This page is for members of our congregation who feel led to write anything which God has put upon their hearts.  What we have experienced can help others.  Please feel free to contact us if these poems or writings have encouraged, inspired or moved you in any way.  God bless

Samuel - By Catherine Drabble

I ran out of the doorway and stopped abruptly at the top of the steps. How was I ever going to see her in this crowd? I lifted a hand to shade my eyes against the glaring sun and squinted into the distance.

“Perhaps she’s not coming this year,” I whispered softly to myself. Then I spotted her; she had seen me first and was waving frantically, her beautiful smile obscuring everything else around her.

We ran to each other with joy and laughter and then we hugged. We hugged for a long time unable to conceal our happiness and delight.

As I felt her warm embrace the memories came flooding back.  The memory of the day she left me; the day I felt she had abandoned me. The feelings that I tried hard to push to the back of my mind but today, because she was here holding me, I allowed my thoughts to wander to that moment when I was four years old.

We had gone on a journey and had brought a bull with us for the annual sacrifice; it was the first time I had witnessed such a thing and I can still hear the bellows of the animal as it was restrained and then sacrificially killed.

I was too young, I didn’t understand; I just had a dreadful feeling of fear and uncertainty as I saw my mother talking to a man. They were both pointing and staring at me. Then my mother drew me to her and put a colourful coat on my small shoulders and promised she would bring me a bigger one next year. “You have to stay here,’” she said as she stroked my hair and cupped my face in her hands.

I threw my arms arounds her waist and wrapped my legs around her legs and cried and screamed. I was never going to let her go. She gently unclasped my hands and pulled me up to her shoulder. I could feel the dampness of tears on her face and they mingled with mine.

“Hush little one,” she whispered. “Be brave, God will make this as easy for you.” Then before I knew what was happening she was walking away. I tried to run after her but I was held back by large gentle hands. I looked up and Eli, the man my mother had entrusted me to was stood there, smiling down at me.

Many years have passed since that day and every year my mother has kept her promise to visit me at festival time; bringing me a beautiful new hand woven coat.

We stopped hugging and she looked at me “You must have grown at least a foot I hope this new coat fits you,” she laughed, as she handed it to me. She took my hand “Come, your father and brothers and sisters are waiting to see you.”

“I have so much to tell you mother,” I replied. “You’ll never believe what’s happened to me!” And so, as we walked, I told her about the night when I was sleeping in the Tabernacle and a voice called my name.

“I had thought it was Eli asking for me so I rushed to his room to see what he wanted but it wasn’t him so I went back to bed. Then the same thing happened two more times until Eli told me that it was the Lord talking to me. So I lay in bed and told God that I was listening.

It all seemed so unreal; it was the first time I had received a message from Him. It was strange but it opened up my eyes up to a spiritual world. God told me things. He trusted me with His word and I now understand why I am here! You were right Mother; God has made it easy for me.”

And it was true. It had become easy. Being away from my family had become easy. Living with a priest had become easy but most of all learning to serve God and follow Him had become easy because I had been brought up in His presence, He was my Lord and I loved Him.

My mother stopped walking and turned to look at me, “Samuel,” she said with tears of happiness running down her cheeks. “You have no idea how many times I have prayed to hear you say those words. I am so blessed,” she smiled. 

Samuel: chapters 1-3

I'm thirsty, so very thirsty in this empty, dry and barren land.

Lord please come and fill up this cup.

Drip by drip, drop by drop, don't stop

Please pour in more Lord

Fill it up to overflowing

So that inside there's a a knowing, a surging, urging, purging...

a knowing of Your overflowing, spilling out into this empty, dry and barren land.

My tears cry out for Your rain Lord

Rain down Your blessing Lord

Rain on us Lord

Reign in us Lord.

Let Your blessing flow through this empty, dry and barren land

For we are thirsty Lord

So very thirsty in this empty, dry and barren land.

