For the love of Chicken

we went to Nando's on Sunday. Or at least some people did. With the suggestion of heading for lunch on your own before a walk, everyone scattered everywhere, with some staying around for choir practice, some grabbing some fish and chips, and lots taking a little drive to Castlepoint for some serious chicken munching. 

The poor people in Nando's seemed a tad confused by the large group that turned up rather hungry, but they were very nice, gave us a couple of tables and left us to it. Probably wise. 

The last few days have been pretty great, with Phatfish performing on Friday night. The crowd was made of a wide variety of people of all different ages and whilst perhaps not the usual group of people you might expect at a gig, it was all the better for it, demonstrating the diversity of the church, and the many ways you can worship God. Loud music, some nice lighting and the sound of Lou Fellingham? A roaring success I believe!

With the weekend upon us I gather that lots of people began a little Christmas shopping, enjoyed the market in Bournemouth town centre and people are well and truly into the festive spirit, mince pie eating and all. Basia and Hazel celebrated their birthday on Saturday evening, and lots of people were out and about for that. Happy Birthday to the both of you by the way!

Sunday morning saw a great exposition on Luke 23 titled 'Four Characters of the Crucifixion'. Guy Miller expanded on the various people that were involved in crucifying Christ, and the various things we can observe and learn from them. If you missed it, it's available on the Citygate Church website for your listening pleasure!

All of you students appear to be hard at work as the term draws to a close, so several faces were missing most of the weekend, and miss you we did. Still, uni work is important and we salute you for getting on with it! Hope it's going well, and we look forward to enjoying your company when you're free of all of those assignments. 

I wasn't able to make PPP last night so someone definitely needs to fill me in with what you all got up to, no doubt God was there and it was wonderful! Still, nosy me would love some details so do indulge me. 

Tonight, if you're a fresher, or a brand new face and female you're invited to an exciting event called Ready Steady Cook. We're hoping to cook some wonderful food but it all depends on the ingredients you bring. Hopefully our creativity won't end up poisoning everyone! 

The BIG THING though is HE WILL BE CALLED. If anyone was around last year for He Came Down, you'll know the kind of quality we're going for. Last year saw people giving cardboard testimones - something a little like this:

And this year we're looking to do things just as well. It's aimed at the Students & Twenties age group which means YOU! So, your job is to be there. To make sure you're listening. And invite as many guests as you can find between now and Sunday night at 7pm. We've got good news, and we need to tell it to a broken, hurting generation who desperately need some hope. 

An even better plan is to invite lots of people to cook and share lunch in the afternoon, and then take everyone to church in the evening! Check out 'Festive Feasting' on Facebook.

If there is anyone around who's willing to help serve refreshments, please email me as we desperately need a big team as we're expecting hundreds of people! 

In other news, if you're not serving in the church then you really need to be. It's a great way to meet people, and it's what we're taught to do. To sign up, click here:

Lots of love, and excitement about the coming week. 

Vicki

Has anyone else lost their digits?

...and I don't mean numbers...
Now don't get me wrong, I do love a sunny winter morning. When the sun rises slowly, frost covers the ground and you can see your breath in the air, it's all very quaint and rather beautiful. However, in true British style I'm going to have a little moan about pathetic shoes that mean you lose your toes. 

For anyone who has bad circulation, or doesn't own gloves (or socks for that matter) you'll empathise - winter is not for you. I'm normally someone who walks around bare foot all summer, so winter is always a little bit of a shock. I'm in eager anticipation of the return of summer and all things warm. I think it may be a long time coming...Can you believe Christmas is only a month away?? That means only 30 odd days to prepare for the chaos, tinsel and turkey that for most, Christmas inevitably brings. 

Anyway, for now, I'm going to be thankful that I'm not here: 

and I'm able to sit in a nice warm office. I think cake is being delivered sometime soon too. I hope that you are just as fortunate!

Tomorrow is Phatfish, which I can't really rant and rave about enough. Live music, what can I say, it's going to be amazing! AND in only 10 DAYS we've got 'He Will Be Called' which is going to be an incredible Christmassey, Media filled, God glorifying evening, with lots of mulled wines and mince pies after. YUM! Last year was astounding, so this year is set to be even better.

If you want to look far into the future, start thinking about Burns Night as we celebrate all things Scottish with a nice elegant meal, some haggis and some Scottish poetry. (January 25th for those of you with busy lives and diaries!)
 And if you want to look even further into the future, start booking In Bude. If you don't, I'm going to steal the best house, and leave you camping at the beach.

Well perhaps not, but it'd be good to get booked in ASAP. If you don't know who you want to share a chalet with, message me and I'll put my thinking cap on and arrange some things for you.

Okay, so cake is still yet to arrive, but I am quite happy due to the wonderful weekend I know we're going to have. Check out the event page on Facebook for lunch details. In fact, if you'd like to reply to the billion event  invites we send out that'd be loverrrly as then we can get organising.

