24: a final flurry

It was all going so well, then Juju got sick. A bad cough may not sound like much but when it means hourly wake ups through the night for over a week it starts to take it’s toll…..especially on those on night duty (i.e. me). We went into a xmas version of survival mode which [...]

eleven:jolly pocket postmen

Today’s task was to help deliver 1600 christmas postcards from our church to the community it is surrounded by. Not a roaring success. We only got going at half four and despite wrapping everyone up cosy it was damn cold. And not everyone was happy… We managed about 10 houses before Caleb tripped, fell and [...]

ten: an expedition

We detour today for a christmas expedition. The ever reliable Mrs Martin tipped us off that our random wee xmas tree place was still open for business. So, well fueled up on scones and hot chocolate, we set off on a joint Mullan-Martin adventure to hack down some trees. The place we go to is [...]

nine: dress rehearsal

I’m really hoping that when we get the the last part of advent, the bit where we bless each other in the family, the kids decide to lavish me with sleep. Elijah has finally retired from his post as chief insomniac and passed the baton to his sister, making occasional guest appearances instead. I think I got [...]

eight: blessing a blesser

We’d planned to be spending the evening with Martyn Joseph, before the wind  blew all the ferries back to port and left the lovely Martyn on the mainland. Sad not to hear one of my favourite performers but slightly relieved that we weren’t schlepping down to Belfast through storms. Which also happily left us with [...]

seven: damp squib

On Wednesday afternoons I can be found in the library of Coleraine tech, surrounded by spotty youths, quietly banging my head against a keyboard. My brain hasn’t quite caught up with my return to studying yet and writing my personal learning record each week is a sloooow, painful process. Anyway, that left JM in charge of [...]

six: some christmas shopping

Today is our last day of blessing those far away from us and having thought about Habi most of the week we thought we’d like to buy some things for her community which has been badly hit by floods and malaria. So we went on the world vision site and picked some mosquito nets and a [...]

Five: Ol’ Saint Nic’

It’s St Nicholas’ Day today and a great way to tell the kids a story about the original Santa and how good he was at blessing other people.Weirdly, we have two books in our christmas book bag with stories about St Nicholas which are completely different. VeggieTales versus Marks and Spencer, who’s your money on [...]

Four:Habi

Sponsoring a child was one of those things I always had on a to-do list,one entitled ‘Things I really ought to do now that I’m a grown up’ or alternatively, ‘Things I feel guilty about not doing’. I finally got round to it about 3 years ago and, as soon as that direct debit whirred [...]

Three:the one with amazing women

An extraordinary thing happened today. I think I saw a glimpse of glory. I saw the broken-hearted, the weary, the despairing and the lonely given dignity, worth, compassion, and love. And not a tract or sneaky preach in sight. Love for love’s sake, because it is powerful stuff and it makes all the difference. The women [...]