Four days away

The past four days I spent away at the Presbyterian Church's guidance conference for candidates for ministry. It is a time of discernment, as the call of the candidates who attend is considered by those already in ministry, and direction is offered. Through a series of interviews, group work, and exercises each candidate is considered, and at the end of the conference a report is given to the candidate.

I expected this time to be somewhat intimidating, but that was the last thing I experienced. I found it to be a time to reflect on my own sense of call, as well as a time to meet a whole bunch of wonderful people. It was a time away, yet rarely spent alone. And it was a very reaffirming time for me as well.

I would like to share one reflection from the conference I gained while there with you, and that was a time of reflection on my name. My name, Heather, generally means flowering or blooming (although I have come across cruder definitions such as flowering weed), and yet it's spiritual connotation is cover of beauty, and the name has been linked to Matthew 6:28-29 which reads: "And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labour or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these." Then the challenge was put to us as to how can we live out our name in our ministry. Considering the larger context of this passage, I initially thought about trusting God and putting my trust in God, but these two verses speak little directly about trusting, rather they seemed to speak more about beauty (especially in the Good News Bible I was using at that specific moment in time) and I felt challenged to try to see the true beauty in everything - the God given beauty that He has instilled in His creation. So here are some of the pictures I took this week as I tried to capture some of the beauty God has instilled at Creiff.