"prawns for HOW much???"

girls.... they're a weird species aren't they??

Over the last few days i've started looking into what GURL should be, where God wants it to be, who it's for and how does this crazy vision thing actually happen outside of mine and the Hazza's brain.

One day i'll post the vision statement (probably after i've tried and failed to make it sound just right, and will have passed it onto Mel to PR it properly for me!) But a huge part of what we want to do is get alongside teenage girls and show them the beauty God's put inside them, to invest and help others to invest in these girls.
Part of what i feel God's nudging me to do is get on researching and writing Gurl- The Course, having a resource that we (and potentially others) and use to approach the issues that face girls, specifically during their teenageish years.
I've just started looking at my 1st topic as such, with the preliminary title of, "To love and be Loved", looking at relationships. So far, there's 4 strands within this-

• Male/female relationships- Life, love and all the nitty gritty that exists in dating or not dating, flirting and all that stuff.
• Parent relationships(or the lack of)- getting on with parents, why they're there (or why they aren't) , being a daughter, when the family thing breaks down and all that, and more.
• Sister sister (Girl friendships)- looking at the good stuff and the bad, jealousy, bitching, gossip, and building each other up, fun and encouragement.
• God realtionship- how that works (if you want it to) how to build a good god relationship etc.

Whilst thinking bout this stuff, the girl friendship stuff really got me thinking. Our girl mates are so important in life!! For years i've always been abit of "one of the lads" in some ways. My best mate for the last 4 years or so has been a Boy, and being the only girl of my year in church stuff (Infact, being the only one not called DAN!) has led me to always think there wasn't a huge difference, but i'm so wrong!!

Today, i had the privilege of having a fab "Girly Lunch" with 6 other beautiful, amazing women who i am blessed to call friends. Just the joy of funny chats and giggles, shopping without having to worry about time or people getting bored, and the general support of really really GOOD friends, was just a great experience.

I think back over the last years of knowing these girls, and think of all amazing times of encouragement, crazy opportunities (like starting refuge with Maz, Amz and Rach), and the sheer joy of being able to pray through life with these girls. But alongside that is the hurt and paranoia thats existed between us at times and i just thank God that our friendships have survived. I LOVE that i can be myself and thats ok, and thats my heart for our gurl's groups, that through friendship and fun stuff and exploring the course together, that the girl's will be able to support each other in the way that we've ended up trying to do.

So Kler, Katie, Maria, Joy, Amy and my lovely lovely Rach, I love you guys- and I pray that through all our time together, you'll be spurred on to continue loving God, knowing that he created you to be the woman that you are, and that he thinks you're more beautiful than anything else.

B xxx