A high-level visit to Hayling Christian Centre recently is proving fruitful.  We were very fortunate to receive our Regional Leader, Steve Ball, on a recent Sunday.  Steve looks after dozens of Elim churches and covers not one, but two, Elim regions: Wales, and South & West England.  As such, his area ranges outwards from Birmingham, westwards to cover all of Wales, south-west to encompass all of the West Country, and south as far as Bognor Regis, with Hayling Island therfore being his penultimate church before that. 
An incredibly busy person, we had been disappointed that Steve had had to cancel his original date earlier in the year.  However by the time of his visit to us a couple of months later, Steve has been in receipt of a legacy which interestingly came with the only caveat that it must be spent on Elim buildings in need of structural repair.
After discussions with Steve, he agreed to donate part of that legacy on Hayling Christian Centre's restoration project.  This is a shining beacon of hope for our building which requires so much money and effort to bring it back to its former glory.
Steve and his wife, Helen, thoroughly enjoyed their time with the congregation of HCC and did their best to speak to everyone here on the day.

Steve Ball (right) with Pastor Karen and her husband Nicholas (centre) and Steve's wife Helen (left)

Rev. Karen has presented her review of Spring & Summer 2019 at HCC on her own Blog page of this website.  Simply click on the BLOG tab for an overview of all that has been happening in an incredibly busy and productive February-August.  It's been an amazing seven months.  An outstanding achievement to have initiated and overseen so many good things heppen in just half a year.  Hope you enjoy reading all about it!

Easter Sunday's Service really reflected the glory of the day.  We were joined by 12 Christians from Pentacostal churches in Wembly who helped us to raise the roof with Worship.  

After the service, the weather provided the perfect afternoon for our 'BBQ & Praise' celebration.  Like both the services, this was very well attended and gave us the opportunity for more worship, led by our own Wendy Adams Evans.  Our friends from London stayed with us and everyone was well-fed.  Thank you to all who attended, contributed and helped.  This was a super event to enjoy and enabled us to celebrate Jesus's resurrection in style.

Good evening and I hope this week has blessed you and nevertheless you are looking forward to a nice weekend.
Tomorrow (Sat 2nd) the Vine & Dine Cafe is open from 10am-1pm in the Church Hall.  Do come and be waited upon at your table.  Why slave over a cooker yourself making lunch or brunch?  Let us do it for you!  Hot & cold meals and beverages to satisfy your appetite.  Prayer and Fellowship are on-hand and offered should you wish for that too.
On Sunday 3rd Messy Church will be in full swing in the Church Hall.  Bring yourself and your children or grand-children.  Feel free to bring your own crafts or hobbies of course but we have a wardrobe-full of art & craft material for the children to enjoy, which you can share too.  This will be hosted by our professional Youth & Children Pastors, so expect a lot of sound, music, stories and... mess!
Finally, pleased to announce that our diary of events on our website's Calendar page is now full and complete up to the end of June!  And now it includes not just HCC services and events, but also inter-community events that are hosted by HCC.  Have a browse and see what catches your eye, whether it be Zumba Gold or Ladies Who Latte.  All of our regular Church meetings and services are on there too.

The weekend of 2nd & 3rd February was a good one for HCC.  On Saturday, our Vine & Dine cafe was well attended and raised needed funds for the building restoration project, as well as providing a valued amenity for the local community.
On Sunday Messy Church, also well attended, provided a great way for children and people of all ages to come together and hear the Word through arts, crafts and drama.
We were also able to announce two special guests visiting us over the next six weeks.
On Sunday 17th February we are delighted to announce that Regional Leader, Steve Ball, will be joining us for our Sunday Service.  ​It is hoped that Steve will be able to meet you all in person during refreshments prior to the service.

On Sunday 10th March we are delighted to announce that Mark Gamblin from Doxa will be our guest speaker.

On Sunday 16th HCC opened its doors to the community for it's Christmas Carol Service.  This was to be a big event and in fact an unprecendented amount of planning and organisation went in to this year's service.  We welcomed a large number of worshipers keen to celebrate the birth of Jesus (more than four times the number present at last year's inaugural Carol Service, and approximately three times the number present on a routine Sunday).
New for this year, whereas the service was still led by our Pastor, Rev. Karen Bassett, the carols were all led by a professional local Christian entertainer.  Wendy Adams-Evans really brought the carols to life and helped us to raise the roof singing well-known favourites in a great mix of traditional and contemporary style.  She proved enormously popular and we all thoroughly enjoyed the choice of carols.
The afternoon was rounded-off with mulled wine and mince pies for all.
Below are some images from the day.

Hayling Christian Centre attended the Hi-5 Christmas Fayre on Saturday 15 December at Hayling College.  Doors were open from 11am - 4pm and the event was well attended.  The HCC stand was manned by Pastor Karen Bassett and Wendy Adams-Evans and they welcomed many interested people.  Karen reported that the public were a good mix of families, singles, adults and children.  We're pleased to hear that Karen says she and Wendy had the oppotunity to talk to a good mumber of people that day and they all took HCC flyers away with them.  Below is Pastor Karen dressed as one of the Magi from the Nativity.

On this first sunday of Advent, Pastor Karen talked about Moses and how he, often against his inner will, had to trust God in the face of a very few over-whelmingly obvious signs and, on the other hand, some very many less-obvious signs.
The sermon went down very well today and we are hoping that Pastor Karen might revisit what she talked about this afternoon in her next blog.

