"The Craft Group" plus...

The third challenge is here! Our theme for this year is 'Beauty' and so our third challenge is to create something inspired by this theme. Please share your beautiful creations with us through the craft group email! What does beauty mean to you?

How are you? I hope you are doing OK during this surreal chapter in the world entitled "Corona Virus". In Australia, we have had some strong chapter headings lately. "Drought," "Fires," "Floods" & "Panic buying" just to name a few! I am not panicking. I am not stressed. I have a great God who gives us Hope, Courage and Peace because He is in control and has Purposes beyond our comprehension. Each new day I come to Him to bring Him all my needs. I pray that you can do that too. But now I want to talk about selfishness. In a society like Australia, we are brave and resilient. We carry on and get out there and help one another. And so our instinct is to have a "She'll be right" attitude. The problem is that if we don't take the World Health Organisation's advice seriously, "He" or "She" might not be alright! It is not all about me. It is not all about you. It is about the vulnerable...

I have a dear friend who has a 'word' each year. Kind of a theme for her year. Something to remind her of her goals. Something to help her remember what is important. At The Craft Group we have a 'word' too! The word for 2018 is "Thankful" Pam shared a great song about being thankful. Here it is! 10,000 Reasons

A realistic, uplifting view of Motherhood!

Praying is just talking to God. Amazing. God, the maker of everything actually listens to our words, our thoughts. Sometimes it just blows me away to think about it. Listening to this little girls sing also blows me away!  Here is Rhema Marvanne when she was 7 singing the Lord's Prayer.  Let it inspire you to talk to God yourself. Watch it HERE on You Tube.

At The Craft Group we share craft, life, stories, food, ideas, laughs and faith. We are Women. We are complex! We are clever. We are special. We are loved. Each week we have a little "thought from the Bible". Because there is so much to learn. Because it gives us meaning. Lately we are using the new big screen TV on the wall to look at video clips of songs that mean something to us. This past thursday, Pam shared this song by Jimmy Needham called "Rock Bottom". It's really special. God is Special. You should watch it. Click HERE to see it. Thanks for this song Pam.

A project a day! Well, this is the final day sharing with you for 14 days straight a project that has come from The Craft Group! Being Sunday, I thought I'd share something with a bit more of an eternal perspective! (I know, that's big!)  Every morning we have a short "Thought from the Bible" while we enjoy our morning tea. Each term we have a different theme. One term a little while ago we looked each week at a different reason to follow Jesus. Some people may say this is a personal thing and it is. It is between you and God. But God has not just left it up to us to guess what Jesus is like and guess why we should know Him. The Bible is full of lovely encouraging reasons why knowing Jesus personally is a very real, wonderful and life saving thing! For our talks, we looked at one line each week from this devotional excerpt by Roy Lessin. Project 14: 10 Reasons to come to Jesus Click HERE to read what the Bible says they are.

What a morning we had yesterday! At The Craft Group we hosted our annual "Cancer Council Morning Tea" as part of the big Australian wide fundraising project, the Biggest Morning Tea . We did some Craft, then we had some announcements. Then Pam introduced her ex neighbour who is fighting a pretty big battle at the moment with Cancer. Bec was coming home from hospital yesterday and is really not well.  We couldn't ask her to come and speak but we still were encouraged by her. We watched a You Tube clip made by her church. It is just Bec talking and sharing where she sees "Home" to be. It's only 5 minutes long and is really worth watching... Click HERE to watch it. Then we read out an email Bec sent to me the other day. She said how much Psalm 139 meant to her lately. (I've added it below). If you are reading this Bec.... thanks for sharing your Hope with us. It was very touching and helps put life into perspective. It is really all about ...

At the Craft Group we encourage each other n so many ways. There are a group of ladies who share "4 minute Thoughts for the Day". Marianne gave a great thing to think about... here's what she said. "There are strange paradoxes in life. Often you are searching for something really hard and you don’t get what you are searching for, but when you give up, you often find it.   I’m sure you know exactly what I mean. You know that when you go shopping for a dress for a special occasion, you usually struggle to find it, but when you’re out and about, just window shopping, you might see something straight away that you’d like to buy – but have no real reason to buy it! At the moment, I am searching for a book – I know what it looks like – I know where it should be – and I just can’t lay my hands on it.    But in a few months time, when I’m emptying some pile somewhere or other, I’ll lay on my hands on it!   It’s so frustrating. I think that’...

Judy shared a great thought about living forever... in Joy!  Read what she had to say... Joy in Eternity As most of you know, last month I celebrated a fairly significant birthday, one with an 0 on the end. I had a great time celebrating with friends and family for nearly a week including lunch at Hazelhurst, morning tea with friends and even a surprise lunch. Soon after I had a reality check when I went to visit my doctor for a check-up. When she found out that I had turned 50 I was quickly handed all sorts of forms and referrals for various screening tests. It was somewhat overwhelming to find that

Having a date with all 1's written like this only happens once every 100 years.  So celebrate and have a special day! Here in Oz of course we have "Remembrance Day" today.  Remembrance Day (11 November) marks the anniversary of the armistice which ended the First World War (1914–18). Each year Australians observe one minute silence at the exact time the armistice was signed  on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month. This is  in memory of those who died or suffered in all wars and armed conflicts. Last year we had the minute silence during The Craft Group. We even had the traditional poem and bugle call. It helped to have an army contact through Jenni's Seargent dad, so we knew how to conduct it properly.  It's always a bit awkward being in the big shopping centre at 11am. The muzak  stops and most people are just quiet and then there are the odd few who are making a huge commotion with bellowing voices and no idea of what is go...

