An Adventure in Ministry

  It has been a long long winter…. and i’m not talking about the world outside! As ecclesiasties 3:1 says: “There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens:” Sometimes you might feel the warmth of summer and other times it might feel a little bit colder. The past six months for me has been bitterly cold and I have felt a little like I was in a winter that would not end. Through this time I have been clinging to the fact that this too shall pass and verses like Peter 5:10-11: And then, after your brief suffering, the God of all loving grace, who has called you to share in his eternal glory in Christ, will personally and powerfully restore you and make you stronger than ever. Yes, he will set you firmly in place and build you up. And he has all the power needed to do this—forever! Amen. 1 Peter 5:10‭-‬11 TPT Thankfully after some very dark days this season began to come to an end and I began to see signs of spring apparent in my life. For us as a fam...

Recently I had a pretty scary experience with my daughter. She had been struggling with a cold and it had began to settle on her chest. One of the difficulties of children with Down Syndrome is their ‘pipes’ are usually a little smaller and so they can have colds move to their chest easier with a more dangerous consequence. As I sat and watched my daughter lying on me and having a second nap of the day (which is almost unheard of!) I started to worry. She was really laboured in her breathing. Every time she breathed it took the whole of her body to enable it and it was clearly getting worse. It wasn’t long before we were taking a very poorly little girl to accident and emergency. It was a very distressing night with lots of tests, lots of treatment and a good dose of oxygen. Thankfully the little one is back to her usual self and is doing well, but reflecting on the experience I have learned something about the nature of God. In the bible, in its original translation, the name for Go...

Every year I like to decorate our house ready for Easter and in pride of place I always have an Easter tree. It is made from the branches of trees from our back garden and I decorate it with different hanging eggs I have collected through the years. This year I put the tree up not long after going into our 12 week isolation as I thought it might cheer the house up a bit. Over the last couple of weeks as our family had been forced into a season of stop – it was amazing to watch how  buds on my Easter tree has grown and leaves have started to unfold bringing bursts of bright green into the room. I have also enjoyed watching as our garden has been filled with returning birds, and I have seen flowers and plants come to life once again . I even saw a story in the news this week about mountain goats coming down from the great Orme and taking over the town of Llandudno! Often in times of busyness I’m known to utter the phrase ‘Stop the world, I want to ge...

Here in the uk for the past months, we have been experiencing a heatwave. The media has been telling us that it is likely to be hotter than even the great summer of 1976. I have absolutely loved it. Every opportunity I have had, I have been swinging in my hammock, listening to podcasts and sipping on mint tea! Although some people have really struggled, wishing for rain and remembering cooler days gone by. I have been making the most of every moment of summer, not quite sure when it all might end. Through this time God had been speaking to me really clearly about seasons both physically and spiritually. I enjoy each of the seasons and believe that each of them brings a different beauty and joy. I would like to think the same is true for the seasons of my life. I try to see joy and beauty in each of these seasons too. I love the verse in Ecclesiastes that reminds us: “There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens:” ‭‭Ecclesiastes‬ ‭3:1‬...

Today it has been hot and sunny and I have heard many people talk about summer being here. Today we had the obligatory ice cream, purchased a paddling pool and had a bbq! Today I have been thinking about seasons The other week after one glorious day of sunshine followed by a day of rain, I heard people declare that summer is over! It made me think that some seasons tend to be much longer than others. Sometimes winter never seems to end and summer is so short loved. Some years we have a bumper crop of one plant and a shortage of another all because of the length of the seasons.  Seasons are very biblical and play an important part in God's economy. In our christian walk we go through seasons or times that are clearly distinct. In Ecclesiastes it talks about there being a season for everything and that is certainly the case, but I have been becoming increasingly aware that every season is a great opportunity for learning. It is an opportunity for wisdom, an opportunity f...