Mandy Catto

Have you ever thought that one individual cannot acheive anything? If you have ever felt powerless then try watching this clip from India – I was moved to tears. Malcolm Duncan showed this clip at Spring Harvest, perhaps it will motivate you or maybe you could share it with someone else. If we can work together than we can acheive great things – and I would add that if we work together with God, then nothing is impossible!

Inviting your neighbours round for a pot of tea must be one of the easiest ways of reaching out and getting active! This June you can do this for a great cause as Open Doors invites people throuhout Britian to open their kitchens, gardens or halls for a tea party in support of persecuted Christians in Iran at some time between Friday 4th and Sunday 6th June. They have prepared a pack to get you motivated, which includes invites and a quiz, and will be delighted for any support, large or small gathering.
www.opendoorsuk.org/teaparty

Thank you to those of you who read about the Easter Sunday campaign and downloaded ‘History Maker’. The Easter campaign was a great success and the Delirious song acheived the fourth highest spot in the download charts. The song was played four times on prime-time Radio One and lots of media interest and interviews took place. Thousands of pounds were raised for Compassion art. Martin Smith, the lead singer of ‘Delirious’ issued the following statement –

I want to say thank you to all of you who bought or downloaded the song. And thank you to the remarkable individuals who came up with the idea in the first place and helped bring it to birth with such integrity, wisdom and skill. All of you – the planners and the facebookers and the downloaders – you’re all mad! Mad because you probably already own three copies of it, mad because you spent hard earned cash on a song that’s 15 years old and mad because you joined with others that you’ve never met to create a whole lot of noise about Jesus. But I love mad people, and I’m very proud to be a part of all your lives.

Look out for more campaigns in the future with www.invadetheairwaves.org.uk

Easter is coming and its time for more celebrations! My drive to bring celebrations into our home means Easter is going to be as big and important as Christmas! I know for many of my Christian friends Easter, like Christmas, has become too commercialised and secularised, consequently they don’t have the decorations and extravagance that now marks these events. I personally have decided to embrace this time as my family’s Christian festival! For my family I am making a big deal of Easter, but with strong reinforcement that this is a celebration of Jesus’ life, death and resurrection, which will hopefully continue to make our faith fun and exciting for my children! What’s even more exciting is that my un-churched family will happily celebrate in this overtly Christian festival with us, yet would not go to Church. Bring the Christ into your home and bring family and friends to your home! Such great opportunities! So invites have gone out to extended family for Easter Sunday dinner, 13 coming so far! I’m on the hunt for Easter decorations, recipes and anything else that will help make this a feast to remember! I’ve put my Easter tree up (well a piece of twisted willow cut from my garden and some lovely 30p hanging eggs from the gift shop in my village!) The table will be decorated with spring flowers and I have just got some small cardboard boxes, one for each guest, which the children can decorate and then fill with mini eggs and a Bible verse. Joyce Meyer’s book ‘The Secret Power of Speaking Gods Word’ is a great little book when you want to find a verse for any occasion. I’m currently leaning towards John 6 v35 “Jesus is the Bread of Life. I come to Him and I am never hungry. I believe in Him, cleave to, trust in and rely on Him. I am never thirsty any time. I am fully satisfied.” With the boys I have started talking about the true meaning of Easter, I use ‘My First Message’ which is an excellent devotional Bible for children. So ladies lets get excited about Easter, this is what our faith is all about, let’s share it with those around us!

Yesterday was battle of the wills with 4 year old! It started with him crying as we left school because he wanted to go to the ice-cream van! Why does the ice-cream van sit outside the school gates everyday?? I have a ‘once a week’ rule so the boys can go after school one day a week! I even bring my own 5p supermarket ones from home in a cool box!! Anyway tears and tantrums calmed and we went on the park, then he melted down when I said it was time to go! Just as we got to the bottom of the drive 4 year old refused to walk any further, “carry me” was his demand. I said no he can walk the 10 steps to the front door, he then screamed… the stand-off began! He stood there for 10 minutes refusing to move “my legs are tired” was his complaint. I was proud of myself I stood firm! I wasn’t even embarrassed when neighbours started opening doors to check everything was ok! 4 year old is strong-willed I knew I had to win this one! 6 year old whispered in my ear “mummy I think you need to call that lady”, “what lady?” was my reply, “that Supernanny Jo lady, she’ll sort him out”! Oh I did laugh. After 10 minutes 4 year old gave up and came in. Battle won by mum! He’s been as good as gold since!