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This weekend we're having a special offering to support Christian leaders in Pakistan - those known to Roger Pomeroy who face significant hardship following the devastating floods

Here's some information from Roger:

WhatsApp Image 2022-09-02 at 1

Following our missionary involvement in Pakistan since 1968 we have many contacts in the lower Punjab and Sindh provinces.  Many of these contacts are Christian Marwari people. There are also other Hindu oriented people known as Sansi and some Muslim converts who are now our brothers in Christ.

Apart from these there are millions of suffering people who have lost homes, possessions and is some instances their own loved ones. Over 1200 have already perished in the floods.

The people we have contact with are sending reports, video clips and pictures of the desolation. Through a WhatsApp group called PREM MINISTRY I have been updating friends of the present situation and any who request can be added to this. Previous details can be circulated. 

The map shows the worst flooded areas of the country (in red). The black circle just shows where the person who sent this is living. The people we have contact with are from just north of the black circle, South almost to the coast. See the faint line that marks the south east province of SINDH. The people we have contact with are in this badly affected area. 

In these badly affected areas Christian friends as well as many many Hindus and Muslims are in great need. We cannot but touch the surface of what is needed. In some instances help to rebuild simple mud brick brick homes may be provided. In some communities money to buy emergency food and medical aid might be sent. For others the need is for string beds and bedding.

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Please pray for these two families in particular that we have heard from recently:

WhatsApp Image 2022-09-02 at 11. Arbelo Arif, a Marwari evangelist who with his wife Haseena and 5 children. He has been instrumental in leading many from various communities to Christ. Here are his family and his introduction of them:

"My name is Arbelo Arif and my wife's name is Haseena Maseeh and I have five sons and one smallest daughter. Their names are Kamran Arbelo, Imran Arbelo, Farman Arbelo, Irfan Arbelo, Noman Arbelo, Neelam Arbelo. We are eight persons in our family. Rain in our country is running from a month and will continue to 15 September. Our conditions are bad. Please pray for us."

WhatsApp Image 2022-09-02 at 1They lost their newly constructed home in the floods and presently are camping in a Government School. You can see them 'rescuing' some bedding to sleep on in the school. .


2. Rustam, a Marwari evangelist lives some 25 miles from Arbelo. He has a similar family and there are some 20 or so families professing faith in Christ. A week ago he had to wake up the community in the middle of the night as a local canal burst its banks and floodwater poured into the homes of the community.


3. Rajan Victor tells of his situation:WhatsApp Image 2022-09-03 at 8"In these days Situation of Dist Mirpurkhas Sindh Pakistan, it is so hard to tell that the Terrible Disaster we are facing right now in our region Mirpurkhas City and Surrounded Cities. People are homeless, hundreds of thousands seeking help to survive in this situation. Flood damages everything of villages, even cities are full of water. Heavy rains stop for now, but we are facing a big famine, starvation is here, no clean water, thousands of villagers are homeless, fields of crops almost finished, thousands animals dead, prices of groceries Increasing as we were already facing economy issues. Words can't explain what condition are going through, keep us in your prayers." 

WhatsApp Image 2022-09-02 at 84. Raju Rahool (pictured with his family) He is a leading Christian and one of very few Sansi believers living in outside the North Sindh city of Shikarpur. 





As far as I know this is the only church building where Sansi people worship. Now badly damaged in the flood. I worked here in this community for several years from 2002-6. Homes here have also been damaged.



WhatsApp Image 2022-09-02 at 8WhatsApp Image 2022-09-02 at 8

 

***Donations are now closed***

 

Roger Pomeroy, 02/09/2022

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17 June 2020

Steve Smith, 17/06/2020

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5 June 2020

Matt Bownds, 05/06/2020

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30 April 2020

Matt Bownds, 30/04/2020

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On Sunday 22nd March, and every Sunday for the time being, we’ll meet together as The Bridge Church with one big difference.  


Due to the restrictions in place to prevent the spread of COVID-19 we won’t be meeting at Pontprennau Primary School, instead we’ll be meeting online using an application called ZOOM. Lots of what we do this week will be the same as we often do... We will be reading the bible, praying and singing together as church family.  Matt will share a talk from the bible and we’ll have the chance to catch up with, encourage and share life with one another.

