Christmas 2020 News

What an unusual year we have all had!

In February we visited Janet’s father Frank on the Isle of Wight, he having been admitted to hospital and then to hospice. He died within a few days, at age 93, and at peace, and in March, in Taunton, we attended his funeral and celebration of his life. It was just before the world began to close down so his family were all able to be present, including Chris, his eldest son from Canada. Janet’s mother had died in 2007 and Mike’s parents died in the 1990’s.

In April we joined the fashion parade with masks of differing shapes, sizes and utility, and dinky, white cotton gloves that others spurned. On the church front, technology flourished and we continued fellowship through little rectangular windows up to 49 in number because Mike took the opportunity to upgrade his PC. Zoom rapidly got its house in order, pulling its datacentres out of China, and we all became exhausted learning to mute, to speak one-at-a-time-please, and to sing to ourselves.

As the weather warmed we rediscovered the joy of gardening. Mike managed to slowly rid himself of the perfectionism that besets computer programmers, and enjoyed doing gardening badly. The plants did not seem to mind, and alstroemeria and other floral delights thrust themselves upwards until frosty days interrupted. Our new Joseph Rock mountain ash produced its yellow berries and we experienced the delight of watching God’s programming through the seasons.

Janet pressed her smart phone into use and, to our delight, was able to maintain contact with friends far and wide, who wonderfully, appeared pleased to reply and to tell us how they were doing.

We attempted to exercise our limbs in a more regular fashion, going for daily walks around the block. And how pleased we are to live in a suburbia supplied with shops, parks and garden centres. We continuously marvel at the way that God has cared for us: in placing us where we are, providing the things we need even before we think of them, and providing friends and connections.

On a number of occasions during the summer, Janet provided cream teas for ones and twos who came to see us. These were always happy times, and we enjoyed people who previously would have stayed for a couple of hours, staying effortlessly three or four.

In August we visited Paul (Mike’s brother) and Carol in Aylsham where they live having escaped N-W London suburbs some years ago. In previous years we have visited more frequently, but this year we have felt ‘clamped down on’ though, in some ways, few liberties have been curtailed. It’s all the little liberties that have been chopped; Garden Centres have been a lifesaver.

In September, we holidayed for a week in Tintagel on the north Cornwall coast, where Tim also joined us for a few days. The weather was wonderful and we paddled in the sea several times. Occupying a modern three storey house for a week, involved extra exercise retrieving articles from the top floor when we were on the ground floor and vice-versa. Alexa introduced her charms to us because the house was ‘smart’, so on our return home we began to experiment with ‘smart’ lights and speakers: two steps forward and three steps back.

Ben in Swindon, with Louise, has been working hard from home for Dell, and Tim in Reading for National Grid. We are blessed with having young men who both enjoy their work and put a lot into it. They are also very affectionate and supportive to us and we are very grateful.

Like most people, we have found this year of restriction trying, especially coupled with political changes in China, the USA, Europe and the UK, and the progress apparently being made towards a new world order.

Here we are recently, with feet excised:

For your encouragement, Psalm 91 (KJV) says: He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the LORD, He is my refuge and my fortress: my God; in him will I trust.

It continues: Because thou hast made the LORD, which is my refuge, even the most High, thy habitation; There shall no evil befall thee, neither shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling.

We hope that you are well, and wish you all a happy time at Christmas and God’s continuing blessings into the New Year.

Just a Simple Belfast Boy

2013 Brian Mawhinney

ISBN 978-1-84954-532-7

When driving along a UK motorway, have you ever encountered a 40 mile per hour speed restriction that continued mile after mile for no apparent reason, and wondered what was going on? Brian explains in this book how this came to pass. In fact if you would like a window into government within the UK written with humour and honesty, this is the book for you.

In 371 pages, including the index, Mr Mawhinney with kind humour, tells us how he first became the MP for Peterborough, was appointed to the Northern Ireland Office during the troubles, became Minister for Health, Minister of State for Transport, Conservative Party Chairman, worked with Margaret Thatcher, John Major, Michael Heseltine and many others, became Chairman of the Football League, and was involved in a bid to FIFA for the World Cup to be in the UK. He is kind to all but you can get a good idea who he regards as the goodies, and who the baddies.

This is an inside story, told with accuracy and honesty, because Brian Mawhinney is a committed Christian and he highly values integrity.

This book is exciting reading if you have an interest in government or football, and counters the accusations of 'sleaze everywhere' made daily in the newspapers and other media.

Link to book on Amazon.co.uk

Amazon states: This simple Belfast boy was to find himself at the centre of politics during some of the most tumultuous events of recent British history - the peace process in Ireland, Britain in Europe, Thatcher versus Major. This momentous autobiography is full of the acerbic wit and outspoken opinion that characterises Brian Mawhinney - the man and the politician. This long-awaited memoir is a major work of enduring historical significance, packed with untold stories.

