Reproduction ..

The group I meet with has reproduced itself!

Let me explain....

Last week we began to do some cross stitch on Saturday mornings, replacing the card making we had been doing. Now, I can just about sew a button on and as for hems .... the sticky stuff does a good job, so to find myself having fun while doing cross stitch just didn't seem possible but I did! I really took to it and have so got a new hobby for the spare time I don't have.

Yesterday we began by having a conversation about the funeral practices of different communities which was weird but was a way into faith conversation which was interesting.

Anyhow, the good news, in fact the amazing news is ....... the group is going to meet twice a week!
The cross stitching has proved so popular that the person who came to show us how to do it suggested yesterday that we should form a small group doing cross stitching and ask a few others to come. For me this was great news and an answer to prayer! This lady has opened up her home on Thursday mornings to host a cross stitching group and I hear already that two more people want to join in ...... so the group has reproduced! I think this is just amazing and not something I saw coming ..... but it came about because the person felt a prompting from God to offer to host this as she wanted a way in which to serve God.

It's exciting ..... and I can only imagine the possibilities .....

Holistic Perspective

"It is no use going simply to teach or to speak. It is necessary to sit and listen and serve .... there is opportunity, often to witness to the gospel and to see people come to faith. "(Croft)
It's easy to sit and listen and serve. But I've been wondering does it make church, can it become church? If I have the opportunity to pray with people that come does that make it church?

A lot has happened since I last blogged (some of which I cannot publish here). As a group we continued to meet on Saturday mornings, share breakfast, make Christmas cards and have good conversations around the table. What I also discovered was some of the parents seeking me out to talk on a one to one basis. During these times I was quite taken aback by what they were prepared to share with me ... yet I was also humbled by the fact that the relationships had deepened to the extent that they could openly and honestly trust me with real, personal issues and to some extent heart breaking things that were going on in their lives. So I had to really listen. This happened many times over the past few weeks and not just in the context of Saturday mornings ... it happened in the local shop in the estate, outside the school gates, in the school at a nativity play, at the community centre. I have prayed with and for some of these mums .... I have seen a change in attitudes towards God .... but they have a poor perspective of the church I minister in. To be honest there is a sense in which this very small group have a greater sense of what church should be - they have an openness that I don't always find elsewhere - yet - Saturday mornings may not meet certain criteria that say it is church but it has become something more than just somewhere to kill time while the children are at the kids club. I think there will be opportunities for faith to be explored.

Some of them came to the carol service and also to a family movie night (Muppets Christmas Carol) where more conversations emerged after the movie over coffeee and mince pies while the children enjoyed crafts!

This weekend we will begin to learn how to do cross stitch which should bring some hilarity to the proceedings ... and I will continue to sit and listen and serve those who come.

I seek to have that holistic perspective on what has happened over the past few months and on what will happen in the months that lie ahead. I'm continuing to hold on to that hopeful imagination...