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January 2019 January 2019
BERE REGIS CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH

Recycling your Christmas tree
Sundays 10.30am Morning Service taken each week by visiting
preachers.
Mondays at 7pm STS (Search the Scriptures) Youth meeting Message from The ELM Branch …
Tuesdays at 9.15am (during term time) Chapel Toddler Group
Tuesdays at 7.30pm Bible Study and Prayer I have spoken to the council and they confirm that they are
unable to collect Christmas trees this year, so, as in many

The following story is taken from the latest book written by Rev. Dr. Clifford Hill previous years, Mike, and daughter Emma, offer to collect it
entitled ‘The Reshaping of Britain’, and is used with his permission. Clifford Hill is an
ordained minister in the Congregational Church, having led multi-ethnic for you.
congregations in London, where his church, which seated 1000 people, was often If you have a garden waste collection, you can cut your real
full. He still exercises pastoral oversight of an inner-city church. He is editor-in-chief
of Prophecy Today UK, the online successor to the magazine of that name, which tree into small pieces and put it in your garden waste
seeks to apply God’s word in the Bible to current affairs.
bin for your first collection after 6 January. Garden waste is
‘My wife and I were speaking to a conference in Adelboden high up in the Swiss taken by the council to be composted.
Alps. It was January and the men’s downhill ski race was taking place on the
mountain slope outside the village. We were not speaking that afternoon so we Real Christmas trees can be taken to the recycling centre at
joined the huge crowds at the foot of the mountain watching the young men Wareham and placed in the garden waste container for
risking life and limb to shave milliseconds off their time on each run. I had a strong
sense that God had a message for me so I carefully watched each competitor, composting, free of charge.
but there was nothing that spoke to me.
Alternatively, you can put your tree outside your house on
Then as we were walking back along the narrow winding path the air was th
suddenly rent with the cries of a child. A little girl about three or four years old Monday 7 January 2019 and we will collect it and shred it.
had evidently slipped underneath the guardrail and was sliding down a steep
slope towards the edge of a precipice with a drop onto rocks below. It was a Please remove all decorations from your tree.
sight I shall never forget – the terror in the child’s eyes and her piercing screams
echoing across the valley from the mountains on the other side. Suddenly Artificial Christmas trees, and trees with decorations
another dramatic event took place as a man whom I later learned was the attached, will not be collected.
child’s father leapt over the guard rail and began running down that steep slope.
He ran so fast that he overtook the child and managed to stop himself and was To make sure we call at your house please email or text
lost in a flurry of snow as he stopped a few yards short of the precipice, sweeping your address to us and we will include you in our round.
up the child into his arms. Then he began the slow climb back up, testing each
foothold before he put his full weight and the weight of the child on it. Mob: 07 419 312 517 michael.menzies@talk21.com
There were hundreds on the path who all stopped to watch the drama of this
rescue, and many arms were reached out over the guardrail to lift the child back The ELM Branch is a partnership between Mike Menzies and Emma Lucy
to her mother and help her father back onto the path and safety. As he climbed
back uphill I heard the Lord say to me “This is what I brought you here to see. Did Menzies (ELM). We have received much business from this parish during the
you see how that father did not hesitate to risk his own life for the sake of the year and so we offer this free service as a way of saying thank you to our
child, that is how much I love my people. customers. (Anyone who wants mature compost please email me.)
I found myself saying “Lord, Your love is wonderful”, but immediately I felt a sense

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