Reflection Time

For those who are fans of electronic media, I'm pleased to report that the new 'Whispers of Love' is now available as an e-book, and can be purchased here. [You can also download a free sample from the book.] Personally, I prefer a nice paperback that can be thumbed through in the bath, but us starving authors have to keep up with the times ...

As the summer begins to open up, there is at last some space in my busy schedule to relax and reflect. I have just enjoyed a hugely refreshing break in beautiful Northumberland.

I am aware of being at a crossroads in my ministry (something I have written of before), and of needing to take time to reflect upon and discern where the Lord calls me to focus my energies in 2012. Yes, I really am thinking that far ahead ... . Two recent events, each with a healing focus, have reaped huge blessings, but have also opened up questions and possibilities for the future direction of my work.

Quite simply, I can't do everything that I'm invited to do, or all the things that might be possible. So, over the summer, I shall be prayerfully considering where my focus should be.

Please give thanks for recent healings facilitated ... the Lord's grace is amazing.

And please pray for me as I embark upon conversations and reflections. I'll keep you posted ...

For all that has been, thanks.
For all that will be, yes.

Dag Hammarskjold

I pray you will all be able to take time yourselves to relax and enjoy the all-too-short summer.

Thank you for your continuing interest and support.

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Touching the Cloak

It has been the most enormous privilege to spend the last week working with the Order of Jacob's Well, speaking and leading meditations at their annual conference. The Spirit moved in power and many people experienced significant healings, both during led meditations and in individual ministry times. We did indeed 'Touch the Cloak'. Give thanks for healings experienced.

It was a refreshing reminder of the power of the Holy Spirit and the healing available today, made possible through the death of Christ on the cross. I look forward to hearing how this continues to work itself out through the lives and ministries of those at the conference.

The week really deepened my heart for the healing ministry and has opened up several thoughts and conversations about possibilities for developing my work. I am aware of needing now to spend time in stillness and discernment, in order to know the way forward.

First, though, I will be leading a retreat at Llangasty in a couple of weeks time.

I would very much value your continued prayers.

Thank you.

Footnote:

The new edition of 'Whispers of Love' is now available on Amazon, as well as directly from myself.

Exciting Times

Exciting things are evolving in my ministry! I am pleased to announce that Whispers of Love has just been relaunched with a lovely new cover, courtesy of my good friend Audri Coleman who did a fantastic job on the cover design. I had to put some financial outlay into this, so please pray that it continues to sell well. The book can still be bought from myself and will also soon be available from Amazon in both paperback and e-book formats. And I have recently completed a small commission for Magnet magazine.


A fantastic opportunity has also recently opened up to work with a hugely anointed Christian artist. We hope to produce a book together, using my words and her artwork, and I am thrilled at the possibilities this presents. Because of other committments in the diary, we will probably continue our conversations about this later in the year. Please pray for success and blessing in this collaboration.

On the retreats front, I recently spent a weekend working with the parishes of St Peters & St Margarets in Rochester, for whom I facilitated a Quiet Day on the theme of He Chose The Nails. I also contributed to their Sunday services with a sermon and a healing meditation. After a break last year, it was good to be back in harness with this type of ministry.

I now turn my attention to preparing for my involvement in the annual conference of the Order of Jacobs Well and a retreat; both at Llangasty retreat house and both on the theme of healing. Please pray for spirit-filled preparation for these two events.

Finally, two notes on a personal level:

1) Thank you to those of you who have been praying for Jack, my grandson. At 5 months old, he has just had to have a second major operation to remove a tumour from his spine, after it re-grew, and he requires chemotherapy, which will start soon. Please continue to pray for Jack's healing.

2) Inspired by Jack's struggles, I resolved to improve my own health, and at the same time to raise funds for Birmingham Children's Hospital, who have been amazing in their care for Jack and his parents. If you feel able to sponsor me you can read all about it here.

Since the start of the year I have worked hard at establishing new daily rhythms of which fitness has been part, as has regular contemplative reflection. Please pray that I will be able to sustain these rhythms over the long haul.

The last few months have been busy and challenging times. I have appreciated your prayer support ... do please keep it coming.

Thank you.

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A Personal Note

There's never room for complacency in the Christian walk, is there? The Lord is taking me well outside my comfort zone with some of the things I have been invited to do recently! A busy and challenging diary now lies ahead of me and I shall require high levels of spiritual, mental and physical fitness to accomplish it all.

So I would value your prayers ...

On a personal note, I'm working hard at growing into significant lifestyle changes. This is a process I started 12 months ago but which I now desire to step up a gear.

These changes involve two major life areas - (1) sustaining a daily rhythm of contemplative silence and reflection, and (2) pro-actively working to improve my physical health through breathing exercises, improved diet, a higher level of physical exercise and a better 'life-balance'.

All this is hard work and requires considerable discipline, especially if I am to continue to write and lead retreats throughout this process. Please pray that I will have that discipline.

Because a strong support network is very helpful when trying to make big changes, I plan to make my fitness programme very visible by doing a sponsored event, from which I shall donate the proceeds to Birmingham Children's Hospital, who gave such amazing care to my grandson recently. I'll send out an email about this shortly.

So, please pray for me - that I might develop a more disciplined lifestyle and be successful in incorporating these changes, in order, ultimately, to be better equipped for ministry.

Thank you to you all.

Two small footnotes -

1) my grandson Jack has made an excellent recovery - thank you to all who have been praying for him

2) my bookings diary for this year is now closed

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Turning to Face the New Year

A new year begins ... Somehow the start of a new year is always a psychological turning point, isn't it; a time of hope and resolutions and new beginnings. And so it is for me this year. As my sabbatical time draws to a close, I look forward to returning to the world of retreat leading with new vigour and fresh perspectives.

