King's Daughters

This is a very simple suggestion but works wonders. In my own life and in other people's life I have observed that people struggling with depression often have nothing to look forward to. I often get down when all can see ahead of me is the mundane day to day routine of my life. Even though I love my life I can still get depressed by the routine of it all. Waking up in the morning, only to face yet another dirty nappy or a mountain of dishes that somehow seem to pile up - no matter how many times a day I stand at the sink washing up - somehow doesn't always excite me. Breakfast, lunch, supper - as usual! Then there’s people needing urgent assistance with something or other yet again. It's not that I don't care it's just that sometimes my heart does grow weary and cold.  The way I keep fresh and avoid getting really depressed is I make hope :) I put something in my near future that I will love doing, something that creates excitement and expectation. At le

Recently we celebrated Lorah's birthday party. I have shared the morning activities with you but have just come across the photos of the evening's celebrations - the fancy dress party!  So here are some snaps for you to have a chuckle at.  Have a great weekend.  xxx I went as Lavender Daniel & Amy went as Lions... ROAR Max, Dave & Ewen were Lumberjacks

"There was a time when all I wanted was to die but now that I have tasted life I really don’t want to die until I have truly lived!" Hope's Journey is a heart wrenching account of Angela's struggle with depression and suicide.   "This book is helpful for people that are going through tough times as well for those who are trying to support them. It gives valuable insight into the feelings experienced in the midst of the situations as well as the tools Angela used to find her way through them. The tools are useful for anyone trying to find hope in dark situations, whatever they may be, and are helpful for leading a stronger, more balanced life." Ali Kirkwood  Available at: Amazon.com | Amazon.co.uk | Kindle StudyGuide: Amazon.com | Amazon.co.uk | More Info  Contents: Introduction Suicide Eat, Sleep & Exercise Have a Checkup First Things First Make Hope Make List Tell Someone Choose Your Friends Understand Hormo

Quite a few more years down the line. It’s Monday morning and I have a Church hangover! Sundays are great, I love Sundays and all the amazing things that God does with all the wonderful people in our Church. Each Sunday holds new adventure and excitement as well as so much more work than I can ever really manage in one day. I give my best emotionally, spiritually and physically. I love, I pour coffee, I listen to problems, sometimes I preach, sometimes I sing, occasionally I change a baby’s nappy in the crèche, I cook a big roast for anything up to twenty people, if necessary I do a hospital visit for the people that weren’t able to attend Church and feel left out. The list goes on and on and on and then Monday morning comes!  It’s eight o’ clock in the morning and the phone rings. I am awake but the first coffee of the day hasn’t got into my blood stream yet so I am in a zombie state. It’s one of our congregation members; he is in terrible pain and needs someone to take him t

I was at the gynaecologists’ office joking around about how I have never had this sort of check up in my life. He took some medical history and then asked me to lie down on the examination table. My palms were sweaty and my heart racing a bit as I was dreading what was to come. Pap smears and internal examinations are just not very comfortable and since this was my very first time having a smear I was feeling a bit embarrassed.  To break the ice a bit I thought I would chat about something unusual that I had noticed in my body. When I lay on my back and my bladder was a bit full my lower abdomen seemed to be swollen. Thinking this was just my full bladder I made a casual joke about it and pointed it out as my bladder was getting quite full at the time of this examination. He had a look and remarked that it did seem rather swollen and asked if it would be alright for him to do an ultrasound scan so that he could take a closer look at it. I was thrilled to delay the internal exami

Chapter 2 - Eat, Sleep & Exercise One of the first things I tackled when cleaning up my act and getting my life sorted out with God was to sort out my physical body. I was after all pregnant and I wanted this precious one inside of me to have a perfect life, totally opposite to mine thus far. I would do anything and everything to ensure that this little life inside of me was pure. It was as if I was having a new start through her. Everything I did wrong in life I could make right by making her life lovely, wonderful, peaceful and pure. This was the mind of a pregnant seventeen year old that had just been given a fresh start in life. In many ways even though it wasn’t the truth of how it all worked it did help me change the way I saw life. The first step back then was for me to eat well and exercise, and that is the first step now too. Time passed, my precious baby girl Lorah was born. Life continued, along with all its ups and downs, and although I really tried my best I

