Catrina Benham's Blog

I so enjoyed the Word and Worship Brunch on Saturday! Great to meet up together with 140 other women, to chat, laugh, eat bacon rolls and worship God. It was a great privilege to teach the "Word" bit of the brunch, and share some thoughts I believe are "now words" from the Lord for us women. In busy times and changing seasons, we often wonder about our purpose and calling - what is it that God want me to do?   Well, thankfully God doesn’t add any more items to our To Do lists ! We are called to Live a life of love "Follow God’s example, therefore, as dearly loved children 2 and live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God." (Ephesians 5:2)   Over the next few days, I'll post some of the thoughts and Bible verses that I shared on Saturday.   Today's thought is that we don't have to do this on our own . The Holy Spirit gives us the power to l...

Just a quick reminder that today is the "Bring your K4 Stuff to Church Day". You'll be able to drop off your donations when you park in the college car park, on your way into church - couldn't be easier! So find that bag of bits youve been saving, or have a quick rummage through your wardrobe this morning! Youll feeel better for it, and others will be helped by your donation. If you havent heard of K4, or popped in (by the fountains in Charles Square) here's a bit more about the shop. "K4 Kerith for the Community is a charity shop generating income and profits which will go to help sustain a number of projects which are open to all people in the Bracknell Borough area. Current community activities include Bracknell Foodbank , CAP Bracknell , Kerith Konnections , Crisis Intervention , Hilltop and Deaf Hope . K4 sells good quality clothing, shoes and accessories, household goods, bric a brac, toys, jewellery, CDs, DVDs and much more all at affordabl...

There's still just time to buy your ticket for Saturday's Word and Worship Brunch! Tickets are £2.50 each and can be bought from Kerith reception today. (let the deadkine push you to invite that friend!)

I've recently made two new playlists of songs on my phone. One is called "Gym" - yes we're still going! I need something to get me through 5 minutes of rowing, that's for sure. So at the moment, its a mixture of Adele, Glee and Hillsong Cornerstone! My other playlist is (of course) "Christmas". I keep hearing Christmassy songs playing on the radio, but haven't yet succumbed to playing Christmas songs at home...but now I'm ready!   I recently went to a ladies day at the Beacon Church Camberley, led my my good friend Bev Landreth-Smith. The teaching was excellent,and all about personal evangelism. I also really enjoyed the experience of us worshipping God together - and I've found my new favourite-song-of-the-moment! Great for singing aloud whilst walking in the woods too. Enjoy Here For You - Matt Redman   Let our praise be Your welcome Let our songs be a sign We are here for You, we are here for You   ...

I'm so looking forward to bringing the "word" bit to Word and Worship on Saturday 24th November. I know that the Holy Spirit has been speaking to me, and the message I have is all about Love. No it's not Valentine's, and its not "soppy love". Its all about what it really means to love others - Love not as a feeling, but as an attitude and an action. Pauline and the team are busy planning the Brunch - good quality bacon rolls, fruit, juice, coffee and tea . Helen and the team are busy planning the worship - cant wait! It's going to be a wonderful time together - hope you'll be there too! Tickets are £2.50 each, and the event is for all women , so please invite friends along too. I already know of a group of 7 friends from another local Church who will be joining us. Please let's make sure we have a great turn out from the Kerith girls too! Even the most confident girls sometimes struggle with going to events on their own, especially i...

On Cold, grey days, Sad days Too-Much-To-Do days, Work days, Play days, Rest days. On Each and Everyday It's good to read this. My daughter Alice tweeted this poster yesterday, and I found it a great provocation. It puts my "have nots" into perspective, and helps me to start the day thankful, and able to focus on loving God, and loving others.

I've noticed this week that things are hotting up! I keep coming across signs and tweets telling me how many sleeps /days/minutes there are until Christmas!.There are more adverts, and more poeople are mentioning the "C" word! Talking to others in preparation for last week's talk at Kerith, I collected lots of really helpful practical tips , which I thought you might enjoy too. Practical Tips Finance Buy Gift cards from places that give back to you (eg supermarket points) Save up throughout the year, any vouchers/points that come with use of a credit card or the Tesco clubcard, for example. What we save up throughout the year, pretty much covers our christmas presents! I also start buying a few little bits earlier on in the year as I see them. One thing I have done all my adult life is to save with my dad. We call 'Christmas club' and I suppose it's quite an old fashioned idea really, each month I give him some money, and he gives i...

Word and Worship is back! With a twist... Girls, we're meeting from 10-12, Saturday morning 24th November, beginning with a light Brunch . I'd really love you all to be there too! Tickets are  £2.50 , and we're selling them from this weekend at Kerith. Come and find us at our table at reception between each of the Sunday meetings.            

It was both a privilege and a challenge to speak at all three Kerith meetings yesterday! Those of you who were there will know that Simon and I spoke together about Christmas. Santa has already arrived at Harrods (!) so November 4th seemed far enough out to help us all make some good choices about how we're going to prepare for Christmas this year (or, as Simon saw it "Surviving Christmas"!) We wanted to share very practically about how to keep Jesus at the centre of it all over Christmas - both during the run up, and in the actual Christmas period. So we explored what that might mean for each of us, at our different life stages in the areas of Finances, Feasting and Fun, Family and Friends, and Faith. I hope that we started some thoughts for you, that will turn into some conversations and decisions for you and your life . In preparation, I'd asked lots of different people in Kerith so tell me what challenges and pressures they felt about Christmas, and also ...

It's not long now until the ADVANCE Kids Leaders Conference which is on Saturday 17 th November . Advance is for anyone that works with children, in any capacity. Kerith's Children ’ s Pastor Lydia Harris-Lane is hosting the conference, and leading the team who are busy planning and preparing - its going to be a great, inspiring day! Here's a few words from her:   "ADVANCE is a conference for church leaders, children's ministry leaders and their teams who want to be stirred up and inspired to make the biggest possible impact in and through their kids work, all the way from toddlers up to the pre teen years." "Our keynote Speaker is Rob Parsons from Care for the Family. Rob is an international speaker, and the bestselling author of books which include "The Sixty Minute ..." series, and more recently “How to get your kids through church without them hating God”. " "We will also be joined by various seminar spe...