A SEAT WITH A VIEW - LAWN COMMUNITY CHURCH

Not every seat that I choose will be a wooden bench - and today it is my seat in Church and not just any old seat, but a lovely bright blue seat because our Church meets in a Community Centre.  You can see Mr. HCB on one side and my friend, Lillieth, on the other and it just so happened we were in the back row - not a place I would normally be, but I wasn’t needed to help lead the worship this week.

Our service today, which was Ability Sunday, was led by the Thursday Fellowship, a Church that meets, you guessed it, on a Thursday, and most of those who attend have what is termed “special needs” but as we were reminded this morning, we all have those at times!

In 2016, Prospects, a charity for people with learning disabilities, became part of Livability, the largest Christian charity in this country caring for those who need help with their living and especially living in community.  Gordon, who works for them told us that he had set up Ability Sunday so that those with special needs could be known for what they CAN do and not what they can’t do.  What a great idea and if you had been there this morning, you would have seen just how much they CAN do.  

I just hope that you can see from my collage today how much enthusiasm there was in our Church today.  These lovely people are so creative and vivacious;  they have so much to give and we can learn such a lot from them.  The theme was “Loving Our Neighbours as we Love Ourselves” and the songs, prayers and sermon helped us to understand that more.  

Several took part in a re-enactment of The Story of the Good Samaritan, ably produced by Frank and you can see Nathan, who took the part of the man set upon by robbers, (left middle of the collage) with stickers that people put on him saying he was "trapped, not needed, hurt and hated" - but after the Good Samaritan and the Innkeeper looked after him all that changed so those stickers were removed and replaced with words that were affirming and not destructive, such as "healed, set free, accepted and loved". Certainly a lesson for all of us in that.

Anthony, (middle right in the collage) sang “Bring Him Home” from Les Miserables, and it was really beautiful - God has given him a wonderful voice and we were delighted to hear him singing.

We sang a song entitled "His Banner Over Me is Love" and we all experienced the wonder of the banner of God’s love over us (middle bottom picture of collage) - what a good job we have some tall people in our Church!

At the end of the service we sang the song “We are Marching in the Love of God" and marched with our banners all round the hall led by Susan, one of our leaders at Lawn Community Church, who helps on a Thursday evening, together with John, Frank,  Crispian and Janet and others, who give of their time and energy every week, and I’m sure are blessed as they give.   Colin, pictured at the bottom left, played his harmonica and what a talent he has.  It was good to see him as I often see him when I am meeting friends in town and sometimes treat him to a cup of coffee - but it was a bonus for me as I had never heard him play before.

All in all a wonderful morning - it was a privilege to have Worship led by this talented group of lovely people - and these verses sum up all that we did:

Whatever work you do, 
     do it with all your heart. 
Do it for the Lord 
     and not for men. 
Remember that you will get your reward 
     from the Lord. 
He will give you 
     what you should receive. 
You are working 
     for the Lord Christ.
Colossians 3 : 23-24 New Life Version