Little Froglets

Last week, when I was staying with friends in Ettrick, we went for a walk in the nearby forest. The rain was bucketing down in the strong breeze and my trousers got soaked. I should have worn my waterproof over-trousers - silly me!

However, one of the benefits of the rain was that the ground was absolutely soaking. This year's baby frogs were crawling about in the watery paradise! They were very hard to see, but often moved as we approached, and the movement gave them away.


I photographed a couple of them, although it was rather tricky to persuade my camera to focus on the desired object. You can perhaps get an idea of the scale from the surrounding grass and little plants, but each frog was just over 1cm long (maybe about a half inch).

It struck me that these little frogs have been through a metamorphosis a bit like a butterfly or moth. Each frog begins life as a little black dot amidst the frog spawn in its little pond, develops gradually into a wriggly tadpole, and then develops its four legs and other adult characteristics that enable it to leave the pond and journey on the land as a smooth and shiny frog.

God calls each of us to be more than the person we have been; to become someone like Jesus, who goes about doing the will of our fatherly Creator, bringing health and wholeness throughout our communities. He journeys with us, giving us all the resources we need to complete our journey.

Who is God calling you to become?

Ettrick Retreat

This week I have been away on retreat in Ettrick. One of my friends invited me to stay at her home for a few days for some peace and quiet.

I have been looking forward to spending some time thinking back over my selection and training that has been under way over the past four years. And I have been looking forward to some time to discern how God wants me to go forward during this next and final training placement that I will begin on Monday.

I am grateful to my friend and her husband for sharing their home with me. Once I get back on stream again I'll let you know how I got on during this retreat week.

Mind you, I'm not sure that 'retreat' is just the right word. Although I'm retreating away from my normal surroundings, I'm anticipating an advance forward in the Kingdom of God and my understanding of my role within it.

So maybe a better term would be 'Ettrick Advance'!

Tools for Malawi

My Dad, George Goudie, was a tremendous engineer. In his garage he accumulated a treasure trove of tools, components, and other potentially useful bits and pieces, that most people would just have considered so much junk.

So after he died earlier this year the time came to clear out his garage.

I couldn't throw out his tools. Perhaps it was the genes I inherited from my father, or maybe my former career as an electronics engineer. Together they wouldn't let me throw out so much stuff that still had so much much potential, not even to the metal recycling at the dump. So I kept them - in my own garage!

I think I keep in my head a range of potentially useful information, a bit like my Dad kept tools and other stuff. I vaguely remembered hearing of an organisation that refurbished old tools and sent them to people in other countries where they are not able to obtain new tools themselves. I would try to track them down.

All that was back in April and May, and the tools were still lying in my garage in mid-July. A few weeks ago, when Liz and I had a few days holiday, we were at The Lot in the Grassmarket for lunch. The food was excellent (as usual :-) and there was also an interesting range of artwork on the walls (also as usual). The artwork was from a group that helps disabled people to express themselves, to develop useful skills, and to find work opportunities.

This group is called Garvald Edinburgh - and the information sheet at The Lot said that one of their areas of work is called Tools for Self Reliance.

The Garvald Edinburgh Tools for Self Reliance workshop in Gorgie Road refurbishes hand tools donated by members of the local community, retired trades people, Churches, Rotary Clubs etc. Currently the Edinburgh workshop puts together shipments of tools and hand-operated sewing machines, with support from other TFSR groups across Scotland, and ships them to Malawi.

The tools and sewing machines are much appreciated and provide disabled people in Malawi the opportunity to support themselves.

I am pleased that my Dad's tools will carry on being useful and will help people in Malawi. If you have tools, or a hand-operated sewing machine, that you don't need any longer, perhaps you would let Garvald Edinburgh put them to good use once again.

Engagement Announced!

This evening our daughter Katie and her boyfriend Chris made the momentous announcement that they were now engaged to be married! Yippee!!!

They have known each other about 18 months and have been 'going out' for about a year now. They met through the Malawi Scout expedition they both took part in last summer.

The wedding is still a long way off as they want to finish their studies at university before setting up home together. But now they have a target to aim for and will no-doubt develop their plans as the time draws nearer.

