Celebrating our connections by Claire Musters

Last Thursday I attended the 3^rd annual freelancers’ Christmas meal in London. It was a wonderful gathering – thank you to Jennie Pollock and Amy Boucher Pye for organising it so well. While travelling home, I began to reflect on how well it celebrated the way that we connect together as ACW members – and beyond.

Introducing ourselves around the tables, we discovered many writers (unsurprisingly!), but also those who love to read our books (love them!). When one person sent round a card and asked us to write a list of the books we had each written, saying she would endeavour to read as many as possible next year, I’m sure I wasn’t the only one secretly cheering inside.

Discussions we had also prompted some of us to make notes of books to look out for – as well as apps for helping us polish our talks (LikeSo apparently analyses your speech to help you with optimal pacing and points out which ‘filler’ words you overuse). All fascinating stuff :)

To aid conversation, we were each given a numbered Christmas card with a discussion starter question inside. Mine asked me to share a moment of celebration; the one I chose even had a writerly connection all of its own:

I spoke about a recent baptismal service at our church. We had been asked by another church if they could join us to baptise six young people, as they do not have any baptismal facilities of their own. 

It was a beautiful morning expressing unity and love amongst the two churches. We only managed to sing a couple of songs and had to postpone the sermon to the following week as the baptisms took so long! But there wasn’t a dry eye in the building as each person shared their testimony and then, after they were baptised, people spent time praying over them, sharing scriptures and words. It was delightful to see members from one church doing this for those from the other – a real demonstration of God’s one body.

As I listened to the testimony of one of the girls from the other church, I immediately thought: ‘You’ve got a way with words.’ And what she said resonated so much, because it was all about identity and fitted so well with my Stories of Authenticity blog series. So I asked her whether she’d be happy to send her testimony to me so I could use it on my blog – which she did. Here’s a little snippet, but you can read the rest on my site. Talking of the moment when she decided to let her hair ‘go natural’, she says: ‘what I thought was a simple cosmetic choice was actually a deep dive into who I saw I was versus who God has always seen’.

When we chatted after the service, I learned that she wants to continue writing and feels called to encourage others through her writing and speaking. I expressed a desire to stay connected to her in order to continue to encourage her on that path. Yet another new connection…

I thank God for these connections with other writers; whatever stage of the journey we are all on, God knows we need each other for support, laughter and to spur one another on.

Happy Christmas to you all – you are a wonderful group of people that I am blessed to be connected to. 

Claire xx

Claire is a freelance writer, speaker and editor, mum to two gorgeous children, pastor’s wife, worship leader and school governor. Her books include Taking off the mask: daring to be the person God created you to be, Cover to Cover: Ezekiel A prophet for all times, Cover to Cover: 1–3 John Walking in the truth, Cover to Cover: David: A man after God's own heart, Insight Into Managing Conflict, Insight Into Self-acceptance and Insight Into Burnout. She also writes Bible study notes and magazine articles. To find out more about her, please visit www.clairemusters.com  and @CMusters on Twitter.