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When I'm Calling You...

A few brief snippets from the Annual Meeting at Croydon June 2009
Margaret Sentamu was the preacher at the Worldwide Festival Service at Southwark Cathedral, which had the theme of 'Relationships in a Changing World'. She spoke about the reading from John 4, about the Samaritan woman at the well and introduced the themes of Compassion, Justice, Mercy, Dignity and Patience, which were repeated the next day in Croydon.
Rosemary Kempsell, our Worldwide President, introduced her talk: 'Threads of Blue' with memories of a kaleidoscope. She told us of her visits to members around the world, their blue costumes and the excitement and joy of belonging to Mothers' Union. She left us with the question 'How do you respond to God's calling?'
Our Central Unit Coordinators continued the theme talking of our Compassion in sending £124,000 to the Relief Fund in 2008, a 14% increase in giving. Under the heading of Dignity we were told of how we met a real need by giving a hand mill to a group of mothers, who could then spend more time with their families rather than all day grinding laboriously. The Literacy and Development programme is still bringing Dignity to thousands of people in Burundi, Malawi and Sudan.
The Make a Mother's Day campaign had a brilliant result again this year. £185,745.60 was raised through the purchase of gifts from the special catalogue.
Saltmine Theatre Company's wonderful production after lunch gave us an insight into being aware of God's calling and not getting stuck in a rut for too long.
Reg Bailey interviewed some of the Provincial Presidents - Joyce Kubaya from Tanzania made us jealous when she said she had 715,000 members in her Province! Their main problems in Tanzania are with poverty, illiteracy and disease. Malaria is still a killer of children, particularly the under fives. There are many HIV/Aids orphans who live on the street. Mothers' Union members help where they can and mosquito nets are a vital resource that is needed.
Summing up at the end of the day Rosemary Kempsell said 'When I'm calling you...' is the key to Mothers' Union members being asked to take up new positions. Please be open and ready to take on some responsibility. We all have some skills and God prepares us to use them.

Many members from Chester Diocese went to Croydon, some of us sat in a box!

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