Don not forget our annual horse blessing service which this year will be held at 15:00 on Sunday 11th August 2019 at St Ippolyts Church. All horses and donkeys etc etc welcome, please bring along as many humans as possible.
All money collected will be given to "Riding for the Disabled"
Next Sunday, 28th July 2019, we welcome Revd Don Dowling who will be standing in for Revd Paul Lanham for our 09:15 service whilst Revd Ginni will be at Great wymondley.
CHRISTIAN AID
As many of you will know this year was the last year that we will be doing door to door collections in Hitchin. I thought that I would take the opportunity to thank everyone that has been involved with me over the last 11 years. (Everyone that I have an email address for!!) Over this time many people have helped, many for the whole time but in total 41 people have pounded on doors raising £10,699 - not a bad sum so well done to all of us!
Next year I plan to organise a Tea and Cake afternoon so keep your
eyes open! Thank you all again.
Barbara Thomas
BIKE RIDE
This year's Sponsored Bike 'n Hike for the Beds. and Herts. Historic Churches Trust is happening on Saturday 14thSeptember. I have been the local church organiser for many years and would like someone to replace me so, this year, if you would like to help with something in the church/village this is your opportunity to do it with some help - next year you might be inspired to take it
on yourself once you have found that it really isn't too difficult!
If you are inspired to burn some calories in a good cause the Bike or Hike aspect might attract you. You choose your own route - a list of the churches in this area that are open is provided, and you plan the route accordingly and then head out to do it!
Either way - to help with organising, or participating, please contact me,
Shelagh Cox by phone 01462-432445, text 07884-406523 or email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.and I'll give you all the details.
Shelagh Cox
BIBLE STUDY GROUP
The next Bible Study Group meetings will be on Wednesdays
10thand 24thJuly at 2.30pm. at Oakhurst (behind Kingshott School) home of Margaret Edmonds. We will then take a break until September. For further information please contact Margaret
Edmonds (01462-452340) or Clare Larsen (01462-453541).
COMMUNITY LUNCH
The next Community Lunches will be on Wednesdays 3rdJuly,
7thAugust and 4thSeptember from 12.45pm. till 2.00pm. (Serving time 12.45pm. till 1.00pm.) Cost £4 per person. Everyone welcome.
Anne Steel
HAPPY HOLIDAYS!
The wanderer has returned!! I’ve survived my annual holiday with my mum with everything but my sanity intact!!
Before I regale you with a few tales of our exploits, I should point out that although I may appear to be rather mean to my dear old mum, we both tease each other something rotten and she loves to read my (somewhat embellished!) stories about her. So please, don’t feel too sorry for her as she most definitely gives as good as she gets!!
Our trip began, as ever, with ‘Operation Tardis’.......also known as ‘see if you can get all your mother’s mobility equipment into a family saloon car along with the dog and two people’! An hour or so later with my meagre holdall stuffed into the rear foot well, the boot bursting with my mum’s stuff and the dog wedged between other ‘essential items’, we were off!! So far so good. We hadn’t quite reached the A1(M) before it became apparent that this could turn out to be an ‘interesting’ journey. The Satnav was doing its best to send us in the right direction but was struggling to compete with my mother’s delight at having a captive audience. After two solid hours of the Satnav yelling in my right ear and my mother waffling in my left, we arrived, my ears pleading for mercy!!!
My friend Tracy and her physically challenged mum, Wendy, met us there with a similar look of ‘oh my goodness, did we really book a whole week’ on her face. But we needn’t have worried - wheelchairs side by side, my mum and Wendy found in each other a willing listener as they repeated the previous two hours of conversation verbatim!! Tracy and I found the wine!! We drank a lot of wine that week!
We had a wonderful week, the weather was fabulous and we were staying in a beautiful barn conversion. Our days were a mixture of lazy starts and breakfasts on the patio, trips to beaches and fabulous flowering displays at stately homes, a boat trip on the broads and leisurely dinners back at the barn. Tracy and I loved being able to spend some quality time with our mums....so much so that we forgot to set them up with one of our usual pranks!!
For those of you who have read about our annual ritual of ‘mum-baiting’ in previous editions of PAX and are now feeling a sense of disappointment, fear not, because the holiday wasn’t without its ‘entertainment’!! The boat trip on the Broads provided us with some mileage - it’s amazing just how close to the water you can get a wheelchair containing a non-swimmer when you pretend to have lost control going down a ramp!!! I heard my mum utter words I had never imagined she even knew.....plus a few that were new, even to me!!!
But the pièce de résistance had to be our trip to Hoveton Hall and the incident in the disabled loo!! Hoveton Hall is a beautiful place with a combination of magnificent giant rhododendrons, amazing water gardens and delicately arranged.
formal gardens....truly stunning. They also have a lovely café where you can sit outside and enjoy some home cooked food. It was here that we managed to lower the tone in a somewhat spectacular way!
I won’t go into details as to how many times we had visited the disabled loo adjoining the café during our visit, suffice to say that it had probably quadrupled our walking distance and that I knew my mum was able to negotiate it on her mobility scooter without my help! So there we were, sat in the sunshine, freshly baked cheese scones and a pot of tea on the table, surrounded by genteel conversations from other diners about how well their begonias were doing, etc., when my mum needed to ‘pay a little visit’.
Off she trundled, narrowly missing wiping out a small dog as he inadvertently crossed her path. The three of us continued sipping our tea, talking quietly amongst ourselves, when suddenly there was a loud kerfuffle coming from the direction of the loo! A loud crashing sound followed by a few muffled expletives, broke the tranquillity, followed by an even louder bellow of ‘EXCUSE ME....I say, EXCUSE ME’ in what I recognised to be my mother’s dulcet tones. This was immediately followed by a middle-aged man exiting the building looking flustered and another bellow from my mother....‘GINNI’!!! Fearing the worst, I dashed in to help, only to find my mum sitting on her mobility scooter in the open door of the disabled loo with a look of indignant rage on her face! ‘Mum, what’s happened’, I asked in my best ‘concerned daughter’ voice, ‘are you ok?’ ‘No I am not’ she replied.....‘I can’t shut the loo door so I asked that man as he came out of the gents and he ran away’!! It took some convincing to get her to see that ‘asking’ isn’t the same as ‘bellowing’ and that the poor man was clearly terrified at being accosted and shouted at by a woman on her own in a ladies toilet!! We left soon after!!
So what have I learned from my holidays with my mum? I’ve learned that life is busy and time is precious and we should make the most of the time we have with people we love; that many older people live isolated lives and the greatest gift you can give them is the chance of a conversation; that it is the simple things that make the most difference; that able-bodied people don’t always realise the challenges that face those with a disability nor the effort that is required by their carers for the most basic of tasks; that laughter and humour is good for the soul!
So I thank God for my mum, for her love and her ability to laugh at herself and for the precious times we share together. And I thank God for the millions of people out there who give selflessly of their time to care for others with patience, humility and forbearance. I can make light of the times I care for my mum because I am able to choose when I do it, but for those of you who don’t have that choice, I take my hat off to you......you are amazing and I pray God’s blessing on you for the love and care you show to others. Amen.
With love - Ginni
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A date for your diary - Sunday 11th August at 15:00, everyone welcome especially those on horseback!
Please note that from July 2019 onwards there will only be one Evensong each month. This will be led by Howell Davies and will be held on the 4th Sunday of each month at 18:30 in St Ippolyts Church.
Everone is welcome to attend.
Whilst Revd Ginni is on holiday there will be no Wednesday morning Holy Communion.
