An Adventure in Ministry

  Recently we went away camping in our van, and one of the biggest challenges I find when I am away is sleep! Not particularly my sleep, I’m an early bird, so my favourite time of day when camping is having a large coffee in the stillness before the campsite comes alive. It’s not the sleep of my husband that is the challenge, his horrendously loud snoring always shows how good he sleeps, (thank the Lord for ear plugs!) It’s the sleep of our little girl that poses the biggest challenge to our peace. You see, our little girl has a habit of fighting sleep and always has. She has a suitcase full of strategies to ensure she doesn’t sleep. She may sing to keep herself awake, poke herself in the eye, shake herself if she feels she is drifting off and she will even try to physically fight me if I try to hold her! It can be terribly frustrating knowing that sleep is the best thing for her, that the consequence of staying up late will not be good for her, or any of us, and that what she will...

  Recently we have returned home from a wonderful holiday taking our converted van to  Northumberland. We spent a glorious day on a beautiful beach 25 minutes from our campsite down picturesque country lanes and through the dunes, a workout pushing my daughter's special needs buggy!! It was worth it though as we saw the soft sand, the sparkling blue sea and the white froth of the breaking waves. We set up for the day and I began one of my favourite tasks…people watching! As time passed, I noticed something fascinating, and God began revealing a challenging truth to me. I noticed the people at the water’s edge and began to see that they tended to fall into one of 6 groups of behaviour.  The strollers - These people are on their way down the beach to a given destination and as they stroll (or even march,) they walk along with their feet in the water, or occasionally being touched by a wave.  The toe dippers - These people simply only want to feel the water on their toe...