The Messenger

Winter 2017

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4 Kames Court Girdle Toll

KA11 1RT Tel: 216939

Dear Friends, As I near a watershed 65th birthday I find that the weeks just seem to disappear in a blink. So, is it just me or is life becoming more frantic, more hectic? As I write this letter Christmas might seem far off yet are asking children in the school, in Messy Church and our organisations to enter a competition to design the Christmas Card showing something of the Nativity that will be delivered round the parish. This is a reminder that we will soon face the annual demands that Christmas brings, buying and writing cards, if you are traditional, if not emails are the order of the day; also, the 'dreaded' Christmas shopping needs to be tackled. The danger being that for so many folks the real meaning of Christmas is never realised, this is becoming more and more so in an increasingly secular society. That is why it is important that we in the Church share with those around us what Christmas is really all about. I would like to remind you of the real meaning of Christmas by retelling this Christmas tale written by Liam Ward, the title is 'The Story of a Starry Night'. The story takes place in the hills above Bethlehem, a young shepherd boy is snuggled between two older companions in the lee of a rock, a motherless lamb is cradled on his lap. Old Benjamin broke the silence: “This is terrible, it’s freezing cold and we have to stay here all night when it's all happening down there.” He points to the lights below. “The place is alive with people from all over the country.” He rose to his feet and said, “I'm going for a drink. You coming Matthew?” They were worried about leaving the young boy, but he assured them he would be all right and off they went. Just then, Mary and Joseph had arrived and were being ushered in to a stable. Benjamin and Matthew sat in a corner of the Inn sipping their drink. Matthew became worried about being away so long. “Worried about the boy” asked Benjamin. “What on earth is there to worry about? You know as well as I do that nothing ever happens in this God forsaken place.” May we share the good news of Christmas that others might know and experience the peace and good will that Jesus, the Baby of Bethlehem brings. With every blessing. Andrew R Black

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Weddings

“That they may be one “

2nd September. Christopher Stanner to Yvonne Buckley 3rd October. Gregor Hendron to Vicky Cox

Funerals

“I am the resurrection and the life”

21st September John Weir 11 Hopetoun Bank 2nd October Julia Elliott Fullarton Nursing Home 13th October Marion Grubb 25 Cheviot Head

Wise men still follow Him

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Kirk Session News

Communion Services Our Communion Service will be held at 11am on Sunday 10 December 2017 at 11am.

Communion Duty Team E (Gordon Robertson, Jean Clarkson, Barbara Gibson and Jack Johnstone) is on duty and is asked to meet at the Church on the Saturday morning at 10.30am to help prepare the elements.

Elders are asked to be at the Church on Communion Sunday for 10.30am

Retiring Collection The retiring collection in December is for the charity, CHAS. CHAS is now Children’s Hospices Across Scotland. Over 15,000 children in Scotland are living with a life shortening condition. CHAS aims to support these families.

Messy Church

‘Messy Church’ meets again on Saturday 2nd of December at 10am. Please encourage family and friends to attend. The Christmas story will be delivered to the children through the means of arts, craft work and songs. Our session will be rounded off with fellowship over a light lunch.

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Christmas Services

10 December at 11am – Toy Service – all toys donated will be given to Social Services

10 December at 6.30pm- joint Christmas Carol service with Girdle Toll Church, St John Ogilvie’s and St Mary’s, in our Church

24 December at 6.30pm- Christingle Service

24 December at 11.30pm (carol singing from 11.15pm)

25 December at 11am – Christmas Day service- Bring a present from Santa!

INCOME & EXPENDITURE

Income and expenditure 2017 Income TOTAL Expenditure TOTAL as at 31.01.2017 £7,093.35 £1,164.18 as at 28.02.2017 £3,494.70 £10,588.05 £3,699.02 £4,863.20 as at 31.03.2017 £3,077.52 £13,665.57 £6,724.35 £11,587.55 as at 30.04.2017 £4,942.73 £18,608.30 £4,569.21 £16,156.76 as at 31.05.2017 £8,005.02 £26,613.32 £11,815.60 £27,972.36 as at 30.06.2017 £4,585.13 £31,198.45 £3,923.49 £31,895.85 as at 31.07.2017 £4,397.80 £35,596.25 £5,116.59 £37,012.44 as at 31.08.2017 £2,831.50 £38,427.75 £4,087.79 £41,100.23 as at 30.09.2017 £2,333.12 £40,760.87 £3,765.03 £44,865.26 as at 31.10.2017 as at 30.11.2017 as at 31.12.2017

PARTY!

The Kirk Session decided at a recent meeting that a positive way to engage with our community is to a hold a party for people living in Bourtreehill. This will help our Church reach out to the community and let people know that we are here.

The party will be held on Saturday 13 January 2018 between 2 and 4pm. We will be looking for volunteers to help with party. However, as it is a party for the community, it will be a joint venture with our friends from St John Ogivlie’s RC.

