The Time has come

19th December 2025. A few days ago I celebrated my 80th Birthday, culminating in a wonderful Party attended by members of my family and a number of good friends – about 50 guests altogether. My wife, together with my three children and their spouses, had planned and prepared it all, and we were pleased to be able to hold it at our local Baptist Church which I had pastored for 22 years. The building, which had been redecorated and re-equipped recently, was resplendent – with its Christmas Tree and the eye-catching Birthday Bunting making for a great atmosphhere. After a lovely buffet meal, I performed a few songs with old friend and former Worship leader Trevor Stevens – he playing an acoustic ‘ukelele bass’ and me playing my two autoharps. (Trevor had played ‘session bass’ in the past with the the original “Fleetwood Mac” line-up, and a few years ago we were performing pop songs together at the local monthly “Acoustic Ballroom”). We chose five pop songs, and I interspersed them with appropriate recollections of phases of my life – including the bad (my illnesses and late wife Linda’s Alzheimers’ Disease) and the most recent good (marrying Ingria and our divine calling to the Healing Ministry). I wanted to take this opportunity for ‘testimony’, especially for the ears of wider family members who would have had little awareness of much of it. We finished with a toast to my longevity, and the cutting of a gloriously-designed Sky blue Coventry City FC cake.

Someone took the opportunity to remind me that Moses commenced his God-given ministry at age 80; and I had already identified myself with a similarly-aged Abraham (with the exception of fathering a child in old age!). The following day – being Sunday – we celebrated a bit more with food at the Burmese Mission Church. Pastor Man presented me with a Birthday card, which she said contained a Prophetic Word (ie inspired by the Holy Spirit). It read: “It is your time to shine and fulfil your call from our Father in heaven”. Being increasingly aware of her and her husband Gin’s powerful ministry and prayer life, Ingria and I are taking this seriously as our cue for an increasingly significant breakthrough in the Healing Minstry to which we were called in 2018.

May you have a Blessed Christmas glorying in God’s perfect Gift of a Saviour, and a New Year filled with hope for a powerful sharing of the Gospel, bringing Revival.