An Adventure in Ministry

As many of you will have noticed, over the past few weeks, shops have been filled with ghosts and ghouls, witches and monsters, and all manor of ‘scary’ things. On Monday, many people in our country will celebrate Halloween.  Now I am not a fan at all of Halloween and this time of year, for me, seems particularly dark.   The trailers at the cinemas are full of dark and scary horror films There are places people pay to visit with people dressed up in scary costumes and chase you around with knives and other weapons! Children are encouraged to go and do, one night of the year, something which they are told is incredibly dangerous the rest of the year… which is knock on a strangers door and then accept sweets from them!! The dark things in life are celebrated and revered and people even dress up to be like them! Not only all that… and that is certainly enough to give me nightmares! But there seems so much more darkness. Not only are the nights drawing...

A little while ago I wrote a very personal blog about my experience with infertility and some of the issues surrounding it (If you haven't read it, take a look here: Motherhood challenge ) I was absolutely blown away by the response to it. I received emails, texts and letters from people all over the world offering encouragement, sharing stories and asking advice. It was a very vulnerable place to be in, knowing everyone knew very personal details of my life and marriage, and it was definitely one of those 'shelter in the wings of God' moments, as, at times, it was very uncomfortable. However it highlighted to me that it was a topic often not spoken about, and over the past couple of days I have felt God calling me to share once again a few thoughts on this topic......So here it goes!  You are not abnormal! This is my biggest struggle as a christian woman tackling the minefield that is infertility.  So many times I am led to feel that I am half a woman, les...

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...

Just over a year ago, after a lot of prompting from God, and a lot of support from my husband, I began writing a blog. I was coming into a new season, a season of ministry and I wanted to share my journey and experiences with those around me. In this time a song had been resounding in my heart. It was a song that had been with me through some pretty dark days, but now, as I faced a new calling, it took on a new meaning. I prayer this prayer with my whole heart, and over the past year Ephesians 3:20 has proven true God has led me to a place which is amazing, rewarding, blessed, scary and tough all at once! I have learnt so much; God has taken my passion for writing and has turned it into a ministry I never thought possible. God has taken my passion for creativity and taken me deeper and deeper into the word through it. God has taken my passion for people and put me into a place where I have the privilege of telling them about the life giving love of ...

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...