Women’s Weekend Away 2013

Women from St George’s gathered in Wensleydale for a weekend of relaxing, listening to God and getting to know each other better. Lisa Woodlock led a small team to organise the weekend; Mary Clark led a short teaching programme on Faith, looking at the book of Hebrews.

Here are some reflections from some of the women who enjoyed the weekend:

 

 

What was your highlight of the weekend?

“Laughing in the spirit on the Saturday night. I just wanted to stay in a place of worship all night.” Sally

“The impromptu harmonies during Sunday worship when we were encouraged to sing and create a new song for the Lord.” Sam

Did you value the time away?

“It was a wonderful respite to regain perspective on what I had been investing my time and energy on. It was great to get to know more women in the church that I had never had the chance to get to know before.” Sam

“It was time to get to know a few new people and to spend quality time with good friends who I don’t get a lot of time to talk with. I had time to reflect on life and the things I am doing.” Claire

 

Where was God working?

“It was amazing and so encouraging to hear so many stories. So many strong women who keep loving and praising God through the hard times they have had. Gripped in Grace.” Sam

“About some things that had hit me since getting back from my recent holidays, learning about trust and walking in true faith.” Claire

“There was an amazing openness to God, which prompted lots of people to be real and make themselves vulnerable. This then allowed others to let go. Instead of living in our own little bubbles we journeyed together for the weekend.” Sally

Has the weekend made an impact on the way you Share Life, Love Leeds? 

“Yes, realising that although some people I  don’t see very often but can still connect with and continue those relationships where they left off.” Claire

“Yes, I’ve been much more chilled out this week. I scrapped my planned session for small group and just went with what seemed important. I’ve scrapped the lists of jobs and spent time with God and people instead.” Sally

Find out more about Women’s Ministry events at St George’s on our website.

June/13: Pray for

Points to pray for this month…

Men and Women to have fantastic Weekends Away! Pray they take the opportunity to get to know each other better.

The New PCC, to gel as a team, and the development of a new Mission Action Plan.  Pray that God will guide us.

On Friday morning, Amy Davenport died peacefully with her family around her. Pray for Matt Small and the family.

Pray for all those getting married this summer.

Roy McCloughry speaking on Disability on 16 June, that we would be ready for challenge and able to respond.

More than just a retreat…

Members of St George’s head to Newark for the New Wine summer conference each year to relax, build friendships, network with other Churches and build God’s kingdom! New Wine also host a weekend once a year for 20’s-30’s to connect and build God’s kingdom.  As well as the St George’s worship team serving, networks headed to Center Parcs for a weekend in January.

Laura, leader of Eyes Open network shared some thoughts with us:

What is Retreat to Advance?

Retreat to Advance was a conference held at Center Parcs with the aim of bringing together Christians in their 20’s and 30’s to have a relaxing and recharging weekend in what turned out to be lots of snow!

But it was more than just a retreat. The whole focus of the weekend was to challenge us all to work out how we as a generation can advance God’s kingdom in our lives, our workplaces and our cities.

What did you learn?

We were encouraged to see that where we happen to find ourselves is actually where we are called to be by God, and to see everywhere, and particularly our workplaces, as a place where we can be a part of God’s love, grace and power, transforming not only individuals but the whole culture and ethos of a place.

What did you take away?

I’ve been to many christian conferences where I have had an amazing time but have left a bit sad to go back to “the real world”. What was different about RTA was that I had an amazing time but left with a sense of purpose and excitement, knowing that “the real world” was exactly where God was calling me to be and where I could be a part of what he was already doing in the lives of my friends and colleagues.

Follow New Wine on twitter.

Our Vision 2013: Discipleship

Roots Weekend: After

Roots spent the weekend in Cumbria at Blaithewaite house, involving lots of fun games, great teaching and lack of sleep!  The teaching was based on a poem called God Gazer.

• Being a God Gazer: knowing who God is.
• God as a Life Giver: knowing who we are within that
• Being a World Changer: where we go from there

What were the highlights of the weekend?

The whole weekend had the theme of TV, so we had game shows such as Eggheads, Never Mind the Buzzcocks and a very messy version of Get Your Own Back where Chris Balding’s team lost, leaving him to get covered in beans, breakfast leftovers, jelly and gravy. One young person said that “it was the best thing we have ever done at Roots.”

We also made adverts for Blaithwaite House! Getting the young people to be creative and produce some really funny, original videos.

“One of my favourite parts to the weekend was when we had to make the adverts – my team worked together surprisingly well and had loads of great ideas! They decided this was their favourite session of the weekend as they had great fun and were all very pleased with the end result and were consequently delighted when their video won” Chris, first time leader

We also had the traditional Roots Weekend Away game, Hunt the Leader; where the leaders risked pneumonia and hid in the grounds dressed as different TV Characters, waiting for young people to find them.

Some of the leaders also took it upon themselves to write a worship version of the song Call Me Maybe, which it is hoped will become a staple of Roots Worship… or it may have just been our sleep deprived brains that thought it sounded awesome!

Where was God working?

God worked through so much of it but particularly through the seminars we had, the talks and response times, we had one young person asking Jesus to come into their life.

One seminar was explaining what the Holy Spirit is and how it works, young people really felt the Holy Spirit’s presence, some of them for the first time. Another was on prophesy; the young people were interested in it and had been praying over each other in the week leading up to the weekend and writing encouragements and what God was saying to them.

“It really built new friendships between the young people that we hadn’t seen before, and also brought out a great sense of community between the leaders who came along, and between the leaders and the young people. It means that Roots is becoming a really safe space to share life. As for loving Leeds, in the World Changer session we introduced our plans for a Roots Mission Week in Cottingley, where we’ll be staying overnight together and showing God’s love to the people in that area over the Easter holidays.” Alice, leader of the prophecy seminar

To find out more about Roots visit the facebook page, to contact us and keep up with the latest news.

Photography by Chris Williams.

Hunting the leaders!

Dec/12: Thank you for

Answers to prayer…

1.  Weekend Away
… Alpha, Roots and Students have all spent a weekend away in November.  All weekends  went well and all returned home safely.

2.  Internationals Network
… The International students work is flourishing and people in the network want to be baptised!

3.  Network Sundays
… There have been some great stories out of Network Sunday and opportunities for Networks to grow.

4. Contemporary Carols
… We had more people than ever at St George’s on Sunday 2nd December for a very successful start to the run up to Christmas!

Connections Weekend Away

Connections network travelled to Whitby in September for a weekend jam packed with fun and fellowship; a really valuable opportunity to share life together.

The aim was not only to have fun and get to know each other better, but also to hear about what others in the network are doing in terms of mission.  Hoping to inspire one another to get involved and take ownership of some aspect of mission together as a network.

Beth and Jonny Laidler have been small group leaders within the Connections network for a while and they shared their thoughts with us.

“The highlight of the weekend was just being with others.  It’s rare that we all get together like that but it’s really special when we do.  There were a lot of people on the weekend that we didn’t know so it was a great chance to grow as a network too.

We found it encouraging to hear Che’s story of working on mission out in Romania this summer.  Romania is close to our hearts as we’ve been out there on short term mission too.  It was nice to see how others are working in that country and find ways of tying it all together.

Tom and Kat Pettinger did a great job organising the weekend activities.  A particular highlight for everyone was the treasure hunt involving meeting members of the local community and taking lots of photos!  It was a really fun and key ice breaker for the weekend and a great way to start the run up to network Sundays.

This was our last weekend as small group leaders too so the time away meant we ended on a real high point!”

Find out more about Networks at St George’s here.