In these challenging times we want to work hard to ensure that we continue to meet together. Hebrews 10 says…

"Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for He who promised is faithful. And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.”

As the format of our meeting over the coming weeks will be quite different we thought it would be helpful to some share ways that you might prepare yourself and/or your families in advance!

 

Let’s Spend Time Together


We’ll be using ‘breakout rooms’ at the start and end of our times together to give people the opportunity to chat and catch up with one another. As you join the meeting you’ll be welcomed by a host and put into a small group meeting space with others. We’ll all come back together after a little while. You’ll also have the opportunity to stay around after for coffee and church family time in break out rooms as the youth meet together.
 

Let’s be Family Together


Don’t think that you need to have a wonderfully clean living room and perfectly behaved children. Don’t worry if the lighting is all wrong or you haven’t done your hair… the important thing is that we meet together! Meeting in this way will not be always be easy - at times it may be frustrating, at times hilarious, at times you will love it and I have no doubt that it will feed a longing for ‘normal’ church which in turn feeds our longing to be together in worship with Jesus in heaven one day. Let’s remember that we are church family together now the same as always… “living stones being built together into a spiritual house” (1 Peter 2)

We will be building time into our meeting for the children and providing resources for parents to print in advance that the kids can work through. The youth will continue to meet after the service in their own ZOOM meeting space.

 

Let’s Sing Together


Lines will be muted throughout the meeting including during the singing because the natural telecoms delay will make it very hard for us all to hear each other when we sing together. Colossians 3 vs 16  teaches us the value of corporate worship as “...the message of Christ dwell(s) among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts.”

So week by week we’ll be asking members of the church family to lead us in singing.  We will all hear them so that we can join with them, singing the words that are on the screen. We won’t all hear each other but we can be encouraged in seeing each other as we worship together in our homes. I would encourage you to do the following:

Embrace the weird! Weird very quickly becomes wonderful! If you’re a musician you can play along in your own home too… no one else will hear you except those in your home with you but it will add to our corporate worship! Involve your family if you have one - find some shakers or tambourines for your kids… lay out some saucepans with a wooden spoon as a drum kit or maybe...dance! Let’s make a joyful noise together!

I’m sure there are other things that we’ll learn as we meet together in this way but let’s get started and see how God will bless us and help us to continue to belong, serve and grow together through this challenging time.

Steve
 Smith

Steve Smith, 21/03/2020

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A message from Matt... 

...to help us to think about how we should follow Jesus in the current situation, as we trust God and as we serve our families, our church and our neighbours.
Matt Bownds, 20/03/2020

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Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer.

In my journaling Bible, I have these scrawled words – written in 2012 - next to Romans 12:11: “this would make a great motto verse”!

But as I read and re-read Romans chapter 12 during the Christmas break, I couldn’t resist the pull of the very next verse: Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer (Romans 12:12). Of all the verses I was reading, this little triad of imperatives - like mutually reinforcing points of a triangle - seemed to sum up what it has means for us members of The Bridge Church family to live the gospel-transformed lives that Paul urges in Romans 12:1.

Being joyful in hope is not the same as being happy in circumstances. Now, who wouldn’t want to be happy in their circumstances, right? But joy in hope is something deeper and better and stronger. It’s experiencing something now of the overwhelming wholeness and sweetness that we will one day perfectly know. Jesus-followers have a hope (a sure expectation) of seeing Jesus in all his glory and being like him in that glory (see Romans 5:2), which is what causes joy to spring up – by the Spirit - from deep within us. But we aren’t passive in this. We are urged by Paul to be joyful in our hope. Meditate on what lies in store and let it transform the now. The circumstantial happinesses of life are just pale reflections of what this joy is and what it will one day blossom into.

And joy in hope is what helps us to be patient (steadfast, trusting God, waiting on him) in affliction. Afflictions are as inevitable for Christians as they are for anyone else, but the believer is constantly pointed and projected past the current hardships by thinking much about his or her future prospects. And so suffering is not made easy but is transformed by grace into something which actually reinforces – not reduces - the joy we have because of our assurance of being with Jesus.

