An Adventure in Ministry

The past couple of days I have been away on retreat with other spiritual leaders from T he Sa l vation Army across the North West Eng l and and North wales. It was a great time of fellowship and waiting on God. The retreat’s theme was ‘Beauty in chaos’ and in one of the sessions entitled ‘ beauty in chaotic me’ and we were encouraged to think about the question ‘who am I’ Who am I? As I considered this I considered all the things I am, and I came to think of the positive and negative things that I am. I am a wife, a daughter, a step-mum, a minister, a friend etc. But I am also a coeliac, sometimes a grumpy wife, a lazy friend and a too-busy minister!! My mind also turned to the things that I am not. I considered one of my biggest desires and the fact I am not a mum…yet! When I considered this, many feelings came rushing towards me.. Feelings of shame, guilt, loss, emptiness. But Then I heard a voice, the voice told me who I am, it told me I am I AM Beloved (Jer...

It has been awhile since I have last posted a blog. This has been for many reasons, work has been busy, family life has been busy and I, a lover of routine, have found it difficult to get into the routine to sit down and write.  Ministry is fabulous. At times it can be lonely, exhausting and demanding, but God is moving in The Salvation Army (can I get an amen?!) and he is certainly moving in The Salvation Army in Mold. We are seeing lives transformed, commitments made, prayers being answered and dreams being dreamed.  We are hearing testimony of God drawing people deeper and we are seeing new members Literally being drawn off the street.  When God moves in a mighty way, the devil gets angry, and we have had our fair share of attacks; our brand new boiler has broken for the second time in three weeks and conflict has sprung up in unlikely places. But the most subtle way in which I have seen the devil attempt to work is by making people busy believing they can achi...

I woke up this morning to the news of the terror attack in Nice in France with a very heavy heart. As I lay pondering the situation, I considered the recent stirring in my spirit about the things I see happening. You see, the attack in France was horrendous and with it comes the awakening of anger and sorrow But What about the other places where terroist attacks have happened? Not just to our Western ‘Friends’ but the absolute fear and devestation around the whole world. In those countries we may never even visit. Those incidents that the news doesn’t even bother to report! A very quick google search brought a worrying result… Sources told me that so far this MONTH, not including the recent terrorist attack in France. There have been nearly 80 ‘terrorist attacks’ in our world. (I’m not getting into the whole what is terrorism discussion, but you get the picture!) As I scrolled through this list that represents hundreds of lives and families, I was horrified to see ma...

The English novelist Iris Murdoch once said “Prayer” is the most essential of all human activities” and I must say that this is so true. In the past few months I have really tried to focus on creating a regular rhythm of prayer in my life and I have seen just how essential prayer is to every moment of my day. Around 9 months ago I attended a spiritual day for Salvation Army officers and envoys in the North West, led by Majors Mel and Kath Jones. In the afternoon we had the opportunity to pray and reflect. One of the prayer stations was on the Stone Pillar of Jacob. It talked about Genesis 28 when Jacob sees the ladder to heaven. When he awakes he says: ‘Surely the Lord is in this place’ and calls is Bethel which means ‘The house of God.’ We were encouraged to consider where our own Bethel is. In our booklet there was also a quote from Henry Nouwen about finding a place of prayer which has been on my mind ever since it says: “As Jesus invites us, we need to find that private pl...