REVIEW OF THE YEAR - 2006

This review is a way of looking back on some key aspects of our life together as a church family in 2006. These pages give part of the story of how large numbers of volunteers have contributed to our ministry and mission over the last year.

In retrospect this was the year that we sought to put our house in order as regards our administration. I’d like to pay particular tribute to the Deacons, who have I believe worked harder this year than at any time since I have been in Bluntisham. We reviewed our trusts, church constitution, rules and policies, and agreed our new Mission Statement. You will find the relevant parts of this preceding each of the 5 keys areas of church life and some words from the deacons responsible for it.

This year we saw a change in personnel as Tracy Webster stepped down after several tireless years as my much-valued Administrative Assistant. This prompted a review of our structures, which led to the appointment of a part-time Church Administrator, Miriam Webb, who has settled wonderfully into this new role. It has been a hard task to work through all of these administrative changes in a short space of time. They are all for the better, however, and mean we are now well placed to address the challenges that the Lord will lay before us in 2007, not least the decision with surely the most far-reaching implications that we made last year, namely to go ahead with fundraising for the Renewal Project.

As you read through the things that have happened among us in the last 12 months, let’s be reminded of the faithfulness and enabling power of God, and be filled with expectation for what the Lord may do in and through us in 2007.
Nick Hudson

As a family of God’s people we are committed to growing through:

WORSHIP - Honouring God in all we do, all the time and through accessible, energising and transforming services

A visitor who joined us for a Sunday morning recently said ‘Services at this church are like a well-planned military operation! So many people have a job and just get on with it!’ They had a point. Our brand new Mission Statement states our aim that our services be ‘accessible, energising and transforming.’ For that to be possible for both regulars and visitors in 2006, a large number of people have put in many hours of time and commitment, both ‘up front’ in preaching, leading worship, reading, leading in prayer, singing and playing, but also behind the scenes, arranging technical equipment, welcoming the congregation, preparing flowers, coffee or communion. A welcome addition this year has been a small service planning team, whose work has added creativity to morning services. A recent innovation has been the Early Morning Prayer spot Meeting in the vestry for just half an hour at 6.45am every Thursday, this has already been an oasis for some, and a way for us, as a church to respond quickly to prayer needs as they arise.
Nick Hudson

Music Technical Team
Once again it has been a privilege for the music group and technical team to lead and enable the congregation in sung worship. In Spring 2006, through the generosity of many members of BBC we were able to buy an excellent digital piano. This has been a great asset to the whole team: we have more space for singers and musicians, new sounds to enrich our worship, a flexible, transportable keyboard for Sunday Half Hour - and piano tuners are a thing of the past! We were sad to lose Dave and Heather Brown as they return to the States, but we pray them every blessing as they start a new phase of their lives, and we thank God for their ministry among us. We continue to pray for Gordon’s complete recovery, and are grateful to all the other "techies" as they work even harder! Throughout the year many team members have been unable, for very good reasons, to come along to Thursday rehearsals. As we begin a New Year we have started a new e-mail system for organising rehearsals and improving communication - however please pray for us to make the very best use of our limited time together. We remain thankful to God, our families, and all of BBC for the encouragement and thanks that we receive week by week.
James Stygall

Welcome Team
Again this year we were blessed by having a committed group of volunteers on our welcome team. It’s a very rewarding job for both the visitor and the greeter and a very, good way to get to know everyone! For those who are new to church this can sometimes be a daunting experience, so being greeted by a friendly face is comforting. I would like to take this opportunity to thank David Johnson for all his hard work over the past year; David has now left to start University.
Tracy Webster

Reading Team
The Reading Team for the Sunday morning service has expanded again this year, encompassing a varied group of readers happy to assist when called upon. The readings are usually arranged a few days in advance of the Sunday service. As always, I would welcome any new members who would like to add their name to the list as many of our members can often be committed to other parts of the service. If you would like to volunteer to become part of our team I would be pleased to hear from you. With thanks to God that the number in our team has increased and that our church has continued to grow, bringing more people together to hear His word. Please pray that we can understand how best to apply His teachings in our everyday lives.
Val Mitchell

