King's Daughters

  On 17 September 2014 we began our happily ever after at a garden wedding in Cannizaro Park, London. It's not as grand as it sounds, we have no money at all and pulled off the most beautiful wedding very creatively. Our church friends really pulled together for us and if I had a million pounds to do it all over again I wouldn't change a thing! We did the legal side of our wedding in the registry office in the morning and then in the afternoon had the 'real' wedding in a public park. Our friends were so amazing at making our day perfect. One friend surprised us by buying and arch and decorated it with lace, she also created an aisle out of ribbing and organised our picnic as well as our pastor's picnic. I am sure she did so much more arranging and organising behind the scenes that I probably don't event know about, but that is just the type of amazing friend that she is. A lady from church who we barely knew offered to make our cake - and it wasn't any old c...

As I looked up to the stage where the musicians were playing I saw this man who seemed to be surrounded my light. Inside I said, "Wow he is so beautiful!". I didn't mean it in a pretty boy way but I sensed purity and loveliness. It was quite new to me and I just knew that there was something special about him. I watched him closely as he played his guitar. Weeks passed by and God did the most amazing things in my life, He spoke so many things to me of the future and what would still happen. I no longer found myself repenting of the past and trying to make up for it but rather being completely and utterly overwhelmed by His love and filled with excitement for the future. It was incredible. At the same time I became increasingly 'aware' of the guitarist on the stage each Sunday at church. After some time I wasn't sure if I was excited to go to church to worship God or to see  him  again. It was a difficult infatuation as I desperately didn't want to be the p...

It was time to move. I can't really explain why I felt this as my church had been a huge part of my healing and recovery, however, I felt that God was moving me to another church in London. Looking back now I know why but you will have to wait for this part of the story - it's really rather exciting! And so I moved on, with my pastor and home group's reluctant blessing, from one church in London to another one. Church became the highlight of my week, I counted the days until Sunday, that's how much I loved church. It was vibrant and lively, full of amazing people who were crazy about Jesus. I loved the worship, the preaching, the coffee, the home groups and got involved in as much as possible. Even though I hadn't fully walked through the consequences of the previous season I was already seeing a harvest from the new seeds I had sown. If you sow financially you will reap financially, if you sow in friendships you will reap in friendship and I had grown to love some ...

"see that you also excel in this grace of giving. I am not commanding you, but I want to test the sincerity of your love." 2 Corinthians 8:7-8 Generosity, tithing (10% of your income) and offering sermons are never popular. Could it be because we sometimes do not like when people mess with our  god , causing us to feel the need to defend it? Or perhaps we want to to be in control and do whatever we want with what does not even belong to us  in the first place?! I could be wrong but I sense that if we cannot give up everything (including control) we cannot be Jesus' disciples. Jesus never asked for 10%, or 50% or 99%. He asked for 100% . I teach my children to do two things with their money: To bring 10% of their income to the church. To put 10% towards savings. As Christians we have to be intentional towards generosity. We need to display it to our children and God's house (the church) is a great way to do this. Some people right now are teaching their children ...

Back to my church story and this part is a really happy part of the story :) It comes after the terrible mess I made of my life, after my first marriage failed due to my stupidity and after I moved away from Crawley London to start over with my girls. Just a quick glimpse into the low point so that you can appreciate how high the highs were. This is an extract from my very first book, Hope's Journey . "During a very dark and confusing season, when I was living a shameful lifestyle and going through a divorce, God spoke to me.   I was sitting in the hallway drinking wine and crying my heart out.  Sadness, confusion, helplessness and total aloneness was closing in on me. The razor blade was already bloody as I had attempted to hack into my wrists.  Pain consumed me as life had become completely unliveable!   Whilst I sat there crying in agonising pain, I cried out to God to help me.  I said that I didn’t want to live anymore and couldn’t see any way forward except to keep tryin...

    Just came across these team training notes, and since my work involves team building and training, I thought this could be helpful. You cannot build a strong organisation without a strong team. You cannot build a strong team without building the people within the team. Sounds obvious, doesn't it? However many times we see our team as a whole module forgetting the components that make up that module. When dealing with a team I try to keep things as simple as I can. This helps towards effective communication. The chart below has helped me to quickly assess where a team member is at. You might find it overly simple. I like simple. I believe simple can help leaders to unclutter, to see clearly beyond the mess and focus on the results we look for. Every now and then via conversations I ask a team member the following: What is your main challenge at the moment?  This question helps to spot problems . What do you fell you need in order to perform better? This question help...

"For as the body is one and has many members, but all the members of that one body, being many, are one body, so also is Christ." 1 Corinthians 12 - 12 Before I continue with my church journey I wanted to take a look at how awesome the body of Christ is. No matter where I have been geographically, emotionally or spiritually I have always been a part of the body of Christ. During a dark season as a backslidden Christian when I was about 19 I first discovered the beauty of the body of Christ. I loved Jesus, I always did and always will do, but I went through a patch of unGodliness where I loved other things more. I got caught up in the party scene through a Christian friend and started drinking alcohol through that same friend. Up to that point I was a good Christian girl trying to work out my faith. Being a teenager who grew up too quickly, the pull of parties and fun was too much and I gave in. It wasn't long before I no longer attended church and was out until silly o...