Zooming

Monday was a day of Zoom calls.  My siblings in the morning, Col and his siblings in the afternoon, and a friend we knew from Planet Expat in the evening.  All the sessions seems to hurtle along, leaving us wanting more.  It is a great way to keep in touch.

Although what is wrong with these Zoom cameras?!  Because on them I look nothing at all like a cross between Kate Moss and Keira Knightley. I cannot understand it.  Someone ought to fix those cameras. ("Or send in a large team of plastic surgeons to fix something else" I seem to hear Captain B murmuring in the background.)

But the friend from Planet Expat, had a strange and alarming tale to tell.  

While out walking her dogs - 2 elderly, 1 middle aged - she was verbally attacked and sworn at by a young man on a mountain bike who nearly ran them all over.  The next thing she knew the Police were knocking at her door, saying that this man had accused her of having dangerous uncontrolled dogs, and that one had bitten him!  The dogs were actually super-controlled as they did not either attack or bite the man who was in their person's face, shouting and swearing at her.  

The Police talked to both her and the ferocious young cyclist and found there was no problem, no dog attack, no bite.  The lad had a small scratch on his leg, but he was cycling in shorts, so who knows where he got it. It certainly was not a bite, nor had he sought any medical treatment for it.  Our friend had had the presence of mind to ask if she could take a photo of it when he suddenly accused one of the dogs of biting him. 

Yet this cyclist somehow persuaded the CPS to prosecute.  Our friend will have to go to court. So in a world full of violent crimes many of which go unprosecuted, it has been decide to devote valuable police and legal time to the case of a young man who may, or may not, have sustained a small scratch from a dog's paw, while shouting and swearing at its person - a pensioner who he had nearly knocked down.

It would make me despair of "the world" if I hadn't already done so.  But what would I be feeling if I did not know about the Kingdom of God?  Total despair, I guess.  I am hoping the friend in question will come to the Special Talk on Sunday.  It will be so comforting. Jehovah is the God of all comfort.

And we are trying to get the knowledge of the God of all comfort into every home, and hope and pray that more and more people will pay attention.

Not that I am doing very well in the field service at the moment.  My crumbling spine is starting to affect me in a lot of unexpected ways, which is making life difficult.  But I have been given a local territory to do, into which I can hopefully make little forays on foot and also send cards and letters.

I paced it out yesterday, just to understand, when I go to Post Code Finder, which bits I am doing and which blocks of flats are included. I guess it was a 20 minutes walk door to door. if that. And it left me hardly able to stand my back was hurting so much.

The painful and undignified struggle of old age continues - but I am so grateful still to be here, and continue to find the gift of life more and more wonderful and interesting every day that passes.

And speaking of the struggle, we spent Wednesday afternoon at the hospital - repeat eye test for Himself.  We won't know the result until the doctor has been able to study them, but the nurse seemed to feel that it may be OK.  Which was encouraging.

The photo above is of our lovely golden retriever Shadow in Saudi Arabia, with a friend, on his regular dog walks to the spray fields.  It was taken by Captain Moth-Butterfly of course. As I may have said before, had I taken it, it would either be a photo of my lens cap, or of my thumb in the spray fields.      

I did managed 35 minutes on the service Thursday morning.  And had a very nice chat with the lawyer, who let me read a couple of Scriptures to him: Proverbs 2:20-22 and Revelation 21:3,4.

He has a law degree, so he has great respect for the legal wisdom in the Bible, in the Law that Jehovah gave to Moses.  So I am hoping he will begin to consider the wisdom contained in every page, from Genesis to Revelation.  I need to find a brother to take with me next time, to see if we can start a Bible study with him.