Hi, 
Hope this finds you well.
Clearly, there are many things affected by the pandemic - obvious ones which we all experience most days, if not every day.
An unusual one I heard about on Radio Scotland was that for MI5 covert spying missions it was tricky following people on the streets...there just aren't enough other people on the streets to avoid being  spotted. An alternative message from the Government would need to be  Do Not Stay at Home - Protect the Secret Service - Save them the bother of buying lots of false moustaches etc.  Anyway, one more thing affected by the safety measures we are all involved in is that the Blythswood Boxes won't be at Maxwell this year. That's a pity because so many people, young and old have been involved over these weeks in Oct and November.  More of that in the mag below.

Other ministries carry on though, in Maxwell, around the Mearns, in Scotland and across to the other side of the world...I think we cover all the bases this week.

Enjoy the mag!

Magazine No.28   (16th October)

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News from the Manse
 

Dear Congregation,

 

“The Word One To One”

The Kirk Session has been encouraging us to build into our lives a desire to share the Gospel in a simple way with friends and family. To this end, we are being encouraged to use “The Word One To One” material.
As I look forward to leading us in worship this coming Sunday (18th October) I am delighted that I will be able to introduce Mark Campbell who promotes this project in Scotland. Mark will share a little about this at the start of the service.
A good number of you have already taken booklets. Let’s all try and find one person to open John’s Gospel with. Remember to share online by zoom or by some other platform, you can download the exact same booklet. Simply go to our website; www.maxwellmearns.org and press the “Church Life” tab >  then press the “Reaching Out” tab and scroll to the bottom of the page. You see all 11 booklets listed and available for download.
 

Visiting Speaker

As Pauline advances God’s Story this Sunday, I have asked Sean Brennan to preach on a related passage. Sean has spoken in the past at our evening service and is currently an apprentice at the Tron.  Sean worked last year for Christians In Sport and several of our young folk met him when attending Christians In Sport events.
 

Leave Of Absence

I am well into my treatment at the Beatson in South Lanarkshire. I am currently in good shape. However, there are these pesky side-effects that swirl around. These may increase over the next few weeks. I will be on leave of absence from 19th October till 16th November. I am delighted that we will still worship and have God's Word preached. I am eager to hear how God will speak to us through those who fill the pulpit.
Unfortunately, also when I go away at any time, I have to think of the possibility of there being a funeral service in my absence. Stuart Crawford and Joe Kavanagh have kindly agreed to assist should this be necessary. If you have need to arrange a funeral please contact directly;
Rev Stuart Crawford 19th -31st Oct   (Tel. 0141 239 2140 or 07912534280)
Rev Joe Kavanagh    1st – 15th Nov  (Tel. 0141 384 2218 or  07508047388)
 

Worship In These Coming Weeks

 Remember to sign up early for worship please using this link.
https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/maxwell-mearns-castle-church-sunday-morning-worship-tickets-117847381691

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Blythswood Boxes

It's very disappointing that this year the Church garage won't see the usual hive of activity as thousands of Christmas boxes are checked and filled for heading out to those in need across the world. For safety, it has been decided that we will not receive and check on our premises this year.
Sometimes it takes missing something like this to make us realise how thankful we should be for all that has been achieved over the years.
We are thankful to the Lord for being in a place where we can bless by giving, thankful too for an opportunity to serve.
And, we need to thank all the teams of past that have helped, young and older but especially Lesley Young and Denise Lowson for heading up the ministry in recent years.
Denise writes, 
Blythswood are sending the van around Scotland in a couple of weeks time. It is planned for boxes to be sorted in Evanton, Hillington and churches in Edinburgh, Perth, Kilmarnock and Irvine.  Of course they have no idea of the volume of donations but we can pray that people are able to support this ministry.
We have been told that volunteers would be welcome at Hillington but of course this is not as convenient as our own halls.
Pray for those who will go without in these poor places that Covid hits in so many different ways

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Stefan and Martina

It was great to have news from Stefan and Martina Suesmuth, who are working with Navigators in the student ministry in Shizuoka, Japan.
There are two short videos on the Pulse page of the Church web site.  Really worth watching to get a flavour of what they are doing and see how cute their kids Lasse and Jonas are.

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Did you know Maxwell has a You Tube channel.  
Last week we asked you to subscribe to our Youtube channel because we want to be famo...eh, because we will soon be moving more content onto that platform. We did quite well with a few more subscribers but still way short of where we want to be which is really famo...eh, in a good place for moving across.  Get clicking.

It's totally free, and there is no annoying follow up (except here on the magazine if we don't get enough subscribers.)

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Update from David Swan and the ministry at 

I am now working 4 days a week in prison – 2 days in the Young Offenders Institution in Polmont and 2 days in Edinburgh – 1 day as a chaplain and 1 day as a Junction 42 prison worker.

Junction 42 are piloting a new way of doing Alpha in the prisons which we are going to roll out on the remand wing in Edinburgh first.  This involves giving weekly packs to the guys so they can watch and interact with the video content in their cells and then we follow up one to one each week to chat about it and give them the next weeks pack.  Pray we will learn much from this and give thanks for the partnership we have with Alpha UK for this.


We continue to support guys getting out of Polmont and Edinburgh with our programme called Work Out – trying to coach the guys back into purposeful activity be it volunteering work or training.  Pray for Kathy who is leading this that she will have many more workers to expand this work.

Connect Edinburgh continues to meet to worship and encourage.  We are running a community Alpha at the moment.

Pray for a guy I have engaged with in the past who is going through tough times – I have no contact details for him but pray we would re-connect.
It is hard going for many guys just now – pray for God’s protection around them and for us to endure in doing all we can to support.

Thanks for your continued love and prayers
David
For further information about this valuable ministry, please visit www.junction42.org.

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Statement About Role of Church Officer

The Congregational Board is saddened to announce that it has concluded that the Church cannot continue employing a Church Officer.

As a result of the imminent withdrawal of the Job Retention Scheme, next year’s forecast financial position and changing needs of the church which can be met in a more cost-effective way, the Board has taken the difficult decision to discontinue the role of Church Officer. Consequently, Stewart Falconer’s employment is coming to an end as at 31 October 2020, albeit he has been given dispensation to remain in the church-owned flat until 31 March 2021 at the latest.
 
The Board asks for the congregation’s prayer for Stewart, Claire and the boys as they make arrangements for a new job for Stewart and new accommodation.
 

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