Do you remember the film ‘Chariots of Fire’? It won the coveted Oscar for Best Picture category in 1981. The film portrayed some of the life story of Eric Liddell, a Scotsman and exceptional athlete who was born in China to missionary parents before they moved back to the UK. You can still often hear Vangelis’s marvellous theme tune to the film played on the radio.

If you were asked to name any high mountain on the face of the earth, I wonder what name would spring to mind? Without a doubt for many the answer would be ‘Everest.’

One of our favourite places to take visitors in this watery part of the world is the Maritime Museum in Liverpool. If you’ve been there, you’ll know that outside there’s a huge anchor. It came from the naval training ship HMS Conway, which sank in the Menai Straits in 1953 while being towed back to Birkenhead for a refit.

If there’s one thing I’ve learned since moving to the Wirral a few years ago, it’s that whatever direction you want to ride your bike, you’ll always be battling a headwind.

One bright morning last week there was a ‘happening’ in our back garden when lots of little fledgling sparrows suddenly appeared as if from nowhere. They were fluffy, scruffy, hopping about and squawking for food that busy parents were popping into their wide-open beaks. It made me think. Do you know how precious you are to God?

'But I am poor and needy; yet the Lord thinks upon me.' Psalm 40:17. In times when the outlook is bleak and everything else fails, this is an amazing statement to ponder. The writer looks at himself and sees his poverty and need, and it seems wherever he looks, there’s no-one around to help. People have forgotten all about him.