SBC ladies get 'Activated'! 

Six of us from SBC – Dawn, Jane W, Hilary H, Rosemary S, Iona and myself – plus Hilary's sister-in-law Jane H, travelled to Staverton Park near Northampton for the annual ladies 'Activate' weekend at the end of February.

The Activate organisation started 60 years ago as a lunchtime Christian event for women called Viewpoint, and the theme for this year's weekend ‘Better than a Diamond’ reflected the diamond anniversary. The theme Bible verse comes from Psalm 19:10 in The Message version:
"God’s Word is better than a diamond, better than a diamond set between emeralds. You’ll like it better than strawberries in spring, better than red, ripe strawberries."

This theme continued in the way many of the meeting rooms were decorated, with diamonds and strawberries making frequent appearances!

The weekend was the usual mix of main sessions with great worship and inspiring teaching, a choice of optional workshops, opportunities for being creative and having fun, and time to relax and enjoy the hotel's facilities. The theme was explored in sessions which focused on reading the Bible and getting to grips with God's Word. A new activity this year was early-morning ‘Psalms + Stretches’!

Here are some comments from the ladies in our group:

I have two stand-out sessions. The first was the stretches to Psalm 103; what a wonderful psalm that is. The second was speaker Jo Hargreaves telling us that you cannot be anxious and grateful at the same time as it uses the same part of the brain. So you can interrupt anxiety with gratitude and worship – yay!

Stand-out for me was the atmosphere of friendship and expectation. Doing exercise to a chosen psalm was an interesting and enjoyable experience.

I heard God speak to me in the guided prayer session in the Prayer Space; there were probably only ten of us there at most. My takeaway Bible passage is John 15:5 where Jesus says he is the vine and you are the branches and sometimes things need to be cut down or pruned for growth.

I enjoyed learning about William Tyndale who translated the Bible into English even though it cost him, Jo Hargreaves 'A Faith-Filled Guide to Disarming Fear', and Kate Pinell's workshop 'Mining for Treasure'. Doing the crafts was good as well.

Some of the group said that they enjoyed it but they wouldn't necessarily want to repeat it every year, while others were already asking how soon can they book for next year's weekend! If you want to know more, do ask any of those who went. Theresa Nichols