The Grey Geese are Flying Tonight

Wednesday was a day of deliveries. The very short Field Service meeting had just started when the doorbell rang and I opened it to find a guy with an ENORMOUS sack of oats (our breakfast for the next year) standing there.  "Knight?" he threw at me and fled leaving it jamming our front door open. So I had to wrestle it inside the hall far enough to get the door closed.

Then I did some field service, during which our latest package of medicines was received and ushered in - along with the post.  In the afternoon my new computer arrived. Unfortunately the password which was supposed to precede its arrival had not arrived, so it had to be taken back to be delivered on Thursday - which actually was the day we were told to expect it.  

Penny says she hopes it is not going to turn into a saga.  Which is probably exactly what is going to happen. and that computer - much needed and bought and paid for - will never darken our doors again.

On the slightlydoubleplusgood side, it did remind me of a joke I was told years and years ago by a colleague called Dick Abel.  He seemed very old to me at the time, but of course he was younger than I am now.  How short our lives are.  Dick, who lived alone in a bedsit, must have been gone a long time.  Not forgotten though.  After all these years I still remember this joke.

Anyway - the joke is set in the days of the Cold War, and a foreign agent is being parachuted into Britain to collect the Micro Dot - or whatever the McGuffin is.  He has tried several times to get it, but each time it has gone horribly wrong.  He is assured that this time there will be no problem, and he is dropped just outside a small Welsh village.  Every one here knows every one so this time it will be easy to find the owner of the Microdot/McGuffin, and get  out of there quickly.  When he finds him, he must speak the password of the day, which is: "The grey geese are flying tonight."

As he approaches the village, he is delighted to see the Postman on his rounds.  He will be sure to know where everyone lives, So he approaches him and asks if he can direct him to the house of Mr.Jones.

"Jones?  But which Jones?  Everyone in the village is called Jones.  There is Jones the Milk,  Jones the Baker, Jones the teacher, Jones the Plumber.  And I'm Jones too - Jones the Post."

The secret agent's heart sinks into his boots. He only has a short time to find this man.  So he decides to get started and learns forward and whispers to the Postman "The grey geese are flying tonight."

"Ah!.  It's Jones the Spy you want."

I hope that Dick  - a kind and valiant man - is sleeping safe in "the everlasting arms" - safe in God's memory - and that he has a wonderful awakening ahead of him when the time comes.  He will next open his eyes in an earth with no more wars, no more politics, no more espionage,

The computer arrived on Thursday - 10 minutes behind its password.  I was tempted to try hissing "The grey geese are flying tonight"  at the guy delivering it, but pulled myself together and stuck to the approved numbers. 

The Letter

I try to do a blogpost every 3 days, so 10 a month,  and am now running a bit short of month for my last two blogs.  So I am posting a letter I wrote and sent to a reviewer.  When I read it to a friend, she liked it so much that she said "Why not put it in your blog?"  So I will.  I hope the Speccie will forward it.  I am a long time subscriber and they have always been reliable with letters before.  

I have removed the Reviewer's name, as I don't know how she would feel about appearing in my blog.   Anyway, this is what I wrote to her, as you will see, it took me a long long time to get it right - or as right as I can get it.

Personal, (Reviewer)

The Spectator, 22 Old Queen Street, London, SW1H 9HP.

17^th April 2021

Dear (Reviewer)

 

You reviewed “The Antichrist: A New Biography” in The Spectator of December 19^th last year.  I was impressed that you know that the Antichrist is not the devil, and I found your review very interesting. 

 

But it was this paragraph that made me want to write to you (and sorry it has taken me so long!), because you said:   “Another (and possibly more pressing) dilemma facing the church related to Christ’s second coming (which, since Jesus had preached an apocalyptic world view, was firmly believed to be imminent by his early followers and disciples). As the decades gradually passed and Christ failed to return, a practical and intellectual void needed to be filled.”

 

This is so important, as the Bible – from Genesis to Revelation – claims to be the inspired word of our Creator, the God of Abraham. It is his message to us.  It claims to be the truth.  So does it tell us that Jesus’ second coming was imminent? 

