Be Courageous!

The 2018 Convention is entitled "Be Courageous!"  We live in difficult and dangerous times - and we need to trust in our Creator, Jehovah, with all our heart.

Our courage must come from him - if it is to hold.

We prayed for our Russian brothers and sisters who are going through so much at the moment.
/www.jw.org/en/news/jw/region/russia/five-jw-sisters-recall-police-raids/

There was a short video that someone had filmed of a Kingdom Hall in Russia being raided by what looked like soldiers, or a sort of para-military police force. The brothers and sisters were all keeping very calm. But how truly frightening - felt quite tearful by the end.  Christians in Russia have gone through so much. But I know that Jehovah will support them - and that they could not have a better Supporter.

And something else I took from yesterday was to pray for more faith, as well as for more courage.  The two are so strongly tied together.  So I must pray for the faith and courage of my Russian siblings to remain strong.


Neither Jean nor I can cope with going today, but we hope to be there tomorrow,for the Sunday session. Another early start...

I hope this hasn't been a failure of courage on my part.  Its different for Jean, she is older and frailer. But I very much want to be there tomorrow, and two days on the trot re likely to precipitate an arthritis flare-up that will knock me out for much of next week.

Captain B kindly chauffered me to the congregation bus and back so that I didn't have to worry about parking - or have to leave quite so early.

We have some exciting talks coming up tomorrow - plus a video drama about Jonah.   The Society's videos are so professional, and are all angled to helping us understand what the Bible really teaches, how to apply that teaching in our lives, and how to teach others.

And has it ever been more urgent that people hear the good news of the Kingdom of God?  How much time is left before Jehovah acts to "bring to ruin those ruining the earth"?   We are all in "the valley of decision" here.

And above all what is ahead is so wonderful. There will be more happiness for us, here, on the earth, than we can now imagine, under the loving rulership of the heavenly Kingdom.

A Bat in our Belfry?

The balcony Batbox?   Is it inhabited?   The moths still seem to come and go, unobstructed, but...

...who is this strange character who joins us in the evenings - very Goth in his black cloak - to complain about the cramped nature of his accommodation?  What is wrong with our spacious spare bedroom?  And where does he go during the daytime?

He is a Count apparently  - from somewhere in Eastern Europe - yet he seems to have no interest in debating the Brexit/Bremain situation with the Captain.  He arrived by ship - which ineptly managed to wreck itself on the shoals of pebbles on our shingly foreshore.  They all made it safely to the shore, wading through the ankle deep waves.

Or am I imagining the whole thing?  Are there bats in my belfry?

Yesterday was a busy day.   When I say "busy" - I mean busy in the nowadays sense, when getting up, getting showered and getting dressed can sometimes seem like climbing Everest.

It was a very hot day too - it was hotter than Portugal apparently - and its set to be even hotter today.  Far too much for me.

I had my blood test in the morning, for my hospital appointment next week.  Because of its timing I could not take Jean to the Field Service group. So I went shopping afterwards - Lidls and Sainsburys this time, parking in the Lidls carpark.  I also posted the Butterfly Memberships - I have never been so slow in getting them sent before - they arrived nearly a week ago - but at least they are now winging their way to our new members.

I even managed to find a couple of new tops to wear at the upcoming Brighton Convention.

Then I toiled up the stairs with my shopping - meeting an upstairs neighbout toiling her way down.  Her husband has had to miss (cancel) two hospital appointments because there is still no lift.   They will not be fixed till mid-July, at the earliest...

I forced myself to go out on a call - the teaching at the Sunday meeting really helped - and while doing so I placed all the rest of my Convention invites, bar one. So that is off my mind. I have a plan for the last one on Thursday.

Then back for a light lunch - the remains of last night's soup - and off to pick up Jean to take her on some calls.  We only managed 35 minutes, it was so hot, but she had two productive calls.  Neither of my calls was at home, but at least  I tried.

