It’s been a season of anniversaries. Silver Wedding last week. Today it is the 20th anniversary of my Ordination as a Baptist Minister (and also my Mum’s ahemth birthday today). When I was ordained 20 years ago I had no sense of where God would lead me.

I had no idea that he would provide me with such amazing colleagues in Ministry everywhere I have served.

I didn’t know the people to whom he would call me to minister. I knew the first church in which I would serve but had no idea about where I would be called from there. I didn’t realise how much they (you) would all mean to me.

I did not know the wide range of circumstances in which I would be ministering with people – from extreme joys to the depths of sorrow, with most points in between.

I had no sense that I would be posting reflections online (I didn’t know what online meant) on an almost daily basis.

Yet what I was sure of then and have been blessed by ever since is God’s promise of his presence with me, his Spirit’s generous gifts and the opportunity to follow Jesus and serve his people in this special way. That’s still true 20 years on.

What a privilege!

Thank you to you for being a part of that, if only by reading this bloggage!

Be blessed, be a blessing

and here’s a joke for all those both of you who have missed them recently:

An old man came up to me at the cash machine and asked me to help him check his balance … so I pushed him over.