On Trinity Sunday, June 7th, we held our first meeting in Skegness. We met at 10.30 a.m. in the Ballroom of the County Hotel on North Parade.

Our service was led by our East Lincs. Pastor, the Rev'd Ian Banks, who welcomed everyone to this new church plant and preached a sermon on the Comprehensive Character of God's Work using the nature of the Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, to support his address.

Our thanks go to the hotel General Manager, Ross Muirhead, and his staff for facilitating this venue. The hotel staff had prepared the room for us and apart from one small 'Just married' sign on one of the windows, there was no indication that the room had been in full use the night before for a wedding reception! Although the weather was a bit overcast and the wind a little bracing (but what else would you expect from Skegness), it was great to have the views over the seafront and out to sea as a setting for our worship.

We set out the room in order to create a worshipful atmosphere for this Trinity Sunday service and this included covering up the secular picture on the wall with something more appropriate to worship.

We had a congregation of 21 people for this first meeting and this included support from Kings Lynn, led by our Pastor, the Rev'd Don Mentch, who was accompanied by June and Ian Mitchell (thank you June for the photos) and from our members at Sibsey.

On the Friday before the meeting Ian had received a phone call from a man who introduced himself as a 'farmer from Woodhall Spa'. David Tonge had seen our advertisement in the local paper and had been struck by the reference to the Church of the Nazarene. During W.W.II, David's father, who worked a local farm with David's uncle, had six young men from Canada working on the farm while they waited to do their training at Catterick. All six were members of the Church of the Nazarene back home in Canada. Ian asked David if he might find the time to join the meeting on Sunday and tell his story to everyone there. David agreed to come and as he was a Methodist Local Preacher he was more than competent to address the meeting and with a little humour. David even brought along a visual aid in the form of a pitch fork.

Sadly, David's family never heard anymore from any of the six young men after the war, indeed some of them may have been among those who made the supreme sacrifice. A really appropriate story as we called to mind the 65th anniversary of D Day.

David was very complementary about the Canadians saying that not only did they work with them, they also worshipped with them. David ended his little talk by welcoming the Church of the Nazarene back to Lincolnshire. Thank you David.

One of the ladies who attended this first meeting in Skegness had previously been involved with the Croyden Church of the Nazarene back in the days when the Rev Norman Salmons was pastor there. She was pleased to be able to worship once again among a gathering of 'Nazarenes'.

The layout of the ballroom enabled us to share a time of fellowship after the service and to catch up with and share stories with each other and to hear more from our 'farmer', David.

The hotel kindly provided a tea and coffee facility which we were grateful for.

While Pete and Sandra Newsome were unable to be with us for this first meeting due to prior a commitment, this didn't stop their dog, Ruby, attending and enjoying the whole atmosphere. She was ably looked after by young William. Thank you William.