Meet the women at Charlotte - Miriam

This post marks the next in a series of interviews with different women who are part of the Charlotte Chapel family.  We hope to allow you to hear a little about the different lives we live, what makes us tick and how we seek to grow in our faith.  This time, we would like you to meet Miriam.

Q: Thank you for sharing something of your story Miriam. Could you tell us your favourite Christian song or hymn so readers can listen while they read on?

A : Hmm. There are many!  However, the song that I had at my baptism and that I just keep coming back to is 'In Christ Alone' so I would probably go for that one.

Q: Can you tell us how you became a Christian?

A: I grew up in a Christian family - parents, brother, grandparents, aunts, uncles & cousins! - and my parents work in full-time ministry.  So from day dot I have both continually heard about God's love, grace & mercy and seen it reflected in the lives of those closest to me. There isn't really a time when I can pinpoint a transition from unbelief to belief.  However, it was when I was primary school aged that I realised the need for a personal relationship with Christ.  At that point I shared a bedroom with my brother so I remember curling up under my pink duvet cover one night & asking Jesus to forgive my sins & come into my heart.

Q: What would be your desert island book? (we'll let you take the Bible of course!)

A: Les Miserables - I have been slowly plodding through it off & on since before the film came out, perhaps some time on a desert island would help me to finish!

Q. Where is your favourite place to be?

A: That's a tricky one!  If I say that I was born in England, attended high school in Wales and have a good dose of both Scottish and Northern Irish blood you might begin to see why.  Between moving house and travelling to visit family & friends there are multiple places that feel like a piece of 'home' and where I enjoy being.  So it's hard to choose one and it probably changes depending on what is happening and who is at each location at a given time!  For the moment I am utterly thankful to be in Edinburgh.  It is a beautiful city that I never tire of exploring and my friends here & the church family at Charlotte have helped it to feel very much like home. 

Q: What is your signature dish in the kitchen?
A: Reading these questions first time round I honestly didn't think I had one.  I found my answer standing in the kitchen at the weekend making lasagne for the umpteenth time, barely looking at my bolognese splattered student cookbook.  It is by no means spectacular but it is my go-to at the moment.

Q:  We are asking everyone to share what they might be doing at 2pm on a Wednesday, to give us a flavour of the different lives we lead.

A: I started my PhD in September so on a typical Wednesday (most days, in fact!) you would probably find me at my desk or in the library, probably with a pile of papers and a selection of coloured pens to hand. 

Q: Finally, what brings you the greatest joy?
A: Definitely spending time with friends and family.  This could be catching up over tea & cake, visiting much-loved sites or an evening at the theatre.  The main feature would be time spent talking about everything and laughing about nothing with a fond friend!

Thanks to Miriam for sharing some of her story.  Do feel free to suggest other women who you would like to get to know through these interviews.

Meet the women at Charlotte - Alison

This post marks the next in a series of interviews with different women who are part of the Charlotte Chapel family.  We hope to allow you to hear a little about the different lives we live, what makes us tick and how we seek to grow in our faith.  This time, we would like you to meet Alison Watson.

Q: Thank you for answering our questions Alison.  Could you tell us your favourite Christian song or hymn so readers can listen while they read on?
A: In Christ Alone.  I love the music but really it's the words that are so amazing.  It reminds me so powerfully that I belong to Him and nothing can change that.

Q: Can you tell us how you became a Christian?
A: I was born into a family with a wonderful set of Christian grandparents, a mum who had been baptised as a teenager but had drifted after she had met and married my non believing dad.  I know my grandparents prayed for me and God placed in our lives friends who invited me to church and the local crusader group. 
It was there that I first remember hearing the gospel fully explained and I decided to follow Jesus one day walking home from school aged 12. My very faithful crusader leader followed me up and was instrumental in discipline me early on. Wonderfully, my brother also became a Christian, my mum returned to the faith of her youth and my father is showing real signs of grace in his life.

Q: I think you also met someone significant through Crusaders?
A: I met my husband Graeme when we were aged 12 at Crusaders.  He had just moved down from Scotland and we became good friends, we started dating aged 19 and married aged 24. 

