Drawing to a close and preparing for action

As we return from our whistlestop Celtic tour we have a few days left of our sabbatical to catch up and get ready for action stations again next week. 

Reflecting back on the past three months we both feel that we have been given an amazing gift and have thoroughly enjoyed every moment of it.  The things we have learned and experienced, the people we have met, the books we have read and the places we have visited will no doubt provide food for a fair few talks in the coming months! 

It has been wonderful to come aside for this time and reflect on all the water that has passed under the bridge since Mark's last sabbatical in 2008.  As with anyone's life there have been good times and happy memories to look back on as well as some dark and troubled days which I would rather forget, but through it all, God has kept us and sustained us, individually and as a couple, and continually given us the strength to get through to the next step in the journey.

As I look forward and prepare now for an exciting new season in my life with my new role officially starting in August I commit myself once again to God's plan and purpose for my life and trust that he will equip me for whatever lies ahead. 

I pray that for each of you who have followed our travels via the blog, you will each know God's guiding hand in your lives and that you will put your trust in Jesus to sustain you through whatever lies ahead in your own life during the coming days and years. 

This is my final blog on Sabbatical Reflections but I'm toying with the idea of writing an occasional blog during my time as World Federation Area Officer!  If you would like to be kept up to date with what I get up to in the next five years or would be happy to be included in prayer/news updates please do email me on markcarolyn1983@gmail.com and I'll happily add you to my list.

I close with a prayer of St.Aidan of Lindisfarne:

Leave me alone with God
As much as may be.
As the tide draws the waters
Close in upon the shore
Make me an island, set apart
Alone with you, God, holy to you.

Then with the turning of the tide
Prepare me to carry your presence
To the busy world beyond
The world that rushes in on me
Till the waters come again
And fold me back to you.

Happy Bank Holiday everyone!  Hopefully it won't rain too much!

A gorgeous little robin on Holy Island...I read that there is a legend that the robin got his red breast as when Jesus was on the cross a robin tried to remove the thorns from his brow to ease his suffering and got splashed with blood.  A sweet story!

In the chapel on Iona...I lit a candle for a close friend of mine who is fighting Ovarian cancer

A happy afternoon - Jo and Ayo drove up to Keswick for the day to visit us

On our long walk on Iona

Derwent Water - a lovely sunny and happy ending to our travels

Pilgrimage to Iona

We felt like our pilgrimage began before we got to Iona as we drove our van the 34 miles across Mull on a single track road to the ferry at Fionnphort.  It felt like a long way and we were relieved to get there eventually!

Martyrs Bay, Iona

We had miraculously dry weather for our day on Iona.  We visited the abbey and ruins of the nunnery following a pilgrims guide we had taken with us.  The best part of the day though was walking across the island to Martyrs Bay as the sky cleared and the sun shone.  This was so named because of 68 monks who were slaughtered there during a Viking raid and we remembered those around the world who still suffer for their faith today.  At the culmination of our walk we arrived at St. Colomba's bay in the south of the island.  Here we spent some time in peace and reflection.  We each took two pebbles...one we threw into the sea to symbolise something we wanted to leave behind and one we took with us as a symbol of a fresh commitment.  It was a very special moment and very apt as we draw near to the end of this wonderful sabbatical and prepare to go back into the fray.

At our campsite on Mull we got to see some sea otters as we were overlooking the bay!  They didn't want to come close to us but at least we saw them!  A real highlight of the stay.

Waiting for the ferry looking back over the abbey on Iona

Celtic tour

View of Lindisfarne Priory from our hotel

On our way up country to Holy Island in Northumbria we stopped off at Epworth Rectory to pay a visit to the special Methodist Women exhibition, 'Transforming the world from the kitchen' about Susanna Wesley and her Godly influence on her children including John and Charles.  I hope lots of you who live near by or are passing through Lincolnshire take time out to call in as so much work has gone into the exhibition and it offers real encouragement and inspiration to us all.

We've now arrived on Holy Island where we are spending the night and have a lovely view of the Priory and castle from our hotel room.  It's such a special place and part of our Christian heritage and I felt quite emotional as we drove across the causeway as I've wanted to come here for a long time.  I'm enjoying reading stories about Aidan and Cuthbert.  One of my favourites is amongst the stories of their affinity with animals and creation.  One story tells of Cuthbert coming out of,the water where he had been praying and being dried off by two otters rubbing round him!  Aw!  Never mind luxury bath towels I want otters!!

