An Adventure in Ministry

  I love singing! My husband laughs often as in the midst of conversation a word or phrase will bring to mind a song and I can’t help but sing it! Our house is always full of singing and music whether it is Paul’s, mine or our daughter - whose love for music is a strange and eclectic mix of The Wiggles, worship music, classical music and bagpipes!  I love singing in worship too and have enjoyed singing in choirs, worship bands and being a part of corporate worship. Worship and singing is pretty important in the bible too, with over 185 songs penned by a variety of writers and three books devoted to them in Psalms, Lamentations and Songs of Solomon.  The songs in the bible have many different topics including; Victory in battle, formation of covenants, lament, the death of friends, praise, romance, prophecy and waiting, to name but a few.  There are four beautiful songs in the bible that were written by powerful women of God. The songs of Miriam, Deborah, Hannah and M...

  Re cently I was watching my beautiful daughter playing and reflecting on our journey to becoming a family. At age three my beautiful little girl is still not quite walking yet and has few words beyond Mumma, Dadda, Good girl, the wiggles and cake – obviously the most important words! You see our perfect daughter has Down Syndrome, which means that she takes a little longer to do the things that come so easy to others. I smiled as she managed pulled a photo of her nana out of her photo bag, signed her name and clapped herself in congratulations and pondered on the truth that although this wasn’t what I had planned when I began my journey to become a mum, it was full of the golden threads of his grace.   As many of you know my journey to motherhood wasn’t an easy one, in fact I became the step-mother to teenagers before we even tried to extend our own family! We journeyed through years of trying to extend our family but never getting anywhere. Eventually in 2018 we decided t...

It is rather apt that I have chosen to write this blog post now as Paul and I have just celebrated our six year wedding anniversary. I’m not ashamed to take this opportunity to share some of our gorgeous wedding photographs with you! Although in the grander scheme of things six years married may not be a long time, through our marriage we have faced caring for my terminally ill mother-in-law and later seeing her  pass away; navigating bringing up Paul’s three teenage daughters. We have lost jobs, friends ,   dreams and have also spent nearly all of our marriage trying to conceive children.  Not only have we faced all these difficulties, but we have spent nearly four years working in partnership in ministry. So we not only live and socialise together, but we work together every day too and I am proud to say that it has never been stronger! I don’t say this to brag, but through some pretty big struggles we have learnt some really important truths. ...

A few months ago our lives were turned upside down (in an utterly gorgeous and beautifully fulfilling way) when finally, after over five years of praying, waiting and believing we brought our beautiful adopted daughter home to her forever family. It has taken me  a while to get used to the title of ‘mum’ and to realise that those aisles in the supermarket that were once too painful to walk down are now the ones I frequent the most!  Having now settled down with miracle I have begun to ponder some of the things that God has taught me through our journey to grow our family. They are lessons that I am still  learning daily and there are burdens that are still very real. I am painfully aware that  although I now have the most perfect little poppet to call me mum, I have never seen a positive pregnancy test, never given birth to a baby and I’m still know as someone with unexplained infertility.  Over the next few week I would love to share 5 th...

Throughout my journey of infertility I have learnt so much. I have learnt that he holds me in the hardest time, I have learnt that he if faithful and will provide you with the love and support that you need to endure each trial. I have learnt that his timing is perfect, even when I just don’t get it!! However one thing I have really struggled with through this time, one small word that holds so much power, that small word is HOPE. In my darkest days I have failed to see any hope at all, and on my easier days I have simply been too afraid to have hope in case I might get my hopes up in order to have them dashed again by the familiar sight of a negative pregnancy test. The bible verse Proverbs 13:12 “Hope deferred makes the heart sick” was so true in some of the areas of my life, and although God was doing amazing things through my story and in my life, I still felt I was lacking in hope that God really was going to give me a child. Last October, a beautiful sis...

As some of you know, recently I embarked on a pilgrimage to Israel. Whilst there I kept a journal and thought I would share some of my thoughts here. 10th May 2017 Today I began my pilgrimage to Israel. Paul and I decided to book this trip in memory of his mother Jean. For me, this is a trip I have wanted to make for many years and I have been preparing for this for months. However, as I sit in my hotel room at Heathrow, I wonder if I have really prepared spiritually as well as I should have? You see, my life as a minister means long days, an endlessly busy mind and a servant’s heart which gives an awful lot. I love my full time ministry in The Salvation Army. I have found the sweet place of sitting in God’s will, but always being pushed forward and closer to him. After a pretty tiring and difficult drive from Wale, I am now feeling pretty exhausted and overwhelmed. These verses are resounding in my head as I seek rest. “Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? C...