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Paul and Sarah Tester, our Mission Partners in Peru write: Dear Praying friends, Firstly, thank you for your prayers which we have seen being answered. Be encouraged! It has been a little while since we last wrote and time has been dashing past. After two busy months with lots of activities we are now very close to returning to the UK for a 5 month visit. We’re looking forward to meeting up with many of you over the next few months and catching up on your news. In the meantime we attach the latest news for your prayers. We hope you enjoy the read! As the sharpest of you will notice by the changes to our prayer letter, the South American Mission Society (SAMS – who we were mission partners with) has merged with the Church Mission Society (CMS) and from now on we will be CMS Mission Partners. We are still doing the same things so don’t worry too much about the changes. We also have a related special request – As part of the celebrations of the SAMS / CMS merger there is a big celebration in Oxford on the 22nd May. In the two weeks beforehand there is a tour of the country to share about the merger with a sponsored cycle ride called “Revolution” to raise money for the new organization. Paul’s Dad, David Tester, will be cycling the full 650 mile tour from Hull to Oxford via a devious route! Would you please consider going to the following link and sponsoring David for the huge exertion he’s making to raise money for CMS? There are more details when you click here. Thank you in advance! Thank you again for all of your support. We’ll look forward to seeing many of you in the UK, Paul and Sarah Downloaded the news/prayer letter here.  Photos of Christmas 2009 and New Year 2010 Photos of Sports and Arts Camps in Lima and Arequipa Photos of Día del Amistad / Valentine’s Day Photos of Youth Camp 2010 Photos of Sarah’s Birthday and School Stationery! Development Project Tender Update -posted 07.02.10 Update here. Saturday 20 March Messy Church, St Thomas' -posted 05.02.10 Details of our first Messy Church here. 31.1.10 Parish Situation Update -posted 31.01.10 Listen to the update Slides to go with update At our services on 31 January 2010 the Rector, Matt Barnes updated the congregations of exciting things happening in the parish. He started by telling us how we should define St Thomas': a church that is praying for 1000 hours a year and for 1000 days. He said when we pray things happen and he illustrated this by explaining that there were Four marks of momentum in our Kingdom building ministry. More information here about the 1000 days of Prayer. 1. 30-40 new adults had joined St Thomas' in the last six months. 2. Most of the hurdles had been overcome in St Thomas' Development Project and he expected building work to start in June and be finished by Christmas 2010. There is an important meeting this Friday (4 February) to choose the contractor to carry out the work. Matt urged us to pray particularly for this on Friday. More information here about the Development Poject. There are also a number small projects planned to tidy up St Thomas' 3. Matt said that Rose Cotage, the house in Holymoorside where the minister lives, was not fit for purpose and it was to be sold and a new property purchaced. It was hoped that this would happen by April 2010. 4. St Thomas' were going into partnership with Christian Vision for Men (CVM) who had recently moved their base to Chesterfield. Lent 2010 Podcasts by the Bishop of Derby, Dr Alastair Redfern -posted 19.01.10 Five, fifteen minute discussion based podcasts are being produced for Lent around the theme of Dr Redfern’s latest book Public Space & Private Faith and feature local church leaders in each programme. In addition, The Times Religion Correspondent, Ruth Gledhill, joins in the conversation in various programmes throughout the series. The five podcast titles all look at the general theme of how the Christian faith can retain its place in the public domain. The titles are: 1. Public Space and Private Faith 2. Sofa Messiahs 3. Dreams and Disappointments 4. Playing Our Part 5. Hard Choices The Podcasts will be uploaded onto the Derby Diocese website from Monday 8 February. 3-4 July Canoeing down the River Wye -posted 14.01.10 After last years trip another on is planned. More information here. St Thomas' rotas January/February/March -posted 20.12.09 Available here St Thomas' service themes and readings January/February/March -posted 19.11.09 Available here
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