At Epworth Rectory

Mission partner reunion

Yesterday we drove to Windsor for a reunion of some of our group from All Nations where we all did our cross cultural training in 2012.  All of us have had our joys and sorrows, our tests and encouragements and it was great to be able to meet to catch up and pray for each other.  Sadly not everyone could come to the reunion, but we were able to learn a lot from each other's experiences and from news we have received from those who are still overseas.  We have all agreed to meet again in three years time!

Meeting friends of friends...

This morning we went to worship at Bethel Methodist Church in Bridgetown.  Friends of ours used to be mission partners here and we wanted to go along and meet some of their old congregation.  We were made very welcome and were able to bring greetings from our friends in England...when we mentioned their names the congregation broke into cheers and applause!  After a long (almost three hour!) service we chatted with a couple I'd been told to look out for and it was a real privilege to chat to friends of friends.  As I've said before, it's amazing to belong to the church and have family wherever we travel in the world.

Me and Etwyn...a friend of Alison and Les Judd

My Mum's dream come true!

My Mum, who is 72, has always dreamt of visiting the Caribbean but never thought it would be possible.  Up until a couple of years ago she had never been on a plane and then she plucked up the courage to fly out with our daughter Emily to visit us in Guyana.  She was even brave enough to come with us on a small aircraft to fly over the Amazon forest to see the Kaiteur Falls in Guyana and surprised us by being completely calm and stoical about it all!

As we were travelling to Guyana this time via Barbados we invited her to fly out and join us for a week.  She was really nervous about the thought of flying alone but we booked her special assistance, my brother dropped her at Gatwick and we met her yesterday at the airport here.  She is now enjoying her dream come true...she never thought she'd see and experience white sand and turquoise sea but her courage has meant she has now done what she thought was impossible.

A lesson to all of us...however old you are there may still be a chance to fulfil a dream if you're brave enough!  Here she is paddling in the Caribbean with me. 😃

Back to school

Mark telling the story of the anointing of David

This morning we went to Mahaica primary school to take an assembly...a school we visited regularly when we lived here.  A lot of the children remembered us and wanted to know where Nettie (our puppet) was!  They also remembered songs we had taught them and we had an enthusiastic rendition of 'Great Big God'.

Cheeky boy! 

Talking to the children about how we can't judge by appearances

After this we did some more visits - one of our visits was to a lovely lady called Shira who some of you may remember reading about in my blog while we lived here.  Three years ago she gave birth to twin boys and sadly one of them died of an infection in hospital and we had the privilege of standing alongside her through that difficult time and together took the funeral for the little baby.  Today we met the surviving twin who is now a robust and healthy three year old.  (A photo will follow once we get home). It was very special to be able to visit her in her home and pray with her again.

A joyful day

A cute little girl...maybe a future preacher! 

We thought we were being collected at 6.30 this morning so dutifully got up at 5.45 expecting our lift to be late as per the usual Guyanese custom, BUT had a surprise as he arrived just before 6am so we had a speedy departure!

I preached at two services this morning; the first one started at 8am and finished at about 10.30 (not because I preached for a long time I hasten to add!), then we hot footed it to the next service at 11 but didn't get there until 11.20 so were a bit late starting!  At both services we were so blessed by the warmth of the welcome we received and were asked to send greetings back to our churches in England.  I preached about self esteem and how we are all loved and valued by God and we had the privilege of praying for several people at the end of each service.

After the second service we were taken to another church where we met some more of the circuit youth and were able to spend a couple of hours chatting and encouraging them as well as sharing a lot of laughter.

Some of them came with us on the bus ride back to our hotel for an impromptu road trip and we treated them all (and our driver!) to a fruit punch before they headed back.  It has been such a blessing today and a real privilege to be able to share with these dear people.

This trip is so therapeutic for us and we are building some good positive memories and re-establishing some old relationships.

Preaching at the 8am service

aWith some of our Guyanese daughters and my first Guyanese granddaughter! 

A day with some of the youth

Today we spent the day at Splashmins, a lake for swimming, with some of the youth from our old circuit.  Sadly, we were not allowed to have all the circuit youth on an official day, so some of our beloved young people missed out, but we had a good time with some of them in an unofficial capacity.

