Each year, Mothers’ Union participates at the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women, in New York. In 2018 the focus will be on issues relating specifically to women in rural areas throughout the world; in preparation for this Mothers’ Union recently surveyed our membership to find out the views and experiences of those in rural contexts. Interestingly, members from a diverse range of countries, such as the UK, Australia, Papua New Guinea, Tanzania and South Africa, reported very similar experiences and concerns in addition to those unique to their own context.

The seed for this ministry was sown in me as I sat listening to Liz Ogborne speak at the 2016 Germinate Conference.

Liz was talking about Prayer Spaces in Schools (prayerspacesinschools.com), where they encouraged pupils to write a prayer on a cut-out of their hand and hang it on a tree as a way of praying. As Liz was talking I was grabbed by the idea and began to think how it might come to life where I live and minister. Vyrnwy Mission Area is in Powys, mid-Wales, consists of seven rural communities, their churches, people and outlying properties, and stretches from the village of Llansantffraid-yn-Mechain, close to the border with England in the east, to the community of Llanwddyn and Lake Vyrnwy in the west.