If you’ve ever gotten to the end of the day and realised that you haven’t spoken to God once, then this weekend is for you! Life today is hectic, there’s no getting away from it! We rush to get up when the alarm sounds, we dash to the gym, shovel breakfast into our children, iron the shirt we should have done last night, just about make it work in one piece, work under an ever increasing pile of deadlines, break the speed limit in order to collect the children on time, spend hours with our heartbroken (again) friend, struggle to juggle our many social commitments, squeeze in some church time on a Sunday, feel guilty about not having more time to serve better, wade through inboxes overflowing with e mails, shove in the washing, shoehorn the dirty dishes into an already at-capacity dishwasher, zoom the hoover round and collapse into bed 3 hours later than intended… only to do it all again tomorrow… And just where does God fit into that schedule? Wouldn’t it be great if God was with us in all of those things? Wouldn’t it be amazing if we could just chat to Him as we did them – get His heavenly perspective on things? Oh, hang on a minute… God is the God of every minute – every crisis, every minor triumph over the housework, every gut-wrenching phone call, every blissful sunny afternoon! It’s just a case of adjusting to the reality of that fact and inviting Him to join in… Join us for our weekend away as we learn to deliberately seek God in the minutiae of our lives. Come ready to get stuck into lots of different activities – some that you might not expect – and find God at the heart of them.
September 1, 2009
This is our last event of the year but its been an awesome year that has seen us all stretched and grown in our walk with God. This weekend away will round up the year so why not come along finish the year with real soul food, great company, mamma mia and fabulous dinner. You can come for the whole weekend or as a day guest, however we have to limit day guset numbers because of the eating space so book early.
You should be able to download a booking form from the aboive link, if you fill it in and give it to Rache Bell along with your cash or cheque.
Hope to see you all there.
Rache, Jo Judd, Jo Peck, Morag, Gabe, Ruth, Nicola, Jenny.
August 13, 2009
‘If only my life was more like that…’ ’If only I could form relationships like that…’ ’If only I’d been created a bit differently…’ Probably most of us have allowed thoughts like these to cross our minds from time to time – maybe more often than we’d like to admit. Comparison steals into every area of our lives, stretching out its fingers to torment us even in the places we thought we were content. As women, we compare our figures, our fashion sense, our career paths, our single/married/parent status, the depth of our friendships and relationships… and even the way that we relate to our Heavenly Father. Are there people whose spiritual walk you look upon with a degree of comparison or even envy? And have you found that however much you try to be like them, you never quite cut it – you never quite seem to have it as ‘good’ as they do?
Imagine for a moment that you and I are in a friendship. In this imaginary universe I’m also friends with another person – let’s call her Jane. Is it possible for you and I to have exactly the same friendship as the one that Jane and I share? Of course not – you and Jane are completely unique people so how could these relationships be identical? So how do you handle this? Do you become insanely jealous of the friendship I have with Jane? Do you try and become exactly like her? Do you quiz me on every detail of the time I spend with her? It seems silly just writing it down… We all know that the rational, adult thing to do is to enjoy our friendships and relationships for what they are – building on the strengths within them rather than obsessing over what might be different.
So why the analogy about imaginary Jane? Well, I have a relationship with God and so do you but, being completely unique individuals, our relationships with Him cannot ever be identical. God’s love for each of us is equal but different. He knows how He has created you, how He has designed you to relate to Him in the best way – and it’s different for every single person… in the universe! When we listen to the lie that somehow our relationship with God doesn’t stack up, that somehow we’re less worthy than the person next to us, we’re unable to focus on the one thing that matters the most – Him! It stands to reason: when we’re looking at other people, our eyes aren’t on Him. You can’t dance with God if you’re following someone else’s lead – even if they’re the most beautiful dancer.
Join us on August 31st for an evening of exploring what our relationships with God can look like and celebrating the uniqueness of every one of them.
August 3, 2009
I think when the Holy Spirit is mentioned there can be alot of confusion, questions, fear, interest and excitement, doubt and uncertainty. Its certainately not something that we hear alot of teaching about week to week. When the pastors annopunced a lecture series on the Holy Spirit it seemed a great time for us to get together and share what we really think and feel about the whole subject. So we did. One of our leaders syas its when we meet together, over food, drink, for fun or just a netter that real soul food happens between women and I think she’s right. It certainately happened this night for many of us. So if you’re in search of some real soul food come and give us a try!