In the meantime, Liz and I, and the rest of our family, pray God's blessings on both Katie and Chris during their coming time of study and preparation.

Now I'll have to learn to describe Chris as Katie's fiancé!

Peaceful Dalmeny

I'm just back from spending a pleasant day at Dalmeny.

I was with some friends for a Prayer Retreat with the focus on Healing.
We had a talk from a Doctor who is both a community doctor (GP), and a lecturer at the university teaching trainee doctors. It was interesting to hear of the growing recognition of alternative and complementary therapies that can be considered alongside conventional medicine - and prayer takes its place amongst the other complementary therapies.


We spent some time in the ancient church of Dalmeny, built in the 12th century, shortly after Dunfermline Abbey, and very little modified since those early days. Many original features remain and give the sanctuary great character both internally and externally. It's open to the public on Sunday afternoons, as well as for worship during the morning. It's worth a visit.

Almond Spate

My local river, the River Almond, which flows to the Forth Estuary at Cramond, was in spate this morning. Enjoy more of my photos here.

116mph Sailing Record

Imagine sailing at 116mph!
I'm not even sure my car can go that fast!

Mind you I'm not talking about sailing on the water at 116mph.
Record sailing speeds on water are just short of 50 knots, which is 57.6mph.
You can see the list at the World Sailing Speed Record Council site, as well as some amazing photos!

No, the 116mph record is for sailing on land - i.e. using wheels.
A British team, sponsored by Ecotricity, is in Australia and this weekend they will attempt to beat the 116mph world record in their land-yacht. Mind you, their so-called sail is actually a rigid wing, more like an aircraft wing. So perhaps it should be called a land-plane! You can read and see video about the record attempt on the BBC site here. The Greenbird's record attempt web site is here.


The Ecotricity World Land Speed Yacht

The world record team were asked if wind-power could be the land transport of the future. The team replied that they will be producing their first prototype wind-powered car later this year. That rang a bell in my mind. I searched back in my Blog and found that I had written on this exact same subject back on May 2nd! Pity I didn't patent the idea, but no doubt I would have been too late anyway.

So remember - you heard about it first here!

Abercorn Flowers

Today Liz and I went to see the Abercorn Flower Festival. I was very impressed with the fantastic flower arrangements. The one above was my favourite, and represents Trinidad & Tobego.

The theme of the festival was the Olympics and there was a range of flower arrangements, some representing a sport, others representing countries, and some representing elements of the Olympic tradition.

Rather than you reading my inadequate attempts to describe the displays I merely refer you to my Facebook photo album here. Enjoy!

Bowel Screening!

Today I got a letter about a Bowel Screening.
I wondered why someone wanted to display a bowel on a screen and then I realised it wasn't anything like a Movie Screening.

I was quite thrilled actually.
Since I turned 50 last summer and entered my second half-century I had expected the National Health Service to be falling over themselves to offer me health screenings right, left, and centre.

So it was quite disappointing as the months rolled by and the NHS were conspicuous by their silence. Today then was quite a highlight, almost a relief really! The NHS do care about me, and they want to make sure that I am in the peak of health - well as healthy as it's possible to be for someone of my advanced years!

But it was rather a surprise to discover that the first part of me that they wanted to check was healthy was my bowels. With Scotland's reputation as the heart attack capital of Europe I rather thought they might have invited me for a heart screening. And I had thought that prostate cancer and testicular cancer might be higher priorties than screening for bowel cancer. But 'no', that's what this is all about. Apparently "all men and women between the ages of 50 and 74 will be invited for bowel screening every two years." (according to the NHS fact sheet enclosed with the Screening offer).

So it's not just me then. I don't know just how many 50 to 74-year-olds there are in Scotland, but at a guess it's about 25% of the population, which would be 1.5 million people. And we are to be screened every 2 years, so that means roughly 750,000 tests a year. That's a lot of tests!

I wondered briefly why I hadn't heard of anyone else taking part in this screening programme. But I guess it's not the sort of thing most people want to talk about. I mean, when you meet your friend at the bus stop, or round the shops, it wouldn't be the first item of conversation, would it! The fact sheet did contain a helpful phone number, for the Bowel Screening Centre Helpline. So if you're worried that no-one has invited you to have your Bowel Screened, you could try phoning 0800 0121 833 (only for my readers living in Scotland!).