Flower Team
A huge Thank you to everyone who has helped to bring some of God’s never-ending, beautiful creation into the Church each week by helping with the flowers and for the special celebration services during this last year. We have also been blessed by new volunteers who generously give their time to provide vases of fresh flowers and it will be great if this trend continues. You can help out as much or as little as you want! If you are interested in helping please do not hesitate to ask me. There is a rota on the small board in the vestibule where you can add your name and pick a convenient date. Please give a prayer of thanks that we are blessed with willing volunteers who help with the flowers also pray that our list of volunteers will continue to grow.
Katy Horrocks

FELLOWSHIP - Building a united, inclusive, loving community where everyone can find a place to belong

CARING FOR ONE ANOTHER – ANN WASSALL

During the past 12 months it has been a privilege to see how kind and considerate our congregation has been. My thanks go to everyone who has shown kindness and concern to others. I thank God for each person who is part of our “Growing Family”. The Lord has blessed us by providing people with exactly the right gifts and talents the Church needs. My prayer for the coming year is that we all keep Christ at the centre of our lives so that we can continue to demonstrate his love to each other.
Ann Wassall

Visitation group
This small group helps Nick in the task of leading the pastoral ministry to those in our growing church family, and in the wider community, who need physical and spiritual help. We would love more people to join with us but in the meantime we ask to be given the spirit of compassion and discernment to recognise what people really need and the strength to support them by meeting those needs.
Joy Holmes

Ladies Fellowship
We give thanks to God first for all the Ladies who attended our meetings throughout 2006 and secondly for our speakers who have led us in Bible Studies and spoken to us on a variety of interesting topics. We have been truly blessed. Our plea to the Lord is for complete healing for our sponsored child, Rogiefel, who is suffering from a hormonal condition and receiving injections for a suspected goitre. We pray that God will touch him with His healing hand.
Pat Norman

Prayer Ministry Team
Thanks must go to all the loyal and committed members of the Prayer Ministry Team who give their time to pray for others. None of us are experts but we wish to serve the Lord by praying for the needs of anyone who attend the Church and feels they need help in some way. We give thanks and praise to our Lord for answering our prayers. Our hope for the New Year is that more people will have the courage to ask for prayer and know that we all care about them and are prepared to pray for them in the strictest confidence.
Ann Wassall

House of Prayer
In May 2006 a week was set aside when the church would be open for prayer. The hours it entailing seems daunting and faith small. However the resources, the atmosphere and a joint commitment to be there made it a highlight of the year. There was opportunity to sit and pray, read through daily newspapers to pray for current affairs, maps of the world to pray for mission, bibles passages to follow, a empty baptistry to sit in, reflect and remember and many more ideas to help encourage prayer. We all knew we should pray, we all knew it would be good for us what we didn’t realise was how much we would enjoy it!
Miriam Webb

ADMINISTRATION – BRUCE DANIELS

With the advent of a paperless office there is more paperwork than ever, or so it appears. The church doesn’t escape either and this year has seen us appoint Miriam Webb as the part-time Church Administrator. Her role is to assist predominantly the Diaconate and Nick, but also others in the church, with the paper work of the regular meetings and administering the church. Helping to get us organised and on top of this is a challenge to which she is rising.

Another big challenge was undertaken by Karen, Rob and David in overhauling the church constitution and associated rules. The task, prompted by changes in charity legislation and from the Baptist Union, to get our house in order was nothing short of mammoth. After months of battling with fullstops, commas and lots of legalese they have produced an excellent set of documentation complying with all our legal requirements and helping us operate as a church with transparency. A big thank you should go to them for what was a gruelling but necessary job.

