Another year has arrived – another birthday passed for me, another Christmas come and gone! We didn’t travel this year to the surprise of many of our friends.  Instead, we were home and were delighted to have Cath, Terry, Noah, Laura, and Mom with us for Christmas dinner. We haven’t been home for Christmas in many years – perhaps ten…not sure but it’s been a while.

It is really wonderful to be able to have family around and to share in such a meaningful and important meal! When do most families get together – it’s usually on high holidays and it’s usually around a table.  Wendy did a spectacular job of having everything perfect! The food, the table, the decorations – what a great setting!

We did have Jason with us for a few days as he prepares to start his internship in Ottawa.  That too was wonderful and cause for much celebration.

But now it’s the new year and the return to routine is before us.

I was telling someone recently of the Sunday in Ottawa when during the morning meeting I heard the Lord – yes I really did – tell me to ask the congregation if there was someone with “a word for us”.  This was not a normal practice for me or for the corps people so I didn’t act on it.  After the service a man, visiting from out of town approached me looking for some company for lunch – long story short – at lunch with him He told me that he had awoken that morning in his hotel room, and though he had never been to a Salvation Army corps, the Lord told him to go to give us a message.

I was floored as I suddenly understood what God had been trying to do in our presence. We had just finished three very hard years of dealing with a horrible internal issue and we were looking for healing. On that Sunday he told me that we were to continue in our faithful ways and “a time of refreshing would be coming”.

I had no idea what that would look like, but indeed some months later a time of refreshing began through the most unlikely of people in the corps who shared her story of hurt and what she called “demons”.

I remember it vividly.

So now I am praying, that 2019 will be a time of refreshing – not for the corps or for The Army though that is needed, but for our family.

I found this video recently, not the best production but the lady has a wonderful voice and is singing a song, though old, is one of my favourites and I have been humming it for some time.  Enjoy.