BH Bulletin - Tuesday 10 November 2020

Thought for the Day by Ben Martin (Curate)

​The night draws in. You sit down on the sofa just for 5 minutes rest. But as your mind ticks through the various bits on your to do list your weariness only increases. Maybe at such a time you find yourself thinking ‘if only there were more hours in the day’ or perhaps ‘if only I didn’t feel this tired’ or perhaps ‘I don’t even know why I feel like this’.

If like me it sounds familiar then listen to the words of Psalm 103:13-14:

As a father has compassion on his children,
    so the Lord has compassion on those who fear him;
for he knows how we are formed,
    he remembers that we are dust.
 
The Lord knows how you are feeling. The Lord knows that you have limits. The Lord knows that we are creatures. And, just like a loving Father he has compassion on his children, so the Lord looks upon and us and has compassion.
 
One of our top goals as a church this year has been to increase Mental Health Awareness, and so far we have been able to run the ‘Living Well’ Course numerous times. Currently there is a communication workshop happening, we are in the process of appointing Mental Health First Aiders and looking ahead to a sermon series which will gently help us consider our own mental health from the Scriptures.
 
But here is one thing we can all do today.
 
Remember we are human. Don’t be hard on yourself because you feel tired or down. It’s OK to not be OK. But in those moments remember this… you are not alone. Most significantly we have a loving Father who has compassion upon us.
 
But we also have each other. And just as our Father has compassion upon us, we too have compassion for each other. So, asking for help or saying I’m not OK, is not weakness, its simply remembering that we are creatures, who are but dust. And that is OK.
 
So why not be bold, pick up the phone, call someone and say ‘how are you doing? Because truthfully today I’m not doing that well…’
 
The Lord knows how we are formed and has compassion upon his children.
​Ben

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Exciting News from Books Alive

​Dear Church Friends
I hope you are managing life in this latest lockdown. Who would have believed what 2020 had in store for us??  As I have previously reminded you, we are still open for click and collect and I have already been busy doing that this week.  However, I wanted to let you know about an exciting addition to online buying possibilities in the UK which will benefit us here at Books Alive.
You may have heard already of the launch of bookshop.org - we now have our own shopfront on that website - https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/booksalive - if you click this link it will take you there.  There are a number of recommended books, but you can search for any book from there, including non-Christian books that we wouldn’t normally stock.  The purchase is not made from us, which is why you can order other books, but provided you order starting at this link we will benefit from the sale.  I am not recommending this as an alternative to coming to us direct (we still want to be able to see you in person and our aim in being here at all is to provide a physical presence, which we believe is superior to the online shopping experience) but I am aware that at this time online shopping may be the only way forward for you and at least this offers you a way of supporting us at the same time.
I’d love to hear your comments and feedback, it’s all new and we’re feeling our way.  One final important reminder – for Books Alive to benefit from any purchases you make in this way, you do need to start at our page and you will hopefully recognise the inside of the shop on the banner!
Gillian Carr

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