The Initial Call

My first copy of DISRAELI HALL arrived today!  The large print copy.

I had a part in the Ministry School last night. While always nervous, I feel more relaxed about delivering it when I'm not the one doing the teaching. I don't like being on screen though. I tried not to open my mouth too much, without mumbling (missing front tooth!). Anyway, we did it, and it seemed to go very smoothly.   

This is the script we were working from, though we didn't read it word for word:

J - Hello Sue, how's your day going?

Sue - Oh, OK I guess. I'm just having a frustrating day. I was watching the News this morning, seeing tiny children being pulled from blitzed buildings - and then in class this morning a child disclosed something so worrying that I am going to have to report it.  What is wrong with the world?  I can't understand why people do such terrible things.

J - Yes, I really understand what you are saying. We hear about such horrors and I certainly think that working with kids can make you more aware of the  bad things that happen. But, as you know, I am a Jehovah's Witness, and I definitely feel that believing what i do helps me to make sense of the things that i see and hear about.  And it helps because from what I have learned I know this was not God's purpose for the earth.

S - I'm not really religious, but I envy you your faith.  My family are quite spiritual - they believe in God, but i can't say that I have looked into it really.  The more I hear about all the bad things that are happening the more I find it hard to believe in a god, because I don't understand how he could let this happen.

J - I think that a lot of people feel that way.  Certainly I can understand why you might think that. Would you mind if I share with you what I've learned from my studies about God's purpose for the earth, because this is something that has brought me a lot of comfort.

S - By all means.

J - His original purpose is found here at Genesis 1:28, which says:  God blessed them, and God said to them: “Be fruitful and become many, fill the earth and subdue it, and have in subjection+the fish of the sea and the flying creatures of the heavens and every living creature that is moving on the earth.”

From that, what do you understand God's original purpose to be?

 

S - Very simply, to have children and to care for the animals.

J - That's right.  God's original plan for us was that we would live in peaceful, paradise conditions and that we would have a happy life taking care of our families and the animals and caring for the earth.  How does that sound to you? Are those conditions that you would like to live in?

S - That sounds wonderful. A wonderful purpose.  I'm sure most people would want that.  But if that was God's plan how come we aren't living like that.  The world is nothing like that.

S - That's a good question and actually the next time we have a break I'd love to have a chat with yu about that if its OK?  Because you're right, the world isn't like that at the moment, but the Bible does reassure us that God's plan for humans hasn't changed, so maybe we could take about how he is going to accomplish that next time.

S - Yes, I would like that.

We slept in this morning and I missed the Field Service meeting.  Captain Butterfly is recovering from a 4.30 alarm call yesterday morning (as am I), and a long day's toiling in the detectorist fields somewhere on the Outer Planets (judging by the early start).  It seems neither Roman nor Celt ever got there though, as no coins were found  I wonder about ring pulls - have the Brit Stag and Hen Party crowd made it out there yet?  Anyway he hurtled back just in time to change into his SUSSAR costume, gulp down a hot dinner and then it was off for a long Search and Rescue training session.

Even the Captain is admitting he is not as young as he was.  Which makes me sad.  Due to being the proud inheritor of the family arthritis gene, I have been not as young as I was for many years now, but I still see Captain Butterfly as the London boy I met at Uni many years ago.

As we said in our Script above, it is a sad system we are living in at the moment.   But please think of the wonderful future the Bible promises us, here on this lovely planet.