All Things Bright and Beautiful...
We have been painting, sanding, building, gardening, cooking, clearing and moving rocks to name a few tasks! The children have been helping with these and having lots of play time too.
The beauty of God's creation is everywhere. Even the showers have been welcome in encouraging our seedlings to grow, all on good earth we hasten to add - no thorns or rocky ground here.
Comments
This was a quite amazing and brilliant event thanks to all the incredible hard work of the team headed by Pippa and Mike, Janet of course and lots of other people, but also - and primarily - to God. I think all the visitors were blown away by the amount of prayer that had gone into putting on such an occasion and the Holy Spirit's presence with us - in the talk by Jo Wells, the Bishop of Dorking and Mike Harle's Thought for the Day, Pippa's welcome and introductory talks...I could go on.
The sun shone, so the 'delegates' took their packed lunches into the churchyard and garden. There were even contingency plans for those who'd forgotten to bring a packed lunch!
In the afternoon there were workshops - talks about various aspects of the organisation and running of Connections including Spirituality and the Elderly. Our visitors were invited to speak over lunch to Sarah Slater about things that their churches were doing for the elderly and she very deftly compared this by inviting them to come and present what they had told her in 'Just a Minute' and we had a minute clock projected on the overhead screens. One church learned of a very elderly lady who was so sad because her piano was never played these days, so someone who could play invited a few people to join him/ her to go to the lady's house to play and sing hymns. To their amazement 14 people turned up, filling her little sitting room to capacity! It gave her (and them) such joy they now repeat it monthly. There were lots of other great things other churches are doing to serve the elderly in their communities.
Mike then interviewed a few people for whom Connections had been a real blessing in their times of need, which really spoke to everyone as you can imagine.
It was a lovely day, which was enjoyed by all the participants - organisers and visitors alike.
Our thoughts and prayers are with everyone at the Jonas Centre - for all the worthwhile work you are doing, for Debbie providing you with delicious food, for the children having fun and all the fellowship you're sharing but also the peace and opportunity to relax, retreat and pray and especially for Simon and Jo-Ann and their family.
Greetings and love to you all, from the MarsdensXXX