Dear Friends
Thank you so much for your love and prayers – it does mean so much to us.
There is good news regarding Phase 7: We are glad to say that we will be able to use the Marsh Lounge again in the very near future. This is how it is looking at the moment:
There are a few finishing bits still to be done but all the work on the lights down the drive, the new car park, new windows, sewage system, renewing of the Old House and of course the Marsh Lounge is looking splendid. The damage to the Walled Garden wall has been fixed. So, as we look forward to Spring we come to it with hopefulness and thankfulness.
Although the project has cost more than we budgeted (due to us adding elements and some unexpected costs) we have managed to pay for the whole work without borrowing, and we still have some money in the bank! We have much for which to be thankful.
Scargill is not really about the buildings – it is about the Community that live together here – and we are in good heart preparing to receive a good number of young people over these next two weeks of half term. We would value your prayers for these inter-generational weeks.
Here is Di’s reflection all about snowdrops. Enjoy:.
Diane writes:
Both Malachi 3:6 and Hebrews 13:8 declare that God is the same always and never ever changes. He is always good, always loving, always all-powerful. No matter how this world changes around us, we can trust God is consistent. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever!
On our journey back from our last visit to St Oswald’s House, having shared a beautiful, if sad, weekend, these words from Hebrews ‘Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever’ kept coming to mind.
They were a reminder that Jesus Christ is in all, has always been and always will be – what a lot of, always, – sorry.
Anyway, off I went in search of a painting and found “Tenderness” by Marina Mera on the statchiart.com website. I had been looking for an expression of God’s constant love plus the assurance that although circumstances may change from the darkest hours to the brightest days our Jesus does not. I found this in the bond of ‘tenderness’ from one generation to another as well as a hint of protection from the tiny hand being gently enfolded by the aged hands, in prayer!
Can we believe that God can draw a greater good even from circumstances where we fail to see His presence, as Julian of Norwich wrote: “Here I was taught by the grace of God that I should steadfastly hold me in the Faith … and that … I should take my stand on and earnestly believe in … that ‘all manner of thing shall be well”’ (The Revelations of Divine Love, Chapter 32). Of course, I often find myself questioning ‘why?’ but perhaps we should not put a question mark where God put a period! ‘Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever’ – period.
On our journey home I also remembered, as we prayed, a comment made about God’s spirit brooding over the waters as well as being ever present now. Another prompt to an omnipresent God, an ever-present God who is here in the dark times as well as the light. And on returning to Scargill we saw the first snowdrops, the first sign of Spring, a reminder that although besieged by gale force winds, snow and storms I knew that soon the coming of the crocus will herald the arrival of daffodils who will once again dance along our highways and byways.
Yes, the God of past seasons is the same “yesterday, today, and forever.”
The final message that Julian of Norwich’s left with us was, “And all will be well”, “all manner of things shall be well”. Surely as relevant today as it was yesterday. And if that is so, let us pray:
Spirit of peace, quiet our hearts,
Heal our anxious thoughts,
And free us from our fretful ways.
Breath on us your holy calm,
So that in the stillness of your presence
We may open ourselves to trust,
And be transformed.
Amen
(Morning prayers – Watch, Wait)
With much love from