2008 Archived News

 

December 2008

 

Christmas celebrations in ICF started on Sunday 14th December will the Church Christmas party which took place after the service. It was a fantastic party. Great food, great games and just loads of fun.

 

Then on 16th December on a cold and wet evening a number of people from ICF went round the streets surrounding the school that we meet in singing carols and putting leaflets through letterboxes inviting people to come to the service. There were 400 leaflets, so there were lots of walking and lots of singing. Praise the Lord for being able to sing about the wonder of His coming and to invite people to come and hear more.

 

Then on 21st December we had our Christmas Service. The children from the Sunday School gave us a wonderful presentation on the Christmas story then the Male Choir got up and sang their hearts out. Then Robbie Halkett asked what list we would be on - the naughty list or the nice list and used that to explain that God loves us whether we are naughty or nice. God does not like it when we are naughty but still loves us and that is why He sent Jesus into this world to allow us to be forgiven of our naughtiness through faith in Christ. More important than being on the naughty list or nice list of Santa was to have our names written in the Book of Life that God keeps becuase God wants to have a relationship with us for all eternity and only if we trust in the finished work of Christ on the cross, ask forgiveness, will be know our names written there.

 

November 2008

 

Sunday 23rd November was a very special day in the life of ICF for a number of reasons. Firstly, it was the first Sunday Service ICF had in the New Millburn Academy following its completion in October 2008. This new school build has fantastic facililies and we trust the Lord has provided us with a place that we can grow into. Initial reaction to the facility has been well received.

 

Secondly, we had to say farewell to 2 families and 1 lady who have been attending ICF. All of them are moving as the Lord is prompting them to serve Him elsewhere. One family from Australia who have been with us for just under 4 years are returning there. Another family from Canada who have been with us for about a year, are returning to Canada before, God willing, they move onto Australia. And finally, a dear sister who has been with us for about 3 years is heading for Wales. We pray God's blessing on these folks and wish them well for the future.

 

And finally, this was the last time the youth band Riptide in their current form would be playing together. Three of the band were part of those who were werew saying farewell today. There are other young people coming through and we hope one day to have a new line up for Riptide. By the way, they were awesome leading worship.

 

October 2008

 

On Sunday 19th October, Rab, Connor, Timmy and Bart went through the waters of baptism. The River Ness was the location and boy was it cold!  According to Ian & Robbie, who were doing the baptism, it was not too bad after a while.  Yeah. Right. What they really meant was that their legs were so numb that they had lost all sensation.

 

Anyway, despite that, Rab, Connor, Timmy and Bart gladly gave this public declaratrion of the fact that they have accepted Jesus Christ in to their lives and have identified with his death, burial and resurrection.  It was a glorious occasion, never to be forgotten, and may these 4 people gladly follow Christ and declare Him all the days of their lives!

 

Here are some pics of the 4 (before and after).  Enjoy!

 

Sunday 12th October saw ICF celebrate the provision of God at their harvest thanksgiving service.  It was a truly all age affair with so much taking place to celebrate.

 

The Sunday School shared with the church the mircales of Jesus that they are going through and then presented the church with a tablecloth with handprints, footprints, names, drawings from all the children who attend Sunday School.  Absolutely tremendous!  At last a tablecloth for eating off where the childrens 'marks' are supposed to be there :-)

 

Then Karen Halkett gave a very amusing, but serious, talk on how important it is to work together and not leave all the work to one person.  Never before in ICF did we see so many cuddly toys.  The illustration showed each person with a cuddly toy and then one by one the excuses came - I can't be bothered anymore, this is not my ministry, she not doing it so neither am I - and one by one they were all passed to Pam. How on earth she managed to hold all 17 teddies I will never know...

 

Following some worship, finally, Robbie Halkett brought us the message of God's provision practially and spiritually.  He encouraged us to 'taste and see that the Lord is good'.  And we know that through Christ, He is very good indeed.

 

September 2008

 

On Sunday 28th September, the young people of ICF ran the worship service and it was FANTASTIC!  Our very own Riptide led the congregation in worship, in their unique way, and everyone just 'connected' with God.

 

It was a real blessing to the congregation to see young people share their testimony of how the Lord has helped then through times in their lives - to see how Jesus really does make a difference and to hear the emotion come through: He is real, life changing.

 

And when it came to hear what the Lord wanted to say to us as a church through these young people, not only could you see and hear the passion, but hear the heart cry of God in challenging us to take on board that He has depoited something of value in our lives - His gospel and how through His Spirit we need to make it grow and not hide it in the ground.

 

One of the dearest ladies in our fellowship came up at the end of the service to say how much she was blessed by the young peoples' ministry.  What a fabulous testimony to the grace of God that shows young and old being taught and encouraged by one another.  Praise the Lord!

