Happy New Year!

I hope you all had a

lovely Christmas

and New Year. We

had a really great

break and enjoyed

our first Christmas

as Mr and Mrs! It

was lots of fun

buying decorations

and deciding where

the Christmas tree

should go! We were

able to spend time

with both our

parents on

Christmas Day, and

then wider families

in the days before

and after.

We’re settling into

our lovely flat in

Brentwood and

adjusting to the

routine of being

married. As my

current commute to

work is 2 hours

each way, Andy is

being amazing by

making sure dinner

is ready for me

when I get home!!

We’re enjoying

having a space to

invite people to

and especially

having our niblings

over to play!

Andy is mourning

the fact his drum kit

has to be packed

away in the spare

room - so he enjoys

getting to play at

church when he

can!

Thanks for reading,

please do get in

touch, I would love

to hear from you!

Finances I am salaried for one

day a week by Arise

Ministries and the

rest of my income is

from generous

supporters - thank

you if you are one of

them! Recently my

financial support has

decreased and so if

you would be able to

Hello!

Prayer Points Andy and I as we

approach 6

months of

marriage, that we

continue to

discover the best

ways to

communicate.

My dad’s health

Personal Finances

Upcoming events

New opportunities

for Arise Ministries

to work with

churches.

Arise as a team

that we continue to

work well together.

What’s Laura UpTo? Year 5 Issue 2

January 2014

Redhill Weekend 2

Limitless 2

Christmas 2

CGC Basildon 3

Just a ‘child’? 3

Viz-A-Viz 3

Upcoming Dates 4

Inside this issue:

What’s Laura UpTo?

consider supporting

Andy and I with a one

off gift or a regular

standing order then

please see the

reverse of this

newsletter for details.

Thank you!

Page 1

Sam’s 12th Birthday

When Lola came to play

Our 1st Christmas Tree!

Page 2 What’s Laura UpTo?

It’s been great to welcome

Naomi onto the team and

see her develop in her role.

One of her first events was

Redhill Baptist’s church

weekend away at

Ashburnham Place where

we worked with the 5-11s

and led a couple of All-Age

Services. The contact came

through our friends Emily

(youth pastor) and Paul. It

was a great weekend -

Naomi headed up the

programme and did a great

job! Andy came along with

us to help Paul with tech in

the main venue, so it was

nice to be

working with

him!! We

hope to

continue the

relationship

with Redhill in

the future!

Limitless

Redhill Baptist’s Church Weekend Away

‘Shine’ with Taste at

Billericay Baptist Church

and at Kingswood Baptist

Church. This event looked

at Jesus being the light of

the world and how we are

called to shine for Him. It

was great to be working

We ran two different types

of events over Christmas -

firstly the Journey to the

Centre of the Christmas

Pudding. We ran this twice

on Saturday 14th

December in Ashburnham,

welcoming children from

the local community. Then

on the Sunday was the first

ever Christmas Pudding

Drive (like a beetle drive

but festive!) - a great

community event which

enabled a family who were

not connected to church to

meet people from the local

churches.

We also ran an event called

with Taste and to share with

over 80 children the

meaning of Christmas.

Christmas

was a brilliant weekend -

you can read Naomi’s

reflections on the Latest

News page of our website -

but here’s a quote of what

impacted her:

“It was run with adults and

children which was a powerful

tool. The adults did the same

activities as the children, it may

seem silly but it meant that the

children saw it was a journey

that we are all on. As adults we

can often idealise faith to try and

make it seem attractive, but

what happens when things go

wrong? LIMITLESS showed we

are all on a journey, even adults

make mistakes and find things

hard but that’s ok, we are all

discovering, together, what it is

to

be disciples of

Jesus and be

close to Him in

this life.”

At the beginning of

November we ran a

weekend with Scripture

Union to encourage

children in sharing their

faith with their friends. The

programme was run with a

small group of adults and

children from a local

church with the idea of

launching it as something

other churches can run. It

Year 5 Issue 2 Page 3

We are doing some work with

a church in Basildon, helping

them to launch an outreach

event in their community. This

is a model we hope to echo

with other churches - it

involves support in setting up

the group, practical help in

running the events and

regular review meetings. The

first event will be at Easter

and then monthly after that.

It’s exciting to work with a

church that has a passion for

reaching out into their

community and wanting to be

as relevant as they can!

Just a ‘child’?

CGC Basildon

started in January as a

technician. The team are

getting on really well and

The brand new Rooftop

UK website launched at

the end of 2014 - go and

have a look!

www.therooftop.org.uk

Viz-A-Viz will be

celebrating its 21st

birthday in June - more

details of how they will

be celebrating soon!

Taste are currently in

tour in Scotland (North

Berwick - at a school we

visited 4 years ago!) and

welcomed a new member

of the team - Elliemae - who

fitting in well with the rest

of the Viz-A-Viz Family!

Regional day conferences

Special events

Local Church based morning/day

conferences

Seminars

Preaching

single evening events or mini courses over a

series of weeks

Weekend events

Looking at issues such as:

Reaching children with

the

gospel.

Mobilising children to

share their

faith.

Valuing children, who they are and what they

have to say and offer.

Releasing children to play their part within

church today.

Unpacking what it means for church to be

intergenerational.

We have been doing some

work on what Just a ‘child’?

is and what the various

expressions of it look like.

We are not going to be

running the day events in

the same way we have

done, instead we are

launching a 3-day course

over a year, along with

many other options to fit in

with what works best for

the individual church.

These include:

Viz-A-Viz Ministries

Support Me As you may or may not know, my full time role with Arise is

only salaried for one day a week. I am very grateful to all

those individuals who support me in the ministry I do with

either monthly or one off gifts.

If you feel you would be able to support me financially, then

please do get in touch with me or visit

www.ariseministries.org.uk/supportus.htm

Phoenix Court

Christopher Martin Road

Basildon

Essex

SS14 3EZ

Laura Keel

Arise Ministries

01268 530531 or 07768364410

laurakeel@ariseministries.org.uk

www.ariseministries.org.uk

Page 4 What’s Laura UpTo?

Upcoming Events

The dates above don’t take into account planning and preparation for events and many of

the meetings we have! If you would like more details on any of the events, or what’s coming

up in 2014, please do get in touch!

If you are interested in Arise Ministries visiting your church then please let

me know.

January 15th-17th: Induction

for new Girls Brigade Ministries Staff at Cliff College.

18th-19th: Worship Rally at Trinity Baptist Church, West Norwood.

31st-2nd: Children and Family Ministries Conference in Eastbourne.

March 14th-16th: Just a

‘child’? event in Huddersfield.

21st-23rd: Weekend Family event in Darlington

February 5th: Arise Trustees

meeting.

8th: Meeting with team at CGC Basildon.

19th-23rd: Holiday