Much Love
Vicki x

PS If it does snow, a spontaneous event involving a snowball fight at Meyrick Park will be organised.

PPS Can I recommend a Random act of Kindness to you all. Buy your friends a coffee, or some flowers, or pick someone up from the train station, or surprise someone by leaving dinner on their doorstep. I reckon that'd be seriously appreciated, and make you feel pretty great too.

I finally will stop babbling. I blame the cold. x

Phatfish will be here in THREE days!

PHATFISH TICKETS ARE SELLING FAST, BUY YOURS BEFORE FRIDAY AND MAKE SURE NOT TO MISS OUT ON THIS GREAT EVENT. 

A really great album

in my opinion... 

John Mark McMillan – The Medicine

So, aside from my music recommendations, no doubt you want to hear all about the amazing fun that has been had over the last few days??

Ah, okay, I'll indulge you then, I'm just that nice. 

Saturday night was part 2 of our Pure Hedonist series, that we're covering Five Smooth Stones, which is our monthly worship and teaching event. Lights were low, worship was beautifully powerful with Andy Flood leading and lots of other talented people with him. 

Dave Ashley set up some art points for people to get creative, and we spent a good 45minutes just worshipping God. Not a bad way to spend your Saturday evening. Then came the really intense part. 

Andrew Lawrence brought a talk called 'XXX Church'; this was a frank discussion on Pornography. 

I can almost hear you asking, did we really talk about pornography in church? You bet we did. We want to tackle the issues that people struggle with because God cares about every single aspect of your lives. 

People were able to text anonymous questions in to have them answered, so we had an interactive session which was hopefully really helpful. The whole evening was fantastic, and God definitely showed up. If you missed it, sorry to say, you did miss out. Still, we've got one more of the 'Pure Hedonist' series coming up after Christmas so keep an eye out!!

Sunday morning saw Martin Flood preaching a great message, and then we headed to O'Neill's for some yummy lunch, once again causing lots of chaos and noise with the large numbers of us. Can't wait to see it get even bigger, as we add new friends to the group.

The rest of the afternoon consisted of various people doing various things.
Some saw Harry Potter. Some did uni work. Some attempted to do uni work and didn't get very far. Some had a nap. Some went to Becky's house and watching Finding Nemo.

Hopefuly all had a great time.
In the evening, there was a Regional Celebration in Winchester which lots of people travelled up for, as well as the normal Why Jesus and Why Church courses.

You definitely can't say you didn't have many, many options to occupy you last night. Citygate has got to be one of the busiest places around!

So, I hope after a great weekend, people are heading off to work with a skip to their step after spending time with God, and with friends. Tonight will be PPP in the Shaw Suite at 7.45pm, so why not skip there, share some tea and coffee and perhaps a testimony of what God has done for you, as we gather for prayer, praise and the prophetic.

Phatfish is THIS Friday so make sure you get your tickets. Like live music? Tickets are only £6 for concessions (ie students) and £8 for adults. Check Phatfish out here!

Lots of love on a chilly Movember day.
Vicki
x

Anyone feel like a weekend in Cornwall?

Oh, you do?? Fantastic, cos that's exactly what we're going to do. 

Can I introduce you to
In Bude, a regional Students and Twenties Weekend Away,
in...Bude...Cornwall. 

For those of you who are unaware, Guy Miller, who leads our church also heads up the Apostolic team for the Southwest Region. This includes every Newfrontiers church from Portsmouth, up to Bristol and over as far as Plymouth...just a few then...

In Bude will be a great opportunity for all of the Students and Twenties from across this region to get together, build community, meet some new people and hear from God. The teaching is going to be absolute quality, with the key speakers being Matt Hosier who leads Gateway Church in Poole and Julian Adams, who is originally from South Africa, now in Manchester and has a fantastic prophetic ministry.

Students and Twenties need to get together in groups of 4,5,6,7,8,9 or 11 to live in a chalet together for the weekend. Chalets are self catering so each chalet will be responsible for sorting out their own food, and who sleeps where etc.
If you want to have a little look at the website of the place where we'll be staying, take a little peek by clicking here:

Prices vary based on which accommodation you choose, and how many people are in each chalet/house do-dah. Prices are really reasonable. The average will be around £30 for the weekend but are likely to be less. Obviously food and transport will be the additional expenses but it's definitely a high priority for your pennies, rather than a trip to Topshop or a drink in the pub. 

Bookings will be open from this weekend, running on a first come, first serve basis. You can provisionally book a chalet but to confirm your place, it must be paid by the following week at the latest or the reservation is removed, and open to anyone else.
Obviously some accommodation is likely to disappear quicker than others so make sure you get the one you want by booking in quickly. Each chalet will need to have a team leader who is responsible for finances and that chalet.

