King's Daughters

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

It's with extreme joy that I want to announce that our latest book, Being a Women , is available for you to buy.  We have had an incredible journey together at our weekly Girl's Nights and this book is the result.  Together we have explored what it means to be a Godly woman, we have recorded our conversations and opinions and presented them to you in a lovely book.  Also, as an added bonus, Lorah-Kelly had done some awesome photography and added it to our book so we have something pretty to look at too.  A very girly book but don't be fooled, the content is extremely challenging!  There were nights when tears were shed at how hard it can be and nights when much laughter was shared at the pure joy of the journey. Be prepared for an emotional roller coaster ride as you read Being a Woman which is available here in the UK , also in the USA and coming soon to Australia .

In the end, all that we truly want is to be found beautiful! This is the one question we are all asking, “Am I beautiful?” We ask it from our father when we are little and we ask it from our boyfriend or husband later on in life. When we are out with our girl friends we need to know that we look beautiful and when we go to work we are asking the same question too. It’s OK to ask this question, God made us that way. The problem today though is that this question leads to another question, which is, “How can I be more beautiful?” This question leads us down all the wrong paths and gets us into all sorts of bad situations. When we don’t feel beautiful we feel incomplete and so we look for ways to fill that void. We try new clothes, we experiment with hair and make-up and some women even get their natural features altered or enhanced. All in the quest for beauty. Sadly some girls will do anything to feel beautiful and that includes doing things for men to gain their approval or

It is the eve of the conference that I have been planning and carrying inside my spirit since January.  Yes, I truly have been pregnant with this conference and tomorrow is my due date!  Literally nine months.  So I thought it would be fun to share a little bit of my journey with you. January  First Trimester (1 to 12 weeks) It was unplanned! I had no intention of getting "pregnant" and I most certainly wasn't trying to - it just happened. I sat considering the year ahead and felt that this was the year to focus on building something for the women. Until this point I had never felt the time was right, but now, on this day, it felt right. So I opened my heart and wrote down a few ideas on my blog . I started off with a Girls Night ! It seemed like a fun idea and didn't look like too much work. The focus was very specifically to disciple and care for the girls in our church . It was not to be a time of outward focus and reaching out to the lost, this was very mu

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 .

You might have heard about Jesus or read about him but do you know Him? In Genesis 4:1 it says that ‘ Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived and bore Cain ’. This level of Adam and Eve ‘knowing’ each other was so intimate that Eve conceived and had a child.  In the same way, we should know Jesus. When we know Jesus that intimately we too will bear life.  We will be fruitful, we will multiply on many levels in many ways, we will bring life into this world and we will have something to show for knowing him. Is this how you know Jesus or is He just a prophet or teacher that you have read about? Is He the lover of your soul, the first person you greet when you wake up in the morning and the last person you say goodnight to when you are about to fall asleep or is He just someone that you have heard about in Sunday School or on this blog?  Knowing Jesus is the most wonderful thing you will ever experience in this life. Truly knowing Him, deeply, personally an intimately is the

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

Mary and Martha are two well known women in the Bible.  Martha is known for being too busy and Mary is known as the sister who pleased Jesus. In today’s busy world, most of us fall into the Martha category, so I thought it would be good to find a way to be more like Mary. Luke 10:38-42 Now it happened as they went that He entered a certain village; and a certain woman named Martha welcomed Him into her house. And she had a sister called Mary, who also sat at Jesus’ feet and heard His word. But Martha was distracted with much serving, and she approached Him and said, “Lord, do You not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Therefore tell her to help me.”  And Jesus answered and said to her, “Martha, Martha, you are worried and troubled about many things. But one thing is needed, and Mary has chosen that good part, which will not be taken away from her.” Like Martha, I am sure many of us welcome Jesus into our house and into our life. I am sure too, that few of us simply

My Friend’s Story I got married young and had the usual fairy tale notion of marriage in my head of skipping away together into the sunset and living happily ever after. The man I married, Jason, had a son from a previous relationship, which was a bit of a thorn in my flesh as he obviously kept in contact with his son’s mother and it didn’t help that his ex was not over him and used their child fully to her advantage. There was nothing I could do about it however, my husband assured me that he loved me and would never cheat on me so there was pretty much nothing I could do.  I became pregnant and life was going rather well. Rumours started to circulate about my husband being unfaithful to me with his ex. Of course he denied it. By now I was paranoid about him picking up or dropping off his son. We had fights for months about this issue. I gave birth to a beautiful baby girl. The rumours didn’t stop. And by this point the rumour was that his ex had had another baby – his baby.

