When Lianne and I discussed starting to blog together, we talked about encouraging others and sharing encouragements. Last week, coughing and covered in Covid, stopped from sharing my Christmas with any family outside our house, isolating again and about to face a new lockdown… I faced a lack of hope. I felt like I was loose, floating among the planets, tiny and insignificant in the universe. My three year old has been walking round singing this beautiful snippet of a song, “We won’t wait till things go well, to be J-O-Y with an F-U-L!” He obviously takes after non-Covid me, praise God. Then God started encouraging me. I had accepted that I should be grateful just to be alive. I felt, however, that things could go wrong. Things might not work out. I was suddenly questioning my position with God. Was I the apple of my Father’s eye, or was I ridiculous? Was it only David who had that closeness with God? NO! And over a couple of days, He showed me again that it is not because I am special, but because He is INCREDIBLE, that He cares about the tiny, the insignificant, the lowly, the ridiculous and He is the lifter of my head. Suddenly I went from free-floating emotionally in the universe, to having my feet set on a rock. I was reminded that I can and should expect Him to turn everything to good, because He loves me, because He cares, because completion and beauty and fulfillment are just normal aspects of who He is. I can’t change that with doubt or misery. Covid can’t change that.
Lianne: My 5 year old son came running into my bedroom in the middle of the night, scared frantically from a night terror. He was shaking, was so distressed he struggled to express what was going on. The fear had captivated him and it was like he was in a trance of panic. As he…
BETTER THAN FIXING A BROKEN BOWL Stien Marlen 07/01/2025 Sometimes, with all the wisdom mustered – even on a good day – things go wrong. I used to think about the ideas behind the idea of ‘first do no harm’. I worked really hard not to make things worse than they were originally. I was…
God is the same. Yesterday. Today. Forever. When things are up in the air, He’s still grounding us. When things are completely different, He’s just the same. He doesn’t love you one minute only to get into a mood with you. He is constant and loving all the time. I wish I changed more. I…
Stien Marlen 31.12.23 Are you up for an adventure? Never get bored. There’s a new year ahead. We are not supposed to have a dull life. What seeds of excitement and joy are being sown for the next steps? Ahead of me I see my heroes – Elijah, David, John Wesley. Nothing boring going down…
Stien Marlen 30.12.23 Have you anything to show for all that you have done this year? Still here. Still moving, still speaking, still going? If there was nothing else to say, still standing is success. Step, step, step, walking towards the light, never just treading water. The race continues and we take our part. If…
Stien Marlen “Where are you? I love you. I’m coming to give you a hug.” I heard this call from my youngest this morning. He ran from the top of the house to give me a cuddle. “What did you do?” I asked suspiciously. I was having a difficult moment just before and this was…
Stien 12.6.22 I’ve always been a chicken. Not when it comes to doing physically demanding things, of course. I’m always happy to abseil a 70 ft viaduct or get in a helicopter and bungy jumping etc. will inevitably follow. The problem is that I’m a chicken in life when it comes to trusting God, talking…
Lianne – 1.1.22 So I thought I’d kick off the new year with one of my favourite (yet challenging) scriptures. I remember hearing one of the most challenging talks when I was 16, by Pastor Mulinde at a prayer conference in Uganda and oh how this word has stayed with me – the call to…
Stien – 31.12.21 Just limping on, dragging my bucket full of love and trying to eke out what I can, to be generous. Why don’t I ask the one who has rushing rivers and deep wells of living water? I’m thirsty. Ever thirsty, never drinking. Just dragging this bucket of all that I can muster…
Stien – 17th September 2021 This morning I tried to recreate in my mind the sky that had surprised me as I arrived home last night. The rays of light, the edged gold of the clouds and the clarity of the blue joined together in a harmony of colour. I was thinking about how, instead…
City on a hill 