The lives we touch

I can't begin to tell you how proud I am to know this woman, and she has made history - and I am quite gobsmacked by it all, if I am honest.  The first woman ordained in the Church of England to become a Bishop, although she has had to go to the other side of the world to do it.  Quite a wow!  She and I studied at St Mary's College at the University of St Andrews together, even doing exactly the same degree in Old and New Testaments.  Then our lives went in very different directions, and my path of ministry as a Local Preacher is only just beginning, whereas she has had a life of academia alongside her ministry, although I have children and she has none, yet.  I have emailed her tonight with my congratulations.

Sometimes it is good to sit back and look at what we are doing, and the lives we are touching, and I can reflect that I may not have the flock she has, but I am still being useful and having an impact on lives - the children at the school and at the gym, the congregations I speak with and preach for, and the organisations I support in other ways.  We all have a ministry of some kind, whether it is formally recognised as such, and even though it may not be a religious one.  

Plenty of people in the world need someone to inspire them, someone to help them and advise them, or just someone to walk alongside them on the way when the going gets rough.  I have my own list of people who help me, and without whom my life would not be as rich - and I wouldn't be without any of you!  They range from bloggers who inspire me to people like UJ who offer me support and encouragement through just quietly being there for me when I need them, to public figures and writers like Ann Voskamp who just totally amaze me!  

Whose lives touch you, and whom do you reach out to?