I am very surprise at how well the PDF's of Hope's Journey are selling, thank you very much everyone for your support, I have also released a Kindle/eBook version at Amazon.   At the same time though I have had at least one third of my readers unsubscribe from my blog this week, I guess the route I am going is not for everyone.  I will do my best to not only post Hope's Journey snippets but to include current news and random things too, so if Hope's Journey is not for you just ignore those posts and continue reading the others, if there is anything in particular you like to hear about please tell me and I will write along those lines too :)  A snippet of Chapter Two will be posted on Saturday.  Have a beautiful day today.  Love Angela xxx

Laying awake at night, tossing and turning, I realise that I have a long way to go in order to be in green pastures and by still waters.  As I have considered this new season of being still I realise that there is another layer to this - being quiet.  In order to fully reap the benefits of this awesome season I need to quieten my mind from all the things that keep me awake at night and I need to literally be quiet - not talk. Quieting my thoughts is disciplining my mind to think of other things.  Instead of meditating on the work I have to do I need to intentionally force my mind to ponder on more peaceful things.  I am the sort of person that is on the go all the time which is why I have to have seasons of rest.  My mind needs to rest, my body needs to rest and my spirit needs to rest in God's presence. Proverbs 21:23 Whoever guards his mouth and tongue keeps his soul from troubles. Quieting my mouth is another challenge for me.  There are times to be bold and say things that

Here I am, again, sitting on the bathroom floor, with a broken razor in my hand. Just enough of the cheap, blue, disposable, razor has been chipped away so that the sharp corners are exposed, exposed only enough to make some small cuts into the skin on my wrist. “God what is wrong with me, why am I like this? This just isn't normal! AND I am a leader in a Church.” This was my conversation with God not very long ago. Yet again, I was having another attack of "whatever"! I have no idea what it is that comes at me and I have no idea why I go there or even how I started going there in the first place. I have no idea what to call this “attack” so out of pure frustration I called it “whatever”. Whatever it is or whatever it means or what causes it, I just don’t know but whatever it is it simply has to go. Even though it is “whatever” which sounds very blasé it is still a very real place that I find myself in from time to time. Oh, and yes, you did read correctly, I

Psalm 46:10 Be still, and know that I am God;... Psalm 23:2 ...He leads me beside the still waters. It is with great conviction that I feel God calling me to still waters. He has called me so that I can know the He is God and so that He can restore my soul. Understanding the seasons in my life has been an essential key to my survival & to my joy in this life - not so long ago I even preached on this very subject.  I have found many people love being called to busyness and to do things for God but few people love the 'still' seasons.  Most people completely avoid God's call to be still.  I too have been guilty of this in the past but not this time.  It excites me to see what beautiful green pastures He is going to lead me to and I am thrilled to know that I may have some time out to rest by the still waters. Practically though, what does this look like in my life?  STOPPING! That's the first thing that this means to me.  I have to stop saying yes to everything

Yes we have gone a bit nuts at our Church , but no we are not doing anything in the nude!  Coming up is a series called 'The Naked Preacher' which is a live Q&A session.  I would love to give you, King's Daughters, an opportunity to be involved in our upcoming series.  If you have any questions that you would like to ask Eric about any subject under the sun, please leave them in the comments box below.  You can listen to the podcast at the end of the session to see if your question came up.  It is going to be loads of fun and hopefully give us the opportunity to delve into some interesting subjects.

You are very precious!  No matter what life has thrown at you, no matter how guilty or dirty you may feel, you are still precious.  If a diamond falls into a drain and is left for years in the slime and sludge it doesn't change the fact that it is a diamond and if found by someone will still be valued despite the grimy place it fell to.  No matter where you have fallen to, no matter how bad your day was today or the last ten years have been, you are still precious.  If only you knew how much God values you.  He is the only one who knows your true value.  You are so precious to Him that He has your name 'tattooed' on His hand! Isaiah 49:15-16 "Can a woman forget her nursing child, And not have compassion on the son of her womb? Surely they may forget, Yet I will not forget you. See, I have inscribed you on the palms of My hands; Your walls are continually before Me."

