We’re grateful to share an update from Archdeacon Rachel, who continues to face her health journey with courage, faith, and grace. Please continue to hold Rachel and her medical team in your prayers as she works towards a full recovery.
Dear colleagues and friends,
It has now been three months since my operation. I’m delighted to say that I have now fully recovered from that demanding procedure and it has had a positive impact on the quality of my life, not least the simple fact that - within limits - I can enjoy actual food for the first time in years. Your prayers and support, alongside the skill and attention of medical staff, have been of incalculable value in bringing me to this point. Thank you! Most especially, thanks be to God from whom all blessings flow.
Sadly, however, I am unable to return to ministry just yet. While the initial operation was successful, I am currently back in hospital and am likely to remain so for some weeks. I have had challenges absorbing enough water and electrolytes to stay healthy and it looks like I will need long-term extra support to achieve this. Thankfully, the team at Salford Royal - who are world leading experts in this area - have figured out the problem, but I now need to be trained up to administer intravenous fluids at home. Once I’ve been signed off on this training I should be firing on all cylinders.
Please continue to pray for me and for the team here in Salford. As I have said previously, all is lost without prayer. I have also come to a deeper appreciation of the essential and fundamental importance of water for life’s flourishing. Of course, behind that biological truth is a deeper theological one: Jesus offers us Living Water. If we are dependent on water for life, then the Living Water flows like a spring, offering eternal life. Like that Samaritan woman who met Jesus at the well, I pray that we all ask Jesus to give us that water always.
Rachel