It’s Mother’s Day today so I’ve been musing about the mothering thing. My ‘children’ are all grown up now, and the thing I enjoy most about mothering is the opportunity to just spend time with each one, talking about this and that - what bothers them, their plans, their successes and disappointments and so on.

Looking back on this month I realise that I’ve found myself in some of the most unlikely places; places that I would probably not have chosen to go in the normal way of things, but my life experience has been definitely broadened and enriched as a result! Here are just a few….

There’s so much talk of recession in the press. It's all gloom and doom. Something my husband said last Sunday stuck with me though. He stated, ‘God is not in recession!’

In fact as I reflect on it, I would say that God is positively on the move and the church is moving into revival! What brings me to say that? I have seen so many signs of the supernatural recently, that I can hardly keep myself from jumping up and down in excitement!

This morning we had our usual Thursday women’s meeting and at the end I found myself in a group of five praying for each other as we usually do. The only thing that was a bit different was that one woman prayed in French and one in Gujurati (the rest in English!) and yet we all felt at one with each other. The language didn’t seem to be a problem at all; the presence of Jesus transcends the language barrier!

It reminded me of two things:

A little team from our church has been going out onto the local high street every Saturday morning and offering to pray for anyone who wants healing. (Jesus seemed to heal more people outside the synagogue than in, so it seems like a good idea!)

First the sun, then the rain (sounds like a familiar song!) – everytime I look out of the window the vegetation seems to have grown another foot high! As I was trying to weed my path the other day, I felt God spoke to me

I've been thinking recently how wonderful it is to serve in the kingdom of God because He has amazing ways of multiplying the smallest things that we contribute, so that big things happen for His glory! Of course you'll be remembering the story of the feeding of the 5000 - but it goes on today in similar and lower-key ways all the time!

I was having dinner with some dear friends this last week, and we sat for a long time at the table chatting and sharing what was on our hearts. My friend, Sandy, talked about a colleague who had been having trouble conceiving and how much this woman longed for a baby. I guess that sort of longing is something so many of us as women understand; it's rooted deep within us, a God-given, God-formed part of our feminine creatureliness. It’s not something to be ashamed of, or something to be eradicated either.

Last month I was speaking at a weekend conference for women in the Midlands. I’d prepared something for three sessions but was not confident about the subject matter for one of them. At the Thursday group the week before, the three women in my discussion group asked what they could pray for me. ‘Oh, just pray for this conference!’ I said.

I’ve just returned from our last Thursday group this term before Christmas, and we had such fun! We had all brought little, light gifts that would be individually wrapped