Wedding Blessing
Wendy's youngest sister Joanne was married to Marouane in Tunisia in January, and they had a Wedding Blessing in Radstock Methodist Church on July 28th.

The two photographs above are 'proofs' from the website of www.theimagefile.com/web/martinchivers, from whom prints can be ordered.

The second photo is of Jo and all her sisters, and her brother Rod.

Below is a picture of the chocolate wedding cake made by Leila.

Joan's Birthday
We took Wendy's mother Joan to The Courts at Holt for her birthday outing.

STEAM!

My blog deserves the occasional steam locomotive. This one is at Quorn station, on the Great Central Line.

GARDEN PARTY

Despite the wet weather of our 2007 summer, it was dry and sunny for the garden party which our church put on for the senior citizens of the locality.

(Click on any picture to enlarge)

RUBY WEDDING

Our friends Roger and Margaret Stevens celebrated their Ruby Wedding recently. Here we are with them in Bradgate Park, not far from Loughborough.

St Margaret's Church, Cley-next-the-Sea, where Aunt Grace's funeral took place.

Grace Lockett’s Funeral.

It was a huge privilege to be with the extended Lockett family for Aunt Grace’s funeral on 2nd July up in Norfolk. It was a stormy day yet the rain kept off at all the crucial moments. The service of committal was at the Parish Church at Cley-next-the-sea, where Hugh and Grace used to live. We were reminded that even in her 80s Grace used to run a nursery group in the church there. She also used to ride a bike, falling off into the hedge from time to time and picking herself up giggling. Their bungalow was named “Emmaus”, and indeed it still is: it is the first thing you notice as you enter the village from the south. Hugh and Grace called it by that name to relate it to the story in Luke 24.13-36 where the disciples meet and unexpectedly recognise the risen Jesus. Likewise their home was a place of hospitality, and a place which breathed the presence of Jesus (as I myself experienced when I went to stay with them after my bereavement in 1994). I was able to refer to this when I gave the reading at the second service later in the day.

The service was conducted with great dignity by Simon Lockett, who is a vicar. Cley Church is enormous, ancient and beautiful (see attached picture). There was a violent storm whilst the service took place, but as we went outdoors for the burial, the sun shone out through a gap between inky clouds. There was even a fly-past by the RAF, though that was not pre-planned!

In the afternoon there was a service of thanksgiving at Dereham Baptist Church, during which time various members of the family were able to have their say and give tributes to Aunt Grace. Seretse Khama sent his condolences. He is Vice-President of Botswana and has visited Grace and Hugh many times. And why? – because he was a toddler in her nursery group in South London many years ago and never forgot Grace. Many another ex-toddler kept in touch with her through the years, and I can only imagine how she had such an impact on them that they would do this.

Outstandingly Grace was a woman of prayer, who prayed daily for all of her family, and for her extended family as well as for many other people. This keen interest in people coupled with an unswerving belief in the power of prayer led several people at her funeral to testify to the effect she had had on their lives.

The Bison Farm

We visited recently the Bison Farm at West Knoyle (just off the A303 near Mere). Well worth a visit! Click on picture to enlarge it.

Dick Prior

Dick was another of my parents’ generation who died recently, aged 91. He was my father’s cousin, a fine dedicated Christian (doubtless yet another beneficiary of Pamela Ann’s prayer: see my blog entry on 14th June). He was a maths teacher and housemaster at Kings School, Canterbury. Subsequently he was a headmaster in Nigeria and then at Oxford, with an interlude in between when he taught at Bradford Grammar School. I met him for the first time whilst he was in Yorkshire, but did not properly renew acquaintance until nearly 40 years later when he and Joan moved to Shaftesbury.

Dick in the RAF in 1944

With Dick and Joan in 2005

Gold Hill, Shaftesbury, immediately below St Peter's Church where the thanksgiving service for Dick was held on 15th June 2007

Aunt Grace

Aunt Grace was very special to me. She departed this life on 13th June 2007, on her 94th birthday. What was particularly special about her was that she walked with Jesus in her daily life and was therefore a woman of prayer, in tune with her Lord. She was a great comfort to me when I was bereaved. Over many years she had used what she called our ‘family prayer’ as she prayed daily not just for her own children and grandchildren but for nephews, nieces and their children too, “…that not one of them should be missing on the coming day of glory.” (a reference to the day when the Lord Jesus will return for his people.) It was a prayer known to be used by Pamela Ann Prior (1790-1858) and subsequently taken up by later generations of the family with greatly positive outcomes for many of us.

A thought for today….

“Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” Matthew 11.28

We were listening recently to a talk on ‘Stress’ when this quotation by Jesus was mentioned. It took me right back to my childhood as I remembered that this text hung on the wall of the church which we attended. It had a comforting ring about it, and still does.

He says “Come unto me” – a beckoning which tells us we can have a personal relationship with Jesus, a privilege which so many people have no experience of, because they have not responded to his invitation.

He says “My yoke is easy” - a metaphor of a double ox-yoke which suggests that if he is the other one pulling on the yoke, our burdens will be greatly eased. Had he been speaking today he might have used the metaphor of one of those tandems that has a child's saddle and pedals at the back. The child pedals away busily, but the real burden of the journey is being taken by the parent on the front saddle.

Whatever the metaphor, the invitation made by Jesus is open to all of us.

Grandchildren

Andy with Rosie

Isaac and Lubin in their canoe

Grace, Eva and Jacob

First Leila was a pheasant-charmer; - now she is a snake charmer too!

The pheasant-whisperer

Charlie the pheasant featured in my blog on March 23 2007. Here he is again, bold as brass, feeding from Leila's hand.

A new member of the family

Wendy's youngest sister Joanne is now Mrs Mselmi. She recently married Moomo, who is from Tunisia.

Exeter
Two picnic pictures taken on the day that Jacob's dedication took place

Isles of Scilly
A few pictures from our recent holiday there

(click on any photo to enlarge it)

In the distance are the twin hills of the uninhabited island of Samson. The picture below is taken from the top of one of the hills.

Two pictures (above and below) taken on St Martins

My 65th birthday
Cousins and in-laws at a dinner party

Church activities at Easter

The Corsham joint churches Easter Walk of Witness in the High Street

Face-painting outside the 'Blue Bus' - an Easter venture put on in Corsham by our church (Priory Street Baptist Church).

The kitchen team in the blue bus

Puppets on the upper deck of the blue bus

Lee Abbey

We spent one of the best weekend breaks we have had in recent times at Lee Abbey on the North Devon coast.

Click on picture to enlarge it

For details about the Lee Abbey conference, retreat and holiday centre, click on www.LeeAbbey.org.uk

Lynmouth

Cliffs between Lee Abbey and Lynmouth


In Lee Abbey grounds



With cousins Andrew and Ruth Sims on the cliff path to Lynmouth

Marital strife in our back garden.

"Oi! This is my food and you're not having it! Back off!

Hospitality
This visitor to our house thinks she lives with us! She dashes in every time we open the door.