Visit to Bank House 23rd March 2011

I am off shortly to visit the residents and staff of Bank House, Sutton in Ashfield to spend a couple of hours with them in the presence of Jesus.  I had to reschedule this visit, which should have taken place yesterday, due to a hospital appointment that I had running over an hour late.

My visit to the hospital surgeon

Well, I have now been to see the surgeon at Kings Mill Hospital and, as I thought, they are going to operate within the next few weeks in an attempt to sort out problems that I am having with a rectal fissure that is causing abscesses etc.  So all that remains for me now is to wait for that letter to arrive and get on with life the best I can until then.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank all of my brothers and sisters in Christ who have been holding me in their prayers and hope that they keep me there until a successful operation is accomplished.

Goodnight and God Bless you all.

St. Mary Magdalene Parish Church, Sutton in Ashfield.

The above picture shows the Church that I attend regularly, St. Mary Magdalene Parish Church, Sutton in Ashfield.  Have just been to the Holy Eucharist service there so I am feeling refreshed and ready for my visit to see my surgeon at the local hospital, with regard to an expected operation (to see if it is necessary and if so when it might be done) - fairly soon I hope.

At Times like this we are all Japanese

I just had to include this as it sums up the situation in just a few frames and words:

Pastor Mike's Blog: The Church with the Flavor and Light of Christ

Just came across this and thought it worthy of reading: Pastor Mike's Blog: The Church with the Flavor and Light of Christ: "The Church and the society of today should be vastly different communities. Christ calls the Church to be salt and light in the world for Hi..."

Keep your Prayers Focussed on Japanese Brothers and Sisters

With the situation in Japan deteriorating by the minute, I would urgently ask Christians around the globe to focus their prayers in their direction, and keep hope that their burdens might soon be lifted a little.

The Mystery of Faith

As I sit here this morning, looking out from my window, I see the surrounding gardens are cloaked in a rather dense fog.  I think back to just yesterday, when the sun was shining so beautifully and I suddenly realise that this morning's fog is not unlike the Mystery of Faith - everything appears somewhat hidden, but I still know what lies beyond. - Good Morning to you all

Quality time with Parents

Just spent a couple of hours with my Mum who is suffering from early stages of dementia.  I go over most days so that I can sit with mum whilst dad gets on with anything he needs to do, like shopping, walking the dog etc.  The problem I noticed today is that dad too is now forgetting what he has said and done only a couple of days previously and denies ever having said or done them.  Will have to keep a close eye on this and a lot of prayer is needed too, I think.

Latest on nuclear disaster in Japan

God bless all involved in this situation our thoughts and prayers remain with you.

The Joy of God's Creation

As I wake this morning at 7 a.m. to the sound of my wife telling me that my coffee will be getting cold, I try to turn over in bed and am immediately reminded of the really bad nights sleep that has just gone by.  Pain racks my body, every slight movement is an enormous effort as I try to sit upright on the side of the bed. Oh I am so tired, can it really be time to get up?  After some time, I manage to get myself to my PC and sit in my chair - it is so cold this morning, the screen telling me that it is 0 degrees outside, my body telling me that it doesn't seem much warmer in here.  Then it all starts to happen:

I draw back the curtain to reveal a crisp morning with gorgeous sunshine glinting on the frosty ground and garden furniture, topped with the most gorgeous blue sky.  What a fantastic sight and what joy starts to come over me as I am welcomed into another day by this wonderful creation of God's world.  How could anyone witnessing such a sight ever doubt the existence of God?  Then I have to smile as the realization that, simply thinking about this wonder, is starting to melt away the pains that I had been suffering.  Jesus has started working his magic with me once more as I find myself entering into prayer: thanking Him for all that he does for me and wishing these same joys and feelings to fall upon everyone else in His world. I especially pray for all those who are unable to wake up to such peace and tranquility this morning, for all those caught up in the earthquake disasters around the world, the Japanese, those in New Zealand etc.  For all those whose lives are being tormented by the ravages of war and struggle for freedom, especially those in the middle eastern countries and for all who have not yet come to know the Joy of God's creation and the wonders to behold by opening up their hearts to the Lord.

Learning the ropes

I really am a complete novice at this, so I hope that some of you out there will help me along the way with some good advice etc.  Anyway, my eyes are starting to close now so I really must bid you all good night, wishing you all peace and happiness in everything that you do, trusting that Jesus will be with you always.

Introduction

I suppose I ought to introduce myself and try to explain what this blog is all about.

