October 2025

Dear Friends,

I’ll be delighted to be looking at the biblical story of Ruth with Locking Primary at their Harvest Assembly early this month and we also explored this story in Messy Church. Ruth is a classic Harvest story.

The story begins with a family from Bethlehem escaping a famine by relocating to a foreign land. The two sons of the family marry local women and then all the men die! When the womenfolk hear that the famine in their homeland is over, Naomi the matriarch of the family, returns to Bethlehem, taking her daughter in law Ruth with her. But when they arrive, they have no means of supporting themselves. God commanded his people to leave untouched, the crops around the edges of fields, for the poor to take. Ruth collects enough for her and Naomi to eat, by picking these crops on the margins. Impressed by her kindness and resilience, she catches the eye of the local landowner, they marry and live happily ever after.

The story of Ruth shows us that God’s plan unfolds in ordinary human kindness and faithfulness.

Ruth was Jesus’s great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, grandmother! Through Ruth, an economic migrant, God established a lineage

leading to his son Jesus Christ. At Harvest time we give thanks to God for the crops gathered at the end of the summer season. It is a time to appreciate the earth’s bounty and the hard work of farmers.

At 10am on Sunday 5th October we will be having our Harvest Service in each Church. We will be collecting non-perishable food and toiletries for Somewhere to Go.

What about asking your friends, family and neighbours to come along with you?

Blessings

Larissa