July 2020 Prayer News

“Today I choose to stand in this place you have called me to,
And I declare that You are a Mighty God, the Creator of Heaven and Earth.
Your Kingdom shall endure and will never be shaken.
Open the windows of Heaven and pour out Your promised blessings in this generation.
Revive us, restore us and heal our land.
Thank you for going before us to open the way and remove all obstacles.
Increase our Faith, stir up Hope and keep us grounded and walking in Love.
Thank you that You are creating a dwelling place for God and man here; in Sannox, on Arran, for the nations.
Amen”

• Give thanks for our Friends of Sannox who support us in so many ways. We bless you and pray for you in the name of Jesus.
• Give thanks for the release of resources to cover our operational needs in the short term and the completion of the church interior and new kitchen and toilets.
• Pray for wisdom as we discuss the re-opening of SCC.
• Pray for wisdom as we plan for the future, supporting the churches and people on Arran and across the nations.
• Pray for our fund raisers – Ruth and Geraldine – as they look at applying for grants for the manse.
• Give thanks for Amy and our IT team and all our volunteers.
• Pray for truth, light and hope to flood across the world and our communities.

Prayers for our Friends

We appreciate all of our Friends of Sannox who support us in so many ways. We are praying for each of you by name through this difficult time. Please contact us if you would like us to pray for specific things through Heidi, our administrator, at admin@sannox.org. These will be kept confidential.

SCC Re-set

The Trustees/Directors have issued a discussion paper on the future of SCC. This covered:

• Our vision, core values and activities
• The role of SCC on Arran and the nations
• The governance of SCC to deliver (a) and (b) from Board level to day to day operations

The paper was sent to all the Board Members, advisors, staff and volunteers involved with the day to day management of SCC. Responses have been received that have been very helpful and insightful. The Trustees/Directors are now pondering, praying and listening to what God is saying. Please pray for the Trustees/Directors that they hear clearly from God with respect to the three areas listed above. We will take time over this and will feedback to you in due time.

Re-opening of SCC:

Hotels, B and B and Guest houses are timetabled to open on the 15 July. Calmac is starting a two ferry service and increased capacity on 15 July. Given this timetable, the Directors/Trustees are deciding when we can re-open. We are beginning to plan and prepare, including implementing a detailed cleaning regime in accordance with the rules and regulations issued by the Government and hospitality industry. We are in contact with people on Arran and elsewhere, like the Bield, Northumbria Community and Ffald y Brenin. The Bield plan to re-open on 1st August.  Please pray for wisdom. We will let you know the date of re-opening as soon as we can.

Bookings

We are beginning to receive booking enquiries and Heidi is entering them into our system. These have to be provisional at the moment until we know our opening date, however, we are keen to hear from you. If you want to enquire about booking, please email Heidi at admin@sannox.org.  

The Church on Arran

As we mentioned last month, the church leadership on Arran is under-going significant changes over the next year. Pray for the church fellowships and leaders as they deal with this situation and for SCC as we pray about how we can support the Christian communities on the island.
For the nations

Since the beginning the Lord has said that SCC is for the nations. Pray for wisdom and discernment regarding the balance between our supportive role on Arran and for the nations.

We held our third Zoom virtual prayer gathering on the 1st June which was great and again worked well. It was so good to see friends from so many areas and to share and pray together.

Our fourth Sannox Zoom Prayer Gathering is on Monday 6 July 2020 at 8 pm. As we did last month, we will circulate the Zoom link with instructions as a separate email to our Friends of Sannox, so watch out for that. Please join us. I will open the meeting at 7.45 so we can chat and welcome each other.

Restoration of the church and provision of the new kitchen and toilets

Since last month we have received a further donation of £500. This will be kept in reserve for the restoration of the church and the new kitchen and toilets. All materials have now been ordered and the electrician will be on site for the final fix the week beginning 29 June. So it looks as though the building works will be completed by the end of July. Give thanks that God has again provided all the funding we needed to complete the restoration of the church and new kitchen/toilets. Give thanks for our volunteers who helped with the lighting and power systems, heating and AV – you know who you are and we honour you.

Work Party

As you know one of the principles we are building into all our designs is accessibility. Therefore, we need to extend the existing path from the Gatehouse to Dundarroch front entrance, the church, around the church and to the manse. This will all be step free. So, we will be sending out an email to our volunteers to come and help lay the paths for the opening of the church. This will give unhindered access to the Gatehouse, Dunadrroch Cottage and the church. It will also be lit. The costs for the slabs, cement, sand and lighting bollards haven’t been calculated at this point. We will also want to do some external painting – for example, the picket fence and possibly Dundarroch Cottage, as it has been a number of years since it was painted. We don’t know the dates for the Work Party but look out for the Doodle Poll! If you are interested email George at george@georgehazel.com

Next phase – the Manse

We are now turning our attention to the funding of the manse. Stuart, our architect, is looking at revising the plans to maximise our accommodation. The original plans, which we may still revert to, incorporated a shop, office, reception, lounge and a self-contained flat. The new plans will be solely new bedrooms, hopefully giving us a total of around 17/18 beds. The cost of the restoration of the manse is £250,000. This is an interesting figure as we bought the centre for £250,000 in 2012 and the refurbishment of the church was £250,000! We have two fundraisers looking at potential trusts who may be interested in helping to fund the manse – Ruth and Geraldine. In addition, we will be letting people know about this next stage through our prayer network, the Banner, the website and other means like social media. Thank God for what He has provided in the past and thank Him for what He is going to provide in the future! The manse is the last of the old buildings – all new after that!

You may know that we have been praying for someone to help with social media. I am pleased to say that Amy has come forward and agreed to help. She is of a much younger generation and is already working in this area!  She will work with the Trustees/Directors and our IT group to develop our strategy and implementation plan. Our IT group continue to improve all aspects of our IT support – database, website, cloud storage, emailing system, etc – a huge amount of largely unseen work. Give thanks to God for Amy and our IT team.

Thanks to all of you who are continuing to support us on a monthly basis during this difficult time. Our monthly regular giving has not declined which is so encouraging.

Provisional Date: Midweek Retreat led by Roy Searle – Monday 23 November to Thursday 26 November 2020

We have agreed these revised dates with Roy. If you are interested in attending then please contact Heidi on admin@sannox.org. We have already taken bookings so don’t delay! We will confirm the dates when we know more about the relaxation of lockdown. The details of the retreat are given below:

• Theme – “Celtic Treasures – Light from the past to inspire and illumine our lives today”
• Content – Roy Searle, of the Northumbria Community and an advisor to SCC, will explore the riches to be found in the stories of the Celtic Saints and their relevance to life and faith today. The retreat will run from mid-afternoon on Monday through to after lunch on Thursday. A monastic rhythm of prayer will frame each day with Daily Offices, teaching sessions and lots of time to relax, reflect and enjoy the beauty of the Isle of Arran and the Sannox Christian Centre.
• Accommodation – The retreat is open to all but if you need accommodation places are limited at the centre so book soon.

Bible Study Weekend – Friday 28 to Sunday 30 August 2020

This has been postponed and we are looking at alternative dates.

We bless you, in the name of Jesus, to receive all that the Father has for you and thank you for your continuing support of His work at SCC. Be blessed and protected in all you do for the Kingdom, in the mighty and beautiful name of Jesus.