Steph's Adventures

I do quite a lot of walking. Sometimes purely for pleasure. More often, it is simply my mode of transport to get from A to B. During lockdow...

When people ask me how I am I generally, probably like most people, answer "I'm fine, thanks, you?". If I elaborate it tends t...

Ahead of our bible discussion yesterday, I had been reflecting on this Sunday's gospel reading, Matthew 20, verses 1 - 16. Like most par...

Although the summer weather seems to have only just arrived, this week, dominated by sorting out school uniform, school places and school bu...

Last week, Stories of Hope and Home welcomed its 100th sanctuary-seeking participant (not counting the numerous accompanying children, who c...

I haven't written much on here for a while.  This isn't exactly unusual. Any cursory glance back through my blog will very much show...

My creative energy ebbs and flows, but even when I am not brimming over with ideas, and have to remind myself to pick up a pencil or paintbr...

The title for this post is borrowed from a beautiful  Martyn Joseph song . which feels like it sums up much of what my life feels like at th...

The end of the academic year is fast approaching.  Over the last year Stories of Hope and Home have done 35 school visits to 28 different sc...

I turned 42 last weekend and obviously, in a joke entirely lost on anyone unfamiliar with the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, that meant I ...

I spent last week at the seaside. Before setting off, as I tried to tick jobs off a list and avoid anything crucial getting missed, I did qu...

Birmingham Pride took place last weekend.  I have friends for whom Pride events are incredibly important. I recognise they are an important ...

It is no secret to anyone that I love my work. My Birch Network job mostly centres around supporting families living in hotel accommodation...

Several weeks ago, from an already uneasy peace, violence erupted in Sudan's capital Khartoum. Against a backdrop of negotiations and su...

Yesterday was a beautiful spring day: the sun was shining, the sky was blue and it was even actually warm. Sandwiched between dull, damp day...

In case anyone was in any doubt, hotels are not suitable long-term accommodation for anybody, least of all for families. Being cramped toget...

I've never been much good at keeping a diary. It still sometimes amazes me that I have managed to keep my blog going so consistently for...

For nine years, during my time at Carrs Lane and slightly beyond it, I was committed to a routine of public prayer; in person and later onli...

I have always aspired for this blog to be a relatively honest reflection of life: not the sugar-coated version of reality that social media ...

During our residential last week we had a lot of fun, but we also shared and heard about difficult subjects and were reminded that the polit...

Not content with the dreadful anti-refugee laws they introduced last year, the government are at it again with their even more hideously awf...