WHAT A WONDERFUL SUNDAY!

We had a great time at Church with wonderful songs and singing and a great message by a lovely lady, Mary Wakeham, who stepped in at the last minute when the original speaker was unable to be with us.  

I had already taken the shot of the beautiful banner thinking that would make a good Blip for today - especially as I think the Lord is trying to teach me some of the things on there - the main one being patience!  I had intended to respond to comments yesterday, but after taking some of my new medication, slept for over 3 hours in the afternoon so I do apologise, but thank you all for your kind comments for the Silly Saturday Gang’s antics yesterday - they were delighted.

After the service, I had seen a lady sitting in front of us with a Bible which was obviously not English, so I asked her if I could please take a photograph of the passage that had been read from Mark 7 and she willingly agreed - bottom right in my collage.  The lady, from South India, said she was visiting her son and daughter-in-law, who were sitting with her and her Bible was in the Telugu language, so her daughter-in-law told me, “a language native to the Indian states of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, where it is also the official language and is spoken by about 96 million people” - she didn’t tell me all that, Mr. Google did!

I don’t think the lady spoke much English, as she nodded and smiled at me a lot, but she seemed to get the gist of what I was saying and as she went to move her hand, I asked her to leave it there because I liked the shot with her hand in it - so she gave me another wide smile.

I did have a lot of pain whilst standing this morning, but as I sang the words "I stand complete in You" I felt that God was smiling too - because although it was difficult to stand, He knows my heart and that I want to be able to stand and do the work he has called me to do. I did enjoy singing and am trying to find a “perching stool”, which I can use so that I can be a part of the Worship Group again, because I miss it and sadly standing for any length of time is not possible at the moment.

The top left shot shows my hands enveloped by Peter’s hands whilst he prayed for me after the service - this is the same lovely man I blipped here a few weeks ago.  I hope when I am 93 I will still be able to pray like him!

Then, after Church, we decided to go to the Costa Coffee Shop at Junction 16 of the Motorway to treat ourselves to coffee and a toasted sandwich.  Trevor and Louise,  friends of ours that we haven’t seen since before the lockdowns - so a long time - were also in there after their Church service, so it was wonderful to see them.  Trevor has been very ill and is waiting for a kidney transplant, but it was a delight to see them both and to catch up with all our news.  I know Trevor reads my Blips, so a BIG THANK YOU to Louise and Trevor - and we hope it's not as long before we see you again! 

After Louise and Trevor left, we wandered along to a shop nearby and I was tempted when I saw the ice creams - we haven't had one for a long time, so we treated ourselves - and they went down very well.  In fact, we went back to the tables outside Costa to sit in the sunshine and eat them.  You can see that Mr. HCB was enjoying his!  It doesn't take much!

Just to update you, when I went to see my doctor on Friday, she has now referred me to the local hospital.  She could see how much pain I was in and how difficult it was for me to walk, so suggested I take some different medication for a week to see if that helps with the pain.  

I’m sure I’m not alone when I say that if you read the leaflet inside the box, you wonder if it’s worth the risk of taking the medication - but I will give it a try for a week and then have an appointment to see her again on 3rd July.  It certainly made me very sleepy yesterday but as yet, I haven’t had any hallucinations and hope and pray that I don’t get any of the other nasty side effects mentioned.  The doctor did say that if I felt they weren’t doing any good or were obviously making me feel worse, then I could just stop taking them, which is something.

I loved this quote and as we were all drinking coffee today at Costa, it seemed quite appropriate:

“Be kind - 
     be friendly - 
          be likeable.
But don't worry if someone 
     doesn't like you.
You won't be everyone's cup of tea, 
     and that's okay.
You can be someone's 
     cup of coffee instead.
And coffee is AWESOME.”
L.R. Knost