Hello everyone and welcome to the latest edition of THE BUZZ.

THE BUZZ is a great resource that brings the whole Connexion together and allows us to share successful ideas between districts, circuits, churches and church groups. If you have any success stories you would like to promote and share, then please get in touch and let us know how God is working in your local area.

Alison Pollard
  

Four more exciting and encouraging stories from around Methodism. The contacts provided will be pleased to give you more information.

To experience what life must be like for the millions who live in shantytowns around the world, around 30 young people and their leaders lived and slept on the church field for 24 hours in a makeshift slum ‘community'. The town was built from cardboard boxes and old pallets and luxuries like iPods, mobile phones and cosmetics were strictly banned. Everyone had to fetch and carry limited water supplies and cook their own foods from a small supply of goods.

For a short time, the reality of the world's poor became our reality, and as the young people raised money for change through Soul Action projects, they themselves were changed in the process.

By going ‘above and beyond' the call of duty as a chaplain at BAE Barrow and Sellafield power station, Deacon Tom Luke has drummed up an amazing amount of interest in the charity he supports in Africa.The workers at both organisations provided football kits for ‘Lebone Land' – a HIV orphanage and adult training centre in South Africa where children whose parents have died can be cared for and educated in a Christian context. Tom and his wife, who have raised a huge amount of money for the centre, go there every year to visit the children and help support the staff.

Discovering a number of youth bands in the town, with nowhere to practise or demonstrate their talent, St John's Church decided to host ‘Battle of the Bands'. Auditions were held to decide which bands would play in the competition and on the day in question, the hall was transformed from a place of worship to a rock venue!

Prizes were generously supplied by two local music shops with the church giving HMV vouchers for individual prizes (best singer etc). The winning band – Mercury – won a recording session provided by Sunlight Studios in Gillingham. All band members and their families were very appreciative of the effort the church put in to make the event a success.

Our church is surrounded by streets named after composers – Elgar, Tallis, Purcell – 20 of them in total. Over the summer our contemporary spirituality group “Core”, who are dedicated to serving local people, set up three concerts celebrating this musical heritage. The local authority gave us a grant to run the festival and we hired three professional groups of musicians to lead the musical events.

Over 230 people came to the concerts which gave us chance to talk to them (over a cream tea) about all the other things that go on in the church. The festival was such a success that we even made the local TV news show and two radio stations. Local people have told us how much they loved it and are asking us to do it again next year.