I have decided to return to blogging. It really is not for anyone else but myself. Writing is the way I process and make sense of things. It is also a release for me when I see something that is unfair, unjust or just interesting and I want to acknowledge that it exists rather than just move on to the next thing I have on my list of things to do!!
This 'pause' in blogging happened to me between 2011 and 2013 and back then I decided list down things that I might have blogged about in that time. I don't have the energy to do that again, but instead I have just picked one thing for each year between 2015 and 2024. So here we go:
2015 - Created an eBay auction for Premiership Captain's football boots to raise money for Christian Aid's work in Ethiopia. Stevie Gerard's boots went to 3,000 pounds. It was his last game for Liverpool!!
2016 - Worked at St John Ambulance for 1 year. I organised donor events at Aston Villa FC and Middlesbrough FC as well. Here is a video we made of the event at Villa Park.
2017 - Emigrated to Canada and lost my Dad at the same time in February! We landed in a very cold Winnipeg.
2018 - Completed 1 year working for International Justice Mission. Travelled to Washington DC in January for an orientation into IJM Global at our DC headquarters and met Linda Yang, an IJM Fellow from BC going to work in Cebu in the Philippines. Unbeknown to me at the time this meeting helped to bring the arrest of one of Canada's worst criminals of Online Sexual Exploitation of Children or OSEC. Here is an article I wrote in 2024 for IJM Canada that tells that story. We also welcomed Biscuit into our family
2019 - Returned to England to bid my Mum farewell as she succumbed to Parkinson's. Visited Much Wenlock where we grew up and popped in on actress and Mum's friend Gabriel Drake at the Wenlock Priory. Ayozie my sister-in-law and my nieces Daniella and Kezia sang a dedication song in a newly refurbished room in the Priory. A dedication song for both the room and my Mum.
2020 - Covid 19 hit - I decided to do visit 40 IJM donors around Winnipeg. ended up cycling over 500 Kms and raising over $4,000 for children unsafe in Lockdown. An IJM Canada campaign at the time.
2021 - Started the IJM Canada Midlevel program. This was a brand-new program and also became part of the national leadership team.
2022 - This was a big snow year where we seemed to have snow storm after snow story. It led to being creative indoors. Here is Zane doing a performance of Granny's house!!
2023 - Returned to England for Christmas with Irfana and the children. It was 7 years since we were last there together, so it was fascinating watching Zara and Zane recall and relive their childhood in familiar places. It was lovely to stay with The Burdette's in Clapham, and the kids got very excited at Clapman Bandstand where Zane used to scoot around at 100 Mph and dropping in on their old school Macaulay Primary School, where they bumped into some old teachers who are still there!
2024 - Settled into my role Leading IJM Canada's Midlevel and Major Donor teams. Also engaged in a "Fuller Retreat" across the year with a 3 day retreat in each quartre, taking us to Maryland, Austin Texas and Los Angeles. Here's a photo of my wonderful small group who I also got to meet online in between the retreats. I also was honoured to speak at my church Whyte Ridge Baptist for our Pastor's final Sunday before he retires. Due to the loss of his wife Pat he wasn't able to be there but I was able to weave his thoughts into my talk. Here it is.
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