King's Daughters

I don't know about you but sometimes my struggles seem more real than God's goodness. Especially when I wake up in the middle of the night or early morning. My rational mind and my faith seems to stay sleeping while everything else seems to wreak havoc. The fleshly fears can become overwhelming and intensely real. Worry, fear and insecurity are powerful and can mess with your perception of reality. They become real even though the things that you are worried about, fearful or insecure of are not real. I say that because nine times out of ten they are our perception of what could happen is not the reality of what will happen. Then of course there are those times when exactly what we fear does happen! But even then God is bigger. Christians struggle just like any other people but the difference is that we have a safe place to run to that many others don't.  We can run to our God and we do so through prayer and worship. Worship is our safe place in the midst of everything...

Can you believe that in a couple of days time it will be December already? How has your year been? Are you excited and ready for 2016. I love this time of year, I love to reflect, to sort and clean my home for Christmas and to have a good break after a hard year's work. As it gets colder it seems to get more magical.  Before the autumn leaves disappeared we had a family photo shoot and we had so much fun! Daniel and Amy love to climb trees so we have several photos of them up in a tree or just hanging around like in the one below. They are such monkeys! Can you see the little bump on Lorah below?  She is PREGNANT so I am going to be a grandma in January! It is so exciting and I can't wait to meet my first granddaughter. Here is an amazing photo of Samuel, Lorah and the bump taken today.  Ooh I am so excited I could pop! 2016 has also given us two litters of kitten from our precious cats, Muffin and Poppy . It could be so easy to reflect on the str...

Today we are taking a look at a child's perspective of diabetes in an interview with my 9 year old son, Daniel, who has had diabetes for nearly 3 years. When did you first know that something was wrong? It was at my sister Amy's party. I was eating loads of sweets which was making me drink loads of water. I had six full cups of water and was still thirsty so became a bit suspicious at that time. My parents were probably suspicious as well. What happened next? We didn't think much about it but my parents thought it best to go to doctor and see why I was drinking so much water.  So we went to the doctor and they didn't give me a diagnosis or anything but sent me to the hospital.  At the hospital they gave me loads of blood test which were really painful. The used these really mean rectangle finger prickers and they discovered that my blood sugars were very high. They gave me the diagnosis and I found out I had diabetes.   So what happened after you were ...

This past Sunday we celebrated our 140th anniversary at Charlton Kings Baptist Church . Wow what an amazing history we have and what amazing people have gone before us and worked hard so we can enjoy the church that we have today. It's incredibly and so easy to take for granted what we have today without realising that many have paid the price so that we can have all that we do. The message by Revd Dr Nigel Scotland  was on thankfulness and it was a powerful reminder of a very important foundational principle of our faith and that is plain and simply to give thanks in all circumstances. What really stood out for me what that he said that we don't have to and can't always give thanks for all circumstances but we can always give thanks in every circumstance. What a powerful thing to remember. Nigel went on to remind us that to give thanks is to be in God's will and not to is to be outside of His will.  How many times do we beg God to tell us His will and spend hour...

Daniel and Amy I have four amazing children, two of whom still live at home and two who have grown up and moved out.  It was nearly three years ago when our eldest, Lorah-Kelly got married to her high school sweetheart, Samuel. It was also around this time that we noticed that something was wrong with our son, Daniel who was 7 years old. He seemed fit and well and nothing seemed out of the ordinary except that he was drinking unusual amounts of water. It got so bad that he had to get up during the night several times to have a drink and of course go to the toilet. So after about a week of this I decided it best to go see a doctor even though it seemed like a silly symptom to go to the doctor for. Everything from the doctors appointment is a bit of a surreal haze and even two years and nine months on, I can remember the shock as if it were yesterday. The doctor did a urine test and afterwards looked gravely concerned and called the hospital.  Daniel was sent over as soon...

One thing that I have been struggling with lately is to be who I know I am. It's not that I am faking it or being insincere, it's nothing like that, it's just that I haven't felt like myself for quite sometime and really want to get back to that place of being centered, aligned and at peace within. Getting free from depression has been really hard work this time around. It's not that when I wrote Hope's Journey that it wasn't a struggle, it was just a completely different struggle. Today I wanted to talk about something that I have been working on. Habits. In our life we could have habits that help and habits that hinder. I am extremely aware of the habits that I currently have that are hindering me as well as the ones I want to have to help me. This isn't new to me either, I have had these bad habits and awareness of the good ones I want for literally years! Some years I manage to overcome the bad ones with the good and other years I tend to lean tow...

Eric hit the nail on the head tonight when he told me that I have to do the hard work of rest. God has been gently and at times very firmly telling me to slow down. He told me through the gentle whisper of His Spirit, through the audible voice of my friends and even through the doctor prescribing anti-depressants for burnout! Despite the clear and obvious warning as well as my desire to rest, why is it so difficult? Rest isn't as easy as it sounds. It's not like I can just stay in bed and sleep all day. If only it were that simple! I have to make a conscious decision to rest, to slow down and to find the balance in my life. My family still need caring for, my homes still needs cleaning, my business still needs working on and my ministry still needs me to turn up. I have cut a lot out already and said no to very many things, which has been a good start. It wasn't easy, I mean I was half way through my campaign for the next local elections and had to pull out. It really h...

Last Sunday my wonderful husband, Eric , preached his sermon entitled Voices.   It was such a powerful message so I decided to share it with you, sadly we don't have a recording but I will do my best to recount it. Then Saul clothed David with his armor. He put a helmet of bronze on his head and clothed him with a coat of mail, and David strapped his sword over his armor. And he tried in vain to go, for he had not tested them. Then David said to Saul, “I cannot go with these, for I have not tested them.” So David put them off.  Then he took his staff in his hand and chose five smooth stones from the brook and put them in his shepherd's pouch. His sling was in his hand, and he approached the Philistine.       And the Philistine moved forward and came near to David, with his shield bearer in front of him. And when the Philistine looked and saw David, he disdained him, for he was but a youth, ruddy and handsome in appearance. And the Philistine said to Dav...