I have recently taken on the new role as Deacon for Administration, responsible for maintaining this documentation, keeping us up-to-date on any future changes, being line manager to the Church Administrator and facilitating communication through all areas of the life of the church (and a number of the jobs Church Secretaries used to do!). It is one I’m growing into and you’ll probably find me with a folder and a lot of paperclips!
Bruce Daniels

CHURCH FINANCES – GILLIAN SUGDEN

This has been a very positive year financially with an increase of nearly 10% in our giving. Early in the year the bank decided to impose bank charges, which seemed a very negative step. In fact it has inspired many more people to give by standing order – easier for them, lower charges and a more regular income for the church. We also now receive interest on our current account, which is good, so God turned an apparent negative into a positive. However, as usual, expenses have also increased and will continue to do so. On a positive note again, we exceeded our target of £2650 for both Home Mission and BMS, and in total we donated 13% of our general income to other causes. Giving is just as important as receiving. The Renewal Fund has just been ticking over this year, but already money is coming in at a much faster rate, and this year will hopefully see us well on the way to raising the funds we need. We pray for God’s guidance in our giving, as in all things.
Gillian Sugden

DISCIPLESHIP- Teaching and equipping people of all ages to become lifelong followers of Jesus

GROWING INTO MATURITY—ROB GORE

When you join a study group you have the opportunity for free, open and frank discussion on a wide range of subjects, many questions are answered about faith, and how it should be impacting on our daily lives and you realise you never stop learning. We've continued through 2006 to try to meet the needs of all, and have enjoyed another positive year across our many groups. A new 'Post Alpha' group was started this year and has proved valuable to those attending and has been a great way of "bridging the gap" from Alpha. Our other regular "Home Groups" have seen some changes but have remained on the whole popular and rewarding. Following various opportunities for people to feed back over the year, and in particular the "Finding our Church's Voice" sessions, we will be conducting a full review of how we approach the discipling of our church family. We can expect to see some changes in the ways we help each other grow in maturity over the coming year as we strive to provide something for everyone. Thank you to all those who have helped lead groups especially for the hard work and preparation that has gone into another successful year.

Thank you to all those who have provided the invaluable feed back that we need to make sure all of our teaching remains appropriate and accessible to all. Please pray that our review in early 2007 will be fruitful in finding the correct solutions to meet the growing need our church faces in discipleship.
Rob Gore

SPACE
This year we have continued to be an ever changing group but have been pleased to welcome new people whilst others have been coming since the very beginning 2 years ago. We enjoyed studies on prayer, John and Isaiah. We are thankful for the lovely crèche helpers who look after the children especially Sarah Wallace (nee Harden) who helped every week. We are also thankful for the many answers to prayer that we have witnessed in our prayer diary. Please pray we continue to make time to learn and study together and can meet the needs of those that need this space.
Miriam Webb & Wendy Hudson

YOUTH AND CHILDREN’S WORK
We learned this year that, across the denomination as a whole, churches are losing touch with children and young people at an alarming rate. A whole generation is in danger of missing out on the message of Jesus. Holiday Bible Club remains a thriving and valuable ministry to address this, and our own Sunday School is bucking the national trend, but great challenges remain: those who serve by teaching or helping in our Sunday school groups do a remarkable job with growing numbers of children, but they need support and assistance. The task is to disciple today’s children to be the church workers and leaders of the future. Could you get involved in 2007? There are few more important tasks. In 2005/6 Sarah Harden spent a year as our Youth and Community Volunteer. Aside from helping me with School Assemblies and various other tasks, Sarah helped lead the Youth Alpha Course for a small group of our teenagers, which then became EnVigR8, though it has been impossible to maintain this since she left in the summer. A key challenge for the year ahead is to pick up this Youth Work baton and begin to run with it again.
Nick Hudson

Sunday School
Our Sunday School continues to grow with 88 on the register, six groups in all. We are very grateful for all the leaders and helpers who, week in, week out, without counting the cost, lead these groups. We have been blessed in the last year with more joining in this work but there is still room for more. We were sad to loose Sarah, our youth worker, during the year. She led the teenagers on a Sunday, went with a group to the Ely weekend, and Holiday Bible Club. She is missed. Please pray that we can continue to teach our children about Jesus, without being tired and down hearted, in a way that they can easily understand. Bless our children.
Joy Holmes

