We have received this useful guide as we start to welcome Ukrainians finding refuge in our land. You can download a pdf version of it below.

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Many thanks to all those who were involved in organising and catering for the Lent Course Meal. It was truly a feast to behold and a great opportunity to chat. We were also reminded that Stephen Hawking was a very exceptional sufferer of Motor Neurone Disease, surviving as he did for 53 years after diagnosis: most MND patients die within 2-5 years. We listened to the following video which presented the story of one family’s experience of MND. Carol met her first husband Alex whilst he was serving in the RAF. He contracted MND and sadly died within two years.

Carol is currently doing a walk around Britain with her present husband John in aid of the Motor Neurone Disease Society. We took an offering on the evening of the meal and that is being passed to Carol for the MND Society. If you would like to contribute, you can donate through their Just Giving page. http://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/carol-john-deytrikh-white1

Due to Easter Monday falling on the 3rd Monday, Community Prayers will be on 25th April at 11am this month. Details below.

We’re back outdoors on Good Friday and Easter Sunday. Do come and worship! If you can’t get there, we’re on Felixstowe which can be received locally on FM or through worldwide streaming on the internet.

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You will have seen that our Government launched the Ukraine Sponsorship Scheme on Friday 18 March 2022.  Reportedly, some 150,000 sponsors from across the UK have registered their interest in offering accommodation to Ukrainian refugees (‘guests’) for at least the first six months of their stay in the UK (which is permitted to be up to three years).  Proportionately, that means that there should be about 500 sponsors in Felixstowe – but I currently only know of ten

You may also have seen the challenges of matching sponsors with refugees, set against concerns such as phishing and people trafficking.  Consequently, links have been established between ‘trusted agents’ in Felixstowe (Kim Balshaw and others) and ‘trusted agents’ on the continent (mostly Christian), in order to offer a bespoke and more secure ‘matching service’.  

The briefing flyer below is being sent to our trusted agents on the continent who are already supporting Ukrainian refugees in their own countries.  It gives a summary of the matching service and our support here in Felixstowe.

It is intended to shortly offer all (potential) sponsors in Felixstowe the opportunity to attend a meeting to share knowledge and coordinate our efforts; further details to follow in due course.

Whether you have already registered your interest in becoming a sponsor or are still considering such, please get in touch with the Felixstowe end of the ‘pipeline’ by emailing FelixstoweHelpingHands.Ukraine@gmail.com.

If there are any major issues with this, please do not hesitate to come back to me.

Thanks in anticipation

Blessings

Kim Balshaw

07760 734416

In March we had Andrew Jarrold, representing Churches Together in Suffolk. Andrew talked about some county-wide activities and intitiatives that we in Felixstowe can be and should be associated with. We will give you more information on these in the coming weeks, so please keep looking at this page and look in our social media.

Lightwave www.lightwave.community is a county-wide Christian group meeting throughout the county in small groups based in homes, pubs, schools and other places that works alongside more traditional church. Do check out their website and pray for their activities.

Suffolk in Prayer https://www.light-wave.org/suffolk-in-prayer is very much linked to Lightwave and is a movement of Christians praying for the people and places in this county. We often post prayer materials from Suffolk in Prayer on our social media and it’s a great opportunity to join with other sin the county to both pray for our area, but to also pray for some of the great issues in our nation and world.

The Big Suffolk Prayer Walk is a county-wide prayer walk to be held between 22nd and 24th April 2022. We will post more on this as we get it but it’s an opportunity, to pray with others for our locality and our county. Details are on https://www.suffolkinprayer.uk/bigsuffolkprayerwalk and you register oyur interest with them by email.

Churches Together in Suffolk will be having a tent at the Suffolk Show and we will be giving more information out nearer the time. Here’s some general blurb about the show https://suffolkshow.co.uk/. Please pray for this as plans are being put together for this outreach.

Another initiative associated with the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee is The Suffolk Blessing. Details can be found here: https://www.cofesuffolk.org/suffolk-blessing.php https://www.cofesuffolk.org/suffolk-blessing.php

Andrew left us with by sharing the Ipswich Blessing which we will bless you with below.

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