Q: To give us a flavour of the life you lead, could you tell us what you would be likely to be doing at 2pm on a Wednesday afternoon.

A: If I have been working in the morning as a GP locum I am normally finished by then.  I could be meeting someone one to one, just having lunch with a friend, or preparing the evening meal and getting ready for the chaos which will hit at 3.15.

Q: In amongst catering for a husband, 3 hungry children and visitors to your home, do you have a favourite gadget?
A: I love making cakes and my favourite dessert is a meringue so it would have to be my electric hand whisk as otherwise I would spend all day whisking and mixing!

Q: Do you have an earliest memory?
A: Going to hospital to see my new baby brother when I was 2 1/2.

Q: Could you share a piece of advice that you wished you had worked out earlier?
A: You don't need to do it all yourself.  If someone offers to help out, say 'yes' and then give them something specific to do.

Q: Thank you for sharing Alison, and giving us a little picture of you.  Finally, could you tell us what brings you the greatest joy?
A: So many things but spending time with my husband, my kids, my parents, my brother and his family, cooking for them, eating together, playing silly games or climbing the hills.

Thanks to Alison for sharing some of her story. Do feel free to suggest other women who you would like to get to know through these interviews.

Meet the women at Charlotte - Diana

This post marks the next in a series of interviews with different women who are part of the Charlotte Chapel family.  We hope to allow you to hear a little about the different lives we live, what makes us tick and how we seek to grow in our faith.  This time, we would like you to meet Diana.

Q: Thank you for sharing some of your story Diana. Could you tell us your favourite Christian song or hymn so readers can listen while they read on?

A :“Great is the Darkness” by Noel Richards, also known as “Come Lord Jesus”.

Q: Can you tell us how you became a Christian?

A: I don’t ever remember a time when God was not a part of my life.  I grew up in a Christian home and so church was an important part of family life.  I attended an Anglican church which sowed a seed in my heart in accepting Jesus as my Lord and Saviour at around age ten.  Unfortunately there was no real discipleship so it was not until my late teens when I changed churches that I began to truly understand what it meant to be a follower of Christ.

Q: What would be your desert island book? (we'll let you take the Bible of course!)

A: Ooh that is a difficult one.  I do so love to read and belong to a book club.  Probably “The Hiding Place” by Corrie ten Boom.

Q. This month in the blog we are thinking about appearance. What do you find challenging about the way the world sees beauty for women?

A. As a Christian I know that I do not have to be enslaved to the world’s idea of beauty. I am fearfully and wonderfully made by God Himself.  However sometimes it is easy to be tempted to fall into the habit of being concerned about worldly beauty and how I match up to that. The world’s perception of beauty however will not take me anywhere. This sort of beauty never satisfies. Proverbs say that it is fleeting (Prov 31:30).

Q: I know you grew up far away from Edinburgh, in Australia. Could you share your earliest memory?

A: While certainly not my earliest memory, learning to swim is a strong childhood memory.  I remember after having properly dived off the blocks and swimming one length of proper freestyle in an Olympic size pool (50m) without stopping, I was given a very special reward. The following day, my mother took me on the train into the Sydney’s city centre to a jeweller’s shop whereby I chose my very first watch! My mother made a grand day of it including a lovely scrumptious lunch at Miss Browns, at Sydney’s famous centrepoint tower. We did not have many family traditions but this was one, I remember very well.  

Q: What is your signature dish in the kitchen?
A: We enjoy practising hospitality, and endeavour to open our home to all sorts of folk.  Pasta Topped Beef Casserole is a favourite.   My dear late friend and fellow worshipper at Charlotte Chapel,   Andrea Maskell would very kindly call me the “Queen of Trifle”. She once asked me if I would make a trifle for Christmas Day celebrations.  My immediate thought was “oh no – I don’t like trifle – it reminds me of boarding school which I did not enjoy very much”.  However, not wanting to let a good friend down, I found an updated Australian trifle recipe with a delicious mascarpone topping.  Making it was a great success and I finally overcame my silly fear of trifle.

Q: Do you have a favourite place in the world to be?

