My dear church family, It’s always darkest before the dawn. I confess to being a bit of a movie lover, and I remember this quote been used in the Batman movie, The Dark Knight; “The night is darkest just before the dawn, and I promise you, the dawn is coming.” The first part of that quotation seems to sum up the present situation in which we find ourselves. A short time ago, we were filled with optimism, we had resumed ‘live’ worship, and our lives were slowly returning to what seemed to be something resembling normal. Sadly it didn’t last, and now we are again facing an increasingly ferocious silent enemy, and we seem to be in the darkest part of the night. I prefer to instead focus on the second part, the promise that dawn is coming. There is some light beginning to shine in the future. As I write, some of our members have been given a date to receive their vaccinations. Hopefully, many of our number, especially those in the more vulnerable category, will have received their vaccinations by the end of February. For me, and I’m sure that everyone will agree it’s best not to focus on the darkness but look towards the light. John 1:5 reminds us that ‘the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.’ And Jesus applies this title to himself; ‘I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness but have the light of life.’ John 8:1-12 John’s writings, walking in darkness does not mean committing acts of sin but rather, rejecting God’s message of eternal life through Christ. In John’s Gospel light is not defined as righteousness. Light is defined as life, as seen in John 1:4 ‘In him there was life, and the life was the light of men.’ This ‘life’ is a gift Jesus brought from God into a dying world. In the birth of Christ, God’s promise is fulfilled, in him, we have the light of the world, we have everlasting life. Whatever may come our way, we have God’s fulfilled promise, Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit to guide, comfort and strengthen us and help us through these trying times. To God, be the glory. How great Thou art! Amen. Blessings Ernie

knew that we had to carry on guiding somehow for the girls. So, after the initial couple of weeks getting our own heads round the lockdown situation, we got to grips with how to use Zoom, the on-line meeting platform. We had a few guiders meetings to understand the workings of it and in April we held our first on-line brownie meeting. It was just great to see the girls faces and expressions when they saw the faces of their brownie friends. We did have a few technical issues and some of the early meetings were a little “interesting” at times but the girls took it all in their stride and they absolutely loved meeting on line. We have had a handful of girls that weren’t able to join us online because of connectivity or their parents were key workers. However, overall we’ve had a constant group of around 18 girls who have been there every week and we have had so much fun carrying on guiding during lockdown. During the first few months the girls seemed to get the “badge bug”. They really enjoyed working at home on interest badges and many of them gained lots of badges from baking, growing vegetables, exploring the town and the local history attached to it, to raising money for charities and experimenting with flying space rockets. We’ve had such a varied programme during the last 10 months; here’s a flavour of some of the things we’ve been up to! We celebrated the VE day anniversary with a party, we’ve learnt about tools like hammers and screwdrivers and identified jobs that could be done around the house with them, we’ve decorated owl cupcakes together, we’ve held many scavenge hunts around the house, something that’s popular with some of the girls. We took part in the Wildlife Trusts “Random Acts of wildness” and investigated nature and made mini-beast mansions to hang in our gardens. Some of the girls took part in the Girlguiding “Adventures At Home” weekend and built dens, made slime and joined with brownies across the country in a huge camp fire sing along. We finished our summer term with the usual beach party, all online in some amazing beach settings all created at home, this was a particularly enjoyable evening. We held a Taskmaster quiz evening, a firework party, a relaxation evening where we explored mindfulness and painted positive pebbles. The parents particularly liked the relaxation session at the end of the meeting and reported that some of the girls slept extremely well on that particular Thursday! For our final meeting of the year we decorated Christmas Angels all together which some of the girls affectionately named their “Covid” angel.

