The danger of not blogging regularly is that too much happens and important and exciting things get forgotten and lost! So before the events of the past couple of months disappear these next few blogs are the highlights…

24/7 As you may remember, back in the summer OTCC held it’s first 24/7 prayer week. Just to reiterate – there is nothing “magical” about praying like this. It isn’t a “formula” or method – it could just as easily be a 23/6 and have the same impact! It is more a helpful tool. There is something significant about these focused, united, prolonged times of prayer. There is a sense of rhythm that develops, a momentum that builds and draws people in and onwards. It is not praying for the sake of praying itself – but about relationship, connecting, and rooting in to the river of life.

What does God want of us? Does He want us? Where does He want us; this nice house in Bexhill, or the house in Old Town (both houses are still up for sale with no prospective buyers)……. or somewhere else entirely…….Somerset…….the Highlands??

With the schools going back this week, I have found myself praying a lot for teachers from both natural and church family – and for several teachers who would like to be teaching, but cannot! For grandchildren, both natural and church, (someone suggested the phrase “Godgrandchildren” – I like it!) who are going to new schools, colleges and courses; those with new teachers and subjects; those who like Matt’s Theo have learning difficulties, and struggle with any sort of literacy or numeracy; those who face bullying or other social problems.

Prophesy or figment of imagination?

Did those 2 people, who separately told us 18 years ago that we should live in a certain house in Old Town, not for sale at that time, bring us a prophetic word, or was it a figment of their imaginations? (Neither knew about the other’s words!)

Have a look at the above video for some insight into how God can change lives :0)

24/7 wow -  what a week!

OTCC has recently completed it’s first 24/7 prayer week. 168 hours of continous prayer! It was AWESOME!

The idea was that we would have a room dedicated for prayer, a rota so people could take 1 or 2 hours slots (as they wanted), and we as a church would endevour to fill the rota. At first some folks were hesitant (“what do you do for an hour? Sit in silence?!”), and some shared doubts of “will we realistically be able to fill a whole week? Would it not fall on a small willing few?” These are real and vaild concerns!

Fire in washing machine drums, sky lanterns and marshmallows… Must be halloween!

On the 31st October (Halloween) our estate is probably the same as any other place in the Western world! Hoardes of young people (age range from babes in arms to huge teenagers!) dressed up in all manner of

scary, freaky and funny costumes out for a night of trick or treating.

So what can a church do? We have a few options which basically boil down to: 1/ Nothing! 2/ Hide! 3/ Hold a prayer meeting! 4/ Hold an alternative event!

A Spiritual experience!

Once a month we have been holding a different type of gathering at “The Drive” pub. Rather than calling it a service we call it “A spiritual experience”. There is no preach or lengthy worship time. It is a complete “All senses” interactive event – a great thing to being visitors to!

INDULGE! A special event just for women!

We recently held a new women’s event called “Indulge”. The idea was to give local women from the estate a chance to be pampered and spolit for an evening – all for free! A number of lady volunteers from the OTCC loaned foot spa’s and their hands to serve the ladies that came along. We had hand, head and foot massage, manicures and pedicures, henna tattoo’s and the lovely “fish pedicure! shown below. Also a clothes swap and beauty give – aways (not to mention gorgeous nibbles!. We had over 70 ladies attend! If you would like to be informed of our next ladies event please contact us via the web site :0)

Hello there, this is another update to let you know what is happening @ OTCC (Old Town Community Church) and in our lives.

If there was ever a “typical week” here this hasn’t been one of them… It has been “full on” to say the least! Events and situations have ranged from surprising and extraordinary through to exhausting and heart breaking. One thing is sure – life is never dull!

30/40/ 2011

In our last update we shared that the key here for our work and sharing our faith is relationship and community. The stories shared here are real and right on our doorstep, so names have been changed!

Family wise we are doing great – as you will have read last time it is a challenge to guard our family time but we are trying hard! The kids have just enjoyed their Easter hols and are now enjoying more bank holidays! Glyn is discovering the joys of fishing (one of our neighbours spends most of his time looking after a very ill child so loves to go fishing when he gets the chance. He took Glyn sea fishing and they both caught a shark!). A recent fun trip was joining in with the pub where our church has been meeting to accompany 59 other people to “Drusillas” a big zoo like place.

Old Town Community Church   -   Ordinary people, an extraordinary God!

29/03/11

On the 26th December 2010 Glyn and I became the new pastors of “Old Town Community Church”. We are very much enjoying the role (a steep learning curve) and finding it an immense privilege – along with being very challenging, adventurous, stretching and at times tiring!

We  believe that people are made up of body, mind and spirit so when we work with,and minister to people, we try to keep this balance in mind. We live in an area of social and spiritual need, and with our present climate of cut backs and uncertainty, many feel insecure and anxious. The needs around our community are diverse ranging from rough sleeping, drug and alcohol problems to dire poverty, debt, domestic violence, teenage pregnancies, abuse, dysfunctional families and loneliness. Crime is ever present and depression a reality for many. So our outreach, support and love aims to meet people where they are at. It is a balance to work with people not doing everything for people.

Moreton update December 2010

Dear all,

Happy Christmas everyone! It’s Christmas eve today – we have very excited children here!!!

It seems like a year since we wrote the last update (well it is a year actually!) How time flies!. We have passed our 1 year anniversary of being back in the UK – wow! It was on the 7^th December that we arrived in the UK last year and it seems impossible that it is just one year! We feel like we have been here for far longer and feel very settled. So much has happened that Tunisia seems like a distant memory from another life. Though the lessons we have learned, and rich experiences of our times overseas have been critical in preparation for being here.

August 2011

Hello again,

We are waiting for the first sounds of the red arrows to scream over the house – yes – it is Eastbourne Airbourne!

It has been a very long time since we have published a blog – this isn’t because we have stopped recording what is happening – we have been sending out news updates to friends and supporters but were unable to access our blog site! However, OTCC now has it’s own blog spot so we are now able to inundate you with updates, testimonies, info, and will include in this our own story of how things are developing here.

We will do the latest update at the very end – so you will have to read through all of them if you want to see these past 3 months activity :0) (or you can cheat and skip through!)

Rather than try and do one very long blog to catch you up on the last year and a bit, I have used sections from our news letters (dated so you can follow the time frame).

Happy reading, we hope you find it interesting!

With much love,

Emma, Glyn, Sam & Carys

Hi there, we are Glyn and Emma Moreton. Parents to Sam and Carys and still fairly new arrivals to Old Town Community Church (OTCC). We were missionaries with BMS World Mission for 8 years prior to returning to the UK last December (2009). One day we will add to the blog the story of how we came to return to the UK to OTCC!