 

Jesus himself had warned that many things had to happen before that time came.  You might want to think of the parable of the Wheat and Weeds for example.  And the Apostle Paul had to correct some Christians in the earliest days of Christianity.  The words he wrote down, under inspiration, have been preserved for us to this day.

 

He said: "However, brothers, concerning the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered together to him, we ask you  not to be quickly shaken from your reason nor to be alarmed either by an inspired statement or by a spoken message or by a letter appearing to be from us, to the effect that the day of Jehovah is here.  Let no one lead you astray in any way, because it will not come unless the apostasy comes first and the man of lawlessness gets revealed, the son of destruction." - 2 Thessalonians 2:1-3

Paul pointed out that a lot of things had to happen before that time came.  A great apostasy, a false version of Christianity, was going to rise up. And it was going to be exposed.  So the Inspired Scriptures make it clear that Christ’s coming was not imminent.

Interestingly, Sir Isaac Newton (1642-1727) who clearly knew the Bible well, and who lived centuries later, also understood that it was not imminent even in his day.

 “Newton considered Christ’s presence to be centuries away. “One reason why Newton saw the Kingdom of God so far in the future was because he was profoundly pessimistic about the deep Trinitarian apostasy he saw around him,” said historian Stephen Snobelen. The good news was still veiled. And Newton saw no Christian movement that could preach it. He wrote: “These prophecies of Daniel and John [the latter recorded in the book of Revelation] should not be understood till the time of the end.” Newton explained: “‘Then,’ saith Daniel, ‘many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased.’ For the Gospel must be preached in all nations before the great tribulation, and end of the world. The palm-bearing multitude, which come out of this great tribulation, cannot be innumerable out of all nations, unless they be made so by the preaching of the Gospel before it comes.”​— Daniel 12:4; Matthew 24:14; Revelation 7:9.10

https://wol.jw.org/en/wol/d/r1/lp-e/2009603

I really do want you to know that the Bible accurately tells us that Jesus’ presence was far from imminent in the first century, and that it also tells us that his presence would be marked by a worldwide preaching work. 

This good news of the Kingdom is being preached now, all over the earth  If you would like to know more, please go to our website JW.org.  Or, of course, I would be happy to tell you more about the Kingdom of God.  We have something so wonderful to tell you, if you will allow us to.

Yours etc

 

Crumbling

This is the third photo from our Tuesday Wetland walk.  My computer, as old and crumbly as its person, will only let me download one a day at the moment.

We, the siblings myself and one of the family cats (briefly), got together for a Team meeting Thursday morning. Sadly, Team would not let me in, so after some titanic struggles we reverted to Zoom and managed to have our get together.  I scrubbed out the bathroom, and made a rhubarb crumble for Himself.  For some reason I was thinking about the apple crumble served at The Fat Cat pub in Sheffield.  Never tasted better, not even my mother's, and certainly not mine.

 A thing about getting older - and crumblier - is that you have these layers and layers of memories. How will it be if  - and only through the undeserved kindness of the ransom sacrifice of Jesus Christ - we are there in the "new earth" - the earth that is being restored to paradise under the loving rule of the Kingdom of God - and we have hundreds of years behind us, and countless more to come.   All memories will be happy ones then.   The layers of memory we will build up will be so precious and so wonderful. And the sadness of this present system of things will be gone for good.  As our Creator assures us:  "The former things will not be brought to mind, neither will they come up into the heart."

Crumbling News:  I have two hospital apps ahead of me this summer - Rheumatology and Dermatology - routine and par for the crumbly course.  But I also need to book in with Specsavers for my Eyecheck. Which is not going to be good news, and I ought to have a proper appointment with Boots re these hearing aids. Lockdown intervened before I could have one and they just posted them to me, so I rely on the Manual - which, like all instruction manuals, baffles me.

And after the field service meeting in the morning, which was very helpful, though the young bro in charge of our group has a touching faith in my ability to use Google Street Maps - which I can''t really - and I am finding it a challenge to find the last 5 houses in my current territory - a nice lady from Boots rang me.  After rhe usual to and fro "I'm calling you about making an appointment re your hearing aids"  "What? Sorry?"  "I'M CALLING YOU ABOUT MAKING AN APPOINTMENT RE YOUR HEARING AIDS!"  "Sorry.I can't hear you.  I haven't got my hearing aids in, I'll just go and get them." - we managed to arrange the appointment for May.

