{"id":583,"date":"2016-09-01T17:27:28","date_gmt":"2016-09-01T16:27:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kings.church\/blog\/?p=583"},"modified":"2017-04-27T13:58:48","modified_gmt":"2017-04-27T12:58:48","slug":"me-and-my-girls","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kings.church\/blog\/me-and-my-girls\/","title":{"rendered":"Me and my girls"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cFor I know the plans I have for you,\u201d declares the LORD, \u201cplans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.\u201d
\nJeremiah 29:11<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I was given this verse in the first few years of being a Christian. I became a Christian when I was 18 and I had plans. Plans to find a nice guy, get married, have kids and settle down. However God had other plans for me and little did I know what these were over 20 years ago. <\/p>\n

Read More<\/p>

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Both before and after I came to Eastbourne God put older women in my life to help me, guide me and become spiritual mums to me. I still value this today. This journey started about eight years ago when I felt the nudge from God to return to youth work. To my surprise I was welcomed with open arms and started serving in the 11\u201414\u2019s. I went to my first Newday and on the way to an outreach event in the back of the coach Jez asked me if I wanted to \u201clook after\u201d the younger girls, take them under my wing. <\/p>\n

At the time I wondered what I could offer these girls. I had loads of doubts, what do I talk about, do they actually like me. However, after trying to find a way out by looking for another job in another part of the country I embraced the opportunity and arranged for them to come round for lunch.<\/p>\n

To my surprise they came, ate my food and didn\u2019t get ill. We watched DVD\u2019s, played \u201clets dance\u201d and they sat in my bath! Meeting up together continued for about a year and as they were about to go into year nine we set up a girls group as part of ID each week. <\/p>\n

\u201cI can honestly say without someone like Ann, I don\u2019t think I would be this far in my Christian journey.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

For about an hour we would spend time getting to know each other better and talk about issues that were important to them. My heart was for them to grow into young ladies who knew and loved God, who had an identity and security in God and not in how they looked, in social media or in relationships. The world puts so much pressure on young people to conform to the norm and loving God is \u201cnot cool\u201d. At that age knowing who you are is not easy anyway.<\/p>\n

I pulled in other people in the church to help me and we had some good evenings discussing what it is to be a young Christian lady in today\u2019s world. One memorable evening was the wedding dress night where we all dressed up in loaned wedding dresses and talked about what marriage is and staying pure until our wedding night. Over the year I got to know the girls so much better spending quality time with them.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

At the end of year nine they were due to move up to the older group True<\/em>. They didn\u2019t want to go, wanting to remain in what was familiar to them. However, I knew they were ready and I agreed to go up with them at their request to help them settle in. <\/p>\n

I was going to return to the younger group, however, God had \u201cplans to prosper me and not to harm me\u201d. After first being really unsure I would fit into this group as a leader, I loved it. I kept my girls and we continued to meet as a group for the next two years as part of True. <\/p>\n

I remember one evening following a talk about God the Father in church I felt God wanted to show the girls what this means practically. So I asked the mums of the girls to get the dads to sit down and together write a letter to each of them which I gave out next time we met. It was another of those stand out nights for me. A good gage for me is tears, and we had a few damp eyes that night.<\/p>\n

There have been many memories…<\/p>\n

\nI\u2019ve baptised 3 of them<\/em>
\nI\u2019ve cooked for them<\/em>
\nI\u2019ve been to Romania with some of them<\/em>
\nI\u2019ve watched DVDs with them <\/em>
\nWe\u2019ve shared meals together<\/em>
\nI\u2019ve done 7 years of Newday with them<\/em>
\nWe\u2019ve made cards together<\/em>
\nWe\u2019ve drunk loads of tea together<\/em>
\nWe\u2019ve toasted marsh mellows together<\/em>
\nI\u2019ve played \u201clets dance\u201d with them<\/em>
\nWe\u2019ve shared experiences of Africa together<\/em>
\nWe\u2019ve shared ice cream on the beach together<\/em>
\nWe\u2019ve done car treasure hunts together<\/em>
\nWe\u2019ve laughed together and we\u2019ve cried together<\/em>\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

By being part of their lives and other young people\u2019s lives I have stepped out in spiritual gifts and God continues to teach me and challenge me.<\/p>\n

I have been with my girls and their families both through the good and the not so good times. There have been many challenges over the past few years and at times I\u2019ve wrestled with God about some of the situations that have arisen. I\u2019ve prayed for and with them and basically \u201cdone life\u201d with them. <\/p>\n

\u201cI would like to thank her for what she has done in my life and many others. When I\u2019m older I definitely want to do the same thing\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

They have all flown the nest now having travelled to the other side of the world to serve God or starting their second year at University. <\/p>\n

I was reflecting on what God has taught me by being part of these young ladies lives and I see it as a journey, from being an older sister, to a cool aunty to actually a little glimpse of what being a mum is like. <\/p>\n

I can\u2019t profess to say I know what being a parent 24\/7 is like at all (well apart from Newday when I am checking they have drunk enough water, slept okay, encouraging them to go to bed a little earlier, giving them a hug when they are all emotional), but I do feel proud when I see what they have become; and how they are developing as they become more independent. <\/p>\n

I am still in contact with them (social media and text messaging isn\u2019t all bad) and still continue to be part of their lives albeit in a different way. I got my first Mother\u2019s day card this year. So what does the future hold? Well I now have my new girls and it\u2019s exciting to see what God is doing in both their lives and mine.<\/p>\n

I want to say thank you to the girls for loving me and being part of my life, their parents for letting me be part of their daughter\u2019s lives and to God for putting people in my life who I can learn from and have shown me what it is to be a spiritual mum. I don\u2019t think I have done too badly at this. My plans may not have worked as I expected, instead God has given me a hope and a future in a way I could not have imagined. <\/p>\n

Thank you<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\n

Get involved<\/h2>\n

Q: What\u2019s the single, most influential factor in keeping our teenagers at church? A: When the adults spend time getting to know them. <\/p>\n

Serving in the youth can change the whole course of our teenagers lives. Contact us<\/a> to find out more, or come and chat at the Info Point on a Sunday morning. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cFor I know the plans I have for you,\u201d declares the LORD, \u201cplans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.\u201d Jeremiah 29:11 I was given this verse in the first few years of being a Christian. I became a Christian when I was 18 and I … Continue reading “Me and my girls”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":585,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-583","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-stories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kings.church\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/583","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kings.church\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kings.church\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kings.church\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kings.church\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=583"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/kings.church\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/583\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":627,"href":"https:\/\/kings.church\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/583\/revisions\/627"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kings.church\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/585"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kings.church\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=583"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kings.church\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=583"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kings.church\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=583"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}