King's Daughters

This past Sunday at D7 Church I had the privilege of preaching the first message of the year in our brand new venue .  Of course being in a new venue presented all sorts of challenges and distractions and we had time pressure to get out of the venue early as the staff were hung over from their New Year's celebrations!  I hope that even though I had to skip through the message quite quickly and even though the message was quite informal with lots of chit chat in between, that they most important bits came through - the fast that fasting is an essential part of the Christian life and without it we lose out on so much that God has planned for us.  Read more about fasting here or listen to the message .

I had the awesome privilege of being able to share the word at our church this past Sunday. My message was a result of spending most of this year asking God to teach me about submission.  What I discovered has totally blown me away and I hope what I shared impacted people as much as it impacted me!  In a nutshell, I highlighted the different sorts of submission from the Bible and tried my best to explain what exactly submission is.  This message also forms a part of a chapter on submission in my book, Esther or Delilah , which is coming out next year. In the meantime, have a listen to the message here .

We had a fantastic day together at our recent King's Daughters Conference.  After many months of planning, we managed to pull off an awesome day!  The food was spectacluar, the music was magical, the message was life changing and the men were true gentlemen.  I had so much fun and I hope you did too!  I would love to hear what impacted you most. If you weren't able to join us then please make sure you book your ticket for 2012 and for your convenience we have made the messages available in MP3 and CD format below.  More news and gorgeous photos coming soon... Message Options 1 - Secure on the Rock by Angela De Souza £2.00 2 - A Future and a Hope by Jane Massam £2.00 3 - I Need Jesus Every Day by Jaylene Howell £2.00 4 - The Mirror by Anna Symonds £2.00 5 - Beauty with a Purpose by Angela De Souza £2.00 Full MP3 Set £10.00 Full CD Set £15.00

A couple of Sunday's ago a preached an usual message and my opening sentence was 'sin smells like fart'!  I was so nervous to preach this message. It wasn't a pretty message. It wasn't planned.  I had a totally different message planned which I have since preached .  On this particular occasion, I felt that God wanted to say something to His church and so with ten minutes notice, before church started, I scribbled down some rough notes and preached a message called Sin Smells Like Fart.  I think it is titled Why Jesus? on our church podcast page to make it a little easier on the ear, but the message is the same.  Have a listen here .

Meet Jane, one of our King's Daughters Conference speakers.  Jane has an incredible story which she will share at our conference, but she also has an incredible business which provides ethical fashion .  Jane creates unique clothing from second hand items which she then 'modifies' using vintage fabric trims and buttons.  She stared out by simply making customised clothing, bags and hats for herself.  Fr iends and even passers-by in the street, would stop her and ask where she had bought her gorgeous bags or clothes. Many enquiries and many orders later she started cardigan parties where she would show off and sell her latest designs. One thing led to another, which led to her making 300 hand trimmed cardigans for none other than Cath Kidston . Jane has since opened a fantastic shop in the gorgeous village of Blagdon where she sells the best organic, fair trade coffee in England along with her creative jacket and cardigan designs. Her shop also

Hi girls, The last couple of blogs have been all about ‘ ethical fashion ’ and I told you that this time would be about planning your wardrobe. This is really important if you want an ethical wardrobe. It means NOT buying on impulse, without any thought, poor quality clothes that quickly get chucked out. Rather this is buying where each piece is important, valued and looked after, (even mended rather than thrown away). Buying this way is buying less and better quality. (Many of the more expensive clothes for sale will not have been made for fair wages BUT you can be sure that really cheap ones guarantee unfair pay). This is buying thinking of the lifespan of the item and shopping with a plan and budget in mind. It’s a reason discovering your personal style is helpful so you can build up a wardrobe of things you actually like in a style you feel comfortable in. A few ideas on planning your wardrobe: Consider the way you spend your time and how much of your wardrobe is dedicat

After being totally inspired by Anna's recent posts on Ethical Fashion and Jazmine's story , I hit the charity shops to do some 'ethical shopping'!  I tried of loads of dresses as I really need something summery for the last bit of summer.  Nothing really suited me but I found one skirt and one top which I absolutely love! Fun floral skirt from Sue Ryder , Winchcombe, £4.95 with strap top from Tesco, £3 White top from Sue Ryder, £1.25. I mixed the white top with a cream top I already had so that I covered any cleavage that might have shown, to make sure the outfit was modest . Photos by Lorah-Kelly with thanks. And then, much to my delight, I discovered that my favourite cardigan matched the colours of my new skirt perfectly!  All in all a really fun day of shopping and playing with clothes while keeping it totally ethical :)  So how about you? Do you want to share your finds?  Send me an email with the photos, price and a little bit of

