"Dear friend, understand this. Nobody has an effective healing ministry without love. As Paul says, what really matters is faith expressing itself in love. If we love people we feel for them in their needs and are prepared to turn to God for answers. Our faith may not always match the need, but spurred on by love we seek the Lord for more of His love, faith, power, and authority in our lives."

Colin Urquhart

Reversing reverse culture shock

Last week I was at a conference, which was just awesome. I may tell you more about it, but for now, it needs to sink in a bit. One evening though, I ended up having an awesome meal with about 5-6 other people. We had all lived overseas serving in some capacity (some had come to England especially for the conference before returning!). We have a rich conversation about reverse culture shock, and the process by which one returns home and settles back in. I was really interested.. because of the job I had done, because I am smack bang in the middle of returning home, and because I am really interested in learning more about how to support people as they come and go from overseas.

On fact that really shocked us, was that 40% of returning missionaries suffer from depression! That’s terrible! It was great talking through some of the things that can help or hinder the process of leaving and returning home, such as finding people to talk to who understand, our feelings of failure, or completion, or being, or feeling judged. It was awesome too, to hear about courses that are run for people who are going, and even returning home (I had never heard of that before!), as well as new books that are out.

There is also a new bible available which has an emphasis on God’s heart for the poor- how great is that! Check out an article on it HERE.

Monday night cooking...

Yesterday afternoon, I spent some time looking for something to make, finding the right one, going to the shops, to make it. It was a new one that I hadn't tried, and I was on desert. Sound familiar? Maybe not, but it just took my breath away when I realised what, exactly I was doing...!

You see, Monday night in HK is cooking night, where I cook a main, or desert, depending on whose turn it is, and while I miss my time in HK in general, this was a different kind of missing!

So, what was cooked? A birthday cake for Samuel, who is currently somewhere in South Africa, but we decided to celebrate anyway! A new recipe, chocolate walnut cake, from one of my favorite blogs, dead easy, and hasn't really lasted long:)

I don't know how possible it is, but will try and keep testing out new recipes each week- will see how it goes:)

Momento Mori

Momento Mori

Sweet day, so cool, so calm, so bright-
The bridal of the earth and sky-
The dew shall weep thy fall to-night,
For though must die.
Sweet rose, whose hue, angry and brave,
Bids the rash gazer wipe his eye,
Thy root is ever in its grave,
And thou must die.

Sweet spring, full of sweet days and roses,
A box where sweets compacted lie,
My music shows ye have your closes,
And all must die.

Only a sweet and virtuous soul
Like seasoned timber never gives,
But, though the whose world turn to coal,
Then chiefly lives.


Robert Herrick 1591-1674

The Kingdom

I went to Wales for the long weekend a few weeks ago, and had a glorious time! One of the many, many wonderful things about it was rediscovering poetry in some books there. I couldn't resist writing a few of them out, so hope to share a few with you here. This one is from a book of collected poems by R.S. Thomas, a Christian poet, who wrote an enormous amount. The other book I found, was called " A book of verse for boys"! So it was full of war, hero's, vision, and and glory. I may share some of them later, but for now, enjoy:)

The Kingdom

It’s a long way off but inside it

there are quite different things going on:
Festivals at which the poor man
Is kind and the consumptive is
Healed: mirrors in which the blind look
At themselves and love looks at them
Back: and industry is for mending
The bent bones and the minds fractured
By life. It’s a long way off, but to get
There takes no time and admission
Is free, if you will purge yourself
Of desire, and present yourself with
Your need only and the simple offering
Of your faith, green as a leaf.

I have been thinking more about what I wrote in my last post, and think I may have misrepresented the topic a little. Well, I cirtainly didn't go into how much I don't like seeing the end results, or seeing people being recognised for the part they play in a project/person's life/event either directly, or indirectly. I didn't go into the fact that the building that I saw, were indeed built over decades, and some even over a hundred years, so of course, the people involved didn't expect to see them finished (though I wonder how they dealt with changing technology, and fashions- but then, yes, things did move slower than they do now!)

Anyway, overall, it was wonderful to look at those buildings and see the perspective that the people involved would have had. They were building in faith, knowing they were part of something much bigger than themselves. I am sure they would have loved to see the end result, as I really would, but they knew they wouldn't, but it didn't stop them from sowing into the lives of the generations to come in such an amazing way. Ahh, to have the grace and patience to see things through in such a way:)

Smaller than the big picture

During my time in Italy and the UK, I have seen a lot of churches! Especially in Italy for a week, we walked through many churches, heard monks singing Gregorian chants, sat and watched, saw a mummified nun, admired the architecture of the different churches of different ages. Amazing. Last week, I went with a Cantonese friend to Westminster Abbey, and that was an experience in itself! It was amazing!! I had never really bothered about going in there before, and am so glad to have had the opportunity to see it finally. I was amazed at how huge it was, but also how much was in there. For a place that is so important and used for so many big events, I was impressed that it hadn’t been completely cleared out!

So yes, in Westminster, there was the graves, or memorials of such people like Queen Elizabeth, and Queen Mary, Charles II, John and Charles Wesley, Isaac Watts, Jane Austen, Jeffrey Chaucer- the list goes on!

The thing that has really, really struck me though, through all of these beautiful buildings, is that none of the architects would have seen the buildings complete, because back then they would have taken decades to build!!!! The people who started working on the buildings would have started in faith, trusting that each building would be completed, and not changed, that they would be used for their original purpose, that they would be special to the people who are able to use them. Talk about being open handed!

So, as I think about projects, people, things that I have been involved with, projects that I have seen the start, or the middle of- I have been reminded of these buildings, how small I am in it all, and what a gift it is, not a given, to see some of these things completed!

Check out some of the buildings I have enjoyed over the last few weeks!