my Easter

Most people's Easters last for a long weekend, but mine lasted a whole week!
It started last Thursday evening when the folk from our Chapel were invited up the road to join in the Maundy Thursday supper at the local Anglican Church. We have been doing this for several years now and have got to know the folk at Church really well.
We have a simple meal of home-made soup, home-made bread rolls, cheese and grapes and our time together concludes with Holy Communion. The father-in-law of the Anglican Deacon who was leading the service was a Baptist minister and the service was taken from the small red book known by many Baptist ministers.
On Friday we had a service at our Chapel at 3pm which was well attended.
Saturday morning saw many of us back in the Chapel decorating it ready for Sunday morning.
And on Easter Sunday we were joined by several visitors who were staying at the local caravan site.
Monday was a day off, but Tuesday was our monthly bible study, where over lunch the vicar said that one of his favourite passages is the story of Jesus meeting the two disciples travelling on the road to Emmaus - little did he know but that was our passage for the day! We had a new face to the bible study - one of our longest serving members at Chapel.
And yesterday instead of our regular coffee morning at the village hall we had an Easter Tea.
Each week we pay £1 for our coffee and biscuits, but the money is saved and every few months we go out for lunch at the local hotel or pub and once a year we have an amazing tea. I knew what to expect, so this year I took along my camera. There were about 25 of us to eat this tea and many took sandwiched and cakes home as well!

clusters

and I don't mean nut clusters... or maybe I do, hearing the amount of laughter and glorious silliness at the meeting we had yesterday!
For those of you reading this who are not aware of Baptist structures, about 30 years ago, churches were encouraged to link up with other Baptist churches in their area for support and encouragement.
When I lived 'up north', there were three churches in our cluster but one was a large inner-city church, one a small sea-side church and the third a rural farming chapel. Apart from being Baptist we had nothing in common.
However, here in Wales we have the 'Rural Churches' consisting of eight small churches and chapels all around the English/Welsh border; some are in villages while others seem to be in the middle of nowhere but all are struggling. Two have full-time ministers, one a part-time minister and there is also a lay pastor both who regularly preach at the chapels without ministers. But one of the main reasons it works is because in this area of farms you will often find relatives marrying someone from a different chapel! and it seems to be quite a static community with farms being passed on down the generations.
Over the years we have been meeting four times a year where there is plenty of time for conversation catching up with friends, eating, worshipping and praying together. But this year we also held a study group looking at small churches and many folk come to our Services of Prayer for Healing.
Yesterday we had a Prayer Lunch; we used to have a Prayer Breakfast but it meant a very early start for those who prepared the meal! In early summer we have a Praise evening, in late summer we hold a barbecue and in December we have an Advent Service. And this morning we had the pleasure of Joy, the Lay Pastor take our service.

the walk pt.2

Today the legs seem to be OK but yesterday afternoon, having walked to Chapel and back they were telling me that they knew they had walked up the hill the day before!

This is the view of the hill taken from my study window. I am very grateful to our neighbours who cut down their large ugly conifers last year as the trees had obscured my view! I don't get this view when sitting at my desk but by kneeling on my desk and leaning out of the window. As you can see the weather was glorious this morning!

On Saturday we walked up to the top which is in shadows and then along the top to as far as you can see. One day I would like to go further but not sure about walking all the way to Hay! although I know that one of my blogging friends, now in Scotland, has walked the Offa's Dyke path which runs across the fields at the back of our house and then follows the route we took.

As a diabetic I have to be careful over my insulin and food input with the energy I use walking. So on a walking day, I skip my breakfast injection and just before we leave I am allowed to have toast or bread spread liberally with marmalade! Within half an hour, I have a treat of a sugary biscuit, another half hour and I can eat a sweet and then with my sandwiches, I can have a piece of cake! such luxury!

A walk

When we were looking for a house to buy, we told the estate agents that it had to be detached - not only because we didn't want to hear what the neighbours were doing but because we like to play our music loud! What we didn't say was that we would like it to be within walking distance of a baptist church or chapel and that we would like to put our boots on indoors to walk the hills - ie. we didn't want to drive first!
Fortunately three years ago, a suitable house came on the market - the fact that we still are no-where getting it to how we would like it is beside the matter, but also goes to explain why we have not walked across the fields and up our favourite hill since we moved here!
Until today!
We made the decision on Thursday and watched the weather forecast which improved over the last two days - but we go prepared for rain anyway.
I was quite surprised at my energy levels and we walked further than we last went four years ago. There was a little precipitation in the air when we stopped for coffee but there were pockets of blue sky by lunch time and as we sat on the top we could see Hereford and the Malvern Hills in the distance and the Bristol Channel in the other direction.
The sheep on the top had very thick coats which seemed much whiter than those down on the fields.

