Category: Blog Post

  • Report on Face to Face Event – Saturday 18 April

    We enjoyed another stimulating, encouraging and happy morning. Several core team members and other regulars were unable to attend but we still had the largest gathering to date! We praise God for helping us resolve the issue of a key to get into the chapel! We were also so grateful to a new friend (Esther) who prepared the refreshments for us. Laurence Wood read Psalm 139 before he led us in sung worship.

    Below (and with his permission) is the short reflection on Psalm 92 given by Rev Dr Muthuraj Swamy, Director of the Cambridge Centre for Christianity Worldwide which started the proceedings. The two psalms were a perfect complement:

    This Psalm  (92) offers a beautiful picture of a life that continues to bear fruit, including in the later years of one’s life. Verses 14–15 offer a deeply reassuring promise: “They will still bear fruit in old age, they will stay fresh and green, proclaiming, ‘The Lord is upright; he is my Rock, and there is no wickedness in him.’” This is a powerful reminder that aging is not a diminishing of purpose, but a deepening of it.

    1. Your life still bears fruit

    Fruitfulness doesn’t fade with age; it only changes shape. In younger years, fruit may have looked like activity, building, striving. But as we grow, it often appears as wisdom, patience, encouragement, faithfulness, and love. Your presence, your stories, your prayers, and your quiet strength all nourish others. Even when it feels unseen, your life continues to make a difference.

    2. “Fresh and green” on the inside

    Verse 14 speaks of staying “fresh and green.” It is a striking image. While the body may slow, the spirit can remain vibrant. This freshness comes from staying rooted in God, just as verses 12–13 describe: “The righteous will flourish like a palm tree… planted in the house of the Lord.” Being “planted” suggests stability, belonging, and continual nourishment. This is a reminder that you are not forgotten or uprooted, but you are deeply planted, still growing in ways that matter most.

    3. A life that quietly proclaims truth

    Verse 15 reminds us that a faithful life itself becomes a testimony: “The Lord is upright… my Rock.” As we get older, we may not always feel like we are “doing” much, but our enduring faith speaks volumes. Our trust through hardships, perseverance through change, our continued hope — all these proclaim God’s goodness more clearly than words alone.

    4. A lifetime of seeing God’s works

    Verses 3–5 speak of praising God daily and reflecting on His works: “How great are your works, Lord, how profound your thoughts!” With age comes a unique gift: perspective. You have seen seasons come and go. You have witnessed answers to prayer, unexpected turns, and sustaining grace. This long view allows for a deeper kind of praise. One rooted in both lived experience and hope.

    Conclusion: You are like a well-rooted tree, still growing, still fruitful, still alive with purpose. Your life continues to tell a story of faithfulness, not just in what you do, but in who you are becoming. And perhaps most beautifully of all: you are still becoming a living witness that God is good, steady, and true — right to the very end.

    *************************************************************

    The speakers this time were Prof Cecilia Brassett (CCCT Chair) who spoke from her heart about her involvement in Campassion and her vision for a Christian Care Home. She expressed her confidence (and referencing her own experience) that the Lord will bring about the care home, in His perfect time.

    John Preece, a retired air pilot (including with MAF) spoke about the Book Club which he and others lead at Heathlands in Cherry Hinton. He said how important it was to make the meetings fun, personal and to be willing to accept that not everyone can engage.  Singing and poetry are also beginning to feature. 

    Thirdly Richard Todd, retired Head Gardener at Anglesey Abbey (National Trust) and recently published author of “Walking with God in the Garden” explained how he is using the film recordings he has made of beautiful gardens to share the joy of creation with care home residents. He shared some of the amusing and encouraging experiences which he and his wife, Chris, have had.

    There was a lively time of Q&A followed by a time of prayer before the final rousing hymn “Be Thou My Vision”.

    The aim of these face-to-face events is to see each other (we normally meet on Zoom) and to pray for the work.  We all find them hugely encouraging and thoroughly enjoy meeting new friends and supporters every time.  Look out for the next date in the Autum!

    Rachel Simonson, Project Worker

  • Remembering Daniel Cozens

    David, one of our Trustees, recently had the privilege of attending the Thanksgiving Service in Huntingdon of this amazing evangelist.  He spoke to someone at the service who had a family member in the same care home as Daniel and testified to his incredible compassion and zeal for the Lord right to the end, winning hearts for Jesus at the very end of people’s lives.  This is the vision for our care home!

    An orbituary from the Church Times follows (reproduced here with permission):

    Obituary: The Revd Daniel Cozens

    16 January 2026

    ‘Daniel was also a gifted artist, painting in oils: often landscapes and still life. He was a countryman, taking delight in the beauty of nature’

    Paul Preston writes:

    THE Revd Daniel Cozens, the founder of Through Faith Missions, died suddenly on 6 December.

    He grew up in Dorset and was the youngest and shortest of three tall brothers, of whom Bill predeceased him and Ronald has succeeded him. He always spoke of a very happy and adventurous childhood.

    Daniel was ordained in 1971 and served in Orpington and Deptford, before accepting the post of Evangelist in Ely diocese, which was offered by the Rees family, after the death of the Revd Dick Rees.

    In 1989, Daniel founded Through Faith Missions (TFM), and the Revd Peter Adams was appointed as Minister of Missions to work with him in parish missions around the country.