Afterwards it was a quiet evening in with a tired Captain B - he too had a long day out in the heat, looking for the Purple Emperor.  We had supper and watched the  footie. Team Somebody scored 2 goals and Team Somebody Else scored 1 goal.  I hope all were happy about it. I fell asleep.

I am planning a very quiet day today - tomorrow I will need to shop early to make sure everything is sorted foodwise for the weekend, and I have a call to do on Thursday afternoon. I am usually there for about an hour - it is in the flats next door. And their lifts are working!

A Swallowtail at the Bates Motel

Swallow-tailed Moth, Ourapteryx sambucaria

It was a great Moth evening last night, apparently. I must remember to go out and look -  but I went to bed early.  Here is a lovely Swallow-tailed moth.  Plus Summer Chafers.

Summer Chafer with Swallow-tailed Moth

Beauty and the Beast?   Although somehow that seems a bit cruel to the Chafer, which is also a miracle of art and engineering.  Both tell of their Grand Creator, Jehovah of armies.

Fortunately no bat has yet moved into our batbox.

I picked up both Jean and a young sister for the meeting yesterday.  A great talk about why there is wickedness and suffering; where it came from; and why Jehovah permits it, but only for a time.   For Him "a thousand years is as a day" - and so only a few days have gone by since we lost the paradise garden of Eden.

Some of us stopped for a cup of tea after the meeting - a new arrangement which I will hope to support

Still itching all over - but not as badly.  Spoke (on the phone) to my poor GP yesterday - he always sounds so tired, I feel I should be prescribing something for him - and as it is improving he says leave it for a few more days. Which suits me in that I already have one doctor's app this week and am hoping for no more.

How I long for God's Kingdom to be ruling over the earth. Then "no resident will say "I am sick"".

Until that happy time - not far off now - I am very very grateful for the NHS, and am feeling increasingly guilty about what I am costing it.

Beyond the Gates - a significant day in Saudi Arabia

A fb post from a friend from Planet Expat said that for the first time she and the other ladies have been able to drive themselves beyond the Compound gates.  For the first time, women are allowed to drive.  A very significant day in Saudi Arabia. 

In my Expat days, I drove, but was only allowed to within the Aramco compound - our little expat town.  It had wonderful wide American roads, with an efficient grid system, and a 1950s level of traffic.  And there were no parking problems.

25 years of that did not prepare me for driving in the outside world - not even in our sleepy little seaside town.

Are more freedoms in store for the women of Saudi Arabia?  I hope so. And I hope they will use them well.

Our Creator, the God of Abraham, gave every one of us a choice - to obey Him or not.   But if we seek and find our Creator, learn his law, and then do our imperfect best to follow it, we can be so happy even now - and with more happiness than we can probably imagine in the restored earthly Paradise that is so close.

I was driving yesterday, driving Miss Jean.  But the road we were supposed to be working on had no parking spaces and, as a team, we can't walk very far, so we did some calls instead.

I found Emma at home!   Very rare. And we had an interesting chat, Jean making some valuable contributions.

Jackie came for supper yesterday - bravely toiling up our stairs - lifts still out - awaiting a vital part that is being manufactured in Holland (?  we can't understand it either).    I had Cooksed it, with an old favourite, Thai Green Chicken curry, with rice, veggie spring rolls, and a veggie medley; followed by a Kelly's Eton Mess ice-cream, and a cheeseboard.

I am still in trouble with this allergy thing - itching all over and will probably have to see the doc this week... I already have one medical appointment for a blood test...   but I guess I am on borrowed time... under the threescore years and ten rule.  And I am feeling more and more guilty about what I am costing the poor battered old Health Service.

How short our lives are now. 

Jean - the Return! (And the Return to the GP.)

Phone call from Jean on Monday. She is back from Wales and raring to go. So it was back to our old routine and we had a good hour on the doors Tuesday delivering invitations to the upcoming Brighton Convention.  We had a long and friendly chat with a Protestant clergyman, who took both invite and current magazine:
https://www.jw.org/en/publications/magazines/watchtower-no2-2018-may-jun/predicting-the-future/

I particularly recommend the little article about the Arch of Titus in Rome.
https://www.jw.org/en/publications/magazines/watchtower-no2-2018-may-jun/arch-of-titus-accurate-prophecy/

This morning I was out with a group of my siblings delivering invites.  Apparently the take up rate is only about 1 per cent.  But to find that 1 per cent, we have to deliver a lot. And each invite is a little witness in itself.

