. I will be updating you on my work as well as just having a chat and a coffee. See you then! The address is 33 clonlee rd, Belfast BT4 3DA

Holidays

I have not posted anything recently as I am away on holidays at the moment, I am in warsaw with my friends Claire and Eileen . It has been good to get away but it is hard to believe the autumn term is upon us VERY soon, ( it is too close for comfort) . Bye for now charis x

Still no broadband!

My broadband saga continues, it was to be installed on Wednesday (this was the 3rd appointment to install it) but no one ever showed up to do it, the last 2 times i was phoned to say 'the cabinet' wasn't ready! now i am being told that they do not know when it will be ready 'the ports are not ready' i was told it could take minutes, days, weeks , months or years!!!!!  it took them since the 22nd june to tell me this!!! I was SO upset and annoyed by it and now I have to go back to the drawing board and re order with another provider. I know in the scheme of things it seems such a small thing but i use the internet for work and it is very difficult without it.

week 3 day 5 ...the last day!!!!

The last 2 days went well, the disruptive guys came came back but it worked well to take them out for their own bible time. I am REALLY tired but glad to have finished well. Today was the first morning we had rain and so we had to play our games inside but we have been really blessed with the weather over the last 3 weeks. thanks for your prayers over the last three weeks thanks charis x

week 3 day 3

Thanks for your prayers, we had 20 kids again today and it ran a lot smoother than yesterday!
 The most disruptive of the older boys didn't come back today so things were quieter to begin with but we had also arranged for the older guys to go out with 2 of the guys from the beach team for their own bible time and a bit of football too (I am not sure how this went as the team have to run off for lunch straight after club as they are on the beach at 2:30 each afternoon, i will find out and let you know.) thanks for your prayers. We have just 2 days left so pray it goes well and that some of the new kids might want to come to club each week too, thanks charis x

week 3 day 2

we got off to a great start yesterday with 15 kids and they were all well behaved and everything ran nice and smoothly...today was a different scenario we had some more kids, 20 in total, which was great but among those were some older boys who just messed and messed all club long making things difficult for us and they were disrupting the club for the others too. Please pray we will know how to deal with these kids tomorrow, I hope that I can get some of the team to take the older guys out for a bible study time /chat so that they won't be as disruptive. It was nice to see some new kids and I had a phone call from a parent yesterday (who saw our flyer) asking if they could bring their kids today, we have not had contact with them in the past. thanks for your prayers but please pray on thanks charis x

week 3 preparation

Week 3 of summer camp is fast approaching...it starts this coming monday and it is on in carn dubh where I usually run a weekly bible club. Please pray for the preparations this weekend , for the team to work well together, for the kids to come (especially on monday, which is a holiday here) , for strength and energy for me as I am getting very tired by now and for God to be at work. thanks for your continued support charis

Prize giving at football camp

the coaching team

Steve handed out the certificates and medals

week 2 day 4

Just to let you know everything has been going well for the past few days at the football camp, we did not gain any more kids but we have had 12 kids most of the week (we only lost one family of 3 kids during the week but we will see them again as they come to church in TBC). It has been encouraging that we have had 5 new kids this week, representing 4 families (who we didn't know before) and that they have been going down to the family events on the beach as well and they live in the same estate as my colleagues so it is a good contact for the future too. Please pray for our final day tomorrow that we will end the week well especially as the team are tired and for Emmanuel a young guy in church who has offered to do the talk tomorrow, we will also have a prize giving tomorrow (I am collecting the engraved medals this afternoon) so please pray for a great final day. thanks Charis x

photos

view from the road, go through the door on the left of the picture to get to the pitch

halftime talk at the pitch

Week 2 day 1 football camp

It is always nerve wrecking the first day of a new venture as you don't know what to expect or what pitfalls there might be and so I didn't get much sleep last night with last minute preparations and thinking about the day to follow. The football camp got off to a good start , there were not loads of kids, just 14, but there were some kids I didn't know and a few people popped in to see what we were doing so I think we will have more tomorrow. The kids enjoyed it and our half time talk was about referees and how they point out the things we do wrong on the pitch and the bible points out what we do wrong in life. Gerry will be doing the half time talk tomorrow please pray for him as he prepares and pray for more kids to come and for the weather to stay dry, it is ALOT cooler today than last week but it looks like it might rain at any minute. Thanks for your prayers charis

