It is also a bit frustrating. I should like to have spent every minute watching things come together and chatting to all the different people involved, but at the same time as living in the present, I also seem to live in the future. As well as the ordinary planning for the months ahead I have six brides preparing for their special day (grooms are also involved) several baptisms to think about– one at my previous church in Watford – and it occurs to me that we are supposed to be going on holiday in two days time.

I emptied half the wardrobe on to a spare bed earlier in a vague attempt to get ready. There is far too much stuff there and anyway, when I get to France it will all be wrong! At this stage it seems easier just to stay at home and work methodically and calmly through the list of jobs I am trying to get done in too short a time before we go away – I am sure you know the feeling!

And yet I know that what I need more than anything at the moment is time to stop the world and get off. Time to sit still and stare into space. Time to read a book without having to put it down at the good bit. Time to return the many pictures I have started to paint and not had time to finish. Time just to be.

I glimpsed a bit of the joy of ‘just being’ earlier today as I sat quietly in church watching someone complete a flower arrangement. It is a gentle, calm display of blues and whites – the arranger was completely focused on what she was doing – it was an oasis of stillness in a busy day.

In the busyness of life we all need times of quiet – even our Lord withdrew from the crowd to be alone from time to time. Just as we need to give time to our families and friends if relationships are to flourish so we need to give time to God. It is so easy to squeeze God out of our life – especially when we are busy working on His behalf! One of my favourite books is called ‘Letters from the Desert’ – it is written by Carlo Carretto, a monk who goes alone into the desert to find God. He thinks it will be very difficult but comes to the conclusion that it is much more difficult to find God in the hurly burly of ordinary life!

Next week, I hope to find time just to be quiet – and whatever your plans for the summer, can I suggest just one or two days set aside to do exactly what you want to do? It is not selfish – it is healing and restoring – a tonic for our spiritual life.

Yours in Christ

Jo

Time to renew your spiritual life

All away on holiday

Those for whom the economic situation makes holidays an impossibility

Loving God, the birth of your Son Jesus Christ brought great joy to Mary and Joseph. We give thanks to you for everyone whose birthday we celebrate this month. May they ever grow in your faith, hope and love. We ask this in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Amen

The next coffee morning will be at 10:15 a.m. on Saturday 11th July at Homelands, High Street by kind invitation of Anne Claypole White. There will be a raffle and bring-and-buy stall for which contributions, especially of cakes and produce would be very welcome. We cannot let last months coffee morning go by without an additional thank you to Jim and Margaret Lacey themselves, for organising and hosting such a successful event!

A very big thank you to all the kind people who produced plants, donated prizes, and supported the Bring and Buy at the June Plant sale and Coffee Morning. The sum of £626 was raised for church funds. Jim & Margaret Lacey.

"Whoever sows generously will also reap generously!

2 Corinthians 9:6

Sarah was born in Worksop Hospital, Nottinghamshire. The family lived in Ordsall, a mining village near Retford, Notts. Peter, her father was a vicar and Monica, her mother was a medical social worker. Monica gave up work when she married and became a typical vicar’s wife, among other things running the Mothers Union and Sunday School. When Sarah was two the family moved to Colwick in Nottingham, and aged seven the family moved again to West Overton, near Marlborough, Wiltshire. Avebury was one of her fathers churches for a while. Family life revolved around the church; other people came first, family second. Sarah has very happy memories of years spent in large old rectories-one had a really long front hall where children could ride bikes up and down!

The family did not have a lot of money and therefore pleasures were simple, things like den building with her younger brother (whom she is close to), she says she was quite a naughty child at home but had to be well behaved when outside the home environment. When she was 12 the family moved back Nottinghamshire, to the Vale of Belvoir.

Sarah attended York University and gained a Linguistics degree in French and Chinese. She then trained for a PGCE in Primary Education at Homerton College Cambridge, where she also felt privileged to sing in St. Catherine's College Chapel Choir. After this she taught at various Primary and Middle Schools for nearly ten years. She met Matthew in 1993 (she says love at first sight !) they got engaged after 2 months and married at Southwell Minster in 1995. For a while they lived in the Fens but found it barren and flat so they went on a house search for somewhere with trees and hills. They found Turvey by accident a year later, they had already looked at a cottage in Sharnbrook but on reflection it would have been too small. Sarah says she feels incredibly lucky to have found such a beautiful place to live. She gave up work before her girls were born, Ellie in 1999 and Liddy in 2000, after which her main focus has been to give the girls a stable, secure and Christian upbringing.

