St. Luke's Church, Parkstone

About St Luke's Church.

Weekly Services

9.00am Holy Communion (not 5th Sunday) Common Worship Order 1 or Prayer Book

10.30am Morning Worship with groups for children & young people up to 15 & crèche
1st Sunday: All-Age with creche
3rd and 5th Sundays: Holy Communion

6.30pm Evening Worship Time and venue may vary. 1st Sunday: Holy Communion

In addition we meet at other times for Prayer and Worship. These include:

9.30am Wednesdays Midweek Worship (Communion 1st Weds)

8.00am 1st Saturday Prayer Breakfast in a home

Children and Young People

We are blessed to have a good number of children and young people at St Luke's.

Eva Scott-Farnell is our Children's & Youth Worker and we have a team of volunteer leaders whose details can be found in the Magazine & Directory.

We are very conscious of the need to create a safe environment for our children and all leaders go through our Child Protection Procedure.

At the 10.30am service (except All-Age and holidays) we have: Scramblers 3-5s, Climbers 5-8s, Explorers 8-11s in the church rooms and Pathfinders 11-15s meeting in the church hall most weeks. There is crèche for the under 3s at all services.

Children usually start in church and leave for their own groups at about 10.50am returning at the end of the service

Other Groups for Young People…

Other Groups and Meetings

10 Homegroups meet every other week in the evening or morning for Bible discussion, prayer and worship, fellowship and service.. Monday Mums led by Maggie Strain is for ladies with children of school-age and below meets every other Monday morning.

From time to time we regularly run Alpha and Confirmation/Enquirer groups for those who want to know more about the Christian Faith. We would be glad to tell you more .

The Mother's Union meets monthly and new members are welcome.

There is a Coffee Hour each Wednesdays from 10.00 – c 11.00am in the lounge.

CAMEO is a three day holiday event in August for those of maturer age!

A number of other social events are organised from time to time on the initiative of groups and individuals. We do encourage this. See Noticesheets.

Pastoral and Social Care

As part of our Christian ministry we are concerned for and seek to care for all in our community. If you would like prayer or a visit, or have a particular concern, then please contact the church office on 717268 or the vicar on 741030. There is a Prayer Chain for urgent prayer needs.

A Prayer Ministry Group is available after morning services in the side chapel to pray with people with any need, anxiety or concern. Many who are housebound appreciate a service of Holy Communion and this can be arranged - usually on the 1st Wednesday. We have a Bookstall in and a Library. Bible Reading Notes can be ordered. There is a Book of Remembrance.

World Mission and Partnership

We value our partnership with the wider church and give 12½ % of our church's income to mission. The societies we support include The Bible Society, The Church Mission Society, Christian Aid, Church Pastoral Aid Society, CMJ, TEAR Fund, The Pain family with Overseas Missionary Fellowship, London City Mission & PACE. Do visit these web sites to find out more:

The photo above shows Chris, Kesia, Caleb and Jonathan Pain serving in Japan.   For an up to date article about the experiences of Chris and Kesia in Japan pleae page down two paragraphs.

Baptisms, Weddings and Funerals

We are delighted to be approached about Baptisms which takes place in the 10.30am service. Baptism involves making serious promises and requires thoughtful preparation. Wedding and Funeral Services are taken for those living in the Parish or with some link with the church.

Supporting the Church's Life and Mission

The Church Council and the Leadership and Finance Team both meet bi-monthly. There are 6 other teams which are responsible for the various areas of church life. These are: Worship and Growth, Pastoral, Children & Young People, World Church & Mission , Fabric Maintenance & Development, and Church Hall.

Your help in these areas of ministry or on a team is much appreciated. Please talk with us about out how you might be able to serve within the church and community.

The Church's Ministry costs about £150,000 a year. It is sustained only through the generous giving of members. We encourage Financial Giving through the Envelope Scheme , Standing Orders and the tax effective Gift Aid Scheme . Please pick up the “Giving to Grow” leaflet or contact the church office or speak with our Treasurer, to know more.

Money is only one aspect of Giving. Please do talk with us about out how you might be able to contribute to and serve the church and community. Thank you.

Revd Chris Strain - Vicar

From Chris & Kesia in Japan

A YEAR IN REVIEW
Chris, Kesia, Caleb and Jonathan Pain moved to Sapporo, Japan to serve with OMF International in April 2007. Since then, they have been studying Japanese full-time at OMF’s Language School whilst also trying to adjust to living in Japan. As they are able, they are making friends and witnessing about Jesus. They currently attend a fairly sizeable church (by Japanese standards) planted by OMF and now under Japanese leadership.

