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When the Wise Men visited Bethlehem they came bringing pressies! The Church celebrates this event on 6th January and calls it Epiphany.

This is often a flat time after the festivities have all died down so why not gather everyone together and each bring a gift to put in a sack and take home a different one.

This doesn’t have to cost anything in post Christmas hard-up times. You just know that everytone will bring an unwanted Christmas present – and what you didn’t really want might be someone else’s dream gift. And of course you can all eat leftovers!

So plan your Epiphany Party now and gather your Wise Men or women. Burn Frankincese and Myhrr essential oils just for good measure – pure Gold!!!!

How about creating your on Carol Service in a local pub or a Residential home for the elderly. Find out when a carol service will be on air and give out carol sheets so people can join in with the singing. NOt everyone can get to church – or would want to go – so take the celebrations to them.

You could even do it just with your neighbours and offer mince pies and mulled wine.

Would you like your own bath bomb making kit, with all the ingredients needed to make bath bombs for 25 people?
I have been using the kit for 2 years now and have demonstrated and helped to create fizzy spheres in church halls, hotels, classrooms, for birthdays and fundraisers.

It has been great fun to see people’s reactions when they create their very own sweet smelling bomb. I am not a perfectionist and am always more interested in the process, rather than the end product. Watching people sharing their ingredients, comparing fragrances, swapping colours and helping to turn out the powdery shapes has been very rewarding. This has been a hobby and has just about covered the costs of the ingredients rather than turned any profit. I always take the opportunity to add a five minute chat triggered by the natural ingredients and talk about God the creator who started everything off so naturally in the Garden of Eden: how he yerns to have a walking, talking relationship with us today, and that through Jesus this is possible. All of the ideas came from Jan Harney who inspired me at the Activate conference two years ago, thanks Jan!
Now it is time to hand the kit over: all my friends have bathrooms filled with their creations, my kids are fed up with me being the ‘bomb’ lady and my cupboards need tidying. There is a large box filled with heart and sphere moulds, 20 fragrances, 6 colours, four bags of dried petals, water spritzers, pippets and a starter pack of bicarbonate of soda and citric acid.
Are you interested in running events in your area? Do you think you could inspire others whilst they are having fun together? How would you feel about weaving in part of your faith story to the event? And could you then pass the box on to someone else when you are finished?
I’d love to hear from you and would like to find a new home by the middle of January. Let me know…

The inside of St Mary’s Church in Longfleet was transformed last week as it brought together over 150 women from a wide variety of communities across Poole to their annual Christmas Craft evening.

Armed with a glass of wine and goodie bag on arrival, ladies could choose from many different craft making activities. It ranged from simple tree decorations such as Christmas cranberry Hearts and wire tree decorations, to painted jewellery pots and hand made cards. The more ambitious Christmas wreaths have always proved to be one of the most popular activities at this event.

Organiser Fiona Perry has organised this event over the past 5 years and the idea has flourished and expanded. After finding her team of volunteers to assist her, many evenings have been spent together bringing their crafty ideas and then experimented making them. The evening is now so popular that tickets are gone within hours of their release.

“It is very exciting that so many women want to come along to make new decorations and presents for their families and spend time together in friendship and fellowship”.

Fiona based the idea of a craft evening from a similar event she attended at a church in Cheltenham. She is hoping that women from other churches will take the idea from St Mary’s and begin their own craft evenings in the hope that it will bring in non church-goers from the wider community.

Claire Taylor, a regular at St Mary’s and helper at the Craft evening agrees. “It’s a way of reaching out to the community to those who do not normally come to church – we hope that the evening will allow women to be themselves, doing something that is relaxing and enjoyable.”

Article written by Charlie Glennie.

Your house -making holly wreaths and discussing plans for Christmas