King's Daughters

I think I have audacious faith figured out. It has nothing to do with how much faith you can muster, it has more to do with how much you have the audacity to ask for! James 4:2 ...You do not have because you do not ask God. Matthew 17:20 .... Truly I tell you, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you. You don't need much faith (a mustard seed's worth will do) but you do however need to ask.

Depression is often caused by burnout. Simply put - you have overdone it! I am very prone to this as I tend to like to do a lot. Very often I only realise I have done too much when it is too late. Learning to rest has been a key for me to avoid getting depressed and burnt out. Philippians 4:6-7 Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Paul summed it up nicely in this verse in Philippians. You will find this is a fascinating verse if you look into what hearts and mind means in the original text. Rest Your Mind Heart in the original Greek text is “kardia” as mentioned in the chapter on the mind, which is the thoughts or feelings of the mind. Mind in the original Greek text is “noe ma” which means a perception, purpose, disposition or the intellect. Would you agree with me that

I am completely blown away by our plans for our upcoming Christmas Ball.  It started out as a small idea.  The idea, was to make the street people of Gloucester and the teenagers from our youth feel really special this Christmas.  We have had a fantastic year at our church and have seen many lives dramatically changed. People have come in off the street for the free sandwiches and coffee that we offer every Sunday.  Some of these people only come for the free stuff but some of them have lingered for church and have met Jesus!    So we set a date, booked the venue, announced the party and started inviting these precious people.  I asked all of my professional musician friends to join us by providing live music for the event but no one was able to.  I had this nagging voice  in my mind (as you do) to ask one of UK's most amazing bands, [dweeb] , to come and do the entertainment for the evening.  To my surprise and delight they agreed! I was amazed and thrilled and I knew that the t

What goes up must come down! I learned this the hard way by crashing badly. This left me extremely frustrated as I felt that I was never allowed to experience joy or happiness. Many times Eric would warm me, saying, “Be careful! You are getting too high now”. He always knew that he would be the one suffering the next moment when I came crashing down from my high. Often I would be very annoyed by his comment, thinking that I wasn't allowed to be happy or excited EVER! This really bothered me and I asked God to help me with this. I have now learned to love the moments of perfect balance in my life. They are rare and they don't last for more than a few hours at a time and on a rare occasion I can enjoy it for a whole day, but I would have to be totally alone for that to happen. Yes, I know, this is one of those times when you probably think I am very strange indeed! I have learned though, even in the times of perfect balance, to watch that it doesn't cause me do spi

If life is a motorway, which lane are you in today?

I am so excited I could pop! On 11th December I will be doing an official launch of Hope's Journey and a book signing at Living Oasis Bookshop in Cheltenham. I would love you to join me if you live locally. xxx

As you know, I am a huge supported of the A21 Campaign .  Here is a great idea that they have running at the moment for Christmas. The A21 Shelter is a safe place in Greece where many survivors of human trafficking will be calling "home" this holiday season, and we want to ensure that we help make this truly a time of love, joy and peace. So, we came up with this idea... Let's ALL help make this holiday unforgettable for the girls! Here's the plan: 1. Send a Christmas card to the shelter! Hand-written letters have become a novelty these days. Because they take a bit more time and effort, they are not only special, they are personal, (nothing says love like taking the time to write something other than your signature). Please send your card or letter directly to Greece at: PO Box 10218 TK 54110 Thessaloniki Greece (*Please only send cards and letters.) 2. Make Change with Pocket Change! This is something easy that you can do right NOW! We have asked th

Click on image for full size I know - ridiculous - but I have to! Take a look at my bookshelf... what do you see :)  I got the paperback version of my book this morning and I actually cried when I opened it.  It was as if I had given birth to a baby and was holding it for the first time.  I am so very excited and have had such lovely feedback already.  Sadly a lot of the feedback has been from people who are still struggling and need help.  Please pray that this book really does help people find hope and freedom from depression and suicide. 

My wonderful daughter Lorah, has been putting loads of effort into her own blog lately!  I thought I would take a moment to share it with you as it is well worth subscribing to.  Lorah is the Creative Pastor at our church and is doing incredibly well with all that God has given her to do.  She is faithfully sharing the journey that she is on through her blog, take a look here .  This Sunday Samuel & Lorah preached for the first time and I am so proud of them, have a listen to their message here .   

I am thrilled to bits to announce that Hope's Journey has been published and is now available on Amazon both in paperback and ebook .  I would be extremely grateful for your comments both on Amazon and on this blog .

Smile was played for the first time on BBC Radio last Saturday.  This is very exciting for our band and we are thrilled to bits to be getting Christian music onto the radio. Our CD, King's Square, has been doing so well so I thought it would be good to produce a song book too.  It has been released today on Amazon and is also available at our church info table.  It's very exciting to be able to share our music with other people and other churches.  Enjoy!

I am sitting at my computer hitting the refresh button over and over again at a local news report .  A woman has just jumped from the top story of a car park and I am watching the news and the comments that the readers are leaving.  My heart is grieved wondering who the woman is, do I know her, what drove her to jump?  Earlier this morning Eric walked into our church office (our living room with some desks in the corner) and I was sat at the phone crying.  I had just had a conversation with a woman who was going through a divorce.  This was her second divorce and she was not in a good place at all.  I was crying because I felt so helpless and was praying to God about what to do.  Now I am sitting here feeling very nauseous reading comments on the news website, wondering how to reach these precious people. Daily I am faced with bad news, should I stop crying and toughen up?  That is only the bad news from before 11am this morning.  Do I remind myself that this is just how the world is t

I have had many horrible days or weeks which often leave me feeling like a ‘bad’ person. I have learned to understand these times as hormonal times! Before I understood this, I struggled really badly. Hurting someone could have been a real possibility! I screamed at the children and I drove my husband crazy. Not nice at all. Depression also hit me badly some of these times, and as a result of the hormonal depression, I got even more depressed. Condemnation was a huge factor for how I had behaved, which caused me to sink even deeper into depression. This nasty cycle left me completely exhausted. When I was in my twenties I cried out to God as I didn’t understanding why I was so up and down. Why some days I was this evil woman that was out of control. I clearly remember crying my eyes out as a new Christians feeling so guilty for being so bad. At the time I was doing a lot of reading and came across a book where they author mentioned her struggle too. This really encouraged m