Goodbye Banner....hello ABC!

Since its formation in 1993 the Banner Group has been seeking to glorify our Lord with the banners we have produced over the years.

However, of late our role has changed and we have become more involved in other areas, particularly in the children¹s work with costume making etc and we felt perhaps we should look to adopting another name which would signify our changing role . . . and hopefully attract new members!

From the New Year the name Banner Group has changed to ABC (Art, Banners & Crafts), still meeting on Monday evening at 7.30 pm in the upstairs room two or three times a month.  We will continue to make banners but will also have a more open remit as and when the need arises.

The new storage system has now been installed in the upstairs room which means we have been able to have a thorough sort out, freeing up valuable space and enabling us to keep everything in a more orderly fashion.

At the moment we only have three or four regular members so we are keen for others to join us in this very rewarding work.  Please speak to Ann Norton for details.

We hope as a church you will continue to support us in our role, and remember it is......

All Because of Christ

Women for Christ 2005

Theme: "Celebrations of Transformation"

As planned it was Friday the 28th of January and we all headed to Marion¹s house to meet at 6.00pm. After a very busy day for most we were all very excited about the weekend ahead of us and thank the Lord we all arrived safely and in good time at Sizewell Hall. After being checked in and given name badges we then moved off with our luggage and lots of it (some comments were made on how long we intended staying) to find our rooms. Michelle, Ruth, Rachel and Myself were in room 20 on the top floor and Judy, Marion, Jan and Jill were next door in room 21. After making our beds and unpacking we headed down for dinner, which proved to be delightful.

After dinner we all gathered together in the conference room where we truly started our weekend in the presence of the Lord. There was prayer and worship followed by two heartfelt testimonies demonstrating just how faithful our God really is. The first evening came to a close about 10.30pm when we all gathered together (the young ones ­ room 20 and the wiser ­ room 21) in our pyjamas and spent some quality time in prayer. As you can imagine this always proves to be a very precious time. We then said our goodnights and drifted off to sleep listening to the sound of the waves hitting the shore, how blessed we all felt to be in such a breath-taking place.

Day 1

Michelle and I started the day by making tea for room 20 & 21 and after spending a minimal amount of time beautifying ourselves we headed off to the conference room to meet for Morning Prayer. Our prayer topics for the morning were, the persecuted church, victims of the tsunami, and human trafficking in the UK as well as abroad. We also prayed for the charity Hand in Hand who work with the street kids in Brazil. We were also at this time able to see how God is already working in each of these and we were able once again to see just how faithful God really is. After meeting for breakfast we were then ready to meet our first speaker of the weekend a lady named Elizabeth-Ann Horsford. Elizabeth-Ann is a single lady who has never married and was able to bring a teaching from the Old Testament and the book of I Samuel.  I personally found this very hard to follow as yet I just don't seem to have grasped an understanding of the Old Testament like I do the New but nevertheless it was still very inspiring.

After coffee we met with our second speaker Dorothy Hutchinson who looked at Matthew and Peter from the New Testament. To this I listened with great delight in hearing once again just how faithful our God really is. After lunch we had some free time so we all headed for Dunwich, where we walked along the beach and spent some time together. Whilst walking much to our surprise and excitement we found a message in a bottle. We excitedly opened this to reveal two strange looking pieces of paper, that seemed to show some shipping times and dates etc, but we were very confused as to what it was as it was written in what we now know is Dutch. On arriving back at Sizewell, we were able to find a Dutch lady who has lived in the UK for the last 20 years, unfortunately even when it was translated it was still as confusing. By this time our imagination was running wild and quite honestly I think we thought we were the 'Secret 7' (as Jill had decided to stay at the Hall) on an adventure. We finally decided it was time to give up with the message in the bottle and threw it on the fire.

At 5.00pm we all came together in the conference room to meet our prayer leaders to spend some time in group prayer. Unfortunately we had all been split up into different groups, leaving some of us feeling very uncomfortable about having to openly pray with people we didn't know. Michelle, Ruth, Jan, Rachel and Myself decided to form our own prayer group in room 20 and what an amazing hour we had. We were unsure if this was the right thing to do, but we were truly blessed and we soon realized the importance was about the time we spent with the Lord, and what a wonderful time we had. Not only did we pray but we sung also without words or music and I have to say I didn't realize how many choruses I knew. After dinner we were in for a real treat and what a fun evening we had. We played games, we listened to hilarious stories and jokes, we watched the Christmas sketch of the creature comforts DVD (this was thanks to Rachel for getting the DVD to work through the lap top computer). If anyone has this DVD I would love to borrow it.
As this part of the evening drew to a close and we headed for our horlicks, disaster struckSSS. Rachel turned her ankle and nurse Wilkinson sprung into action. We had pain and tears and eventually managed to settle a very sore Rachel into bed. Also poorly was Ruth who had been struggling with a headache all night, room 20 was soon to become a High Dependency Unit (HDU) with nurse Wilko in charge. We had many professional staff entering the bay to check out the sick and before long we had to restrict the visiting to 2 per bed! Our evening had started joyously and was getting more hilarious by the minute. We did manage to calm ourselves enough to close our evening together (in pyjamas) in prayer, but unfortunately for the other guests the laughs didn't stop there, they just kept coming and soon room 20 had even come under the wrath of our loving and very handsome pastor Eric. Judy had been speaking to Eric on the mobile outside and they were able to hear the noise we were making. Judy very rightly informed us of how noisy we were but like a group of teenagers that only made the laughs come more. As to what we were laughing at unfortunately that is between the residents of room 20 and the Lord, thankfully we were able to spend the next morning repenting our sins.

Day 2
 
Again Michelle and I started the day by making the tea for the residents of rooms 20 & 21. (The least we could do after keeping everyone awake in room 21).
8.00am Communion. This was a phenomenal experience for me. I have to say I don't think I have ever come as close to the Lord as I did during this service of Communion. I believe for the first time I truly looked into the eyes of Jesus and saw the weight of the sin, which He was carrying, the pain He was withstanding but most of all the love, which He had for me. I know I'll never forget the look I saw in His eyes during that Communion service. It was a very emotional experience that has just reconfirmed my love for Jesus.

After breakfast and again after lunch we were to listen to our two speakers, who both had an amazing gift of bringing God's word to life. We also again spent time in prayer and worship. During this Lord's day the eight of us were able to spend time together discussing our own relationships with the Lord, again a very special time was had by all. Our trip to Sizewell came to an end about 4.00pm. I had a fantastic weekend but had to admit was missing my Husband and the Girls enormously and was very much looking forward to going home. I had spent a whole weekend with the Lord with no interruptions and had enjoyed every minute of it. How blessed was I. I want to also thank my newfound family in Christ for all the times we spent together, happy, and at times emotional. This trip was truly a celebration in many ways:

1. 20 years of Women for Christ at Sizewell.
2. Eight women coming together and sharing amazing experiences.
3. Most importantly celebrating the love of God and just how blessed we are to have such a faithful God.

I would just like to ask that we continue to pray for each other, and experiences which came to light this weekend.

God Bless
Mandy