Once again we are thinking about Christmas in October, as we, at St. Mary’s Monxton, are taking part in a national shoe-box scheme that sends useful gifts to under-privileged children in Eastern Europe.

Amport School have been participating in this for some years now and we thought that as a church we would like to join in the fun once more.  We hope you will too, unless, of course, you have already done so with the school.

If you decide to take part, you could either make up a complete box or let us have individual items so that we can make up communal boxes. A list of suggested items is below  Each box costs £3 to send. We will underwrite this cost but any donations would be gratefully received.

We intend to gather all the boxes for our Family Service on Sunday 25^th October at 9.15am – to which you are most welcome.

If you are able to help please call either Charmian on 710221, David on 710641 or Valerie on 772030.

Many thanks,
St. Mary’s, Monxton

You can find more details of the Charity we are working with – Mustard Seed Relief Missions – at www.msrm.org.uk

If you are assembling a WHOLE BOX we can supply you with an empty box. Please do not seal boxes as the contents need to be checked by the authorities. If possible boxes should be wrapped in Christmas paper. Lids should be wrapped separately. Please put a label on the box stating that the contents are suitable for a boy or a girl and the age range (see information below).

If you are donating individual items then we will male up shoeboxes with any individual items received. Please DO NOT include any NO WAR RELATED TOYS.

BOYS (3-5 years old)
Toy cars, ball, jigsaw (not small pieces), picture book, chocolate or soft sweets, thick wax crayons/pencils, drawing paper, soft toy, soap, flannel, hat & gloves, toothbrush & toothpaste, hairbrush, comb.

GIRLS (3-5 years)
Doll, plus anything mentioned above.

GIRLS or BOYS (6-11 years)
Doll/soft toy, skipping rope, jewellery, ball, playing cards. sweets, book, felt tip pens, pencils, pencil case, paper, hat & scarf, gloves, flannel, toothbrush & toothpaste, soap, toy car, yo-yo.

BOYS (12-15 years)
Marbles, travel games (draughts, ludo etc), juggling balls, baseball cap, playing cards, geometry set, note book, gloves an/or scarf, pens, pencils, sweets, soap, flannel, toothbrush & toothpaste, deodorant.

GIRLS (12-15 years)
hair accessories, jewellery, new make-up, perfume stick, talc, and everything else as on boys list.

St Mary’s Church Monxton

Many thanks to all who contributed to the recent Christian Aid collection in Monxton. We achieved the grand total of £400.45. This is our best ever result and furthermore just over half of that sum was gift aided, adding another £56.

Our church collection for Nepal was also extremely well supported and we able to send a cheque for £440 to the DEC to help the relief work following the earthquakes in Nepal.

In little over two weeks the people of Monxton have raised almost £900 for two very worthy causes, an amazing result.

VERY WELL DONE.

NEPAL EARTHQUAKE APPEAL

St Mary’s Church, Monxton are organising a special collection this Sunday at the 11am service to help the victims of the earthquake in Nepal. If anyone in or around the parish  would like to contribute, and has not already done so, donations would be most welcome. If you are unable to get to the service on Sunday, but would still like to make a contribution, please contact church wardens, David or Valerie on 710641 or 772030. This is a desperate situation that we feel we should support in whatever way we can.

Many thanks

St Mary’s Monxton PCC

Monxton Parochial Church Council would like to thank all those who responded to our village-wide letter and questionnaire and in particular for the valuable suggestions and recommendations received. These will now be carefully analysed and followed up where possible. Unfortunately in the conflicting interests of preserving confidentiality and identifying individual responses we are unable to reply to all responders individually.

The result of the survey showed that of the 120 households contacted exactly half responded and of those 98% felt the church in Monxton is a valuable part of the village community, while only one respondent felt the church to be of no value.

Cold Statistics

Households: 120

Responses: 60

Positive answers to questionnaire Question One: 59

Negative (though two respondents felt we could do better): 1

From St Mary’s Monxton therefore a heartfelt “thank you” to you all. It has certainly raised our morale on the PCC.

Monxton PCC members: David Baugh, Valerie Whitewick (Wardens), Richard Balding, Bridget Busk , Eleanor Court,  Judy Crick, Brenda Gower,  Charmian Howarth,  Diana Jones , Oliver Sutton,  Jean Wood.