Regional Gathering Approaches Fast...

 

On Friday 24th May 2013, L'Arche Inverness is proud to host the second regional gathering for L'Arche in Scotland!!

 

The day will be held at St Columba's church in Smithton by Culloden from 9.30am - organised by Anthony Kramers and a team of willing representatives from L'Arche Inverness and Edinburgh the day is sure to be a success.

 

Accommodation has been organised in Inverness for around twenty members of L'Arche Edinburgh who will be attending on the day. At the moment we are still looking for numbers of those attending from L'Arche Inverness and for offers of people to make food for the day.

 

Lisa distributed a poster this week also looking for anyone willing to showcase a talent. Be it dancing, singing, drawing, playing an instrument ..... what ever you want please let her know by phoning Saorsa as soon as possible.

 

We hope you are as excited about attending as we are .....

REGIONAL GATHERING HERE WE COME!!

Easter Celebrations...

This year a wide range of community members from all around the community attended regular Faith Life Group meetings in order to begin preparations for Easter.

 

The group had many ideas for the Passover Meal and Foot washing, Good Friday and Easter Sunday. Many people have commented on how they thought this year has been the best in a while!! Good news for all involved.

 

A big thank you to all the Faith Life Group members who helped to organise the events this year!

 

 

PASSOVER MEAL AND FOOTWASHING

 

 

EASTER SUNDAY

 

 



Our Shrove Tuesday Event ...

On Tuesday 12th February, The Community celebrated Pancake Day (Shrove Tuesday) by having a Pancake Party which was organised by The Faith Life Group alongside some help from The Workshops.

 

The Party seemed to be a great success as each house and The Snug made mountains of tasty pancakes, we had a selection of mouth-watering fillings such a jams, chocolate spread, lemon, sugar, berries, bananas and plenty of squirty cream and plenty of crafts such as 'Mardi Gras' Mask making, banner painting and a brilliant pancake tossing competition!

 

In true L'Arche style we came together to join hands to say grace before tucking in and letting the fun begin! We must note that Petyo Brodnan took the trophy for the most pancakes tossed, Brendan came 3rd place, Holly Hiles came 2nd place and Sydney Fraser came 1st place in the most stylish pancake toss.Congratulation to them all!

 

  Have a look at some of the pictures from the afternoon:

 

Waiting for the pancakes to arrive

Getting ready to add their touch to the banner

Karen and Hayley making masks

Holly with her Mardi Gras mask

The pancake competition winners

Claire and Mark from MacTalla

Lilias and Clare Gardom (ex brae assistant)

Babs, Anna and Jeong waiting to tuck in

Anna helping herself to the delicious pancakes

Karen, Sylwia, Hayley, Maria and Emma enjoying the afternoon

Erika enjoying the spread

Graham and Brendan having a good time



Congratulations ...

 

Love is really continuing to be in the air around L'Arche as there was another two engagements announced recently which brings the total to FIVE!

 

A big congratulations to Mirjam Pakulla and Jonathan Pitt who were both assistants in Braerannoch recently. The pair met while in working in Braerannoch and have been together ever since. Jonathan has moved back to London and Mirjam is now living in a L'Arche Community closer to him. They are planning to wed in September/ October 2013 which is fantastic news!

 

Also, the community wishes all the best to Miska Pavlusova who has recently got engaged to her boyfriend Daryl. Miska who is currently House Leader of Saorsa/ Grianan is planning her wedding to take place on August 2013 in Slovakia which will make it a truly wonderful International wedding!

 

Best wishes to you all! 

It's 2013 ...

 

Happy New Year to friends both old and new!

 

Another year has been and gone and 2012 didn't seem to disappoint us! It was another year of many changes, transformations and additions to the team.  

 

In Braerannoch, we have had two new House Leaders - Meagan then Cecile then Meagan again (Thank you for coming back!), a new deputy House Leader - Raquel, five bedroom swaps and mini makeovers, a huge bedroom makeover for Derrick Anderson, a complete revamp to the kitchen which is now very modern/ sleek, Stefan passed his driving test so is now able to use the Kia to go on outings or to appointments which is a real bonus for the house and sadly we said goodbye to Fiona Lynn who has moved onto another lovely home. Braerannoch has also welcomed Martin who works in our Workshops to live in the house for the next while. It has been really nice for the house to have him around!

 

In MacTalla, Hayley, the house team and her family organised a complete makeover for her bedroom which is now a beautiful comtemporary purple paradise, Petyo moved to a new flat as one of the community's very first "LILO" assistants and Mark and Jackie both celebrated their 25th Anniversaries of living in the community.

 

In Saorsa, they celebrated 30 years since Saorsa was founded by Sydney in 1982 with a big BBQ in their garden for the whole community, Miska moved to a new flat as one of the community's very first "LILO" assistants, Derek got a lovely new floor laid in his bedroom which he loves and just recently they received news that The Highland Cross has granted them funding to put towards the installation of a much needed wet room on the ground floor.

 

In The Workshops/ Office, the finances were centralised which meant that Hector got to step back and only work one day a week, we purchased a new community car - a black Kia named lovingly by The Snug as "Percy", we received a donation of a new summer house from Dickson's of Inverness which was constructed in the grounds of Braerannoch by Hunter's Landscaping, we welcomed Mr Bob Glover as our new volunteer fundraiser (we wish him the best of luck), we welcomed Sarah McLenan as our new Workshop Co-ordinator, The Workshops organised many fantastic parties such as The Diamond Jubilee celebration, Halloween and the Christmas party and last but not least of a long list - Holly and Tracey represented the community at the L'Arche International General Assembly in Atlanta, Georgia, USA!

