Being Genuine....

Todays lesson was based on President Uchtdorf's talk in the Priesthood Session from General Conference in April 2015: On Being Genuine.  You can watch / read the talk HERE

Have you heard of a Potemkin Village?

"In the late 18th Century, Catherine the Great of Russia announced she would tour the southern part of her empire, accompanied by several foreign ambassadors.  The governor of the area, Grigory Potemkin, desperately wanted to impress these visitors, and so he went to remarkable lengths to showcase the country's accomplishments. 


"For part of the journey, Catherine floated down the Dnieper River, proudly pointing out to the ambassadors the thriving hamlets along the shore, filled with industrious and happy townspeople.  There was only one problem: it was all for show! It is said that Potemkin had assembled pasteboard facades of shops and homes...Once the party disappeared around the bend of the river, Potemkin's men packed up the fake village and rushed it downstream in preparation for Catherine's next pass."

Is it possible that at times we are more concerned with how we appear to others than what is really in our hearts?

"There is nothing wrong with shining our shoes, smelling our best or even hiding the dirty dishes before the home teachers arrive!  However, when taken to extremes, this desire to impress can shift from useful to deceitful"


 
 President Uchtdorf gave us good news however which can give us a great deal of hope:

"Whether your testimony is thriving and healthy or your activity in the Church more closely
resembles a Potemkin village, the good news is that you can build on whatever strength you have.  Here in the Church of Jesus Christ you can mature spiritually and draw closer to the Saviour by applying gospel principles day by day. 

"With patience and persistence, even the smallest act of discipleship or the tiniest ember of belief can become a blazing bonfire of a consecrated life.  In fact, that's how most bonfires begin - as a simple spark."

Isn't that wonderful?  The Lord will accept us as we are now, with whatever we can give.  But, we can be assured that if we are not yet the Sister in the Gospel we want to be, then there is a way, there is hope - we can be all the Lord needs us to be - we just have to try and allow the Saviour to   help us !

 

Sisters - none of us are perfect and we don't have to try to be !!!   The Church is a place of healing, not hiding!!

 

"The church is not an automobile showroom - a place to put ourselves on display so that others can admire our spirituality, capacity or prosperity.  It is more like a service centre, where vehicles in need of repair come for maintenance and rehabilitation.  And are not ALL of us in need of maintenance and rehabilitation?" 

We just have to be willing to accept the Atonement each day of our lives, have patience and persistently live the gospel.  "Christ has the power to breathe life unto you" - will you let Him?

Sisters, you are amazing !!!

Thank you so much for your participation and support at Women's Day yesterday.  It was a lovely chance to be with the Sisters of the Ipswich Stake, and you are amazing. 

We hope that the talks you heard and the classes you attended touched your heart and have helped to determine how to better anchor YOUR faith in Jesus Christ, wherein lies true happiness and safety.

We were also thrilled with the wonderful donations for our Big Hearts Service Project, boxes and boxes full of items are boxed and ready to post. 

 

As we explained yesterday this project will continue throughout 2015 so please keep creating and donating, each item will touch a life for the better.

We have a wonderful batch of items which will be sent to Preemies UK - many women each year suffer the loss of babies to stillbirth or miscarriage and the hospital are not able to provide burial clothes.  We can help by providing burial clothes, tiny blankets to wrap the babies up snugly and little teddies which need to be made in pairs, one will be buried with the baby and one given to the parents.

Sister Claire Chell in the Colchester ward loves to sew and made some beautiful burial gowns from her own wedding dress.  She would like to make more so if any sister has any wedding dresses, old temple dresses or pretty white / cream material please let us know so we can pass this over.  She is also willing to assist any other sisters who would prefer to sew and can help you with patterns etc.  Please contact Claire directly or let Sara McCullum know if you are interested.

The other items donated will all be sent to either the Kenya Childrens Centre and Maternity Hospital or Rachel's Place, an orphanage in Lesotho, South Africa - wherever the need is the greatest.

