- Evening Celebration with Medway Worship Jam and Guest Speaker Roger Mitchell

- Prayer For Medway - A Morning of Prayer and Teaching With Guest Speaker Roger Mitchell

Faith and Light
Rachel Littlewood for more information.
Tel: +44 (0) 1634 570309

A new year and so at our first meeting we started our meeting with various members of the group miming something special about their activities over Christmas. I started it off with an easy option I stood up ,sat down ,shut my eyes and put my hands together. Yes ,Church on Christmas day! Several of our handicapped members had received new trainers which they wore to the meeting!

Sadly at our first meeting half our members were away with the bugs which seem to be affecting so many at this time of year but we had a wonderful Christmas meeting with 35 attending including my own daughter, Lucy, friends and carers from Gravesend . Lucy is in a wheel chair and needs 2 carers to bring her so a group from Gravesend only visit us for special times . They came to Aylesford, and to Minster in August.

I am always aware that we are an outpost of Faith and Light as there are no other groups in Kent or Sussex. However we do link up with the prospects groups who also bring the Christian faith to the learning disabled in a meaningful way. There is a local group in that meets in the Baptist church, Walderslade , another part of the Medway towns. We are very good friends with the leader.

Sadly none of us could attend the yearly get together at Kintbury last year. I was in China visiting my son but we hope we will manage the weekend after Easter this year. Meanwhile we meet fortnightly on a Wednesday in St mark’s church hall from 7-9pm and follow a well tried and tested programme of chat. games. Bible story and Mime or crafts ending with a time of singing and then a quiet time listening to some music. We sit in a circle around the lighted candle, each one who wants to praying and then we all join in AMEN.

Last year we had our usual day out in July at Aylesford where we illustrated the Gospel with a mime on their special day for disabled people. This has become a yearly event we all enjoy. Then we went to the Benedictine sisters in August . This is good time for us as we have a month without meeting otherwise.
Sadly it poured with rain but we had a keyboard and enjoyed lots of singing with 2 men from the L’Arche community the sisters had looked after many years earlier.
This year I hope some of us will be at the Kintbury formation weekend and then we will visit the prospect groups in may, Aylesford in July and hoe to visit the
sisters again in August.

If you would like more information about our Faith and Light group please do get in touch with me, Rachel Littlewood. I would love to hear from you!

On Saturday 9th August we had our yearly outing to the Benedictine sisters at Minster Abbey . This seems to round off our year and so we start again on September 3rd with our fortnightly meetings. The weather was wet and cool but 28 of us all shared a picnic in the guest house and then enjoyed an afternoon indoors singing songs.

I had brought a bag full of shakers ,tambourines and drums and Colin are able driver had brought his keyboard. Before we ended the day with a tea we joined all the nuns in their chapel and sang to them our theme song “Jesus’ love is very wonderful”. WE have been privileged to hire a minibus for only £30. Two days before we went Colin hadn’t heard the minibus would be ready for us and then I was worried as one of our members with her 2 disabled children lives in Hoo where there were demonstrations planned by the climate camp against a new coal fired power station. However all was well !

Our other outing was the first week in July when the group had to mime the Gospel at Aylesford friary on their disability day.
Once again, sadly the weather was atrocious and the Gospel a very difficult one to mime but we managed , all dressed in my late husband’s Arabic garments he used as night shirts with tea towels on our heads!

Sadly none of us managed the formation weekend . I was in China and the rest of the team unable to go. Once again I have been touched by how much Faith and Light means to all who attend.

It is indeed our “fresh expressions” church. All of us who are parents are able to share the difficulties and the good times we have caring for our special youngsters and we are able to include carers as well.
I till find one of the most moving times of our evenings is when we turn down the lights have our candle on a little table and after listening to some quiet music we go round the circle.

Most people pray and we all join in the “AMEN”. Other times are filled with laughter. As a leader I am so grateful that everyone helps. Indeed we are community not a club run for the disabled. Everyone matters. Everyone has something to contribute.

This year we decided to take as a basis of our Bible teaching an excellent book by Patricia St John going through all the stories Jesus told ,including some of the more unusual ones. The illustrations are of real looking people. Sometimes I adapt the Bible message myself as I can’t always find an appropriate version among the children’s Bibles we use. Last week we were reading the well known story of the prodigal son and one of our members when told about the partying the wayward son got up to, told us that he expected the son was playing pass the parcel. A childish games but one we all enjoyed playing at our Christmas party. There is always a chocolate hidden between each layer of the wrapping paper!

We had no outings in the last three months before Christmas but the party was a great success with my church home group coming to help and giving us invaluable support .There was too much food as we were given the left over's from a post funeral tea as well as all tht we had brought, so several members went home with bulging goody bags.
(Images 1 - 4 above An evening of craft preparing for Christmas) (Images 5 - 6 below our Christmas Party)

At Candlemass we think of the birthday of Faith and Light. Sadly the nearest celebration with other groups is too far for us to go. The next get- together will be the weekend after Easter for the formation groups at Kintbury . I will be sorry to miss this year as I visit a son in Beijing for his 50th birthday but hope others will manage to go

I have just heard that one of our long term members has just died ,leaving a widow and two learning disabled off spring. All have been members of Faith and Light since we started twenty six years ago. We have other members who are going through times of serious illness . At least, as a caring community, we have each other and we can continue to pray for those in need. The lady who has just become a widow said to me sometime ago that Faith and Light isn’t like any of the clubs she and her disabled children go to. In Faith and Light we do things together and we care for one another. Those of who lead the group are always so aware of how much we learn from our handicapped members. We receive far more than we can give.

