Dear friends,

A belated happy new year to you all!

The picture today is of a statue in Fauske, Norway that marks the arctic circle. Dik and I spend a very happy week in Norway, playing in the snow and celebrating a big-0 birthday of one of my nieces.

This morning I circulated a message on Facebook: ‘You pray for the hungry. Then you feed them. That is how prayer works.’

God bless,

Dineke van den Bogerd

Notes-20250119.pdf
Weekly Notes
Readings-20250119.pdf

Dear Friends,

How are you all holding up in the cold weather? I hope you are all well and warm. Dineke and I managed to pick just this week for a holiday. However, it isn’t warm here either. I’m writing this from the north of Norway, just above the arctic circle. As chance would have it, the temperature here is the same as in the Capel area.
Tomorrow there’s a special Cafe Church, combined with Okewood and Forest Hill. We hope to see you there.

Warm greetings from Valnesfjord, Norway

Dik

Sent from Outlook for iOS<aka.ms/o0ukef>

Readings-20250112.pdf

weekly reading
notes-baptism-of-Christ-newsheet.pdf

Dear friends,

Last Friday I spent a glorious couple of hours on the coast. The sea air and sunshine were very welcome after the dull weather in December. It is quite wonderful how a different environment can conjure up a different outlook on life. It doesn’t have to be the beach or the weather. It can just as easily be a visit of a friend, a book or a craft that can give that lift and a new perspective. We just have to recognise it when it presents itself.

Happy new year and God bless,

Dineke van den Bogerd

Notes-20250105.pdf

Weekly Notes
Readings-20250105.pdf

Happy New Year to all our Readers!

Good plans for the New Year

‘For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon Me and come and pray to Me, and I will hear you. You will seek Me and find Me, when you seek Me with all your heart.’ – Jeremiah 29: 11-13

January24_autocol.pdf

Dear friends,

Last week we had a small fire to dry the chimney before sweeping it.
We hardly ever light a fire these days because we are all too aware that as a means of heating it’s very inefficient: 80% goes out through the flue to heat the great outdoors. Also wood fires have emissions that are not very environmentally friendly and we do have after all a most wonderful heatpump system. This time of year though, when we know the days are lengthening but we don’t quite see it yet, we indulge ourselves once or twice and enjoy a real fire in the grate.

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and that you can soon experience the longer days of spring.
God bless,

Dineke van den Bogerd

notes-20241229.pdf

Weekly Notes
Readings-20241229.pdf

Dear friends,

Today is the shortest day of the year and a star shining in the darkness seemed a good way to mark the hope of Advent. On this last Sunday before Christmas I would like to take the opportunity to wish you a good time and remember that Christmas has value only when followed by Good Friday and Easter.

God bless,

Dineke van den Bogerd

notes-20241222.pdf

Weekly Notes
Readings-20241222.pdf

Dear friends,

It’s the third Sunday of Advent already.
I decided to give you a picture of one of the rooms in the hotel/museum we stayed in when we were in Paris last month. The building is Banksy themed and this particular room was all about boat migrants. It made quite an impression through it’s simple but significant details. Let us follow Jesus’ teaching of welcoming the stranger who knocks on our door, looking for shelter.
Also we hope with them that when the time comes they can move on and be reunited with their loved ones back home as may now be the case for so many Syrians who fled the terror of the Assad regime and its war against his own people.

God bless,

Dineke van den Bogerd

notes-20241215.pdf

Weekly Notes
Readings-20241215.pdf

Dear friends,

This year is the first I have used an Advent calendar (see picture). It has come as a bit of a surprise to me how it focusses the mind on the anticipation of the real Christmas. It serves as a meditation aid, a way to contemplate the imminent coming of Christ, the light of the world, in our darkness.
I hope that we all experience some of that in our busy lives of shopping and prepping for the family get-together, travelling and frivolous, enjoyable pre-Christmas activities. Let us not forget all, far and near, who feel the darkness more than we do and may we be generous with our time and and money.

God bless,

Dineke van den Bogerd

notes-20241208.pdf

Weekly Notes
Readings-20241208.pdf

Dear friends,

The season of Advent starts today: the dark days before the Light of the World is revealed. We count the days (with of without advent calendar) and wait.

Last weekend we were in Paris and the picture today is of the only vineyard in Paris, located on the slopes of Montmartre, a stone’s throw from the Sacré Coeur.

God bless,

Dineke van den Bogerd

notes-20241201.pdf

Readings-20241201.pdf

Welcome to the Christmas 2024 issue.  Wishing all our readers every blessing this Christmas and a happy new year.

“For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.”

publication.pdf