Never Alone

Yesterday I was reading Ruth Rice’s ‘Renewable Wellbeing’. After suffering a mental health crisis Ruth set up a café space linked to her church. Hobbies and activities were shared; there was a prayer room attached. In 2017 she set up the charity ‘Renew Wellbeing’ to encourage similar spaces across the country. Their website tells me that there are 280 centres nationally and many more in training.

Ruth says: ‘We need spaces where everyone can bring and share, where everyone is valued and honoured, where no one is a project to be fixed or a service provider; where there is a recognition of the humanity of every person, then wellbeing can flourish. And everyone can find their place.’

Later I visited my friends Darren and Keith in hospital. Both have been very unwell and in hospital for some time. Both were wanting to come out of hospital, but wondering how well they’d cope when they eventually return home.

In reflective mood, I was driving home with the radio on. A listener told her story. Her husband had very ill in hospital, but was now home. I was back with Darren and Keith. She chose her song… ‘When you walk through a storm hold your head up high…’ My friends have certainly had storms

 ‘…Walk on with hope in your heart and you’ll never walk alone.’  I thought of the generous, caring hospital staff, …the loving homes to which my friends will eventually return… of their faith in their Father-God who, they believe, has been with them every step of their way.

Despite their walking through their storm they’ve never walked alone.

Musing… Ruth’s ‘everyone can find their place’… Darren & Keith… Walk on with hope… Never Alone…

Ruth says: ‘It seems that when we group together in open spaces that are founded on simple principles and the shared language of wellbeing, then what grows is a seeking after God and life that looks a bit more like the thing that Jesus came to start.’