Catrina Benham's Blog

Just a quick entry as it's 8am Sunday morning and I should be getting ready for Church! Thank you to all those women who took part in yesterday's Unique Action Morning.My prayer is that you were blessed as you came and blessed others. We had a great time together - the place was filled with chat and laughter. We gift-wrapped 100 gift bags and 70 toiletry sets (these are all going to be given to other women through Kerith in the community ) We also wrote 40 letters to women in Serenje , Zambia. The letters will bless and encourage other women - those who are living a very different life to ours. but are still women with families and jobs; hopes, needs and responsibilities just like us. More on the letters another time, but suffice to say that I was incredibly moved as I read them last night. Thank you to all who worked hard to put the event on. Must dash! x

Alice is practicing "Jingle Bells" on her violin; the trees are up in the Kerith Centre ...looks like Christmas is coming! We had good fun decorating the Kerith Centre last night - fortunately I wasn't given too much responsibility and was given a job within my creative capabilities : "hang the stars in a random pattern"! I had a great time chatting to people and getting to know some of the girls that have just finished the recent Alpha course. We even stopped part way through to all get together for a coffee break - my kind of evening! If you're free anytime Saturday morning why not drop in to our Unique action morning in K2? We'd love to see you. It's gong to be very informal - just drop in anytime between 9-11.30 am. More details here. Don't worry if you haven't got your ticket, as you can get one on the door. Last Monday evening Simon and I had a date night - desserts and drinks at Peacock Farm. It was a freezing evening - so a scrummy

Getting ready to leave the house this morning for my part-time teaching job, I received a friend's text message which ended "enjoy school". I'm blessed to have a great job with great colleagues - there are many things to enjoy. If you asked me I'd enthusiastically tell you that I love it (and I do) but there's so much to get done in a day with the children that I'm often rushing them and feeling that I haven't done a good enough job - and I'm not sure they get the message that I really love it! So this morning I prayed for God's presence and peace - and that I'd bring His presence and peace too. I decided from the outset that I wanted to really enjoy my work today- and that made all the difference as I taught Kick-Start; practised the Christmas songs ; taught "one less" in numeracy; and "tricky words" in Literacy; helped 24 children access the ICT suite; taught them what Jewish families do to celebrate Shabbat (Sabbath)

Just off out for the Inspire kick-off event tonight where the new group of Mentors and Mentees are meeting up! Really looking forward to meeting everyone. As last time, Caroline and her team have done a great job in prayerfully pairing up the women. I'm expecting a fun evening with lots of laughter as we begin to get to know one another. Tomorrow evening Activate are gathering to discuss the latest book they've been reading "Dangerous Surrender" by Kay Warren. Ope will be leading the evening and talking about plans to extend Activate to be one Book Club that meets in 3 different venues. More news soon! Tickets will be on sale on Sunday for the Unique Action Morning on Saturday 29th November. It's going to be a relaxed and informal "drop-in" morning with entertainment, prayer, cakes and drinks - and the chance to spend some of your time blessing others in practical ways. Come and find out more at the Unique table at church on Sunday Have a great couple

For the majority of the time since I became a Christian at 15, my attitude about "Quiet Times" was one of guilt and shame, because I knew that it was something I should be doing every day . Reading the Bible and praying are spiritual disciplines that help us to grow as Christians. I wanted to grow, but I wasn't that good at the discipline part ! Part of that was that I thought time to read the Bible and pray would somehow happen during the day and inevitably (surprise surprise), it didn't just happen . I need to read the Bible and pray. It's food for my soul; equipping me for the day ahead. Listening at a women's conference to another busy woman just simply talk from the platform about how she prioritises this time alone with God, prompted me to take action! Firstly, there's no one "right" way to do this. It will be different for each of us at different seasons of life.Think about your temperament, schedule, commitments at home and at work. Ask

Yesterday was a fantastic day at church, with Baptisms both morning and evening.We observed the minute's silence in memory of those who fought for us in both past and present wars. Then Simon talked about "Remembering". The pile of stones was a visual memorial for the Israelites after Joshua led them to cross the Jordan . In the same way, Baptsim is a memorial for us - remembering our own salvation. It was so exciting to hear people's stories of how they have become Christians, and how that ongoing relationship is changing and growing them. I know that as I listen to their journeys, my faith grows and my expectation of what God can do in us increases. There's nothing quite like seeing changed lives; and serving a God who is actively working today. It's brilliant to have these people in our Church community - even more brilliant that we are having new people join us all the time. Last night Ben Oliver took us to the story in Luke of the Prodigal Son Luke 15 v

Thanks for all your encouraging comments about my blog! I think perhaps Simon will regret his challenge to you competitive ladies out there to make more hits and comments about my blog that his! The funny thing is, that for the past few days the expectation of me continuing to blog has caused me to be kind of paralysed about what to write as I look at this week's events - shall I tell you about my scary time in the dentist's chair; shall I write about interruptions to my day, or acts of kindness that have blessed me? Do you want a funny story from Lifegroup this week? Or maybe how I got "5 minutes peace" at the end of a crazy busy day at work yesterday? What about world events?! To stop my blog becoming "one more thing to feel guilty about", I woke up this morning and had this profound thought: JUST WRITE SOMETHING! So let me tell you about my favourite book - it's " Cold Tangerines" by Shauna Niequist It's a collection of short stories ab

Hi I'm Catrina Benham, I lead Unique Women@ Kerith. I'm married to Simon who leads Kerith Community Church in Bracknell. We have three children, Zak, Jacob and Alice. This is my first ever blog!!! I'd love to use it to help women connect with both our church community and other women.There 'll be some in formation about what's going on and how you can get involved. Given that there is a home, work, a husband, children and pets in my life, there'll probably also be some funny stories and also some thoughts on finding God in our everyday lives. The main news today is of our next Unique event: Christmas (did I really say that?!) Action Morning It's on Saturday 29th November in K2 (opposite the Kerith Centre) This is going to be a relaxed and informal morning, so please drop in anytime between 9 and 11.30 am. It’s an “Action Morning”. The idea is that you come and make a difference to other's lives by giving a few moments of your time to some practical