And if these truths don’t make us want to be faithful in prayer, what will!? As my joy grows because I am meditating on my hope, my trials are illuminated by heaven’s light and I feel the breeze of heaven, even in tribulations. And all this makes me want to communicate more constantly, talking to and praising my Saviour. In turn those prayers are heard and used by the Lord to strengthen me, sweeten the hard things and fuel the joy that is rooted in heaven’s hope.

What a trio of encouragements! These will be amongst my resolutions for 2020. I wonder if you’ll join me in them?   

Matt Bownds

Download this verse as a phone wallpaper image here.

Matt Bownds, 09/01/2020

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Meet Clive  

Tom Roberts, 15/12/2019

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Meet Aravind  

Tom Roberts, 07/12/2019

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There are loads of great Christian books you could buy for someone this Christmas...


All these books are available from 10ofthose.com. If you buy here, the church will receive a portion of the sale price to use for our ongoing work of sharing the good new of Jesus.
 

For Adults

MealChester 
Meals have always been important across societies and cultures – a time for friends and families to come together. An important part of relationships, meals are vital to our social health. Or as author Tim Chester puts it, Food connects....

He urges sacrificial giving and loving around the table, helping readers consider how meals can be about serving others and sharing the grace of Christ.

PhoneReinke
When the smartphone was introduced, many of us quickly adopted it into our lives—too quickly to stop and think about the future costs we were unboxing along with the device. Now blessed with this revolutionary piece of handheld technology, we try to wield it with wisdom, fending off anxieties about how our digital habits impact our spiritual health. Drawing on the insights of numerous thinkers, published studies, and his own research, writer Tony Reinke identifies twelve potent ways our smartphones have changed our lives—for good and ill. Reinke calls us to cultivate healthy habits for smartphone use in the digital age, encouraging us to be grateful for technological advance, develop skills aimed at maximising the blessing that we (and others) can receive through our phones, and grow in the wisdom we need to avoid the many pitfalls that exist with such a powerful tool.
 
ProverbsKeller
Pastor and New York Times bestselling author Timothy Keller writes the follow-up to his hugely successful devotional 'My Rock My Refuge'

Keller is known for his ability to connect a deep understanding of the Bible with contemporary thought and the practical issues we all face. In this inspiring new devotional - consisting of all-new material - Keller offers inspiration for every day of the year, based on the book of Proverbs. Working through the entire book, Keller brings this ancient wisdom to life and shows how to apply it to the realities of our daily lives. Just as 'My Rock My Refuge' taught readers how to pray, so 'The Way of Wisdom' teaches us how to live lives that are rooted in wisdom.

For Kids

EverythingKNT

Encourage your little ones to learn and grow with God with Everything a Child Should Know About God from bestselling author Kenneth N. Taylor. Designed for parents to read aloud to children, this book features whimsical illustrations throughout, each chapter has a brief explanation and a related question to pose to children. Dr. Taylor explains in child-friendly language the essential Bible truths you want your child to know.

This revised edition has a Bible reference on each page to help you show your children where these doctrines can be found in the Bible. 

EveryoneCHW
It’s never too early to introduce the next generation to some of the heroes of faith. In this book children will meet 52 christian men and women (one for each week of the year) from all walks of life who wanted to live for their friend Jesus. There are missionaries, martyrs, writers, reformers, politicians and poets. Their stories are exciting and inspiring and will show children that any of Jesus’ friends can do remarkable things for him - even them!

GoodIdeaTN
A true story about God's design for people - we are all made in his image so we are all the same.... but we are also all different! We look different, speak different and play different - but we are all valuable. That's because, in the beginning, God had the very good idea of making us that way. This is the story of his idea - and how you can be a part of it!

Dippers
Fun, interactive Bible devotions for the whole family to enjoy!

Devotional dippers are a great way to get your whole family to open up the Bible together. Each stick includes a theme, a Bible reference for you to read, a question to discuss together and a prayer point to encourage you to speak to God


For Teenagers

HangingDickson 
Hanging in There is a book about God, you, the Bible, prayer, church, relationships, sex, feelings, doubts, love and, above all, ‘hanging in there’ as a Christian. If you’re new to the Christian Faith or a long–serving Christian who could use a bit of encouragement, this book is for you. 

SuspicionDickson
A Sneaking Suspicion is a book about things that matter... things that are important but which we don’t often talk about.

