Welcome to our service today. It is great to have you here and we would love to invite you to stay after the service and join us for tea and coffee.

Can you imagine the shepherds' amazement when the angel of the Lord appeared to them to announce the birth of Jesus. What a birth announcement! The shepherds were terrified but their fear turned to joy as the angels announced the Messiah's birth. First the shepherds ran to see the baby; then they spread the word. 

If we have made Jesus Lord of our life, we can call Jesus our Messiah and our Saviour! Each day we can meet Him in prayer and in His Word. He is the precious gift we celebrate this Christmas and He is the one we can share with others. Who will you share Jesus with this Christmas time?

Tony and I would like to thank you all for the amazing church family you are. We value each one of you and look forward with anticipation and excitement to what the Lord has for all of us in 2022 both here at BBC and further afield. 

May the God of peace, hope and love bless you all this Christmas. 

With love & blessings, Sandra

Welcome to our service today. It is great to have you here and we would love to invite you to stay after the service and join us for tea and coffee.

Happiness is an emotion that can disappear as quickly as it rises to the surface but joy is a choice. We too have a choice - God has given us a joy that conquers all else. We can choose the attitude we live in - fear, bitterness, anger....or we can choose to pursue the joy of Christ. 

Joy is trusting when we want to doubt - we don't trust in ourselves, our own abilities or what we have but we choose to trust in Jesus with our whole lives just as Mary did when she said "I am the Lord's slave, may it be done to me according to your Word". (Luke 1:38) Joy is receiving what we want to reject - we find joy in making room for people in need just as the innkeeper found a place for Mary and Joseph to stay to give birth. Imagine how he would have felt if he'd turned them away! And joy is celebrating when you want to fear. In almost every encounter the angels had with people their first words were "fear not". 

The message is clear - God wants us to know that He's going to take care of us no matter what happens. Immanuel - God with us! Always, forever.....a reminder of His promise to each one of us again this Christmas time. 

With love & blessings, Sandra

Welcome everyone. I read this poem this week - maybe you know someone you can share it with....

God of perfect timing, Word of wisdom rare, 

Eternal God, incredible to see you sleeping there. 
How can it be, dear Lord of life, You came to tell us all, 

Our only hope of Heaven lay within that cattle stall.

Many ways to Jesus, seekers take to find, 

Many people looking for a Saviour for mankind. 
Many different wonderings, for many want to know, 

Just who was born at Bethlehem a long time ago.

Was He just a good man, a teacher kind and true? 

Or was it God who came to earth to save a chosen few? 
Was it all a story, improbable and wild, 

Or God that day, in bed of hay, a tiny human child?

What do I know of Jesus and His changing, saving grace? 

What difference is there in my life, has Christmas taken place?
How dare I live a selfish life when God gave His for me, 

The choice is mine, and now’s the time to let Him set me free!

So Christmas now this season could be a different thing, 

This year I could accept Him, and hear the angels sing. 
So as I  bow, right here, right now, and call upon His name, 

My world, because of Christmas, will never be the same. (Jill Briscoe © 2011)

With love & blessings, Sandra

Welcome to our service today. It is great to have you here and we would love to invite you to stay after the service and join us for tea and coffee.

There are certain signals we all recognise that tell us Christmas is on its way. Holiday advertising is everywhere we look and in everything we hear. Christmas jingles won’t let us forget what’s just around the corner. We’re told of every financing plan imaginable to ensure that we can afford all the gifts we “need” to buy for all the people on our growing list. Websites assume their “Christmas look” and retailers put on their most elaborate displays. Families begin the task of tying all their loose ends together—in the hope that, for a few days at least, they can “be a family” in the holiday spirit.

The most significant indicator, however, that a special day is drawing near is on our church calendar: the beginning of Advent. The season of Advent is the time we prepare, not for extra expenditures of cash, but to remember the Christ child who came to live among us. Once again we consider that God actually assumed our humanity and was born and entered our world to secure our redemption.

So while some will no doubt be caught up in all the hurried activity of the Christmas season, let us also take time this Advent to prepare our hearts to welcome once again the God who laid aside His glory and assume our humanity because of His great love for us. There are few truths in this world that can be more wonderful, more startling and more exciting than this!

With love & blessings, Sandra