Miss Michelle

Michelle went to an interview in Tunbridge Wells the other day. They emailed her at 18h10 the night before to say she should bring passport photos plus money to pay for her CRB Check. Well, that was all rather short notice. It turned out that someone should have sent her an Application pack, but didn't, so she had to spend a lot of time filling up forms and duplicating the information on several of them. Then they told her they couldn't take cash, so she was sent off to the Post Office to buy postal orders, which are expensive. She was tired out when she got home.

As she came in, I went out to get the train to Sean, but the trains to London (except the High Speed service to St Pancras) were cancelled. I was on that freezing station that has no shelter after 18h00 for an hour and a half, then went home. That was Tuesday. On Wednesday, I went to Sean, and my landlord contacted me on the train about a problem with our boiler. He wanted to send a plumber, but had to know some details about the boiler so the plumber would know what parts to bring. So I had to get up at 05h10 to catch an early train home so I could wait for the plumber to come at 10h30. I waited and waited, tired and grumpy, and he didn't come. Eventually Mr Barr called to say that the plumber's other job was taking longer than he thought so he would come tomorrow morning early. Nice one. I've missed hours of sleep due to this man, and I haven't even met him or learned his name!

There is an author I admire very much - Jennifer Rees Larcombe - and she was giving a day of talks at a nice place, and I wanted to go, but it wasn't to be. Michelle went with my mum, and she enjoyed it very much. So much so that she is curled up with one of Jen's books, and as Michelle herself says "I don't read". Thats true indeed, but she is really into the book and finding it impossible to put down.

Jennifer writes books that touch people deeply enough to help them to heal. My mum has a friend, Margaret, who is married to a minister. They live in South Africa, and Margaret comes to work in the UK to earn money in Sterling while her husband takes food and supplies to places like Zimbabwe. While Margaret was in the UK, she heard her husband had had a heart attack and was in hospital. He told her not to come home because his brother was coming to look after him. But then his brother was killed in a car crash on the way to Margaret's husband, so she was stricken with a massive blow. I didn't think she would be able to read at all until she had got her head round all this bad news, but I gave her Jen's book 'Turning Point' and told her to read it when she felt strong enough. She read it on the plane and found great comfort in it. She said she wished she had had it when their daughter died.

Certainly Michelle is having her eyes opened to some ideas that are new to her, and she is very glad she went. As I write this, she is still reading that book that she can't put down. She too is just as eager to learn as her sister is, but the two girls are learning different but equally challenging and life changing things.

My mother must be exhausted as it was a 2 hour journey there, plus a whole day in lectures then another two hour journey back home. I just hopes she rests up tomorrow. She will need to.

Click HERE to visit Jennifer Rees Larcombe's website, Beauty from Ashes.
And here is a quote from THIS page of her Website:

"Beauty from Ashes is a charity supporting the work of Jennifer Rees Larcombe.

Its aim is to encourage people whose lives have been distorted or broken through loss and trauma towards faith in, and dependence on, Christ.

Jennifer and her colleagues are profoundly convinced that God mends bruised and broken lives today and they are committed to being vessels that He uses in His work of restoration.

The name comes from a passage in the book of Isaiah, where God speaks of hope and restoration for His trusting people. The Beauty from Ashes team believes that these promises are just as relevant today to those whose lives have been twisted or torn by adversity."