As well as the sheep, there were wild ponies. In the past these ponies would have been taken south to the valleys and then down the mines where they would have stayed for many years.

We are on Hatteral Hill looking across to The Skirrid, a hill that we usually climb up the sharp angle, which is the quickest way from home.

These two ponies were obviously friends, rubbing their heads and necks together and you can see from their manes and tails, it was quite breezy!

Our legs were a bit wobbly as we got nearer home and it tried to rain but by the time we had stopped to put on our over-trousers the rain left off and we didn't get the deluge promised by the weather forecast.

forty years on

I'm the only one from my family who wasn't addicted to photography. Both my parents belonged to a photographic club and my brother joined in his early teens and won most of the prizes! My Dad took colour slides and Mum took black and white photos which she then developed and printed herself which explains why this is a black and white photo and why she is not in it! It was taken at my eldest son's party after his dedication. He loves it as he sees himself as being the centre of attraction - which of course he was!

This last Sunday was his son Oliver's christening and I suggested that we recreate the photo and Mark insisted that I was in the photo rather than behind the camera, for which I was grateful as I now have to get others to take photos with my camera as my shakey hands mean fuzzy pictures!

There are three people who are in both photographs, Mark, on the right with the bright pink tie! his Dad, at the back with beard (he is the one with long hair and seventies' moustache in the original photo!) and I'm on the left of Oliver (on Mark's right in the original).

It was earlier in the day when the original was taken so Mark was happy to pose, but by this time Oliver had had enough!

The christening was held in their local church in Epping Forest and as it is called the church of the Holy Innocents, the font is at the front of the church. It was a beautiful service, with his Auntie Mandie reading a poem and I said a prayer. As well as each of the Godparents also making the sign of the cross on Oliver's forehead, the lady vicar held Mark and Katie's hands together and blessed them in caring for Oliver. Then it was a short walk back to their home for the party!

kaleidoscope

Through facebook I was aware that one of my 'friends' was going to be on BBC1's 'The Big Question' discussing the problem of alcohol.
Martin's Dad occasionally preached at the church where I spent my early adult life and we were enthralled at the amazing work that was being done in Kingston. There was always an open invitation to visit and have a meal in their cafe with its big red aga and expresso machine.
But Eric always emphasised that no-one should think that they could copy their work but that each church had to work out for themselves the work that God wanted them to do.
Over the years friendships were established and when I had my call to the ministry, it was suggested that the call should be tested by putting me on the reception desk to help dispense Methadone. Some of my shifts were during the day, sometimes in the evening but often I would start at 11pm by locking the gates, logging off the computer for the day and then clean the reception area which meant mopping down the floor and cleaning the loo! Eventually I would get my head down and be woken by my alarm in time to wash and dress, get the computer up and running for the day and unlock the gates ready to welcome the first clients of the day at 7am. These were often well dressed men and women who would then commute to London.
Very occasionally a client would get chatting asking me why I was there, and although I was rather wary of telling them, they were always delighted and would tell me about their faith. But sometimes they would let slip a little about their lives which left me thinking... what would I have done? how would I have coped? I learnt that very important lesson about never judging someone else, especially if it is very unlikely that one would ever have to walk a mile in their shoes.

I went to the doctor's and now I have a cold!

Each year I have a general check up for both my asthma and diabetes which fortunately and with a lot of will power, I manage to keep under control. But unfortunately a few days later I started sneezing and blowing my nose. By Tuesday I felt washed out and have spent most of the week taking it very easy.
Then this morning we saw the weather forecast predicting snow overnight and for most of tomorrow! and we thought we should do the weekly shop today before we are likely to get snowed in, although we do realise that the forecast could be wrong!
So this afternoon I'm back on the sofa with my feet up and a blanket over my legs but I have been reminded of my recent session at college where we have been looking at self awareness, concentrating on being aware of our bodies.
As other blogging friends know very well, it is when we are confronted with a serious illness that we take far more notice of our bodies, because if we are unaware or work through pain or stress our bodies can become quite unwell.
In Psalm 139 we are reminded that our bodies, all the delicate and inner parts were knitted together in our mother's womb by God. And so it is up to us to take great care of our bodies and not to abuse them.
And as someone who loves knitting, I love the idea that God picked up knitting needles and made me!