A GREAT SERVICE - AND WE DID HAVE A CONGREGATION!

Old habits die hard, so although we didn’t have any food/groceries from Morrisons to take to Church this morning, we still left quite early, so when we got there, “the chairs were bare!”  As usual, I had a wander around the Church and rather liked the view looking through the piano - if you look closely, you can see Mr. HCB in the background but it does look as if there is no-one else about.

Our preacher today was one of our own, David Mildenhall, and his sermon was excellent - I wonder how many who heard it will look at their Bibles when they wake this week rather than looking at the News or Social Media on their telephone?  

David preached from Philippians 4 - and encouraged us to “stand firm” because we admire people who do “stand firm” and keep on doing the right thing again and again - but it’s not always easy to do that.  However, he said if we are going to “stand firm” we need a strategy for a bad day;  he reminded us that a gift to take away that “bad day feeling” and have “peace and calm” instead, is to pray.  We can offload our stress and anxiety onto God’s shoulders and He gives us His peace.  He said he wasn’t sure how this happened, but it did - and I can vouch for that - along with many others.    

The shot at the bottom right is of David and his Dad, Brian, who has just come back from a month in Nepal.   Brian did say it was a difficult month, but didn’t elaborate, so must remember to chat to him next week to find out how he got on.

You may remember that last week we had a “potato mountain” but today when Ian got back from doing his collection, he had lots and lots of bunches of tulips - so not only was Martin going home with some in his rucksack, but I also brought a bunch home - can you believe they were going to be thrown out?  Well, as you know, I love tulips especially when they are past their best, so I have no doubt you will see these again towards the end of the week!

One of the things David encouraged us to do was to go outside and enjoy God’s creation, so Mr. HCB and I did just that after Church.  We went up onto part of The Ridgeway where we saw lots of people walking and stopped and chatted to some of them.  

We also enjoyed the beautiful views - of the rolling countryside, the oil seed rape fields and then we dropped down into Aldbourne, where we saw lots of people dressed up and enjoying some early VE Day celebrations - see my extra collage.  There are also some shots taken on The Ridgeway, some beautiful bluebells and a view of Liddington Hill, one of the famous beauty spots that means, when we see it, that we are nearly home!  Interestingly, we had said earlier this week that we hadn’t seen much lilac about yet today, we saw lots along many of the country roads - as the middle shot shows - again with a beautiful perfume - and of course, my favourite colour.  

The flowers on the right in my main collage are Wisterias - at the front of a house in Aldbourne - and they were so beautiful with an amazing perfume.  

So, all in all, a good morning with a great sermon and a drive into the countryside as a bonus.  Hope you all have a very enjoyable Sunday and enjoy your day off tomorrow - if you are having a day off that is and if not, then may you be blessed doing whatever you are doing.   M xx