When we arrived at the lake Mark led a short teaching session on the nature of fear, the effects of fear and how to overcome it, then we had a chicken and rice lunch and spent the afternoon with the young people swimming and having fun.  We're shattered now!  Early night ready to be picked up in the morning at 6.30am (Guyana time!) to be taken to the first of two services at which I am preaching, as Mark has not been permitted to preach during our visit.

Mark speaking to the young people

Thanks for your honesty!

We have spent our first full day in Guyana and we have had the privilege of visiting some of our ex congregation members in their homes and chatting and praying with them.  Everywhere we went we were greeted with such warmth and welcome (and big hugs and kisses) and it was a delight to catch up with some old faces.  (Photos will follow once we get home and clear the camera).

I had to laugh as at two different houses I was greeted by ladies saying 'you put on a lot of weight girl'...which I am sure is a compliment here!!  Note to self...back on the diet when we get home!

It's very weird to be back here again but at the same time it feels completely normal because everything is so familiar to us.  One moving comment someone made was 'ministers come and go but they never come back and you have come back'.  Another lady who is dying of cancer said she was so pleased she had seen us once more before she dies.  We feel it's been very therapeutic and a real blessing for us coming back and hopefully a blessing to those we are meeting again.

More travels...

I've just returned from a weekend at the Hayes Conference Centre in Swanwick where the annual Methodist Women in Britain conference is held.  I had never been before so didn't know what to expect and had a wonderful time with women from all around the country and some from other parts of the world. 

I met my colleague and counterpart from Ireland, Louise, and we hit it off like a house on fire (over a glass of wine in the bar!) so I think there is going to be some to-ing and fro-ing to Ireland over the coming years to strengthen links between our two units of the World Federation of Methodist and Uniting Church Women. 

Jill Barber, the vice president of the Methodist Conference spoke and inspired us with stories about inspirational women of the past and challenged us with what we can learn from their prayer lives, their passion and their love for Jesus.  We had some wonderful contributions and one of the highlights for me was some worship led by a group of women from Zimbabwe - it made me want to be back in Africa...more on that to come! 

Anne Browse welcoming our speaker, Jill Barber

They said there would be some giant puppets and they weren't exaggerating!

Our Bring and Buy a Butterfly stall to raise funds to help women in poorer countries attend the World Federation conference in Texas later this year -  we raised over £1200 from this!

 

Wonderful exuberant worship led by a group of ladies from Zimbabwe

Some of the ladies went to a signing workshop and were helping in the worship with what they had learned

Our daughter Jo and her husband Ayo are here with us and we spent a lovely day with them yesterday. They are now cat sitting for us as we leave on our next adventure...today we head to Gatwick ready to fly early tomorrow morning to Guyana to visit some of the dear folk there and hopefully share some teaching and preaching with them in various places.   As and when I get wifi I will keep you posted! 

A variety of experiences

I travelled to Leamington Spa for a two day Methodist Council meeting...some of which was heavy going and other parts which were completely inspiring and uplifting. 

Mark met me from the train at Tiverton and we camped overnight so that we were closer to head to Minehead for a day at Spring Harvest where we joined Emily and Chris.  Emily and her colleague were running a stall to try to raise the profile of the charity for which Emily is communications manager - Middle East Media. 

Emily and her colleague at the MEM stand

The charity do an amazing work across the Middle East - training and educating women who may not otherwise receive this benefit, supporting Christians in primarily Muslim countries and using media productions to help traumatised children in troubled places such as refugee camps and conflict zones.  This is the first time the charity has sought to engage people at a Christian event in this way and Emily did a great job designing the posters and newsletters.  If you want to find out more about this charity do email Emily at comms@mem.org. 

Us with Emily and Chris at the stand

Good old Butlins!

A surreal moment...puppets of Elvis, a vicar and Jesus!  Not three characters you usually see together!

Home very briefly!

We arrived back home just over a week ago and I've been catching up with sleep, washing and post!  On Wednesday I had to go to London for my first Methodist Women executive meeting.  We met for a meal at Wetherspoons and celebrated the engagement of the daughter of our president Anne with some prosecco!