 

August 2008

 

Kingdom United announced at ICF

 

An exciting announcement was made at ICF this morning (31/08/08). A core group of people shared with ICF that God would like them to have a season of outreach in the town centre. The desire is for this to be truly interdenominational and therefore is not run by any one church and not held in any church building.

 

There will be an outreach on Church street every Friday and Saturday night from about 9:30pm. It will involve the street pastors and any other interested person and is focussed on sharing the gospel, leading people to Christ, healing and prayer on the streets. It will run from September to December every weekend!

 

They are going to have special events open to anyone and they are inviting a lot of guest speakers and worship leaders to come to Inverness to participate. They already have commitments from some visiting ministries.

 

This is a very exciting opportunity and you can find out more at www.kingdom-united.org

 

July 2008

 

Riptide Youth Band Outreach

 

Riptide were fantastic!  They played to around 100 people in the gala tent at Brora on Sunday 20th July. Their set of 6 worship songs were really tight and the band obviously enjoyed playing together.

 

Heres some photos from the evening.

 

      

June 2008

 

ICF SPORTS DAY

 

And they're off!  It may not be Bejing but the entertainment provided by the highly competitive children of Inverness Christian Fellowship was superb.

 

The annual ICF sports day was held on Sat 21st June 2008 at the Balloch field on the outskirts of Inverness.

 

The races included:  The flat race (sprint); egg and spoon race; sack race; Ball race and the obstacle race.  The children were split into their ages and 3 points awared for a win, 2 points for second and 1 point for third.  The results were close, with 1st and 2nd place separated by 1 point and 6 years of age difference!  In the end it was Jasmine Darge who won the fabulous sports trophy for 2008 with a maximum of 15 points. Well done Jasmine!

 

Joining the children on the day were parents, grandparents and others from the church who came along for the BBQ, the fun the laughter.

 

 

May 2008

 

'HIGHER GROUND' Launched at Java

 

'Good Coffee, Good Music, Good News'; that's the motto behind the brand new ICF ministry - Higher Ground. On Thursday 8th May Java World Bistro was packed with over 60 people, with over half being folks who have never been to ICF before. They came to hear Karen Halkett share something of what God has done in her life. Karen shared how God, as her best friend has brought her through difficult times. There was also live music by ICF based musicians. The music was a blend of jazz, blues, celtic, and soul - a real mix, but it attracted many onlookers in the street who couldn't believe that the band had only come together for the event a few weeks ago. So many folks were asking when the next event would be, so we're planning another one at the beginning of September - watch this space... Higher Ground is just beginning!

 

Riptide Perform at Brora Event

 

On Saturday 3rd May Brora Christian Fellowship took over a section of the village centre carpark. The ICF youth band, Riptide, played to an onlooking crowd, and New Creations children's dance team performed, before Tim the puppet took to the stage (along with Stephen!) to tell people about Jesus. A queue of children with their mothers formed to have their faces painted by Chrissie and Kirsty, and invitations were given for free Pizza and Pudding back at the community centre. Around 50 folks came back to the community centre to eat food prepared for by BCF members who had been hard at work all morning. Many folks just couldn't believe that the food was all for free... and there wasn't any catch! Everyone had a great time, and we are all now looking forward to the next event at the end of May!

 

 

April 2008

 

ICF Youth Camp 

The first ever ICF Youth Camp took place over the last weekend in March.  Thirteen out of the growing number of teenagers in ICF along with Ian, Dawn and Gina went to the Cairngorm Christian Centre in Kincraig from Friday 28th to Sunday 30th March.  They were joined there by guest speakers, David and Ashley who are both youth workers in New Life International Church, Aberdeen.  Everyone agrees that they were awesome.  They led some sessions on hearing from God; helping us all to develop our understanding of how God speaks to us today.  We were also led in worship by our very own, brand new, hot off the press, youth band who are now officially called Riptide – Daniel (drums), Michael (electric guitar), Marcus (bass), Becka (guitar and singer), Rebecca, Jessica, Louise and Lana (singers)…don’t forget that you heard about them here first!  Throughout the weekend, and especially on the Saturday evening during a time of ministry and hearing from God, God really called us all to live for him, and to read His Word, and be sensitive to His voice. 

