NETWORK
Ardeer Parish Church Magazine
June 2015
NAME / POSITION / PHONE NUMBER / E-MAIL ADDRESSK WELCH / Interim Moderator / 01475 675259 /
REV D HEBENTON / Interim Minister / 01294 829228
K TUDOR / Session Clerk / 470008 /
J DUNWOODIE / Treasurer / 466895 /
R McMILLAN / Elder / 556014 /
M BRANNAN / Elder / 466017 /
F BURNETT / Elder / 469737
M CRAIK / Elder / 214733 /
J CUNNINGHAM / Elder / 466174
J DUFF / Elder / 466545
G EASTON / Elder / 463269 /
A EWART / Elder / 601117
G FERGUSON / Elder / 467742
C GRAYSTON / Elder / 468992 /
R KELSO / Elder / 468264 /
I MAGNESS / Elder / 465724 /
M MONTGOMERY / Elder / 605110 / .
P MOORE / Elder / 469883
J MCGARVA / Elder / 461365 /
M MCKINNEY / Elder / 464940
PW MCLELLAN / Elder / 464778
J NIVEN / Elder / 467788 /
D ORR / Elder / 468345
J RAMSEY / Elder / 462688
M ROLLEY / Elder / 461963
A SANDS / Elder / 469287
D THOMSON / Elder / 469067 /
M THOMSON / Elder / 469067 /
On 31 May we have a preparatory service and admission of new communicants.
The celebration of Holy Communion takes placeon the firstSundayin March, June, September and December. These are dates that you may wish to put in your diary as it is important that we meet as a congregation at the Lord's Table on a regular basis.
Doesn’t time fly! It seems that celebrations for Christmas and New Year were hardly over before we were celebrating Easter and here we are at the start of the Summer. A time when it is claimed that the church takes a breath before a new session comes along. The organizations have ceased for a break and soon our thoughts will be turning to summer holidays.
For Ardeer and Livingstone, there is no respite this year as the nominating committee continues with its task of finding a suitable candidate to recommend as the next minister of the linked charge. We all hope that their work will be blessed and that they will be able to report sooner rather than later. However, we must be patient as there is a great shortage of people entering the ministry.
In Ardeer, We see the start of the Refurbishment programme and the church circled with scaffolding which should give us enormous encouragement for the future. However, we can’t sit back as further fund raising is required to get the first stage of the work completed but this is a task that we should be happy to take part in.
Maybe the church is able to take a short break, but God never rests. We read in Psalm 121, “Where shall I find help? Help comes only from the Lord, maker of heaven and earth. How could he let your foot stumble? How could he your guardian, sleep. The guardian of Israel never slumbers or sleeps, The Lord will guard you against all evil and he will guard your going and your coming”.
As I am writing these notes, the terrible events in Nepal are unfolding and we inevitably have that feeling, where is God when all this carnage is taking place. The one thing that we can be sure of is that God is there in the midst supporting those affected in so many different ways. In our own country £19m was raised in a matter of hours to support the rescue mission which is an example of love for others and I am sure that this is also replicated in other countries.
Why do these things happen? The short answer is we don’t know. The geologists can tell us how the earth plates move but they cannot answer all the questions and none of us know why disasters occur from time to time. We can know that God does care because the bible tells us so and the fact that God allowed his Son to suffer for our sins on the cross at Calvary shows us the depth of His love for us.
In Paul’s letter to the Corinthians, he states, “Now we see only puzzling reflections in a mirror, but then we shall see face to face. My knowledge now is partial; then it will be whole, like God’s knowledge of me. In a word, there are three things that last for ever: faith, hope and love; but the greatest of them all is love.
May we continue to be disciples for our Lord, showing our love for all around us and enjoy whatever rest we are able to gain in the months ahead
With every blessing,
Ken Welch, Interim Moderator
Treasurer’s Report May 2015
General Funding
Regular Offerings to end April 2015 total £10,165 which equates to a weekly average of £598. This figure is similar to the average weekly income received in 2014.
In addition a donation of £1,000 has been received from ASFaCT for use of the premises during 2014/2015.
Major items of expenditure over the above period include:
Salaries £1,400 Energy Costs £2,144
Insurance £1,256 Ministerial Costs £7,858
Work is presently in hand to prepare our Gift Aid application to HMRC for the 2014/2015 period.
In additional a claim against the Small Donations Gift Aid Scheme (for non-Gift Aided donations) covering the period April 2013 to April 2015 has been submitted to HMRC.
Stewardship Campaign
Planning for our Stewardship campaign continues. The culmination of the Programme will be an evening event to be held on Wednesday 7th October 2015. Please note this date in your diary. Literature to support the project is presently being prepared and preparations are in hand to obtain a visitation team to visit all members of the Congregation with an invitation to the event. The success of our campaign will be dependent on reaching all our members with a view to increasing our current levels of income. We will therefore be approaching a number of individuals for support over the next few weeks. Your assistance will be very much appreciated.
Restoration Fund
You will of course be aware that work on the building restoration has commenced.
It is anticipated that the work will take approximately 20 weeks in total
We are grateful to the following organisations for their financial support to the congregation:
Heritage Lottery Fund Landfill Tax Credits (ENTRUST)
NAC Community Fund NAC Education Grant
Robertson Trust Awards for All Scotland
Ferguson Bequest Fund Baird Trust
Dalrymple Donaldson Fund Garfield Weston Trust
Gen Trustees of Church of Scotland Gloag Foundation
Beatrice Laing Foundation Foyle Foundation
In addition to the above grants we are grateful to our members for their continued support to our restoration fund. To date we have raised £41,000 locally.