A: If a cold place, then probably Iceland, for we love the beauty and the ruggedness of the landscape – another wonder of God’s creation.  Also my husband Bruce loves to ride the beautiful pure-bred horses there, which are very different to our horses back home. 

If a warm place, then southern Spain, or the Canaries, in particular Lanzarote.  I would of course say Australia but we don’t travel back home as often nowadays.

Q. Can you share a recent encouragement in your faith?

A. A recent general encouragement in my faith with the Lord has been joining the 5 o'clock club, meaning getting up earlier that perhaps I would desire to – not necessarily 5am, more likely 6am and making God my first priority (reading and meditating on His word, lots of prayer, worship and listening).  I have found this to be instrumental in cultivating a daily intimacy with Him and in turn my faith has grown significantly.

Q: Finally, what brings you the greatest joy?
A: I do mentoring and one to ones, both of which I love.  In particular with regard to mentoring, my greatest joy is being used by God to dig out the rubbish and find the treasure within.  It is then pure delight to see folk equipped to live their lives abundantly for the Lord, as we have been called to do. 

Thanks to Diana for sharing some of her story. Do feel free to suggest other women who you would like to get to know through these interviews.

Meet the women at Charlotte - Cat

This post marks the next in a series of interviews with different women who are part of the
Charlotte Chapel family.  We hope to allow you to hear a little about the different lives we live, what makes us tick and how we seek to grow in our faith.  This time, we would like you to meet Cat Auden.

Q: Thank you for answering our questions Cat.  Could you tell us your favourite Christian song or hymn so readers can listen while they read on?
A : I'm not very good at having "favourites" in terms of music as I like a lot of different things.  Very non-committal!  I had How Great Thou Art at both my baptism and wedding so I guess that means it's fairly up there with the favourites!  I particularly like the verse about realising how great God is when wandering through "forest glades" and down from mountain grandeur" as I'm a country girl at heart and love the great outdoors.  My soul definitely sings at the top of mountains, whether there's a 100 mile panorama or a total white out. 

Q: Can you tell us how you became a Christian?
A: I became a Christian sometime during my last year at school.  I was not brought up in a Christian home and was not presented with the Gospel.  I changed schools for my last two years at Senior School and in retrospect can see that God's hand was at work removing the things I usually relied upon for my identity.
Most significantly I arrived at the new school on crutches after knee surgery that summer so was unable to "prove myself" on the sports field which had been one way I liked to gain recognition and respect and to make friends.  This also meant I happened to be free to attend the school Christian meeting on a Friday night.  One of the girls in my house was a Christian and though neither of us can remember any specific spiritual conversations we had, I know that she gently encouraged my interest in her faith and faithfully asked me along to the Christian meeting each week which I (perhaps reluctantly) began to attend.
I probably realised I was genuinely searching when I heard a visiting speaker from a Christian summer camp come and speak.  She spoke to me afterwards and promised to send me some books (CE and Start).  I didn't expect her to actually do this!  Slowly I began looking at these books and others that my friend offered me, occasionally I'd flick through a small Gideon's Bible but not really knowing what to do with it.  At some point in my last year at school, quite alone, I quietly put my trust in Jesus, not really aware of how big a deal this was!  I'm not sure I could have vocalised the Gospel clearly myself at this stage but certainly started to believe in Jesus and wanted to live for him.
Coming to University was a critical time and I have no doubt that God's hand was at work in a multitude of ways - from putting Christians on my halls corridor to putting a desire in my heart to "be a Christian" from the start of my University time.  I didn't really know what this would entail and made a multitude of mistakes in my early days at uni (the entire spectrum from clear sinning to being very legalistic in my faith).  It was a steep learning curve and having not been taught what it means to walk with God I had a lot of learning to do (and still do!).  I am thankful for many things during these early years.
In my second year at Uni I met a wonderful group of people through the Christians in Sport group - Christians who I really "clicked" with!  This was a wonderful time of growth and consolidating the truths which I believed but couldn't quite explain.  I learnt the importance of sharing my faith and some ways to do this.  I also saw young, dynamic Christians who were passionate about their faith in every part of their lives and enthusiastically talked about it with other Christians and with non-believers too.

