It’s been some time since I posted a blog – maybe explanations because of CoronaVirus/Covid19 are unnecessary as it seems to have brought much of the world to a juddering stop. When your job is to travel to countries to do mission work that are closed to everyone in and out, it makes life a little challenging in more ways than one!

I do pray that, if you’re reading this, you have evaded the virus and not been afflicted by it: or if you have, that you’re one those who have recovered from it completely. If you have issues from it, my prayer is that you’ll recover totally. As we head for the first ‘unknown’ Christmas, I pray that you’ll stay well, and be blessed during what will still be a very special season.

For me, it’s been a year of battling with personal mobility as well as aviation mobility – the knock-on effect from having had an assault with DVT late last year, which carried over into this year – and dovetailed with the arrival of lockdowns, and the increased inactivity this has produced has meant the knees have suffered.

I’m based here in Wales, still lodging with wonderfully patient friends, who – like me – thought I’d be here for a couple of months – a year ago in August! – while waiting for the means to get a place of my own. That still hasn’t – yet – materialised, and I’d be dishonest if I said that the waiting game hasn’t been stressful. It has, and those of you with existing extreme pain will know that stress doesn’t cause many blessings to your body…

It’s been a privilege to be able to keep praying for people – for that I’m very thankful as it’s like the air I breathe to me – for that the internet has been a godsend, though my way of praying for people tends to be personal and individual, with an arm around people which is a problem over wifi! But God isn’t limited, and there have been people healed regularly of everything from Corona to cancer to osteoarthritis. I’m longing for the day when God says it’s my turn for the latter to be healed in my knees!

Not knowing when the pandemic will end, it’s a bit hit and miss planning in the near future, but if things do change, my lovely friend Thanney and I are provisionally thinking of going to Cali, Colombia, in March – for me, because of the limitations of DVT and the pandemic, it’s been the longest I’ve been away from Colombia in 20+ years. I think I’m experiencing withdrawal symptoms!