Two weeks ago, HCC held its annual Remembrance Service.  An extra-special year, as Armistice Day coincided with Remambrance Sunday, but prinicpally as it commemorated the 100th anniversary of the cessation of hostilities that siginified, finally, the end of the Great War.
HCC's Remembrance Service had all the aspects of what would have been expected at any such service, complete with appropriate Remembrance hymns, ceremony, tradition, extracts of war poems from the Great war and full observance of Two Minute's Silence complete with The Last Post and sounding of Reveille, followed by the Exhortation.
Some photos of the day are below: Pastor Rev. Karen Bassett; Nicholas Bassett (Premises Engineer & Fire Safety officer); David Morris (Caretaker & Driver).

HCC has just enjoyed a super weekend, opening on both Saturday and Sunday!

Vine and Dine, our cafe, was well attended on Saturday between 10am-1pm in the Church Hall offering Food & Fellowship.  We didn't quite hit October's record-breaking numbers, but all visitors enjoyed good food and drink.  Below is a snap of just before we opened.
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Vine and Dine, every month.  Food | Fellowship | Prayer

On Sunday we all enjoyed a fantastic Messy Church afternoon.  The session was led by Ross and Amy (Leaders, Youth & Kids) who brought the Word to all our youngsters through a combination of story-telling, drama and audio-visual tech.  A full range of activities was on offer to children of all ages involving arts, crafts and food.  We even had a sound and light show with pyrotechnics!  The session was enjoyed by all.   Below is a snap of us setting-up. 
Next Messy Church is Dec 9th, don't miss it!

It's Church Cafe this Saturday 20th from 10am to 1pm so give yourself a treat and come to Hayling Christian Centre's church hall for a late breakfast, a brunch or a lunch.  We have a great hot and cold menu with tasty dishes of food and drink.


As usual we will also be offering 'as standard' friendly company, prayer and fellowship for anyone who would like this too.


Proceeds from the day will go towards the Main Church Restoration project.


We do hope to see you there this Saturday.

Hayling Christian Centre wishes to extend a huge Thank You to the leadership and congregation of Bognor Regis Elim Church for their wonderful service on Sunday at HCC.  It was truly great to host you all and we're so glad you made the effort to come over to us on another very hot Sunday.  It was so good to have our hall so full of people.
We're so glad you're taking an interest in all the work we're doing at HCC, both for the community and also in regard to the restoration of our building itself.  It was nice to be able to show you around the site and let you see what we have ahead of us as well as what we've already accomplished.
Thank you to you all, including your new Pastor John, Graham for your sermon and James (pictured) for leading us in worship.
You're most welcome again as soon as you like! 

HCC's Summer BBQ was enjoyed today on a gloriously hot and sunny day.  We had a good selection of food brought by everyone and a great atmosphere too.

At times the heat was too much and some sought refuge indoors.  We needed no less than two regular sized BBQs and a large one too in the end; a great day.  Thank you to all who attended; glad you had a great day.

You read it right; YOU'RE invited!  Bring your own chosen food and drink but we will have some staple back-ups on the day.  And it doesn't matter if it's raining; no indeed, we have contingency plans.  Our BBQ is happening dry or wet, so DO come.  Lighting the coals at 1130 and serving at 12 noon so we will be finished before Service in SW19 and two hours before kick-off in Moscow.  See you on Sunday!

Hayling Christian Centre held its Summer Coffee Morning on a glorious sunny Saturday yesterday.
Pastor Karen Bassett kept everyone refreshed with her freshly prepared hot and cold lunches and drinks.

And here's a selection of some of the fayre enjoyed by our visitors.  So why not join us next time?

Adults and children alike enjoyed a fun-packed Messy Church today.

A new feature to our Messy Days is our resident Face Painter, Wendy, who transformed some ordinary looking children in to the cast of 'Cats' with some brilliant artwork, turning the children more feline than human!

There were also a variety of arts and crafts to enjoy and a selection of audio-visual entertainment, too, whilst parents were able to relax while their children were entertained which gave themselves time to catch-up with each other.

Pastor Karen taught a passage from Luke, 'Parable of The Great Supper' where the children learnt about looking after less fortunate people in the story about an invitation to a great banquet where the 'Messy People' of society were invited, instead of the usual ruling-class elite.

Behind the scenes today our Interior Decor expert, Dee, worked hard on the Vestry refurbishment, which keeps throwing-up one surprise after another.

And the Premises Engineer, Nick, had his work cut-out installing the Church's new main front sign.  No small order in this heat.  And the West Entrance renovation is still preventing Nick from relaxing as well!

All under the watchful gazes of Marion and caretaker David.

HCC was open for refreshments today at lunchtime, prior to Messy Church.  Cheese and Tomato Toasties were popular, although there were more Eggs on Toast's served again.  Great effort again to from involved.

Very successful Coffee Morning at HCC today.  Amongst many regulars and a few faces we haven't seen for a while, we welcomed a couple not previously known to us and a family of three generations.  And the favourite dish on the menu today was overwhelmingly Egg on Toast; they were flying out of the kitchen in high demand!  Well done to our pastor, Rev Karen Bassett, for feeding everyone, and everyone else for getting food and drink to our visitors.

It was Royal Wedding fever today and what better way to celebrate Harry & Meghan's wedding than having a Royal Wedding Tea Party!  The church was open from 9am-2pm with continual TV coverage of the occasion.  Pastor Karen Bassett provided food throughout the day with cooked breakfasts and lunch toasties.  And there was cake!  And a welcome excuse to hang-out the bunting and Union flags!  Wonderful weather on Hayling Island today, too.

Hayling Christian Centre enjoyed their first BBQ of the year today! 

That sun's hot!  And the barbie is smokin'!

Our Caretaker glad he found his sunglasses.  Meanwhile, BBQ halts renovation work.