country summer

2^nd August

I am so glad now that I wrote those last few updates as so much has happened in such a short while and I’ve been caught up in a whirl of busyness. The summer has stretched out seemingly endlessly. I wake up to bright sunshine and look out on the beautiful countryside from the front window, and then in the evenings we watch the sun finally set across the horizon out the back and go to bed and it is still light over the field. Day after day of sunshine and fulfillment. Strawberry picking and jam making and seeing old friends and making new ones and spending time with our beloved, happy, special grandson, and helping out at Ben’s, and tracting the village, …..and church!! Not one but two. Sunday mornings find us at Castle Combe and then in the evening we walk through the village to the local chapel. Hopefully we will be used here to get alongside the villagers and reach out to the children. I read a little booklet recently by T. Epp. In it he wrote ‘ “Come on Abraham. I want to take you to a country that you don’t know anything about. I’m not going to tell you where it is; I’m just going to show you. Just keep going.” That was the way God called Abraham.’ I feel that is the way God called us too. During that tiring bank holiday weekend in May, lugging boxes to the van and wondering why I was leaving behind my beautiful garden those words were foremost in my head, ‘obey Me, just keep going’. Ben and Jenny and Stephen worked tirelessly and I am so grateful for the precious children God has given me. And so grateful to be settling into life in Tiddleywink where God wants us and where we will humbly try to follow Him.

settling in

11^th May

What a week! A week of unpacking and yet stopping every so often to look out the window at the beautiful countryside front and back. The same day as the men had problems getting the piano from Cheshunt it took an hour for delivery men to get the cooker into the kitchen here! In the end they had to wheel it across the raspberry patch with the wheels sinking into the ground in places, but no damage was done and so our cooker has arrived! We have spoken a bit more to Andy next door, Hannah and Steve in number 7 and Will from the village who has been repairing their dry stone wall. We’ve met John in the field with the horses and kind Roger and Daphne from number 8 who took me into Chippenham to pick up Julian’s painkillers as he is now in bed with his poorly back and can’t move.

“We are often confused by the events around us. Some things we will never understand until later years when we look back and see how God was working. This proverb counsels us to not worry if we don’t understand everything as it happens. Instead we should trust that God knows what He’s doing, even if His timing or design is not clear to us.” So read the NLT notes for one of our readings last week. The proverb is ‘How can we understand the road we travel? It is the Lord Who directs our steps.’ The connecting Psalm reads ‘The steps of the godly are directed by the Lord. He delights in every detail of their lives. Though they stumble, they will not fall, for the Lord holds them by the hand.’ I don’t know how I came across that last week or how I found it again to write it in here, but perfect timing nonetheless.

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transition time

9^th May

I really cannot believe we are here! Here in Tiddleywink where we belong! Last Sunday as Julian and I arrived to find Stephen weeding in the garden and Ben making the house homely and Jenny preparing a meal I felt we had arrived home. And it has felt home ever since. I remember it took me six years to settle into Cheshunt and this time round it has taken six seconds! So much has happened I don’t know where to begin.

So back to last Thursday, a week ago yet maybe the longest week of my life. I felt I should go to Susie’s so we could spend our last evening in Cheshunt reading God’s Word and praying together. We looked at ‘Word for today’ and read “What has God told you to do? Obey Him! Stop vacillating, stop procrastinating, stop arguing with Him and do what He tells you. You’ll love the results.” The words ‘obey Him, just obey Him’ were to echo in my mind time and again over the next three days. Ben and Jenny picked up the van at 8 a.m. and drove easily through the morning rush hour. Caversham van hire looked most impressive and my two ‘grooving movers’ walked up the path with huge smiles on their faces. Ben surveyed all our boxes and confidently made a start. Jenny had a meeting in Cambridge so she could help fill the van and amazingly Julian was up to the journey down to Tiddleywink and the first unload. In the evening Stephen drove up, incredibly quickly for a Friday bank holiday rush hour and ordered the beginnings of the next load. We shall never know how much we packed into that second load! He stacked the boxes whilst the rest of us carried! On and on and on and there still seemed room! It grew dark and we worked by moonlight still observed by the neighbours, and finally, finally we  could call it a night and the boys and Jenny took the lorry to Vicki’s.

Next morning bright and early our removal team drove to Tiddleywink, unloaded, drove home for dinner and then managed to squeeze everything that was left on board for one final load, even the compost bins!! Steve drove back to Bristol, and Ben and Jenny drove to Reading and parked this time on Jenny’s parents’ driveway! As they drove down to Tiddleywink the following day Julian and I were busy cleaning our Cheshunt home for viewers, baking a cake, packing the car and saying goodbye to neighbours and friends. It was amazing how everything slotted into place and how we managed to say goodbye to the people who really mattered to us. Julian’s back was really beginning to hurt by now and Marion was so kind in giving pain killers, cakes and drink for the journey. Once more I was worried he would be able to drive all the way and I was praying non-stop. Then just about the time we reached the M4 it seemed as though stronger hands took the wheel and the car felt more secure. Maybe just maybe those angel hands that had stopped the box of jam jars sliding into disaster on Saturday were the same hands steering our little car safely home.

