An Adventure in Ministry

The Salvation Army has a brilliant song book that is packed full of poetry about life, faith, God and everything in between. One of my favourite songs and one which I still regularly refer to is the song called Count your blessings, written by Johnson Oatman jr in 1897 the words say: When upon life’s billows you are tempest-tossed, When you are discouraged, thinking all is lost, Count your many blessings, name them one by one, And it will surprise you what the Lord has done. Refrain: Count your blessings, name them one by one, Count your blessings, see what God has done! Count your blessings, name them one by one, And it will surprise you what the Lord has done. Are you ever burdened with a load of care? Does the cross seem heavy you are called to bear? Count your many blessings, every doubt will fly, And you will keep singing as the days go by. So, amid the conflict whether great or small, Do not be discouraged, God is over all; Count your many blessings, angels will attend, Help and ...

A few weeks ago, as part of our staycation exploring Scotland, we decided to take a day trip to the Isle of Arran. The Island holds a special place in my husband’s heart and he couldn’t wait to show our daughter all the places he frequented on his childhood holidays.  In the afternoon we spent some time on a beautiful beach and as I sat listening to the sound of the sea, I had a magical moment where I could almost hear the sound of bagpipes on the breeze. However the sound continued for some time and we realized that the sound was real – there really were bagpipes playing! In fact there was a group of people doing a bagpipe display for a primary school in the local park. My daughter absolutely loves the bagpipes and will happily watch you tube videos of them all day long! So you can imagine how excited she was to seem some in the flesh! Later as we sat on the beach we started to talk about how, often when we are on holiday or daytrip adventures, we find there happens to be interest...

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. ...

Last weekend I had the privilege of attending and serving on the team for Women and God weekend (or WAG weekend!). This is a weekend conference run by The Salvation Army with 300 women of all ages learning what it means to live a life sold out for God… And what an amazing weekend it was For me the weekend was full of service, ministry, knock-you-off-your-feet God moments and coffee! On Friday morning before the ladies arrived, we took time to pray over names, situations and words from God, and this set the tone for the spirit-filled weekend ahead.   I had also been asked to lead a seminar/workshop on the Saturday afternoon entitled ‘Grace Through Adversity.’ Based on Psalm 34, we talked about the importance of sharing our stories of how God has moved in our times of difficulty. I took some time to share my story of grace through adversity and my walk through infertility. We had a chance to reflect on those things we have been through. We shared Isaiah 61:3 and exchan...

Today we traveled to the Dead Sea area and we started at Kumaran. Here we saw the place where the Dead sea scrolls were found. The area was amazing, there was cliff after cliff and the whole land seemed barren. However in a pretty non-descript place these life changing scrolls were found.  Looking over the area, I marvelled at how God works. How the seemingly impossible, with him, becomes possible and how he works things together to make sure his plans come to pass. I decided, whenever I struggle to see God's plan, or whenever things seemed hopeless I would think of this place, because if he could ensure then 'needle in the haystack' was found, he can do the impossible things in my life. As Jeremiah 29:11 says:  Our second stop was an amazing mountain palace built by Herod in Masada. It was the place of a showdown between revolting Jews in the palace and the Romans on the hillside. It was an astounding place. It was amazing that it had even been made in such ...

As many of you know I write devotionals monthly for   www.herbinderproject.com   and www.quitewomen.com  and I recently wrote this devotional. I really felt this morning someone needed to read this x x x                                God’s word promises us that he will give us the desires of our hearts if we live a life sold out to him…but he doesn’t say when! I remember when all my friends started to find long term relationships and get married. It was a really difficult time. The desire of my heart was to be a wife and a mum, but I couldn’t see how God was going to do it! I blamed myself for the long wait…I thought I wasn’t good enough, pretty enough, funny enough! But then I came to a realisation, a God given realisation. God asked me what I was focusing on; my desires or God. You see, we have to be focused on the right things. We must choose to fix our eyes on Je...

I am in such a blessed position! My husband and I are the commanding officers (pastors) of a wonderful church and community outreach, and the people are gorgeous!! In our short year in leadership in this place we have seen God moving in a really powerful way; We have seen people coming to Christ, We have seen people touched with the Holy Spirit, We have seen people blossoming and flourishing before our eyes, We have seen prayers answered in a powerful way, We have seen God provide for our needs, We have seen more and more people who are lost and desperate come through our doors Yet I  WANT MORE! Recently at a conference I was challenged to dream big! To lay aside things that hold us back and press on to the goal. You see it is so easy to get bogged down in the day to day flow of life. It is easy for the little things to become the big things, and then the big things seem to fade away. The devil doesn't play fair! He always plays dirty.  BUT! ...

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...

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. ...