Q: Thank you for sharing your journey to faith. Can you tell us about your earliest memory?
A: I thought hard about this and can't think of anything earlier than the day my brother was born.  I was three years old and my dad picked me up from my friend Jenny’s house, helped me put on my “I’m a Big Sister” jumper and then we went to visit my Mum and new baby James (now 23 and 6ft3) in a little cottage hospital on Dartmoor.  I got given a baby doll to look after which was a good idea.  However I was more interested in eating Mum’s biscuits from her tea tray than in any babies!

Q: To give us a flavour of the life you lead, could you tell us what you would be likely to be doing at 2pm on a Wednesday afternoon.
A: The average 2pm Wednesday I am consulting at the veterinary practice where I work.  It’s an open surgery so it’s anyone’s guess what might walk through the door, cat to chameleon, guinea pig to goat.  It keeps me on my toes and the job’s nothing if it’s not varied! I love it though.  It is a great privilege to work doing what I enjoy.

Q: Where is your favourite place to be?
A: I love being out in the countryside, ideally with milky morning sunshine, a cool breeze and frost on the ground.  Often this would be on an early morning run in the Downs at my parents’ house.

Q: I expect that at times your job allows you to be outdoors too.  Could you share what is your signature dish in the kitchen?
A: I’m not sure if I have a signature dish.  I certainly enjoy trying all sorts of things and
experimenting with new ingredients.  I love having people round for dinner too to try out dishes on.  I made quite a nice pudding recently containing a raspberry mousse and a lemon and basil mousse.  I’d be keen to try these again in a slightly different pudding context sometime.  I’m working hard at making my Granny M’s shortbread my own however I think even in 100 years’ time it will still be “Granny M’s Shortbread”!

Q: That sounds delicious.  I know you are involved in the Equip ministry to students and young people, could you share an encouragement from that group or another recent encouragement?
A: I am hugely encouraged by the growth of the girls in my Equip group.  It brings me GREAT joy meeting with them to study Mark’s Gospel together and seeing their enthusiasm for God’s word develop.
I am also greatly blessed to have witnessed a friend come to faith through various Charlotte Chapel outreach courses.  Seeing a new faith grow is such a beautiful thing and encourages me massively in my own walk with God.

Q: As part of our theme this month looking at how we witness in different contexts, could you tell us about some of the challenges involved in witnessing in your workplace?
A: Witnessing to colleagues can be easy in some ways but much harder in other ways.  It is not hard to be the patient, kind member of staff but it is harder to make it clear why my character is like this - not to do with me but a) by God's grace and b) I choose to live in a way that reflects Jesus to others.  What is much harder is having worthwhile explicit Gospel conversations with colleagues.  Most are open to some discussion (particularly whilst operating (!) as you don't have to look directly at one another and there's always potential for a pause in a tricky conversation to concentrate on the operation if necessary).  I think I could be more forthright with questioning what people think about God and have certainly got the depth of relationship to do so with colleagues.  Having recently studied Mark 13 it is clear that there is indeed an urgency to our evangelism and we spend such a large portion of our lives with our colleagues - surely God has placed each of us there for this reason.
I find it helpful having invited colleagues to CBC events as they can now picture what Church looks like for me.  Most people are very accepting rather than offended by my faith but in some ways this can be hard as there is less to work with! It has also been a great blessing for workplace ministry having had veterinary students from Charlotte Chapel coming on placements at my practice (other "normal" people with a living love for the Lord Jesus!).
Having worked in the same place for over two years now I realise the importance of building
trusting relationships, living in a Gospel-centred manner and from this flow the Gospel
opportunities that God has graciously given me (some small, some larger).  We are in it at work for the long run.  It is not easy living overtly for God in the secular world but it is worthwhile.
Our lives and actions speak volumes but I must be ready (and willing) to give an answer for the hope that I have.

Q: Thank you for sharing this Cat, and for reflecting honestly on the pressures involved.  Finally, could you tell us what brings you the greatest joy?
A: The greatest, deep joy I find is seeing someone put their trust in the Lord Jesus and seeing them realise just how far reaching and wonderful this Good News really is!  Fantastic!