John Dickson writes:
‘For me, what began as a sneaking suspicion has blown into a huge reality. Like most Aussies, I had a hunch there was something more to life than beer and footie. I also had a hunch that the ‘something more’ could be found by looking into Jesus. When I decided to go with my hunch, I discovered more than I ever bargained for.’

For Parents

ParentingTripp 
Sometimes parents wish there was a guaranteed formula for raising good kids—a certain list of rules to follow to ensure they’d have obedient children. But if moms and dads view their role through the lens of God’s grace, they will see that the gospel must first shape how they parent before they can effectively shape their children. In this book, Paul David Tripp unfolds a more biblical perspective on parenting than merely adhering to a list of rules. He lays out fourteen gospel–centered principles that will radically change the way parents think about what it means to raise up a child, informing everything they do as a parent.

TalkYounts 
The most important conversations you will have with your kids will be in the context of everyday life. 
In ‘Everyday Talk’, author John Younts explains how to use ordinary conversations to talk to your kids about God and his world. You’ll be delighted by his clear, practical insight and biblical wisdom.

Buy this book and read it. But don’t stop there, put it into practice. Your children will thank you!

 

Book descriptions from 10ofthose.com 

Tom Roberts, 02/12/2019

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All Posts

 
Roger Pomeroy
02/09/2022
Steve Smith
17/06/2020
Matt Bownds
05/06/2020
Matt Bownds
30/04/2020
Matt Bownds
20/03/2020
Matt Bownds
09/01/2020
Tom Roberts
15/12/2019
Tom Roberts
07/12/2019
Tom Roberts
02/12/2019
29/11/2019
Tom Roberts
22/11/2019
Matt Bownds
09/09/2019
Matt Bownds
29/07/2019
Matt Bownds
18/07/2019
Steff Elis
19/05/2019
Tom Roberts
20/04/2019
Matt Bownds
11/01/2019
Matt Bownds
11/01/2019
Tom Roberts
25/11/2018
Hello
Hello and welcome! If you are a new visitor, please click here to find out what to expect at one of our Sunday services. If you would like any more information, please get in touch with the Church Office

 

Planning your Visit

New to Church? New to the area?

We are a growing family of Christians, committed to sharing the good news about Jesus, loving one another and loving our community in Pontprennau/Pentwyn, and beyond.

We'd love you to come and visit us for one of our Sunday meetings. Here are some answers to common questions, to help you know what to expect when you visit:

   

Where & when do you meet?

We meet every Sunday at 10am for our Sunday meeting in Pontprennau Primary School. If you are planning to visit for the first time you are welcome to send us a note to office@bridgechurchcardiff.org so that we can guarantee you a space and give you a warm welcome.  It helps to get there 15 minutes early to get a parking spot and find your seat in time for the meeting to start. Parking spaces are limited so please park considerately. We meet at:

Pontprennau Primary School

Heol Pontprennau

Cardiff

CF23 8LL

  

What can I expect on a Sunday?

Our meetings are currently being managed in accordance with COVID-19 safety guidance.  As a result some of the activities listed below are restricted or look slightly different.  However, we can  assure you or a warm welcome and an informal, family feel despite the restrictions that may be in place when you visit.

You will be welcomed at the door, where we can answer any questions you might have and direct you to where you need to go. The service will last about 60 minutes and will 
include Bible reading, prayer and a sermon during which the Bible reading is explained. 

Tea and coffee are served after the service - there is plenty of time to meet new people and ask more questions. Click here for more information.   

What happens to the kids?

We have a programme for Children and Young People during the morning service. Children will leave the main service  when announced by the service leader. 

Creche (up to 3 years). Led by our Crèche team, the youngest in our congregation enjoy a time of Bible stories, singing, craft and play.

Sunday School (reception to Year 6). Our Sunday School team lead the children as they learn about God from the Bible through videos, activities, games, and craft. 

Youth (years 7-13). Our young people stay in the service and meet afterwards to discuss and apply the sermon together with one of the youth leaders.

For more information, click here.

Is there a dress code?

No! Please just be yourself and come dressed in your 'normal' clothes. 

Will I have to join in?

Not at all! You are very welcome to simply observe or participate as much as feels comfortable for you.   

I have more questions, how can I ask them?

Please feel free to contact us, or speak to one of the leaders or welcome team on a Sunday morning.