Buonjiorno and How di day?

Probably the noisiest and longest church service that we have ever been to was our baptism into the church meeting at the church in Breschia Italy where 6 of us from Eastwood Community Church visited last month.

The full name of this mostly Nigerian congregation who worship in African English, is the, ‘Ark of God Mission International - Vision of Christ's Glorious Return'.

An adventurous title maybe, but they are certainly a warm and gracious group of believers and gave us a wonderful welcome. They even requested that we sit on gold coloured thrones with leopard skin fabric.

The meeting place was originally an underground car park with no toilets or running water! The service lasted from 10am until about 4pm!

As we arrived in the mini-bus we could hear the sounds of worship rising from this underground ‘cavern club' where various choirs were taking it in turns to perform their songs to the congregation. As the eager young men quickly manoeuvred Malcolm's wheelchair down the steep slope backwards (much to his consternation) the volume increased considerably and when the door opened we began to feel the vibes! This door was only the first entrance way and eventually we entered the main hall where the sound was so deafening we could feel the vibrations through our water bottles. Malcolm switched off his hearing aid.

Chris Warwick

Chris and Liz Warwick are now settled in to Eastwood Community Church. Chris has joined us on a part time paid basis head up the leadership team.

They moved house from Derby in february.

Chris said that he is keen to see the activities of Eastwood Community Church expand in ways that will bless the local community.