On New Years’ Day we had two parties this year. The first was a party for the elementary age children. This Party was to encourage the children and introduce them to a new activity to be started for them – Children’s Church. We had about 18 out for this event that was held in one of our nearby parks called Three Houses Park. They had a wonderful time. Later in the evening we had our annual Youth Party for the youth group and about 25 came out for that event. There was lots of food and the young people played many table games including Ping Pong.

CHURCH DINNER…

Early in the New Year we have our annual Church Dinner and we had a wonderful crowd out for the event around 80 turned out for the occasion. This is a special thank you dinner for the church. It is also an awards activity for those who did especially well in the Sunday School during the past year. We had great food and wonderful fellowship.

NEW INITIATIVES FOR 2005…

As I write we have had one of the best starts for a year since we have been in our new building at Six Roads. This was fuelled by some new initiatives that we have started in the church.

The first initiative was Children’s Church. We figured the time had come for the smaller children to have a worship of their own, more tailored to their level. So at the beginning of the year we started the Children’s church. This saw immediate success and we have been having attendances in the high 20’s and even as much as 31. One of the comments from the adults summed it up on the first Sunday. She said "I really enjoyed service (Adult worship) this morning, without the distraction of the children I really could concentrate so much more."

The next initiative was a Small Group Ministry. We started from mid-January eight cell groups made up of around 7 to 8 people. We decided to pre-empt Evening Services seeing that that was the most convenient time for the groups to meet. So far this initiative has gone well. Imagine that on every Sunday afternoon we may have as many as 60 people meeting to study God’s Word. We were also able to have a short meeting in late January with Dr. Michael Householder, the author of the series we are studying on Discipleship. He spoke to the Cell Group leaders and shared some ideas and techniques.

The third initiative has been Wednesday Family Fellowship. We decided to try to encourage out our people and youth to make Wednesday night a time for fellowship and worship. We decided to try cooking a meal so that people can come straight from school or work and have a bite to eat then participate in the Bible Study time

So far the initiative has been successful in getting out some of the people who we never used to see on Wednesdays and also over half of those who attend are children. The meal part has not been as successful as we would like it to be, so we will continue to monitor its progress.

The end result of these new initiatives and the new momentum we have seen in the New Year has been that we have had two baptisms and three people placing membership. We look forward to continued growth in the congregation throughout the year.

Our first United Service this year was held on February 6. This year we also made some changes to this activity as well. Throughout the years we have had what we called "All Day Service", which really was a name indicating that we normally had a least 2 services throughout the day – Morning and Evening. In the beginning in the late 50’s early 60’s when it was started it was a fantastic idea. People came from the different churches by chartered buses, packed their lunches and made a day of it. Over the years the situation changed. Most people now come by car and attendances have been good for the morning worship, however few stayed on for the evening worship. So it was time to face reality. As a result the United Service Committee decided to have only one service in the morning. We had a good attendance and a wonderful time of fellowship and worship. Bro. Andrew Best from Enterprise was the speaker and Bro. Wayne Mclean from the Grazettes congregation led in worship.

On February 26 the Ladies Fellowship at Six Roads had their annual Tea Party. This year we had one of the best crowds ever and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves. As entertainment we had special music by some of the youth and the Ladies fellowship, a drama by the youth group, and then we had modeling by some of the youth. The models showcased casual and formal wear by a boutique owned by one of our church members from the Church Village congregation and were well received by the crowd. The proceeds from the Tea Party will be used to buy a Television for the congregation which is much needed especially with the Junior Church.

ALL THE BEST FOR THE NEW YEAR…

We ask your continued prayers and support on our behalf. We would like to wish you all a wonderful and blessed 2005!

Sincerely in Christ,