During their time here Matthew has been working hard at establishing his automotive research business. Sarah says it is wonderful to have him working from his office in the garden, so loneliness when the girls are at school is not a problem. Sarah was a private tutor in Maths and English for a home educated boy and helps out at Turvey Lower School every week and is on the lookout for some kind of teaching related job now that the girls are growing up. She is also the main care for her mother, who still lives in Southwell, Nottinghamshire (she is disabled) since her father died in 2005.

Sarah says reading is her passion (she reads in beds until all hours) and plays the piano, but says her favourite pastime is chatting to friends. Sarah is a member of the PCC, sidesman, and organises the Nativity play with Polly Gough, and a twice yearly children's activity morning. Sarah has been very involved with the church from the beginning and sees the church folk as an extension of the family. Little Lights which she helped to run for many years started in 2001 after Sarah had talked to John Camp about a service for the Little ones. She did this jointly with Cathy Venables. Sarah says she is now very contented with life and lucky to have her family. Matthew runs and enjoys gardening, both girls play the piano and are in the Brownies, life seems idyllic.

What an amazing event! I should like to say thank you to all who worked so hard to make the Midsummer Festival such fun. It was a real celebration of Turvey life with all the different groups – and some individuals - in the village coming together to stage their displays and to provide entertainment and refreshment. I knew Turvey was special but this was just an outstanding exhibition of talent – and an inspiring example of a whole village working as one. Thank you all.

Jo Spray

A simple yet delicious lunch was enjoyed after the service at the end of Christian Aid week. Many thanks to all who contributed food and helped on the day. People gave very generously and we shall send a cheque for £256.40 to Christian Aid. As all the donations were gift aided this adds an extra £71.79 to our contribution. It was great to see some of the buyers and sellers from the Turvey Car Boot Sale at the lunch afterwards and I bet they were jolly glad to have somewhere warm and dry to sit and eat! Theresa Riley from Carlton kindly ran a Traidcraft Stall in church during the lunch which was also very successful. Sarah Beecham.

Thank you very much for all the book donations for the Turvey car boot book stall, it ended up consisting of a wonderful selection of books. I managed, despite the hideous weather to raise just over £30 for the church. Many charities also benefited from unsold items. Thank you again. Helen Clarkson.

This poem, written by children from the SOS Children’s village in Rawalpindi (Pakistan) expresses their gratitude to SOS supporters worldwide:

If prayers are water,

We will give you seas;

If wishes are leaves,

We will give you trees;

If smiles are seconds,

We will give you hours.

Thank you for being with us.

"To celebrate growing older, I once wrote the 44 lessons life taught me. It is the most-requested column I’ve ever written.

Life isn’t fair, but it’s still good.

When in doubt, just take the next small step.

Life is too short to waste time hating anyone.

Your job won’t take care of you when you are sick. Your friends and parents will. Stay in touch.

You don’t have to win every argument. Agree to disagree.

It’s ok to get angry with God. He can take it.

Cry with someone. It’s more healing then crying alone.

Save for retirement starting with the first pay cheque.

When it comes to chocolate, resistance is futile.

Make peace with your past so it won’t screw up the present.

It’s ok to let your children see you cry.

Don’t compare you life to others. You have no idea what their journey is all about.

If a relationship has to be a secret, you shouldn’t be in it.

Everything can change in the blink of an eye. But don’t worry God never blinks.

Take a deep breath, it calm the mind.

Get rid of anything that is not useful, beautiful or joyful.

Whatever does not kill you really does make you stronger.

It’s never too late to have a happy childhood, but the second one is up to you and no one else.

When it comes to going after what you love in life, don’t take no for an answer.

Burn the candles, use the nice sheets, wear the fancy lingerie. Don’t save them for special occasion, today is special.

Over prepare, then go with the flow.

Be eccentric now, don’t wait for old age to wear purple.

No one is in charge of your happiness but you.

Frame every so called disaster with these words "In five years, will this matter?"

Always choose life.

Forgive everyone everything.

What other people think of you is none of your business.

Time heals almost everything. Give time, time.

However good or bad a situation is, it will change.

Don’t take yourself so seriously, no one else does.

Believe in miracles.

God loves you because of who God is, not because of anything you did or didn’t do.

Don’t audit life. Show up and make the most of it now.

Your children only get one childhood.

All that truly matters in the end is that you loved.

Get outside every day, miracles are waiting everywhere.

If we threw our problems in a pile and everyone saw everyone else's, we would grab ours back.

Envy is a waste of time. You already have all you need.

The best is yet to come.

No matter how you feel, get up, dress up and show up.

Growing old beats the alternative—dying young.

Yield.

Pay off your credit cards each month.

Life isn’t tied with a bow, but it’s still a gift.