Last week, in the lead up to Easter, we held two online services to remember loved ones we have lost in the last year. Since March last year, more than fifty families from King’s have gone through the pain of seeing family members or friends pass away, mostly as a result of Covid. As part of the services, we showed a couple of videos remembering and honouring all those connected to King’s who have passed away. It was deeply moving to stand together and grieve the losses of the last twelve months, and I thought I’d take the opportunity to show them again here:

Catford & Beckenham

Downham & Lee

We continue to pray that the love of Jesus and the comfort of the Holy Spirit would surround all those suffering loss at this time.

Over the next three Sundays, we have the privilege of welcoming some excellent guest preachers to King’s. This Sunday, we have Ben Lindsay, CEO and founder of the charity 'Power the Fight' and author of We Need to Talk About Race. As well as our usual online services, we also have in-person family services at Catford, Downham and Lee. These are booking up fast, so if you have primary aged children and would like to attend, please reserve your place as soon as possible.

I love this time of year, with signs of new life everywhere. Spring this year has been particularly welcome, after so many months of winter lockdown. Like many of you I am enjoying being able to meet up with a few friends and family outside again, and the warm weather of the last few days has made it even better.

As the Covid situation continues to look more positive in the UK, we are moving ahead with our plans to start opening up services again at King’s. I shared some important details about these plans in a video at last week’s service, but as things are moving fast, I thought it would be helpful to show it again here.

This Easter weekend, we will be hosting two services at our Catford, Downham and Lee sites on both Good Friday and Easter Sunday. We would love you to join us, but places are booking up fast, so please reserve yours now if you would like to come along. We will of course be meeting online as well on both Good Friday and Easter Sunday.

At the beginning of last year, I had the yellow fever vaccine. Our first trip to Zambia required us to have this before we travelled there, and we needed a vaccine certificate to be allowed through immigration. I don’t know much about yellow fever, and to be honest I didn’t do a lot of research into the vaccine, but I trusted the scientists and medical professionals who had made it possible. Also, I wanted to go to Zambia and didn’t want to catch yellow fever!

Last Sunday we showed an interview with two of our medical professionals about the new Covid vaccines, and I thought it would be good to give you another opportunity to watch it. We know some people have had concerns about the vaccine, and we thought it would be helpful for you to hear from a couple of medical professionals in the King’s community who have a lot more knowledge and expertise in this area than I have!

It has been amazing to see the phenomenal pace at which vaccines are being rolled out here – as I write, some 30 million doses have now been administered in the UK. I am glad to say that Deb and I have had our first jabs, and my parents had their second this week. We are very grateful for the scientists and medical professionals who have made this possible – after such a difficult year, it is good to have some positive news and with it, the hope of better times on the way.

WE REMEMBER


We have now passed the one-year anniversary of lockdown in the UK, and there is no doubt that it has been a challenging time for us all. However, many in our King’s family have been affected by Covid in the most tragic way. Sadly, over 50 families have lost a family member to this terrible illness. Next week we are holding two remembrance services – on Tuesday for Downham and Lee, and Wednesday for Catford and Beckenham. The services are open to all, and details can be found on our Events page. These services on Zoom will have worship, prayer, words of encouragement and a video tribute to those we have lost. We will share stories of hope in the midst of tragedy. This is a great opportunity for us to stand together as a community as we remember the losses of the last year.

Over Christmas, I was invited by my friend Scott Marques in Zimbabwe to join a group praying for a church-planting, kingdom-building project in Nampula, Mozambique. The group included people from UK, Holland, USA, Zimbabwe, as well as Mozambique itself. We committed to praying regularly for three months, asking God for breakthrough in areas where the work has been facing significant pressure. One of these was the need for rain. The rainy season in Mozambique had begun, but very little had fallen by the end of December and water levels were becoming worryingly low. We prayed that God would send the rain. By the end of February, the situation had become more severe – still no rain. With only four to five weeks’ supply left in reservoirs and the end of the rainy season approaching, the region was facing the prospect of a severe drought. Without the precious provision of rain, the local community and the kingdom-business would be in crisis.

One morning early in March, I read a chapter about rain in Andrew Wilson’s excellent new book, God of All Things. In it, Andrew likens rain to the grace of God: we do nothing to deserve it, nothing to earn it; it falls on both the just and unjust; God sends life-giving, thirst-quenching rain because HE is generous and kind, not because we are. (God of All Things is out now, and I highly recommend getting hold of a copy.) As I finished the chapter I was stirred to pray for Mozambique again. A couple of days later, I heard  that it had rained more in Nampula in the previous two days than it had in all of January and February put together. It was a great encouragement to our friends on the front line of kingdom extension in Mozambique, and to me – God hears our prayers!

I am glad to report that rain has continued to fall over the last few weeks, and the reservoirs are now almost full, praise God. I thought you might like to see this video sent by Scott just this week, showing the full-flowing waters in one of the local reservoirs in Nampula. I encourage you to watch it right to the end for a glimpse of some of the local wildlife!

Please do pray for our brothers and sisters in Mozambique, who still face significant challenges. Let’s pray for the project to be firmly and securely established and for the Gospel to be fruitful in that region.