One of our brownies, Charlotte, worked really hard on badges and challenges and achieved the highest brownie award, the “Brownie Gold” award. Two of the girls jumped over their own home made toadstools and moved up to guides where they are meeting virtually on line with a new group of friends. We’ve had new brownies join us from Rainbows and they are settling in really well and we still have a waiting list of girls wanting to join. I’m not going to deny that brownies online takes more planning time than the face to face meetings, it’s a challenge sometimes to convert things to enable the girls to do something virtually and it does take a lot of preparation to create files and presentations so that we can share things on line. But as a team we’ve enjoyed getting stuck in and learning a new way to carry on having fun each week! We couldn’t have carried on guiding without the support of the girl’s parents each week and we are very grateful for all they have done to enable their girls to carry on attending Brownies each week. I’d also like to thank Lisa and Kathy, the two other members of our brownie leadership team, they have been by my side throughout our brownie meetings and I really couldn’t have kept going without your support and friendship. I believe we’ve actually been able to do some things that we wouldn’t have thought of or attempted if we had been meeting face to face at the Church hall and as a brownie group it feels like we’re stronger than ever. We do miss being able to join in our activities at the church each week and being part of the church family in person. Hopefully though, we’ll be able to meet again at the church hall face to face in the not-too-distant future. Yvonne Williams, Leader 40th Ipswich Brownies Why Highland Cattle on the front page? They are in fields at Alton Water, and they have slightly more untidy hairstyles than us! Seem good enough reasons. Ed.

Pastoral News We heard that Barbara Norton died and her funeral is on Monday, February 8th at 9.45am at the Ipswich Crematorium. We also heard the sad news that Doug lost his sister to Covid and also some more sad news about one of our lay preachers - Ann Boxall passed away at St Elizabeth Hospice with a non Covid-19 related illness.  The Elders would like you to have them all in your thoughts and prayers over the coming days and weeks.  We also heard some good news: That of the delivery of Tamsin, a granddaughter for Margaret B. Mother and daughter are fine even though Tasmin Mary S… only weighed in at 4lb, small but perfectly formed. Jeremia was very pleased with the pictures of him and his wife Alice which were in the January Advance. He sends greetings to you all. You will also be pleased to know Brian and Angie have managed to move. From Monday 18th January 2021, they took up residence in “Great Yarmouth, Norfolk's answer to the Costa del Sol” according to them. They are looking forward to having their own base, and starting to make a home there. Their telephone numbers remain the same and they wish us all a Happy New Year. FIND want to thank our church for the cheque for £466.20 which we sent on 4 January to them. “When you are able, please thank your Church members for this lovely gift, raised at the Church’s Christmas Day service. Please thank them too for their regular donations to our Food Bank. Leading up to Christmas our volunteers packed and distributed 1,000 boxes of food. These also included some festive fayre such as biscuits, chocolates or festive puddings or cakes. Each family member also had a Christmas voucher to purchase a gift as we were unable under present restrictions to wrap individual gifts. We anticipate that we shall be responding to an even greater increase in 2021 in requests for emergency food bags or household goods to help people who are in real need. With grateful thanks for your ongoing support, Heather Cade (FIND Trustee)”

Thank you for the Gifts and Food that was given to Lighthouse this Christmas time. Your kind donation goes a long way in ensuring that we can provide as special a Christmas as possible for the families we are supporting during the festive period. Domestic abuse remains a significant challenge in our communities across Suffolk. Lighthouse continues to provide safe emergency housing in our refuge, access to advice and support over the phone, as well as via email and Facebook Messenger. Our therapeutic courses have gone on line where appropriate and we are continuing to develop new ways of working to ensure support can be provided. Thank you again for your support of our organisation, we take great pride in our mission and accomplishments, and with your help we can continue to support those in need. Yours sincerely Deborah Johnson Fundraising and Training Administrator. Pill Drill. Repeat after me; This small white pill is what I munch at breakfast and right after lunch. I take the pill that’s kelly green, before each meal and in- between. The loganberry - coloured pill I take for early morning chills. I take the pill with zebra stripes to cure my early evening gripes. The orange tinted ones of course, I take to cure my charley horse. I take three blues at half past eight To slow down my exhalation rate. On alternate nights at 9 pm I swallow pinkies. Four of them. The reds which makes my eyebrows strong, I eat like popcorn all day long. The specked brown are what I keep beside my bed to help me sleep. This long flat one is what I take, If I should die before I wake. From You’re Only Old Once by Dr. Seuss via Sara Pells