Three Mermaids seen in English Channel

Brrr... we - Nute, Pen and me - just went for a swim in The Channel.  There was no-one else even paddling. It was bracing, as us hardy Brits say.

We are having a writing day today - to the new Kingdom Hall tomorrow for the public talk - and Jackie is coming round for Thai food tomorrow night.

Captain Butterfly escaped from the girly stuff by leaving on a course while it was still dark. And he won't be back till late.

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Back to the Field

I made it to the Field Service group at the Kingdom Hall this morning - for the first time in 3 months!  By the time I had picked up Audrey, dropped her off, gone off to find somewhere to park (no parking at the new Hall), tottered back to the Hall, I was late. But I got there.

Audrey and I got our territory, then Mick assigned Maggie and Beryl (who don't have cars) to come with us, so it took us a while to work out where to drop everybody off and where to meet up again.  We did 45 minutes, which is as much as my knees will stand, then took Audrey back and went back and waited for the other to finish so I could take them back home.

Once again, I am amazed to be doing the most important work of my life in retirement...

Such a beautiful day. After I had dropped off Beryl, I drove back along the sea road. The tide was well in, with a sort of swell on, and the light was so lovely. The sea was a like a turquoise jewel, only alive.

Youtube keeps asking me if my anti-wrinkle cream works?!

What a cheek.

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An unseasonal Spring Lamb

I got some medical advice from Tony of the doors today. He told me that the cod liver oil capsules I take will be much more effective if taken on an empty stomach.  He reckoned it really helped him, so I promised to give it a try.   "Maybe I will be leaping up your path like a spring lamb when I deliver the magazines next month" I chirped.  He paled, and made a cross sign with his fingers, to ward me off.

I suppose it is rather a scary thought.

Anyway, obviously, I got out on the doors this morning.  And had a good time.  We are delivering the invitations for the Open Day at our new Hall.  And I hope to be out delivering them with Audrey tomorrow.

We had a lovely supper at Jacks on Saturday night.  Chicken Kiev - and cheesecake.  

Captain B is on a course all day today - left early will be back late. I have a salmon salad ready to go when he arrives, plus I have started on the  two giant bags of apples he picked and have made an apple crumble. I had better go off now and make the custard.

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Climbing Everest

My talk was delivered on Thursday night. And Martin, the elder in charge of the School, was very nice about it.  I should have known not to be worried about the climb to the platform, especially in a brand new Kingdom Hall.  The two little steps are right by the book counter, so I could hold on to it while going up and down.  No need for a team of sturdy Sherpas after all.  Am paying for those 4 little stairs now though!

Captain Chauffeur took us shopping on Friday, and we picked up my meds and got some library books. I lay on the bed most of the afternoon, resting my knees, which are screaming at me not to walk on them, so it helps to have some new books.

Rather cloudy on Friday  - the Channel was rippling away blue grey outside the window with banks of splendid Sussex clouds above.  Its been a lovely Autumn day today.

Today I did shamefully little - frozen shoulder plus knee - but finished my Watchtower study, chatted to Audrey and Jean on the phone, and we are now off to Jackie's for a lovely Jackie supper.  I am taking her over an invite to the Open Day at the new Kingdom Hall, plus one for her daughter, who wants to see how it has turned out.

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A bit of a nothing day

Yesterday was a bit of a nothing day - an afternoon of butterfly paperwork - and Captain B was stuck in a traffic jam for ages.

I felt a bit depressed, which I rarely do these days. Though Bea has cheered me up by offering to go through my talk with me on the phone. We will use the blog version.

I talked to Audrey and to Richard.  It rained a little bit in the afternoon.  I am still resting a lot - not much option, though the knees are slightly better.   I was reading a new (to me) biography of Jean Rhys.  "The Blue Hour" by Lillian Pizzichini.

When I was a child, Jean was living in Cornwall.  She would have been about the age I am now, so we were  in Cornwall together, but at the opposite ends of our life.  It was a place of magical holidays for us, as for some years my granny had a house at Praa Sands - now one of the foremost surfing beaches - then wild and empty.

How differently we saw it all.  Jean Rhys at the end of her life, me at the beginning of mine.  This is a little poem I wrote about it years ago, probably after I read the Carol Angier biography.

I CAN’T BELIEVE JEAN

by me 

I can’t believe Jean

That you and I

Were in Cornwall together

You write of freezing March weather

I remember only sun.

Of course we were never there in March.   But Cornwall set the standard for the seaside for me - rocky cliffs with sea pinks growing on every ledge, wild seas, empty sandy beaches, with rock pools full of anemones.   It was a place full of wonder and fascination and danger.    

We live now in a flat, neat, municipal seaside, but it is still an amazing thing to have the sea coming and going and surging and roaring just outside the window, and to see the enormous Sussex skies, deep blue with high fluffy white cloud in summer, and to see "the red wing" of the sun rising above the Channel in the winter mornings.  I was on the balcony studying after lunch. The sky was a perfect blue with one enormous dramatic swathe of white cloud - it was all racked up towards one end, and fat and fluffy at the other (like the best sort of cat). And the Channel underneath was a deeper more sombre blue - but it was covered in sun sparkles, so much so that it was almost white in parts.

The creation tells us so clearly about its Creator, Jehovah of armies.  I hope to be speaking about the importance of sanctifying, or hallowing, His name, at the meeting tonight, as I talk about the importance of making it known.

