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.

Journeying by Grace

Logo of Grace, Ealing

By God's grace we seem to be moving on with our journey. Perhaps one day I will cease to be surprised when this happens. I haven't really seen the process happen, but we are now engaged in a corporate act of blessing - we have started the process of making a blanket. The conversation wasn't: 'shall we make a blanket for someone?' it was: 'who shall we make a blanket for?' Much is veiled.

This acts as a reminder to me - Jesus asks us to follow him, not to understand everything, or to make life happen.We live by grace, and our actions are both the result of grace, and the means of grace. This group of women within which each of us are both being held, and holding others is, and is becoming, a place of grace.

It looks like the language of 'blessing' may be the way of describing this within the group's culture - and I am hopeful it will be valid language in the wider community of which the group is part. No doubt this will become clearer as time passes.

Blessing 2

We have just met at my home, rather than the church's prayer room. When the women heard I had finished the carpet rug they wanted to come and see it. They also co-incidentally saw the matching blanket.

The blanket generated a flood of inspiration and they want us to make one together and give it as a blessing to a younger woman we all know.

Together the colour scheme has been planned, and we are to have one thread of yarn each. I have to buy some new wool!

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!

Blessing

It was one of those moments when the Celtic approach of God being involved in everything wins out. I was sitting doing some extreme knitting - the knitting that precipitated our first gathering when the women wanted to see the giant needles and finger thickness wool - and wondering what to do when I finish my present rug. 

No - we're not planning to knit a bus - but I like the idea of thinking big!

It came to me to knit a rug for a local couple’s new conservatory, the knitting of it would be hallowed - a blessing to them. 

This is what we might be about - being a blessing to others in response to God’s abundant blessing of us. Perhaps we might even begin the process of viewing ourselves in this way by sharing in the knitting of the rug.

Already our jam and marmalade making has been a blessing for us and for others. Some of the women knit for charity. The group already has a longstanding commitment to support Briar House (the local residential home). And, only last week, they gave money towards the youngsters going away. 

I believe that BLESSING is the answer to what has long been bugging me..... I have known that the group is called to engage in mission to their own community, generation, and culture, but not HOW we were being called to do it.

Blessing is a way of being and doing mission that is natural to the women, and also flexible enough to give space for different degrees of health, mobility and confidence. It gives us a fresh understanding of our reason for being together - to welcome God’s blessing together and share God’s blessing with others. Through this our being and our action become worship to God.

I will use Dorcas as an example of a woman who modelled this blessing of others, and we can talk about women we have known. I suspect that the women will encourage and build each other up by sharing how each of them has blessed the other - just as the widows showed the garments Dorcas had made to Peter. 

Now I shall pray for a space to bring this word from God to the women.