Blog Archives

Weekend Away 2011

Gaz Simmonds | October 20, 2011

Last weekend we took our oldest youth group on a weekend away. Along with Accorn church and Walton Evangelical we packed up 2 minibuses and 2 cars and ventured off deep into Wales (well, not exactly, just over the border!)

We had a great time hanging out, some good banter, as well as a visit to an immense swimming pool! Complete with a water flume and rapids (though not hugely rapid), it was like being a kid again! – makes me very excited for my upcoming holiday to Center Parcs!

Anyway, what I learnt from the weekend – I learnt that we have some immense young people in our church, and so do Walton and Accorn, it was an honour to hang out with them.

I learnt that God loves it when his churches put aside any differences an just get on and enjoy life together, let’s be honest if there even is any differences, the love of Jesus far outweighs any of that. – I believe the quote to be quite true ‘the church is often the devils greatest weapon against God’, and this weekend I saw the church being used for the opposite.

And lastly, God is far bigger than any of the hype that we try and create for him. It’s great going to events like soul survivor and new wine and such things, but actually all we did was drive 2 hours, borrow a house and hang out, and God was with us. Sometimes you don’t need 200 flashing lights and loud bass drums to realise that God is real, and wants us to know him.

Not that flashing lights and bass drums aren’t cool.

- lastly, I write this in the comfy space that is St Thomas’ Coffeebar, you really should check it out! www.stthomascoffeebar.co.uk

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Turn On The Tap

Gaz Simmonds | June 21, 2011

Greetings,

So I thought it was about time that I uploaded something on here, as this website has been rather reminiscent of a ghost town as of late. Sincere apologies there.

One thing that has been really on my heart lately is a project called Turn On The Tap. This is a great project run by the guys at Samaritans Purse, who you may be aware of from other projects such as Operation Christmas Child, the shoebox appeal.

Turn on the Tap aims to provide clean, safe water to families in parts of the world where this is not the case. Some families walk miles each day to collect water, yet the only water they can collect is not clean, not safe and certainly not acceptable.

About £10 will give one person clean, safe water for life.

In the last couple of weeks I have moved into a new flat, moving out of my family home where I moved back to live for the past nearly 2 years. It has made me realise just how much things cost in life! And I have cut down on many things that I don’t need. It has made me a little sick really when I think about the money I used to waste on a lot of stuff.

Look familiar? 14 cups in this photo, say £3 a cup, often it’s more… £42, you could have pretty much saved a families life. Say I buy 3 coffees a week? That is one child every single week that I could have given clean water to, for life.

So what are we going to do about it? One thing I am doing is donating money from all of my CDs to Turn on the Tap. if you head over to My Online Shop I have reduced my EP to just £4, and 50p of every CD sold there will go straight to Turn On The Tap.

This is not all, I will be back to share more with how you can get involved.

Posted in Church, Food & Drink, General, God, The EP | Leave a reply

Download Chords

Gaz Simmonds | March 30, 2011

I have just added a new section to the website, where you can listen to some of the tracks from my EP on this website, and download Chords if you so wish.

Over the coming weeks I will upload Chords for more songs, for now you can check out the chords for ‘He’s Alive’ – If you are looking for a song for Easter…

Let me know if you find this helpful and which songs you would like me to post chords for…

I am also planning to upload some live Youtube videos of some of these songs, which I will also post on the ‘Music’ page… Enjoy!

Posted in Church, Fun, General, Music, The EP | Leave a reply

When will we learn?

Gaz Simmonds | February 15, 2011

The past few days have been interesting. Much kicking off at Church after we decided to let a Homeless night shelter use our meeting room as shelter for the next 3 weeks.

It has made me realise how selfish we are. And actually what a horrible, judgemental, prejudice culture we live in. Now this is an issue that, lets be honest no one is comfortable with. I’m not going to pretend I am some perfect person that speaks to every homeless guy I see, or stops to have a conversation with the Big Issue man every time i’m in town. Because, i’m not going to lie, i’m rubbish at that. But long to improve.

But I always kind of thought as a culture we were a little better at coping with it than I have seen these past couple of days. I honestly thought that the main opinion around Chesterfield and England, is that most people don’t want to get involved, but do look kindly to such help being given to human beings in need.

But how I was wrong. In all honesty, I have learnt a lot more about Brampton, the area that I live in than I ever have before. I have been completely disguisted by the pregudice some people have against these people. Words coming up such as ‘these people are scum’ and people saying things like ‘There’s no excuse for being homeless in this country’! Quite frankly, I am horrified by how people can be so selfish, inward looking, middle class toffs!!!

Quite frankly, people don’t care beyond their own front door. As long as their own son or daughter gets a perfect education, a Nintendo Wii and a lovely puppy to cuddle at nights – But don’t worry, she won’t have to walk it herself she might get cold, we’ll just let it run round the garden.

I apologise if I am expressing my opinions seemingly harshly, but it has really made me realise even more that we as a Church are called to minister to the homeless. We spend so much time making sure the rich are happy, as long as it looks like we have a few poor people in our congregation then thats ok. But thats not Ok. I honestly don’t think Jesus would settle for this.

When we actually do as Jesus did, it’s messy. And trust me, I found that out this weekend. But this doesn’t mean we should quit, or do it half heartedly to make sure the ‘decent people’ (as one person refereed to themselves!!!) are happy.

They are not ‘Homeless people’, they are ‘People without a home’.
What are we going to do?
When will we learn to actually do as Jesus did?

[Please note, none of the comments which I have quoted were said by anyone who is actually part of our Church.]

Posted in Church, God | 1 Response

Friends Blogs

Gaz Simmonds | January 14, 2011

I would like to introduce you to 2 more of my friends blogs.

The first of these belongs to a Mr Laurie Woodgate. Who is one of the ‘Youth’ at my Church, as well as being a fantastic singer in the Youth Band. You can find his blog here where he writes honestly and openly, in a very inspiring way about his life, faith, and other things. A great read, and don’t miss out on ‘The Banter Blog’ page!! Laurie Woodgate, ‘The Think Blog’

And the 2nd is a friend from Church, Helen Murray, who is working twice as hard as anyone else and bringing us 2 wonderful blogs! The first of which, is a really great read of Helens prayers which she has humbly made public for us to join in with, be inspired, and motivated by. Helen has a really fresh way of praying, which moves away from all cliches and religious phrases which can, if we’re honest often make us lose interest in praying! Helen Murray, ‘Are we nearly there yet’

And the last one of today is Helen Murrays personal blog of great thoughts from a wonderful woman of God, Wife to Bryan, and Mother of 2.

I hope you find these blogs as helpful as I do.

Posted in Church, General, God, Other things, Worship | 1 Response