Well, I can hardly wait to get started. I mean, I want to know the results, and pronto! But you can't hurry Mother Nature. The Screening will just have to wait until the time is right.

And in case you're worried - I don't anticipate returning to this subject again!

God Calling

When we pick up the phone it's the first thing we want to know - who's there?

I suppose it's the same with the door bell, or an unrecognised voice around the corner. But with the door bell, and a corner, it's usually possible to take a few steps and identify the person visually.

Despite the long-awaited promise of the video-phone, caller images don't usually apppear along with the ringing tone. Although if we have a Caller ID phone, and have their number in our phone, then we might guess who it is from the number. Otherwise, we have to answer the phone and speak to the person to find out who is calling.

If it's someone we already know then we might recognise their voice, and not just depend on them telling us their name. For someone might tell us any name if they didn't want us to know their real name. We just have to trust them.

When it comes to hearing God then we start off in the same predicament. We can't see Him, and we don't know His voice well enough to recognise it. Maybe the hearing, or feeling, comes in response to us addressing God in prayer. We might be in the company of others in prayer and feel that God is also speaking to us.

Gradually, as with a human person, we come to recognise the voice. We learn how God speaks to us, sometimes by sensation, or feeling, or image, rather than always with an inaudible or even audible voice.

Sometimes we hear God calling to us from afar. It's not that God is not beside us. Rather God is calling us to serve Him at some distance from where we are currently. He wants us to move somewhere else, or to do something else, or to be something else. It's usually a very personal call because few others will be called to move, do, or be, the same as you are.

Others might need to hear the same Call because they are going to be involved in being with us in that new phase. Or we might need them to hear that Call so they can confirm to us that this really is what God wants us to be doing. But most people will not hear the Call because it does not concern them.

This is a problem for the institutional Church when it rightly seeks to validate the Calling of its leaders. It is right that 'others' within the Church should expect to sense another's Call to leadership. But which 'others'? Certainly not everybody.

The Church of Scotland allocates that task to ministers (local church), presbyteries (regional committees), and to its team of national assessors. And therein lies the problem. When some people sense another's Calling, and other people don't sense it at all.

If the process requires that all the local, regional, and national assessors, sense the Call, then if one of these people does not sense God's Calling on behalf of the other person, then that person's Calling may not be accepted as valid. Herein the Church becomes vulnerable to the weaknesses of its human members. If an assessor at whatever level is having an off-day, perhaps being distracted by some personal circumstance, or not quite as sensitive to God's Holy Spirit as they normally are, then the person who feels Called by God is rejected by Man. That's some awesome responsibility. I hope that the circumstance hardly ever happens, but I fear that it happens too often.

At best, the rejected applicant can return to their job and their existing service of God and his Church without becoming demoralised or even bitter. At best the applicant can try again in two years, and many rejected applicants are accepted on the second attempt, although not all. At best the church will only lose that person's services as a leader for two years, although sometimes it is many years before the person feels ready to try again. At worst, I'd rather not dwell on that.

The fact that the Church of Scotland currently has almost 200 approved vacancies for ministers, not counting those congregations earlier in the vacancy process, suggests that greater efforts are needed to encourage those who could serve as leaders and ministers in the Church to come forward and offer their services. Congregations feel that they need a minister. The waiting list is getting longer rather than growing shorter.

In this time of shortage I would argue that if we are uncertain about the Calling of an Applicant, or a Candidate in Training, then we should be increasing our efforts to resolve that uncertainty quickly, and preferably in favour of acceptance, rather than seeing uncertainty as a reason for turning a person away. One person, or even more than one, may be uncertain, but how many others are certain?

Is there? Or isn't there?

That was the question that was being discussed yesterday morning.

It is quite amazing how the subject of religion has become so topical in the last few years that one of the first events of this year's Edinburgh International Festival was a debate about religion.

