This was the 9th

Luton Ladies Day and around 40 ladies arrived at 10:30am for registration and a cup of tea

before the meetings began at 11:00am. The venue was the Farley Hill Methodist

Church Hall.

Organiser, Daria Fowler, welcomed everyone and then Gill Mudford gave the

opening prayer before Julie Robas led the worship session with two hymns—

‘Faithful One’ and ‘O Give Thanks’.

Our first speaker was Peter Beardsmore

from the Watford Congregation. Peter worked the last eight years as a

nursery nurse and child care worker and now volunteers with Home Start,

an organisation which supports struggling families who need practical

assistance and help. Society today contributes to the problems a parent

faces when families are so scattered and everyone is out at work, so

isolation can be a problem. His very interesting talk told us of the

‘qualifications’ volunteers need—they must have been a parent

themselves! Volunteers are put through a ten week training course and

taught such things as that they must remain non-judgmental, legal

guidelines, listening skills, confidentiality, communication skills, and

child protection. Volunteers receive back-up support from Home-Start

and other services, and feed back on their progress with families.

Home Start is free and confidential and available to parents with children up to the age of five. It offers it’s

volunteers on-going training on such things as the benefit system and depression. Bringing up children is

difficult, tiring, demanding, stressful and expensive but can also be challenging, exciting, rewarding and fun.

Peter ended his talk by giving some anonymous case studies showing the kind of situations he has handled in

the past.

Our next speaker was Sarah Richards from the Dunstable Community

Church who shared with us her work with Care Confidential Pregnancy

Crisis Centre in a talk entitled “Speak Out ForThose

Who Cannot speak For Themselves—being God’s

mouth, heart and hands.”. She was horrified to hear

that 200,000 babies are aborted every year and felt

that God was calling her to help and heal mothers

who faced unwanted pregnancies. Before she took

the Care Confidential Training Course, she went

through the Schools Programme ‘Evaluate’.

The Pregnancy Crisis Centre offers free pregnancy

tests, gives pregnant ladies an opportunity to look at the choices with unbiased

information about abortion, keeping the baby or adoption, provide some physical help and run “The Journey”, a

ten step course to help people face the emotional journey that faces them after abortion. Sarah brought two

others with her. Pam shared her personal story of having a child given up for adoption.

Rose (Sarah’s mother) read Elsie’s story of 2 abortions and an overbearing husband who

later divorced her. It was heartrending to hear these stories and so sad to hear the

struggles that these young women go through. It particularly struck me when she told

of the difference in feelings between having a wisdom tooth out and having an abortion,

given that the doctors tell them it is just a ‘bunch of cells’!scriptures: Jeremiah 1:5 that

says God knows you from when you were conceived and before you were born, Psalm

139:13-14 which says God knit us together in our mother’s womb and that we are

fearfully and wonderfully made, and Luke 1:41 which tells of the baby leaping in

Mary’s womb when she met her cousin Elizabeth..

Portia Braithwaite was the last speaker of the morning, and she reviewed the book, “The Shack”, by Paul

Young. Portia related the storyline of the book, which centres on a father who has lost his daughter under tragic

circumstances, and his journey through the emotions and process of coming to terms with his loss, during

which he has some experiences of meeting with God in the form of a large American African woman, among

other things. Portia felt that this is a very deep and complicated book, but there were some interesting concepts

that challenge our preconceptions of God, and that there is some learning and growth that can come from

looking at these ideas, but to bear in mind that this is a work of fiction based on the perceptions of the author.

Man can come up with ideas, suggestions, solutions, etc., but re would do well to remember that God’s ways

and thoughts are higher than ours. She quoted ‘PaPa’ (the woman God-figure) as saying, “You don’t need to

have it all figured out, just be with me.”

We closed the morning session with a hymn, ‘How Great Thou Art’, before Shirley

McLean asked a Blessing on the meal.

The men had a separate meeting in the Church but came and joined the ladies for a delicious buffet lunch.

There is no

charge for

the Ladies

Day, but

there was a

donation

box to cover

the cost of

the food.

Suitably refreshed, we resumed our meetings a the men left to have a meeting in the

Church again. Vera Grierson gave a prayer to start the meeting, Daria gave a few

announcements and then Julia led us in two more hymns, ‘Great Is Thy Faithfulness’

and ‘The Power Of Your Love’.

Daria Fowler let a

lively Table Topics

session, which she

based on the ideas suggested for future topics

gleaned from questionnaires from past Ladies

Days:

1. Women in the Bible, or famous Christian Women, who would you choose and why?

2. People have asked for talks on budgeting. What money saving tips can you share?

3. We are all getting older and many face health issues. How do we stay healthy?

4. What do you plan to do when you retire?

Daria urged us that if we know of anyone interested in speaking on

any one of these topics, or any other topic for that matter, to please

let her know!

Our final speaking was David Silcox with a talk entitled “Before You

Say, ‘I Do’” You might think that this would not be relevant to the

majority of married ladies there, but even after years of marriage it is

helpful to look at those things which you considered before you said,

“I Do”. It is helpful to remember that marriage is God-ordained.

Genesis 2 shows us that man and woman were created equal. None

of the animal met the necessary functions of companion and helper.

Marriage is about honouring the

other person not expecting them

to change. When it says the two become one, it doesn’t mean your partner

becomes like you! They were created in God’s image, not yours.

Looking at love as a basis for marriage, there are 14 ‘definitions’ of love in

1 Corinthians 13. When we live this kind of lives, our marriages are a

witness—to each other and to the world—of the gospel! David concluded

saying that love is an unconditional commitment to an imperfect person—

YOU!

Our final hymn was ‘Shine, Jesus, Shine’ before the closing prayer by Daisy Dublin. Daria reminded the ladies

to fill in their feedback questionnaire, and said that next year will be the 10th

Luton Ladies Day, with the date to

be announced soon.