Page 17 - July2023

July 2023 July 2023

Bere Regis is a very active scout group. Currently we have around 24 Beavers; 16
Cubs; 20 Scouts; 12 Explorers and a core team of around 15 adult leaders. We BISHOP’S LETTER
also welcome support from parents to help out. We have children and young
people from outside the village. Our Explorers are called the Kingsbere Explorers
to reflect the wider geographic nature of the group. July Letter
We have a great Scout hut but we I write this at the end of no mow May, and during
also go to places like the Budden a week when we are remembering to care for
Activity Centre and Rockley Water God’s acre, so I am thinking about all those who
Park. We canoe, build rafts, do serve in many ways tending our churchyards and
caving, climbing, abseiling. In the enabling them to be places where God’s
winter the whole group might do a creation and God’s presence can be
night hike, a short one for the experienced. Thank you.
Beavers, several miles for the As Patron of the Dorset wildlife trust’s living
Explorers. In the summer we go churchyard project, I recently toured a local
camping. The older ones might do a
hike and camp in Briantspuddle using
Trek carts to pull their equipment. You churchyard which has been
might have seen them in the village. transformed into an oasis, with
They sleep in hammocks and I go wild flowers, bench seating
along because I love sleeping in and even some bee hives,
hammocks. tended by a local bee keeper,
in the corner. In another part of
This July we are doing a camp at Sixpenny Handley for the whole Bere Regis Dorset, I recently dedicated a
group (and with lots of parent helpers!). We are very fortunate in Dorset, there are village meadow, where there
lots of sites to use. are plans to offer bees, birds
and visitors a welcome
Janey: Tell me about the trip to Borneo? amongst carefully planted

Emma: The trip to Borneo is the third trip our Explorer Scout Group has done, shrubs, trees and flowers. I look
Nepal 2013, Kenya 2017 and now Borneo 2023, which was delayed due to forward seeing it in future
COVID. We try to organise the trips so that every Explorer can get to go during years.
their time. But I have been on all of them and I am off to Borneo this year! Community orchards and gardens are also transforming lives as produce grown is
Each trip is for four weeks and we see the country, meet local people (in Kenya shared out and given away. The abundance of creation’s riches on our doorstep
we ran a camp with a local Scout Group) and we do one or more activities to is for all to enjoy. Our task as God’s stewards is to unlock the possibilities, and I
benefit the area. In Borneo we are planting fig trees to provide “highways” for encourage you to do that; to take a look at what is outside your church and see
wildlife between forest areas. the potential; take time out to sit and pray; make the most of time away walking
or sitting in a different environment; surprise someone by giving them some of your
Although each individual Explorer Scout pays for themselves, we run fund raising home grown produce. For as the psalmist experienced: ‘The Lord is my shepherd, I
events. Any Explorer Scout who helps at the event gets share of the profits to go lack nothing. He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet
towards their trip. The Borneo Breakfasts at the Scout Hut each month have been waters, he refreshes my soul’. Have a good summer.
amazingly popular locally and a good fund raiser but the last one will be on
Saturday 24 June! So, get there early! Bishop Karen
Janey: You are clearly pretty busy, do you find time for anything else?
Emma: Well, I am involved in the Bere Regis Swimming Club, which is a children’s

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