PBC News

Peebles Baptist Church Newsletter

Summer 2016

www.peeblesbaptistchurch.org

Hope from
the ashes!
The amazing story
of the Taylor family
What would you do if you found
yourself with your home burned
down and most of your possessions
gone up in flames? For many of us,
this would be the start of a time of
despair, but for Elaine and Patrick
Taylor, a terrible house fire in February has led them to a time of hope,
new life and unexpected happiness.
Expect a miracle everyday has
become the family motto, as in the
months following the fire, they have
found generosity and support at
every turn, and they now know a
hope and purpose in following Jesus
Christ.
Going back to that night: with the
family Elaine, Patrick, Ruby (6)
and Orla (3) all asleep in bed,
everything seemed normal. Around
3am, unusually and for no apparent
reason, Patrick woke up. Something
prompted him to turn the opposite
way out of their bedroom to that
which he would normally go, and as
he put his hand on the living room
door handle, he pulled back in shock
as he felt the radiating heat from the
knob. Knowing something was terribly wrong, he woke up Elaine and
the girls, and got the family out of
the house, as he called the fire
brigade.
By morning, the family found
themselves homeless, and with

nearly everything they owned

burned or smoke damaged. Sadly,
Belle, their much loved family dog
perished in the fire.
During the next few days, the
family were shell shocked, literally
unable to speak or to do much
apart from get by.
And yet today, six months on,
Patrick and Elaine have a marriage
that is stronger than ever, are planning to move back to their home
once the refurbishment is finished,
and they both have a sense of
peace, hope and joy that they did
not imagine was possible before the
fire so what happened?
Patrick tells of how before the
events of February he had a very
frustrating, up and down life and
lifestyle - hes even been run over
twice! But what happened during
and after the fire made me realise
that God must have a plan for me,
he says. After making a commitment to Jesus, Ive been seeing
everything with new eyes, and with
a purpose for my life.
The word miracle is sometimes
overused; but with no smoke

alarms, and no access out of the

windows, Patrick and Elaine say
that they are only here today because of Gods intervention. Thats
two miracles! says Patrick. One is
that were alive, and the other is that
weve given our lives to Jesus!
Weve just been showered with
blessings, says Elaine, and weve
increasingly come to learn that when
we start to trust God, he will meet
our needs every single day. To have
people in the church who barely
knew us give us such kindness and
realise that were part of a much bigger plan - and a much bigger family!
We thought wed lost everything, but in fact we lost nothing at
all! Because the most important
things are not things at all, but
people family, friends, our church,
and Jesus, who we follow daily.
The couple are being baptised at
Peebles Baptist Church on Sunday
September 11th, when they will tell
more of their amazing story. Come
along and hear about how God
gave them hope from the ashes more details of the service inside.

Selling the Sizzle!

We might have mentioned before that whatever else we might do,
theres one thing thats particularly close to the hearts of those at Peebles
Baptist Church - and thats eating together! Once a month throughout the
summer we enjoy having barbecues after our Sunday morning service.
The barbecues are at
the Kings Meadow
Community Garden,
and are free and open
to all. Even if its raining (hard to imagine, I
know) we still go
ahead, eating indoors
either in the Drill Hall
or under cover at the
Kings Meadow.
Bill and Jennie - our friendly BBQ cooks!

All-Age service and BBQ

Sunday 28th August, 11am
Service in the Drill Hall, BBQ afterwards at the Kings Meadow
What can you expect at an All-Age service?

lots of short, fun activities based around a different theme each month
action songs (and hymns too)
creative prayers in different styles
everyone joining in
a BIG BIBLE challenge
children and babies stay in for most of the service
childrens craft activity during the talk
perhaps a bit noisier and chaotic than usual
God to speak through the chaos and the noise
plus this month we have a special guest - Sara McArthur, who has
been working with BMS World Mission in Peru (see right)

As a church, we partner with mission

workers in Bangladesh, Italy, Guinea
and Peru. Were looking forward to
our All-Age service on August 28th,
when we have a visit from...

Sara McArthur
Sarah moved to Peru in early 2013
to join BMS workers in Nauta, in the
Amazon forest, helping to train
pastors and the local community in
creation care and sustainable agricultural methods such as plant
propagation. She is also involved in
youth work through the local church.
Sarah has had some incredible
adventures during the past three
years, when she has seen God at
work in her life and the lives of the
people around her in Peru.
Sarah originally hails from Perth,
and is very happy to be back visiting
family and friends in Scotland this
summer.

Wed love to see you there!

Do you have primary school age
children? Heres a really positive
alternative to them trick-or-treating
around the streets at Halloween!
Come to our Light Party, run by
Peebles Churches Together, on
Monday 31st October. Its from 6.308pm, in the Burgh Hall. Tickets are
1.50, and the party will include
crafts, games, food and drink, and a
magic show. Therell be a caf area
for parents too, if youd like to wait.
Please come dressed as a superhero (the children, not the parents!)
Find a booking form at peebleschurchestogether.org.uk or
peeblesbaptistchurch.org, or on Facebook at Peebles Baptist Church.

