Christmas update from Jo Bodsworth (North)

Dear Friends,

Hothorpe Chris welcome Firstly let me take this opportunity to wish you every blessing this Christmas. As we go through the period of Advent and prepare to celebrate the real reason for the season, the birth of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, it is good to thank God for all that he has done for us over the past year – and He has been truly wonderful in so many ways.

The current situation is:

6 new groups have affiliated in the Midlands and North of England during 2008 – with two more coming soon.
12 more churches are currently seeking God’s guidance about starting a Causeway Group.

In addition 2008 has seen me forging good relationships in Wales through Gweini – the Welsh arm of the Evangelical Alliance. I have attended and exhibited alongside other staff at four Gweini conferences now. This is a key area of work as it is difficult to get known in an area that I live so far away from. Please pray for continued and increasing opportunities in Wales.

I have now preached in two churches! This really is an amazing work of God in my life, as I never thought that I would preach or have the gift of preaching. People have said they felt blessed through what I shared and this in turn has blessed me. Thank God for His Grace.

In September we had a Holiday Weekend at Hothorpe Hall. This was a great event. We were fully booked and everybody who attended it really enjoyed themselves. God had set me a challenge to focus the weekend on Romans 12. As usual he came through with the insights and inspiration I needed to bring the teaching alive. Preparing for the weekend I realised it is only at weekends like this that we can really get to grips with the harder bits of the Bible with people with learning disabilities. Ordinary Causeway meetings are often too infrequent for a concentrated look at a single chapter.

I have decided that as my “quarterly” prayer letters seem to get more and more infrequent it might be better for me to try to just give a month’s information at a time, in the same way as my boss, Tony does. I think that setting myself the discipline of adding this into my normal monthly paperwork may mean that I get better at keeping you informed rather than worse! I hope that you agree and we will see how it works through 2009 – Please feel free to nag me if I am failing in this task.

1st December – office day doing monthly reports and prayer letter
2nd – meeting with Nick my minister to talk about my preaching
3rd – Christmas shopping with Malcolm and visiting a dear friend Vera who is in hospital.
4th – I have various notes that need typing up from various meetings
5th – my map has got very out of date and I need to update it!
6th – A day to clean the house
7th – Projection duty at my church for both morning services.
8th – writing a training workshop on Craft
9th – A Skype call with Tony, Pete and Fiona
10th – Helping Malc fit new carpets in Amy’s flat.
11th – Phoning round some of the 12 contacts and getting dates in the diary for January/February
12th – Down to Cardiff to pick up Becca for Christmas
13th – Going to see dear friends Derek and Sheryl Bond in Simply Christmas in Nottingham.
14th – A free Sunday!
15th – More of those phone calls to those wanting to start Causeway Groups
16th – Monthly paperwork needs doing before I go on leave.
17th – It’s my eldest Grand-daughters 8th birthday today and I shall be going round to see her after school
18th – Checking through if everything is up-to-date before Christmas and doing any last minute bits
19th – Amy’s birthday today – I think we shall have Shannon overnight
20th – A day to clean the house
21st – time to juggle! Projection duty and communion duty at church this morning
22nd December – 2nd January – Toil and leave – time for work, rest and play – hmmm that reminds me of chocolate! And there will probably be lots of that too.

And Finally… I have recently started a Just Giving page through which you can give to the work of Causeway Prospects should you want to. My post is funded purely through gift income so every penny counts! Thank you. The web address is www.justgiving.com/jobodsworth1

Thank you for all your prayers and Happy Christmas!

Jo Bodsworth
66 Leicester Road, Narborough, Leics. LE19 2DG.

0116 286 7392
job@prospects-uk.org
http://www.prospects.org.uk/