On Sunday 25 November we had a visiting speaker, Trevor Roff, from the charity Open Doors, which supports persecuted Christians in many parts of the world today. Trevor said that in the earliest years of the church, as we read in Acts, there was amazing church growth, but alongside it severe persecution. He said that it was exactly the same today – in some places. When the church grows rapidly, other people become jealous and want to destroy it. In Britain, though, we are not used to either of these extremes.

Trevor said that we need to be INFORMED about the persecution of Christians – we could do this by getting on the mailing list for the Open Doors magazine. We need to IDENTIFY with them – one way of doing that would be to give financially. And we need to IMPLORE to God on their behalf – perhaps using the Open Doors diary. If you missed his talk or would like more information, please take some of the literature from the back of church.

Open Doors is our Christmas charity this year, and you can give to their work at our services until 6 January. Please put your donation in an envelope marked ‘Christmas Charity’ and place it in the offering at a service or send it to The Rectory. Cheques should be made payable to ‘Bishopstoke PCC’. If we have a Gift Aid declaration from you, we will add Gift Aid to your donation and include this in the total we send to Open Doors. If you wish, you can use a church Gift Aid envelope for this, as long as it is still marked ‘Christmas Charity’. Many thanks.