 

INTRODUCTION
As we write it is a year-to-the-day that we stepped off the plane in Japan. We expected that we would have a year of challenge and change and we have not been disappointed! We are grateful that our Heavenly Father is unchanging in his love, grace and provision towards us; this, often in the shape of our supporters’ prayers and love, has got us through.

 

FAITH JOURNEY – ‘I AM WEAK AND SINFUL, BUT GOD IS FAITHFUL’
At our Orientation Course we were reminded that much as we are called by God to share the Good News of Jesus in Japan, God is also intent upon shaping us and moulding us towards Christ-likeness of character and increasing our faith through this calling. How true that has been. A key spiritual lesson for the year has been that ‘We are weak and sinful.’ It is not that we didn’t know this before, but losing our linguistic ability and our understanding of the culture we are living in has had its effects. It stripped away what we now realise was the thin veneer of respectability that hid our ‘unreformed selves’ in UK culture. Whilst this might sound like it could be rather depressing, a second part of this key spiritual lesson has been that ‘God is faithful,’ and this transforms everything! God does not give up on us because of weakness, but uses these things to change us and to draw us to Him.

 

Obviously this isn’t a unique discovery, but we have been reflecting on whether realising (and personally experiencing) this reality of our weakness and God’s faithfulness in new ways is a necessary element of all spiritual growth. Here are just some of the ways we’ve been learning the lesson this year:

 

FRIENDS
We came to Japan, as many others have, desperate to have Japanese friends and avoid getting ‘caught up’ solely in the missionary community. We asked you to pray that we would have Japanese friends and sure enough, God has provided!

 

When Kesia could speak only a few words of Japanese and her head was still spinning from moving to Japan, she was taken to visit a Mum’s and Toddlers group by a missionary friend. They were in the room less than 10 minutes, but in that time a lady approached Kesia saying she wanted to befriend her. Kesia had not approached this lady and her ability to talk to her was very limited (she had not even started language lessons!), but from this meeting we have developed a friendship with the Sawae family and they have looked after us in many ways. Through them, God also provided a house for another missionary family who were having difficulty finding accommodation. We were weak, God was faithful.

 

LANGUAGE STUDY
If ever you want to feel humble, learn another language. At our lowest moments we have wept over our inability to say even the simplest things. It has been (and is) tiring to operate on (less than) 25% of the linguistic ability we are used to in the UK. But God has used that to teach us too; for instance, when we have needed things translating, people have been there to do so. This has been especially true at Church, where, as the missionary who usually attends the church left to go home for a year, a Japanese missionary family working in Papua New Guinea returned. This meant that when we arrived at the Church there was someone who knew what we were experiencing (and spoke excellent English!) who could help us. We are so grateful! We have frequently benefitted from people’s patience as we mangle their language and attempt to talk to them.

 

It has also provided some moments of humour. In a recent conversation class, Chris had to compare prices in England and Japan (we know how to have fun!). He thought for a while and told his teacher that sensha were much cheaper in Japan than in England. She, looking a little surprised, asked whether he bought sensha regularly, to which he replied, not regularly, but I did buy one just the other day – it was very cheap, only ¥100 (about 50p.) The teacher looked even more surprised and asked him what he was doing buying a tank! It turned out that sensha means both tank and car-wash, but the intonation changes the meaning!

 

CHILDREN
Watching the children go through the transition and change into another culture has been one of the toughest things about this year. We have felt our weakness as parents when we have been unable to ‘make things better’ for them and have been thrown back onto crying out to God for them. As ever, He provided. For instance, just before Caleb started at kindergarten, Kesia was able to get together with a Mum and her daughter who were entering his class. Mei (the daughter) had doted on Jonathan whenever she had met him, but on this day we discovered that she also loves cars and running – a perfect combination for Caleb. They ran around together very happily and it has been wonderful for him to have a friend whom he knows at kindergarten, despite their lack of a common language. God provides.

 

CULTURE
There are so many things about Japanese culture that are different from UK culture that it is almost impossible to know where to begin. People’s self-perception is different, with (a massive generalisation here) the UK perspective being ‘I am an individual first and foremost’ and the Japanese one being ‘I am a member of a group first and foremost.’ This affects everything from how you communicate, dress, raise your children, conduct your marriage, do business, church and more. Of course, there is wide variety in Japan as to how these things are done, but the differences are significant nonetheless.