Week 1 over and week 2 about to start

We finished well last week, the kids that came to club really enjoyed it and we had over 20 kids during the week with 16 the most on any one day. The heat was a bit of a problem for us all as the hall we were in had very little air circulation but we survived! The beach team had a good week on the beach too so overall it was an encouraging week. The new team arrived on sat and we have been getting ready for week 2 and the football camp, please pray for this week as again it is a new venture, and we do not know what to expect thanks charis

week 1, day 3

Well it is day 3 of the first club, there have still not been many kids at the club but there has been more than the first day, 13 the second day and 12 today but the new kids that have come are muslims so please pray for them especially. There have still been no kids from the local area (the estate where the hall is).
 It is hard to believe we have just 2 days left of the first week, please continue to pray for us as the team are getting tired but in many ways the next 2 days are very important as they have now built good relationships with the kids and will hopefully get opportunities to chat to the kids more over the next 2 days thanks charis

Week 1 day 1

Hi everyone, Day 1 is over already!! Thanks for your prayers, all went ok today, the team did great but it was disappointing that we had just 9 kids, all of whom we know already and no one came from the houses near the hall!!! The kids that came really enjoyed themselves but I was disappointed that out of the 200 invites we gave out locally no one came in , please pray for wisdom to know what to do for the rest of the week thanks charis

Please pray

Hi all the first club starts tomorrow morning at 11:30, I have NO idea if kids will come as I have done nothing in this area before, and as I have asked the beach missions to run the club for me I have NO idea if they will be ready for the club to start!! I was with them tonight and they are just starting to get organised, but I am sure they will do a GREAT job !! it is hard for me to relinquish power as I like to be very organised but it is a learning experience for me too! there will also be some helpers from church there too, please pray the team (6)and church people will work well together thanks charis

football camp

We did not have a venue to do any club next week but we now have a local soccer pitch and will do a football club, this was all just finalised yesterday (saturday the 19th) so there is lots to do, please pray that it will be organised easily and quickly (especially as I am not a footballer) and that it will go well thanks charis

Please Pray

Over the last 2 days we have put 225 flyers into houses near the hall where the club  is going to take place. The club is starting next monday the 21st please pray that everything that needs to get done by then will be done, for the beach team and some helpers from church to work well together, for practical details such as noise ( I found out today there will be a music club on next week in the hall attached to where we will be and they will have drums !!)  pray also for kids to come and most especially for God to be at work thanks charis

No internet

Hi all sorry I have not written anything here for some time but I was moving and now I am unpacking, getting ready for the kids clubs and I have no internet in my house!! Anyway I am in my new house, it is not sorted out yet but I am in and getting sorted very slowly. This week we will be dropping flyers into houses for the first club please pray kids will come (this is a new club we are running) and for all to go well during the week and most especially for God to be at work. Pray for me as I continue to sort out my house and get ready for clubs and my sister emigrates to Australia this week too! thanks charis x

Moving and summer plans

I have been VERY busy the last few weeks moving, I need to be out of my current house by Monday 30th please pray for the last few days that I will have the energy I need to finish of the move etc. I have also been making plans for the summer, here are the plans so far, we will do our 5 day clubs in conjunction with beach missions who are here for 3 weeks of the summer.

21-25^th July:  5 day club at a new venue (Riverstown estate), the Beach missions leader of that week is Peter Grier

28^th July -1^st Aug:  We were unable to get a venue for this week with Steve Wright but we are hoping to drop leaflets into houses in Tramore offering bibles, bible studies and advertising the church

4^th to 8^th August : 5 day club in the venue we usually have club each week (carn dubh), the beach missions leader is Alan Mitchell

# Please pray for summer activities, for planning, publicity etc over the first 2 weeks of July.

# Please pray for me at this time I am feeling exhausted after my move etc but I can't wind down just now as I need to ramp up for the summer activities!

#Please pray for the day to day running of the 2 clubs, for kids to come and for God to be at work.

#Pray for the leaflets we hope to put in every house in the town and that people who are interested will get in touch.

#Pray for the church over the summer, there will be a lot of comings and goings, it can be encouraging for the church but when a lot of people are away on holidays the church can be VERY small and it can be discouraging too.