It's been a great privilege to take time to rest and renew and to prayerfully explore new dimensions of faith and new directions of calling. I have learnt so much, and the year has changed me. Trying to sum it up simply is far from easy, but at its heart it was a year about healing ... learning about it, receiving it, discovering deeper truths, feeling even more deeply called to facilitate it. The Lord has deepened my heart to help those whom I meet find healing (in its widest sense). My time apart has also reinforced how important a simple, contemplative lifestyle is to all that I am and do.

So this year I hope to weave aspects of healing into all my retreats and speaking engagements, and, God willing, to complete the books that I began working on in New Zealand. I have accepted an invitation to be the lead speaker at the annual conference of the Order of Jacob's Well, an inter-denominational healing order.

I resume retreat leading in March with a Lent retreat at Ivy House. Before then I have much preparatory work to do for the year that lies ahead. Please pray for me - for creativity and insights - as I do these preparations.

I continue to be in negotiations about publishing two new books but the wheels of publishing houses grind very slowly. Please pray for a good outcome to these publishing talks. Whispers of Love continues to just sell and sell and I shall be re-printing this shortly. I have a wealth of ideas in my head for developing new resources (projects that inspire and excite me) but I need real discernment in deciding which to follow through and which to put on hold until later. Please pray that I will have good discernment. For now, requests to lead retreats and quiet days are pouring in thick and fast, so I’ll be doing my best to honour a good number of those. It’s always a challenge though to preserve sufficient personal space to grow my relationship with God and feed all that I offer.

Financially, things are hard for me at present, as they are for so many of us. I continue to trust that the Lord will provide all that is needed to enable this ministry. Several supporters have recently had to withdraw their help, which I fully understand. Please give thanks for those who have supported me thus far and pray that others who are able will step forward.

As I step into the challenges that lie ahead, please pray for me, as I will for you.

May 2011 hold many blessings and Godly surprises for us all.

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At the Ending of the Year

As the first hints of winter nip at our toes here in the UK and summer beings to blossom in New Zealand, it's hard to believe that twelve months ago I was preparing to fly out to Vaughan Park. It has been a very special sabbatical year. It has been good to take space from retreat leading in order to reflect and study, to learn from others and to develop new materials. It has also been good to have time and freedom to develop the contemplative rhythms of living that I find life-giving and nourishing. I am very pleased to have done it and offer my prayerful thanks to those who have continued to financially support me through this time. Please give thanks and pray for those who continue to support me in today's difficult financial climate.

My diary for 2011 is now full and I am very much looking forward to resuming retreat leading, the absence of which this year has confirmed that this ministry is where my heart lies. The Lord has also led me deeper into a calling to the healing ministry, and I look forward to seeing where the future takes me. Please pray that I will continue to have discernment in this area.

Give thanks that I have had some success recently in finding a publisher who is interested in re-printing and re-launching Whispers of Love, my first book, which continues to sell amazingly well, seven years after its first publication. My two new titles are under consideration by a mainstream publisher and I hope that a decision will soon be made on these. Please pray that these will get into print in 2011.

And I am continuing to develop materials for imaginative contemplation, based primarily on the healing scriptures. I hope that, in time, there will also be an accompanying CD and an accompanying book which will explore how such meditations can leading to healing encounters and how we can facilitate more of these. This is work that has grown directly out of my Vaughan Park scholarship time. Give thanks for the Vaughan Park Scholarship Programme and pray that God will continue to grow the Kingdom through it.

Finally, my first grandchild was born two weeks ago - a beautiful little boy! Give thanks. Experiencing the joy of new life entering my own family circle reminds me that Jesus is constantly ready and waiting to bless us with newness and healing at every stage of our life's journey. May we all be open to that, and may God bless us all as we prepare to celebrate the birth of another child whose coming was the greatest gift of all time.

My prayer is that you will all enjoy a blessed, peaceful and joyous Christmas, full of the presence of Jesus.

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Settling into Rhythms

To begin with, some good news! My books are now more widely available as they can now be purchased not only from myself, Christian bookshops and retreat houses, but also through eBay. Please do share this information. If anyone has any bright ideas as to how to get the 2000+ books in my garage listed on Amazon, I'd love to hear from you.

Well, after a safe return home to friends and family and a rather whirlwind time of sharing stories, I am now well settled again following the New Zealand scholarship experience. One of the greatest gifts of that time has been that contemplative rhythms have embedded themselves naturally into my life now, four months being a sufficient length of time for patterns of praying to establish themselves as a norm. I know this to be a great gift and something that is both life-giving for me and the place from which my creativity is birthed. Please pray that I will be enabled to maintain these rhythms amidst the hurly-burly of life.

I am beginning to work again on various writing projects. I continue to seek publishers for two existing manuscripts of poetry, a book to help individuals settle into silence and stillness & an Advent book, and I've recently submitted these to a new publisher for consideration. Please pray for the success of these submissions.

And picking up the threads of the Vaughan Park project, I am starting by doing further research on my study of why and how imaginative contemplation can lead to healing. I gained some fascinating insights into this in New Zealand and feel drawn to continue the study and, in time, to write a book on this topic. Please pray for me as I prayerfully develop this work.

At the end of October, I'm looking forward to participating in a Father's Heart Ministry School, something I have long wanted to do, and in the new year I will be returning to retreat leading with (hopefully) renewed passion. My 2011 diary is filling up fast, so if you want to make a booking please contact me soon.

For now though, it's back to the prayer and the research.

Thank you all for your prayerful and practical support, which is so important to me.

May you all be blessed as the seasons move into autumn.

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