King's Daughters Conference has made a step change! We have reached another level of quality and excellence and the reason for the massive change is because of our team.  God has brought together exceptional women from different churches and backgrounds to build King's Daughters.  We are all passionate about Jesus, passionate about King's Daughters and most importantly, passionate about you! Our prayers are for you not only for the day that you attend the conference but for every day leading up to it and after the conference, we will continue to pray for you.  Enjoy our conference highlights below.

This year's conference theme is He Loves Me and I really struggled to write my talk around this subject.  The more I delved into the love of God the more I struggled to write about it. Many times as I sat down to write my talk I got distracted!  One such distraction was a song.  I couldn't articulate what God's love meant to me, the only way I could get it out was to write a song.  So today I thought I would share that song with you.  Only the words for now but soon we will have a good enough recording to share the whole things with you. He Loves Me God's love is... a place to go to God's love is... a feeling to feel God's love is... a truth you can trust in God's love is... a peace to rest God's love is... a memory to treasure God's love is... a future to hope for God's love is... a blanket to hide in God's love is... a joy to shout about He loves me... I don't know why He loves me... It's hard to explain He loves me...

Hello King's Daughters, I feel like it's been quite some time, in fact well over a year perhaps even two, since I have written anything meaningful to you. I have tried but words haven't come.  Many posts have been fillers or conference news.  I don't know what happened to me, I seemed to have come from a place and having life figured out to now not having a clue, from having much wisdom and revelation to share to having nothing.  At first I gave myself some time to grieve to loss of our church, D7 Church.  We met for the final time on Sunday 30th March 2014. Failure is hard, loss is difficult but when you have failed and lost in the things of God it seems harder. You feel as if you have let God down. One thing that no one tells you when you pastor a church is that it too, just like a business, can fail. If the books don't balance and your income is less than your expenses, you can fail. If you don't have a committed team to keep up with the work you can fail...

My Dream Recently I had a disturbing dream.  I tried to put it out of my head and forget about it but could not.  You see although it was not pleasant it did contain a powerful message.  I want to share this message with you today, I apologise in advance for the graphic nature of this dream but I honestly believe it is necessary.  In my dream I was in bed with another man getting ready to have sex.  I was fully aware that I was married to my husband and that this man had a wife.   As we were becoming intimate I had a strong sense that there were people in the house who were also fully aware of what this man and I were doing and also that it was acceptable to them.  I was also thinking of my husband but it seemed that he too was aware of what was happening and it didn't bother him, it was the norm.  As we had sex I felt violated because I knew it wasn't right but because no one was objecting and because it almost seemed to be expected of me...

King's Daughters Conference 2015 Summary The day plan is finalised and in a nutshell we will enjoy a line up of incredible  worship  by our band that have been practicing all year!  Powerful  preaching  by our usual team of ladies who I trust and can wholeheartedly recommend to you.  Dance  by Cirencester Dance Academy who wow us every year.  Choir  performance by Wyedean Gospel Choir who will be with us for the first time this year - very exciting. Our very own  April Shipton  will be  singing  for us while we enjoy our lovely lunch.   Business  stands so you can enjoy a little shopping from our Christian business women. We have planned a full day just for you - the King's daughter! See the full programme here Set list  For your convenience and worship pleasure we would like you to know the set list for this year's conference so you can come prepared to enter into God's presence ...

Ladies, I have decided to share an email with you that came through this week from a lovely lady, Tracey, who is struggling so much and needs us King's Daughters to support her. Her name has been changed to protect her identity and I share this with her permission. Please pray with me for her freedom and if you have anything to share please leave a comment for her in the box below. I have found over the years that the most difficult struggles are the ones we carry alone but it is in this isolation that the devil has his victory. Let's all come out with what we are going through and support each other so that we can be free indeed as we are promised in John 8:36. Here is the email: "Let me introduce myself. My name is Tracey. I am 23 years old. I'm a Christian. I am going through a tough time as of late and your message on the King's Daughters YouTube about loving yourself really hit home because I don't love myself. I am fat and I feel useless! I just do...

Have you ever felt that your whole society has a warped view of you? "You're entitled to your own opinions and beliefs." "It's a free country." "You have a right to free speech." They're phrases we hear all the time, and when it comes to opinions and lifestyles that are different to ours, we know the right thing to do is to be accepting and understanding of them. But as a Christian in an increasingly hostile world, where online conversations allow for instant, anonymous bullying with no identifiable consequences, what was once called 'free speech' has become what feels like a systematic battering of religion. In almost any secular situation, I find that I'm allowed to speak my opinion - just as long as it's also the opinion of the  secular majority.  In the online community especially, it has become extremely unpopular to believe in the existence of a god. Even more so the possibility of creation. Here's...

Hello King's Daughters. I know you haven't heard from me in a while, there is so much to say to you and so much want to share and have been keeping it all in for so long that I almost feel embarrassed to suddenly pop up again in your life. However, I know that if I just share a little now that the flow will return and I will find a way to keep in touch with you more often. So forgive me if some of this doesn't make sense, I cannot update you on all I have been through in the past year but I would like to update you on recent events.  You see, God has blessed me with a business, the Women's Business Club .  It has been up and running for one year and nine months now as has grown from strength to strength.  I have loved almost every minute of the journey, there have been a few challenging minutes that I have not loved too much but mostly I have loved the journey. One thing that came of this business is financial profit.  After years of lack and financial stru...