Greetings to all Methodist Women in Ireland! 

In February isn’t it wonderful to see the snowdrops peeping their little heads up in the garden to say ‘hello’ and to marvel at the fabulous colours of the crocuses?!   Amazing flowers can come from a very unattractive bulb that we plant in the ground – what an amazing God we have, who can turn a mere bulb into an amazing thing of beauty.

Think about what He can do with us if only we took the time to ask!!  I have asked MWI Branches to let me know in a few sentences how they are getting on and what has been happening in their branch from planting the seed in their opening meeting.   Here are some I have received – and a sincere ‘thank you’ to all who have replied – I will try and have all of them included in future letters:

Lisbellaw Maguiresbridge and Tempo
Praise God our MWI is going really well.  We have some new younger members joining.  We have had some excellent speakers and for Christmas we went for coffee in the Ardhowen instead of Christmas Dinner in the Killyhevlin.

Dunkineely MWI 
Last night was our joint Carol service with the ladies from Inver Mother's Union, a very enjoyable evening. Earlier in year we visited Dorothy Jervis of Salthill gardens in Mountcharles , she opens her gardens to tours and sells plants and all donations going towards Fields of Life.  This was a lovely outing for our group of ladies. We also recently organised a very successful coffee/tea and Christmas treats morning to raise money for Dunkineely church.

The Londonderry branch met in Sept for AGM. Rev Peter Morris led our devotions speaking to us about the biblical ref to his daughter Juno’s name.  At this meeting the empty Samaritan’s Purse boxes were distributed to members and these were returned filled at Octobers meeting.  The speaker that morning was Gary Middleton’s wife Julie who spoke about life, work and her faith. Then in November we all made decoupage Christmas cards.  There is no meeting again until end of January when we have dinner out in local hotel. In February the manager of Ashmore, a women’s shelter for homeless women (and children) now part of the North West Methodist mission is coming to tell of her work.

Pettigo
We met for an informal meeting in September; over a cup of tea, ladies enjoyed catching up and had the opportunity to reflect on how COVID restrictions had impacted on them. We also discussed the way forward for meetings Post COVID Restrictions. We enjoyed a Christmas Lunch in Tullana; Candy Cane Favours were distributed.   Housebound ladies received a Christmas gift bag.

Aughnacloy & Monaghan Branch.    

We have had a quiet start to the year with just 2 meeting in total. First meeting was shared with Beulah Robinson . Novembers meeting was shared with the Gayle Berry Monaghan Church of Ireland. Decembers meeting was shared by Ken Robinson who reflected on Christmas. We hope to have our dinner in January followed by meetings in the new year. Concluding with Coffee in Daisy lane café in April and our outing in Lurgan Brownlow house in May.

Looking forward to visiting you all in the coming months.  In the meantime, keep Knowing God and Making Him Known.

Love,

Olive