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Further back in time

Last week we revisited our expat past, via a reunion with Dorothy and Sue.  This week we will be going further back in time - to my Catholic Convent Schooldays in fact.  (Yes, quite a long way back...)   Kathryn and Jen are touring the South Coast and are coming for lunch tomorrow.

Yesterday was the meeting in the morning. Richard was there!  His second meeting.  I must ring him today and have a chat and see what he thinks of it all.  And in the afternoon I did the Butterfly paperwork, which is waiting to go to the Post Office today. We of the Sussex Butterflyers are still ahead on our memberships - more joining us than leaving - which isn't bad in a recession.

And I rested a lot and finished my library books.  Dorothy, who is a Physio, has warned me, if and when my knees (and the rest) come back on line, not to go rushing about, but to keep on having lots of rest.   At the moment, the idea of rushing about seems as likely as climbing Everest without my sofa, but who knows.

I would love to get back to walking.  I have always been a great walker, but not once this summer have I even been able to take the little walk down to the pier.  I love to sit and watch the tide come and go.

But i am hanging on to Jehovah's promise that, when his Kingdom is ruling over the earth, "no resident will say 'I am sick'".   And we have the record of how Jesus, as the King of the Kingdom, was able to heal people when he was on the earth.  We know that Jehovah will empower him to do a permanent healing when the time comes.

I still haven't managed to find my householder for Thursday and practise my talk.  But i have sent over a copy of the script (see yesterday's blog) with her sister-in-law, so I am hoping she will ring me if she feels she needs to go through it beforehand.

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My Talk

I have to take my talk to the meeting tomorrow to practise with the sister who is my householder.  So here it is.  I actually have to give it, on the platform of the new Hall, on Thursday night.  As you will see, I have not yet been able to give up the security of a printed script for a minimal outline.  But sooner or later, I will have to.

WHY IS THE NAME JEHOVAH USED IN THE NEW WORLD TRANSLATION OF THE CHRISTIAN GREEK SCRIPTURES?

Rs. p278 par1-3

Study 44:Effective Use of Questions

Setting: No.24, Witnessing to a member of the local Protestant Church

Sue:  Thanks for asking me in. I said last week that I would bring you a brochure that might help to answer your questions.  Its this: “The Divine Name That will Endure Forever”.

HH:  That’s kind of you, but as you know I attend the local church and I spoke to our vicar about my conversation with you, when we talked about God’s name, and he said that you are very wrong to have added God’s name to your Bible.   He said that the name is only in the Old Testament, and anyway, traditionally the Jews do not say or use the name, so Jesus would not have used it.

Sue: Oh. He is right in saying that the Jews do have a tradition of not using the name of God, but if you can spare me five minutes I would like to show you, from the Christian Greek Scriptures, the New Testament, why it is that we believe God’s name should be there.  For example, would you think about these words of Jesus, which he addresses to his Father, Jehovah: (reads John 17:26): "And I have made your name known to them and will make it known, in order that the love with which you loved me may be in them and I in union with them."  So when faced with a tradition that says we must not make God’s name known, and those words of Jesus saying that he has and will make it known, what ought we to do?

HH:   If we want to follow in Jesus footsteps, it would seem we should make God’s name known too.

Sue.  Yes, that is how we see it.  We wish to make Jehovah’s name known just as Jesus did.  And don’t forget what Jesus said when he left us the Lord’s Prayer. You will know these words well, but let’s read them now.  Would you read them?

HH: (Reads Matthew 6:9): “You must pray, then, this way: “‘Our Father in the heavens, let your name be sanctified."  

Sue: What was the first thing, the most important thing that Jesus asked us to pray for?

HH: It was the sanctification of God’s name.

Sue. Yes, so Jesus must have used and made known the name Jehovah don’t you think?

HH:  It would seem so, from what he said

Sue.  And also remember that Matthew’s Gospel was written first in Hebrew, and he makes numerous quotations of passages from the Hebrew Scriptures, or Old Testament, that contain God’s name. Do you think he would have removed that name?

HH:  No, perhaps not.

Sue.  We don’t believe he would.  So we haven’t removed it from our Bible translation either.  And other writers of the New Testament, or Christian Greek Scriptures, quoted from the Greek Septuagint, which was a translation of the Hebrew Scriptures into Greek, and fragments of those translations that remain show that they did contain the divine name.  And once again, as they were Christians, following Jesus teaching, do you think they would have hidden, or removed that name?

HH:  No, I don’t think they would.   When you tell me this, it does sound as if Jehovah’s name should be in the New Testament.  But, if it is so clear, why haven’t other Bible translators put God’s name in?  Why is it only you Jehovah’s Witnesses?

Sue. That is an excellent question, and one that I hope this brochure will help to answer.  As you read it, you will see what others, not Jehovah’s Witnesses, have said on the subject. And you will see that we are not the only ones who see that it is wrong to remove God’s name from the Inspired Scriptures.  For example, I wanted to show you this, as it is from a Protestant Publication – The Anglican Theological Review:   In it, a Dr. Walter Lowrie highlighted the need to know God’s name. He wrote: “In human relationships it is highly important to know the proper name, the personal name, of one we love, to whom we are speaking, or even about whom we speak. Precisely so it is in man’s relation to God. A man who does not know God by name does not really know him as a person, has no speaking acquaintance with him (which is what is meant by prayer), and he cannot love him, if he knows him only as an impersonal force.” 

HH:  Thanks, I will read it.

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