My name is Robert Yallup (Bob) to all my friends and at this moment in time I'm 55 yrs old, happily married to Kay and have two children (girls) who have both now flown the nest - the elder one, Jaime, is now living in Perth, Australia and the younger, Michelle, lives a couple of miles from us, here in Sutton in Ashfield, Nottinghamshire, UK.

At about the age of 6 I started attending St Mary Magdalene Church school in Sutton in Ashfield and also attending the Church itself.  I soon became very interested in the fascinating story of Jesus and, loving singing, soon joined the Church choir. I can't remember anything spectacular happening to me between this time and the age of 9 when I moved, along with my family, to Mansfield Woodhouse, another small town in Nottinghamshire, but I now realize that a rather special seed had been implanted into my very being.

On moving to Mansfield Woodhouse, I joined the Church of St Edmund and once more joined the choir becoming a server there and later being confirmed.  I served at St Edmund's until I left school at the age of 16, when I moved once more, along with my family to the small rural mining village of Bilsthorpe in Nottinghamshire.

I started working at the City Hospital in Nottingham as a laboratory technician in the Haematology department, travelling each day by motorcycle, the sixteen miles or so, to work and back.  The travelling was difficult by motorcycle in the winter months and I was offered a room in the hospital's nurses home, which I eagerly took up.

Being just 16 years old and moving into a nurses' home - about a dozen males living in a home with some 300 or so female nurses - seemed like bliss at the time and, needless to say, despite attending the Hospital Christian Fellowship meetings and acting as server in the hospital chapel, my eyes very quickly turned away from Jesus towards more worldly pleasures and pursuits.

I met Kay, my wife, when I was about 19 yrs old, had a serious motorcycle accident shortly afterwards, which left me disabled, and was married at 21, starting a family shortly afterwards and moving back to Sutton in Ashfield, where my life had started.  Quite a few different jobs followed including long periods of self employment due to my disability and the fact that Kay was blind (made working life a lot easier without having bosses wanting to know why you couldn't do certain things at certain times, due to pain etc.)  However this eventually ended in our becoming bankrupt, losing our house, car and most of our possessions - it seemed like our life was over, homeless with two young children and not a penny to our names - little did I realize at the time just how wrong I was.

The local authority found us emergency housing and, after the initial periods of depression and feeling sorry for ourselves the reality of the situation finally started to sink in.  We had all that mattered - each other and our children!  Money didn't really seem to matter any more, well not like it had in the past.  The years passed and the bankruptcy ended so, like fools, we started in business again, working for ourselves, as no-one else wanted to employ us.  We found that the biggest problem we seemed to have in business was the fact that we wanted to help everyone that we could and if someone couldn't really afford the services that we were offering, but really did need them, we would inevitably drop the price so that they could afford it.  Not good business sense I know!  We kept managing to scrape a living for a number of years but inevitably, due to our poor business sense (in wanting to help everyone that we could), we went bust yet again.  This time, we were already in local authority housing, so we didn't lose the house and the children were grown up, so they didn't have to suffer any of the consequences, but the deep depression that hit both Kay and myself was so much deeper this time around.

We just muddled along for a few years not having any direction or purpose in our lives.  Then Kay decided to study with the Open University and six years later had a 1st class honors degree, the first in her family to achieve such a distinction, which made her feel good about herself.  I had found myself driving past the driveway to St Mary's Church quite often and something/someone was calling to me from the driveway.  I fought hard to ignore it but, sure enough, every time I drove past, the calling was there until I just had to go to the Church one Sunday morning to find out what was drawing me in.

Bearing in mind that the last time I had been in that Church I was just 9 years old, everyone seemed to be holding out a welcoming and loving hand to me, almost as though they had been waiting for me to return, all these years.  As I am typing this, there are tears of joy flowing from my eyes, making typing quite difficult, at the thought of this moment.  I was home at last, where I belonged.

I have now been back at St Mary's for 2 or 3 years (time has flown and I wasn't counting) and I have become a Pastoral Visitor to the sick and elderly with responsibility for the pastoral care of 2 local care homes, many of the residents having dementia, as does my own mother.  My wife is now working as a volunteer for Framework HA, a charity working to help the homeless and vulnerable members of our society, and loving every minute of it.

I really do feel extremely blessed at this time in my life and it just feels right that I should let others know about the pure joy, love and peace that Jesus brings me in my every step as I go BOBBING ALONG WITH JESUS.