Month: February 2024

To God be the Glory            Word on the Week                24^th February 2024.

Seeing God’s hand on a work is not always apparent until time filters out the incidental from the important.   So it has been with Jon and Sandra Blackwell’s search for God’s mission field for them.   The initial decisions came slowly.  First the Bible Translation work with Wycliffe and second the field; Cameroon.

That was 20 years ago!   Today there is a New Testament in a new language.   The latter being written down for the first time.   This has opened the door for reading materials and adult literacy work to teach the people to read their own language.   The latter is being developed by a local translator, Pastor Edward.

Taking advantage of modern technology, LCD projectors show scripture films dubbed in the newly available language permitting 40,000 people access to The Word of God in their mother tongue.   The spread of smartphones, powered by solar energy, presents the option of a digital New Testament rather than in book form.

Among the many people from Grace Church in Dublin who visited the Blackwell’s was Mick Toolan.   He was struck by dirty water in everyday use. He discovered that the pumps which operated the few existing wells often mal-functioned.   From the realisation that something could be done the charity Water for Cameroon was formed.

This has succeeded by having local ownership of new wells and by using simple pumps which could be maintained locally.   Mick was able to employ reliable work people and gain acceptance from the local community leaders.

The work spilled out to the making of water filters which are made locally and installed in schools, hospitals and homes.   They run on sand and gravity.  The water being poured into the top and its cleansing is complete by the time the water reaches the tap at its base.  

Allied to these filters is improved hygiene in schools with simple plastic devices for hand washing.    Various other efforts have been made in land irrigation and more recently the building of a small school to reach a remote people.

There is also Cameroon Medical where limited financial aid is dispensed to assist in helping to meet the bills as there is no health service available.

Water for Cameroon is ongoing and Mick, having come back from retirement is now looking for a successor, possibly from Grace church.   In this, as with all the projects, we seek the Lord’s guidance.  

The King will reply, “Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did it for me (Matthew 25 verse 40).  

Alexei Navalny                      Word on the Week               17^th February 2024.

Alexei Navalny died this week.   He is the most recent and perhaps the best known of Putin’s political enemies.   He loved Russia and held to a vision of a future time when his beloved Russia would be free.   

The 47-year-old blogger had survived poisoning attempts and years in some of Russia’s most notorious jails.  His group had exposed corruption at almost every level of the Russian state – frequently targeting President Putin himself.  

From prison, by various means, Alexei was able to access the internet where he maintained his criticism of Putin.   His last postings earlier this week showed that even interment in Kharp Penal Colony in the Arctic circle could not break his spirit.   He leaves behind a loyal wife and family. Also his Anti-Corruption Foundation (FBK).  No doubt it will continue to expose Putin.

Apparently Alexei had become a thorn in the flesh to Putin.   His courage was amazing.   His following were difficult to control.   There was also the fact of his surviving an attempt to kill him with the deadly Novichok poison.   This had only increased his status both at home and abroad.

It was in 2020 on an internal Russian flight that the poison was applied.  He took ill immediately and the plane landed in Omsk. That emergency landing saved his life. A German-based charity persuaded Russian officials to allow him to be airlifted to Berlin for treatment.

Sometime later the German government revealed that tests carried out by the military found Alexei had been contaminated with “a chemical nerve warfare agent of the Novichok group”. The Kremlin denied any involvement and rejected the Novichok findings.  

This denial came despite the fact that Putin had twice used the substance to kill people in the UK.  These were the days when he wished to prove to his enemies that he could reach them wherever they took refuge.

Lord Acton first coined the phrase in 1887, “Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely”.   Proof of its accuracy is being played out before our eyes.   What are we to make Vladimir Putin?   A person who appears to have many options when it comes to killing critics!

Scripture records a time when his enemies were trying to kill Jesus.   His accusers claimed Abraham for their parentage and cast doubt on Jesus’ legitimacy.  Then Jesus made the case for their father to be the devil.   In trying to kill him they were doing the devil’s work.   The devil had been a murderer from the beginning (the devil incited Cain to murder Abel: Genesis 4) and there is no truth in him (John 8 verses 39 to 44).    Murderers and liars are doing the devil’s work.

The Apostle John returns to this theme in his letter.   This time he claims that sinning is of the devil.   But adds the good news that the reason the Son of God came was to destroy the devil’s work (1 John 3 verse 8).

Look to Jesus and believe, even Putin, or you and me and have eternal life ((John 6:40).