We read a message to the sisters at Women's Day yesterday from Val and Davy who set up Rachel's Place, we have included a copy below:

Our name is Davy and Val Bailey.  We were in Lesotho, South Africa for the first time in March 2007 on an outreach project with our church.  A young guy came up to us and said that God has given him a vision of us at the bottom of a mountain helping people.  We thought it was kind but we didn’t think any more about it.  We then went on another outreach in September 2007 and Davy felt God telling him he had to help the children.  We didn’t say anything to anyone and began to pray about it for the next 6 months.  We received a confirmation that God wanted us to step out in faith to help, after 3 more confirmations we did – and began to build an orphanage and crèche. 

We started to fundraise for the building and true to His word we got everything we need. I also run a baby pack project which was the first project we began there. We have had so much help from the people that knit and sew for us that we are able to hold a container for when we need any clothes or items for the children.  The items you send will help refill that container.  It not only helps the children in Rachel s place but also the children in the other villages and the children in South Africa.

We are very careful with who we leave the clothes with, as a lot of clothes that are sent out to Africa get sold to the people rather than just given to them.  We can assure you that everything we receive from you will find a good home at no cost to the needy. We currently have 33 children in Rachel’s Place, and have just built a new church and youth room as well as a new bedroom for the girls .The boys have moved into the old church which was a part of Rachel Place. It means we now have room for more children. The children that come to us come though social workers. These are children whose parents have died, some who have been abused, and we have 4 families - it’s always nice when we can keep the children as a family.

Aids is very high in Lesotho and we have 3 children with full blown Aids ,this means they have to take anti-viral drugs to keep them alive. We also provide them with the very best vitamins we can get.  They are all doing really well but it only takes one wrong bug and they can be gone.

The importance of getting clothes sent here is that we don’t have to buy them so this means we can use our money on things like the vitamins the children need to stay alive, We can’t thank you all enough for what you all do.  You are all a part of Rachel’s Place and Amy’s Crèche by donating the way you all do.

Just last week a wee guy come to the door to get a sweet.  He had a pair of wellies on, one was a size 4 and the other a size 6 - both were ripped to bits. We had a pair of red wellies that someone has given us for the container.  We gave him the wellies and he was so happy. The wellies didn’t change what goes on in the world but it made one child very happy and he will have dry warm feet for a while.

So keep knitting ladies that one wee hat or that one wee blanket does make a difference.  Thank you all so much for allowing yourselves to be a part of Gods plan.

Sisters - thank you so much for the good you do!

 

Women's Day is almost here.....

We are getting very excited as Women's Day 2015 is almost upon us.

We wanted to share a little of what is happening on the day: Saturday May 16th

Registration - 9.30am to begin at 10.00am.

Morning - a choice of 2 of the following workshops:

1. Yoga - Sister Jo Johnson
2. Random Acts of Kindness - Sisters Ashlea Sousa and Katiuska Watling
3. Making Your Miracles Happen - Brother & Sister Watling
4. Forgiveness and Moving On - Sister Tina Geddes
5. Praise through Music - Choir Workshop - Sister Jane Wheeler
6. Hope, Overcoming Adversity - Sister Jill Lucas

This will be followed by lunch.

Women's Day will officially finish about 1.30pm this year however we will have an optional Service Hour until 2.30pm for our Big Hearts Service Project.

In this hour we will be packaging up all the donations from the wards for the project, will be making some hygiene bags and packing hygiene kits and will have patterns and wool available for those sisters who would like to make some little white hearts which the charity also need.  Please just bring along your needles or hook.  We really hope some of you will be able to stay for a little while and help out :)

We will also have a lovely little space where you can have some quiet time and enjoy being in one another's company.

Please remember to bring along all the items you have bought / made for the charity so far, we are so grateful and will be sharing a lovely message from the owner of the South African Orphanage who are thrilled with everything we have been able to help with.

We really hope the day will be a wonderful strength to you and are excited to see you all.