Community
Survey
There has been a lot of change and
growth in Peebles over the last few years, and the South side in particular has grown as a community. Back in February this year, we carried out a survey on the South side seeking peoples views on what facilities would be useful in
the church/community building that we are planning to build on our site in Cleland Avenue.
A group of members and friends visited 147 households from a range of streets, as well as asking shoppers on the
High Street. We found the results really positive and encouraging! We also contacted several organisations in
Peebles, and again the responses we received back were very positive. Heres what you told us:

87% of you thought that a Community Caf/Drop-in would be useful or very useful.
74% of you would find attractive, affordable space for parties/events useful or very useful.
74% thought that the idea of a meeting place for community groups would be useful/very useful.
73% liked the idea of publicly accessible toilets
69% wanted meeting rooms for businesses and services.

Amongst the comments we received were If you are going to build, build for the community. Another participant said A building here would help the park to be better used, especially if it had toilets and a baby change
point. There was also enthusiasm from people about a church building for the South side.
As a result we have decided to proceed with looking to build a church/community facility on our site. Its still
very early days but we will keep you updated as to our progress. You will find details of various fundraising events
that we have planned elsewhere in this newsletter.
We want to thank everyone who agreed to take part in our questionnaire. The results have been extremely important in
our decision making and planning for the new facility.

TAKING THE PLUNGE

Baptism is about making a public commitment to follow Jesus. It all
started nearly 2000 years ago, when a man called John began dunking
people in the river to symbolise their wanting to be washed clean by God.
He became so famous for it that people started calling him John the
Baptist! Then Jesus and his disciples continued the practice, and in fact
being baptised is one of the first things Jesus calls his followers to do.

Fashion Show

In Baptist churches, believers baptism is exactly the same today although most of the time we now baptise people in a tank rather than the
river! We dont baptise babies, but rather (as the name suggests) people who
are old enough to decide for themselves that they want to follow Jesus.

Wednesday October 5th in the

Burgh Hall, with fashions by M&Co
and Castle Warehouse kids clothing.
Tickets 10 from M&Co.

Why not come and see for yourself? A believers baptism is a really
exciting thing, and youd
be very welcome to come
and watch. We will be
baptising several people
(including Patrick and
Elaine from the story on
the front page) at our
morning service on
September 11th at 11am,
in the Drill Hall (Peebles
Community Centre).
There will be food afterwards too!

Afternoon Tea
Saturday October 22nd, in the
Leckie Memorial Church Hall, with
book stalls, home baking etc.

Ladies Pamper Night

Friday 11th November, in the
MacFarlane Hall.

You can find more details about all of

these fundraising events on our
website: peeblesbaptistchurch.org

News
from
The Kings Meadow Community Garden was established by Peebles Baptist Church
three years ago, and has been growing and growing...
You can find the Kings Meadow off Cleland Avenue in Victoria Park
- its open to everyone, whether you want just sit on one of the many
benches and watch the flowers and veggies grow; or, if youre feeling
energetic, you can come on a Friday afternoon, pull a few weeds or water the five raised beds.

We have a fruit bed, two flower beds and three vegetable beds to look
after, and our aim is to help the local community to grow and
harvest locally produced vegetables and to support the immediate neighbourhood. Weve been seeing increasing numbers of people involved including from neighbouring streets, and from the High School.
The garden has been created on land owned by Peebles Baptist
Church where, God willing, we will plant a new community facility to
serve the people on the South side of the river.
To find out more about the Kings Meadow, or if youd like to get
involved with the garden, please see our website
(peeblesbaptistchurch.org/garden) or email Bill Jacobs at
bill.jacobs@talk21.com.

CATCH US IF YOU CAN!

As mentioned earlier in this newsletter, were working on plans to build a new
church and community building on the South side of Peebles. Until that is
completed, however, our main weekly gathering together will normally be in
Peebles Community Centre (known locally as the Drill Hall) on Sunday mornings
at 11am. Occasionally the Drill Hall is booked for other events on a Sunday
morning, and if we need to meet elsewhere on a particular week the location will be
announced on the home page of our website as well as in the local press.
Peebles Baptist Church is a group of people who love Jesus, and want to share his
love with our community. We are a growing congregation, enjoying good relationships with the other
churches in Peebles. Our meetings are informal, welcoming
and
family -friendly.
We
have
activities for children, families, men and women - you
can find out more by visiting peeblesbaptistchurch.org.
Alternatively contact the pastor, Ian Gray, on
07881 518854 or email pastor@peeblesbaptistchurch.org.
Peebles Baptist Church is part of the Baptist Union of
It is registered in Scotland as charity number SC007561.

Peebles Churches
Together