Please mark this date in your diary. The party will help to cheer you up if you are suffering from the January blues! Please see the poster with more details later in the magazine.

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Men’s Fellowship Christmas Dinner

The Men’s Fellowship Christmas dinner will be on Tuesday 12 December in the Brae Inn, Dreghorn. Please be ready to eat at 7.30pm. The cost will be around £17 including the tip. If you wish to attend, please speak to Lex Rodger.

Note of Appreciation

I would like to thank everyone for their kind wishes, cards and gifts given to me to celebrate my “90th” birthday. It was much appreciated. Many thanks to the Guild members for my cake!

Margaret Fraser

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New Irvine Community Choir

You hear it being said that “Christmas gets earlier every year”. This is sort of true for us at New Irvine Community Choir. Starting our new session in August means we are working towards Christmas concerts and performances etc… The choir calendar is filling up rapidly and we’ll fill you in with all the dates further on into this article. Firstly though, an apology. In our last article we had mentioned a fundraiser that we had booked for 28th October. Unfortunately, this didn’t come off as we were working on increasing our Christmas repertoire, and as beautiful as some of our Christmas pieces are, nobody wants to hear them in October. Sorry if we disappointed. In other news, the choir had the privilege of making two donations to two charities this year. Last month we invited Betty Weir, Chairperson & Jean Reader, from Bourtreehill & Broomlands Age Concern and Christine Wright, Treasurer for Winton Riding for the Disabled. Each charity received a cheque for £250. We also had photographer, Omar Salam, to take snaps during the day. These photos have been sent to the local press and are also on the choir facebook page. Feel free to check them out and give our page a “like” at facebook.com/newirvinecommunitychoir.

So, as promised below you will find a list of all the choir engagements for this Christmas.

18th November – Ayrshire Hospice Winter Fair, at Ayr Racecourse, performing

throughout the day between 11am and 3pm. 9th December – A Christmas Celebration. Our Christmas concerts this year

will take place in the newly renovated “Robert Burns Room” in Irvine Townhouse. We will be performing two concerts one at 2pm and another at 7pm. This allows anyone who wouldn’t usually go into the town at night, to still attend our concert in the afternoon. Our poster is also in the magazine and we would love to see you there.

10th & 17th December – No rest for the wicked. The day after our concerts we

will be out fundraising in Tesco Irvine. This is always a highlight of our year. Singing in the community for those Christmas shoppers, plus raising a little money to keep the choir running. It’s always a relaxed and fun time for us, especially since both dates are after our concerts, there’s no pressure! We would love to see you at any one of our performances, if you need any further information from us please approach any of the choir members. Ticket information will be released in due course.

Sam Prescott – Musical Director

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The Cabin Studio 20 Glebe Road

Kilmarnock KA1 3BA

Tel: 01563 530880 Volunteers Needed

Why not come & join our team!

We are a registered Scottish charity (Sc025356) totally run by its members. We need volunteers to record and edit our Talking Newspapers and church services for the partially sighted and blind people of Ayrshire on a weekly basis. Our service is a lifeline for many in their local areas. It is also good for their wellbeing and mental stability, and they appreciate the effort and hard work that goes into the recordings. We are keen to welcome new volunteers to help us continue to provide this vital service to those in our communities with sight impairment. Where: Ayrshire Recording Services for the Blind, 20 Glebe Road, Kilmarnock KA1 3BA. Car parking outside studio & we are within walking distance of local bus & train stations. There are local bus stops nearby.

Readers: Volunteer readers must have a good, clear speaking voice & enjoy reading; they must feel comfortable reading aloud and be able to put a bit of colour and personality into the stories they are recording to make the experience more interesting for the listener. Someone with a journalist or radio background would be a great advantage, although this is not a requirement. Computer digital recordings are saved on USB memory sticks & distributed to members each week by post to those on our membership list (post-free). Service users keep the memory sticks for a few days to give them time to listen to all of the stories. They then return them to us where the old recordings are wiped, and the memory sticks re-used for the next batch of recordings. Training: Full training provided to new volunteers about our computers systems and procedures. Audio Engineers: We need volunteers with skills/expertise in audio engineering (e.g. Audacity; Windows 10) who can work on an audio digital recording system for our Talking Newspapers Service for the Blind. We need volunteer audio engineers to help us maintain and keep this vital recording equipment in good running order.

Digital/Social Media Wizards! Are you a whizz with Social Media? We need volunteers with relevant I.T. skills and good knowledge of operating popular social media platforms to monitor and maintain contact with various social media outlets for on-line streaming of our Talking Newspapers and information about our various projects. You will have the chance to put your skills to very good use, build on your expertise & knowledge, while gaining some essential practical experience to add to your CV. Admin: Volunteer admin support needed to help manage, maintain and organise our administration & keeping our records up to date. Volunteers must be computer literate with knowledge of Microsoft Office and relevant software packages. Fundraisers: Volunteers with energy & enthusiasm to help us with fundraising to maintain our services by organising activities encouraging and involving the rest of the team. If interested, please contact the above telephone number.

