Hilgay

Today I visited Hilgay. I had not planned to go there today but the place where I had planned to go had cancelled their service so I decided to attend the service at Hilgay instead. I am now not sure how I will fit in a visit to Stoke Ferry as I am running out of Sundays.

Once again I was overwhelmed by the welcome I received. Everyone is so kind and loving. They all loved Douglas and have now adopted me. I will miss these special people.

After the service I handed over the picture of Douglas and by the time I left it had found its way onto the communion table.

He will never be forgotten.

Stow Bridge Flower Festival

After Last Sunday's tearful visit to my favourite little church, I decided to go to the Flower Festival and Songs of praise this afternoon so that I could leave with happier memories.

I am so glad that I did as the flowers were fantastic and the hymns we sang were lovely. The theme of the Festival was "Hymns" and so many of those that had been depicted in the flower arrangements were sung during the Songs of Praise service. The Anglican Priest lead the service and each hymn's history was explained.

Various people had done the arrangements and what an excellent presentation it was.

The first arrangement was done by the Brownies and their hymn was "One more step along...."

They had each written their own prayer on a foot print.

The one on the Font was: "Now Thank we all our God"

 Then came: "Tell me the stories of Jesus"

 "Away in a manger"

 He's got the whole world in His hands"

 an Arrangement

 Crown Him with many crowns"

 "The old rugged cross"

  "We plough the fields and scatter"

 The rainbows did: "Little Jesus sweetly sleep"

 "Praise my soul"

 Music area

 The music area

 "Mark my soul" and the alter arrangement

 "Morning has broken"

 "All things Bright and Beautiful"

 "From Greenland's Icy mountains"

 "Jerusalem"

 "The Day Thou gavest"

 All creatures of our God and king"

 "This joyful Easter tide"

 "Give me joy in my Heart"

The last Church Council Meeting

On Wednesday I attended my last Downham Market Church Council meeting.

When I arrived at the church the place was locked but I did not panic because I saw Marie arrive a few minutes later. Unfortunately she had left her keys at home so we both sat and chatted while we waited for someone, with keys, to arrive. (Where was Douglas? He always had his keys).

Eventually we were able to enter the complex and a short while later the meeting was started. Everyone had remembered to bring their minutes of the previous meeting along with them so that was good. Everything ran like clockwork until we came to some items that required some debate but even these debates did not take too long. We were making good time. Thank yous were said and instructions given and then it was time to go home again.

Of course being the secretary meant that my work had not ended. Although I use my laptop during the meeting, the minutes still need some tweaking and then have to be checked by Marie. This was speedily done and by Saturday I was able to email and print the minutes for distribution to the Council members.

Today I did the last of the Thank You letters and when Pat arrives, for "Rejoice" proof reading, I will be able to hand over all the paperwork. YAY!!!.

The Count Down has begun.

Stow Bridge: St Peters

Today I visited my favourite place. I chose it as the chapel to visit today because it offered Holy Communion and because I had never heard Rev Mike Hall preach. He is the Air Force Chaplin at Marham and has been a blessing to the circuit because he has filled many a gap on the Preaching Plan.

The little church is an Anglican church shared by the Methodists and Anglicans on alternate Sundays. I love the atmosphere in the sanctuary. They always light the candles and the lovely Stained glass windows on either side of the altar area are beautiful.

I took along my picture of Douglas and could not get over how delighted everyone was to see me. I was overwhelmed by the love they showed me.

Mike lead the service and even though there were no children there, he still did a children's story as he said he liked doing so. We were all enthralled as we listened and looked at the pictures shown to us.

We sang well known Hymns that Douglas would have loved to sing and that were very moving for me. He preached on the Lectionary reading for today with the theme of Forgiveness and then we all shared Holy Communion together and the tears flowed. Oh how these wobbly moments come so unexpectedly and cannot be controlled but how blessed I was by all the love and sympathy shown to me after the service.

As I left the lovely little church, I cried and decided there and then that come what may, I would be there for their Songs of Praise and Flower festival service next Sunday afternoon.