And Captain B is back from his day out Metal Detecting and is at the computer next to me busy with his day's emails and suchlike.

A Shark on our Balcony!

Shades of Sharknado!  A tornado, or perhaps the gentle night breeze had wafted this shark onto our balcony. It was a Chamomile Shark moth.   And no we have not screamed at it, shot it, or clubbed it, Showbiz-style. It has simply been photographed and left to get on with its life, which means sitting happily on our balcony wall at the moment.   And there was supposed to be a picture of it at the head of this blog, along with one of the Pelican enclosure, but my computer is playing up severely and the only one it would download is the Pelican below.  (Its now Thursday and the computer is in a better mood and has let me post it!)

Captain Butterfly and I booked a trip to the Wetland Trust on Tuesday.  It was a beautiful Spring morning - blue skies, sunshine, blossom, and a coldish breeze.  Perfect walking weather in fact - for those who can still walk.  I managed 45 minutes limping slowly along, spent the afternoon asleep (on the sofa in front of various daytime programmes, soporific with painkillers), and am in more pain than usual this morning.

And yet it was a short and gentle walk   The ducklings were out, as were the new Pelicans... which is worrying. We once saw a pelican swallow a London pigeon whole, at the Serpentine I think it was,and I haven't really got over it.  A tiny fluffy duckling would be a mere aperitif.  How lovely it will be when nature is no longer "red in tooth and claw".

The last talk of the Circuit Overseer visit was: "Do You Discern God's Guidance?", and he ended with this thought "Follow the cloud and not the crowd".  This was a reference to the plllar of cloud that guided the Israelites through the wilderness.  It was cloud by day and fire by night. And as long as they followed it and they moved when it did, it guided them safely. It was a miracle in front of them, night and day, and yet still many did not believe nor want to follow it.

Will we follow Jehovah's clear and perfect guidance today?  If we do it will get us safely through into the restored earthly paradise, and more happiness than we can now imagine.

Another Competition from Fantastic Books

My publisher is running a Charity Competition, and one of the quotes they will be using is from my "Till They Dropped" - my story of the young girl caught in the giant shopping mall trying to find her way home.

Flash Fiction Charity Competition

FLASH FICTION COMPETITION

This competition directly supports the charities SPECIAL EFFECT and STACK UP. To enter you will need to make a direct donation to one of these charities.

 

SPECIAL EFFECT specializes in helping disabled people, specifically children, play video games, working with developers to makes their games accessible including through the creation of specialized game control devices.

 

STACK UP brings both veterans and civilian supporters together; recognising that PTSD, depression and emotional distress are a leading cause of isolation and suicide, they help US and Allied military service members to recover from traumatic physical and emotional injuries through a shared love of video gaming.

 

[We are also running a quiz to support these charities, which will go live later this month.]

 https://www.fantasticbooksstore.com/competitions/competition-anthologies-and-winners-circle/flash-fiction-charity-competition

The Circuit Overseer visit continues - lots of Zoom meetings and Zoom coffee mornings, which even unsociable me find so helpful.  He and his wife gave us a Zoom slideshow of the 10 years they spent in Tanzania, which was fascinating.  Captain B would have enjoyed it.

And Penny turned up at our meeting this morning, staying for the whole thing.   The C.O. ended his first talk with this:  "Follow the cloud, not the crowd" - which I might return to in my next blog.  It was a reference to the pillar of cloud that guided the Israelites through the wilderness, and became a pillar of fire at night.  I hope to put a few highlights from his talks in my next blog.

Captain B has been busy with his detectoring all weekend, is on his way back from Farawayistan at the moment - the wilds of Wiltshire possibly,  I can't keep track.  He has found at least 2 roman coins, which will make it a good day.

A friend has many members of her family caught up in the eruption of the Soufriere volcano on St.Vincent's.  It is a nightmare situation - small island, nowhere to go, and the Covid crisis is making it almost impossible to mount a rescue by ship.   And it is not clear yet that the volcano has stopped erupting.

When our first parents made that terrible decision to cut themselves (and us, their unborn children) off from their Creator, their Source of life, they found they could not even keep themselves alive, let alone run this beautiful and complex planets.  Hence all these terrifying "natural" disasters.

