My Olympic Swimming Gold

I guess all three of us in the hydrotherapy pool this afternoon got the gold. We had to race each other across the pool a few times, and all ended up with 4 points each. (Glows with pride.)

Martin was so lovely and kind about my talk - and Lara was a great householder. Anyway, I am now signed off in the "Illustrations From Familiar Situations" slot.  And possibly the next time I appear in the School it will be as a householder.

So, my day today was spent doing a couple of loads of washing, and studying in the morning, and exercise in the afternoon. And I cooked the Captain a full English breakfast for his tea. He came back from Arundel laden down with bacon and sausages. They have a great butcher and deli at the bottom of the hill.

Will I get back out on the field service tomorrow?  Its so urgent.  This present system of things on the earth is rapidly coming to an end. I think more and more people are aware of it too.

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My Talk in the Second School

This is the talk I will be giving in the second school tonight.

TALK – week beginning 21 January 2013

If someone says: “Pray with me first, then give me your message”.

Setting No.2. Overcoming a potential conversation stopper

And I am working on the use of illustrations - so I hope you note my two illustrations.

Sue.  Thanks for asking me in.  I’m Sue.

Lara.  I’m Lara. I see its not easy for you to stand for too long. Besides, if I am going to hear your message, we need to pray together first, and I don’t think we can pray on the doorstep. When I mentioned the Witnesses were calling on me, I was told by my minister that you refused to pray with him when you came to his door to talk to him.  I wanted to find out why.

Sue.  Thanks for much for giving us the chance to explain. Because it must seem odd, wouldn’t praying be the first thing we would do, before we started to talk about the Bible?

Lara.  Yes, that is what I think.  So why don’t you?

Sue.  The answer lies in these words of Jesus, here at Matthew 10:12,13.  Would you like to read them?

Lara.  (Reads Matthew 10:12-13) "When you are entering into the house, greet the household;  and if the house is deserving, let the peace you wish it come upon it; but if it is not deserving, let the peace from you return upon you."

Sue.  The context here is that Jesus is teaching his disciples how to do the Christian preaching work. And do you notice that he says they are to greet the householder as they call at the door?  But he doesn’t say that they are to pray together.

Lara.  Not there, no. But Jesus did teach us to pray.

Sue. Yes, he did. And prayer is of vital importance. But so is paying close attention to what Jehovah, our Creator, has had recorded in his inspired word. And in fact the Bible uses a very simple illustration to show us how important that is.  Its here at 1 Peter 2:21. I will read it for you.  "In fact, to this course you were called, because even Christ suffered for you, leaving you a model for you to follow his steps closely."

Do you see how it says we are to follow Jesus’ steps closely?  Imagine, for example, if you were following a guide through a minefield, you would not go wandering off would you?  You would put your feet exactly where he put his feet.  Or to bring it much closer to home, think of the way you want your children to follow your instructions closely. When you tell them never to go near the railway lines for instance, do you want them reasoning that its OK when they are with a gang of more streetwise children who say they know all the timetables and when the trains are due?

Lara.  Of course not, children don’t necessarily see what the danger is, or who is a safe guide and who is not.

Sue.  .  Yes, but parents do.  And they love their children and want to keep them safe. And that is what our Creator, Jehovah, wants for us.  He wants to keep us safe. He knows that we live in a world full of spiritual dangers – a spiritual minefield, if you like - and he wants to guide us safely through it.  And he has given us a reliable guide in his Messiah.  So we try to follow in Jesus footsteps exactly, not taking anything away from what he taught, but also not adding anything. And, had Jesus wanted his disciples to pray with those they called on, wouldn’t he have said so clearly?

Lara.  I suppose so. And yet it was Jesus who left us the Lord’s Prayer.

Sue. He did Lara. And that is so important, because one of the first things Jesus taught us to pray for was the coming of God’s Kingdom. And we do pray for its coming. And if you read Matthew chapter 10, you will find how Jesus instructed his disciples to tell people that the Kingdom of the heavens has drawn near.  In harmony with that, I am here at your door now to tell you all about it.  This is a beautiful summary of what that Kingdom will do. Reads Revelation 21:4: "And he will wipe out every tear from their eyes, and death will be no more, neither will mourning nor outcry nor pain be anymore. The former things have passed away.”  God's kingdom, which is a heavenly government, will wipe out every tear from our eyes.  All causes for suffering will be gone. What human government could achieve such a thing?  Yet God’s Kingdom can.  If you can spare me a bit more time, I would like to show you chapter 8 in the book “What Does the Bible Really Teach?”  - “What is God’s Kingdom?”.  It will explain more about the Kingdom whose coming Jesus asked us to pray for when he taught us the Lord's Prayer.

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Clouds like mountains

The snow sky has lifted this morning, we have some sunlight coming through, and the line of clouds like mountains that often lie along the far side of The Channel are back.  I have just been re-reading Lauren Elder's "And I Alone Survived".  She was in a small plane with two others - the pilot and another passenger - which crashed in the Sierra Nevada, right at the top of one of the highest peaks.  When the plane was finally found, rescuers had to climb up to it, the spot was so inaccessible.