By the time I reached home, I was drained so had a bite to eat and took to my bed only waking up after 7pm. So here I am with tears flowing as I miss our special "Father Abraham" on this Father's day.  I am trusting that tomorrow will be a happier day as the ladies arrive to do the proof reading of the Circuit magazine. We always have such fun together but it will be the last one for me and all these LAST EPISODES are taking their toll as the count down is well on its way.

Biometrics

Yesterday I received a letter to say I had 15 days from the date on the letter to have my Biometrics done. Unfortunately I received the letter a week after that date so only had 7 days to get the deed done.

Last time Douglas and I took a trip to Birmingham. This meant a stay in a hotel and a long train ride. (Douglas loved the train). Well this time I went to a post office in Cambridge as suggested by the man who is processing the application on behalf of the church. It was all rather scary as the lady at the post office who I spoke to on the phone said that Cambridge did not offer this facility. She said I would have to go to Peterborough.

Fortunately I received this information just before going to the prayer meeting at the church so we could pray about the situation. On my return I was lead to investigate on the Post office website and to phone again and this time I was given the address of a post office in Cambridge. I also received an email from the person doing my application and he gave me a phone number of a deacon in Cambridge who had recently had her Biometrics done in Cambridge, just in case I had a problem there.

Well God was in control. I found a parking at the train station, caught the train without a hassle and even managed to buy my ticket to London for when I go to meet Wendy and the cherubs on 26 June. At Cambridge I had enough time to get to the bus so had only a minutes or two to wait. The driver was so kind and even called out to me when it was time for me to get off the bus. The stop was opposite the post office so no long walk. I was second in line so after about 20 minutes it was all over. The lady was very kind and interested in the number of times I had had to have the procedure done.

Unfortunately I missed the train back to Downham by 4 minutes so took a train to Ely instead as I prefer to wait there for the train to Downham. Cambridge is just too busy. The birds are so tame they come right up to one to say "Hello". Douglas would be proud of me being so adventuresome. I did get a hot chocolate and a blueberry muffin to give me energy as I was emotionally drained after the experience.

I arrived back in Downham in time to have lunch at the Social Centre at the church and now am waiting for the truck to collect the brown bin full if grass clipping and shredded paper. There is a breeze blowing so hope they don't open the lid to check the contents before putting on the truck. Oh dear they have arrived and done exactly that but not too much flew out.

My last Spring Lunch

When I started this Blog the idea was to record all the "Last" times that we were enjoying as the "Count Down" began before our return to SA. Some how Douglas' sudden passing upset the apple cart as I branched off at a tangent. Now three months down the line I am back in the swing of things and will try to continue what had originally been planned.

On Saturday I was invited to a "Spring Lunch" at the Hilgay chapel. This is an annual event and even though it is June already and we are soon to have the Longest Day (Mid Summer), the weather has not been playing ball and so we even had to have the heating on in the hall as we enjoyed our lunch.

The ladies had been hard at work in the kitchen. The Raffle tickets had been sold and we all found the seats we had been allocated. Our Superintendent prayed and our feasting began.

The food was delicious

and the Fellowship great but more was to come. We always have entertainment but this time we were told that we were the entertainment because they had decided to divide us into teams and have a Quizz. Our team came second. I am sure that had Douglas been there we would have won because he had such a fantastic general knowledge.

Our Quizz "Masters"

My ticket was the last one drawn in the Raffle and so I was presented with a lovely Jigsaw Puzzle. More memories for me to take back to SA.

Wimbotsham

Today I visited Wimbotsham armed with a photo for them.

I was overwhelmed by the joy they showed when they saw me arrive. Maggie Blowers was the preacher. She is one of our Circuit Stewards and has been a fantastic support during the months since Douglas' death. She also often gave Douglas rides to meetings so that I could have a break from being "Taxi" for him. She always made notes for him so that he had all the dates and information he needed for up coming meetings. She also took us to Cambridge when Douglas had an appointment at Papworth Hospital for a CPAP assessment.

It was no surprise to me to see the framed Christmas card on the pulpit and then the photo I had brought to the service was put on the communion table.

One of the congregation said she still found it difficult to believe that Douglas had died and as she was handed her "Thank You" card she started to cry. She had also been someone who had given Douglas rides to services when I was away in Holland. They all loved him and miss him too. I thank the Lord that I was blessed to have him in my life.