Down the A46 back home

Woke up in Grimsby this morning quite early.  I read my daily devotionals and then packed my suitcase and gathered together my other bits and pieces.  Mum cooked bacon and scrambled eggs and I left her just before 10 a.m. She very kindly gave me £10 each for the children.  I stopped off at Aunt Mim's in Cleethorpes and spent an hour with her over coffee.  She told me that both her grandchildren now had serious brain tumours and her granddaughter had had to be operated on recently at Hull Infirmary - and this after she had been doing so well.  It was clear that her grandchildren's illnesses had affected her but she remains very positive and her strength of character is an inspiration to us all.  I told her that we continued to put Jim on our prayer list at church and will now add Mandy.  She said that Jim was very pleased about being prayed for every week.  Mim was clearly delighted to see me (as I was her) and I was so glad I had made the effort to call.  My journey back down south was uneventful - a pleasant sunny drive via Lincoln (where I stopped for a lovely ice cream at Skellingthorpe), Newark, (road works most of the way to) Leicester, Coventry, Oxford and down the A34 towards Southampton and home.   Peter was on top of our garage with the builders when I arrived back and clearly a lot of work had been done in my absence up north.  The children were very well behaved this evening.  Sara went out to do another Vie at Home party in Andover and I caught up on some paperwork and updated this blog.  I had a really kind letter from Spring Harvest who said they were delighted to hear that their event had turned me from a sceptic on my first visit as a guest to vocation testing for ministry.  It was a story they liked to hear.  So glad to be back after all my travels and uncertainties over the last few days.  Life is so rich and unpredictable.  I love it.