# Pray for the young people of the church a lot of them seem to be around and free this summer  (as they can’t get jobs) pray they will get stuck into helping with clubs etc

Thanks so much for your continued prayers and support,  Love Charis xx

Video of club this year

Another new house

This is turning into a yearly event for me...to find a new house and move! Well I have eventually found another new house and will move in the month of June. Thanks for your prayers as regards finding another house and please continue to pray for me as I now pack and move AGAIN.

Prizegiving

We had the last club of the term this week, we had a prize giving and invited the parents to come along for the last 20 minutes of club , 4 parents came which was good! There were 17 kids this week which was great as last week very few came due to the good weather. 

A very short clip from club

One of the ladies that helps with club took this VERY short clip a few weeks ago, I thought you might like to see it.

God Keeps His Promises

Magnets we will make at club tomorrow 

We have been doing a series on Noah over the last few weeks, tomorrow we are at the end of the story, when we are reminded that God keeps His promises! We are all such forgetful people and often need to be reminded that God ALWAYS keep His promises.

More Questions....

Well there was a rush to put questions in the question box this week... here are a few

How did God make cave man?
Does God have a different name like a first and last name?
How did God make Adam and eve when he was dead?
How did God make the Easter Bunny?
How did God make monkeys turn into caveman and caveman turn into people?
and what I think the most poignant question

Why is life so Hard??

Questions

We decided to start a question box at club last week here are a few of the questions.....now we have to answer them!!!

How does God hear us?
Where is Jesus now?
How did God make the animals and earth?

New Newsletter

Tales from Tramore   Number 6, May 2014

 UPDATE 

Hi all, just a note to say hi, to update you on my news and to ask for your continued prayers. Christmas has come and gone and a new year has started since I last updated you (sorry for the delay). I am already beginning to think about summer and autumn plans! The last few months have been busy , In  March we did face painting at the local Saint Patrick’s day Parade, In April I was at my first ECM bi-annual conference (in Croatia) and believe it or not I am now packing and looking at houses as I have been asked to move again! Please find all this news and more enclosed.  Thanks so much for your continued support and prayers love Charis xx

                            Bi- Annual conference                                

I was at my first ECM conference in April where over 300 missionaries, staff, supporters and guests came together in Umag, Croatia for a week of meetings, encouragement and a bit of rest and relaxation (and sunshine!) It was my first time at one of these conferences as they only happen every 2 years, it was great to meet other missionaries and supporters and put some faces to names too! The theme was ‘The gospel centered church’ and a pastor from the UK called Ian stackhouse came to speak to us. There were also business meetings, seminars, opportunities for prayer, videos about the work done in different countries, a talk on the crisis in Europe and a bit of relaxation by the pool!!! It was a good week, encouraging, challenging, tiring but good, the only drawback was I got sick (a bug was going around) on the Thursday night and was completely out of action on the last day!             

King’s Kids (kid’s club)  

Praise God we have some NEW helpers!! Club has been continuing well but we did have to stop one older boy from coming as he just wanted to come to mess and the other 2 older boys who seemed very interested have now stopped coming, please pray for them. We changed the time recently due to a clash with athletics and now we run Wed  4-5pm. This term we are doing a series on Noah and we will finish up the end of May.

 On the move AGAIN 

 I got news when I was at the conference that the lady I’m renting my current house from wants to move back in and so I have to move in the next few months for the 3^rd time since I moved to Tramore!!
           

                 Schools work / Bible Explorer:                   

I did some training in a schools program called Bible explorer before Christmas. I hope to use this program in schools here in the future but there is quite a bit of preparation for me to do before I am ready to offer it to schools here in Tramore and so we decided to wait till the new school year before I offer it to schools here.

  Family News

 I was up north over the Easter weekend visiting my brother Mark and his family, I went up with my mum, sister Joanna and her boyfriend Gavin; we had a nice time playing games with my nephew Ethan, having cuddles from my niece Hannah, having an Easter bonnet competition and going up to the North coast. Joanna and Gavin are moving to Australia in July so it was nice we could spend this Easter together. My other brother David will be starting a new job in Londonderry/Derry this month (a short term contract) but his wife Carmel has recently started a new job in Galway too so they will be separated for a few months L 

    

      Saint Patrick’s Day!       