Living water of God, please flow through this temple

Pushing and rushing

Rushing and gushing

Please flow through this temple and out of these doors once again.

I am thirsty Lord, please fill this cup to overflowing....

By Phil Drabble

There is a dance, a simple dance created for all but danced by few

It is the dance of truth...  So much more than just steps in a rhythmic beat.

It's a belt wrapped tightly around our waist giving us power to face the world without fear.  It supports and holds so that all through the dance we can stay on our feet.

Dance, dance on...

It's who we are and the way the dance touches our hearts that counts before God.  God will guide us to His truth...  The only truth that gives real meaning to our lives.

For there is a dance, a simple dance created for all, but danced by few.

It is the dance of hope...  So much more than just steps in a rhythmic beat.

Dance it ans something happens inside; it is a hope that is always faithful and certain.  Run, run for your life, run to God and grab hold of hope with both hands and never let it go.  All through the dance, hope without swerving, swirling or swaying and love with your arms open wide.

For there is a dance, a simple dance created for all but danced by few.  So much more than just steps to a rhythmic beat.

It is the dance of love

It keeps on dancing and never gives up

Love always puts others first and doesn't want what it doesn't have

Love doesn't boast and it isn't proud and pushy

Love is calm and is quick to forgive

It loves the truth and always trusts in God

Constantly looking for the best in everything and everybody

Love never looks back

But keeps dancing to the end

Dance, dance on...

For these things remain... Truth, Hope and Love

With true love lasting more than a lifetime

For there is a dance, a simple dance created for all but danced by few.  So much more than just steps to a rhythmic beat.

The dance is at its best when it moves in the centre of God's love

Let our arms open wide and prepare our hearts, ready for forgiveness

For He is strong and He wants HIs strength to live in us

He has offered us freedom so let's accept it with grateful hearts

For He is here to give us a rich and full life

This is the unending Life, the real Life

And the dance goes on and on

For there is a dance, a simple dance created for all but danced by few.  So much more than just steps to a rhythmic beat.

Catherine Drabble

My once beautiful, fragile heart lay slumped on a stone-cold floor.  It was broken; hurt and damaged beyond human repair.  The enemy's arrows had been fired, sure and swift, and had easily met their mark.  The deadly shafts of wood with their barbed heads had sliced effortlessly into my soft flesh.

It was still beating but bleeding and broken and bathed in bitterness.

I wanted to blame the world; my friends, may family, my work colleagues, my neighbour who never said hello.  But deep down I knew that the only person to blame was me.

I had been given a gift by God - a gift of heavenly protection.  I had been presented with God's armour but it was my responsibility to put it on and I had been careless.

I was excited in the early days to put on the belt of truth but my enthusiasm turned into clumsiness.  I became all fingers and thumbs and I missed the notch on the belt.  The belt was loose, it had never been tight, and so my honesty and integrity began to slip and the belt came undone and clanged to the floor along with its sword.

I lived with that for a while but my bekt was an integral part of keeping my breastplate of righteousness in place.  The breastplate that protected my heart; the most sacred part of my body.  Without the belt it began to slip and slide and move around until eventually it too clattered to the ground.

I was now totally exposed and vulnerable and all because I had been clumsy with the truth.

So there lay my armour on that cold surface along with my battered and bruised heart.  The truth lay unbuckled and twisted; righteousness lazed in pieces and the word of God rested useless amongst my broken life.

So I had a choice.  I could scream at the world and at God and indulge in my private pity parties night after night or I could fall to my knees and pick up the armour of God.

So I picked up and tightened the belt of truth around my waist, being careful not to miss a notch.  I put on my breastplate of righteousness and my helmet of salvation, making sure they fitted perfectly.  And for good measure I laced up my shoes of the Gospel of peace and held high my shield and walked into the world holding forth my sword; the Word of God.