LIFE – The Church Weekend Away 2006
For Steve, the main image that comes flooding back whenever he thinks of this weekend is being closeted in a tiny kitchen with Rob Gore and Russell Banks surrounded by mountains of mango peelings! He had rashly agreed to help with the “Smoothie Bar” not realising how much work would be involved, how inadequate the equipment was or just how popular it would be. I’m sure everyone that went was appreciative of the end results, and Steve confessed afterwards that he’d rather enjoyed himself. It just goes to show it’s not always what you do but who you do it with that is important.

I think this example encapsulates the spirit of the weekend: that although many people put in a lot of hard work both before, during and after. I’m sure they all came away with a tremendous sense of achievement and satisfaction that comes from serving others, and a renewed appreciation of the warm ties of fellowship that we are lucky enough to enjoy within our church. Steve was also part of the music group and did a stint in the crèche. I somewhat guiltily sat in a comfy chair and enjoyed a fascinating talk by John Smith about the origins of the Baptist Church in the region. I reassured myself with the thought that “punters” were just as necessary as leaders! In fact the weekend provided everyone with many opportunities – to serve, to listen to and reflect on the great material being delivered, to discover new friends from amongst those hazy beings who sit on the opposite side of the church to ourselves(!) or just to enjoy quiet times with God in the tiny but inspiring prayer room. Highly recommended!
Alison (and Steve) Hutchins

MINISTRY - enabling people to use their gifts to serve God, by serving each other, our community and those in need

FINDING A PLACE TO SERVE – JOHN HOLMES

Our ministry is to worship and serve God. An important part of serving God, is serving others and a number of ways in which this can be done have developed in the past year. These have included the Beacon Café, Little Fishes, and the Baby-sitting service, whose ministry has benefited from the commitment of many. We give thanks for those who have worked so hard in the past year. We pray that in 2007, our people continue to seek ways of serving through these and other openings in the church.

The Beacon Café
The Café has now operated for 18 months. During the past 12 months, we have seen customer numbers increase. We give thanks that we have been able to cater for our own church people, other regulars, and people new to the villages,
either staying for a short period with us, or moving in permanently. It was a particular pleasure to offer a resting place for three ladies from Oregon, who had arrived in Bluntisham only to find their hosts were not at home. We also give thanks for the many volunteers who have willingly contributed their time and energy, guiding the work's development, serving in the café, and providing cakes and biscuits. In particular we thank Lisa Knight in her role as manager and Sheena Glanville who has taken over responsibility for the rotas. For the future, we continue to seek new helpers, even occasionally - once a fortnight, once a month - to help us build this outreach project.
John Holmes

Little Fishes
Little Fishes continues to thrive on Tuesday mornings. We have said goodbye to some of our older children who have gone on to playgroup and school and welcomed many new babies and toddlers. It is always good to meet new families and make new friends. Our calendar this year has included our usual summer and Christmas/Nativity parties, mums’ nights out and our first special children’s carol service, which have all received positive feedback from children and adults. Financially, we were pleased to be able to support the Albania trip, Children in Need, a health worker in Sierra Leone and the Christmas shoebox appeal. We pray that we can continue to support the needs of families with babies and toddlers throughout the year ahead.
Clare Stygall

FABRIC AND FACILITIES—DAVID HENRY

We are truly blessed to have such beautiful buildings to worship in and carry out lots of our activities. However, they take a lot of looking after! Most of this happens behind the scenes – from changing a light bulb to repairing the heating system. It isn’t obvious but all of it is essential. Due to our faith that the building project will not be too far in the future in being carried out, we have not spent money unless we have had to on improvements. Some things need to be done though. For example, new fire regulations came into effect during the year that has meant adopting new rules and safety precautions. That’s why we have had to limit the number of people attending Carols by Candlelight! We thank God for what we have but look to honour Him further by making it a safe place for an ever growing family.
David Henry

