Day 67 - Easter Sunday

Busy day – off to church for 8.30am communion service followed by an Easter breakfast in aid of Mercy Ships and then the 11am service where I was running the crèche and doing Easter crafts (making bunny and lamb masks).  Have decided that our family tradition will be Easter eggs after church (mainly so we don’t go to church with the girls’ new Easter dresses being covered in chocolate!) – Jessica was very happy with her Mr Tumble egg and breakfast set and Sophie will have to wait until next year for her first taste of Easter egg as not weaning yet.

Day 60 - Helping out at the church lunch

We have a monthly Sunday lunch at our church for those living alone, and in the past few years, I’ve taken my turn on the rota to provide the meal.  Since Sophie’s arrival, I’ve not been able to do this and my mother-in-law has volunteered to help out instead.  This week was her first time doing the lunch and so we were helping her out in the kitchen.  Despite a mini disaster with one tray of food having to be discarded, it went fairly well and we managed to make what was left stretch far enough to feed everyone there.

Day 47 - Church magazine archives

One of my roles at church is editor of the church magazine which comes out on the first Sunday of the month.  This means that the end of the month is always very busy as I always seem to leave things to the last minute and then have to frantically put the magazine together ready to send to the office for printing.  One of the regular features which I write is ‘From the Archives’.  I love looking back at the old issues of the magazine, reading the church family news from years ago (my husband’s birth was one item mentioned!)

Day 11 - Sophie's christening

 

Sophie was christened at our church today in her mummy’s christening gown and her daddy’s christening shawl (which his great-grandmother made).  It was such a special day and so lovely to celebrate with family and friends.  The service included two hymns that we had chosen – “Great is thy faithfulness” which is a particularly special hymn for us as a family and “O Lord My God (How Great Thou Art)” which I love because it is so full of praise for all the wonderful things that God does and we have so many things to thank Him for as a family.

Venturing out

Sophie is one week old today!  After spending the whole of the last week enjoying a bit of a babymoon and being snuggled up at home together, we finally ventured out into the world today to go to church and introduce Sophie to our lovely church family.  It was so lovely to go out as a family of four - both our girls were so good during the service - Jessica played happily on the floor with some toys and Sophie just slept through it all.  Our friend Brian came over in the afternoon and took some lovely family photos of us.

Saturday coffee mornings

I love the Saturday coffee mornings at my church.  Each week, someone different organises them – usually in aid of a charity close to their hearts (we usually organise two or three each year for the charities that have helped us since Jessica’s diagnosis).  Sometimes there are cakes, other times just tea, coffee and biscuits but we always have a lovely sociable morning and Jessica loves going along to church.  It is such a familiar environment for her – she knows where the toys are and I can sit and chat and just watch her play, knowing that she will be safe.

Singing solo

I was asked to sing a hymn as a solo for this morning’s church service which was organised by our worship planning group. I love singing but I did find that singing a solo at church was much more nerve-wracking than singing a solo in a concert although I’m not quite sure why. Perhaps it was just because it was a hymn I didn’t know and I only had a couple of days to learn it (although admittedly it was my choice to learn it by heart – I’ve always preferred not to have any music in my hand where possible).

Church coffee morning

Had a coffee morning at church this morning to raise funds for Friends of PICU, a charity which helps children in intensive care at Southampton and their families and one which is very close to our hearts as Jessica spent so much time in PICU in Southampton. One of our lovely church friends came along to help watch Jessica (she is too big now to be happy sitting in a playpen while we serve teas and coffees) and also brought some home-made fairy cakes which was very much appreciated. We raised just over £50 which we were quite pleased with.

Here Comes Summer concert

Our summer concert at church seemed to go quite well in the end although it was a shame that the audience was so small – the lovely sunny weather obviously worked against us in some ways! It was all a bit of a mad rush this morning with rehearsing through all the numbers and trying to get all the lighting and sound kit ready and everyone fitted with mics but we just about managed to be ready on time and everyone did very well. Jessica enjoyed her second stage appearance in the final number ‘The Sun Has Got His Hat On’

New minister

Had our welcome service for our new minister at church this evening. We have been without a minister for just over a year which on the one hand has been good as it has really helped us to pull together as a church family and it has been quite interesting having a variety of preachers on a Sunday morning. Still, it will be good to finally have our own minister again. It’s also provided an incentive to get some of those publicity jobs done that I have been sitting on for a while (Jessica’s imminent arrival also providing another incentive!)

