Precious Pilgrims
This week I was privileged enough to spend a day at Detling for a conference. Not only was this a fabulous 11 hours of catching up with old friends, it was also a day to meet some extraordinary new ones. Welcome to the blog if you’re new here! Make yourself at home. You’re with friends now.
I don’t think I will ever forget some of those I prayed with after the sessions I was involved with that day. Your names and faces and issues have swirled around in my head and my heart for the last few days and I am still very moved by the things some of you are facing in your personal lives. God is so near to you and SO FOR you!
I was amazed at the incredible variety of people who came to a seminar on motherhood. Single dads, single people who longed to be mums, mothers whose children had died, mums who had not been able to look after their children and had to give them up for some reason, teenagers who wanted to learn more about motherhood before they became pregnant, grandmothers, and even, rather beautifully, all sorts of others who came thinking it, or I, was something completely different and ended up staying. A number said to me afterwards, ” I thought it would be about that…. but God said this…” Nothing to do with me whatsoever. Humbling and wonderful.
As an almost entirely ‘unknown’ speaker in the Christian world, I don’t have anything to live up to. I have no reputation as such. No-one knows what I do, or say, or much about me really. I sensed immense freedom as I spoke and prayed and sang. I was utterly able to be myself and give of myself, weak and vulnerable though I undoubtedly was! It was truly special.
One lasting memory of the day was how many God-incidences I had on my way to other places. (I don’t get out much at the moment, so God has to use every second to count!) I was so aware of Him literally planning my route to the loo or to get something I needed. I was open to Him using me to speak to the guys stewarding, those serving food, those making drinks. Jesus met many people, and even cast out demons ‘on his way’ to somewhere else. Often our journeys are as important – if not more so- than our destinations.
So to all of those I met ‘by accident’ I want you to know you are precious to the God who made you and loves you. But please, and you know who you are…. ‘go and sin no more.’ Thank you too to those patient and wonderful people who queued for a long time in order to give me the chance to hear your story. I always try to make a note of those God puts in my path and I won’t be forgetting you in a hurry. Amongst others, I wept over a very young guy whose prophetic anointing was of the rarest type I know of: what I call a ‘watchman’ – a person able to ‘foretell’ and ‘forthtell’ at the same time. ooooohhhh. And boy! I’m going to watch what God does with you my friend!! You have an amazing road ahead of you and I shall be fascinated to see it unfold. Whoop! Whoop!
To some of you others….Kevin, John, Arthur, Holly, Steve, Ezra, Melissi, Simi, Rosie, Angela, Jane, Katie, Colin, Ian, Sue, Vivi, Maria, Kronk, Gail, Michelle, Tim, Burt, Val, Steve, James, Mark, Celia, Helen, Stu, Graham, Karen, Dan, Alex and the many, many more, thank you for being. I so appreciated sharing my day with you. And of course, I can’t thank you enough Wendy, Maxine and Bekah for serving me so faithfully, helping with Esther and enabling me to minister.
See you all in heaven, if not before….