Our meetings continue fortnightly from 6th February till 19th March and then start again for the summer on April16th. We meet in St Mark’s vicarage hall 7-9pm every other Wednesday. If you want to know what we get up to come along and see.

“Christ in our lives no limits just possibilities”  This text with simple signs caught my eye when some of the Faith and Light group visited a special needs school for a day out in June. The weather was terrible!. It poured with rain all the time so we couldn’t enjoy the beautiful grounds and the outdoor games which had been prepared but we still enjoyed meeting others. Some of the group won very generous prizes at a raffle.

We ended the afternoon with a Catholic mass ,during which a Downs girl was confirmed by the Bishop ,sponsored by her two sisters. This visit was a “one off” as we usually go to Aylesford friary in July but this summer event was cancelled due to the tour de France cycle race.

In February four of us went to a Makaton training course at a Black church. The people were very welcoming and friendly. We found out that every Sunday they rounded up special needs people from homes for church and gave them all lunch afterwards. There was a bit of chaos over the time we should start and the music of the unknown songs we were supposed to sign to. The musician didn’t know the songs either and was unable to read music. However we were able to learn some basic signs and taught them first to the group on return and later to the Faith and Light leaders who had come for the “formation” weekend with three of us at Kintbury in April.

The three best memories I have of the past few months was first of all the mime that Linda and Melanie produced at the Kintbury formation weekend . The theme of the weekend was the tabernacle in the wilderness so I wrote a story based on Moses and the people’s attitude to living in the desert. Plenty of grumbles! It was performed very well and we all enjoyed a laugh. Next there was our “Big Sing”. We decided to sing for an hour ,followed by party nibbles at out last meeting in July. The money raised is to go to Estonia where Faith and Light has just one new group. As Rochester Anglican diocese is linked with Estonia this seemed a happy coincidence. We had a write up in the Rochester Link paper. We also had a photographer from the Kent messenger and a mention in that paper too.

The last special memory was of our trip to the Benedictine sisters at Minster Thanet, in August. This year our visit coincided with four hundred Iraqi Christians who had come for the day. It was a beautiful sunny day. Some of us were able to hear some of the tragic accounts of life in Iraq now for Christians together we all visited the sisters’ farm and we heard a little of their singing in chapel before we had to leave.

Our meetings continue as usual; starting on September 12th we will be meeting fortnightly. We have room for some more members. Any learning disabled person is always welcome to join us as is anyone else who would like to come along and help.
For details please phone Rachel Littlewood 01634 570309  or
Rachel Littlewood for more information.

Faith and Light Update January 28th 07

This year as we have linked up with the Prospects Group, although we keep our identity as Faith and Light, we have enjoyed special meetings together.  We
all went to Canterbury for an area meeting in the Autumn and then had a fantastic evening celebration in Walderslade Baptist church with their Prospects Group and many of the other Prospects Groups from Kent.

The two groups just flowed together.  Faith and Light contributing a mime with a Christmas theme and the prayers.  It really is a blessing as we dwell together in unity and I often think that all the disabled folk can teach us so much about loving and supporting each other!

Next four of us are going on a makaton training day hoping to learn or improve our signing skills, to be used in worship together.  The weekend after Easter will be the Faith and Light 'Formation' weekend in Kintbury.
Meanwhile I am reminded that Faith and Light in Medway is now 22 years old.  Happy Birthday everyone!
New members are always welcome to join us in St. Mark's Vicarage Hall 7 - 9 on alternate Wednesdays up to April 4th and then we start again for the Summer on April 25th.

“I’ve brought this round because we’ve only got orange squash left and Karen can only drink black currant”
Margaret was off on holiday so she will miss our first two Faith and Light meetings but she had remembered Karen’s need for the right drink.  “ please could you come to Martin’s BBQ we want to invite his friends”. So four of us from Faith and Light went to a delicious Sunday BBQ at his home. Another couple were there and next door neighbours came too but if the four of us hadn’t come Martin wouldn’t have had many friends at his BBQ.

Faith and Light is more than a time when we come together every fortnight. We are a community. We are friends and I am reminded how few friends our learning disabled members have.

We are just about to begin our regular fortnightly meetings. We will meet every other Wednesday 7-9pm from 9^th September to 16^th December when we have our party.
We had a break in August from our regular meetings but were able to go for an annual “pilgrimage” to visit our dear friends the Benedictine sisters at their monastery in Minster village. We were joined by my daughter and some of the other Autistic residents from their home in Gravesend. We are hoping they will be able to join us from time to time in Gillingham at our regular meetings . Please pray with us that the staffing can be worked out and that they can come. Lucy my daughter has rheumatoid arthritis as well as Autism so she need two carers to look after her in her wheel chair. I know she misses her visits to Faith and Light after being a member for over twenty five years.

We had two earlier away days. In May we joined the prospects groups who also work with learning disabled people. We went to Bexhill Baptist church and had a busy day joining in workshops and worshipping together. The second Sunday in July was again the disability day at Aylesford friary. Once again we were able to mime the gospel story. It meant a great deal of last minute practice on the Sunday afternoon before the mass.. We weren’t able to have a practice before hand with all the cast as so many were taking holidays.

However I hope our efforts brought the story of Jesus sending out His disciples came alive to all who watched us.
We are blessed with a fantastic team who join together in taking a lead over different parts of our activities. Three of us were able to join the usual formation weekend with other groups at kintbury for the weekend after Easter. Once again we were aware that we are part of a big organisation which now covers over 80 countries.
If you would like to come to one of our meeting or want to join us please do get in touch with me Rachel Littlewood phone 01634 570309 and email mrlittlewood@hotmail.com.