I have a song to share with you. First... the dictionary meaning of "Grace" - favor   or   goodwill.   Synonyms:   kindness,   kindliness,   love - a   manifestation   of   favor,   Synonyms:   forgiveness,   charity,   mercifulness. - mercy;   clemency;   pardon:   He   was   saved   by   an   act   of   grace from   the   governor.   Synonyms:   lenity,   leniency,   reprieve. We all need God's grace. Have a restful Sunday!

I love it at our Craft Group how different people come along to share a little 4 minute 'Thoughts from the Bible' each week. Yesterday Judy came along. Our theme recently has been talking about "JOY". Joy is a great word. It doesn't mean laughing all the time and feeling happy. It is deeper than that. It doesn't come from our daily circumstances but from our understanding of life and why we are here and what our purpose is. Judy didn't actually talk about joy but about something that comes way before that. Our identity. Who are we and do we really matter?  It's really good. I asked her to send it to me so I can share it with you. I hope you read it! (Click on 'read more' to see the whole article if it doesn't all show up)  :) "Our Identity" Can you describe yourself in 20 words or less? I’m married with 3 children ages 16, 13 and 11 , I belong to the Christian Reformed Church and I work as a casual teacher. ( just over 20...

Today I went to "The Craft Group",  where we can all be ourselves. We are not pretentious! I had a bit of a retro day. I wore these sweet earrings I bought from my Uncle's jewellery store in Muswellbrook (country NSW) when I was 16. From my very own money I might add! I wore this fair isle jumper made by my Mum (Wil) for me about 15 years ago. It is a beautiful 100% wool and is so warm on wintery days like today.  For the "Thought for the Day" I read from my old "Good News Bible" which I received from my dear school friends, Margaret and Hazel when I turned 17. I had such lovely school friends! It's pretty tattered and worn and I have other Bibles I use. But this is my favourite for when I want to read something in an easy translation. I read  Psalm 16  because I loved it back then and I still love it now.

10:30am is Coffee Time!  Here is Jenni (at the back), our morning tea co-ordinator. With her is her sister Leanne. They deny ringing each other in the mornings to see what they are going to wear but I tell you... the number of times they come wearing the same colour or style is a bit eerie! (Exibit A, photo above. Not exactly the same but well coordinated).  While we have our coffee, we have a few announcements, see some "Show 'n Tell", announce this week's "Happy birthdays". (Thanks for the love ladies. I had a lovely day!) and then have a little "Thought for the day". Today I mused on the idea of how 'good' we are. Good enough to make God happy? Good enough to 'make it' into Heaven? Hmmm. I'm afraid not. Not even close. So how unreal is it that God offers us a free gift of not only complete forgiveness but also of the adoption papers to become His child! Wow.   Here is a good little poem which I thought was appropriate :)

The saying "an elephant in the room" is a good one for our Cancer Council morning teas. Every year in May we do craft, we share a BIG morning tea and we listen to someone share their story of how Cancer has effected their life. We have heard many women & men share how God has been their strength. Their Hope and giver of Peace. How God has healed and how God has given patience and comfort. But there is always that 'elephant' in the room. The big unspoken topic. The questions on some people's minds. If God is real and all powerful, why doesn't He just get rid of all cancer? The Bible has shown me time and again why this is so, but it is not a very easy topic to explain. So I asked Gerald, our minister, to tackle this hard question. Click on 'read more' to see how he explains the different ways of viewing suffering, depending on how you view God. Thanks Gerald!

At The Craft Group we stop half way through the morning and have a "Thought for the day" or  a "Thought from the Bible". The topics are many and varied. One ideas is that we give a person a list of questions and they have to interview themselves! Sounds strange but it's a really nice way to get to know someone better and find out about a few of the things that make them tick. The challenge is that they have to try and answer them all in a total of 4 minutes! These are the questions we give people in their "Self Interview". 1) What is your full name? 2) What house have you lived in for the longest? 3) Is there anything you are scared of? 4) If you had to sit alone, waiting in an airport for 5 hours, what would you like to have with you? 5) What unfinished craft projects do you have at home at the moment? 6) What do you think is the best thing about being a Christian? 7) Could you share a favourite Bible verse you may have? Today Bronwyn inter...

Sometimes you read about very interesting people in the obituary section in the newspaper. A while ago there was a lovely piece about a couple who passed away in their late 80s. They were described as 'hunters and gatherers of the first order'. The article said they had at least 2 of everything: one that was really required, one in case the other one broke and occasionally another because it was on special and would be wrong not to buy it! When the wife died she had about 100kg of wool and 50,000 buttons all neatly put away in old toffee, chocolate and biscuit tins. It's better if a hoarder marries a non-hoarder, but in this case they were two peas in a pod. The husband had a shed full of neatly categorised bolts, screws, nuts, nails, washers, wires, rivets, cables, glue and string. He was from a generation of men who fixed things. Now as a self professing "keeper" of useful things (I am not a hoarder. . .  really) I can understand this couple's fetish for ke...