And so it's done. My beautiful, funny, loving, caring, thoughtful and wonderful Mum has gone to be with her Jesus. The funeral services were held five days after she died - a minor miracle in itself - and what a wonderful send-off it was. A private family service in the morning, the most precious time imaginable – no formality at all, just a time of sharing precious thoughts, poems, prayers and songs, with pastor Steve from Mum's church, CCK, who has pastored us through th

We all live our lives by a certain set of values, things that are central to our lives, to what we believe and what we shape our lives around. Sometimes we don't even consciously realise that certain things are "core values", but we live by them nevertheless. Goals are about what you do, whereas core values are about who you are. When our son returned from his first year at Bethel in America, he shared with us about how he ha d formed his own personal "core values", and I ca

One of the first things that Father told me after we found out about my loved one’s terminal cancer diagnosis was this: it’s not about the destination; it’s about the journey. He told me that the journey we would go on as a family would be something that would draw us even closer together, and that it would be a precious thing, something that we would remember and cherish with a heart full of thankfulness and wonder, not a bitter memory that we would try to forget. Society

Over the years, I have heard many stories about people who weren't able to be at their loved one's bedside when they died, and who battled with grief and sometimes even guilt, because they didn't get to say goodbye to them. I thought about this a lot, and it really bothered me. The bottom line is that I can't guarantee I will be there when my loved one dies, because in the majority of cases, we can't pinpoint the time when they go to join their Father in heaven. Not being t

II - Roses and Wrinkles I am realising that death, or at least anticipated death, is changing my perspective on almost everything. For example, I was given some beautiful roses for my birthday. They are so lovely that I automatically leant forward to smell them, but found they had no fragrance at all. They looked like they should have had the most beautiful sweet aroma, but there was nothing …they smelt of nothing. Not bad, not sweet, just nothing. I'm told they are grown

I'm on a journey at the moment. It's a hard journey, a journey full of pain and grieving, but also a journey which includes touches of beauty and moments of grace. Someone very dear to me was recently diagnosed with terminal cancer and hasn't got very much longer to live on this earth, although thankfully, she has an eternity to live in heaven. So why have I called my blog Fields of Grace? Well, last week I was worshipping God and praying about the situation and the journey

At the start of the year, our beautiful town was hit with tragedy. We all carried the heaviness of the heartache. In times of pain and shock, it is so easy to blame God and ask the question, "Where was God?" "Why did He not stop this from happening?" These are questions that are not easily answered. In my own life, tragedy hit my own family with the death of my sister in a horrendous car accident. Friends would say to me “ How can you believe in a God now?” My reply has alway