The Renewal Project – at the Heart of the Villages (formerly known as The Building Project)
Having gained planning permission for the project, we spent part of the last year reflecting on its purposes and challenges. There is overwhelming support that we should strive to achieve the entire project and that it should be in addition to all that we already do. Also, it should be about our mission and heart for the communities around us. Consequently, it has been renamed ‘The Renewal Project - at the Heart of the Villages’. This means that we are just starting to rise to the challenge of finding funding for the work. Part of this will be cash and part will probably be from a loan to be repaid over several years. It might seem a daunting prospect but in God’s power all things can be achieved. Let’s go for it!
David Henry

Mission – representing God locally, nationally and globally, by participating in His mission through praying, giving and going

COMMUNITY EVANGELISM—KAREN SMITH & DARREN YOUNG

It is brilliant to have many new faces in church on a Sunday morning and to see others easing themselves into a more regular attendance. We have welcomed folk into church membership this year and had the pleasure of seeing three baptised. As in 2005, we work hard to juggle the many and differing needs of a diverse church community and it is clear that the main way folk come to faith is through meaningful long term friendships with their Christian friends and family. One of our most important responsibilities as Christians is to pray for those that don’t know what it is to be a Christian and look for ways to enable them to hear the gospel. This takes time and resolve but is essential if we are to play our part in building God's kingdom.
Please pray for all those involved in leading mission so that we keep the right balance and focus and that we meet the new challenges that 2007 will bring.
Karen Smith

Christians in Sport
We are now in our third season and have a great mix of youth, experience, Church members and locals in the team. It is pleasing to see so many not from BBC joining us. Currently we are 4th in the league with more points than any previous season!

In October half term a number of team members were involved in a second football mission to Albania. During a very busy week we were involved in discussion group with other churches with respect to football mission and our experiences and beliefs. The week was physically hard work but spiritually fulfilling being involved in God’s work.

The challenge for the Christian team members is to continue to encourage all players to embrace our football ministry values. These are guided by the following bible verses 1 Corinthians 12:12, 1 Timothy 4:8, and Luke 6:31. We hope to achieve this in a number of ways continuing to pray in the changing rooms, at the start of the game and at half time; In the changing rooms prior to the game pin up to include the principles we play by and within the pre-match talk; and living and evidencing our Christian values in the midst of the game.

Please pray for the continued growth of fellowship in the team and that all grow in their faith or find faith for the first time.
Russell Banks

Media team
Two BBC Vision Magazines plus a special September edition on behalf of Somersham Baptist Church were planned, written, edited, checked, “proof bread”, printed, delivered and hopefully well-read during the course of the year! The standard remains high and we work hard to ensure the content is interesting, entertaining and informative. Vision seems to be an effective tool in our 'toolkit' and we intend to continue developing and improving the content, focus and style in 2007. It is very good value for money!

Alongside producing Vision, we also design and produce all sorts of other written material to help keep folk informed and involved, for instance the new Welcome Pack for Church Members. Then there's the web site... this has recently had a makeover and moved to a new more efficient server. Whatever would we do without it? It seems unimaginable, as it is now so much a part of how we communicate and share information together. New for 2006 has been the weekly downloadable podcast of Sunday sermons for which we thank Peter Lusmore. We are one of only four UK Baptist churches that do this!

Please pray for the impact of Vision and the web-site in our community and beyond in sharing the gospel and drawing folk to Christ in creative ways.
Karen Smith

Alpha
Our Spring 2006 Alpha course numbered around fifteen and was an enjoyable and challenging experience for all involved. We thank God for each person who attended and for the ongoing 'Life' small group which grew out of it. The model of identifying leaders for such a group, even before the course started, worked well and gave us further insights to build on for the future. Our current daytime course is smaller in number but we know that God always seems to get the 'group mix' just right so the right people attend, lead and help. Please pray for each person who has attended or is attending Alpha and for the current ‘team’, for protection, encouragement, energy and equipping.
Karen Smith

Sunday Half-hour
The aim of Sunday Half-hour was to reach out to people who’ve lost touch with church and to develop friendship between them and members of the congregation. In part this has been achieved but we feel there are still more in our communities who would benefit from this meeting. We are very grateful for the efforts of all those who helped, by speaking or providing the refreshments - tea, sandwiches, and cake!