As much as I don't want to write about this subject I know that I should. I don't want to write about it because I like to leave the past behind me and not dig up things that can be difficult to talk about. On the other hand I know that so many people are struggling silently out there and it would be plain selfish if I didn't share my journey with you. My journey covers a life long struggle between loving life and hating life, between wanting to live life to the full and wanting to die. I don’t have all the answers but I do have a few ideas of what really has helped me and I can honestly say that I love my life now! This book, Hope’s Journey, is the second book that covers my path away from depression and into the beautiful life God has given me. Before I get into this though, I do want to make it clear that when I offer solutions they are purely what worked for me. My ideas are not going to work for everyone and my views are not medical ones

It is with great vulnerability, fear & conviction that I am going to slowly start releasing my books on this Blog. I will begin with releasing chapter previews of each of my books that I have written & not been brave enough to publish. God has done such amazing things in my life, He has take me from a place of darkness and filth and showed me His ways. As much as I am embarrassed about where I have come from I would be even more embarrassed if I didn't share what He has done in my life. Your comments and feedback are valuable to me as I will edit and mould my books according to your comments. If you have stories to share that will benefit other readers then please feel free to share them. My only motivation is to bring hope to the lost and dying world that we live in. Please join me on this new journey, perhaps together, we as King's Daughters can make a difference in this world. Love Angela xxx

I didn’t like the preacher I sat by on the plane. I know, I know. You’re supposed to like everyone, but this fellow …The plane was crowded. It was a Sunday afternoon, and I was tired from Sunday-morning services. I was speaking that evening in Atlanta and had planned on taking a nap on the flight. But this fellow had other ideas. Though he had been assigned another seat, he took the one next to me since it was closer to the front. And when he took it, he took every inch of it—and then some. Knowing I couldn’t sleep, I figured I’d review my thoughts for the evening lesson, so I opened my Bible. “What ya’ studying there, buddy?” I told him, but he never heard. “The church is lost,” he declared. “Hellbound and heartsick.” Turns out he is an evangelist. He speaks in a different church every weekend. “I wake ’em up,” he growled. “Christians are asleep. They don’t pray. They don’t love. They don’t care.” With that pronouncement, he took on his preaching tone and cadence and started listing a

This week has been full of family news & you are getting a live account! It has been very eventful week for us! Today is Lorah's 19th birthday which started with a nice pancake breakfast only a few minutes ago :) Keeping the facts in mind that it is Lorah's birthday , what mistakes can you spot in the photo? More news to follow soon as the birthday adventures continue.

Today is a really special day, Daniel started school! For Daniel it was a little different from all the other children though, he had three women fussing over him and shedding tears as he walked away into his classroom. Lorah, Jordan & I took Daniel to school this morning and made such a fuss! Daniel wasn't fussed at all and got on with this new season in his life with confidence. Oops better stop blogging and rush off to fetch him, wouldn't want to be late on his first day. Here we go again, Lorah, Jordan & I off to fuss some more.

Jordan & I had a bit of a girly night last night. Jordan found a recipe for a home made facial mask and a solution for refreshing our eyes - tea bags! As you can see in the photo, the mask didn't stick too well onto our face. I think we should have ground the oats a little finer. Also, we had to alternate which eye we had our tea bag on as we were watching a movie while allowing our mask to work it's magic on our skin. So if you are in the mood for a bit of a pamper or just a really good laugh, here is our recipe: 3 tablespoons of pulverized oats whole milk yogurt 1 tablespoon of olive oil Juice of half a lemon Apply the mixture to your face. Leave it on for 10 to 15 minutes. Rinse with lukewarm water, then pat your face dry.

No says it quite like Bobby Houston ... I love the way she puts the message across. So sticking with the theme of coming back to Church, here is a word from Bobby's Blog. I grew up in New Zealand. I say fish and chips with a funny accent. When I ask for a pin to clip something together, I get given a pen to write with. Growing up in that beautiful land where the ocean waters have this beautiful emerald tinge, we were always told that the land had 3 million people and SIXTY MILLION SHEEP! Those stats have probably changed by now... but sixty million sheep is a lot of sheep. I still get excited when I drive in the countryside and see sheep or lambs. I remember once my dad (who was a brickie... bricklayer) did a job for a couple of weeks on a farm. I was a little girl and he took me with him and that year, every ewe on that farm had twins. It was completely surreal. Actually, I'm just having this memory now, but when we pioneered our church, I helped organize the kids department