We did face painting (shamrocks and flags) at the local parade and gave out 175 tracts for kids about Saint Patrick. It went well and we hope to do it again next year!

    Prayer and Praise Points:

# Praise God for new helpers at club

# Praise for a good time had by all at the Bi-annual conference

# Praise that the Saint Patrick’s day event went well and pray for tracts given out

# Praise for the young people in church who are getting more involved and for a few new faces on Sundays

#  Pray for me as I try and get a good balance between work and life

#  Pray that I will find a new house (there is not much on the market) and for my move AGAIN!

# Please continue to pray for my friend Dave who lost his wife Sharon last June, it is even harder for him at the moment as his mum died suddenly in the last few months too.

#  Please pray for the schools work I hope to do; for the time to prepare the lessons and that the schools will be receptive to it
 # Pray for the summer plans to come together

                                   

Bi-Annual

This is a photo of people from Ireland or linked to the Irish contingent at the Bi-annual conference 

Venice

Before the Bi-annual conference I spent 2 nights in Venice ( we needed to fly into Venice for the conference so I couldn't fly into venice and not stay!!)  I had a lovely time even though it was my first holiday on my own! I met up with some others I knew on the second day and we went for a gondola trip!! 

Easter

I went up north over Easter with my mum, my sis and my sister's boyfriend,  we went to visit my brother and his family who live in the north. The weather was great and we went to the giant's causeway on Easter Sunday. We had a busy time up there as we only had 2 nights but it was good to have fun easter bonnet decorating and egg hunting among other things!!!

Club

Hi all greetings from sunny Tramore, just to let Kids club will be back this week for the last term of the school year (which is very hard to believe).
 I am thinking of doing a series on NOAH this term as a  movie came out recently and there is lots to learn from his life.
Thanks for your continued prayers charis x

Bi-annual

The Bi-annual went well but it was sort of overshadowed by the news I got on the Wednesday that I had to move house again and then I got sick on the Thursday night and was in bed all fri but thankfully I managed to get home on the Saturday.

On the move again!!!

Believe it or not I have to move yet again! I got word when I was in Croatia at the Bi-annual that the landlady wants to move back into the house I am in at the moment , I am not sure how much time I have but she said there was no big rush  I will defo be here till the end of may anyway. There are not many houses online at the moment so please pray I get something and for the move, it is not easy to move and then when  you work from home it is even harder!

Bi-annual conference

European Christian Mission has a big conference (called the Bi-Annual) for all their missionaries every second year and this conference is coming up very soon. The conference takes place in mainland europe as most of the missionaries are based there, this year it is in Umag,Croatia (you will see it marked on the map at the top left). The conference goes on for a week and from what I hear it will be a busy week, it is not a holiday, saying that I am going to have a few days of a holiday in Venice before the conference starts! Please pray the conference goes well and that it is a fun and encouraging time as well as learning time,
thanks charis x

Happy Mothers day!

                                           Happy Mother's day to all the mother's out there! 

In club this week we decorated peg bags for mother's day gifts.  Believe it or not the last club of the term is coming up this Wednesday, we have been doing a series on the life,death, resurrection and ascension of Jesus. This coming week we hope to finish the series by watching part of the Jesus movie for kids (we watched the beginning already). Please pray this movie and series will impact the kids lives. Thanks Charis x

Saint Patrick's day!

Thanks to you all for your prayers for our church face painting/outreach last Monday, it was a cold but dry day and we were all very encouraged by the reception we got. We gave out 175 saint patrick's day tracts (kids ones) and I don't know how many faces we painted but we did quite a few!!!

all set up and ready to go

me getting my face painted 

Face painting!

We are going to do some face painting (just shamrocks and flags) at the local parade on Monday, nothing as fancy as in this picture!! We also have some nice kids tracts about Saint Patrick to give out. We hope to raise the profile of the church in the town (it is a start) Please pray!! Pray that we are received well, that the spot we work in is a good one, that the others who hope to come and help do come and that the tracts will be read and received well too thanks charis x 

Saint Patrick's day

This Monday is Saint Patrick's day, so we will be having a saint Patrick themed club today!

Patrick was a real and true christian and there is a lot we can learn from him and teach from his life. 