Another Invitation

I could have called this blog Zooming and Teaming, Teaming and Zooming, as I spent this morning in Zoom for the Field Service, then in Team with my siblings, then off for a quick virtual coffee with the congregation family in Zoom again.  We have little extra get togethers when the Circuit Overseer is visiting us. Which is very encouraging and helpful - even for someone like me who is not in any way a people person.

When you are a part of the Jehovah's Witness congregation you feel really looked after, really cared for.  And we would love you all to join us.

So with that in mind, the Circuit Overseer, whose visit began on Tuesday, will be giving a special talk:  JESUS CHRIST WORLD CONQUEROR, WHERE AND WHEN?   It's a 30 minute talk and will be given at 10.00 a.m on Sunday the 18th  You are so welcome to attend, by Zoom or phone.  Just ask my blog - or my email (if you have it) - for the codes.

Our rescue is so close now.

On Wednesday I had picked up a bit energy wise in that I managed to get quite a few things done including 2 Zoom meetings - one for field service and one for coffee - and making a large fruit cake, as I suddenly realised I was down to the last frozen marmalade muffin. The packed lunches are coming thick and fast now.   The cake turned out well - too well - and I must get it sliced up and into the freezer today so that I stop nibbling at it.  

It is a Cranks "Boil and Bake" fruitcake recipe that I have been making for years, and it has never let me down yet.

FIFTY HORSES WEDGED UP CHIMNEY!!!

This is  a Beachcomber headline. And I am going to have to make the same acknowledgment that he made in his column, many decades ago:  "The story to fit this sensational headline has not turned up yet".   And I pray God it never will.   The older I get, the more unhappy I feel about the way we are treating the animal creation, who we were meant to care for tenderly and unselfishly.

I found myself watching a movie called Sharknado! early on Sunday morning - don't ask.   Just don't ask. All I will say is that the Metal Detector alarm went very off very early and I didn't want to go back to sleep and risk being late for the Sunday meeting.  Anyway a violent tornado (or some such) was hurling large waves with enormous sharks in them onto the Florida Coast (if that is Florida has a coast?)  . And nobody was helping the poor gasping creatures get back into the water - they were clubbing them and shooting them...   showbiz still monstering the shark.

It was an odd sort of Sunday. Captain Butterfly left at the crack of dawn metal detector at the ready, and I attended the morning Zoom meeting. But then I really didn't do much of anything I am ashamed to say, just a tiny bit of housework, a tiny bit of studying, a tiny bit of witnessing (via two facebook postings) - oh and having Col's supper ready on his return with a sackload of gold doubloons - sorry, I mean without a sackload of gold doubloons.

Anyway, as long as he gets back safely, has a good day out, and doesn't forget to take his lunch with him, I am happy. And he is very happy now that they are allowing Detecting again.

Our Circuit Overseer visit begins this week, thank goodness.  It will be a boost for all of us - and our second Zoom Circuit visit. Who would have thought it.

The special talk he will give this Sunday, the 18th is "JESUS CHRIST, WORLD CONQUEROR. HOW AND WHEN?"

You are all invited.  And if you would like to attend, please contact me, via blog or email, and I will given the Zoom or telephone codes.

Only One Ship is Seeking Us

Still feeling a bit weird - I assume from the two hours dental surgery.  Not that it was surgery for 2 hours - there was more preparations than actual wrenching and drilling - sorry I should have added a Keep Your Smelling Salts Handy alert before this paragraph.  But sitting there trying not to see all the wrenches needles hooks spanners-what-have-yous being lined up is a tad stressful too.

It underlines for me how old I am now.  My poor old body and brain don't cope so well with these things any more.

Anyway, the new teeth are still in place.  And it all hurts a lot less than it did before. So I am thankful for that.   And I am sleeping again.

Us siblings managed a get together on Thursday, and were joined by some of the children and grandchildren, which was a lovely surprise.

We turned on the TV at lunchtime, as when we are both home we have lunch together in front of Bargain Hunt, to find that Prince Philip has just died.  We both felt quite sad as he has always been there for the duration of our lives, as has the Queen.  The older you get, the more and more of your past goes over that edge - swept away by the tide.