Specifically, the two debaters were called to address the motion that "The New Europe should prefer the New Atheism". The audience booked out the Stalls at the Usher Hall and the organisers had to open up the Grand Circle just a few days before the debate in order to accommodate all those who wanted to come and hear the debate. And it wasn't free - it cost £10 each, so it must have been a great financial success if nothing else.

The two debaters were journalist and author Christoper Hitchins, speaking in favour of the motion, and John Lennox, Fellow in Mathematics and Philosophy, and Chaplain at Green College, Oxford. Both men published books on the subject in 2007, Hitchins with "God is not Great: The Case against Religion" , and Lennox with "God's Undertaker: Has Science Buried God?". The debate was chaired by James Naughtie journalist and broadcaster.

My memory isn't good enough to record here details of the debate, but I enjoyed listening to the discussion and following the arguments. When reading a book you only get one side of the argument at a time, and here the interplay between two debaters was intriguing as they sought to justify their own positions and to counter the justifications of their opponent.

It seemed to me that Hitchins' argument was that a lot of conflict and abuse is carried out in the name of religion and therefore the world would be a better place if there was no religion, especially in politics. Lennox' counter-argument seemed to be that some of the worst massacres have taken place in atheistic regimes such as communist USSR and Cambodia.

However, neither debater took up the issue how it could be possible to enforce an adoption of atheism either in society as a whole, or only in politics and government, or indeed in any particular sphere.

Although religious groups seem to have less status in the UK these days, it does not seem likely in the near future that it will become illegal to hold a religious belief or to be a member of a religious organisation. At various times from the Roman Empire onwards there have been attempts to outlaw a particular belief, or to force people to hold a particular belief. None of these have achieved any lasting success. After all, it is too easy to say one thing and believe another.

It seems to me that those atheists who ardently oppose religious belief and practice are promoting exactly the intolerance that leads to discrimination and violence that they seek to remove by outlawing religion. Perhaps this is because atheism is really a faith position that believes there is no God without having any evidence to support their case.

The 18th century Scottish philosopher David Hume was cited by Hitchins in support of his argument. Hume said that there are only two forms of truth: one that can be proven by theoretical analysis, and the second that can be proven by experiment. And also that it takes a miracle for someone to believe in God. Yet Hume had no analysis or experimental evidence to justify his proposition. By his own criteria - his statement could not be truth!

Present day science has concluded that the physical, tangible, observable, universe is only 15% of what is really there. 85% of the matter and energy of the universe is comprised of Dark Energy and Dark Matter. Practically nothing is known of Dark Matter or Energy, yet scientists conclude that it is really there.

I agree with John Lennox when he states that he believes that there is a God, and that God interacts with people in our everyday lives, and that He became part of human life in the person of Jesus of Nazareth 2000 years ago. Much about God will remain forever mysterious, but for those with an open and enquiring mind, God is there to be found, and enjoyed, not just today, but forever.

Life is Beautiful?

Following Jerry's recommendation we watched the Italian movie "Life is Beautiful" last night. We enjoyed it, but towards the end the movie takes on a harsher tone and is somewhat challenging to watch. The boy's father spins an elaborate tale to his young son so that he doesn't realise the danger they are in, and hides the boy to keep him safe. He puts his own life at risk to give his loved ones the best possible chance.

It made me think of how much God loves each person. So much that He laid his life on the line in order that we might have the opportunity to live for ever with Him.

It also made me wonder about the ethical dilemma we sometimes face when bad news is on the horizon. It can seem a kindness to spin a story to the victim so that they don't realise the seriousness of the situation. But then when the bad news shows up the person is unprepared and has not been able to take account of the impending change in circumstances. Perhaps it can be justified when the victim is a child (as in the movie), or is unable to deal with the real situation, but I think in most cases it is a mercy to gently let the sufferer know the full situation - and then to stand by them and help them through the ordeal.

I would argue that life is beautiful, but one aspect of beauty is the contrast between colours and shades. Without the darker aspects to life we would not appreciate all the joys and pleasures that come our way.

Three Successes and a Defeat

Today was a good day for most of us.

As I said yesterday, first thing I was off to Winchburgh.
I arrived for the Holiday Club in good time and was able to help out in a number of areas. There were a good number of young folk there and I think we would all say it was a successful morning. We had fun and I don't think I blotted my copybook.

