Ladies Fellowship – January 2008

This month as we patiently await the ‘opening’ of our new building, we met at Fino’s restaurant on Dixie Highway for breakfast. How lovely this month to be waited on as we fellowshipped with one another. I always look forward to our meetings. It is such a blessing and a privilege to have such wonderful, faithful sisters in Christ.
This month we talked about having a new heart for the New Year. When January comes round, it always feels like we have a chance to make a brand new start. It feels like the chance to renew and rekindle our relationship with Christ and a chance to rekindle our passion for Him. If we can come together and work towards the same goal, what amazing things could we do to further our Lord’s kingdom.

Ladies Fellowship – February 2008

What a snowy night we had for our quiz night. I am so thankful for those ladies who braved the weather to spend time together. We had a wonderful time testing our knowledge. Well done to Lynn and Mary for winning, although it was a close contest!

I was sent an email recently called Meredith’s Dog. It’s about a little girl whose dog, Abbey, dies so she writes a letter to God to tell Him that Abbey will be arriving in Heaven. She addresses the envelope “To God, Heaven.” Some amazing post office employee sent a letter back to Meredith, telling her that Abbey had arrived safely, that she wasn’t sick anymore. He thanked her for the letter and for Abbey’s mother who helped her write it, telling her that He picked her mom especially for her. In with the letter was the Mr. Roger’s book, When a Pet dies. The letter was signed love God. This story touched my heart so much, to hear of such kind people in the world who would go out their way to help a little 4 year old girl’s heart mend after losing her pet.

Ladies Fellowship – March 2008

I always love our breakfast meetings, especially on a lovely sunny day. I love waking up knowing I’m going to be meeting with my sisters, eating our shared food and sharing with one another what has been happening in our lives over the past month.

Our devotional this month talked about the benefits of fellowship. I have such a longing for us to be in fellowship with one another. I don’t know about you but this body of Christ is my family. My biological family lives so far away and I see them so infrequently, so I rely on my Christian family to be there for me, just as I hope that I am there for you. Fellowship builds friendships and friendships take time. We can’t expect to have intimacy with God if we don’t spend time with Him, just as we can’t expect to have intimate friendships with one another if we aren’t willing to put ourselves out to spend time with one another. And I know that when we fellowship, thus building intimate relationships, God rejoices in heaven. So I urge all of us to take extra time with each other.

Ladies Fellowship – April 2008

Cancelled

Ladies Fellowship – May 2008

I always look forward to our Mothers Day lunch. It’s so wonderful to see moms, daughters, grandmothers, granddaughters and sisters spending time together. We had a wonderful time together, eating (as usual!), sharing time together and playing a silly game.

Our message talked about the need not only for physical mothers but the greater need of Spiritual mothers. We all need the spiritual love and guidance of a ‘mom’ and sometimes our physical mom can not give us that. This is when the Lord calls Godly women to step in and be there for those in need. I am blessed because I have had several ladies in my life who have been there for me when I really needed them and they are still there today being spiritual grandmothers to my children. Thank you Lord for these wonderful women!

I would like to thank Mary and her sister Vicky for all the time and hard work they put into preparing all our wonderful food. Both of you blessed us greatly and we are very appreciative. I would also like to thank John & Matt Howe and Justin for supervising the children in making a lovely gift for their moms. Thanks to everyone who stayed behind to help clear up so that I could leave on time to take my twins to their Girl Scout trip to Frankenmuth (they had a blast!)

I would also like to say a very big thank you to everyone for the wonderful gift that was presented to me. It was a huge surprise and so thoughtful of all of you. Thank you.

Ladies Fellowship – June 2008

This month we had a cookie swap. We brought our favorite cookies with recipe and tasted one another’s baking and swapped recipes. Thank you to all the ladies who let me take some home with me, my kids loved them!
Our message this month talked about people who are hurting, how God is always there for us, how he equips us to help them and how we can encourage them. We sometimes feel that ‘we’ are supposed to have the answers and should be quick to give advice but really God is the only one with the answers, we sometimes need to just concentrate on loving those who are hurting and allow God to work His amazing power in their lives.

Ladies Fellowship (Retreat Weekend) – July 2008

This year 6 of us attended our retreat to Harrison. We were blessed with good weather most of the weekend and lots of good food (lots of healthy food too!). Our retreat is a time to relax as most of us are so busy, it’s not often that we get to sit and enjoy the sunshine or have the time to allow God to speak to us without us interrupting Him. We spent most of our time at the cottage, only leaving on Saturday afternoon to visit the Amish general store and the Amish bakery (yes to buy more good food!) Our bible studies took place on Friday night, Saturday morning and Saturday night and our theme was “Learning to love one another.” We learnt that love is not just a word. When it spoken it really means nothing, but when it is followed by the action of love that is when we know what love really is. We learnt that no matter how hard it may be to love a certain someone, God enables us to love them when we see them through His eyes. We may never know how powerful our love for others is but God tells us that it really matters! The time spent in study was special, we laughed together and cried together, we confided in one another and advised one another but most of all, we just all loved one another that weekend. This enabled us to be serious with one another and to be incredibly silly with one another too! I hope the other 5 ladies who attended enjoyed themselves this weekend as much as I did.