A friend rang me to ask if I knew about it, and she told me that her husband did his National Service in the... would it be barracks in the Navy? ... anyway the same place as the young Prince Philip was stationed. Apparently he was popular there as they found him both friendly and polite.   I thought that was a good positive to put in my blog on the day he died.

And I feel a lot for the Queen, losing her partner of so many years. She may well be feeling very alone today.

Philip Larkin's poem  "Next Please"  gave me the title for this blog.  It ends:   

Only one ship is seeking us, a black-
Sailed unfamiliar, towing at her back
A huge and birdless silence. In her wake
No waters breed or break.

But I would want to end on a more hopeful note.  Yes, the dead go down into "a huge and birdless silence".  But the Inspired Scriptures promise us that there can and will be an awakening from the dreamless sleep of death.

 “Your dead will live. My corpses will rise up. Awake and shout joyfully, You residents in the dust! For your dew is as the dew of the morning, And the earth will let those powerless in death come to life." - Isaiah 26:19

Moths and Metal Detectorists Take Flight

Both Moth and Metal-detector season are now underway, and its a race trying to keep up the cake and sandwich level.  Thankfully the guests at our Moth Hotel do not require any feeding.  The Bank Holiday has  been sunny but cold.  I have not been out.  I am still feeling a bit discombobulated from my dental surgery.  Its hard to concentrate on anything.  Makes me realise how old I am now.  My mouth aches a bit at night, but on the whole all seems to be going well.  Its Monday afternoon as I begin to write this and I have done my studying for the day and a few small houseworky tasks.  And done quite a bit of dozing in front of the telly.

I am still trying to learn how to use my Smart Phone, and the above rather wobbly image was taken with a lot of help from Captain B.  It is of a Cape tile that Roger gave me.  The Cape is one of the loveliest places I have ever visited.   Some parts of the earth are still so lovely, despite the loss of Eden, that it makes me wonder just how lovely it going to be when God's Kingdom is ruling over it.

Will I ever manage a selfie?  Maybe, if I get my best-seller, and can afford to hire Kate Moss to be me in the picture.  And get Captain B to take it...  though would that make it an unselfie?

And of course I wont have to twist the Captain's arm if Kate is involved.

The New Teeth

It is Easter weekend.  The Seaside, as seen from my window, looks quite busy. It sunny, but not warm. My mouth, while very sore on Wednesday evening, is now much less painful that it was before I had the offending crowns/caps removed. Which is making me hopeful that my two dentists, one Turkish, one South African, did a good job.  And I must note that, most importantly of all, I prayed to Jehovah both before and through the proceedings. And thanked Him afterwards. I was so scared. And those two hours in the dentists chair were not happy ones, but were as painless as it is possible to make them.  I nearly cancelled because I was feeling so sea-sick after my second Covid vax, but really wanted to get this over with.  I also knew they had cleared a whole afternoon for me - no other patients - and the dental surgeon had to travel down from Kent.

I spent Thursday morning cooking up the veggies that were delivered yesterday - some of them anyway - and made one veggie and bean chile and one 'every veggie going' soup.  And I talked to Jean, Jackie and Jen - mainly about our health problems!

Friday morning was the brief field service meeting; and then we had quite a problem getting the family group together. We were beginning to wonder if it might be quicker just to fly to Oz - but we did get there in the end. And had our full 40 minutes.

We had a couple of congregation meetings this morning.  One was the Memorial service for an elderly sister who died last month, to be held at 8.30 in the morning as her children are in Oz. The other was the regular Saturday field service at 10:00, which I hoped would energise me, as my sleep patterns seem to have been disrupted by the op. Maybe I am just getting too old?  They did ask me what my job was while I was in the chair, yet I am in my mid seventies.  I hope they did realise that. Though, frankly its pretty obvious.  Especially in grim dental close-up.

I still feel very tired and have not done much else today, but I did get my current road finished and the letters are ready to post.

I was wondering about attempting a Selfie at this point - but I still find I can't work my Smart camera.  I press all sorts of things but nothing photographic happens.  And in any case, it would be too ghastly.  I could be overrun with casting scouts from Hammer Horror if I put the selfie out there.