Thanks to Cat for sharing some of her story.  Do feel free to suggest other women who you would like to get to know through these interviews.

Meet the women at Charlotte - Irene

This post marks the next in a series of interviews with different women who are part of the Charlotte Chapel family.  We hope to allow you to hear a little about the different lives we live, what makes us tick and how we seek to grow in our faith.  This time, we would like you to meet Irene Aird.

Q: Thank you letting us hear a little about you Irene.  Could you tell us your favourite Christian song or hymn so readers can listen while they read on?

A : It is difficult to choose as I have so many favourites.  If I might be allowed two they would be 'In Christ Alone' and 'O to see the Dawn - The Power of the Cross'. 

Q: Can you tell us how you became a Christian?

A: My family were churchgoers.  When I was nine we moved to another city and attended a church where the gospel was clearly preached.  My sister, six years older, was the first in the family to see her condition as a sinner and rejoice in God's provision of a saviour.  My parents followed soon after.  I initially thought this was a bit 'over the top' as my sister always seemed like the nicest person in the world.

Over the years I learned about God.  In my head I knew I was a sinner who needed a saviour but I was stubborn and proud - I wanted to be in charge of my own life and was not prepared to submit to Jesus as Lord.  At university I continued to attend church and C.U. and eventually through the faithful preaching of God's word and the prayers of my family, I could resist God no longer.  Jeremiah 31:3 spoke to me ('I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with loving kindness.') and I became a Christian.

Q: Thank you for your honesty. Can you tell us what would be your desert island book? (we'll let you take the Bible of course!)

A: Definitely Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe.

Q: To give us a flavour of the life you lead, could you tell us what you would be likely to be doing at 2pm on a Wednesday afternoon.

A: On a good day walking in the Pentlands or learning Gaelic for a class on Thursday evenings.

Q: Where is your favourite place to be?
A: The Scottish West Highlands by the sea.

Q: You're not the first of our interviewees to mention the sea – we seem to draw inspiration from seeing God's power in creation.

I know you are a devoted hostess, so could you share what is your signature dish in the kitchen?
A: Two examples would be Thai chicken (or Thai Quorn for veggies)  followed by sticky-toffee pudding.

Q: Who is someone who has discipled you? (helped you grow in your faith) Can you tell us a little about them?

A: I have been helped by so many over the years but my sister Isobel was the first Christian I had close contact with.  Over the years she has been such a steady influence and example.  She is now a retired schoolteacher who is actively involved in her church as Sunday School Superintendent, working with children's groups during the week, visiting the elderly and hospitality work.  She has an active prayer life and constantly encourages prayer for family members, both Christian and non-Christian.  She is fun to be with and has a great interest in history and art work.

Q: I would like to meet her! Can you describe a few ways in which you have been involved in helping others grow in their faith in Charlotte Chapel?

A: Through involvement in Christianity Explored, Discipleship Explored, Time Out, Word Alive, 1:1 and 1:2 meetings.  These have all helped my growth  in faith too.

Q: Thank you for sharing this Irene.  It is good to hear how discipling others helps you grow too.  Finally, could you tell us what brings you the greatest joy?

A: Spending time with family, including husband, children and grand-children as well as church family, the greatest joy being when they are following Jesus and growing as Christians.  For example I was delighted by my son's declaration of 1Cor.1:20-25 'Where is the wise person? Where is the teacher of the law? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe. Jews demand signs and Greeks look for wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength.' among his Ph.D. acknowledgements.

Thanks to Irene for sharing some of her story.  Do feel free to suggest other women who you would like to get to know through these interviews - email womenatcharlotte@gmail.com

Meet the women at Charlotte - Rachel

This post marks the next in a series of interviews with different women who are part of the
Charlotte Chapel family.  We hope to allow you to hear a little about the different lives we live, what makes us tick and how we seek to grow in our faith.  This time, we would like you to meet Rachel.

Q: Thank you letting us hear a little about you Rachel.  Could you tell us your favourite Christian song or hymn so readers can listen while they read on?
A :'Salvation's Song' by Stuart Townend, so great to be reminded that God loved me before
the dawn of time, and that my sin is forgiven by my Saviour. 

