One of the most exciting and moving stories to emerge in recent years, concerns Ffald-y-Brenin, a remarkable House of Prayer and Christian Retreat Centre set in the hills near the sea in West Wales. You can read the amazing story of God’s work at Ffald-y-Brenin in Roy Godwin and Dave Robert’s very readable book The […]

Some years ago I knew a Baptist Minister who had been the Minister of his church for well over 20 years. He told me, just before Palm Sunday one year (facetiously I hope) that he had preached so many ‘Palm Sunday Sermons’ over the years that he had finally run out of ‘original things’ to […]

I am a self-confessed ‘foodie’! I cannot deny it, all my friends know it to be true … especially my Facebook friends who are often treated to photographs of meals that I have enjoyed in various parts of the world. According to Wikipedia (that font of all human knowledge) ‘a foodie is a person who […]

I grew up in the late 1940s/early 1950s. When I was a child we didn’t have things like a car, central heating, a telephone, a television … and all the other things my grandchildren take for granted today. We did have ‘steam radio’ however, and it was constantly on when we were at home. I […]

One of Knaphill’s many ‘claims to fame’ is that it was the birthplace of the Spice Girls during the mid-90s. Today the Spice Girls have sold over 80 million records making them the best-selling female group of all time and one of the best-selling pop groups in history. They are all multi-millionaires in their own […]

The earliest reference to Knaphill dates back to 1225, but little of historical note seems to have disturbed the village for the next 500 years. The 18th century saw the establishment of the first garden nurseries and, at about the same time, the foundation of the Knaphill Brickworks. The village developed further with the construction […]

I love painting – not walls and skirting boards – proper art! I love visiting art galleries, and I love actually painting myself. Water colour is my favourite medium, although I have started to dabble a bit with acrylic. I love photography, and usually have a camera somewhere within easy access, either in my pocket […]

Disney’s animated movie The Lion King, portrays the struggle between good and evil through the adventures of a lion named Simba. Son of the lion king, Simba faces several challenges as he comes to terms with his royal heritage. In the opening scene, the long-awaited announcement of Simba’s birth is carried throughout the valleys and […]

This year we are being really, really radical at Knaphill Baptist Church! We are dispensing with age-old tradition of beginning the New Year with a ‘Motto Text’ … and instead we are introducing a ‘theme’ which hopefully will characterise us, as individuals and as a church, throughout 2016. The theme is ‘A Year of Mercy’ […]

As part of our daily devotions in recent weeks Julia and I have been reading a wonderful little book called Haphazard by Starlight: A Poem a Day from Advent to Epiphany by Janet Morely. Basically it is ‘what it says on the tin’. The book consists of a carefully chosen selection of poems, written by […]