Also, a loan facility has been agreed with General Trustees to allow the work to start. This will need to be paid back over the next few years, using a combination of additional Grant funding plus ongoing monthly congregation donations to the Restoration Fund. Your continued support by way of on-going regular donations is as ever much appreciated.
If you do not currently support the Restoration fund but feel you are now in a position to do so, please contact either Margaret Montgomery or myself who will be only too pleased to provide you with donation envelopes or Bank Standing Order form.
Jim Dunwoodie (Treasurer)
Work has commenced on the Restoration with the Scaffolding going upon Tuesday28th and Wednesday29th, so I guess its watch this space. We have at least 9 if not 10 communicants attending the communicants class so look forward to receiving them into full membership on the31st of Mayand Celebrating Communion on the7th June 2015.
Kay Tudor
Children's Church
At this time of year we're planning for several events. In June we hope to have the Trip and the Prizegiving which marks the end of our session and heralds the start of the summer club. We've also been working hard with people from Livingstone and the High Kirk on this years Summer Mission. Here are a few dates for the diary;
Mega Fun Day - The fun day will be onSaturday 25th Julyin the grounds of the High Kirk Manse2pm - 4pm.
Mega Makers -Monday 27th - Thursday 30th JulyMega Makers is for children going in to primary 2 in August 2015 to children in Primary 7. It will start at 11.00 and finish about 1.15 and there will be a bus to take children from both Ardeer and Hayocks.
Youth Nights -Wednesday 29th and Thursday 30th Julythere will be 2 evening events for children in Primary 6 - Secondary 4. We're also hoping to take some of the teenagers to the Clan Gathering at Kelburn Country Park just before the Summer Mission starts.
There will be lots more information coming out nearer the time but put these dates in your diary now, and pray for good weather for the Fun Day.
Jean Robertson
The Guild
‘Whose We Are and Whom We Serve’
The Guild has now completed a very successful session.
We have enjoyed lots of interesting speakers. There are too many to mention but Vivian Macdonald’s talk about her trip to Greenland, Canon Martin Poland’s speaking about his work as a parish priest and Isabel Beck explaining her work in the diaconate ministry were all highlights.
Alan Morrison – a well known author was very amusing and had everyone laughing with his Scottish sayings and stories.
After hearing about the work of Help For Heroes we were able to make a generous donation towards this very worthwhile charity.
Linda Whitby told us about Therapets and the two dogs were very popular with all the women.
Every week we have a table to sell unwanted gifts and other items. This is a great success and helps to raise funds.
As usual the joint concert with Livingstone Guild was enjoyed by everyone.
Our outings to the pantomime at Ayr Gaiety, shopping to Silverburn and lunch at the Corran Inn were all well attended.
This year the Guild was able to make a donation towards the work of
1st Stevenston Boys’ Brigade , 1st Stevenston Girls’Brigade and to the Sunday School.
Mr Douglas Orr took a great photograph of the whole Guild and everyone received a framed copy.
At our AGM all office bearers were re-elected for another session and planning is now underway for next year.
Over the last few months the boys’ brigade have been very busy.
We have been involved in the recent battalion competitions; winning a silver in the general knowledge, third with our pool team and fourth in the figure marching. In addition we took first place in the story writing competition and second in the drawing competition.
The anchor boys enjoyed a pyjama party with a visit from the “mini beasts” although some were not so mini!
Other activities over the recent past have been a visit by the company section to Adsa to learn about money management. Also a red nose party was held when we all came to boys’ brigade dressed in red and finally, some of our boys took part in this year’s Dasher parade.
All the boys took part in a sponsored walk along the shore between Stevenston and Saltcoats. Of course only the company section did the full walk but together they raised £290. The officers were very proud of this effort. The company section have just come back from a visit to Edinburgh where they visited the dungeons – now that was SCARY. We also walked the royal mile, had fun watching the street entertainers and visited the Edinburgh history museum. We ended with a visit to McDonalds for dinner.
The camp this year was to P G L (that’s parents get lost for the older members who may not know what that stands for). The boys had a great time and took part in lots of activities from zip wiring to the climbing wall and much more besides.
The primary four boys and our seniors had a sleep over at Dunure, where they climbed rocks; skimmed stones in the water and played at the Swing Park and, of course, had ice cream.
We have planned fishing trip for the company section in June and the anchor boys are going to Heads of Ayr Farm Park for their trip this year. Also in June boys in junior and company sections will be taking part in another sponsored walk in Largs, called “walk a mile in their shoes”. Where money raised will be shared with ssafa who give lifelong support to our Forces and their families.
We are so pleased to announce that another boy will be receiving his president’s badge. You will have to wait for the next Network to hear all about this.
All the officers would like to say thank you to all who have helped us this year.
And finally, our updates will be reported on our Facebook page to keep up with the latest information.
Eileen McColgan
Girls Brigade Parents Night was held on the 28th of April (we finished early due to the work commencing,) we had a super turn out of Mums, Dads and Grans.
The Explorers showed how they learned about different countries incorporating “He's got the whole world in his Hands” and using the countries they learned about as special places. Explorer of the year was April, with Emily and Morgan as therunners up.