19 hours to go!

Just cut the grass and tidied the gardening.  Am listening to the cricket and enjoying a very English Saturday.  We will be having friends over for dinner later and will no doubt have a wonderful time catching up with their news and playing games.  All the time though my excitement grows in terms of returning to RFC tomorrow. B and I have greatly missed being around our church and are looking forward to checking in again in the morning.

I am anticipating seeing friends but also faces that I do not know, both at the morning and evening meeting.  I am expectant that we will meet with the living God by the presence of Jesus by His Holy Spirit, as we worship and receive the word of God from Romans.  I am believing that seeds will be sown tomorrow that will result in salvation breaking out in our church.  I am in faith that there will be those that don't yet follow Jesus amongst as we worship the One who alone is worthy of all praise.

After our 2 month sabbatical, I know that I am ready and raring to go to see Jesus save and radically transform broken lives amongst us.  Church, expect me to be excited and in faith to see your friends, family, work colleagues and neighbours come to know the love of the Father through their acceptance of Christ as Saviour and Lord.  We are in for a fantastic few months!!!

Our son... Tiny

It has been a long time since last I wrote.  I have journalled on paper but have not felt the desire to go public.  B and I were expecting our second child around Nov 24th.  On June 28th we went for a routine midwife appointment and discovered that there was no heart beat.  This was confirmed at the hospital.  On Wednesday 30th June B gave birth to our baby boy, Tiny Taylor.  He had died between 14-15 weeks (B was 18 weeks pregnant when we found out.)  We were able to spend 15 minutes with our lad during which time we committed him to our loving Father.

Today we said goodbye to his earthly body - totally recognisable as a very small human being.  Sean and Liz lead B and I in a short but memorable memorial to our son that never saw the light of day alive, but our son none the less.  

We have been so blessed by wonderful families, fabulous friends and an incredible church.  However our greatest blessing has been knowing the closeness of our God at this time.  I am so thankful that our hope is in Him and that we can as best we understand it, know that we will meet our Tiny.

We do not understand why and know that this question is futile this side of eternity.  What we do understand is that our second child didn't make it full term.  We do know that it hurts.  We do know that that hurt is temporary and that we will meet our boy some day. We do understand that He is loving and just.  We do understand that we don't need to know the answer to 'why us?'.  We do know that God is faithful and is definitely our strength when we are at our weakest.  We do understand that God is in control.

As life moves on and gets busier again as I start back in the office next week, I know that we will never forget Tiny and that he will be part of our family and I do know that I am closer to my Father in Heaven more than I have ever been.  We would like to thank everyone for their prayers and thoughts and kind gestures over the last month.