Monthly Update - July 2025
Our granddaughters were here for a week. It was half term and their mum and dad had gone off seeking sun and surf. The phone went. “It’s James.” He walks with a very large but timid Greyhound. “There’s a very poorly, abandoned lamb stuck behind a fence and it can hardly stand up.” Time to ring Steve, the farmer, as I have not been farming at Rushall Farm for over ten years. However, my attempts to get hold of Steve failed.
Granddaughter and I go up to the field with the simple objective of uniting the lamb with its mum. So I did my best, amidst a mixture of “barren” ewes who seemed to be doing the opposite, and a number of young sheep who had fallen foul of an errant ram lamb. All was to no avail, so we had no alternative but to bring this tiny, premature lamb home, with the warning that it was unlikely to last the night.
The lamb had other ideas and, safe in the hands of granddaughter, immediately started sucking from a bottle. He has not looked back. Six weeks later he is still living in the kitchen, has grown a lot, started gambolling and playing with our dog. Interestingly he has chosen parts of the house and garden which he enjoys at different times in the day; under the desk after the first morning feed, round the front of the house to graze the excuse for a flower bed, in the shade if it’s hot, but quite keen on sun bathing. The bonus for us is that he has become a celebrity “Come and see the chickens AND the lamb”, who now has been named Woolliam.
I wish it could be as simple to rescue many children coming through our schools today. We have been working extensively with a school where, despite a nurturing environment, the transition for children to secondary school has not been good. This year 80 of the children from year 5 & 6 have come on a 5 week Growing for Good course and both year groups have been here on enrichment days. We encourage leadership, self-confidence and mutual respect and the weeks here have shown remarkable improvement in these qualities, and school attendance has improved. The proof of the pudding will be how these children get on when they start new schools in September. We know that God cares far more than we do for each individual child so we pray that they would go on to live fulfilled and generous lives in the future.