Friday 10 September 2010

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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