 

As you can see there was barely a dull moment and we have high hopes that 2013 will bring the same good times and memories.



The Beginning of Advent

The Community's brilliant handmade wreaths!

 

The Community came together on Thursday 28th November in Braerannoch to celebrate with each other the beginning of Advent which would be taking place that Sunday. Many of us attended including the Chair of the L'Arche UK Board, Kathleen O'Gorman who was visiting our community for a few days that week. It was wonderful to have Kathleen around to experience one of our informal gatherings which she seemed to really enjoy.

 

The Faith Life Group organised the Advent activity which centres  around an Advent Calendar and a Nativity Scene this year. Beautifully made by Holly, Erika, Lisa, Joseph and Hilary the Advent Calender pockets contain small verses of the Bible which matches the theme of each week which are

Hope, Peace, Joy and Love!

Along with the small verse there is a picture which each day is coloured in and stuck onto the the Nativity Scene so that by the end of Advent a lovely full picture of the Nativity Scene will be completed after the help of those who opened each pocket daily.

 

The wonderful Advent Calendars

The Nativity Scene slowly building up!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

During the gathering we discussed what Advents means to us and a representative from each house and one from The Workshops lit the first candle on their Advent wreaths which all looked amazing for the occasion as they were all made by the core members and assistants which was a great touch!

 

 

The Advent Gathering

 

After joining hands and saying Our Lord's Prayer together Amy and Holly went round the group to let everyone choose their Advent Friend. For those who may not be familiar with this term - an Advent Friend is a person who wants to be a secret sign of God's love and presence to someone else in The Community. This means that to be an Advent Friend you should be prepared to pray and give gifts to the person you choose.

 

This year Amy prepared the Advent Friend pictures into Christmas Crackers where you needed to pull on each side to open it and reveal your friend. You can see one of them below which we really fun and exciting for all!

 

An example of the Advent Friend Crackers.

 

 WISHING YOU ALL A PEACEFUL AND ENJOYABLE CHRISTMAS!

 



Our Christmas Card ...

 

Each year we use the artistic talents of our core/ day members to design The Community's Christmas Card and in the past we have had many fantastic cards from the houses but this year was the turn of The Workshops. A competition was set up which had such an amazing response! - there was well more than 60 entries - some of which you can see below:

 

Absolutely beautiful - the runners up!

After the entries were narrowed down by Amy and Kirsty, Maria who is a valued volunteer, narrowed them down to a further five. It was then organised that the day members would choose their winner by having a show of hands at their Friday wages meeting. This is always a busy and fun filled meeting but even more so when deciding the winner.

 

After some close competition it was decided that Paul Hughes' happy and colourful Snowman was the well deserved winner. The cards have already been posted after Amy had some help labelling them from The Snug, so hopefully you will be seeing them coming through your letterbox soon.

 

The winning design!

 

A HUGE CONGRATULATIONS TO THE VERY TALENTED PAUL HUGHES!



The Workshops Halloween Party...



Tim and Maria outside The Workshops


The Workshop's Annual Halloween Party was an even bigger success this year with the standard of costumes at the highest yet! Organised by Amy and Kirsty, The Workshops were completely made over with help from Thomas and Simon who made the girls ideas and props come to life.



Amy

Kirsty

 




The Workshops open casket

 

The outside of The Workshops was decorated with big tombstones, an open casket, boarded up windows, big spider webs and even bigger spiders - all of which were put together on a small budget. Outside, Maria and her brother Tim also decorated her car fantastically with many decorations and a "VAMP 1" number plate. This was a lovely surprise for us all.



Derek Thain as Harry Potter



Syd and Connie in their costumes

 

Inside the theme continued with surprises lurking in every corner. Richard Sutherland was the Dj for the night and he kept everyone dancing. There was the usual games planned but Richard's Dj'ing was so good that everyone just wanted to dance.

Becky who wan "Sweetest Costume" as a Harry Potter character and Amy

Tracey as a fairy and Ionutsa who wan "Best Female Costume"

Ania and her daughter Ola who wan "Scariest Costume"

 

The Snug was transformed into a Spooky Cinema with a choice of Halloween themed DVD's and some of our very own candles which created a lovely quieter area for people to relax in when they needed a rest.

Jim, Innes and Fraser from Dickson's of Inverness came as guest judges

Fiona as a witch alongside Elaine and Audrey who were also guest judges!

 

Many of our friends outwith the community came to join in the party. Jim, Innes and Fraser from Dickson's of Inverness were judges along with Elaine and her friend Audrey - they had such hard decisions to make as the costumes very absolutely fantastic! The winners were:
 

Best Male Costume – Ross Hrycenko

Best Female Costume – Ionutsa McClelland

Worst Costume – Simon Meddle

Scariest Costume – Ola (Ania Skorupka’s daughter)

Sweetest Costume – Rebecca Harris

Most Creative Costume – Luise Peters

Best Pumpkin – The Workshops

Most Creative Pumpkin – Saorsa

 

Well done to all the winners. Here are some more photographs for you all to enjoy!

Elissa with her impressive spider costume and Paul as the Captain of the Titanic

Lovely Brea as our friendly witch

Our House Leaders - Miska and Petyo looking extremely scary!

Brendan as a scary Warewolf and Graham as a creepy Vampire

Susie as a lovely School Teacher

Ben as a Golden Snitch from Harry Potter

Leo and Jeong the MacTalla assistants in their costumes

Kerry and Meagan as Super Heroes



The Workshops winning "Best Pumpkin" and the award along with The Offices "drunk" pumpkin


 A BIG THANK YOU TO ALL WHO CAME ALONG!