January 2001 Well if it's not too late, a Happy New Year to you all, and thank you to those who read and accepted our invitation to the Christmas services, it was good to see you, why not come again soon? We began the New Year in great fashion! Our backpacking son on the ' phone from Australia, my wife sat bleary eyed and bemused doing her best to wake up with the poor dog trembling all over as somebody not too far away welcomed 2001 with enough explosives to start a war! Anyway it turned out to be a beautiful morning and we made our way Brynmawr-wards where the rain usually comes prepacked in ice or in sufficient quantity to satisfy most of the worlds ducks in one go. And - it rained with some force! In fact even by the afternoon there were still icicles a few feet long to be seen as we travelled back down the valley. Like most of you I really have no idea what this new year will bring. For some no doubt it will be a period of great progress and achievement, I hope that it will mean exactly that for those sitting important exams or entering an important new stage in their lives and/or careers. For others I am afraid it will bring great difficulties and hardship - perhaps even personal tragedy. One thing has become clear to me over the years and that is that when it comes to the most unpleasant aspects of life in this world nobody has an exemption certificate - believer or unbeliever. Few of us find it easy to think beyond our own immediate circumstances, we tend rather to be dominated by them. If things are going reasonably well then we tend to be happy; if not, then we sometimes get quite miserable. At least two cures for this state of mind spring to mind. One is to learn to think beyond ourselves and focus on the needs of other people. I believe it true to say that some of the most contented people in life are those who give their lives in serving others. The second is to see our lives as part of something greater that ourselves, for Christians this is God's eternal plan of redemption through the Lord Jesus Christ. Two men looked out from prison bars, The one saw mud, the other saw stars. E.Jones (pastor).