An Adventure in Ministry

Today is a good day! The sun is shining, the daffodils on the table I am sitting at are blooming and beautifully scented and as I watch the daily like of my corps go on, I feel so blessed! When I embarked on ministry, I knew it would be diverse, but some days it blows me away! Just this morning (and it's only 10am!) I have spent time soaking in his word, sent copious emails, written a bible study, picked up food donations to gift to a local church, sorted through some donations of clothes and had a sing song!  Ministry is a great orchestra full of diverse instruments, from a simple triangle to an exquisite cello and a kazoo thrown in too!  As I sit and observe the bustle going on around me, I see a member of staff give a lesson to a lad in his twenties on how to add up a bill as he simply cannot count. I watch my husband talk with one of the volunteers, just doing life together. I also see a family come in who are regulars in the coffee shop and have excitedly...

Over the past few days I have spent some time on retreat with some fellow ministers in the Salvation Army. It has been a great time of teaching, relaxing, laughing and worshiping. It has been good taking time out of my (VERY) busy schedule and just focusing on what is important. This morning in my War (prayer) room I was considering the testimony given at the end of the retreat. We heard great words about answered prayer, divine direction and a passion to see God moving more in our community.  One brilliant, Godly man stood up and told how God had healed him and taken him from a place with Cancer everywhere to one where they can't find any! He said if you ever want to know if prayer works, just look at me! AMEN! I had testified about taking Joy in the Lord. That fabulous verse in Nehemiah says 'The joy of the Lord is my strength!', and I told of how God had been bringing great Joy to me in my ministry and how I believed it was strengthening me. As I considered these ...

It’s been a tough couple of weeks. The challenges seem to be coming thick and fast and the devil has started to get a bit personal. But if you remember my word for this year is gratitude so I won’t bore you with any details! Instead let me share some of the great blessings the past few weeks have given me! Sometimes do forget, or maybe don’t appreciate the little messages God gives or those answers to prayers that we have been praying for a long while. Today however, I want to celebrate them! Not only to share with you some of the Awesome things God has done, but by remembering these blessing I am building myself up for the things that are ahead A couple of weeks ago as I was reading my daily devotional I was prompted to read Isaiah 54. When I got to verse 2 I read this. “Enlarge the place of your tent,      stretch your tent curtains wide,      do not hold back; lengthen your cords,      strengthen your stakes. ...

At the start of this new year I felt called by God to try something I had come across in a few blogs. You choose a word (prayerfully!) and use it to hang your thoughts, journal and ideas for the year. A lot of people I have read about have seen it really transform their life, so I thought I would give it a go! The word I chose was GRATITUDE. So this week I have started 52 weeks of gratitude, and I will attempt to share some of my ponderings with you!    The first week asks why start this challenge? Well gratitude is a great thing to exercise. The talks time and time again about giving thanks. But how often when we pray are we guilty of giving thanks to God as a pre-curser to the main event.....asking for what we want.  Having an attitude of gratitude is something that I believe could completely change my faith, my marriage, my ministry and my relationships. When we go through our life looking for opportunities to give thanks, we can't help but also see love, ...