Oasis for women, words from the Lord and too much cheese

Yesterday was another of the wonderful women's days at church. Theme this time - self esteem and body image. On arrival there was a warmly laid out room with artwork from previous days and church events, tables set out cafe style, soft drinks and chocolate. Oh and chocolate. There were two chocolate fountains and copious numbers of strawberries, grapes and marshmallows.

As the afternoon got underway the Oasis planning team sat down in a panel on comfy chairs at the front. Connie described it as looking like Loose Women... and so it was! We discussed power and weakness, children, women's roles, how we feel about our bodies, colonic irrigation (that was a rather unpleasant aside!) and watched a clip of How To Look Good Naked (also quite cringeworthy, I shudder at the very thought!)

After much discussion, laughter and chocolate eating (I ate far, far too much!) we broke up into groups of 3 to pray for each other. It was one of those pressurised times that I really hate. Sarah and I got split up deliberately which annoyed me somewhat, not allowed to pray with friends obviously, and another two ladies joined me at my table. We numbered ourselves 1-3 then numbers 2 and 3 prayed for number 1 for 2 minutes and then were given another couple of minutes to share with that person what they had heard from God for them. Now, call me a cynic (Cynic! Cynic! I hear you cry) but I'm not really sure God works like that... "alright, Lord, you have 2 minutes in which to give me something specific for this one person that will mean something to them or encourage them; nothing airy fairy please..." Anyway, as I was praying for the first lady I was desperately hoping for something wildly exciting to happen or well anything really that I could share with her after 2 minutes. Perhaps my mind was far too consumed with the pressure of having to think of anything at all that I'd probably lost a minute of praying time in fretting! As I was praying a tune appeared in my head, "hooray!" I thought, "A word from the Lord!" and so I sang it through in my head to work out what it was.... only to discover that it was the Clover advert... So not that holy then. I didn't bother to share it. It reminded me of a talk that Jeff Lucas gave at Spring Harvest once where he described obscure 'words and pictures' that he's received in prayer meetings before speaking engagements. "Bless you, love", he thought, "I think you've been eating too much cheese!"

Too much sugar in my case perhaps?!