Despite what you might be seeing on many Facebook and Instagram posts, the season of Christmas is not actually over for another few days!

You may know that I am really keen on telling good news stories wherever I can and now that I’ve had some space to reflect, I thought I’d jot down some of the ways that I’ve seen God working over the last few weeks.

So here are ten answers to prayer that I’ve witnessed over December.

1. St Michael’s heating worked for the carol service, the midnight communion and the Wednesday services in between. It even got up to a very tropical sixteen degrees!
2. The end of a friend’s cancer treatment is in sight!
3. A parishioner has been given a manageable diagnosis after a couple of months of not knowing what was wrong.
4. An email with the subject ‘Breathe‘ came into my inbox at just the right moment.
5. On 23rd December, the exhaust fell off our car and the garage was able to a, fit us in right then, and b, fix it within a couple of hours!
6. Also on 23rd December, the long awaited new lectern arrived at church. It says ‘the word made flesh’ across the front and at midnight on Christmas Eve, the opening chapter from John’s Gospel was read from it. ‘The word became flesh and dwelt among us’. John 1.14.
7. A couple of other things have, to quote my vicar boss, ‘come unstuck’, and one of which is the church carpark!
8. On Christmas Eve at 4pm, I went to bed with vertigo so bad that I couldn’t open my eyes to take tablets. After praying, I woke up an hour or so later feeling as fresh as a daisy.
9. A lady I went to see and prayed with in hospital the week before Christmas has made sufficient progress to be leaving over the next few days!
10. On Christmas Day, I successfully drove over 100 miles after a busy few weeks and very little sleep.

Above are some things to be celebrated and to give thanks for, I think!

I know that prayer is a tricky thing for some and that not all prayers are answered as we want them to be. But when good things do happen, we need to say ‘thank you’.

And on that note, it’s goodbye and thank you from me. Goodbye 2019 and thank you all for reading along.

See you in 2020!

Poppy x