After a long day of business on Thursday at Methodist Church House, Anne and I headed south west on the train and had an interesting experience.  A Hungarian lady with very little English realised she had got on the wrong train...she wanted to go to Hungerford but the train didn't stop until Taunton.  Anne and I tried to help her work out which train she could catch to get back from Taunton using the Internet and were able to give her a little encouragement using Babelfish to translate a message (technology can be amazing!).  The young ticket collector could not have been kinder or more helpful to the poor, distressed lady.  She arranged staff to help her at Taunton station, got the lady into first class on a train to Swindon and organised a taxi for her from Swindon to Hungerford.  On top of all that she gave Anne and I a bottle of prosecco each for helping out!

We were blown away by her kindness and customer service and I have written to GWR to commend her. When you hear so many dreadful stories about immigrants being treated badly it was so heartening to see a visitor to our land being treated with such dignity and love.  It made me think of those words of Jesus, 'Whatever you do for the least of these you do for me.'  I'm sure he must have been smiling yesterday evening! 😃

Celebrating with the Methodist women...any excuse! 

Waiting at the airport

While we were waiting at Melbourne airport (for nearly 9 hours!) for our flight home we heard the dreadful news about the attacks on Brussels.  It made me think of those poor people who were just going to check in to a flight as we had just done and had no idea what awaited them in the airport building.  I was very thankful to get home safely and our thoughts and prayers are with the families who have lost loved ones.

Watching the news unfold at Melbourne airport

We also got a message from Jo, our daughter, during our wait, letting us know she was not well.  She travels by train a lot for work and had collapsed at Euston station in London and remarkably everyone just stepped over her and ignored her.  😢. Eventually one kind man stopped to help her to first aid.  It made me wonder what I would have done in that situation and hope it will make me more aware of people around me when I travel in future.  Poor Jo was ill all the way home to Manchester on the train and ended up in A&E later that night on a drip as she was dehydrated.  They did some tests and found she had severe gastroenteritis and is thankfully recovering now.

This is a strange Easter time for us this year as it is usually so busy but we are once again thankful for the gift of a complete break and making the most of every moment!

Cairns and Uluru

Waiting for sunset at Uluru

We had a great time in Cairns and thankfully the cyclone weakened so we were spared the high winds forecast.  We had a fabulous day out on a boat to the Great Barrier Reef and enjoyed wandering around the Cairns shops in the warm rain!

While at the Yulara resort we asked about Christian worship as we were there on a Sunday and found a small Christian fellowship who meet in one of the hotels on a Saturday evening so we went along to join them.  There is a transient population at the resort maintaining the hotels, airport, tourist industry and the small group of about 8 Christians gather every Saturday for worship in one of the hotel meeting rooms.  We've been here for three weeks and experienced three very different styles of worship which we have enjoyed in different ways.

Uluru and Kata Tjuta were awe inspiring though the resort was rather overpriced...captive audience!  

The little Christian fellowship at Yulara resort

Things we like about Australia

We love this country and here are some reasons why...

Free barbecues everywhere...and not vandalised!

• Free, easy parking everywhere
• Quiet roads
• Strictly enforced road rules
• Weather!
• Interesting animals
• Friendly people (mostly...not so much when you go,wrong on the roads!)
• Lots of space
• Beautiful birds
• Loads of things free...ferry, entrance to parliament building, national parks, trams in Melbourne
• Restricted alcohol use in public
• Lots of free toilets
• Voting is compulsory
• And Mark likes the trucks
• Plus see pics ...there are barbecues everywhere in parks and on beaches which are free to use
• Twice a year (in Melbourne area at least) people can put hard rubbish out for free collection...we saw piles of furniture, wood, toys etc at the end of people's drives waiting to be collected...our friend told us that people scour the piles and take anything they fancy before its collected...a kind of community free Cycle!  Brilliant!  

  

  Hard rubbish waiting to be collected or hunted through!

Meeting the president

Safely in Cairns waiting for the sun! 

Yesterday we had the privilege of meeting Ann and John Connan for lunch near Melbourne.  Ann is the world president of the World Federation of Methodist and Uniting Church Women (the movement I'll be representing on behalf of Britain from the summer) and her husband is a Uniting Church Minister here.  We had never met before but as she lives in Melbourne it was wonderful to have the opportunity to get to know them both a bit before I see them again in Texas in August.  We had a great time and could have chatted all day if we hadn't had to move on!  We all knew one or two people from different places proving what a small world it is!

Today we flew to Cairns where there is a cyclone warning...first time we've ever had a cyclone warning leaflet in a hotel room!  Nevertheless we've booked a boat trip to the Great Barrier Reef for Friday hoping the rain stops and the weather clears a little!