 

One of the hardest things that we have found to adjust to is the idea that there is always a right way to do something. This may not sound significant, but those of you reading this in the UK, will, unconsciously, many times a day, consider a task that needs to be done, assess what is the most efficient way of conducting it according to your own personal preferences and then do it. If you improvise, change the order from the way that someone else did the same thing or skip a step that they included, it doesn’t really matter, so long as the end result is OK. Not so here. Process is very important. It is hard to give concrete examples of this, but here is one.

 

When we were moving to Japan I contacted some UK shipping companies, they each told me to pack my boxes and give them a call about a week before I wanted to ship things and they would give me a quote. No problem. In the interim, I heard of a Japanese firm also shipping to Japan and when I’d packed my boxes I called them as well. The conversation went something like this. (RF = Japanese removal firm).

 

CP: ‘I’m moving to Japan next month and I’d like to get a quote for sending my belongings please.’ (Discussion follows on whether it’s a full move of a house or just some household items (the latter.))

 

RF: I see, so when can we send one of our agents to your house?
CP: Well, I am hoping to send my things in the next fortnight.
RF: The next fortnight? That’s rather quick. (Discussion about when an agent could come – they couldn’t for at least 3 weeks.)
CP: Given it is just a few boxes that I’m sending, do you need to send an agent?
RF: But how will you know how many boxes you’ll need if we don’t?
CP: Well, I can tell you, I’ve got 14 and they are already packed.
RF: Excuse me? (Surprised, unbelieving tone)
CP: I’ve got 14 boxes already packed and ready to be collected.
RF: But you haven’t had our shipping guide telling you how to pack them have you?
CP: No. I’ve packed it very carefully though, double-wrapped everything, padded it, written down all the contents etc.
RF: Yes, but usually people use our boxes and pack them using our shipping guide. It really would be best if we sent an agent…

 

And so the conversation continued, until I realised that the (Japanese) lady I was speaking too was politely telling me (i.e. not directly telling me this at all, but expecting me to ‘read the air’ in our conversation and work it out) that I couldn’t use their service. Basically, if you want to play the game, discover the rules first and then obey them – otherwise you can’t join in. Whilst in reality many rules are bent for us, because we are foreigners, it is a little difficult to discover the rules, when you can’t speak the language!

 

MISSIONARIES?
So what about what are supposed to be really here for – telling people about Jesus. Well, obviously it’s a little difficult to do that when we don’t have the language to do so and we are concentrating on acquiring Japanese as fast as we can, but even here God provides. Most of the friends that God has given us have received a tract or CD at some point this year, even if we can’t explain things ourselves. We trust and pray that something of how we live also demonstrates our faith and the reality of knowing Jesus. Moreover, God, in His kindness, uses our weakness even here.

 

Just this week at church, we had gone to the local playground to appreciate the beauty of Creation. While there Caleb, Jonathan and Chris were happily watching ants when they were surrounded by a group of primary-school-age boys playing in the park. This is not an unusual experience; blond hair and a family babbling away in English seem to be strong attractions! Anyway they started to chat to us about where we were from, how intelligent Caleb and Jonathan must be to speak English(!), and what we were doing in the park. As we left the park to go back for the Worship Service (Sunday School happens before it) two of the boys tagged along and decided to come and see what the service was like for themselves. They didn’t stay for the whole thing, but they did chat with some of the Sunday School teachers. We are hoping that we’ll have a chance to meet them again and encourage them along to Sunday School. We were weak in our linguistic ability, but God used us (or rather our presence in the park!) anyway. One other thing we do, with all of you, is pray for the people that we meet, that God will be at work in their lives.

 

NO REGRETS
All this could make it sound like we regret being here and are longing to come home. Far from it. One of the things about living here has been that we are increasingly convinced of the calling we have to serve God here. The need for missionaries to serve and partner with the local church is immense. Very few people in Japan have a chance to hear the Good News of Jesus and we are privileged to be His ambassadors.

 

Although we’ve reflected on the challenges and encouragements, we have also had times of great fun and joy during the year. Furthermore, we expected the challenge and the difficulty – it goes with the territory of trying to adapt our thinking, lifestyle and language to Japanese society so that we can be all things to all men for the sake of the Gospel (1 Cor 9:22). As Tom Wright points out[1] if Jesus earthly ministry was accomplished with loud cries, tears, labour, hard work and sacrifice alongside seeing the Kingdom of God breaking through and great joy, why should it be any different for any of us – wherever we are serving Him?

[1] Hebrews for Everyone, SPCK, 2003:179


 

 

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