RIP Olive

Have been saying goodbye to a very lovely lady from my church today. Olive passed away recently at the grand old age of 95 and was one of the first people whom I got to know at the church I attend, mainly because she knew Michael’s family so well, having been good friends with Michael’s nanna when Michael’s nanna was alive. She was always very smiley and friendly, interested in everything that was going on and was quite sprightly up until a few months ago. The church was quite packed with people saying their goodbyes to her yesterday. RIP Olive.

Lunch for 45

Every year, I agree to organise one of the monthly lunches for people living alone that our church puts on and each time I do it, I always seem to end up being on call which makes it a little more stressful. Normally, Michael is around just in case but not this year and although my mum is still around to help out, I was still a bit worried about being called out. Fortunately though the phone stayed quiet and I managed to do a lunch for 45 people with the help of my mum, Michael’s mum and Michael’s aunt.

11th Christian birthday

It is 11 years ago today that I first became a Christian. Before then, I had always believed in God and prayed regularly – my parents having brought me up to believe in God – but the only times I went into a church were for weddings, christenings and funerals. It wasn’t until I went to university and met people who were practising Christians, some of which are now amongst my closest friends, that I started going to church on a Sunday and felt the desire to want to get to know God more closely and build a personal relationship with Him.

CTU walk of witness

I usually end up working on Good Friday but for once this year, I had the day free and so was able to go on the local Churches Together Walk of Witness. It was a beautiful sunny morning and around 200 people from various churches across the town took part in the walk. We walked through the town centre, carrying a cross, and stopping at various points in the town to read extracts from the Easter story, to pray for people in the town and local area and to sing songs relating to the events of the first Good Friday.

Creative zone

The theme for this year’s Spring Harvest is “Route 66” – Biblical direction for the road we travel. We have been exploring the analogy of the Bible as a sonnet, as a symphony, as a screenplay and as a streetmap. There have been various different sessions exploring the theme – discussion-based sessions, sessions which use media to illustrate the theme, sessions for those new to reading the Bible and creative sessions. Needless to say, I’ve been going to the creative sessions – the use of art and drama as a way of exploring various themes is definitely a style which works for me.

Off to Spring Harvest

Going to Spring Harvest seems to be a triennial thing for me. This hasn’t been intentional – I have wanted to go most years but my annual leave didn’t happen to be at the right time, or it clashed with rehearsing for and performing a show, or there was just some other reason why I didn’t end up going. For me, it’s a chance to go away and unwind for a few days, to spend time focusing on God (which all too often falls by the wayside on a day-to-day basis despite the good intentions) and to catch up with friends.

The best laid plans...

Having discovered that the worship planning group at church was leading the Mother’s Day service, I thought it would be a good opportunity to get the young people at church involved in the service. The original plan was to put together a slideshow based on Proverbs 31 with photos of the ladies in the church doing everyday things that illustrated the reading. My group were going to take some photos of their mums which we could use. Unfortunately, this didn’t quite happen as planned – I was left searching my photo collection for enough photos to put together the slideshow myself!

Irrational nervousness

The thought of having to chair a meeting always makes me quite nervous. Give me a pen and some paper and ask me to take minutes and I’m happy, but having to take control and lead the meeting is another matter. With church meetings, even being asked to lead opening devotions makes me nervous – I worry that I’ll say the wrong thing or something. I used to chair meetings of university societies without getting nervous. Everyone at church is lovely, tonight’s meeting (which it was my turn to chair) went ok, so why do I get so scared about it?

Annual craft day

Each year we have a craft day at church which is organised by the local Methodist circuit. Previous years have been really good, but this year was quite disappointing in comparison. Maybe I just picked the wrong sessions. The morning session was origami – fine whilst the tutor was showing us how to make a box but not so good when she was trying to show us how to make a vase that she wasn’t sure how to make herself. The afternoon – craft miscellany - was a little bit better – we made a pyramid gift box which was useful at least.

Out in the open

So our news is now out in the open. I don’t think I quite anticipated the level of excitement it would generate at church (like many churches, we have a mostly ageing congregation and a new baby in the church is a fairly rare event!) – after telling a couple of people, the news spread quickly and within 5 minutes I was being pounced on, hugged and congratulated. Which is all rather lovely, but a little overwhelming. Another good thing about telling the news is no longer having to make up excuses about why I’m trying to reduce my church commitments!