Catrina Benham's Blog

For those of you that want to keep up-to-date with the Kerith team that has gone to Albania, check out Ken Bothamley's Balkan blog

Just a quick reminder to regularly check out the Serenje Blog so you can be up to date with what the Kerith team are doing in Serenje, Zambia. Exciting things so far! Let's continue to pray for them (Zoe, Helen, Jonathan, Peter and Barbara, Rob, Pip and Ed) and also for their impact in Serenje.

Romans 12 1-2 So here's what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering . Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don't become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You'll be changed from the inside out . Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you , develops well-formed maturity in you.

I was going to apologise for being lazy in not doing my blog for two weeks now...but then I realised that I've actually been busy , too busy living to blog, so that's ok isn't it?! Busy enjoying watching my ripening tomatoes; and the sunflowers that a kind friend bought me when I was feeling poorly. Busy enjoying quite a few coffees in quite a few coffee houses. Busy going on summer picnics with the children, their cousins and friends. Busy helping A to prepare for the year 6 leaving disco, by sewing straps to a pretty skirt to make it into a unique dress for her, whilst also chopping and stabbing fruit to make kebabs to take. I've attended meetings and have spent two lovely evenings laughing with good friends and enjoying good food together. S and Z have been away in Poland this week - and I've cooked meals and tidied house; administered medicine to children with headaches and I've visited friends. I've taken part in an evening of filming for the Church inf...

Hey Friends The rain is splashing down but I don't care, because I'm in my kitchen , I've just made a chocolate cake (resisting the temptation to cut just a "small slice" right now!) and I'm listening to Michael Buble on my ipod (and yes, I confess there's some dancing in the kitchen going on too - it makes me happy!) Whilst catching up on a few emails, blogs and twitters (tweets?!) I wanted to give you a quick reminder that tomorrow's (Sunday 12th) the deadline for applying to take part in Inspire 's next round of Mentoring, that starts in September. So have you intended to take part? Would you like to be mentored? To get to know a "wise and trusted friend"? Perhaps you've been asked to Mentor? will you do it? Will you invest your life and wisdom and experience in a younger Christian woman? Come and chat at the Inspire information point at Church today - come and ask the questions! Or you could contact Caroline or me. I can't rec...

Biblical Womanhood (Titus 2) "Our conduct has a direct influence on how people think about the gospel. The world doesn’t judge us by our theology; the world judges us by our behaviour. People don’t necessarily want to know what we believe about the Bible. They want to see if what we believe makes a difference in our lives. Our actions either bring honour to God or misrepresent His truth." Carolyn Mahaney - Feminine Appeal

Matthew 6:6 But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. Liz Babbs brought this verse to us at the Retreat day - Jesus doesn't tell us how to pray apart from in this verse! He tells us to close the door- in shutting out the distractions we are enabled to experience sabbath and rest. I certainly felt a nudge from the Holy Spirit on this one - at home I hate shutting the doors! What's that about?? not wanting to miss out? feeling trapped? Whatever it is, as you can see, we made a compromise with the kitchen door and got one with large glass panels - closed and yet somehow "open"! How often is my quiet time with God like that? The time for reading the Bible and for praying, for meditating on His word and for asking for His guidance and wisdom for the day ahead? So I'm going to be deliberately, firmly closing the door on the distractions. Shutting the do...