And, sadly, I will have to ring up make to an appointment with my GP as I am itching from head to toe - some severe allergy?  some reaction to the complexity of meds I am on?  something else?  I do not know but its keeping me awake and anti-histamines are not working.

Moths at Bates Motel

Five-spot Burnet, Zygaena trifolii

I just found this poem by Walter de la Mare and thought I would ask Captain B if he has a moth photo that fits it.

The Moth
by Walter de la Mare

Isled in the midnight air,

Musked with the dark's faint bloom,
Out into glooming and secret haunts
The flame cries, 'Come!'

Lovely in dye and fan,
A-tremble in shimmering grace,
A moth from her winter swoon
Uplifts her face:

Stares from her glamorous eyes;
Wafts her on plumes like mist;
In ecstasy swirls and sways
To her strange tryst. 

https://www.poemhunter.com/walter-de-la-mare/poems/page-3/?a=a&l=3&y=

And I was wondering if I were to write a poem about a moth how it would go.   I could write about the moth hotel on our balcony with its many lovely lacy visitors at night.  But it may be about to become more of a Bates Motel for our little visitors, as Col has installed a Batbox!

Yesterday was a quiet home day - which I love, having always been a homebody - shopped in the morning, made a marinade for the chicken for tomorrow - and a tomato salsa/curry to go with it - made the soup for supper, did a bit of studying, and watched the telly.

Mrs Henry Wood

I am just re-reading Mrs Henry Wood's "George Canterbury's Will". and am rather wishing that when I made my own fictional debut, I had thought to call myself Mrs Colin Knight, or even Mrs Captain Butterfly.

It is a wonderful Victorian melodrama, and quite a classic in its way.  Her most famous book was "East Lynne", which is not my favourite.  "Mrs Halliburton's Troubles" is THE Wood classic for me.

But what a different world we live in.  Her characters are all believers in God, all struggling with some moral dilemmas that would be hard for the current generation even to understand.  And she would be seen as a Christian writer, with her characters being Christians - good ones or bad ones.  Yet she clearly does not know what the Bible really says.  Her characters have immortal souls that float off heavenwards - well, for the good ones anyway - when they die.

Yet the teaching of the immortal soul is not a Christian one - nor a Jewish one - though Genesis does tell us where that teaching came from.   Satan told Eve that she would not die if she disobeyed her Creator, but that instead she would become "like God".  So he told her that there was something immortal about her.

And Satan is called "the father of the lie".  He told the first lie ever told.
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Lovely meeting this morning. Back for lunch with Captain B (soup,veggie)   And then I made myself go out in the afternoon and take the Creation book I had promised to Mike. The meeting this morning had spurred me on.   Mike seemed pleased to see me, and very pleased with the book. His dilemma is that the theory of Evolution is pushed so strongly at us. 

We went to supper at Jackie's last night - chicken, rice and salad, followed by Tiramisu.  A fun evening, as it always is.

The Bea Orchid and a Green Warning

This orchid arrived Saturday night, carried here by Jackie, but arranged (via pigeon post) from Bea of the Northern Wilderness.  It is white - my favourite orchid colour.   When she rang our doorbell Jacks said she needed Captain B to come and escort her up the stairs.  Because, of course, she was carrying an orchid as well as the usual bottle of wine.  And our lightning-frazzled lift is still out of order.

It is looking splendid on our orchid table and I plan to ask Captain B for a photo to attach.

As Saturday was a busy day for both of us - Captain B chasing the Black Hairstreak herds across the Sussex plains and me out early to the Hall, then delivering invitations to the upcoming Convention, then lunch at the Hall followed by the Broadcast, then Hall cleaning, then home - I had kept things simple.  I had a Lasagne from Cooks in the freezer so all I had to do was to set the table and make the salad and dressing.

