Here’s some more about last night’s Carol Services at Welcome Church, Woking at the H G Wells Centre. First of all, we had a great turn out at the 4pm and at the 7pm events. Steve’s wife Jo led an excellent guitar trio in a performance of “O Holy Night” and we also had a superb trumpet version of “O Come O Come Emmanuel” as well as the traditional carols you’d expect. A massive thank you to Steve Petch and Darren Forsdyke, who’d done literally everything I’d asked them to. I really enjoyed working with these guys when they were at Grace Church, Chichester. And I’d done a Carol Service in Chichester with them. Fifteen months ago they re-located to Woking, and what an impact they have made. In a very short space of time an enormous amount of money has been raised towards a new permanent Sunday meeting place. When I met up with Steve, who leads Welcome Church (formerly The Coign) in between the services,I was so pleased to hear that they’ve got planning permission to rebuild next to the original baptist chapel building, which will be renovated. Many years ago, after I became a Christian in Wimbledon, the first other church I became aware of and the first I visited was The Coign, which had gone on a similar journey to Wimbledon Baptist Church. So I have many happy memories of going along to the evening service there. Anyway going back to last nigh, at the end of the second service, going through the hundreds of comment cards from both events, we found that there were 45 people who said they were not part of any church, who had prayed the salvation response prayer. So this was a great response and I was very grateful that I felt that my 3 talks had gone well. Not all of those responding had left all the contact details we’d like, and for many I’m sure it will be only the start of a journey, but it is a start, and I am so pleased to be part of a new chapter of the life of this great church.