My armour - my gift from God was now no longer on the floor, it was where it belonged.  I could now stand against the enemy and withstand any arrows that came my way and if needed I could stand some more.  And my heart?  Well my heart was no longer broken, it was healed and complete and above all protected by my gift of heavenly armour.

Catherine Drabble

15th October 2019 

(A)

Beauty that is her name

No matter how hard you try to get her to call herself that, she refuses.

Why wouldn't she call herself such a wonderful name?

Why would she shun away an invitation to see what she has, or could become?

Why would she turn away an invitation to soar and revel in her personal glory?

Her response is amazing

Why should I call myself beauty?

What is beautiful about me?

Right from a young age, all I have ever known is pain, rejection, mockery, abuse.

The important people in my life felt I was a mistake, a child that should not have been born.

There must be something wrong with me for them to say that

At every stage of my life, there seems to be something wrong with me

I struggled through school, having problems communicating well

I was constantly laughed at for making effort to improve on myself

No matter how hard I try, I always seem to take the wrong step.

Everybody cannot be wrong

Something must be wrong

I have tried over the years to look for ways out of this pattern of sorrow, pain, anguish, rejection.

Everywhere I turn, all I see is life confirming what I'm trying to run away from.

There seems to be no way out except acceptance of my life the way it is.

As I accept what life has thrown towards me, I stay within my life limitation

Life has shown me that I am a mistake, a person that should be avoided, with nothing good to offer

I have accepted that.  I live through each day anticipating when I will breathe my last breath.

Leaving this world seems to be the only way out

I am eagerly waiting, anticipating and looking forward to leaving this life that seems meaningless to me

Here you come now and you call me beauty?

Why should I answer to your lies, using words just to generate positive emotions that do not last?

Beauty, Beauty, Beauty

Please let me be, my name is not beauty but pain.

Please let me be

Her name is beauty

(B)

He called me beauty

Why would he do that?

How much does he know me?

Does he know the kind of life I have lived?

The despicable things that I have done that I am now ashamed of

THe adventures I have been on that has sank me deeper in misery and pain?

His response startled me

I know you

I know your journey

I know your heart longings

I see your struggles

Your struggles to evolve

Your struggles to come alive, to be free from the shackles of life's limitation

I see the desparation in your eyes to be true to yourself, to be real, be genuine and not live under the cloak of pretence seeking for men's validation

I see it all

I called you beauty because that is who you are

Your beauty can only be experienced and seen if you allow me to help you

I call you beauty because your intricate formation, design, disposition are uniquely yours and no one else's

I called you beauty because you are endowed with talents, abilities and gifting that makes you stand out among men

You were not created to just be a number

You were created to manifest beauty because your name is Beauty

(C)

He called me beauty

His words are different

His words warm my heart

His words pierce my heart with such soothingness that I could literally feel weights being lifted off me.

His words release a depth of calmness that I have never felt before

His words makes me wanted and loved

He is not calling me by my sins

He is not labelling me by my mistakes

He is not laughing at my shortcomings

He is not calling others to mock me

All he is doing is calling me a name that I have never been called before - Beauty!

He is calling me beauty without demanding perfection first

He is calling me beauty in spite of my life miseries

He is definetely different.  I wonder who he is?

His response melted my heart to surrender

Of course I am different

I loved enough to lay down my life for you

I took your punishment so that you might be forgiven and live a forgiven life

I took your wounds, grief, sorrow so that you might be healed and live in perpetual health

I loved you enough to die your death so that you might receive life and live life abundantly

I truly showed you my love when I took your shame, guilt, regret, rejection so that you can have full acceptance

I became all that you were so that you could become all that I am

You might look at your life to date and see only ugliness, but when I look at you all I see is my beauty

The price for your ugliness to become beauty has been paid

All I ask is to allow me into your life

To help you become the real you, to help you answer to your real name - Beauty

Your name is Beauty

Answer to it and the beauty will manifest

Olarenke Gbadebo

October 15th 2019