Scots Church Fellowship

We are just a small group now, but feel it is important for us to keep on meeting, as we show our care and concern for each other, and have a great time sharing news and fellowship together. We are of course always on the look-out for new members, so if you would care to join us please do so - come along on the first Thursday of each month, with your own lunch - a cup of tea or coffee is always available - women and men will be most welcome.

Rev Norah Norris was in charge of our June meeting and used a devotion written by herself and published in 2004 by Uniting Church Fellowships in a booklet "Rejoice" - Devotions for Fellowships. We have a supply of these resources, on a variety of subjects, in the Fellowship Cupboard. Entitled "Remembering Roses" and based on Isaiah 63, verses 7-9 "I will recount the gracious deeds of the Lord". Norah told us that Sir James Barrie, the author of Peter Pan, said that "God gave his children memory that they might have roses in December." For Barrie "roses in December" represented the great difference between the bleakness of winter and the freshness of spring flowers. The roses may have withered but the memory of what they once were is the pledge that, by God's grace, they will flower again. We can learn from our memories and strengthen relationships, and we can find hope and encouragement for ourselves and for others.

We shared news of coming events. The Adelaide North West Regional Celebration is at Western Link Uniting Church, Findon, at 1:30pm on 3^rd August.  Evelina Bruhn who is handling our money now, gave an update, and as we have a healthy credit balance it was decided to donate $100 to Act for Peace, and $75 to ACW's Winifred Kiek Scholarship which will be handed over on the ACW Fellowship Day on July 8 at Pilgrim Church Hall. We received some great goods for the Mission Packing Day, and these were packed on Sunday June 5 and taken to Marion U C - thank you to all who contributed.

As the next meeting is in mid-winter on Thursday 7th July at 12 noon, it will be our annual "Soup Kitchen", when a cup of delicious Butternut Pumpkin Soup will be served to all. This inspired us for the theme of the meeting to be "A Winter Tale" and so we are all asked to bring along a story to share, something to do with Winter! Everyone is welcome to come along and share the day with us. Mary Thomas is Facilitator and Ruth Goldsworthy volunteered for Kitchen Duties.

We are indeed fortunate to have so many interesting and talented people in our congregation - and on this occasion Evelina Bruhn gave us an illuminating talk on her recent visit to Sri Lanka, illustrated by a power point display.

She spent 17 days there with her friend from the U K - Jennifer. They had an apartment in a suburb of Colombo, and toured the country - Sri Lanka is a diverse and multi-national society - there is a huge volume of very noisy traffic! They hired a car and driver to tour and we shared much of what they did and saw. It was indeed a most informative and interesting talk, and we are grateful to Evelina for giving up time for us in her busy life.

                                                                          Mary Thomas