The Pastoral Team of the Parish of Great Aycliffe have once again been doing their rounds of all Care and Nursing Homes on our town. The theme has been Harvest Thanksgiving and all of homes kindly agreed to make a collection for our local Food Bank, which was very generous of them. We started our travels at Lindisfarne Care Home and the following week saw the team visit Rose Lodge and Aycliffe Care Home. On the third week of September, Woodham Grange and Bethany Care Home plus their Day Centre welcomed us for their Service. It is always a humbling and moving experience visiting all these homes as for some who have no family it is the only visitors they see. We visited Defoe Court Home on October 6th, which is the day all their homes hold a Harvest Service, consisting of Hymns, a reading and short time of prayer. Anyone can take of Holy Communion or have a blessing, and this means so much to the residents who take part. At the close of the Service we always have our “leaving song” which means we always go home leaving a lot of smiling and happy people. This time we had a special song written about harvest time, and the residents loved shaking their tambourines,maracas and other musical instruments. In fact Gordon our church organist who plays the music for us, had to do several “encores”. It was a very happy and stimulating time and God is always there with us all, and I’m sure he was smiling too at all the fun we were having. This kind of outreach is really worthwhile and I could not do it without the help of members of our churches. This year the team lost a valued member, Norma Caygill who was my right hand person for several years, and is truly missed, not just by me but all of our church family. My heartfelt thanks go to each and every person who came along. Please try and think about our Residents in all of our care homes, and if you feel you would like to contribute to their welfare by helping out, I am sure if you approach any of the homes mentioned, and see their manager, they will be delighted to point you in the right direction. Thank you. Pam Lovelass (Pastoral Assistant)