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If you are, you'll know we've been counting down the days with fun facts and questions - today it's only 9 DAYS until REAL!
When we still had the luxury of 16 days to go, Sue posted this question:
I began to realise that if I was going to go anywhere with God and if He was to use my talents, the next move had to be from me. The chess piece placed in my hand at the end of the 2 days was the final seal, almost like a baton being handed over in a race. The words “it’s your move” stayed with me for days, I knew that I had the choice of either taking up the challenge or to continue waiting in the hope of ‘getting noticed’.
The first step I took was to join Exposition, Unique’s monthly writing group. It is something I had been pondering on for a long time but had always put off for the reasons I mentioned above. Writing has always been a love of mine but having never written anything for public consumption, I arrived feeling nervous and extremely inadequate. I need not have been. I was made to feel very welcome, challenged and encouraged to keep going. This group gave me the courage to enrol on an on-line course in freelance journalism which I have since completed and in fact my first article was published just last week.
Feeling fired up, I contacted the LinK team to see if I could get involved in the production of Kerith’s magazine. For the first time, I didn’t wait to be ‘spotted’ but put myself out there. They welcomed me with open arms and this is now the third magazine I have been involved in. Finally I feel that this is where God wants me to be. I am using the talents that He placed within me and it feels good! I am not sure where this journey will take me but I’m enjoying the ride and that little chess piece has pride of place on the shelf next to my computer, as a reminder to keep on going!"
If you are, you'll know we've been counting down the days with fun facts and questions - today it's only 9 DAYS until REAL!
When we still had the luxury of 16 days to go, Sue posted this question:
 KerithREAL
(@KerithREAL2012)06/06/2012 09:58DAY 16 Do you have your chess piece from REAL 2011 - Did you make your move? catrinabenham.com/2011/07/chess-…  You can look back at previous blogs, or listen again to the preach, but basically I finished last year by giving every woman a chess piece. We asked "What's your move? What is God is saying to you? Then came the challenge to act on it! Here's an account of the direction my friend Suzanne's life went in, when she considered that question last year. As you read it, let faith, hope and expectation rise in you. God is able. |
"Last year I went along
to REAL feeling expectant. I arrived,
notebook and pen at the ready, longing to devour all those truths I knew I
would be fed. I could honestly write a
whole essay entitled “what I got out of REAL 2011” but as I need to stay on subject,
I shall save that for another day!
For many years, I had been
feeling rather flat with no real direction in life. I felt underused and somewhat frustrated that
God wasn’t communicating His plan for me.
There I was, willing and available, but with no clear purpose or
passion. At one point over the weekend,
Catrina talked about herself as a little girl.
She described how she would regularly walk along the streets holding her
sketchbook out in the hope that someone would notice her amazing talent! I immediately felt an affinity with this
little girl; that was me as a grown adult! Instead of going for it and putting
myself out there, I was constantly held back by fear of failure and the worry
of opening myself up to criticism from others. I began to realise that if I was going to go anywhere with God and if He was to use my talents, the next move had to be from me. The chess piece placed in my hand at the end of the 2 days was the final seal, almost like a baton being handed over in a race. The words “it’s your move” stayed with me for days, I knew that I had the choice of either taking up the challenge or to continue waiting in the hope of ‘getting noticed’.
The first step I took was to join Exposition, Unique’s monthly writing group. It is something I had been pondering on for a long time but had always put off for the reasons I mentioned above. Writing has always been a love of mine but having never written anything for public consumption, I arrived feeling nervous and extremely inadequate. I need not have been. I was made to feel very welcome, challenged and encouraged to keep going. This group gave me the courage to enrol on an on-line course in freelance journalism which I have since completed and in fact my first article was published just last week.
Feeling fired up, I contacted the LinK team to see if I could get involved in the production of Kerith’s magazine. For the first time, I didn’t wait to be ‘spotted’ but put myself out there. They welcomed me with open arms and this is now the third magazine I have been involved in. Finally I feel that this is where God wants me to be. I am using the talents that He placed within me and it feels good! I am not sure where this journey will take me but I’m enjoying the ride and that little chess piece has pride of place on the shelf next to my computer, as a reminder to keep on going!"