Behind them was a winter wilderness of rocky mountains, and in front of them was a sheer drop of thousands of feet to the desert floor.

All three survived the crash, but only Lauren Elder survived to tell the tale.  It is an extraordinary story and I believe it was filmed. But I don't think the film will have come anywhere near the immediacy of the book.

Lara is coming round this afternoon so we can go through my talk which I have to give in the Ministry School on Thursday. We will be in the second school, but if there is more snow and not everyone can get, we might find ourselves on the platform.

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A winter dance

What have I been doing?  Can't go out, combination of arthritis and snow.... My hydrotherapy was cancelled.  I did get to the meeting Sunday morning, thanks to the gallant Captain B who drove me as near to the door as we can get, and came in, picked me up and walked me back to the car.   There were a lot of empty seats as the talk began, but people began to arrive and we were pretty full by the end.

This morning the sky and the Channel are equally grey - the sky looking full of snow - and there is snow still lying. We have to shop this morning and pick up my medications.

I think another poem is called for.   But do I have a snow one I haven't blogged before? There is this little verse about a cold New Year many years ago. We were staying with my  parents at the bungalow.

Those were the days when getting up from my chair was just that - getting up from my chair - not the marathon Everest climb by the North Face without oxygen and Sherpa support that it feels like now.

Whatever the weather - obviously apart from rain - my mother hung the washing out.

 A January Washday in Sheffield

                by me

Black trees rattle in the icy wind

Through gale-smashed panes the greenhouse sings

Tights, shirts, tea-towels, bras and knicks

Dance to welcome eighty-six!

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A symphony in grey and white

The balcony is white with snow, the Green is white, and snow is clinging to the balcony rails.   Beyond it the Channel is steely grey with white horses - and there is a lighter grey snow sky above it. It has been snowing heavily since about 7.30, but seems to be stopping.  And it does seem to be thawing rather than freezing.

There are a few small touches of red - some valiant balcony geraniums still flowering through the snow, and my little geranium car keeping warm under its snow hoodie.

I rang up this morning to see if my hydrotherapy session was still on.  It was. But they rang later, just as we were having an early lunch, to cancel. They must have decided it would be safer to leave early today. The snow is clearly much worse inland.

We hope to be able to drive the huskies over to Jackie tomorrow for supper. And all I really have to do today is to make us a roast chicken dinner for tonight and start my studying for Sunday.

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The Geranium in the snow

It did snow - Captain B has a picture of my new car to prove it.  Its a bit frosty this morning, and the Captain is off to clear rides for butterflies. After my 45 minute walking yesterday, I can barely stand.

And I used to be a great walker.

We are enjoying Winter Watch from Scotland, and also the Polar Bear programme. Though it is harrowing. They have collared Lila, a mother bear with two cubs, and are following her.  She is clearly an experienced and good mother, but times are hard. One cub has already been lost - we don't know how. And from the glimpse of her we get next week, she and her remaining child are not doing well. She has got so thin.

I don't understand why they can't help her out with a few feeds.  To film a living being starving and not helping (if you can) seems wrong wrong wrong.  However, maybe she and baby are going to be OK.  She is clearly a bright and loving mother.   And gentle too.  At one point, the presenter gets between her and her food (a yummy dead walrus), and she and baby simply wait patiently till he leaves. (Don't try this at home!)

Now I may get a lot of letters from seals pointing out that Lila is not gentle at all as far as they are concerned.  To which I would have to say fair enough - and cite some similar letters about them from fish.  But the fact is that none of this should have happened. The first chapters of Genesis tell us, clearly and simply, that nature was not created "red in tooth and claw".


"And God went on to say: “Here I have given to you all vegetation bearing seed which is on the surface of the whole earth and every tree on which there is the fruit of a tree bearing seed. To you let it serve as food. And to every wild beast of the earth and to every flying creature of the heavens and to everything moving upon the earth in which there is life as a soul I have given all green vegetation for food.” And it came to be so."

This was not a world full of hunters and predation. This was Paradise - it was Eden.  And we are promised a restoration of that Paradise, world-wide.  The lion will lie down with the lamb.

Dougal the ExExpat send us some photos of his daughter today.  And I find myself saying the same things our uncles and aunts used to say to us. "Hasn't she grown!"   I wondered at the time why they were so surprised. Surely it would have been stranger if we hadn't?


However, I hadn't realised how time can change - how long a year is when you are a child - and how short it is when you are retired.

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Out on the field service

Got out this morning, which is sunny but cold, and did 45 minutes work with Audrey. Not much, but as much as I could cope with.  A calm Channel today.

Mark O' the Waxwings came round yesterday for coffee, bringing a fresh supply of butterfly paperwork, so the membership packages are done, if not quite dusted. We have to take them to the Post Office this afternoon.

We got our 4 inches of snow yesterday.  It fell very quickly. I was up at about 6 and looked out the window. No snow.  Got up again at about 8, and it was a white world with snow still falling.  It looked lovely, and it disappeared very quickly.

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