Thought for the week

Tag: daughter

  • The courage of Grace Darling

    Grace Darling was born in November 1815. Within a few weeks she was taken to live on Brownsman Island, one of the Farne Islands off the coast of Northumbria, in a small cottage attached to the lighthouse her father ran. In 1826 she and her family moved to the newly built Longstone Lighthouse. Grace was…

  • The Plight of Afghan People

    Afghanistan is no longer in the headlines, but the plight of the Afghan people is desperate. NATO forces, who were there for 20 years, have been withdrawn. The Taliban are in power. Many people have lost their jobs, the economy collapsed after foreign aid ended overnight, the currency has lost almost half its value, the…

  • Precious in God’s sight

    In the summer of 2019 a young family set out from their home country of El Salvador to find safety and a new life in America. After a journey of 1500 miles Óscar Ramírez, his wife Ávalos and their 23-month-old daughter Valeria were in sight of Texas. They just had to cross a relatively narrow…

  • We’re the same as everyone else

    In a recent interview with Irish radio host Brendan O’Connor, who has a daughter with Down’s syndrome, the geneticist Richard Dawkins said it is “wise and sensible” to abort babies who have either Down’s syndrome or are deaf or blind in order to “increase the amount of happiness in the world.” In 2014 Dawkins told…

  • A precious gift from God

    We have had an addition to our family. Our youngest daughter gave birth three weeks ago to her first child, a little boy. My wife and I are thankful to God that they are both safe and well. This baby is a precious gift from God. We have seen him but have not yet held…

  • Give us this day our daily bread

    The coronavirus pandemic is having a massive financial impact on the world. Governments are borrowing very large sums of money in order to help their people and keep their economies going. Businesses, both large and small, are suffering and some may never reopen. Many people are likely to lose their jobs, with far-reaching consequences for…

  • Don’t be afraid, just trust me

    In 1992 I was invited to speak at a conference in Zambia. It was my first visit to Africa, and it was good to meet people who have become lifelong friends. As I prepared to go, I read a number of books about how to stay healthy while I was travelling. I took prophylaxis medication…

  • Rays of sunshine that penetrate the darkness

    At the end of January more than 200 survivors gathered at the former Nazi extermination camp of Auschwitz to commemorate the 75th anniversary of its liberation. More than 1.1 million people were murdered at the camp, most of them Jews. The emphasis of the commemoration was on the survivors who had travelled from many parts…

  • Murder on Christmas Eve

    Late on Christmas Eve 2012 Alan Greaves kissed his wife, Maureen, as he left the house to go to his local church in High Green, Sheffield, to play the organ at the midnight service. It was a special Christmas for Alan and Maureen because their youngest daughter, a missionary working in Mozambique, was home for…