Hello,

March greets us with the promise of spring sunshine, birds singing their songs and the turn once more of a new season. Wherever you find yourself this day, we hope that something you read in this months issue of Rooted will bless you on your journey with Jesus.

With lots of love,
Bethanna and the Kids Team x

What a friend we have in Jesus

by Bethanna Hobbs
 
Some of you might know that I am going to be running the London Marathon this year (in approximately 8 weeks... help!) and it is safe to say that training has been less than simple.

To give you a little background, before November of 2023 if you had asked me if I liked running, had any interest in running or considered it a fun form of exercise I would quite literally have laughed in your face, protested multiple times and assured you that no, I do not and would never love running. That is until I started working with my brother-in-law who is a personal trainer, and around November 2023, he added walk/runs into my programme. Soon I was regularly running the park run, but thought this would be the peak of my running journey.

March 2024 came along with the Hastings Half Marathon and the London Marathon soon after in April and my social media was full of people sharing pictures, videos and blogs about their experiences. All of a sudden, I was finding myself drawn into the excitement and joy that was all over my timeline and decided I would like to run a half marathon. I thought I would wait until 2025 to give myself time to train, but not one to shy away from a challenge, I ended up signing up for and running the Battersea half in July 2024. It didn’t go exactly as I had hoped... but I finished it, an achievement in itself, and ended up running a second half marathon in Bexhill in November 2024. I had also secretly, without telling anyone entered the ballot for the London marathon in 2025, and lo and behold I miraculously got a place. It felt too good to be true, but true it was and so here I am now, with eight weeks to go, training to run a marathon.

I consider myself to be fairly mentally resilient, however, training has not been a walk in the park. I wanted to have started training in December but soon after the half marathon in November, I found myself with a leg injury. I had to take a month off running. Not to be deterred, once Christmas was out the way I got my trainers back on to get out running again, only to be hit with weeks of various bugs/ sicknesses travelling round our family (the joys of parenting in winter!) which are only just settling now. Throw in some other challenges surrounding other family members and you have yourself a perfect storm. So, the reality is that I find myself with eight weeks to go, only really just starting my training.

Sounds like a recipe for disaster right? But what I have discovered is that as much as this is a physical challenge, perhaps it is more a mental one. If I can overcome the mental blocks then I can do it. My body has got used to running now, and whilst I am not naïve enough to think that it will be easy, I do know that it will know what to do, but the challenge of pushing through mentally will be the biggest.

So, what is the point of me sharing this? Well, as we journey into Lent and reflect on and prepare for the Easter story, it occurs to me that if anyone knows the challenge of overcoming mental struggle it is Jesus himself. Jesus who spent 40 days alone, isolated and tempted in the desert. Who taught and lead people, whilst being disappointed by the pharisees and religious people. Who gently came alongside people before then being betrayed by one of his closest friends, sweat drops of blood, was whipped and broken before finally being subjected to death on a cross. But he did those things anyway, for me and for you, so that we could live life and live it to the full.

What lessons can we learn as we lean into lent? It wasn’t just the physical act of death on a cross but his preparation as he walked into the hardest moments of his life. He held onto his relationship with God ‘Father…may your will be done’. In the wilderness he repeated scripture, he was full of the Holy Spirit and yet it still wasn’t easy.

It is reassuring to know that in the challenges of life, we have a saviour who has walked through the fire, and knows the pain. My example is a little light-hearted but there are many of us who may be currently facing some of the biggest challenges and others for whom challenges are to come or who have come through challenges by the grace of God.

This lent, let’s look to Jesus and the examples of resilience he gives us, and as we prepare for the incredible story of his resurrection and the celebration of new life, let us not forget the pain and sorrow his soul had to endure as well as his body. Lean into scripture, cover yourself in prayer and worship and into conversation with the one who knows us completely.

The Greatest Rescue

Growing up, I remember thinking Lent was such a bore. I know, I know - incredibly rude and unholy, but hear me out. We had to keep giving stuff up!? What?! To a kid that’s like the worst news ever! Obviously, as I got older, I learnt to understand more about what Lent was and what it stood for and why people might choose to give something up during that time. Even still, it wasn’t always a time where I felt like I was able to truly take hold of and grasp the depth of the Easter story. Instead of it being a time where I would reflect on the ultimate gift of Jesus sacrificing himself so that we might live, and the joy of His coming back to life, it became a time to grumble about why on earth I couldn’t have my most favourite snack! (White chocolate or any variety of crisp..)

I am sure my experience is not unusual, but wouldn’t it be awesome if we could help our children to fully grasp and understand the Easter Story and ways to engage with Lent that will help set them up to understand what it’s all about?

For those of you who were able to join us at church on Sunday, you will have been given a devotional series ‘The Greatest Rescue’ that we hope might be a resource that can help you and your children engage with Lent in a different way. This is a devotional that you can do together as a family that journeys through Matthew’s Gospel and helps you grow together as you prepare your hearts to celebrate Jesus’ resurrection on Easter Sunday.

We would encourage you to find a time that suits you all and even just for 5 minutes, learn something together as a family. There are fun stickers and QR codes to help make it super interactive and we really hope and pray that it brings some exciting and fruitful conversations around the dinner table or before bedtime. If it is too much to manage doing it every day, please don’t feel that this isn’t for you. Perhaps you could just try once a week to begin with.

We would really love to hear how you get on and what conversations are sparked from your time together!

Get to know: The Davis Family

Hi! We are Michael, Joanna and Noa. Michael is a self employed electrician and artist and Joanna is a full time artist. We moved to Hastings roughly 11 years ago and our first visit to HTH must have been around 2017 because Noa was very young. It was very memorable because it was Hawaiian day and I’d never experienced a church like it. We are all quite adventurous and creative. Noa is so kind and caring but she can also throw a good punch and is doing great in kickboxing.

We disappeared for a couple of years to France during Covid but came back in 2023 for various reasons but a large part was due to missing community, friends, family, spicy food, decent skate parks for Michael and living by the sea. We still have the big house in France and are trying to renovate it when we get the chance to visit during school holidays. We still get the urge to live in another country and try out new places but we really do appreciate the community we have become part of here in Hastings. We are big fans of tea and cake!