Hello,

A big happy new year to you from us all! We are so excited to see what this year might bring and how God will move and speak to us. We’d love to hear of any stories of what God has been doing in your lives in 2024 and any hopes and prayers you have for 2025! If you’d like to share, pop us a message at bethanna.hobbs@hthchurch.org
We hope you enjoy the first edition of Rooted for this year!

With lots of love,
Bethanna and the Kids Team x

Helping our children grow to know Jesus

by Simon Larkin
 
Before our first son, Reuben, was born, Sarah had a miscarriage. At a New Wine conference shortly afterwards, we both went forward for prayer - sad, disappointed and grieving. The woman who prayed for us told us to hand our child over to God, trust Jesus with their life, and said that we would need to do the same with any children that we might have in the future. Since then we have had three children and on so many occasions, had to keep trusting God with each of them.

As parents, we can tend to dedicate so much time and effort in helping our children become good at sport, or music, or dance, and so on, but we don’t necessarily plan or focus as much on the more fundamental question: will are our children grow up knowing Jesus, trusting in him with a love that was nurtured in their most formative years?  Although it is God who gives faith, we have an important part to play as well. 

Today, whilst walking into town with Jemima, our 19-year-old daughter, she asked what I was planning to do today. I said I’d planned to write a piece for this newsletter on how we might help children grow in faith.  Then it occurred to me, given that we moved to plant HTH when she was just 9, at a time when there were no children in the church, that she might have some suggestions. She immediately came up with 4 points.  Here’s Jemima’s 4 headers which I’ve added to:

1. Pray – We’ve had many ups and downs with our children. In the end, all we could do was pray. Over the last decade, Sarah has struggled with sleep and has often been awake in the early hours. She has used that time to pray for our children. A friend of ours recently saw her son come to faith as a 30-year-old. Despite him never showing much interest in Jesus up to this point, she has prayed persistently for many years.  Don’t give up on praying!
   

2. Christian friends - You can’t force friendships, but you can help create opportunities for them to develop. Consistency is key; be intentional about going to church each week and spending time with other families. And friends don’t always need to be the same age. There weren’t any girls Jemima’s age at church, but we made sure we surrounded her with young women and men in their early twenties who could act as role models for her.
   

3. Christian camps and festivals – Going to camps and other Christian events each year, gives children a space to not only make new friends, but also provides an opportunity for them to nurture their own faith independently from us.  That’s why we are committed to taking as many children as possible to Focus each year, and HTH pays for all under 18’s to go. 
   

4. Live it – Faith in Jesus is “caught as much as taught” and St Paul said, “Imitate me, as I imitate Christ.” We might spend just a few hours in church each Sunday. Our children’s spiritual development for the other 166 hours of the week is in our hands. Last week, at the request of a child, several families accompanied me as we went to pray for the boiler to be fixed. One child prayed, “Boiler, be healed in Jesus’ name!”  We can all ask ourselves, ‘what kind of faith will my child pick up from observing my life?’

Our vision at HTH is that children grow in faith and love of Jesus. That they will grow as leaders now and into the future. So, we are here to support you, to listen and to offer prayer if ever you need it. May you and your children be Rooted in Jesus!

New year, new fun!

Often at the start of a new year, you may be asked, “What are your New Year’s resolutions?” You may already have a list of things you’d like to resolve to achieve, give up or learn. It’s usually quite a personal, individual task but why not put a twist on it and do something fun with your family and make your own New Year’s list. This wouldn’t be a resolutions list so much, but something where you set yourself a few fun things to do together or things you’d like to pray for over the year.

You could choose a few things, maybe each member of the family could suggest something:

• to do together

• to pray for

• to learn

We’d love to hear what you decide together!

Get to know: The Atherall Family

Hi! We’re Jen and Jethro, and we have two daughters, Elise and Lois.

We both moved to Hastings in 2016, met at HTH and got to know each better through Parkrun and boardgames! We were married during the pandemic, enjoying the mild stress of Boris announcing a lock-down 6 days before the wedding. Anyway, God was good and we moved the entire wedding forward and were married by candlelight on a Tuesday night!

Although parenthood to two little ones has meant we have taken an inevitable back-step from church life, we’ve both been Christians a long time and enjoy being part of HTH’s Church Family. We’re grateful to Church, our hub, and other new parents navigating the same challenges and pressures as us. Our quiet times might be lacking, but still, God is shaping us through our kids (patience is a good example!). When Lois was screaming at me for her milk, I wanted to respond and say to her that “My provision for you is, and will never be, in doubt!” God used this to remind me how He promises the same for us, with the love of a parent.

We are excited to be hosting Simon Guillebaud this coming weekend at HTH where he will be speaking at an event called ‘Disciples making Disciples’! There will be a delicious meal that we will share together alongside his wisdom gleaned from extensive experience overseas and in the UK. Tickets are £5 so please do sign up and enjoy a wonderful evening of food and faith. We’d love to see you!