New Year, and Renewal

Today was mine and Seren's first time back at church since the Carols by Candlelight service, and we couldn't wait to get back in there!

What with Seren's chest infection (which she now seems to have almost completely recovered from) and our spending New Years in Wales, our attendance has been patchy since we started there, but there's nothing stopping us now!

We were expecting Seren to be in the 'Kids at Church' group today, but because it was the Annual Renewal service, the kids stayed in the chapel with the adults. They weren't bored though, they had some arts and crafts to do to keep them busy!

The renewal service was a time to reaffirm our promise to God, and to each other as congregation members.

The question being asked was "What will you choose, who will you choose?"

And the key verse was "Choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve." (Joshua 24:15)

For me, this service came at the perfect time, at this point in my life, where that is exactly what I needed to do - to choose to serve the Lord. And yet again, I was amazed at just how relevant it all was to me, how much God was speaking directly to me.

Various people spoke during the service, showing us that in order to renew ourselves today, we need to first look backwards, to see where we have been. And of course, that's what I've been doing on this blog all afternoon. Showing you where I have been, so that you can see my journey going forwards. And so that's what I was doing at church this morning, thinking about how I had wandered away from the Church and from God, and how all of a sudden, God had turned me around and plonked me right back into the thick of things.

There was a lot of looking back over 2009. They showed a video of several church members looking back over what had happened to them in 2009, and how God had sustained them through the year, and then they showed those people talking about what God might have in store for them in 2010.

The arts and crafts items that the children were making tied in nicely with this, as they were decorating bunting flags, and each child was able to select a few flags to decorate.

Seren chose one which said "In 2009, Jesus was my friend," and one which said "In 2010, Jesus will be there for me," and she coloured them in very prettily, explaining to me that she had coloured what she felt were the most important words on the flag in one colour (Jesus, my, and friend on the 2009 flag; and Jesus, there, and me on the 2010 flag), and coloured the rest of the words multi-coloured. :o)

I love the way she thought more deeply about it, and got her own message from Jesus out of the task, not just blithely colouring in the words and shapes.

And then, it was time for everyone to look forward to 2010, to renewing their promise to God. Two speakers talked to the congregation about looking forward into 2010, and the promises we could make to God and to the church.

Firstly, they talked about some personal promises, from me to God, which I could be making. The ones which jumped out to me most today were to promise to read the Bible daily, to talk more about my faith, and to think about moving forward in my journey, by becoming a church member or being baptised. Those are the ones which really hit me hard, the ones that I felt God meant for me to think about. And, just by starting up this blog today, I have already made good on one of my promises, to talk more about my faith!

The Church promises were ones such as coming to church more often, supporting fellow church members, taking the church out into the community, and supporting the church with talent, time or money.

And then, if we wanted to actually make those promises, to God and to the Church, there were two things we could do. To make our promise to God, to choose to serve him in 2010, we could choose to 'drop the pebble into the bucket' (or in this case, the glass pebble into the bowl), and to make our promise to help 'build up' the Church, we could choose to add our names to a Lego brick, and build a little wall with all our names.

And so, yet again, there were physical ways to worship. The first service we attended, it was dressing up as a cow and an angel and re-enacting Jesus' birth. The second service, it was me taking part in my first communion. This time, it was choosing to get up, go to the front of the church, and drop the glass pebble into the bowl, as a symbol of my promise to serve the Lord in 2010.

It doesn't sound like much, just dropping a glass pebble into a bowl, but it meant so much. At the end of November 2009, I was so far away from my faith, and now, today, the 10th January 2010, less than two months later, I was standing at the front of the church, promising to serve the Lord in 2010. Incredible.

Thank you Lord! Thank you for bringing me back!

And to be dropping my glass pebble into the bowl alongside my precious daughter, well ... I couldn't have been happier.

And then, together, we wrote our names on the Lego bricks, and we helped to build that little Lego wall. Our names are now on those bricks, in that wall. We are now part of that wall. Part of that church. I can't believe it! Less than two months ago, I was, as I just said, so far away from my faith, and all alone, trying to struggle through my emotions on my own. Now Seren and I have a new church family. I can't believe it!

Thank you Lord! Thank you for bringing us to our new church family and bringing us home!

We made our way back to our seats on a total high, and we stood together in our pew, and I belted out the hymns with my arm around Seren's shoulders and my heart flying. I was exactly where I was supposed to be, and Seren was right by my side. It was beautiful.

My only sadness was that Dylan wasn't right there with us. I know that he has his autism, and I know he has his developmental delays, so he's not able to participate in things like church services and 'Kids at Church' really yet - he hasn't got that level of understanding. But I can see the amazing progress he's made so far, and so, I am hoping and praying that if I'm patient, then one day, he will be able to become part of church as well. For now, just to be able to share this experience with Seren is an incredible blessing.