An Adventure in Ministry

For the last few days I have been thinking about one of my favourite bible verses and one which I often claim for myself and that is John 10:10 that declares  “A thief has only one thing in mind—he wants to steal, slaughter, and destroy. But I have come to give you everything in abundance, more than you expect—life in its fullness until you overflow!” I love this verse and there have been times in my life where I have seen my abundant God shower blessings upon me and do truly miraculous things. But, I have to be honest with you life isn’t always like that. Maybe it is for you and I am so thankful for your experience, but that’s not my experience!  I have had a really rough couple weeks. As a minister Christmas is always so busy and this year even more so as I juggle long distance study with The Salvation Army’s officer training college. The time between Christmas and new year is usually a lovely time of rest, reset and seeking God for the year ahead, but that certainly hasn’t ...

  One of the things that I love about Christmas, particularly as someone within the Salvation Army, is carolling. I play in our brass band and I love when the time comes to begin to play carols! Often we sing Christmas carols but don’t really take notice of the words or where they came from. Recently as I have been looking at some of the Christmas Carols we sing, I have found some fascinating stories. For the second Carol in my series of Christmas Carols unwrapped we are looking at a beautiful carol - ‘It came upon a midnight clear’ This carol was written by Edmund Hamilton Sears in America the 19th Century. It was written at a time of great personal turmoil. He was a pastor and had recently suffered a breakdown as a result of the stresses of ministry and had moved back to a congregation he had previously shepherded.  Sears was also struggling with the state of the world around him. The United States were at war with Mexico and further afield there was revolution in Europe. Th...

  My husband and I love being out in nature, and an ideal day for us involves a walk in the countryside where we don’t see another soul! When we are out walking, we like to identify plants and trees that might have edible fruits and are always on the look out for wild herbs that may have some medicinal use. This is known as foraging. I find that it is a wonderful reminder that God has provided us with everything that we need in this world…but that is another blog post for another day!  One dictionary definition of foraging says that it means: to search about; seek; rummage; hunt or to wander in search of provisions One of the things I love about walking at this time of year is blackberry picking and last year we found a beautiful walk with a spot that was just bursting full of blackberries. It has been a funny summer this year, and some of the fruit and veg we have attempted to grow hasn’t done too well due to the damp conditions, However we came to our blackberry patch last w...

  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...

  I love testimony!  My favourite psalm, Psalm 34 begins by saying: Lord! I’m bursting with joy over what you’ve done for me! My lips are full of perpetual praise. I'm boasting of you and all your works, so let all who are discouraged take heart. For me, over the riverbank conference, testimony became the unofficial theme of the weekend, as I heard many amazing testimonies and was able to share some testimony of my own. One such person I had a beautiful moment of testimony with was the beautiful inside and out Rhiannon from Activate your life. I was browsing the marketplace and looking at a beautiful pair of earrings, when the lady next to the stall commented that they were very similar to my tattoo. I then began to share with her the story of my tattoo and we had a brilliant conversation about how God has moved in our lives and the passion God has for the least and lost in our society. If you haven’t ever heard the story of my tattoo then I have recently recorded a podcast wi...

  I have just returned from the most amazing weekend at the Riverbank, with women connected to The Salvation Army from all over the country. God’s presence was tangible, the worship was powerful and the teaching was Holy Spirit inspired. This is the third post in a series of what God spoke to me about while I was there (You can find my first post HERE or my second HERE ) If you were there too I would love to hear what God revealed to you! If you weren't there I pray that a little of the riverbank will flow into your heart and you might just sign up to join us next year! In all honesty I arrived at Riverbank feeling pretty exhausted. As a full time minister in The Salvation Army, a ministry with women walking through infertility, a mum, a wife and many other ‘hats’ I felt a little as if I was running on empty. I came to the conference as part of the team to give to the people who were attending, but I wasn’t quite sure how I was going to do it. In the car on the way down to the co...

  This week as part of our Holy week celebration we, as a church will be participating in a passover seder, remembering the meal that Jesus would have had with his disciples shortly before he was arrested. Although my husband will be leading the experience and I will be at home looking after our daughter, I have been sourcing the food and helping with the preparation, and I have found it fascinating.  The passover festival is one that can be summed up as bittersweet. Bitter as they remember the Israelites time of slavery and oppression and sweet as they remember the freedom from it and their great escape. In fact bittersweet is a term that fits the Israelites well, and throughout the scripture we see times of bitterness intermigled with times of great sweetness. At the passover sedar the food that it eaten can also be described as bittersweet and at places, food are combined together to give exactly that experience. Bitter herbs called Maror (usually Horseradish) are dipped in...