What feeds you? We only get one body in life, and what we consume impacts our health and ultimately our longevity.
Its so easy to treat our bodies like garbage bins: we eat our kids left overs, we snack on rubbish and we may eat party left overs even if not nutritious. On the flip side, healthy eating can help us to feel more wholesome, lively and energetic.
Many of us want to lose weight but haven’t delved deeply to consider why that might be. If you take time to do this you will find a far more compelling reason to opt for an apple than a bag of crisps. Connecting with that real reason will help you look after your precious body.
Catherine
Catherine Free, Life Coach
I help ambitious people to achieve their goals by shedding self doubt and create a winning mindset. contact: 07534 133413
Come and join us at St Mary’s for our Summer fair!
Saturday 23rd July, 12-3pm (Save the date in your diary now!)
St. Mary’s Church, Ash Vale, GU12 5JE
Prizes, Refreshments, Music, Competitions and much, much more
Free Entry
If you would like a stall please contact our wonderful Church Warden Martin who is organizing the event. You can contact him on mlindsay500@outlook.com or text our Project Manager with a message to pass on to him: 07730 609446.
Forest Kids is a new project in Ash that gives children and young people a chance to take part in bush-craft and nature activities in a woodland whilst learning about the Christian faith. Taking part in activities outside is proven to improve people’s mental and physical wellbeing and is also likely to cultivate an interest in and care for the natural environment.
The project comes from a long held dream to combine our love of the outdoors and Jesus. We really want to give other people, especially children a chance to explore both. So last summer we found a woodland near Ash and bought a house nearby and we’ve been working hard getting the woodland ready for people to enjoy.
Just before Easter, we were delighted to welcome some families from the Chapel and St Mary’s to come and join us for a picnic, Easter egg hunt, to hear the Easter story and build dens, not forgetting toasting marsh mallows and making s’mores around the fire.
At the end of April some of our lovely friends and family came and got really stuck in to clear some of the large amount of rhododendrons and tree stumps and to create the beginnings of an amazing natural play area.
Our aim is to have small groups of children from the local area coming to weekly sessions, including their families in some of the activities too, so we’re now looking for interested children and adults to come and get involved.
There’s all sorts of ways of being involved, from sending your children along to the regular weekly sessions when they start, to praying for us, supporting us financially, doing practical stuff in the woods to make it super great fun for the children on our Woodland Activity Days, to helping with the weekly sessions or transport.
If you’d like to find out more, come and have a look at our site or get involved in some way, please do get in touch – we’d love to meet you!
The Cover Image this Easter is inspired by a new song “Come to the Table” by Matt Weeks which you can hear most Sunday’s at St Mary’s.
If you use social media, you may enjoy the ‘anniversaries’ that pop up every now and then, reminding you of what happened on this day in previous years. My timeline recently has been full of images from our early lockdown – our first Evensong in the carpark 2 years ago, ringing the bell, pancakes on the astroturf… It makes me realise that the last time we ‘did Easter’ the ‘normal’ way was 3 years ago! We had a few socially distanced people in church in 2021, but finally this year we are allowed to gather in greater numbers and celebrate with a shared feast.
You are warmly invited to join in with local Easter events at St Mary’s on Vale Rd, and at The Chapel on Wharf Rd.
Easter is our major festival of the year when we remember the death of Jesus and celebrate him rising from the dead.
Lent is the period before Easter when Christians remember the events leading up to and including the death of Jesus Christ. Last Sunday Neil spoke again about the opportunities to reflect together during Lent:
Did you know? Ellen at the local Co-op in Ash Vale is fundraising for Cancer Research. She will be covering 5k this Summer, doing the Race 4 Life. if you’d like to contribute, its very easy to do. She has a collecting tin at the kiosk so people can pop their pennies in when they shop. Thank you for your support!
(ps – remember to show your Co-op card when you shop, to support local charities too!)
For our Easter 2022 issue of The Parishioner we have a poem to share with you, on the theme of the passion. This was written by Joanna Pearson, a talented poet who is also a member of Chapel Poets. We have some news from the Chapel Poetry for you too.
All are welcome to come along and snap up a bargain at the next St Peter’s Tabletop Sale. This takes place in the St Peter’s Centre opposite the church with the spire.
Lecturers Geraldine Latty and Carey Luce from the London School of Theology (LST) brought some students to the studio at The Chapel to record a new song written by Geri, Carey and Matt Weeks called ‘Holy Spirit Will You Fall On Us’. It’s written in 4 parts for a choir to sing. Hopefully we’ll be trying it out at St Mary’s soon and see how it goes!
Cats & Dogs Corner – Welcome to this new series of blogs for the Parishioner, where I will describe the key components of healthy nutrition for your cat & dog and how to look after your furry friends.