New Life                           Word on the Week                     10^th February 2024.

One of the joys that light up our spinney is the bursting forth of the snowdrop. They have to penetrate a mat of ground ivy to reach the light of day.  These plants which the poet Thomas Tickell, who lived in Glasnevin, Dublin, (on land which was to become the Botanic Gardens), called ‘vegetable snow’. This name appears in his poem ‘Kensington Gardens’.  Snowdrops brighten up our lives in the dull days of early Spring.

They multiply in the damp woodland conditions and have to be divided and distributed, spreading the joy around.   They are accompanied by a few yellow Aconites which add variety of colour amongst the white snowdrops.

Along the verges of the farm road Cow Parsley begins to appear.  It has a vigorous growth for which our hens are thankful!   It gets cropped daily. A bucketful of its tender shoots is served up daily to the hens as part of their breakfast.

Coming to the fore, sometimes in amongst the cow parsley are the daffodils.   These ‘Lent Lilies’ or in the Irish translation, “the plant with the bowed head” add a splash of yellow to the landscape.   They have been planted in clumps which enables them to powerfully express themselves – as they bloom and fade in turn managing to remain attractive to the end.

And the end does come.  It requires the death of the plant to permit nature to work its miracle in the bulb till its time comes round the following year.  Likewise, the seed must fall into the ground and die before it produces much fruit (John 12 verse 24).  

Walter Chalmers Smith the preacher from Aberdeen, who also wrote hymns, makes the connection with nature and compares it with the unchanging Jesus.          ‘We blossom and flourish as leaves on the tree,
And wither and perish-but naught changes Thee’.

The Apostle Paul, quoting from Isaiah, speaks enthusiastically of the afterlife: –  

“What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined,

what God has prepared for those who love him”— (1 Corinthians 2 verse 9).

The Apostle then tries to describe the Christian life when it comes to full flower in Heaven.   Within the limits of our vocabulary he sums it up “Just a we have borne the likeness of the earthly man so shall we bear the likeness of the man from heaven” (1 Corinthians 15 verse 49).

So the amazing conclusion is that, in heaven, we will be like Jesus!   If you understand the full implications of this, you will be able to look at death with calmness and confidence in a glorious future!

Brigid 1500                     Word on the Week                      3^rd February 2024.

In creating a Public Holiday as a ‘thank you’ to a long-suffering population during the Covid epidemic the Government decided on 1^st February.   Traditionally this is the first day of Spring.   It is also celebrated as St Brigid’s Day.   This year is claimed to be the 1,500 anniversary of her death.

In pre-Christian times it was known as the feast of Imbolc.  One of four such days marking the passage of time through the old Celtic year.  One of the main concerns in Springtime is the fertility of the sheep. The old Irish ‘i mbolg’, means ‘in the belly’, and probably refers to the fertility of the ewes in the flock as the lambing time approaches. 

The customs of St Brigid’s Day got a boost with the introduction of the Public Holiday.   Its traditions have included weaving Brigid’s crosses, hung over doors and windows to protect against fire, illness, and evil spirits. People also made a doll of Brigid with straw which was paraded around the community by girls, sometimes accompanied by ‘strawboys’ wearing straw masks and clothing.

St. Brigid and her cross are linked together by the story that she wove this form of cross at the death bed of either her father or a pagan lord, who upon hearing that the cross meant that his sins could be forgiven, acknowledged them and asked to be baptised into Christ. 

Brigid was renowned for her negotiating skills.   In her dealings with the High King of Leinster for a place to build her monastery he said, dismissively, she could have the area covered by her cloak.   This she readily agreed to and the deal was done.   To the King’s dismay the cloak grew and grew until it covered an area of 5,000 acres in Co Kildare known today as the Curragh.

It is at Downpatrick that she was finally laid to rest with the two other patron saints of Ireland, St. Patrick and St. Conleth. Her skull was extracted and brought to the Lisbon area, her Mother’s birthplace, by two Irish noblemen. A portion of her jaw was returned to Ireland and the relic was taken this week to St Brigid’s Parish Church in Kildare.

RTE, our broadcasting company, showed many of St Brigid’s symbols.  An enthusiast requested a fire to be lit outside Kildare Cathedral in memory of Brigid. The dean, Rev. Tim Wright gently reminded her that there was no need as Jesus the light of the world had already come. “Jesus spoke to them, saying, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” (John 8 verse 12).