WHY BOTHER?
aside from the fact that a weekend away and a trip to Cornwall sound like a pretty great jaunt, it's not just about a few days away and having ludicrous amounts of fun, although we will definitely be doing that. 

We go away because we want to hear from God. We go away because we think that God wants to do something with this generation. We go away because when we're together we grow, learn and strengthen each other. We go away because community is vital. We go away because we want to see we're not alone. We go away because we need some perspective. We go away because we want to be making disciples and going to the ends of the earth, and we need to learn how to do that.

And with sunsets like this, why would you not come


Good enough reasons to get super excited about In Bude? Most definitely.

Email me for more information

Love Vicki

Brrrr it's getting a little chilly!

You may have been caught in the icy fog and frost this morning, but I hope you have yet to turn into a polar bear!
Stick around at Citygate and that's even less likely to happen, because things are really hotting up. 

It has been an exciting week, (aren't they all!) with Sunday topping it all off with a great preach from Guy, a fantastic time of worship and a very apt word from Colin directed at the students and twenties group. He called for a response for anyone who was struggling with being bold in their faith, sharing their beliefs and pronouncing that they were a Christian. I imagine that there were more who could've been prayed for than were, so make sure to continue to press in for what God has in store for you. 

Lunch was Pizza, and that was scoffed pretty quickly, so quickly that there was none left by the time some of the stragglers arrived. Hopefully you got enough food, and had a great afternoon chilling out. 

Why Jesus/Church/Citygate or Pub in the evening, so it was busy, busy, busy but it was great to see so many people hanging out together in the Lynton Court, hearing stories of India, and sharing friendship. Loud...erm...not much! 

With Sunday over, you'd think things may quieten down but far from it. Last night was PPP, and we had a wonderful social time involving hot chocolate, and extreme amounts of cake (I take my hat off to the people who brought the 40 person cake) and so the evening was set to be a good one. Ella led us in a great time of worship, and God did His thing. 

It was a really powerful time with the Holy Spirit at work, prophetic words given, and hearts surrendered to God. If you were there, you know what I mean, it was a fantastic evening where we were free to be in the presence of our Heavenly Father. Definitely stirring and definitely refreshing. 

It is 38 Sleeps, 11 hours and around 55 minutes until Christmas, so that means that's it's only a couple of weeks until the Students & Twenties Christmas Service. Flyers should be around soon and we're looking to have lots of fun during and after with festive activities, fire pits and mulled wine. Mmmmm!

Please do invite your friends, Christmas is probably the one time in the whole year where going to church is acceptable  - don't miss the opportunity for those you know to see that church is relevant, fun and Jesus is very much alive and doing things!

Bookings for In Bude which is our Students & Twenties Weekend Away in March will be opened this weekend. Prices are great, accommodation is done by chalets, so get a group of people together (girls and guys seperate please!) and be ready to book in. Two great speakers, Matt Hosier who leads Gateway Church in Poole, and Julian Adams, an incredibly Prophetic guy originally from South Africa, now in Manchester will be serving us by talking during the weekend. Definitely don't miss out!

Message me for more info vcavolina@citygatechurch.net 

I'd love to hear all about what God is doing in your life, so share testimonies, build each other up and have a great week!

Lots of love Vicki x

Worship, Pizza and Friends!!!

Now I've got your attention with some things you may be familiar with (and what we'll be doing on Sunday - check out Facebook) I'd like to introduce something that you may not be quite so aware of, but is definitely more important than pizza, shocking I know...

Why choose Citygate? What are we about? What do we believe? Where do we think we're going? and a really big one, what does it mean to be part of Citygate Church? As believers, we're all called to be committed to a local church.This means attending regularly, building community, serving and reaching out (in short). This Sunday (14tth) and next (21st), we'll be running Why Citygate. This is the church membership course which allows you to find out more about our vision and values, and some of our key beliefs. 

Some of you may have decided that you love Citygate (hopefully most of you!) and are going to stick around If that's the case, attending this course is absolutely vital, which is why I'm making a bit of a song and a dance and trying to get people to go. If we want to see the church built, and a people on fire for God, it's important to know what you're fighting for, to be under the leadership of our elders, and to be serving the church in any way you are able. 

Why Citygate will give you the chance to meet some of our elders, get to know them and see where they're coming from. In a church of our size, sometimes it can be easy to feel lost - don't allow that to happen.

Feel free to ask any questions you may have, we'd love to see you finding out what we're all about. Don't stay on the edges, get right to the heart of the church, become equipped and make a difference to our town.

So, make sure to click 'attending' on the FB event page, and I'll see you Sunday!
With lots of love on this grey day.

Vicki x

PS - you can head to the Lynton Court for a drink with all of the lovely students and twenties on Sunday night after Why Citygate has finished. See you there!