Here’s the link to the evening.20090518St S W
The next event is on the 31st august and we have a weekend away coming up, click on next event for details.
Rache Jo, Jo, Jenny, Gabe, Ruth, Nicola, Morag.
March 20, 2009
Hi, huge thanks to all the women who came to hear Jenny Jack speak on Monday 16th. So far all i’ve heard is great things and I know I was inspired and challenged yet again by what she has to say. If we’re really lucky we’ll get more!
I’ve put the handout, power point and audio of our meeting here for you to use, if there are problems let me know, otherwise enjoy. If you didn’t come along why not listen and come try us out. If you’d like to do the spiritual temperement assessment here is the link.
February 26, 2009
Okay, lent is upon us, for some its about denying themselves something, for others its about refocusing. whatever the season means to you ultimately we look again to the cross and reassess where it is taking us or where we have come from. Perhaps it inspires us to again reconsider what would we be prepared to give for eternal life, for life in all its fullness. So as with advent I’ll post a lent prayer as often as possible on the women writing site (link on RHS page). If you want to contribute please mail me at rachael@campanile.org.uk.
Why the title of this page? Here is the first thought for lent, have we forgotten how to express joy. In the attempt to take the God stuff seriously and to persue intimacy with God have we become too serious, forgotten that he made s creatures who feel and express joy and laughter? I suspect so. If you put the word joy into biblegateway it occurrs 242 times and yet we don’t talk about it much. I suspect few understand what true joy is anymore. But its lent I hear you say, and we associate lent with seriousnes yet joy is so much more than happiness. It is a state of real assurrance and trust in God’s goodness, when felt, it’s a state that surpasses any earthly ongoing trial. It’s a gift from God that can be seen in the faces of people who dwell with it, it opens up the ordinary things we see, feel and hear and transforms the mundane into unsurpassing pleasure, it lifts the veil of greyness that world puts upon our eyes and gives colour to the world. even in serious times when reflection is called for joy can be felt and stops us turniong the amazing message of the cross into mourning instead of gladness. I’m not hugely theological so this is the only way I can describe it.
Having experienced true joy I pray that God will have mercy on all of us and in his grace rain down joy on all of us who desire his company.
May joy be your strength as it is mine this lent 
Enjoy the prayers
January 10, 2009
Happy new year! we’ve met and have organised the first three dates for the year, the August date and the weekend away dates are to follow!
We’re starting the year by giving our hopes to God and asking him to meet us in them. Come and join us for a real celebration of the hope we have in Christ! Check it out on the next event page.
rache x
December 3, 2008
As promised but two days late I’ve made a page for a walk through advent with scripture to meditate on each day, great if you’re doing the 24 hours of prayer between 17th and 24th December. If you want to sign up for that email nick@stsilas.org.uk.
Big thank you to all who came and helped make the 1st a wonderful evening in God’s presence, I hope he’ll continue to bless you thoughout the coming weeks.
Keep checking back and i’ll have the dates for next year hopefully soon and also a summary of December 1st meeting and a podcast for anyone who missed out.
Meanwhile check out the women writing link, Mary Gardner one of our link missionaries from Togo is contributing over the coming weeks starting with a meditation. Enjoy!
I hope to have more newsfrom women serving abroad that are linked to us so we can pray for them and to remind us that they are part of our body even abroad.
Rachex
October 18, 2008
Prayer
Posted by RacheB under Uncategorized | Tags: failing, God, love, peace, strength |Leave a Comment
May the love of God
Enfold you daily
May the peace of God
Take you from waking to sleeping
May the joy of God
Be in all our walking
May the strength of God
Be in all our failing
May the stillness of God
Wash over your stressing
Be at peace sisters in Christ
Wait on the strength of God
Arising in you daily
Amen
October 18, 2008
Two Words
Posted by RacheB under Meeting Archives, Uncategorized | Tags: Holy Spirit, relationship, transformation |Leave a Comment
We met the other night to plan and came up with two words that we think will be important over the coming time.
Transformation and relationship.
Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is- his good, pleasing and perfect will. Romans 12
