Minister’s letter – October 2018
Dear friends,
What a difference a year makes! It hardly seems possible that it was a year ago that I was writing my first article for this newsletter. So much has happened since then. The manse has become ‘home’ as opposed to just the house where we live, and I can usually lay my hands on things at first attempt rather than searching through a multitude of cupboards and drawers, although there are some possessions that appear to have mysteriously vanished………..(Mike on a secret ‘clear-out campaign’ maybe??!).
We moved in as three adults, two dogs, a rabbit and a guinea pig. Finley came along and added a grandson to the mix but then he and Amy set up home with Howard and the house was strangely quiet for a while. We lost the guinea pig to old age, but the rabbit is going strong and of course Daley and Jackson are still very much part of the family – despite a recent bid for freedom through a fox-dug hole at the bottom of the garden. It was like a conjuring trick – one minute they were there and the next they’d vanished! Jackson came back quite quickly but Daley went on a late-night spree round the neighbouring back gardens with me, precariously-balanced on top of a kiddies’ plastic slide in order to see over the fence, torch in hand, calling her in an urgent stage whisper which she blithely ignored. Grrrr! Never a dull moment as they say.
In addition to Finley, this last year also saw the arrival of Harlow (Peter and Mel’s little daughter) who, with Reuben and Ava, brought the number of grandchildren to four – and now we discover there are three more on the way, God-willing. What a blessing grand-children are! Indeed, what a blessing children and families in general are. So often taken for granted but where would we be without those who love us and whom we love?
It’s not only at home that there have been causes for celebration; in church also it was a privilege to be able to baptise Graham and Alison’s grandson Austin and to conduct Rachel and Charlie’s wedding – how lovely to see Robert’s daughter, ‘one of our own,’ being married in her home church. I’m sure that Libby would have been so proud.
Of course, for many of us, friends may mean just as much as family and Mike and I consider ourselves doubly-blessed that over this last year you have welcomed us into the ‘family’ of Sandhurst & Yateley MC and extended to us the warmth of your friendship. As we’ve come to know you better, so we’ve seen that, along with the many good times, life has also been challenging and difficult for some, especially those who have struggled – and continue to do so – with long-term health problems. As those who belong to a fellowship of believers, we are called to help bear each other’s burdens through prayer and loving action.
If the Christian experience is one of pilgrimage – and I think it is – then I look forward to continuing the journey we began together a year ago, discerning where God is taking us as a church, being ready and willing to respond to his call, relying on one another for support and encouragement and thanking him for the blessings he bestows on the way: most of all that, in Jesus, he travels with us.
God bless you, Sharon