I can’t tell you how much I DIDN’T want to write this section! What, me silent! Um.... I don’t think so. Yet, the prompting of the Holy Spirit wouldn’t go away so here I am writing about one of the things that I struggle with the most – being silent. I have mentioned before that I deeply desire to have a quiet and gentle spirit because this is pleasing to God . In fact, if it is precious to God then it is definitely something that I want. And so in my quest to cultivate this quiet and gentle spirit, I came across other verses in the Bible that mentions the importance of a woman being silent. The best way to begin this theme is to look at the antonym of silent, which is noisy. Noisy can also mean boisterous, unrestrained, noisy or talkative. Let us take it one step further, noisy can also mean loud, ear-splitting or deafening. Now picture a woman who tends to be ‘noisy’. Consider all these words and picture her. I know women like this; I can even be a woman like this at

Dear Father God, I am so sorry to cause you pain I didn't mean to let you down again I hoped to be more than this and to glorify your name No matter how hard I try and do No matter how I let go and rest in You No matter how I strive, I can't seem to push through You are God, amazing, awesome You are truly the strong and mighty one You rescued me, saved me through your precious Son Please forgive me this day Please show me how to live Your way Please lead me and help me not to go astray God said, "My precious child You please me more than you know I will never, ever let you go In the good times and the bad I will always be your loving dad Never will I give up on you I know you are going to pull through Stay strong my little doe Hold on tight, don't let Me go I promise we will stay together each day, now and forever I love you with all my heart I always did, right from the start Now get up, dust off and try again Today was hard but not

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

I had an interesting conversation with a friend at church a while ago. She said that she longed to be free from fear. I asked her what she feared and she said, “Everything!” Her answer took me by surprise as it was so honest and so real. It was then that I realised that most people live in fear of just about everything. They fear not having enough money, they fear illness, they fears germs, public toilets, strange people, disabled people, homosexuals, public speaking, dying, flying, failure, intimacy, rejection, spiders, dogs, dentists, snakes, being alone, being in crowds and a long list of all sorts of other things! Fear seems to define us in many ways and determines how we live our lives.  Where did it all begin? It began where most things began, in the Garden of Eden. The very first account of fear was after Adam and Eve sinned. It says that God came to walk with them as He usually did but when God couldn’t find them, He called to them. Adam replied, “I heard Your voice

Every human needs the gift of "the blessing"—the unconditional love and approval that comes from a healthy relationship with one's parents. So many of us don't even realise that we have missed out on one of God's greatest gifts to us.  The blessing is a life changing book that will help you deal with the lack of blessing in your past, help you gain a new perspective on how God views you which will help you to give the blessing to your loved ones.   I have found this book tremendously practical both in how it communicates the blessing and also in giving ideas for how we can apply the blessing to our life.  If everything that is suggested in this book is applied then I am sure that your life will be dramatically changed, especially in families where words are used without any thought or purpose.  I found myself looking back over my childhood and considered both the positive and negatives that were spoken over me, I was greatly encouraged by what I saw and have fo

Ecclesiastes 4:9-10 'Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their labour: If either of them falls down, one can help the other up. But pity anyone who falls and has no one to help them up.' I have had this silly thought running around my head for ages but am not sure if it is even a remote possibility! What if a group of churches got together, agreed on each churches strength and weakness, and supported each other based on that. We could do more than we can all do on our own by trying to be good at everything all the time? Perhaps that didn't make sense, here are some examples? If a particular church is strong in leadership training and another in women's ministry and another in music, then all of the churches involved would agree to support the strength of the other church. If your church had leadership classes and a leadership conference and our church wasn't strong in this area then we would send our people to yo

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

Here is a little sneak preview of our new album, In The Stillness , listen to track one -  Brand New  

We were chatting about how tough Christian life can be at times. Girl’s Nights had been very insightful for all of us but the challenges have also made life a bit difficult at times. Tamara looked across the table at me thoughtfully and said with a pained expression on her face, “So you are saying that it doesn’t get any easier? Why does everything seem so hard all the time? I thought becoming a Christian would make things better but I still have this weight on me. No matter how hard I try and no matter what I do, it just won’t go away.” She looked around the table at us girls with what I perceived to be the question, “You’ve got to be joking! I can’t possibly endure any more than I already am!” I sensed her desperation and I knew that she had been working really hard on all the challenges that have come her way since she had become a Christian. I have never know anyone to be so passionate about doing things God’s way and every time she had learned something about God’s way

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