No, nobody’s grown an extra leg, or anything quite so exciting as being raised from the dead, but- BUT – for much of my life I’ve battled with something obvious to everyone who knows me,,, WEIGHT! Over the years I’ve tried every sort of diet imaginable – from, in the 80’s, the ‘F’ plan (Fibre Diet) – in 6 weeks I put ON a pound (0.5 kg) 🙁 : Then I tried the Cambridge Diet, that awful ‘drinks only’ thing, where I lost 56 pounds (25 kg) in 4 months, As soon as I stopped the diet, I put on 70 pounds (31 kg) back on in ultra-quick time, not because I ate a lot, I just ate…. even when I’ve fasted – and I’ve done a few, some 40 day fasts: a friend and I used to fast together (fasting IS Biblical so it’s not aimed at losing weight) but my friend would lose 15 kg, and I’d put on a couple….

Then, as regular blog readers know, last year was an unusual year for me in that I couldn’t walk really for 10 months, often not even to the kitchen room my living room. I honestly thought that no activity and sitting down extensively (like 90% of the day apart from the odd foray out to preach if I had help, or to the doctors or the pharmacy – living the high life, huh??!!) I’d put on masses of weight. But as I couldn’t get to the kitchen much, I didn’t eat – unless my lovely ex-next door neighbours, John & Lisa, in Bangor, Northern Ireland, cooked Sunday lunch for me (which they did most Sundays). My stomach must have shrunk drastically, as I can’t eat much now even though I can walk again….

….and here’s the big confession (might not surprise some of you!) I was in 44-inch waist (112 cms) trousers…. when I moved into my new flat, when my scales appeared from under Vesuvius (my second bedroom eruption) I thought they were wrong, so courtesy of Amazon I bought some new ones…. and realised I needed 42….then 40….then 38….. and now 36 inch (91 cm) waist trousers. And I’ve lost 6 stones in weight (38 kilos)! I can’t remember a time when I was on 36/91 waist trousers! And today in shifting the mountain, I found my suit (yes, I DO have a suit – 2 in fact, and a blazer I haven’t been able to wear for years!) – and they’re sort of too big for me, but I can get away with it!! But I’m heading for 34 inch trousers…. (86 cms), and no longer 3 or 4 XL shirts – just 2XL or even XL depending on where I buy them and what brand they are!

So thank you, God!! That’s a great help to my knees in the long term….and God IS in the process of healing them, as I can walk where I couldn’t last year. So if you want to follow my ‘diet’, go and see an orthopaedic consultant and get him to wreck at least one leg so you can’t walk, and after 10 months get someone to pray for you….!!!!

Don’t forget next Sunday evening – Bolney Village Chapel, 6.30 pm…. Top Street, Bolney, West Sussex RH17 5PP – https://www.bolneyvillagechapel.co.uk/ – pastored by my really great friend Simon Allaby. I’ll be there, so will Simon, so will some friends from my church in Gravesend, and more importantly, so will God and the Holy Spirit! This is Simon…

https://www.google.com/maps/place/Top+St,+Bolney,+Haywards+Heath/@50.9972509,-0.2028438,17z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m5!3m4!1s0x487592bbee79cf91:0x9aa52c1f8e8e7d53!8m2!3d50.9972475!4d-0.2006551

and this is the church!