Dear Friends,

I’m writing to you following my visit to Wesley today. It is really good to be back with you following my sabbatical over the summer. Thank you for your good wishes and prayers which have helped me. It has been wonderful to spend more time with family and friends including visiting my extended family in Wales. It has been relaxing to just read, sit in the sunshine in the manse garden, go to the beach at South Shields and to visit St. Mary’s Cathedral in Newcastle for times of prayer.

In this story, the hare is so confident of winning that he even sleeps during the race and then, the tortoise, slowly and steadily, ends up winning. The point being made is that there is value and benefit in doing things in a slow, steady, and careful way.

As you will know Huw is on sabbatical which is a gift from the church to every minister. The sabbatical is taken every seven years. This is what is written on the Methodist Church website- `For Methodist presbyters and deacons, a sabbatical is a period of release from ordinary ministerial duties, in addition to normal holidays, for the purpose of pursuing an approved programme of study, research, work or experience. It is intended as a time for re-equipping, refreshment and renewal.’ Please continue to pray for Huw during this time.

People can change when they are given hope, when someone believes in them, and gives them a task to do. Above all they change when they are loved.

We are now in the season of Easter and I was heartened by this story I came across this year describing an Easter ceremony in Russia under communism when it was dangerous to be a believer…

There is a very beautiful saying of Christ which is one of the unwritten sayings which do not appear in the New Testament at all:

Raise the stone and you will find me;

Cleave the wood and I am there.

Challenged by the words of Pope Francis in his Lenten message this year …

It’s easy to delude ourselves into thinking we have a strong faith when everything in our world is calm and smooth. It’s only when the storm strikes that we discover what kind of faith we have, or if we have any faith at all. Coronavirus has certainly done that! But faith here means not so much belief in God as trust in God. We love to sing the hymn ‘Trust and Obey’.

And God says - every one of these who fell is a child of mine, everyone I have counted the hairs on their head. And even when a sparrow falls , I see and care- how much more when one of my children falls in battle do I see and love and care.

Strange times indeed and we can ask where God is in all the fear and confusion.? I am reminded of Isaiah`s words in Chapter 43 v18 and 19 `Do not remember the former things, or consider the things of old. I am about to do a new thing.`