Christian Coffee House - Prayer/Chat thread. No rubbish church coffee allowed.

[Madhairday]

With the latest prayer thread coming to an end, we thought we would create a new thread for prayer and general chat too - we had chat threads running for years alongside prayer threads, and we thought it would be great to combine them. I try and collate some of the prayer requests from the last thread in the next few days. In the meantime, dive in! Lurkers/newbies - you are welcome to post. Feel free to start any chat subject about Christianity, church, worship etc, and do share any prayer needs.
Would love to hear from those who were on previous threads and haven't been around for a while, too. Come and let us know how you are.

Adding my prayers too Porpentina God does know and He cares for you. And here is your coffee, help yourself to milk and sugar and the last of the biscuits.

Thank you both.

It's good coffee. And biscuits! We don't always have them so I'm really enjoying them

Morning. Expecting an email from church today. Prayer cancelled. We are in for 14 days. This is good to protect asthmatic DD. Going to ask permission to be allowed to go out to exercise in the church garden behind locked gates.

Otherwise we may be allowed to walk round our shared garden. Dd's condition will deteriorate if we don't exercise. And mine.

We've cancelled prayer meetings and the toddler group so far.

In good news DH has an interview for a new job! He works for the NHS so who knows if it'll go ahead when it should as it's in ten days time.

☘️☘️☘️☘️☘️ I know these are trying times but I just wanted to wish you a Happy St Patrick's Day from this Irish person.

May the road rise to meet you, May the wind be always at your back. May the sun shine warm upon your face, The rains fall soft upon your fields.

@Tinselette1940 what a lovely apt verse
And until we meet again (virtually) may God hold you in the palm of his hand

Icare thank you so much for including the most important line! I must have missed it with cut and paste. Sending a virtual wave to you. X

Thank you all for prayers. It's minor in the grand scheme of things I suppose.

My relationship ended in November. He cited hating my children as his reason. Then I found out yesterday that he is seeing someone else. Who has a child. It hurts so much and I'm beyond broken.

It’s not minor for you Porpentina and nothing any of us can say anything that will take the pain away. But nobody can live with somebody who says he hates children. YOUR children. They are lucky to have you as their mother.

Thank you Dutch. They are the best children ever. I'm the lucky one.

I love the verse posted by Tinsel. I have it hanging in my hallway. Happy St Patrick's day from a non Irish person

I thought as im here I should 'introduce' myself.

So hi everyone

Coffee or tea? Coffee
Hymns or worship songs? Oooo, tricky one. Both
Band or organ? Traditional hymns need an organ. Worship songs/modern hymns need a band.
Flavour/denomination? CofE
What sort of after church snack? We rarely have snacks at my Church but always had biscuits growing up. We have a shared meal once a month which I love.

Welcome Porpetina and I'm so sorry to hear of what you've been going through, it sounds really horrible

So sad about all this. Dh a vicar as many of you know and so strange today to be sorting out how we're going to care for everyone, technical stuff for live streams etc. I feel really sad today.

Rafa - yes, 12 weeks for me. I'd already resigned myself and am fairly used to being housebound so it's not so bad, but hate the thought of not seeing friends and family beyond dh, DD and Ds.

DDs uni is closing Friday so she'll be home then, no idea for how long.

So much love to all in these dark days.

Thank you Madhairday. I've survived heartbreak before. I can survive it again. I just wish I knew what God's plan was for me. Everyone says he has one, but everytime I think I've finally found it... it ends in tears.

Has your husband found he's busier than usual? I suppose at least we have the technology to live stream these days.

Ds1 came home today with an awful cough and cold (his dad then told me he wasnt feeling well on Saturday- their contact day - and now has flu ) so we're self-isolating. Im honestly not sure how I'll cope without my church contact. I have severe depression and anxiety and church based activities is pretty much all I leave the house for.

Love, light and prayers to all.

This is my difficulty: Living alone I depend a lot on social contacts. I need to go out for small amounts of food: milk, bread, fresh vegetables and fruit. No end of people have offered to do shopping for me and I don’t want it, I need to be out and about on a ‘use it or lose it ’principle, however kind it is.
Sainsbury’s idea of only having pensioners in for the first hour : most older people like to take it easy in the morning and I am not often ready to go out before 9 and and get to my local Sainsbury’s before 10 as my bus pass is not valid. And going on the bus...so many pensioners depend on that, the bus pass has been a life line.
Isolation will be very bad for a great many people, so I really feel for you Porpentina.

Porpentina and Dutch I know where you are coming from.

Church and the people there are pretty much the only thing that has got me through the last 6 months. It’s my ‘safe’ space and always calms me when my anxiety is high.

Still not 100% sure whether I’m in the group that will need to self-isolate for weeks. But I’m definitely going to have to take my self off the list of people that have volunteered to run errands.

Dutchoma
I’m not a pensioner but in a similar place regarding social contact. I work have face to face contact there. My ASD means I’m not good otherwise. I’m self isolating now and will be working from home after that. I’m dreading things as everything will be closed. My contact is with my parents who will be fully isolating so I probably won’t see at all now.

Going to church used to be a really important social contact. I moved house and in my current church everyone scatters immediately after mass. I’ve spoken to two people after mass in that time. I was going to start going up to the city but I can’t do that now.

I pray that all of us get through this.

The daffs aren't hiding.

The daffodils dont give a stuff,
They’re dancing in the sun,
All they need is in their bulbs,
They’re hiding from no one,
While we are told to hide away,
In case we catch disease,
They’re celebrating their short lives.
And waving in the breeze,
They’ve been under the earth all year,
Preparing for this time,
When they can spring from the ground,
And into poet’s rhyme,
And all we hear is panic talk,
Whichever way we turn,
The TV wont stop banging on,
We’re worried we won’t earn,
The death toll and the deadliness,
The bog roll we can’t buy,
While the green earth just does her thing,
Neath the untroubled sky,
And if you feel rebellious,
In this restricted lark,
Take example from the daffodils
And go dance in the park.

Helen Verill

The park she is talking about is local to me and awash with daffodils. No doubt there will be people who will say that this is Totally Irresponsible but I think that a ‘walk in the park’ is a perfect antidote to the depression that threatens to engulf us.

The poem is written by a friend of my dd

Walks are fine and recommended if self isolating. As long as it’s somewhere you can keep your distance from people.

Honestly, some people. For the moment I have to go to work as I’m an HCP. Why am earth at an empty bus stop in a wide open space would someone sit right next to you?

This is the sort of thing that’s going to make leaving the house a bit frustrating.

That poem is lovely Dutch

Catholic churches have cancelled all public Masses from Friday night (20th)

We've just had an email from our church (CofE) to say all meetings are cancelled. So no Sunday Church. No Thursday communion. No film club. Youth group, morning prayer, lunch club. All closed.
Morning cafe is still open but self service only.

Yes everything closed for us too. We do have to follow CofE advice and be sensible about this.

Oma I was thinking about you in all this dear friend. I think walks are still ok even for the isolated as long as we keep away from others. Fresh air is so important isn't it.

I'll leave this blog post here about being isolated. I hope it's helpful for people here.

www.greatadventure.carterclan.me.uk/?p=699