Club is changing time today from 3:15 to 4pm and it is for an hour not 1hr 15. Why the change? a lot of the kids who come to club have athletics on till 3:30 (it just started back last week and we noticed a lot of kids were missing) so we are trying this new time to see if it works, please pray for the kids to come at this new time.

We have 2 new helpers starting at club today!!! Please pray they get on well, one girl is from church and can come due to the later time and another girl is from a different church. 

Thanks for your continued prayers charis x

Mam comes to visit

Mam came to visit me in Tramore for a few days, it was lovely weather here today and this is us on the beach today.

Sad News

I got some sad news last week to say that Marilyn Pearce had passed away. She is my friend Dave Pearce's mum and as you might remember Dave is the husband of my dear friend Sharon who died in June and so Dave has lost his wife and mum in 8 months!!  Please pray for him and his sister Andrea at this time and the extended family too. I am not sure yet if I can go to the funeral in England but my thoughts are with Dave and Andrea at this time. I know that Sharon and marilyn will be catching up with each other in heaven which is a great comfort to know. 

On the left is my mum and on the right is Marilyn Pearce

Beautiful weather

Hi all, believe it or not the weather is lovely here in Tramore today, I took this picture on the beach a couple of hours ago. I was not feeling so well the last few days (like I might be getting something but thankfully I am not too bad and I was able to do club yesterday). 

We have started a series on Jesus called 'A saviour for you' this will bring  us up to the Easter break.

Yesterday we did the story of Jesus healing the paralyzed man and how He could forgive sins because He is God. Thanks for your continued support love charis xx

Ennis

I had the joy of going to speak in Ennis Evangelical church a few weeks ago, I went to give them an update on my work as it was a year since I was last there and also to do the kids talk. It is thanks to churches like Ennis and to many other individuals that support me financially and in prayer and that I am able to do the work I do, thanks!

giving an update to the church in ennis

kids talk- toothpaste competition!

a love bug

This is one of the love bugs we made at club coming up to valentines day! 

Memory Verse

This is the memory verse we have been learning during our olympic weeks....and we have been learning it by singing it to the tune of  'oh when the saints' - anything to try and get them to remember it!!! Please pray these words will impact their lives, there is SO much in this one verse - confessing to God alone,  God can ALWAYS be trusted to forgive us and HE can take away our sins-powerful lessons.

Club

It is half term and so we had no club this week, the last 3 weeks we have had a winter olympics theme, the first week we did the olympic rings and linked the colours to the gospel,  then we did wipeouts and how when athletes get knocked down they need to get back up again and we need to come back to God and ask him for forgiveness if we wipeout/sin and then last week we looked at coaches and how they play an integral role in the athletes life and how our coach is the Holy spirit he trains, encourages and is integral in our christian lives. Tomorrow I am going to start planning the theme for the next 5 weeks. thanks for your continued prayers   charis

Wet and windy tramore

We were battered here in Tramore over the last few days, but the worst is over (so we hear), I braved the elements and took this picture earlier today.
We had club on Wednesday (the day of the big storm) and because of this there were very few kids out (just 7), which is understandable, but it was nice we had some and were able to continue on regardless!  
I hope you all survived the storm ok?
love charisx

Winter Olympics

We are starting a winter Olympic theme in club for the next few weeks as the Olympics start on the 7th Feb, pray for the kids to have fun but to learn lots about God too. The first week we will use the Olympic rings like the wordless book to share the good news about Jesus.

Club is back

Club started back yesterday, we were very low in numbers (just 8 kids)  that sometimes happens the first week back,  but to be honest it was nice to ease us all back into things with a small week. We were talking about our words and how they can cut like a sword. We used a tube of toothpaste to teach us when words are out they are out and can't be put back in like toothpaste once it is out of the tube it is impossible to get it back into the tube (we tried!)  thanks for your continued prayers for the club

Proverbs 12:18

Contemporary English Version (CEV)

18 Sharp words cut like a sword,
    but words of wisdom heal.

Prayer meetings

Hi all, I have more or less recovered from my recent episode of sickness (I have a bit of a cough and runny nose left over from it)  and now I am preparing to go and speak at a few European Christian prayer meetings, it will be great to meet these praying friends and to update them on my work here in Tramore, please pray for safety on the roads as i will be travelling a lot over the next week and for a good time with these praying friends thanks charis x