My husband and I recently had a few days away in Bordeaux. We were staying on, the edge of the centre of the city, and travelled there by train. This required us to travel “light” with one small suitcase each. One of the things we enjoy doing when we visit a new place, is to…

We recently held a “Vision Day” at Elmsett. It has been a long time in the preparation – the first suggestion that we hold such an event was over 5 years ago! We also received prompting and reminding along the way. Our opening questions included, Why? What? How? A common theme that came through was…

I have recently rediscovered the “skill” of knitting. Last year all the churches in the Ipswich Circuit were invited to knit a square for a blanket that would then be presented to Norwood MHA. Each square has something that represents that church or its location. My amateur effort was to try and depict an elm…

We have been blessed with the gift of a life size eagle at Elmsett Methodist Church. The girls in our Girls Friendship Club (GFC) have been working over the last few weeks on this beautiful and majestic bird. It is now soaring above our heads as we worship on a Sunday morning. This reminded me…

My younger son was born on this day some 30 plus years ago, and has been forever grateful to have been born on St Patrick’s Day. Celebrations usually include a pint or two of the famous Irish beer! Although St Patrick is known as the patron saint of Ireland, he was born in England, (the…

My habit at the weekend is to walk up into the village to pick up my Saturday newspaper from the Community Shop in Elmsett. On one particular Saturday it had been raining heavily the night before so the paths around the fields and along the airfield were particularly muddy, “slippy and slidy.”  It was the…

I recently read Matthew 6:5-8 , which is a prelude to Jesus giving the disciples what we know as the Lord’s Prayer as a template for how to pray. I was particularly struck by verse 7 and where it falls in relation to the Lord’s Prayer. “When you pray, don’t babble on and on as…

One of things I love is a beautiful sunset. (I rarely get up in time to see the sun rise), or to gaze at the night sky and try and imagine the distances the stars are from us. I was half listening to the Today programme on radio 4 two weeks ago when an item…

How often do you hear or say the Lord’s Prayer? How often do we really reflect on its meaning? The Lord’s Prayer was given by Jesus to his disciples as an illustration of how they and we should pray. It includes all the elements of prayer- praise, confession, prays for the world and for our…

My son recently sent one of those messages, (we’ve probably all had them), “mum, what are you doing in May?” How would you respond to this? Excited? “Why what are you suggesting we do?” Cynical? “Why, what do you want?” Needless to say it was the latter. “How would you like to look after Bill…