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painful goodbyes

29^th April

So much has happened in a month. We met the buyers of our Cheshunt home and everything I prayed for came true. They adored our house and we were so happy it was going to people who thought it was beautiful. Our hearts sank last Tuesday when the estate agent called us and informed us they could not get a mortgage and were having to pull out. My mind went into overdrive and I worried about the place being empty for months and the garden neglected. We said we couldn’t possibly have any viewers with a house full of boxes but the agent was persistent and we agreed to show people round. As I write this we are moving in a few days and the house still has not sold. The roses are all budding in the garden, all about to burst forth into a spectacular show and we are about to uproot and leave all this beauty behind. I begin to understand how Noah felt, building his boat with not a drop of water in sight. This morning I was packing the last few bits and pieces from our bedroom and came across a card from Andrew with the verse. ‘The joy of the Lord is your strength.’ Written nearly 18 years ago and yet it is what I need to focus on right now. Lovely how God uses words from the past time after time at just the right moment. I need strength and I need joy and it is all to be found in Him.

Last Sunday was our last at our little church. It was a very precious time. Charles preached and gave us such a touching farewell from the platform, and kind friends brought plants and flowers, gifts and cards which were most unexpected but most welcome. I had such a lovely time upstairs with Lyddy. We went over the Easter story again as everything else is packed but it is lovely to see her soaking in the stories now and when I mentioned heaven she piped up with ‘no one cries there’. We made up our own game to remember some of the main points of Easter using 2 plastic bottles and some coloured fluffy balls. There were lots of tears and heavy hearts. Why are we leaving our little church right now when we are so needed? One day it will all be made plain.

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my precious Susie

30^th March

Today hasn’t been easy. Tomorrow is Julian’s consultancy so today was never going to be easy. But then we are not promised an easy ride, or skies ever blue. This morning Charles preached in church from Hebrews 1 on the need to persevere. How easy to feel like giving up, to give way to the disappointments of life. But the Son of God never gave up on His journey, even though He was weary. He goes ahead of us and illuminates the path and He sends friends to brighten the way and lighten the load. This entry is a tribute to my dear friend Susie. She called me up and suggested a walk, so on the evening of mothering Sunday we walked over the Lea Valley Park, watched the reflection of the trees in the lake and then turned and walked back into the setting sun. It was the first evening of Summer time, the blossom was starry white on the blackthorn, the birds were in full chorus, and we prayed and uplifted each other. No one will ever replace Susie but I ask the Lord that He will provide a friend for her once we are moved and also that I will find a dear Christian friend down in Tiddleywink. Thankyou Susie.

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time to break camp

7^th March 2014

It is time for an update as we have come a long way since last November. Yesterday the cottage in Tiddleywink became officially ours, and last Saturday our house here in Cheshunt went onto the market. It seems so strange now to read how sad I was at just the thought of moving from Cheshunt. Over the winter we have suffered mentally at the hands of local children targeting our house with their anti-social behaviour. The police are involved and I can’t wait to move away. Is this all part of God’s plan in helping us move? Maybe it is helping our friends who are really sorry to lose us to see that it is best we move. We are now praying for a buyer. We know God will provide. My reading last night was in Deuteronomy 1: “The Lord our God said to us, ‘You have stayed at this mountain long enough. It is time to break camp and move on……..I am giving all this land to you. Go in and occupy it.”

Another point of interest is that we have heard how the folks at Castle Combe are in danger of losing their building. If indeed this does happen then there is an arrangement in place for them to use the church building at Yatton Keynell, within walking distance from us! We are so thankful we decided against buying a property in Castle Combe! Another reassurance that God knows and cares about our every need.

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the Hand of God

28^th November

Last week was a very low week for me. I knew I should pick up my pen and write down exactly how I was feeling but I couldn’t even do that. I wanted to write across my journal ‘Cancelled. The book that never got written.’ And put it away to gather dust and eventually be thrown away. But God wasn’t finished with me. He had begun a good work and He was still working behind the scenes even though I thought all was lost. Just like the picture of the tapestry where we can see all the knots and tangles underneath but God can see the upper side.

It began with a phone call from Steve last Monday lunchtime. We had tentatively planned to meet with the vendors, visit the church again, see the family again, look around Chippenham and see if we could come to an arrangement on the price of the Tiddleywink cottage. I was looking forward so much to this even though I was worried it was adding more stress to Julian. But in one phone call all my dreams were shattered. Lynsey was ill and unable to have us to stay, so in one phonecall I said goodbye to everything. There would be no move, no house, no church, no weekend away and no family visit. My grandson would grow up never knowing us and we would have to be content to stay in Cheshunt, which I had always envisaged since we moved there 36 years ago. I thought I would live and die there unless the Lord comes first so why did God lead me on a journey only to shut yet another door? I’d come full circle again. Was this rational thinking? Of course not. But as I write this I am very glad for that phone call and that we didn’t go to Tiddleywink. God had better plans. Last Saturday the estate agent rang and said the vendors wanted to put an offer on another property based on our 302 and was that fine with us. My response was “I think so.” So armed with my faltering “I think so” they did just that and we were told on Monday evening that Tiddleywink is ours!! I was utterly stunned. I had mentally settled right back into Cheshunt and here was Tiddleywink given to us. As I write this I am still stunned. Julian is having his 3^rd chemo; my heart is breaking at the thought of leaving my security in Cheshunt and my familiar surroundings and my dear friends. But that low week taught me how important my family is to me and how I sincerely want to work for the Lord in the remaining days, weeks, months or years that lie ahead. Both Julian and I desperately need to be in another church now that Charles is no longer at the helm in Hertford. If we can live in the village and take people along to church at Castle Combe then that would be wonderful. All I want right now is to be in the place where the Lord wants me to be and if that house in Tiddleywink is the right one for us then I know it will work out. I prayed that the house would call us if it is the right one and I also feel the whole matter has been taken out of our hands and God is leading us on.

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