Happy New Year (Sabbatical 6)

First of all, a God-blessed New Year, one and all!

This morning, I was back at All Hallows, sharing once more in the sorrow of Bob's passing. With the passage of time, I realise more and more just how much he meant to so many people. Rachel has had over 300 letters and cards! It has been a real honour and privilege to prepare a service to celebrate his life, together with the family.

This is the prayer I wrote for this morning:

Jesus, Lord, our resurrection and our life, we begin this New Year with you, but with sorrow in our hearts. We bring to you our memories of Bob.

Our lives are poorer for having lost him, but richer for having known him.

We are sorrowful that he is no longer with us, but rejoice that he is with you.

We are thankful for all that has been, and we are hopeful for all that shall be.

Be with us, Immanuel, in our journey from sorrow to joy, from darkness to light, from death to life.

Be with all the family in their journey of grief. Remind them moment by moment that neither Bob nor they are lost to you.

And lead us all, with your servant Bob, to our heavenly home and our eternal resting place where you reign, his Lord and ours for ever and ever. Amen.

The past few days have contained a mixture of funeral-related matters, and hours of decorating at Jude's house. We're really seeing the results now, and slowly it is becoming a home, with the arrival of domestic appliances etc. However, we have to accept that the job will not be complete by the time she moves in. Very exciting, all the same. Les and I haven't really adjusted to the fact that after 38 years of parenting we will finally be 'empty-nesters'! Maybe we'll take a lodger!

I'd like to introduce you to Derek & Jane Waller. I hadn't heard of them either till New Year's Eve. By the look of their photo, I guess they're late 50s/early 60s but about to head off to South Sudan: Derek to train church leaders and Jane to contribute her ICT skills. I learned about them through the Church Mission Society Prayer Diary which I habitually use. I am often challenged and inspired by news of people who, for love of God and his world, travel 1000s of miles from home to serve some of the poorest people in the world. I am even more humbled when I read in the same publication of people 'who cannot be named' in countries 'which cannot be identified', sharing their Christian faith through practical action in hostile environments where they have not only given up their home comforts but risk their very lives for the sake of Christ. It is of the very essence of Christianity that, counter-culturally, men and women are prepared anonymously to follow their Lord, as the famous prayer says, 'labouring for no reward, save that of knowing that they do his will.'

Equally inspiring are the stories of medical staff (Christians or not) who go to serve in ebola-stricken countries: people like Pauline Cafferkey, now seriously ill, and William Pooley, who recovered and returned to Africa. Puts our struggles here in some kind of perspective.