An Adventure in Ministry

  One of the things that I love about Christmas, particularly as someone within the Salvation Army, is carolling. I play in our brass band and I love when the time comes to begin to play carols! Often we sing Christmas carols but don’t really take notice of the words or where they came from. Recently as I have been looking at some of the Christmas Carols we sing, I have found some fascinating stories. For the second Carol in my series of Christmas Carols unwrapped we are looking at a beautiful carol - ‘It came upon a midnight clear’ This carol was written by Edmund Hamilton Sears in America the 19th Century. It was written at a time of great personal turmoil. He was a pastor and had recently suffered a breakdown as a result of the stresses of ministry and had moved back to a congregation he had previously shepherded.  Sears was also struggling with the state of the world around him. The United States were at war with Mexico and further afield there was revolution in Europe. Th...

  We have just come back from a beautiful summer holiday travelling around Norfolk in our newly converted van that I affectionately have named ‘Tristan!!’ It was a much needed time away, but I must admit I struggled, at times, to get into the rhythm of rest and find my peace. While spending time in prayer and reflection one morning while enjoying my morning cup of coffee, I felt God whisper a phrase to me. The phrase was ‘Fight for peace’ ‘Fight For Peace’  Initially the phrase made me feel uncomfortable. They seem to be the antithesis of one another! But as I spent some time considering this in line with the scriptures, I began to see the wisdom in the phrase.  I began to read scriptures about peace and see them in a completely new way. For example: "You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you." Isaiah 26:3 "Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests t...

Mother’s Day is approaching. For some people it is a time full of joy and celebration, for others, however, it can be a horrendous time full of sorrow and pain. I fall into the second category. For the past few years, as we have been ttc it has got harder and harder.  For a while, as a single woman Mother’s Day was tough as it reminded me of a future I wasn’t sure that I would have. Then when I met Paul I suddenly became step-mother to three teenage girls and it brought a whole new dimension. Mother’s Day at church was filled with conflicted loyalty for the girls and a reminder that I wasn’t a real mum! I remember one year, one of the girls going to get me the obligatory ‘Mother’s Day gift’ whilst another having stern words with her that I shouldn’t receive a gift as I wasn’t really her mum and that their mum was at home expecting a gift. The whole while I felt terribly guilty that I had put everyone in such a position, happy that I was seen in some way as a mum and sad th...

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 ...

After our visit to Caesarea, we moved onto Mount Carmel, a possible place where Elijah went head to head with the prophets of Baal and called fire from heaven down. It was a stunning place. There was a beautiful garden of peace and tranquillity and as we stopped in a quiet part of the gardens, I heard an Indian priest address a group of pilgrims. He called them to rise up and follow the God, who in that place, sent fire down from heaven. He called them to be true disciples of Jesus. At this my heart stirred, and I had to stop myself from shouting AMEN! As the group moved on and our guides spoke to us, they read from 1 Kings 18 and reminded us of the story of Elijah and the prophets of Baal. They also shared from James 5:16 “16  Therefore confess your sins  to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed.   The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective. ” As we sat in the place where God so miraculously answered Elijah’...

recently there has been a thing called the motherhood challenge going around on facebook, where you post up a number of pictures that you love of you as a mum and then tag a number of people who you think of as good mothers.  It all sounds very nice doesn't it?!? But for me it has proved a bit of a challenge...will if I'm honest each post has left me feeling lots of conflicting emotions; happiness - at seeing so many beautiful children sadness - that I am not a mother jealousy - what do they have that I do not?!? anger - why has God blessed these women and not me? insecurity - does God not think I'm good enough?  guilt - why can I just not be happy for them and scroll on?!? You see two years ago.  my husband Paul and I decided we wanted to try for a baby.  Paul already has three daughters from a previous marriage, they are all teens and absolutely beautiful inside and out. I love them very dearly and thank God for them every day, but I wa...