I have been TOTALLY inspired by Jazmine Rocks, a nineteen year old art student and charity shop volunteer from London.  Actually, I knew Jazmine and her mum, Barrina, from quite some time ago when she was still a little girl having sleep overs at our home with Lorah !  I am so proud of the woman she has become and am totally inspired by what she is doing with her life!   Jazmine loves second hand shopping, in fact she has taken something that many people turn their noses up at, and turned it into something quite trendy!  I was never sure about the whole charity shopping thing but since discovering what Jazmine is doing I have become a fan.  Today I plan to hit the charity shops and see what I can see and I hope I can put a decent outfit together as well as Jazmine does.  This is a fantastic part of our Wardrobe Tips series and fits in really nicely with our Ethical Fashion convictions too.  If you have done any ethical shopping lately or put together a nice outfit from the charity

Hi girls, In my previous blog , I wanted to highlight just a few of the issues involved in ‘ethical fashion’. This time I want to make some suggestions of how we can find clothes that won’t have caused suffering or death to the people who make them. So here goes: Plan your wardrobe (more on this in the next blog ). Be aware that retailers do take notice of YOU. Every £ spent is a vote cast for a particular way of production. Retailers look at sales figures and ask if people cared about conditions of production, would they keep buying these items. So tell them and show them you do care. According to Katharine Hamnett, we really do have influence. She recommends that you write to shops you like and ask them about their ethical policies, tell them where you stand and how you will not be able to continue shopping at their stores if you don’t see them caring about workers and the planet. She says they will definitely listen and take notice the more they are challenged. Resea

Hi girls, I’m back for another guest wardrobe tips blog and this time I wanted to highlight a subject that I think is very important to us as King’s daughters: ‘ethical fashion’. When I say to you… “I don’t want people to suffer or die to produce clothes for me to wear” …perhaps it sounds like I’m just trying to shock you and get your attention. But the awful thing is that although we don’t know it, that’s exactly what we’re responsible for when we buy a lot of the clothes that are for sale today. The reality is that much of what we wear is made by women in ‘sweat shops’. This means they work in unsafe conditions with no proper toilet facilites in oppressive temperatures. They are often sexually assaulted, forced to have abortions and take contraceptives and abused and threatened by managers. They work for long hours, get low pay (not enough for proper food), are not allowed to join a union or any organisation that would represent their interests, have no career development an

I have recently been doing a series on wardrobe tips , to help us girls get the most out of our clothing.  It's had been a lot of fun looking into this and there is much more to come from both Anna and I and hopefully some other lovely ladies from the fashion world too.  The Wheelie Case has also been doing the rounds and we have been having loads of fun with that too.  Dressing up is fun and so is finding our personal style - we are girls and we love to play around with clothes and makeup. There is nothing wrong with feeling beautiful in your own skin and in the clothes you wear. What is not healthy though is when we get our identity from what we wear.  Clothes should not define us at all.   1 Timothy 2:9-10 In like manner also, that the women adorn themselves in modest apparel, with propriety and moderation, not with braided hair or gold or pearls or costly clothing, but, which is proper for women professing godliness, with good works. Braided hair, or gold or pearls ref

Hi girls, Angela has asked me to do a guest blog of wardrobe tips ahead of King’s Daughters Conference 2011 . The plan for the day sounds so amazing I can’t wait to meet you all and I’m looking forward to talking about ‘ On Beauty, Body And Clothes ’. The work I do is all based around introducing girls and women to Jesus, to His unconditional love and all He has done for us. Among other things, that has included me dealing with subjects like beauty and clothes because they are connected to the way we feel about ourselves which has everything to do with us knowing Jesus. But more about that at the conference…! In the mean time, I wanted to tell you a little bit about the session I will be running during the dinner break: HOW TO FIND YOUR PERSONAL STYLE . I believe that because we are all unique, each of us has an individual style – our own taste and way of putting clothes and accessories together. I don’t believe that any one person’s style is better that another person’s. I

Have you ever been distressed because you have nothing to wear!  You know, one of those days when nothing fits, you don't feel pretty and you would rather cancel the day and go back to bed than get dressed.  Well I have those days. Now I know our clothes don't define us and our identity and beauty should not stem from what we wear, but having something nice to wear does help doesn't it?  So, I have come up with a solution to minimise those bad days.  My solution is "The Wheelie Case"!  This morning I sorted out my clothes and popped the following clothes into a wheelie case: All the clothes that are too small for me that I am hoping to fit into again one day.  These clothes just make me feel fat and depressed.  They stare at me from my drawers telling me that I can't fit into them anymore so now I am fat.  Lying clothes simply have to go - no more lies, I am not fat. All the clothes that are too big for me that make me feel thinner but make me look shabby an

Today I had the privilege of speaking to our church about beauty!  This subject is very much on my heart, so much so that we have a whole conference centred around beauty this year.  It is essential that both men and women understand the value and importance of a woman's beauty.  She is not beautiful for nothing, she is beautiful for a purpose and she can either use her beauty to empower the man in her life or she can use it to rob him of his power.  Have a listen to what I spoke about here .

