Hi Church,

What a wonderful Mother’s Day for 2024. It was fun, it was engaging, it was meaningful, it was honouring, it was heartfelt, it was anointed. At least that’s what I felt. I hope you felt the same and more. And it was great to have a sunny day to match. A great deal of work goes into making the special days at Grace Church very special. Thank you to Carin for helping the Kingdom Kids prepare over 80 gifts for Ladies at Grace Church. Thank you to Debbie and the Worship team for preparing a special song of blessing for the Mums. Thank you to Leith for providing the special decorations and photo booth. Thank you to Amanda for supplying a scrumptious morning tea and thank you to Neve and the Youth for setting up, serving and packing up the Morning Tea. And especially a big thank you to Jodie Lindfield who came in at the last moment and delivered a very heartfelt and spiritually impacting message especially for women. And thank you to all the support volunteers who work behind the scenes to make another great day at Grace.

Getting back to Jodie’s great message on Sunday, I want to honour her for being vulnerable enough to share part of her own story to help us understand the plight of women who sacrifice so much to protect and to serve their children in the face of abuse. We give thanks to the Lord for the great healing the Lord has done in Jodie’s life and because of that she is able to bring great comfort and encouragement and strength to those who suffer similar. I felt the Lords affirmation of Jodie’s message out of Ps 137 that women, are as verses 13-14 state “fearfully and wonderfully made”  and that women need to arise and be set free and use the sword of the Spirit to cut off the lies that the enemy sows into our hearts that degrade our thinking of who we are in Christ. Isaiah 61:1-2 was also declared that the Spirit has anointed each one of us to set captives free. Such great encouragement.

I also felt as a prophetic tag on the back of such an important message that further on in Isaiah 61:3-5 that God wanted to affirm all the women that despite the decades of carrying ashes from the effects of abuse, that God sees and acknowledges their pain and wants to help them by making an exchange as per these verses. That is, to comfort all who mourn, provide for those that grieve, give a crown of beauty instead of ashes, to give the oil of joy, the garment of praise, and to be called the oaks of righteousness planted for God’s splendour, and to rebuild the broken families with new homes and new cities for a new generation, for His Glory.

Well, this Sunday coming is Pentecost Sunday and I encourage us all to press into the Holy Spirit this week and ask for a special downpour and filling of the Holy Spirit as we gather. That the Glory of the Lord will fill His house and we would be overcome by His splendour. I don’t know about you church but I’m hungry for more.

God bless you.

Ps Greg and Amanda Campion