Lunch with Ann and John

The day thou gavest Lord has ended

It's morning here and we just Skyped my parents who were just about to go to bed.  A strange feeling that we were calling them from the future!

This reminded me of the wonderful hymn, 'The day thou gavest' and made me think afresh of how hour by hour around the world someone is going to sleep and someone else is getting up and as the hymn says 'the voice of prayer is never silent'.  So as I pray for all my family and friends back in the UK fast asleep in their beds, someone will be praying for us as we sleep tonight.  Awesome!  Here's the hymn to remind you of the words...

The day thou gavest Lord has ended
The darkness falls at thy behest
To thee our morning hymns ascended
Thy praise shall sanctify our rest.

We thank thee that thy church unsleeping
While earth rolls onward into light
Through all the world her watch is keeping
And rests not now by day or night.

As o'er each continent and island
The dawn leads on another day
The voice of prayer is never silent
Nor dies the strain of praise away.

The sun that bids us rest is waking
Our brethren neath the western sky
And hour by hour fresh lips are making
Thy wondrous doings heard on high.

So be it Lord thy throne shall never
Like earths proud empires pass away
Thy kingdom stands and grows forever
Til all thy creatures own thy sway.

A different type of Sunday

This morning we went to worship at one of the Melbourne Hillsong churches...we didn't know what to expect but had a great time and were made very welcome.  Loads of young people, families and a few oldies like us...some loud music (that makes me sound old!) but it was a good time of worship and a brilliant preacher...coffee bar to welcome people and a bouncy castle for the kids.  It was an inspiring and uplifting experience and we really enjoyed our visit.

Taken from one of the viewpoints in the Dandenong mountains

This afternoon we went into the Dandenong mountains and enjoyed spectacular scenery.  We realised its a national holiday tomorrow here in Victoria so everyone and their uncle were out and about this afternoon but that makes a change here as we've had days of not passing anyone on the roads at all!

Journey to Melbourne

Apologies for strange order of photos...I don't seem to have complete control! Ha!

We haven't had wifi for a couple of days but now we are safely at our friends' house in Melbourne we are back in touch with the world.  On Thursday we drove the long coast road from Bateman's Bay to Bairnsdale, stopping a few times on the way.  One of the stops was at a quaint National Trust village called Tilba Tilba where we tasted cheese at a cheese factory, saw Devonshire teas for sale and some rather aptly named pickled onions! Ahem!

Mark was very happy to buy some local cheese!

We stayed a couple of nights at our friends' house by Lake Victoria near Bairnsdale and felt we relaxed for the first time this trip! Their house is right by a lake and we were privileged to see kangaroos in their garden!  We also visited a peaceful lakeside town called Paynesville and took a ferry to Raymond Island where we saw koalas, kangaroos, kookaburras and parrots in the wild.  It was amazing!

The lovely view of the lake from our friends' house

A wild koala in a tree

Today we drove to Melbourne and on the way took a 120km detour to visit the Wilson Promontory which is the furthest south you can go on the Australian mainland.  A wild National Park with beautiful pristine beaches and interesting animal warning signs!  Now we are here in Melbourne for a few days and glad that all our long distance driving is behind us!

On the road

Fire hazard

We left Orange early this morning and hit the road for Canberra.  We've seen lots of warning signs about kangaroos but so far have only seen three dead ones by the side of the road.  Hopefully we'll see some live ones before we leave!  We also saw a lot of fire warning signs as its been such a hot and dry Autumn fire is a real concern just now.  Thankfully the risk isn't too high just now!

The roads are so long and empty here...we hardly see another car and hardly go through any towns...we are reminded just how fast this country is when we look at a map of the whole of Australia and see that in all our hours of driving so far we've only covered a tiny corner of the South East.  

We stopped in Canberra and visited the Parliament Buildings old and new and also the Australian War Memorial where we discovered an original copy of the Magna Carta from 1297 brought over from England and the only copy kept in Oceania.  Amazing!  We've seen copies in Lincoln and Salisbury but didn't realise they had a copy anywhere else.  

We've felt so welcome in Australia and been so impressed...most places the parking is free, the entry to the Parliament building was free and when we entered a lady handing out maps saw we were hot and directed us to the drinking fountains and cafe so we could rehydrate...we feel so loved! 

Now we are in Batemans Bay and resting up before our long coast drive tomorrow.  

Outside the new Parliament building