Andrew too had a good day. He got top grade for all his subjects except English and French, and did better than he and we expected in both of those. So, 'congratulations' to Andrew in his success, and 'congratulations' also to everyone else who felt they did well with their results today. And for those who had a disappointing time, let us pray that they will know God's direction for their lives, and a new sense of purpose for the future.

In the afternoon my Mum and I went to Lauriston Castle (in NW Edinburgh) for a game of croquet. Lauriston is the home of the Edinburgh Croquet Club and Mum has been an enthusiastic member since they moved nearby over 15 years ago. I've only played the adult game a few times, although when my brother, sister, and I, were growing up we used to play croquet often with a set that my Dad made for us.

Anyway, today Mum gave me a few free shots at the start of our game, but when I got into the lead my free shots dried up. I gradually built up a lead of 12 points to Mum's 9 points. But then she got her game going and got a few good runs of points. I only got a couple more points before she beat me 26 to 14. Mum was no-doubt relieved to have succeeded against her novice son, but I didn't mind the defeat since I felt I had given a creditable performance. It was a good game and we both enjoyed the friendly competition.

In this era of results-driven assessments, let us remember that it's not the winning that counts but the taking part. The game of life is for everyone to enjoy not just those who become No. 1.

Unofficial Start

Tomorrow will be an exciting day for me.
Although it's only an informal unoffical visit, I'm going to the Holiday Club which will be meeting at Winchburgh Parish Church this week. Tuesday is the first day and it starts at 10am, so I'll be getting there a bit early to help with the final preparations.

I've been to a holiday club before, at Old Kirk in Pilton, three years ago. It will be interesting to compare the two events.

And then when I get back home, around lunchtime, my younger son Andrew should have his Standard Grade results through the post. He seems quite confident that he'll get the results he wants, so he's more excited than worried. Since he's so laid back, I'm quite relaxed about it myself.

I suppose these kind of events are like stepping stones in a river.
I've been thinking about journeys quite a lot on this blog and so stepping stones seems appropriate. They can be wobbly, or slippery, or too far apart, and as a result we can get our feet wet, or even swept away by the river, instead of getting safely across.

I think my son and I will cross these two stepping stones OK, but if you have fallen off, or been swept away, then I pray that you will turn to God. He can deliver you from your distress and lead you safely to the destination.

Impressions

This past week my wife was on holiday and we enjoyed some nice day trips.

On Wednesday we went to see the art exhibition Impressionism & Scotland at the Royal Scottish Academy Building at the foot of the Mound in Edinburgh. We saw paintings by Van Gogh, Renoir, Monet, Whistler, Guthrie, and many others.

One in particular caught our attention. The foreground of the scene was captured with great clarity and detail, but the middle-ground and distance were painted in the Impressionist style, quickly and sketchily. The painting is called Under the Cherry Tree, painted by Sir John Lavery in 1884. You can see it here on the Ulster Museum site.

We thought that this was similar to the way in which we see the future path approaching. The upcoming days and weeks can be anticipated with a fair amount of detail, but as the future time goes into the distance the amount of detail that we can see becomes less and less.

The exhibition is on until October 12th and you can read more about it here.

We visited some more cycle trails in the Border forests on Thursday. This time we ventured to tackle some red trails, partly because there was no easier blue trails going in the right direction. Liz managed to negotiate both of the red trails without falling off, due to her wise and sensible approach of stopping for a look before tackling the difficult bits. As for me, I rolled my bike when I didn't quite maintain my balance after going over a step drop. I made quite an impression on the undergrowth down the hillside, but fortunately there were no nasty nettles or jaggy bushes, and no tree stumps or rocks. So although I made an impression, nothing made its impression on me and my bike and I survived our roll intact!

We enjoyed our adventure on the bikes and hope to ride some of the trails again sometime, but perhaps with more suitable bikes the next time!

Hezekiah's Tunnel photo

Back on July 9, when I wrote about walking through Hezekiah's Tunnel in Jerusalem I didn't have a photo to show you. But since then Adrian has sent me one of his, which I have now added to that Blog entry here.