We would like to see a greater involvement of the congregation, by coming along and encouraging friends and neighbours to come as well. It’s a great time of praise, learning, and building fellowship in a convivial atmosphere.
John Holmes

Home Mission
Home mission probably does not receive the recognition it deserves yet it is fundamental in supporting the work of outreach within the UK. The good news is that we made the giving target and again many thanks to all those involved behind the scenes that make it happen. A very special thank you goes to Win who has been involved in Home Mission for many years and who stood down as co-ordinator at the end of the year. If anyone would be interested in helping develop Home Mission then please speak to Malcolm. Our aim for 2007 is to continue to extend our support activities for Home Mission both prayerfully and financially so that Gods Kingdom may grow where it is needed.
Malcolm Lee

Earith Group
Believe it or not we are still meeting regularly once a month in the Rector’s Hall for prayers and communion. Our numbers are not huge but we have a group of committed people who give up their time to pray for the folk in Earith. We give thanks to the Lord for the people he has sent to us to strengthen us, and encourage us in our endeavours.

The Earith Christmas Carol Service was well attended this year with over 80 attending. It seems that there are a number of villagers who now think Christmas only starts properly if they come to our service!

Thank the Lord that we are reaching them in this way. Please pray that our group continues to grow and is faithful in the work the Lord has given us to do.
Ann Wassall

WORLD MISSION—MALCOLM LEE

World Mission is a key part of our focus and a big thanks to the fellowship for supporting all our activities in 2006. For the third year running a team visited Albania to support the Way of Hope Church and the work of Mat and Hannah Wilson who are our link missionaries or who I should say were our link missionaries as they have now moved back to the UK. We are in the process of identifying a new link mission partnership for 2007 and beyond. This is a great opportunity to support mission in another part of the world while we will still continue with the work started in Albania.

To help fund the trip and raise visibility of our mission a very successful “bike ride to Tirana“ was held, which has inspired more events to come. Burma and especially the Karen people also remain very close to us and the work of BMS in that region was the subject for our Harvest appeal. Thanks to all who helped in all the fundraising activities over the year, including the Stygall & co amazing curry night. We look forward to wherever we are called in 2007.
Malcolm Lee

Albania 2006
The simple way to describe the 8 days 12 of us spent in Albania in October is life changing and breathtaking. The latter maybe through the scenery, the warmth and depth of love we received from the people, or literally as our minibus driver took us into the Gramozi mountains, one hand on the wheel and turning back to talk to Matt "Matteo" Wilson.

For some it was their first visit, others returning for the second or third time and we were welcomed as good friends and straight into the life of the church, taking part in various ways during the Sunday morning service. We went from that to the first of our 4 afternoons at the GDQ School running a soccer holiday bible club for over 20 teenage boys. We even ran a second club on the Monday afternoon for about 30 slightly younger children. The smiles, the enthusiasm, the smartie game, the desire to play and the attention we received from them was incredible.

No less memorable was our return visit to the Vajqarr Prison, where some remembered us from 2 years ago. A game of football played in the right spirit, a sketch involving an apparently sticky chair and Russell's testimony kept the attention beyond the game. Please pray for the seeds sown that day.

A seminar to a number of the churches on "Making Disciples through Sport" allowed our acting talent rather than footballing ones to shine, but also got across the message that how we play should reflect our life in Christ.

A tournament to end the week proved our success may have been off the pitch rather than on it, but it was a week in which we allowed God to use us in a myriad of ways, allowed us to sow seeds and water seeds already planted and encourage our dear brothers and sisters in Christ in the Way of Hope Church, Tirana. Zoti Ju Bekofte (Albanian for ‘God Bless You’)
Bruce Daniels