Happy New Year! 🎉
I honestly can’t believe how far into January we already are — anyone else feel like the year hit “fast forward”?

The start of a new year always gets me thinking about goals and plans. Getting fitter and losing weight usually make my list (some years more successfully than others 😉), but this year my heart keeps coming back to relationships.

I want to be more intentional with the people God has placed in my life. I want my friends to know the love, peace, and hope I have found in Jesus. I know how much He has done for me — and I want my friends to experience God’s all-powerful, unconditional, crazy, radical, and relentless love too.

Everything I do is simply an overflow of His love for me 💛

🌱 My Goals for This Year

Here’s what I’m focusing on as I step into the year ahead:

• Deepening my love for Jesus by studying Knowing Him
• Refreshing my Daisy Chain — looking at the social spaces I’m part of and intentionally noticing who God has already placed there
• Living out Love, Pray, Care, Share, Experience, Release, with the aim of running another multiplying Discovery Bible Study

Now I’d love to flip the question to you:

👉 What are your goals this year?
👉 How can we support YOU as you help expand God’s Kingdom?

“We love because He first loved us.” — 1 John 4:19

In the busyness of everyday life, it’s so easy to rush past the simple (but profound) truth that God loves each and every one of us.

We were made in God’s image.
We are God’s children.
And He longs for a relationship with everyone.

God loved us so deeply that He sent His one and only Son into the world so that we could know Him — not from a distance, but personally. Our faith begins and ends with love.

Our love for others doesn’t come from trying harder or doing more. It flows from the overflow of God’s love for us. And that means we first need to be clear — really clear — about God’s love for ourselves.

So, take a moment and reflect:

👉 When have you noticed God’s love for YOU?
This might be something big… or something small.
Perhaps an answered prayer.
A moment of peace.
Unexpected encouragement.
Or simply God’s quiet presence when you needed it most.

👉 What impact has this had on your life?

We would genuinely love to hear how you have experienced God’s love 💛

Now think about your daisy 🌼

👉 Who on your daisy would benefit from knowing that God has a deep, unconditional love for them?

Take a moment right now and pray for them:

Dear loving God,
I lift up my friend (Name) and ask that You would help them know Your amazing love today.
Amen.

When we Love, Pray, and Care for our friends, we do it not out of obligation — but out of the beautiful overflow of God’s love already at work in us.

For a long time, I struggled to believe that God could really love me.
I could see His creativity everywhere — in our beautiful country, rolling hills, deep oceans, stunning sunrises and sunsets. I knew God was powerful… but I felt too insignificant, too flawed, too unloveable to believe that He truly loved me.

And yet this is the heart of our faith.

We don’t earn God’s love. Our “good works” can’t fix a broken relationship with Him. Jesus died on the cross for our sins — past, present, and future — so that we can know God’s love and salvation.

Even knowing this, I still need daily reminders of God’s love. Here are a few simple rhythms that help me:

• Reading the Bible — Scripture always lifts me and draws me closer to Abba Father. I’m currently loving Nicky Gumbel’s Bible in One Year on my morning drive.
• Journalling my prayers — and noticing when God responds. Just last week, I was feeling awful with gut issues while organising catering at a conference. I prayed… and within 30 minutes the pain had gone. How good is God?!
• Giving thanks daily — quietly thanking God at the end of each day for the small things, recognising His hand at work.
• Watching The Chosen — and falling in love with Jesus all over again.

We are called to be in the world but not of the world. When we Love, Pray, and Care for our friends, we do it through the overflow of God’s love — not our own strength.

👉 How do you know that God loves you?
I’d love to keep adding more tools to my toolkit — and to share them with others too 🙂

Jesus sent His disciples out in twos — and honestly, life (and mission!) is so much better when we do it together.

Think about your daisy:

• Is there another Christian at your gym, sports club, workplace, or social group?
• Is there someone who already has a heart for sharing their faith?
• Could you Love, Pray, and Care for this community together?

You could:

• Invite a friend to do a MyFriends course with you
• Work together to help your friends move along their spiritual journey
• Invite your Bible Study or Fellowship group to learn together and live out their faith in practical, everyday ways

Just like Alpha, we love it when you come with your friends. 🎉 Use the FREE Student Self-Enrolment code: PTCMyFriends26

Term 1 Brochure with start dates HERE

Join us for a practical, encouraging webinar where we’ll help you:

• Develop a clear plan for each of your social groups (the petals on your daisy 🌼)
• Identify next steps to help your friends move closer to Jesus
• Feel confident and supported as you live out your faith where God has placed you

When: Monday 2nd February 

Time: Lunch time - 12pm and again Supper time - 8pm (the registration and zoom link are the same - just choose the time that works for you)

We love to share YOUR stories, we feel encouraged by them, and we love to pray for your friends and groups. 

Ping Fiona an email as she would love to hear from you.

We love to help you develop more people living the MyFriends Lifestyle and intentionally loving, praying and caring for their friends so much that they want to share their very lives and faith with them. 

If you would like to run MyFriends in your church or home fellowship group, we would love to help - contact Fiona.

Blessings ,

MyFriends Team