    The Walk of 1000 Men was a vision given to Daniel for lay Christian men to “go beyond the camp”, in the simplicity of Matthew 10. The first walk took place in 1991, along the Pennine Way. Teams of men talked about their faith, in pubs, schools, and workplaces.

    The need for women to be involved in the ministry was recognised later, and other walk-style missions followed. Parish missions in many varied nationwide locations remained a core of TFM’s work, and many thousands of people have become involved and inspired in sharing their faith.

    Daniel leaves an active legacy in that TFM continues to be in demand today, as teams of women and men work with churches in their outreach to the community.

    In 1994, he was licensed as a Six Preacher of Canterbury Cathedral.

    Daniel was also a gifted artist, painting in oils: often landscapes and still life. He was a countryman, taking delight in the beauty of nature, colours and design, trees, flowers, birds, and animals. Many remember his talks “A Night of Colour”, in which he would show his canvases and weave in the sharing of his Christian faith.

    Daniel was larger than life and a colourful man in every sense. His audience would often find their sides aching from laughter with his many anecdotes. Those who met him soon knew that, besides his Lord, Daniel’s greatest love was for his family. He married Gillie in 1969, and they had four children: Kate, Beth, Ben, and Mary.

    He was diagnosed with dementia in 2018 and spent his last three years in a nursing home in Cambridgeshire, where he received considerate and loving care. Even through the cruel cloud of his illness, he regularly, without prompting, declared that “I have had the most beautiful, full life that I would give to anyone.” Daniel’s faith and love for his family were undiminished, and the tenderness of the love of the Cozens family for one another has left an impression on all who visited him there.

    Daniel’s ministry was profoundly life-changing, and that continued up until the day he died; even in the care home, his intercession with staff and residents and his visitors was astonishing and filled with the Holy Spirit.

    For most who knew him, the lasting memory will be of his preaching. Lazarus and Dives was a favourite passage. All who listened would suddenly feel a sense of God’s love and increasing certainty of heaven and God’s ultimate justice, reward, and judgement. Daniel’s palm would be resting on his open Bible, his earnest expression engaging all in the room, as he gently helped us to place our hands into the hands of Jesus and look to him, through his love and grace to prepare a place for us.

    The Revd Daniel Harry Cozens died on 6 December, aged 81. He leaves behind his wife and children, and his grandchildren: Noah, Gus, Ellen, Jonah, Archie, Arabella, Henrietta, and Gabriel.

  • Seeing with the eyes of Christ

    Seeing with the eyes of Christ

    Dr Anna Gannon is a trustee of Campassion Care Trust and an Oblate of Glenstal Abbey and Fellow Emerita of St Edmund’s College at the University of Cambridge.

    Please note: The following post first appeared on the Glenstal Abbey website and is reproduced here with permission.

    The late Pope’s extended stays in hospital produced some inspiring reflections on the amazing things that take place in hospitals. Saint Benedict’s instruction to ‘Listen carefully and attend with the ear of your heart’ prompted me to reflect upon my own hospital experiences, as after retiring I decided to join the chaplaincy department of our local hospital.

    My training to be a lay chaplain began in the autumn of 2019, and I soon started a role which involved bringing Holy Communion to a ‘captive audience’ of appreciative Catholic patients, something which proved to be an easy yet very rewarding task.

    Not long after beginning my rounds, however, the COVID-19 pandemic put a stop to all visits to the hospital. Nevertheless, I was one of the first volunteers to report back for duty in August 2021, though a major change had been introduced: we were each allocated to a ward, and only one, in order to contain the outbreak of any possible infections.

    I was assigned to the ward for Acute Medicine, but panic soon set in… how would I manage to connect and engage with people unknown, who were in pain, worried, facing stark choices, who perhaps had no religion or could even be quite hostile? I took a deep breath and ‘sought the eyes of Christ’, a sentence I had heard often enough at Glenstal Abbey. I have not looked back.

    My volunteering now takes place each Wednesday morning, and I wear a purple lanyard which reads CHAPLAINCY with a Saint Benedict’s Medal and pin with the Dove of the Holy Spirit attached. By now I am well-known to the staff on the ward, who count on me to help with difficult patients, and who sometimes need a good word and a hug themselves. My visits are a ‘light touch’ –  I simply try to be a witness to the love of Christ through my discreet presence and service. Although in reality not many people are religious, they do all appreciate being ‘seen’, and are receptive to a smile and a chat. Many patients don’t have visitors and are glad to tell me about themselves (or, more often than not, their dog…), while others truly welcome the chance to pray together, something I treasure, particularly with Muslim patients.

    There are people living with dementia who need patience and help. On occasion I have been told painful family secrets, a way to make peace with a troubled past.  Other times it has been sharing the pain with someone losing a limb to diabetes. Most people are frightened of what the diagnosis will mean for their future. Sometimes I have accompanied patients over many weeks, and seen them deteriorate and die: interacting with their grieving families adds another dimension. As the late Pope Francis is reported to have said: “a hospital is a place where human beings remove their masks and show themselves as they truly are, in their purest essence.”

    At the end of each shift, we write-up notes on each of the patients we have seen before chaplains and volunteers gather together in the hospital chapel. There is a brief service in which we pray for our patients, nurses and doctors – and for each other. Some days are so tiring and emotionally overwhelming, but I remember Who is helping me to carry the yoke of caring, the importance of mission and of bearing witness to our Faith as Christ’s apostles. All this work is a huge privilege and a blessing, and I’m so grateful to have this opportunity for service and witness at the hospital.

    Anna Gannon