Q: Can you tell us how you became a Christian?
A: My parents are Christians and church played a big part in my life when I was growing up.  I first remember hearing the gospel at a holiday bible club at my neighbour's church.  Then, when I was about 14 on a Crusader Easter camp, I began to grasp the enormity of what Jesus did for me on the cross, and my need for forgiveness and I repented and asked him into my heart.
Unfortunately my faith gradually became just a basis for my social scene and a moral code. By my early 20's I was very much 'enjoying' pushing the boundaries in London, and the liberal church I had ended up at certainly didn't try to point out the error of my ways.  But still God called me back to him - after a couple of bad experiences I ended up realising I needed to find a new church and a housemate suggested I go along to hers.
On my first visit, God opened my eyes to his word in the Bible through the clear teaching there and I realised that God had so much more to say to me about himself than a list of dos and don'ts.  The clear Bible teaching I received there played a major part in how my relationship with God is deepening.

Q: What would be your desert island book? (we'll let you take the Bible of course!)
A: What, you mean complete solitude and quietness?  I think I might be so excited at the prospect I would forget to pack the book.

Q: To give us a flavour of why this excites you so much, could you tell us what you would be likely to be doing at 2pm on a Wednesday afternoon.
A: I have two kids under school age, and they're usually having some 'down time' (ie TV time!) after lunch while I pack the bag for preschool swimming lessons (making absolutely sure I haven't forgotten the towel again...)

Q: What is your signature dish in the kitchen?
A: That depends on your point of view.  My kids say Macaroni Cheese, my husband says the steak I cook him every year on his birthday and I say anything I can throw in a slow cooker to magically produce a yummy meal at the end of a busy day!

Q: Could you share a piece of advice you wished you had worked out earlier?
A: Babies don't come with foolproof manuals.  At least my two certainly didn't, and the first one wasn't even a blueprint for the second.  It's been a VERY steep learning curve!

Q: Finally, where is your favourite place to be?
A: By the sea - I love its power, its ever-changing beauty and how even being by the sea completely blows away the cobwebs.  God's creation is awesome.

Thanks to Rachel for sharing some of her story. Do feel free to suggest other women who you
would like to get to know through these interviews.

Meet the women at Charlotte - Laura

This post marks the next in a series of interviews with different women who are part of the
Charlotte Chapel family.  We hope to allow you to hear a little about the different lives we live, what makes us tick and how we seek to grow in our faith.  This time, we would like you to meet Laura.

Q: Thank you for answering our questions Laura.  Could you tell us your favourite Christian song or hymn so readers can listen while they read on?
A : I have 3
Great is thy Faithulness
Amazing Grace
Be thou my vision

Q: Those 3 really are classics.  We might have to start a chart of what the Women at Charlotte choose!  Can you tell us how you became a Christian?
A: I grew up in a Christian home and attended church youth groups from 0-18.  I went through a rebellious phase during secondary school but throughout all this, I would have called myself a Christian.
Then when I came to Edinburgh in 2008, I started attending church on my own.  It was at this point I knew that I needed to make my faith my own, instead of being under the family 'umbrella of faith'.  I had been in Edinburgh for a couple of months before I started attending Chapel with some friends.  It was at a baptismal service one Sunday evening, that everything I had known and accepted for many years suddenly seemed to make sense.  I realised that I was in need of forgiveness and that was only possible through believing and trusting in Jesus for the forgiveness for my sins and for my salvation.
Since then my faith has changed a great deal and so have I! I am now in my 5th year at Chapel and during this time I have greatly benefited from the student ministries.

Q: What is your youngest memory?
A: I'm not sure.  I think a lot of my earliest memories are inferred from seeing photographs. I used to live abroad for a short time when I was younger, so probably that.

Q: Can you tell us what took you overseas, and where did you live?
A: Sure, it was Turkey for a year when I was 3-4 years.  My Dad's job took us there.

Q: We are asking all the interviewees what they would be likely to be doing at 2pm on a Wednesday afternoon, to help us get a flavour of our different lives.
A: At university or away on placement.  I study medicine so I would normally be in a hospital at 2pm on a Wednesday.

