JUNE  2024 Letter

Determined to be grateful  

As we travel through May (when I am writing this) we as a church are holding five people before God who we want to come to know Jesus better.   The point is to pray from Ascension to Pentecost (9th – 19th May) – 10 days in total, it is called ‘Thy Kingdom Come’.  I find it really hard to stick to 5 people.  During my week I meet so many people who I bring before God, to name them, for help, for hope, for healing, to bring them joy in their everyday.  ‘Thy Kingdom Come’ give us written resources and films we can watch online and today’s was to go deeper into Thanksgiving.   

And that got me thinking – how important it is to have an attitude of thankfulness. (The world at the moment seems so dark and we can get caught up in the misery of our world around us and feel powerless to help).  Being thankful is really important for our own mental health and wellbeing and for those around us, who have to live with us, as is prayer.  We can always pray about everything and bring our requests to God.   

We were asked today What three things are we thankful for? And that got me thinking as I was walking Bean.
What 3 things am I thankful for today…….. 
First of all it is hard to limit it to 3. 
But today I am thankful for living in such a lovely place, the countryside that I can walk in, the lovely people that I meet daily, my church family – all very precious to me, and the fact that it is not raining and I am not walking through mud! 
I am also thankful for my family, my husband, my sons, their girlfriends, their happiness and health. 
I am at this moment in time really thankful for Ali Geller and Christine Law who take my words and share them through the Link and the G and E Parish magazine and give me the hope and the opportunity that you might read them and stop and think of God for a moment.   As we look at June we are coming up to the D Day celebrations when we remember 80 years since the Second World War ended.  What a time of celebration that was …it followed years of misery for our country.  We remember this so that we do not forget – forget the misery and horror of war.  We are losing that shared memory of how horrible it was, when we lost so many of our family members, when we didn’t have enough to eat, to wear, when sleeping was not safe.  When our water supplies, heating, etc were all difficult and interrupted – it is becoming harder and harder to imagine a time that our grandparents or great-grandparents endured.  We have the opportunity to come together on 6th June and again on 8th June (see flyer)  when we can have sometime together remembering, sharing food and looking at the experiences that others had of the Second World War.   

Now, I take for granted so many things. I don’t often think to be grateful for my daily needs such as clean water, electricity, gas and food and supermarkets to shop in.  They are just part of daily life, but perhaps that will be my Thanksgiving prayer for tomorrow…   

My question to you is what are you grateful for, try and name 3 things every day  and see if this helps you to have a positive mindset to see the good things that we are surrounded by.  I hope this helps you in your daily life. Psalm 136:1 says ‘Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good, for His steadfast love endures forever’. One song that goes around in my head and I would like to share with you is ‘The Goodness of God’ by Jenn Johnson the words and music say it all for me really and you can often hear me singing it as I walk round the Orchard when I think I am on my own!!

Goodness Of God (LIVE) - Jenn Johnson | VICTORY (youtube.com) 10,000 reasons by Matt Redman is another great favourite.  Hope you enjoy these as much as I do. The sun came up - its a new day dawning - youtube video - Google Search My prayer for you all is that you can see all the things and people and gifts you can be grateful for and that you lift them to God and say simply ‘thank you’. 
Your Priest Alison 
Just a reminder I am here for you should you need to talk and share life a little with me.