Light of the World...

You stepped down into darkness
Opened my eyes let me see
Beauty that made
This heart adores You
Hope of a life spent with You

So here I am to worship
Here I am to bow down
Here I am to say that
You're my God
And You're altogether lovely
Altogether worthy
Altogether wonderful to me

King of all days
Oh so highly exalted
Glorious in heaven above
Humbly You came
To the earth You created
All for love's sake became poor

And I'll never know how much it cost
To see my sin upon that cross
And I'll never know how much it cost
To see my sin upon that cross


This was one of the songs we sang this morning in church. As I was singing it, in my mind, I started to travel around the different places I have sung this song, including Holy Trinity, Stalybridge, One Up, Salisbury, and All Saints, Darfield. I could see the faces of so many different people and hear the voices of others. It’s difficult to describe what was going on, but it was an incredible experience, I felt like I was with all the people I care about and it also felt like a glimpse of heaven, when all those people will be together worshipping the Lord.

There are those who will read what I have just written and tell me it just a product of my imagination, and maybe it was, but I would rather see it as a gift from God to encourage me, and it did.

This week has been another disrupted one for school, with Monday and Tuesday as holidays due to the elections. Looking back I have only actually worked one complete week since we returned to school after the Christmas holidays, and there is a rumour going round that we might have to close on Thursday for a Chellum.

Everyone here is very thankful that the election passed with very like trouble on Monday and so far things are going very well. No one party gained enough seats to form a government, so now all the parties are in negotiations over who will work with whom in a coalition government. Your continued prayers would still be appreciated.

The production is now only a week and a half away and I go through moments when I think, we are going to pull it off and then others when I think it will be a disaster!!! Out of a cast of 7 I am only confident that 3 of them have there lines completely and one of them is Edna the maid, who only has 7 lines in the whole play!! I can only trust now that the kids will pull it out of the bag at the last minute and that it will be well received by the audience.

All is well with my health and all my symptoms have disappeared, which is encouraging. I haven’t quite yet signed up at the gym, but that should be sorted this week. I have also continued to monitor my blood pressure which has dropped to more normal levels, which is also pleasing.

The other event of this week was the inspection of my car by the insurance company. This was caused by my need to renew my car insurance; apparently, the inspection is standard practice here in Pakistan and actually makes sense to me. The inspector took about 30 photos of the car from every conceivable angle, so in the event of a claim they know exactly the condition the car was in before. The funniest part for me was when the bonnet was opened and I watched as the inspector and Faroukh stood there looking at the engine for about 5 minutes, looking and poking and having a conversation in Urdu that I couldn’t follow! It would seem that men are the same the world over, open a bonnet and they will stand there looking at the engine. Though of course, not this man, I was stood there in pyjamas just wanting them to get it over and done with so I could get back to my sewing…