I am so proud of my amazing 15 year old daughter, Jordan!  Yesterday she preached for the first time, she shared her story of how her search for paternal love lead her to security in God's love.  She gave my book, Secure on the Rock , a good plug and then allowed me to preach a little bit too :)  It was such a special day where my wonderful daughter and I were able to tell others of the incredible love that God has for them.  Jordan did a great job and I am sure there will be many more sermons to come from her, have a listen here to Sunday's message. Secure on the Rock has been selling really well, if you haven't already got a copy you can still get one on Amazon or on my FaceBook Shop .

I am so excited! I could harly wait to get onto my computer and share this awesome news with you. Eric invited me to speak at our church today in anticipation of the launch of my book, Secure on the Rock.   You can pre-order it on Amazon.co.uk for a reducded price and it is already availalbe for my USA friends on Amazon.com .  My talk consisted mostly of what you will read in the book with a few extra bits, you can have a listen to it here . The exciting news though, is that the girl that I mentioned in my post a few weeks ago accepted Jesus today. My hearted raced as I did the altar call at the end of my message and I nearly jumped for joy when I saw her hand go up! Thank you so much to everyone that has been praying for her and please keep praying for her in the weeks to come.

Over the past three weeks we have been running a series at Church called The Naked Preacher.  The heart behind this series was that the leaders of D7 Church would be open and honest about  all sorts of things with the congregation.  Eric did two Q&A sessions where he answered all sorts of questions that people had sent in and I wrapped it up this Sunday with a messaged called Better the Devil You Know.  This message was based on my testimony from my recently released book, Hope's Journey .  I went into my struggle with depression & suicide and then took a look at the devil's strategy in our life.  I wrapped it up with my own victory story and the beautiful, awesome, incredible plan that God has for our life.  If you would like to have a listen you can do so here .       Have a beautiful week. Love Angela xxx

This Sunday I preached the second part of BATTLE OF THE MINDS. I had a long, hard look at the tongue! It's quite something to see how evil our tongue is - yuck! At least we have the Holy Spirit to help us tame out tongue & the mind of Christ to help us know what to speak :) Let's all help each other to speak in a way that pleases God & if one of us fails in any way gently encourage that person to try again. If you are in a situation where there is gossip - get out - by any means necessary! If you are feeling down don't speak it out but speak words of life into your own life. Most importantly read your Bible, get to know God's will for your life & speak it into you life and those around you. Let's speak our life better! Well that's me done with preaching for a bit - I hope I managed to give Eric a nice little break & I hope that I managed to speak the Word of God to our Church. It's such an honour to be allowed to preach at Church, I know

This Sunday I preached the first sermon in the series called BATTLE OF THE MINDS - how our carnal mind is at war with our spiritual mind, the Mind of Christ. I have battled in this area for years so feel I have a lot of personal experience & victories to share. Also I long to see people in our congregation free from all sorts of things that hold them in bondage & I firmly believe that dealing with the carnal mind is a strong step in the right direction for all of us. Here are 7 steps to a free mind: 1.Renew your mind - Romans 12:2 2.Control your thoughts - Romans 8:5 3.Take one step at a time - Proverbs 23:7a 4.Don’t give up - Galatians 6:9 5.Be positive - 1 Peter 3:15 6.Think about what you think about - Colossians 3:2 7.Know your enemy - John 10:10 Right thinking can... Bring health to your body - Proverbs 4:20-22 and Bring prosperity to your life - Psalm 1:2-3 Can you believe how powerful this stuff is!!! Have a listen to the full message here if you

This Sunday I had the privilege of preaching at our church. Preaching is a love hate thing for me but whether I am loving or hating it I do find it a real privilege an honour to be communication the heart of God to our Church. This message is all about the seasons of life based on Ecclesiastes 3. One thing is totally 100% guaranteed in life, and that is that things will change. God has appointed the times and seasons, the events of our lives, the happy and the sad, the easy and the difficult. God exalts and humbles the same person. He raises nations up and brings them down. The great thing is that God is in control, he has a plan & he works everything together for good so we can have a great life. The painting above is one that Lorah painted after one of our lovely summer holidays. I thought it would be nice to include it for you to see. So who wants to count how many times I said 'um'? Listen to the full message here .