It was a great evening with Jacks as it always is.

We - Jehovah's Witnesses - are going door to door telling all who will listen that we are coming to the end of the current wicked system of things on the earth.   Two thousand years ago Jehovah promised that he would "bring to ruin those ruining the earth". - Revelation 11:18

Ruining the earth.  When those words were written down, two thousand years ago, would it have seemed possible that we could bring a whole planet to ruin, let alone the only one we have to live on?

Yet is it exaggerating to say that is happening now - that the earth is very close to ruin?

I noted this article:

Green warning – Springwatch presenter Chris Packham has warned that we are presiding over “an ecological apocalypse” and Britain is increasingly “a green and unpleasant land”. The naturalist has urging people to join a 10-day “bioblitz” next month which will aim to record what wildlife remains – from butterflies to bryophytes, linnets to lichens – in Britain’s highways and byways.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/jun/11/monday-briefing-trump-and-kim-ready-for-singapore-fling

Thrift

Our balcony Thrift is thriving - and the Thrift that Bea took 'oop North is be thriving too.  I was talking to her the other day and she seems to be as busy and as creative as ever.

Captain B is somewhere in the wild country around Ditchling (one Teashop per square inch) and I hope that even as I type he is unearthing a pot full of Viking gold, left by King Eric the AbsentMinded, who could never remember where he hid his hoards.  I was on the door to door work with my siblings yesterday - in Ford.  And all those epic drives to Angmering must have helped as I was only minimally worried about the drive to Ford - which went smoothly, though, as always I pray about it first.

I was out with my siblings on Tuesday morning, and after we finished I called in on Mike and found him at home - and very impressed with the information I had left him about Creation v Evolution. He wants to hear more. I am hoping that I can find a brother to go with me - maybe on Saturday. I will have to pray about this.

Saw Maggie on Wednesday.  She was looking smart - they have done her hair very nicely.

Today is a shopping, Butterfly paperwork, and studying day.

A Hot Day

Isn't there an expression "flaming June"?    It was hot enough yesterday for sure.  Captain Detectorist left very early - and I got myself to the Post Office and Waitrose shortly after 9 o' clock.  I need a particular parking space that guards my driver's door from being blocked in.  And I had some returned Butterfly paperwork to be re-addressed and re-posted.

Then - having lugged the shopping up the stairs - lifts still lightning-struck and me still very feeble - I made myself go out and do some calls.  Had quite a good morning - including Mr.T who gave me a warm welcome in his caustic way.   We had a long chat - and I also lent him a copy of "Waiting for Gordo". He is a great reader.

I had planned to go to the Field Service group Saturday morning, but a sister asked me if I would go on a Bible study with her on Friday morning, so I had to transfer the shop/post office business to Saturday. And, given that I got some much needed return visits done, I think it was a good idea.

The study was lovely. It reminded me of my early days when Wilhellmina and Ruby used to come faithfully every week and patiently teach me.   I can see this student, not young, beginning to wake up.   Its as if people are in a deep sleep - a sleep I was in myself for the first half of my life.

2 Corinthians warns about this blindness, when speaking of Satan "the god of this system things" it warns:  "among whom the god of this system of things has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, so that the illumination of the glorious good news about the Christ, who is the image of God, might not shine through." - 2 Cor.4:4

God's inspired word is the tool for removing that blindfold, IF people will listen to it.

I was exhausted when I got back after my calls on Saturday - unpacked, had lunch, fell into a deep sleep, only wakened by Captain Butterfly phoning to tell me he was on his way home. 

We had supper at Jack's Saturday night - pork Dijon, new potatoes, asparagus (the first we have had this year), followed by choc ice, and a cheeseboard.  She always has choc ices in as she has grandchildren and great-grandchildren who visit a lot.

Its another hot day today.  It was the meeting this morning - but apart from making lunch and supper (soup, omelette) I seem to have done nothing.