We are a Church that gets active in the community. We like to follow what scripture tells us and are all about pleasing God. Let’s look at a scripture from the book of Hebrews.

Hebrews 13:16
“And do not forget to do good and to share with others, for with such sacrifices God is pleased.”

This scripture is all about doing good, sharing what we have with other’s and sacrificing your time for the good of others.

This being said, let’s look at our next volunteering role, where we have been helping the local community. Volunteers from our church have been helping Ace at Dusty Forge in their community cafe. The community cafe has been setup to help those who have been in prison get back on their feet. Here are a few photos of the guys cooking delicious food for people at Dusty Forge.

Sacrificing time here and sharing skills with others helps them get back on their feet, leading them to a better life. Because we are following Hebrews 13v16 God is pleased with sacrifices like this.

If you are new to the Christian faith or curious, then why not visit us at our family service that takes place every Sunday at 11.15am. You will be warmly welcomed, and we are happy to answer any questions that you have.

A congregant of Canton Community Church volunteers with a ministry in Scotland, called Kildean Ministry. We were blessed to be involved in sending one person from Cardiff up to Scotland to attend a free discipleship course.

Kildean Ministry has been established for 15 years. It was setup by former Cardiff Prison Chaplain Joyce Dean. She felt a calling to help people who had found faith in prison. Therefore, with much prayer and the Lord opening doors she went ahead and ran two discipleship courses a year for men either new to the Christian faith, or who had come to faith in prison. Joyce has been running them ever since.

The discipleship courses last for two weeks and are free to all men who attend. How were they free might you ask? Joyce has always depended solely on the Lord’s provision and for 15 years has never been short of a provision financially or in want for anything like food and volunteers. Praise God.

The Bible teaches us that God is faithful in the promises he gives. Kildean Ministry is an example of Gods faithfulness to provide, and in doing so has restored so many broken lives from all kinds of addictions and troubled pasts.

Here are photos of the most recent discipleship course that took place in Glasgow, Scotland at the Bible Centre.

What is true about Kildean Ministry is, Jesus is still doing what he pronounced in the synagogue over two thousand years ago today, specifically written in Luke 4 v 18-19 displayed below.

¹⁸ “The Spirit of the Lord is on me,
    because he has anointed me
    to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners
    and recovery of sight for the blind,
to set the oppressed free,
¹⁹     to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour.”^[a]

We have seen through the discipleship courses Jesus healing people of addiction and setting the captives free. Nothing is truer than this happening at Kildean Ministry, to which Jesus our Lord and Saviour deserves all the glory.

Church in the Avenue and Grace Canton have congregants who are helping run Sunday services at Cardiff Prison. Here is the team after a Sunday service.

Volunteers are helping with worship music, encouragement and above all powerful testimony on how Jesus has changed and transformed people’s lives. We heard from Marco who delivered his testimony to around thirty in-mates on how Jesus changed his life from a very turbulent past.

Testimony can be a powerful thing. Check this scripture out, specifically in the book of Revelation.

Revelation 12:11

“And they have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, for they loved not their lives even unto death.”

Jesus took the punishment for all our sin’s past, present and future, his blood covers us in a robe of righteousness and makes us as white as snow before God. We just need to accept the grace that has been made available to us that will restore our relationship with God. This is what we are doing at Cardiff prison, proclaiming the good news of Jesus, letting inmates know that they can be forgiven for whatever sins they have committed, showing them there is a pathway to salvation and heaven.

Salvation is not just available to those who are in prison. The Bible teaches us that we are all sinners, and we have all fallen short of the standard of God. It might not be that you have been in trouble with the Law, it might be that you got away with a crime, or have told a little white lie here and there, either way you have sinned, and if you wonder if there is ever a way out then the good news stands for you too, you too can be forgiven for any sins you have committed in your life. Come to Jesus and give your life to him.

If you are already a Christian pray for our visits to Cardiff Prison. Pray that the Lord will water the seeds and that the truth will set in-mates free.

If you are curious about the Christian faith, come along to our family service every Sunday. Doors open at 10.45am for free refreshments and drinks. Our service then starts at 11.15am.

Lets take a look at scriptures in Psalm 73 and Romans 8.

There will be times on our Christian walk where we will make mistakes. Asaph acknowledges this in this Psalm. But the good news is that it says in Lamentations God renews his mercies every morning. Even though we fail from time to time God gives us the grace to start a new every morning and to try again and he rests on our weaknesses to help make us better. So if you have stumbled recently take heart, don’t give up God will help us and will never leave us or forsake us.

Next up a scripture from Romans 8.

The Christian walk is not a bed of roses, sometimes we will be required to do challenging things for the Lord as he will’s it for our lives. When challenges come our way suffering will likely accompany these challenges. For example, it could be that you have been assigned to help a person in your walk, an example could be someone who has an addiction.

When helping someone with an addiction they may hurt you, steel from you and can be burdensome, but the Lord has put you in their pathway to help them, and there maybe a certain level of suffering that comes in helping that person, but in time they may well turn the corner and get off of the addiction they have, where God will get great glory in transforming a life bringing lasting fruit showing people with God all addictions can be broken.

The good news is this. At the end of a trial you will always have the victory in Jesus through his resurrection, when he rose again 3 days after his death on the cross. Whatever the challenge and suffering you have you can expect the victory, so persevere and know that one day we will be with Jesus for eternity and our sufferings here will only be a blink of an eye compared with eternity.

If you are curious about the Christian faith, come along to our family service every Sunday. Doors open at 10.45am for free refreshments and drinks. Our service then starts at 11.15am.

Today we are going to look at Proverbs and Romans. Lets start with Proverbs.

There is such great wisdom to be found in the Bible such as the example of Proverbs 13v20. What this scripture is saying is if you hang around with the wrong crowd you’re likely to end up just like them. For example, if you follow a crowd that regularly takes drugs you could get sucked into that lifestyle and destructive things could happen in your life like financial loss and health problems.

If you hang around people who will positively encourage you, for example, they may say keep working hard at your job, serve in community, help people, life will be a lot more productive than falling into habits that are very hard to get out of. So find a sensible crowd to be around it can help you in your life.

Next up we are going to look at a scripture from Romans.

It is important to get along with people and keep the peace. Paul is saying to the Romans in this verse get along with one another. Yes, it can be hard, but the Lord puts it perfectly, for all have fallen short to the standard of God, meaning none of us are perfect. So to live in peace with one another, we have to bear with one another in love.

We all have our faults and if we can have patience with one another we can live in peace with one another. So when someone annoys you, take a step back, breathe and make every effort to act in love and not in anger, this way we can be at peace and unity with one another.

If you are curious about the Christian faith, come along to our family service every Sunday. Doors open at 10.45am for free refreshments and drinks.