Week beginning 11 Sept
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Reminder – youth are in the service for worship before their groups on Sunday morning.
Evening Services. The pattern for our services at 6.30 pm will be that the first Sunday of each month is a social Sunday – so no service but a chance to socialize with church family. Second, fourth and fifth Sundays will be at the church building with a mixture of worship, prayer and talks. The third Sunday is given over to Transform – a time of worship - so we are using Balerno Parish church building for those.
Communion in Balerno. We will be restarting communion in Balerno on the morning of Sunday 25 September. We hope to be able to hold a communion service in Livingston in the near future and will give details of that at a later date.
Vacancies on the staff team: We are currently advertising for an Operations Co-ordinator [28-35 hours per week] and a Team Administrator [20 hours per week], both application packs are now available on the vacancies page of our website. If you are interested in the Operations Co-ordinator role, please speak to Dave Lyons [david.lyons@stmungos.org] or for the Team Administrator role, please speak to Wendy Brown [wendy.brown@stmungos.org]. Please do pray for both of these vacancies and the Livingston Youth & Children’s Worker role which is still vacant.
Tech Team volunteers needed! None of our services would be possible without our awesome setup and tech teams, every Sunday they turn up at 8am and get to work building the church you attend, from chairs to sound equipment - it all comes out of storage and put in its place. We are short of team in Balerno and so our current teams are working hard to keep the services running – can you help? No experience is needed, we will give all volunteers training and support and these really are roles that anyone can help with. If you are interested or want more information, please drop an email to fil.stevenson@stmungos.org and we will get you on-board.
Gold for anyone over 60, meets on Tuesday (13 Sept) at 2pm in the Church Building, Ladycroft, Balerno. More information from David and Marjorie Brown.
Certificate in Counselling Course. A new two weekend Christian course will be running in October and November in Balerno which is a great stand-alone course, but also a prerequisite for anyone interested in then doing the full counselling diploma course. More information here: https://www.vitalconnexions.org/accredited/certificate-in-integrative-counselling-a-christian-perspective-edinburgh-2022/
Hosting at the evening services. As we return to regular evening services we would like some new volunteers to help the staff in welcoming people. If you are planning to attend these services from either the Balerno or Livingston congregations and would be interested in being on a rota, then get in touch with kate.yates@stmungos.org.
Livi Men’s Group: We’re back, and all Livi men are invited to a mouth-watering Braai social, on Friday 23 September (from 7.30pm). Sign-up via the ChurchSuite email or speak with Lawrie Hudson.
Livi Congregation Walk: We’d love for you to join us at Beecraigs Country Park on Saturday 24 September (10am at Hillhouse carpark), to catch-up, have a coffee, and for the younger ones among us, scramble around the children’s play park. All members of the Livi congregation are welcome! Sign-up via the ChurchSuite email or through isaac.knight@stmungos.org.
Balerno Company of Men. Thursday 29 September, at the Ministry Centre. Talk by Derek Thomson at 8pm (7.30pm, for refreshments) on “Identity Crisis: pitfalls, potholes and priorities". There will be small group discussion afterwards. Please sign up via the ChurchSuite invitation, further information from Adrian.smith@stmungos.org.
Donations required for the Care Van Team: Imagine spending all day on your feet, getting soaked, then having no fresh dry clothes / shoes to change into...Now imagine some angels turning up and offering you a choice of clean jeans / underwear / coat / shoes... Bliss! Could you help stock up supplies when the Mungo's Care Van team next goes out w/c 19th September? Urgently needed: Men's underwear; coats; sweaters; shoes; boots; joggers. Please contact Susan Smith treasuredartwork@yahoo.co.uk to arrange donation drop-offs, rather than bringing items to church on Sundays. Thank you.
Youth Worship on Thursday 15 Sept at 7.30pm in the church building, Ladycroft Balerno – all youth welcome.
Friday Night Youth 7:30pm in Church Building, Ladycroft, Balerno
Livi Kids on 18 September. Due to the September weekend, and so many people in this group being away, Livi Kids (age 4 to P5) will NOT run during the morning service in St Margaret’s on 18 September. Please note the babies/toddlers and youth will still run as usual. The Livi kids room will be open if anyone needs space out with the service but there will be no team or programme.
Please could all 0-18 parents check and update their child’s photo consent and health information on ChurchSuite.
Minis has restarted. This is the St Mungos run carer and small children group on Tuesday and Wednesday mornings in our church building, Balerno. It is a very popular group in the community on both days and we are always keen to welcome new people to our great teams. If you like to chat to families especially mums, help serve them drinks, and all whilst in a noisy room of children then get in touch with andrea.brewster@stmungos.org (Tuesday) and kate.yates@stmungos.org (Wednesday).
Ukrainian Support Locally: St Mungo’s this week has given a donation of £2,000 to the Pentland Ukrainian Support Group [PUSG] who are working with a significant number of guests in the locality as numbers arriving from the Ukraine continues to grow. This money will go towards two areas of need – 1. Free buses for individuals and families enabling them to travel to English lessons [a number of our congregation run these sessions], searching for jobs and taking children to school and 2. Multi-purpose vouchers for guests to buy personal essential items and warmer clothing as we move towards the autumn and winter months. Please pray for all the volunteers of PUSG as they look to provide support and a safe place for those arriving into the city.
Prayers
Please pray for the Primary Weekend taking place now – over 30 youngsters plus a team of volunteers headed to Scoughall near North Berwick from Friday to Sunday. Please pray for relationships, safety and for Jesus’ love to be clearly taught and demonstrated.
Pray for the St Mungo’s Vestry team as they meet on Wednesday. For wisdom as they discuss budgets and other church governance matters.