Strawberry Supper – Tues 11th June 2024
What a delightful evening! Thankfully it wasn’t as hot as last year with a total of 40 members turning out for the evening.
We had invited Kate Pwaisho as our guest speaker instead of the usual big quiz, and what a good choice that was! She also brought along her older sister Barbara, her cousin and her Aunt. Kate is being ordained at Chester Cathedral on Saturday and her relatives had come over from the Solomon Islands to support her.
Kate did her presentation on MU in Melanesia, the Solomon Islands, and really put us to shame in this country. First of all she explained about where she came from and the kind of life they led there. They actually have over 70 languages and even people in the same family don’t speak the same language, so the universal one has to be English. There are 700,000 inhabitants in the islands, and 16,500 MU members. The Mothers’ Union started in 1919 over there, with the influence of Mary Sumner and they each have MU t-shirts or blue outfits to represent their group. The MU World Wide President Sheran Harper visited the Islands very recently and was treated like royalty!
They have set up a Positive Parenting programme over there, which has taught the men how to work well with their families. Kate’s sister, Barbara spoke to us about the success of this programme. They have also set up the Girls’ Friendly Society for girls aged 10 and up, to enable them to understand about their bodies and their roles in life.
Kate thanked us very much for sending our English missionaries to the Islands all those years ago.
We then enjoyed our strawberries and cream scones, along with cakes, teas and coffee, and lots of conversation amongst members and Kate’s visiting family. Kate insisted that Barbara would like to sing for us, unknown to us that her sister was going to include Kate, her cousin and her Aunt. They stood at the front of the room, all singing different parts without any accompaniment, and it was very emotional. Apparently this was something that the people of the islands do naturally, as well as traditional dancing.
Thank you very much to all those MU members who helped me to set up the meeting, preparing the scones and strawberries, and to all those who made cakes, and helped out with the stalls, making teas and coffees and clearing up afterwards. I could not have managed without you – especially to Anne, Barbara, Jean, Judith, Maureen, Margaret, Michelle and Val, and to all the Sandbach Ladies for their wonderful cakes.
At our next meeting, on Wednesday July 17th at 2pm, our new Churchwarden, Janet Chettle, will be coming to speak about an MU Project called Metamorphosis. She first heard about this during a Foxhill retreat and felt it could be a useful tool for our MU group to work with. I think this is a starting block for us all and I look forward to seeing you there.
If you have any questions, ring me on 07942 900292, or HC 533882. If you want to join us learn more about the Metamorphosis project just come along on the 17th!