Testimony Effect

The testimony was great!

I'm not speaking particularly about the impact of the story... I'm talking mostly about the impact of the telling on all the members of the group. The woman who told her faith story is so full of the experience, and the sense she had of God's presence - which all the other members of the group who were present could see. She told her story again today to the woman who missed the service, and everyone was able to re-live the event.

She was asked lots of extra questions, both about her story, and about what it was like to stand up in front of people. She talked of how it felt (she had found it a very good experience) and was telling everyone else to have a go. Even the most timid member of the group was starting to think about it by the end of the conversation. One recounted a part of her own story which linked in to the conversation.

I thought back to 2 1/2 years ago when I lead a series of interactive services on the 'Time to Talk of God' report. At that time not one of them was able to tell anything of their story to each other... the most personal thing they said was about enjoying going to Easter People some years previously.

I wonder if their will be opportunities for the women to develop this during the Lent course, as we will not be meeting until after Easter.

Telling Faith Stories

Out of the talk of testimonies God is growing something.

Some half formed reflections, leading to some half formed thoughts, led to a conversation.... the outcome is a member of the group will tell parts of her faith story at a pancake party cafe worship.

The woman has never told much of her story to anyone, and she asked to meet and talk about it.

We sat over several cuppas and, with encouragement, this amazing story of meeting with God and being changed emerged. The Holy Spirit was palpable as she told of a mystical meeting with Jesus, but the most powerful part of the story was her realisation, for the first time, that over the following 50 years she has been shaped by the Spirit within her. We held each other as the awesome power of God's transforming grace was revealled to us.

I left the question: 'How has our conversation today changed things?' but I sense I already see some of the answer. She went off to 'normal' life aglow with God's light shining out from within her.

I believe both of us have been changed by the encounter, and I suspect that this sub-plot will have a significant impact on the longer term story of our group.

Knitting (and Dorcas)

Back from my holiday I said I had some ideas to share with the women, and they were up-for-it.

I took along a decorated sheet with some prayers on it, the extreme knitting scarf that a couple of the women had previously had a go at, and the story of Dorcas. My thoughts were that the prayers would offer normality, they would engage in the knitting, and the bible story would be challenging (not so much for its content, but because I would be asking them to share their thoughts on it).

It was one of those days when Community Transport messes things up so beginning was higgledy-piggledy although the opening prayer brought us together well and enabled focus.

As I expected the knitting was a hit... but I was still surprised that everyone completed some. It is only some scraps of wool, and the enthusiasm meant it ran out.

I introduced the story while we knitted. This is an important part of my ideas - that we share the bible, and any other stories, in the midst of our activity. I wanted the women to share, but they found it hard. I had made the mistake of focusing on the concepts rather than the people in the story. I could see the links so easily I forgot to give the women the space to make them.

I'm not sure if we reached any shared understanding through the story, I suspect we made it through the knitting as we produced a shared creative work. It is not something of any real use but as we untangled the wool we spoke of the strands coming together, and as we looked at the knitting we tried to identify each persons contribution.

Somehow we did get to the seed of a conversation about blessing, but only as the structure took over with a panic about what time the bus was returning to collect people!

An article from the church website

Tea and Jam for Seven!

20lb of Blackberry and Apple jam is sitting in North Lynn Methodist Church's kitchen awaiting labels. Seven women between 18 and 90 had fun together picking blackberries from the church garden and making the jam. There was lots of chatter, a couple of brews and some VERY purple hands. Amazingly only two of the women had made jam before, although others are now keen to make more!

The apples were windfalls from local trees and the jars were saved from being smashed at the bottle bank while the sugar, although not local, was fairtraded. All of this made for a creative afternoon with both an environmental impact and concern for justice.

Once the jars have been labelled the women are planning to give most of them to neighbours along with a personal invite to share in our harvest celebrations, and with this in mind gift tags with our harvest image and brief information are being made. 

North Lynn Methodist Church website can be found here.

Neighbourliness and cherries

We're sitting around on the grass having just finished our fish and chips and we've just been talking about a man up a tree. Now, although this is supposed to be 'gospel and chips' his name wasn't Zaccheus. He was up a tree opposite, and we had noticed him in the gap between the flats and the houses.

One of the neighbours comes across the road towards us carrying an old plastic bag.

'Do you like cherries?' he says, 'I've just been picking them and I saw you here and though you might like some.'

I would love to say we shared our food in return, but it was already finished. We did share a few minutes of conversation, including answering his questions on what we were doing sitting there.

I feel a certain magic when people come and join in conversation with us like this, but the bringing of a gift had more power. It has made me think about what we are offering the people around us by our existence as Church here. I remember how last year we had blackberries going to waste in the garden and we didn't share the bounty of God's grace in creation. I didn't know that I wanted to eat cherries today, but I have been inspired and lifted by the gracious gift from our neighbour.

Here we are looking for ways to share Church with our community, and I find myself reflecting that it is one of our neighbours showing us the way.