First of all, our grateful thanks to Win and Fred Lilley for providing a home where we can assemble ourselves together. It isn't necessary to enlarge on Win & Fred's hospitality and generosity. That has always been known and appreciated. We don't take it for granted although we know they give it as unto the Lord.
Most of us have been brought up and nurtured in the class meetings and, if we say our meetings are as near as you can get today to a class meeting, we are only expressing our deep gratitude and sense of privilege which remain with us as we remember the humble, hard working, fervent, faithful men and women who met together and welcomed us into the fellowship and through whom we were taught of God.
We can't come together with any pretence. We know each other too well for that, but that is a strength. While we often wish there were some things the Lord didn't have to know about us, it is still wonderful that He does know all and there is no burden on us to dress up and cover up. While we are not as transparent to one another as that, we know that all of us need God's love and grace and mercy and on those we depend.
Paul has been, and is, our class leader, and ministered to us patiently, lovingly, graciously, humbly, taking the lowest seat, often literally. We hope there have been times that have been precious to him and, maybe, new strands woven into the fabric of his own Christian experience.
We meet together to meet the Lord, to deepen our commitment, to explore and absorb more of His word and to bring to Him concerns for ourselves and ours, for our friends and neighbours, our church, His church and particular concerns relevant at different times.
May our meeting together have the Lord's blessing and may we grow closer to Him and one another, at the same time reaching outwards in whatever direction He shows us.
P.S. Thank you to those dear friends who led us during Paul's sabbatical.
Pages compiled by Peter Fletcher
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