Hi and happy Monday!

It’s been a full week: meetings with colleagues, a hair cut, time in the Hub, discipleship session, extra PCC meeting, chair moving for the election (church is a polling station), voting, Tappy Toes, Mum’s birthday afternoon tea, Christian Aid coffee morning, Sunday morning worship, Open Table, a family fun day, a diocesan conference, a deanery meeting and pavlova making.

Our day off didn’t happen all together because I worked at the coffee morning on Saturday. But we did go off to a medieval festival in Ormskirk in the afternoon, which was fun.

Mum life is good. We had a special time together on Sunday afternoon, celebrating the wonderful Angie from Lullababy (you’ll remember Lullababy from all my blogs last year). A whole community, one thousand people, gathered around this remarkable woman to support her and her family during a hard time in their lives. There were characters, singers, bouncy castles, donkey rides, food stalls, crafts, drinks, an ambulance to look around and an amazing raffle. It was so special, and wonderful to come together in this way.

Ministry life: We had a great prayer meeting this week. They all prayed for me, and put their hands on my head and I’ve been feeling less anxious ever since! It was amazing.

We also had a powerful service on Sunday about Christian Aid. Our placement student delivered a great talk, and my colleague stood up at the end to offer some thoughts about the elections, about how ‘stopping the boats’ will only happen when we support other countries with aid and share what we have. I absolutely agree. I’ve found this election season tricky, especially in Aintree, where there have been some dirty and unfair politics going on. All of which comes on the back of the Godless (going against the Gospel) anti-HMO campaign last year.

Anyway, it’s been a tense week, so when the service was so thought provoking, and our organist played ‘The White Cliffs Of Dover’ as I processed out of church, much to my surprise, I burst into tears! I think all the pressure of this election week got to me, and the music was so moving.

Sophia seems to be reading with more confidence every day. She read three reading books to me back to back recently! She was reading a story about making shopping lists for a party and this is what happened:

Starting off very studious, ‘p-a-rrr-t-ee … b-a-g-s – PARTY BAGS!’ concluding with such excitement! It happened with a few items, including birthday candles and balloons!

Aidan is picking up a few more words and sounds. He says ‘eeeees’ (cheese) when I’m taking a photo. He can also say ‘oo oo’ when you ask him what noise a monkey makes!

I am especially grateful for my wonderful Mum, who had a big birthday this week.

Coming up: a tea dance at St Giles!

More next time x