An Adventure in Ministry

  I' m a huge Christmas fan! When it comes to the festive season I am all in! I have already had my decorations up for over a week and eaten multiple mince pies. I love continuing Christmas traditions from my childhood and over the years we have worked to build new traditions both with my older step daughter and now my little girl. This year we are even having an elf to visit (I’m sure I will regret this one!)  One of my absolute favourite things to do over the festive period (and I have already watched more than I care to admit this Christmas already!) is to get up early, sit with a cup of coffee by the light of the tree, and watch a cheesy romantic ‘Hallmark’ Movie! I absolutely love them! The film where the Christmas hating girl from the city returns home to the family Christmas tree farm that was left to her by her late aunt. When she returns she finds that it is in danger and  She only has a few weeks to save it. At the farm, the only employee is  a surly and ha...

  I have recently returned from a beautiful holiday in Norfolk. The last year has been so busy with working, studying, caring for a child with special needs, recovering from surgery and much much more, so I was in desperate need of a rest! As we prepared to go away I clung on to two scriptures to help me focus.  Be still and know that I am God: Psalm 46: 10  “Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.” One of the things I love to do on holiday is read. Over the last year I have read so many books, some of them taxing, some of them long and some of them pretty dry, so I decided that this holiday I was going to read something a little different and so I went armed with the ...

I have just returned from the most amazing weekend at the Riverbank conference, 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 second post in a series of what God spoke to me while I was there (You can find my first post here: Tales From the Riverbank: Singing at Midnight ) If you were there too I would love to hear what God revealed to you, I would love to include you on a guest blog post! 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! On the Saturday morning of the riverbank conference we listened to Commissioner Debbie Horwood as she brought us truths about God’s great compassion, and there was something she said that completely and utterly floored me! She spoke about how she has been doing a deep dive on the word used for compassion in the Old Testament - the wor...

This week I have been thinking about double portions. It is a concept spoken about directly six times in scripture, but happens to appear in two of my favourite passages. In the story of Hannah, a women who walked through infertility, we read:    But to Hannah he gave a double portion because he loved her, and the Lord had closed her womb. 1 Samuel 1:5 In order to show love to his wife in the midst of a difficult season, he gave her a double portion of the sacrificial meat.  We also read about a double portion in Isaiah 61. This is part of a scripture that has been spoken over me prophetically and one that I often return to. Verse 7 says:  Instead of your shame  you will receive a double portion, and instead of disgrace  you will rejoice in your inheritance. And so you will inherit a double portion in your land,  and everlasting joy will be yours. I love the fact that in this scripture the double portion gets a double mention!! So what is a double por...

  I have always enjoyed football and there is nothing better than a European or World tournament. I have watched nearly every match of the European tournament this year and have loved (nearly) every minute of it! However, over the past few years I have began to notice something that makes me feel uncomfortable and this year I felt I needed to speak out.   I did most of my growing up in Liverpool and became a supporter of Everton Football club. I enjoyed watching matches but I also enjoyed cheering on Liverpool FC when they did better than my team and achieve cups and awards, after all Liverpool was my city and anything we as a city achieved was good in my book!   When watching sport I also enjoy cheering on other countries in the United Kingdom, having lived in Wales, and now living in Scotland, over the Euros I have loved celebrating their success and cheering them on! However I have been horrified to discover that this is not the case for everyone and in fact in...

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. ...