I’m welling up as I write this...
A famous person once said
“The greatest love of all is a love that sacrifices all.
And this great love is demonstrated when a person sacrifices his life for his friends.”
There are just some people you come across in life who are truly beautiful throughout - the ones who encourage your soul just by the look in their eyes. Jean Hoggard is certainly one of these, the way she’s lived her life is a picture of love and sacrifice for others.
You don’t have to look far to find brokenness in this world - it’s all around us. What’s heartbreaking is that the damage is too often passed down through generations, which is what happened in Jean’s own life. Her father’s aggression on the family farm possibly originated in her grandparents (or beyond) and was in turn passed on to her.
In her thirties she had a life transforming moment, which completely pivoted her life. She found peace and hope, forgiveness and love. She’s now so grateful for the pain she went through because it gave her the ability to work alongside many other broken lives and help them towards restoration through counselling. In some ways the transformation of the old pub called ‘Noah’s Ark’ was a mirror image of what happened in her own life, and continues to do so in others through the space there.
The Queen recognised her work and she was awarded an O.B.E. Grateful as she was, the joy for her has always been in seeing lives transformed. Her closing thoughts in this short film are so simple, yet so profound. We are all gifted to bring love into the world around us.