After I had lung surgery and was diagnosed with LAM disease last year, I was of course shocked and upset but I had a deep sense of peace that God was going to heal me. As family and friends, we have been persistent in prayer and I have got better and better beyond the expectations of the doctors. We are so thankful to God for all he has done. It is easy to be joyful and full of faith when things are getting better...

The beauty of having so much time during seasons of recovery, is that finally, I can pick up a book. For years I have worked flat out. I loved every minute of it but it was a rare moment when I could sit down and get into anything. One book that I have read in this last year, is Heidi Baker’s ‘Birthing the Miraculous.’ Once I had started it, I just couldn’t put it down. I was inspired by the love she has for the children that she cares for in Mozambique but more than that…her desire to go deeper and deeper into a relationship with God. She speaks from Ezekiel 47, about pushing deeper into the presence of God until you are completely surrendered and in over your head. The way she speaks about her Jesus, is that of a woman completely in love. I couldn’t help but be intrigued and a desire for this deep relationship began to stir within me.

When people see me out and about, the first thing they notice are the tubes on my face. They often double-take and I can usually hear their children asking lots of questions as I walk away. What they don’t realise though, is what an absolute miracle it is that I can walk very far at all.

I'll admit it- I have always been a bit of a control freak! I like to know what is happening; I like to be highly organised and I definitely don't like surprises! I'm the sort of person who has a 5 year plan! I thought I had everything figured out! Of course, if you'd asked me, I would always have said that God was in control of my life but I think what I really meant was, he was in control of the areas that I wanted him to be in control of. Bearing this in mind, you can imagine that one of the worst things about coming out of hospital with a lung condition was the complete lack of control that I now had over so many things.

I have always had irrational fears. I have an outrageous imagination and was the sort of child that would put down cushions on the carpet to go to the toilet in the middle of the night in case the crocodiles came out from under the bed. As I got older, these fears turned into a fear of the dark and when I got married, I would hate to be left alone at night in the house. You might say that fears are an inevitable part of life; everyone has them but especially after I got ill, I began to realise that actually fear is not ok and we don't have to put up with it.