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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…
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O come let us adore him!
Soon after he was born the infant Jesus faced a serious threat to his life. The Wise Men from the east who followed the star had asked King Herod for help in finding the new-born king. After consulting the religious teachers Herod told them to go to Bethlehem and said, “As soon as you find…
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Joseph was a good man
Christmas will be more normal this year with some carol services and school nativity plays being held. One character in the Christmas story who tends to be in the background is Joseph, the earthly father of Jesus. The Gospels show him to be an upright, loving, and spiritual man. In our society there is a…
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God had a plan
Charlie Duke is a former NASA astronaut. In 1972 as Lunar Module Pilot for Apollo 16, he became the 10th and youngest person to walk on the Moon. As he waited for take-off he said, “I was really tense. Every part of my being vibrated with the throb of the Saturn V rocket engine. After…
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Who is my neighbour?
Recently I was driving on a fast dual carriageway when I saw a man in the central reservation waving his hands. As I got nearer, I saw an elderly man who looked very confused standing near the other man. It seems the elderly man had dementia, had left his care home, and had wandered onto…
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Bobby Ball’s Story
The comedian Bobby Ball died recently from Covid-19 complications. He and his partner Tommy Cannon hosted the very successful Cannon and Ball show from 1979 to 1988 with an audience of 18 million people. Bobby was born Robert Harper in 1944 at Shaw, a village near Oldham. His father’s family had been fairground workers and…