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No Return by Matthew Russell At Cornton Camp Basic Training Facility it was always dull, cold and wet. It was July 1917. The 1st World War was evident all around them. There was not a house in sight that wasn’t damaged in some way or other. Basic Training was a living hell. There were the sleepless nights on rickety old beds with inch thick mattresses. Even if you did manage to drop off, they got you up at four in the morning every day for the routine of non-stop physical activity until eleven at night. New recruit John Russell hated it. In fact, he hated everything about war and killing. He didn’t want to be there. He didn’t want to kill. Basic Training was nearly over. In one aspect, John was happy about this as it meant there would be no more sleepless nights or getting up at four o’clock every morning. However, another part of him was dreading the day he was posted to the front line and went into battle. The Passing Out Ceremony was on July 25th 1917. John was all smiles on the outside and partly on the inside too because basic training was finally over. But another part of him, the part which hated violence, was sorrowful and scared. The other soldiers seemed as if they were looking forward to killing innocent men like themselves, but John could not see how this was possible. Part of them must be screaming in protest to the violence and destruction around them. If that was the case though, the soldiers did not show it. It was July 30th, John had just been posted to the front line in Northern France along with the rest of the men in his battalion. He felt his breast pocket for the bible he always kept with him for luck. Tucked inside the bible was a picture of his wife, Mary and his two children, Irvine and Duncan. He was relieved he still had it as he was about to go into battle. John felt like running home there and then, sitting down with a hot cup of tea in his lap and pretending there was no war at all. But instead he was standing in a cold, wet, muddy trench listening to the sergeant barking orders at them.

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“Are you ready!?” screamed the sergeant. A soft mumbling rippled through the battalion. “I said, are you ready!?” “Yes sir!” shouted the battalion, simultaneously. “Go!” The battalion rushed out of the trench and before John knew it, he was on the battlefield surrounded by gun fire and men screaming in pain. John almost fainted at the sight of the hundreds of dead and wounded men scattered on the ground around him. While John was paralysed with shock a German soldier appeared in front of him. The soldier aimed his gun at John but before his finger could get to the trigger John’s instincts took over. He raised his gun and fired. John gasped as the man in front of him collapsed at his feet. Blood poured from the gaping wound in the man’s chest. John stared at the lifeless body for a few seconds before looking away. The battle went on for hours. When it finally ended, John found himself in the enemy trench on the other side of the battlefield. They had won! They had lost hundreds of men, but they had won! John wasn’t happy though. He had killed several men during the course of the battle. The men’s faces would haunt him until the day he died. They all had the same scared look in their eyes, all of them were just the same as himself, caught up in the tragedy of war. All enlisted against their will. And yet he had killed them anyway. He had to, to make sure he wasn’t killed himself. Although he wasn’t killed he had been wounded. Shot in his left arm just below the elbow. He was in physical pain, but he could hardly feel it over the mental anguish he now experienced over taking the lives of others. There were medics rushing everywhere around him, but John did not take notice of them. He was sitting, staring ahead of him at nothing. He was shocked and stunned that he, John Russell, the same man who had been living a normal life until a few years ago when the war started, had actually killed men. From that, there was no return. Although this is a work of fiction written, while a 4th Year student at Greenfaulds Academy Cumbernauld, Matthew did have a great grandfather who served in the great war as a Seaforth Highlander and who, at the age of 18, was wounded and captured in Northern France in April 1918.

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Minister -

The Rev Andy Black, 4 Kames Court, Irvine 01294 216939 Session Clerk - Mrs Morag Cooper, 5 Balgray Way, Girdle Toll, Irvine 01294 211235 Clerk to the Board – Mr Billy Muir, billmuir10@hotmail.com 01294 215198 Roll Keeper - Mrs Helena Wallace, 22 Norman Crescent, Irvine 01294 232460

Intimations - Mrs Susan Rose, 31 Corserine Bank, Bourtreehill, Irvine 01294 215050 Email: susanrose@tesco.net Website Editor -

Scott Seenan, 3 Kames Court, Girdle Toll, Irvine 01294 221602 Email: scottseenan@hotmail.co.uk

Organist and Choir Master - Sam Prescott 01292 474252

Email: sprescott2611@yahoo.co.uk Mobile: 07527 880884

Scottish Charity No:002469 www.reliefparishchurch.org

December 2017

If you would like to advertise your business within the pages of ‘The Messenger’ please contact Morag on 01294 211235

To advertise your business here contact

Morag on 01294 211235

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