 

We also had loads of fun.  We had a Movie and Munch on the Friday night thanks to Alison who provided an amazingly big amount of ‘munch’ (there was still some left for the weekend even after Marcus and Ian had raided it in the car on the way there)!  Saturday morning started with somebody singing ‘Morning has broken’ at the top of their voice in the corridor at stupid-o’clock in the morning (he won’t be invited back).  Then we had, ‘Good morning with Gina’ (dance aerobics) and yes, everyone joined in – we have the proof on video. On Saturday afternoon we went to Loch Morlich beach and played ‘no-rules guys against girls football’ (the guys thrashed them) and rounders (Ian’s team won thanks in no small measure to an absolutely brilliant diving catch by Ian that will go down in history as the best catch that has ever been made in any rounders match ever).  The weekend was crowned by our first ever awards ceremony hosted by Dawn – David and Ashley got the ‘best speakers award’, Louise received the award for ‘best slippers’ (they’re some slippers), and Luke was crowned ‘best batter’ from the rounders match (he was very good – and also just happened to be on Ian’s team), and there were plenty more awards handed out by Dawn.

 

 

We need to say a big thank you for all who helped by donating food for the weekend… Bozena, the fruit was delicious; George, the lasagne was ‘perfecto’; Chrissie, the curry was… hot! (...and also very good).  And also big thanks must go to Gina and Dawn for all their hard work preparing food.  So that’s the youth camp news (short version), and Gina will be delighted that we haven’t mentioned anything about the burnt tatties...

  

 

March 2008

 

Quiz Night Family Fun

On Friday 7th March 2008, a total of 10 teams took part in a Quiz Night. Each team consisted of 5 members and the questions ranged from the Mr Men, to football strips, to general knowledge, to pop music. A full range of intellectual talents were on display with team names such as "No Brainers", "Canny Decide", "Avalanche" and "Clueless" all pitching their combined knowledge to battle it out. In the end the team "Supernaturals at Easter" won the day with a convincing score of 43 against the second placed "No Brainers" on 35, who overtook a few teams in the final round to win themselves second place. Each member of the winning team walked away with a gift voucher for £10. The "Supernaturals at Easter" were delighted to have won after they came in third place at the previous quiz night run by Inverness Christian Fellowship.

 

 

One of the most interesting rounds was called "Think Blots", where teams were asked to determine from a choice of 3 options, what most people saw, or did not see, in a particular ink blot. It was first on the buzzer to get the chance to pick up 2 points, but if they got it wrong, 2 points would be deducted! It was not your ordinary first on the buzzer type round where the answers came thick and fast, but teams really had to think hard to see if they could see any of the options in the ink blot themselves before answering!

 

A super evening, with a great mix of people taking part

 

January 2008

 

Watoto Children's Choir

 The New Year started with a real treat here at ICF. We were privileged to have the Watoto Children's Choir, who are currently on a UK tour, come and stay with us in Inverness for 5 days from 3rd - 8th January. The Choir, from Kampala, Uganda, was made up of a total of 18 children all of whom had been orphaned by the terrible effect that AIDS is having in the continent of Africa. We planned 4 concerts; one at Kingsview Christian Centre, another at the new church plant in Brora, and the final two in Merkinch and Millburn Academy. All the concerts were a success. The performance that the Choir gave was a wonderful rhythmic blend of native African music, and Gospel. The children were dressed in colourful Ugandan dress, and sang and danced with the help of their adult supervisors (their 'aunties' and 'uncles') with real skill and flair. With the smiles on their faces, and evident joy in their hearts, it was almost easy to forget what these children had been through in their native land. Yet if anyone was tempted to forget they were reminded by the stirring video presentation of the Watoto Child Care Ministries. There was hardly a dry eye in any of the concerts as a young boy sang, 'who will sing my lullaby, who will hold me when I cry', whilst images not too dissimilar from these same children's backgrounds were projected behind the Choir. An offering was taken at each of the concerts for the Watoto Child Care Ministry, and the total amount raised in the Brora, Merkinch, and Millburn concerts came to a grand total of £2,981!

 

One of the highlights of their visit was the mini-concert at the Eastgate Shopping Centre on the Saturday. Over 200 shoppers gathered around to hear the Choir testify and sing. I noticed a man begin to cry as they sang, 'I am not forgotten, I am not forsaken, I am not forgotten, God knows my name!' It was very evident that this was more than a song to the children; this was real! They really have come to know that God knows their name, and they were very quick to point to the difference that Jesus has made in their lives! It was wonderful to see so many shoppers on a busy Saturday afternoon in Inverness standing fixated to a Choir singing about the Lord! It was also great to hear that the Choir had sung this very same song to Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip at Buckingham Palace just a few months ago!

 

On their final day with us they had a day off, so we took them up to Aviemore and the Cairngorms to go sledging. These children had never seen snow before! They laughed as they threw snow into the air, and slid on the ice. The conditions for sledging were perfect, and they had a great time!

A big thank you to everyone who helped with accommodation, food, transportation, stewarding, advertising. And a big thank you to everyone who came along to the concerts and gave so generously. You can find out more about Watoto at their web site - http://www.watoto.com/