Q: What is your signature dish in the kitchen?
A: Anything with salmon!

Q: Hopefully your desert island would have plenty of salmon around it. What would you choose to read while you ate it? (of course you can have the Bible as well!)
A: I'm not sure, I'm not much of a reader so it would be hard to choose a favourite.  Maybe a
complete works of C. S. Lewis, because that would give me a lot to read.

Q: Finally, what brings you the greatest joy?
A: Spending quality time with my family and friends or, up a peak surveying the scenery
(preferably on a clear day!) having just climbed to the top.


Thanks to Laura for sharing some of her story.  Do feel free to suggest other women who you would like to get to know through these interviews (email womenatcharlotte@gmail.com).

Meet the women at Charlotte - Maureen

This post marks the first of a series of interviews with different women who are part of the
Charlotte Chapel family.  We hope to allow you to hear a little about the different lives we live, what makes us tick and how we seek to grow in our faith.  For our very first lady, we would like you to meet Maureen.

Q: So, Maureen, can you start by telling us your favourite Christian song or hymn?  We'll include links to YouTube so readers can enjoy your soundtrack while they read on if they like.
A: My favourite hymns are 
'In Christ Alone' - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8welVgKX8Qo and 
'Be Thou my Vision' - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vROU_N-FYdY

Q: Please can you tell us how you became a Christian
A: I was brought up in a loving missionary family and despite not seeing a great deal of my dad from the age of ten, his strong faith and gentle loving nature had a lasting effect on me.  I asked Jesus into my heart at a young age and was greatly challenged at a Stephen Olford crusade when I was about 11 years old but rebelled as an early teenager and would definitely have not owned up to having parents who were missionaries!
However God who began a good work in me continued to pursue me and in the early summer of 1970 I realized what a sinner I was and how I needed to repent and receive Christ’s forgiveness following a sermon preached by Derek Prime.  I can still remember going down to the front of the church at the end of a baptismal service to re-dedicate my life to God.  I was subsequently baptized on 29th November 1970 and God has continued to patiently and lovingly challenge and keep me since then.

Q: Where is your favourite place to be?
A: At a friend’s chalet in Lochgoilhead – scenery is spectacular!

Q: Following on from the Great British Bake-off, what is your signature dish in the kitchen?
A: Mars Bar Crispie Cake

Q: That sounds delicious! While we imagine we're eating it, can we also hear about the different ways you serve in Charlotte Chapel?
A: I feel so blessed to be able to serve in a variety of ways in the Chapel as I only work part time and our family is now grown up and away from home.  Barry and I both serve the Chapel and are served by the Chapel through being members of the Mission Family due to the work of TELit.
Apart from being an elder’s wife, marriage preparation (which we have just given up after 25years!) and marriage mentoring which Barry and I are involved with together, most of my other service is with women of various ages in the Chapel.
I have served on Timeout committee for too many years to count and help with a group supporting ladies who have non-attending husbands.  Much of my free time during the week is spent in meeting with women either to do 1-2-1 study, pray together or just share fellowship and encourage each other.  It is so exciting to see God at work in many women’s lives and a privilege to draw alongside those who are sorrowing or rejoicing!

Q: All of that must keep you busy, Maureen.  As a snapshot of the lives of women in the church, we'll be asking each of our interviewees what they do at 2pm on a Wednesday.
A: I’m likely to be meeting with a Christian woman either in her home or outside over coffee.

Q: Another classic question coming up. Other than the Bible, can you tell us what book you would choose to take to a desert island?
A: Don’t have a desert island book I’m afraid and would rather take my iPod full of Christian music – but I guess that wouldn’t work for long without a charger! The book I have enjoyed most recently is The Prodigal God by Tim Keller.

Q: Finally, can you tell us what brings you the greatest joy.
A: My greatest joy is spending time with our family and seeing many and varied evidences of
God’s grace in all their lives.

Our thanks to Maureen for being willing to be the first to share something of herself.  Please do feel free to suggest women who you would like to get to know through these interviews (email womenatcharlotte@gmail.com).