It was a beautiful morning and the countryside was calling! I set out to walk round Horn Wood; the sun was shining, clear blue skies with a gentle breeze. No one else to be seen as I took the steady walk in our wonderful area. Wild flowers full of colour, birds singing, crops in the fields beginning to ripen, very peaceful. As I walked a white fluffy cloud appeared and gently wafted over. It made me think of Elijah in the Bible.
There had been a severe drought in the land that lasted for three years; the country was really suffering. Elijah climbed Mount Carmel and prayed for rain… six times his servant looked across the sea for signs of rain, on the seventh time he reported that he could see a cloud the size of a man’s hand. Rain was on the way!
We talk of ‘showers of blessing’, that was certainly a blessing for the land after years of no rain.
Covid 19…. it’s been strange over the last months. Lockdown! Who would have imagined anything like this ever happening?
It has been hard not being able to see family or friends, no hugs, the devastation of not being able to visit loved ones in hospital or say goodbye to them, no church services, no pubs or restaurants, no gyms, no theatres, no hairdressers…when will we be back to normal? What will be the new ‘norm’? But amongst all this there have been blessings.
On my walk, bumping into our youngest son on his way to work. The unexpected phone call from a friend just the moment we needed it. The offers of help in getting shopping and fetching prescriptions. The grandchild that called to see you and stayed (socially distanced) on the path to see how you were doing. The blackbird singing his heart out. The cake that someone baked for you. The orchid that has sat on the windowsill for weeks…and has now started to show signs of buds. The icecream van on it’s rounds again. You will be able to think of many more, I am sure.
Do you remember the song from the late 1940’s?
Count your blessings one by one,
When dawn appears and day has just begun…
Count your blessings one by one,
When twilight falls and toil of day is done…
A friend of ours has started to note down any good thing that happens in a day. It’s a good habit to take up, things happen, but we so often take them for granted and then they pass us by.
God is a good God and showers blessings on us if only we look for them.
Psalm 118. v1 Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good, His love never gives up.
During lockdown, as a church, we were able to meet via ‘Zoom’ (clever technology) for our weekly services, with greatful thanks to Ian Mapp, who set it up for us. It wasn’t quite the same as meeting face to face but good to share the time together.
We were able to open our doors on 5th July as we could space the chairs so we are at least 2 metres away from each other. We are not able to sing!! But we choose hymns, listened to the music and read the words. As I say….strange times!
We are hoping the planned Harvest Festival on 4th October will go ahead; our very good friends, Mike and Jenny Clark will be leading our worship and tea will follow the 2.30pm service.
We feel we cannot make firm plans or dates for All:Starz at the present time but, if you have children of primary school age, please keep an eye on the notice board and we will post there when we plan to restart.
Jan, Ruth, Pam,Tina and Jan from Coffee Morning miss the weekly chat over a coffee and are sorry they are not able to meet; they hope everyone is keeping well.
No dates have been made for restarting but they hope it will not be too long before they can reopen.
The MacMillan coffee morning which is at the end of September will sadly not go ahead at TLC.
On March 14th we held a Ladies Aftenoon Tea with Mrs Dorothy Williams as our speaker. It was a very successful event and we plan to have another one sometime next Spring.
Our Family Weekend with Marilyn Baker and Tracey Williamson in June was not able to go ahead but we hope to book them again to come in June 2021.