Christmas 2019 News

It’s that time of year again where one writes to all one’s friends to tell them that, like everyone else, we have done nothing vaguely interesting in the last year, BUT WE ARE STILL HERE! Janet is now 68 and I am 74. (You can tell it is Mike writing by his laboured attempts at humour). And we are both generally in good health… apart from the odd bump in the road we all encounter at times. 

We have more or less decided not to venture out of the UK for breaks, the reason being that air travel has become so tedious. We are not concerned about our green footprint and are content to let the world rage on about all that, less you are concerned that we may have become eco-conscious. There is no chance that will happen though we recycle assiduously according to the current dogma though recycling died for me when I discovered that all our glass bottles, carefully washed, had been integrated into junction 12 of the M4. 

So we drove our worthy (non-hybrid and getting old) Toyota up to Norfolk in August and November to attend upon my bruvver Paul and his wife Carol, who are always kind to us. (Despite being an older bruvver and therefore more brainy, Paul does his best not to treat me as the pest who used to bother him when he was 11). We also visited Jean, a cousin of Janet, and her husband Stephen in their retirement in Lincolnshire. Retired but very active. 

In March, June and November we penetrated to the deep south, known as the Isle of Wight, to see Janet’s Dad, now 93, who demeures chez Richard and Jeanette, Richard being one of Janet’s younger twin bruvvers (wot she used to look after when she wuz a little girl). Secrets are being revealed here… read on! 

I achieved a lifelong ambition to visit “disgusted of Tunbridge Wells” which turned out to be a nondescript town, with a drug problem, somewhere in the south east, on the way to Hastings. So our excitement at all this travelling around has known no bounds. (Janet dissociates herself completely from this newsletter). 

In April, to vary our routine I went into the Royal Berks Horspital as a day case for a routine prostate operation and reappeared a couple of days later hardly able to hobble because of overexposure to their air conditioning system. We don’t visit the hospital much ‘cos we can’t afford the parking. 

To inject more excitement we embarked on a lo-carb eating regime a couple of months ago and are losing about one pound a week, except for the weeks I put on a pound. The jury is out on how this will go, but I’m enjoying cream on everything: coffee, jelly, curry, the lot! And our respective clothes fit better. (I put in ‘respective’ for clarity). 

Having retired for the most part from pressing the buttons (we slide our fingers across our iPads more these days), in good weather we are spending more time in the garden and have planted more trees. I refuse to watch Gardeners’ World (a BBC TV gardening programme) or similar because of their impossible standards, but am beginning to value the fact that precisely where you plant a shrub almost does not matter, whereas a missing semi-colon in a computer program could cause the failure of a mission to the moon. 

The sprogs, Tim and Ben continue to work very hard in their respective jobs which, amazingly, focus on computers. They both run sporty, red cars, despite my advice to 'never buy a red car'. They are both very independent, which you would want, and very kind and gentle with their ageing parents.

We enjoy our involvement with Earley Christian Fellowship which continues to grow gradually with people coming from we know not where, and lots of young people. There’s been a couple of weddings this year with more coming. People wonder why we would want to live in Reading. Well, we have the gasworks, chip shops, curry houses. Even IKEA. What else could you want? Traffic is increasing to the degree that we routinely use a satnav to check local routes and avoid the town centre after 4pm most days. But we have dear friends in the church, and we hear that many older people in the world, especially men, have few friends. 

But, apart from day to day living, there are opportunities to be a help to local people, and once you move, it’s not so easy to make new friends. We hope you enjoy the Christmas/New Year holiday, and continue to enjoy God’s richest blessings in 2020.

Genesis and Creation, the facts!

In previous newsletters, I have allowed myself the luxury of recommending books I have enjoyed. May I have the luxury of doing the same here? Because I would like to tell you of what has been, for me, a voyage of real discovery.

Some years ago I encountered the book “In Six Days” (edited by John Ashton) in which 50 scientists explain why they each personally believe that God created the heavens and the earth in six days. One section, written by a biologist, showed through elementary probability theory, that even the chance of the 206 main bones of the skeleton being connected together in the correct general position is rather less than one in 10³⁸⁸ (or one in 10 followed by 387 zeros). I could see that this probability is so vanishingly small as to be essentially impossible, and if this simplest thing is so impossible, what about all the other things being correct? So I saw that evolution (from goo to you) could not happen.

From there I discovered that if you follow the chronology of Adam to Christ, as given in Genesis and other historical books of the Bible, the universe was created a little over 6,000 years ago. “A Concise Chronology of the Bible” (John D Brand, Edinburgh Bible College) sequences all the main Bible events and is a mine of useful information.

“The Authenticity of the Book of Genesis” (Bill Cooper) establishes the historical super-accuracy of Genesis in painstaking (academic) detail, while “After the Flood" (Bill Cooper again) connects the table of nations in Genesis 10 precisely and seamlessly with European history.

“Why do we not all believe the historicity and accuracy of Genesis?” I asked a friend. He replied “Because people choose not to believe what God has said”.

But the book I would especially commend is “Genesis for Today” (sixth edition, Andy McIntosh) which expands the thesis that “all Christian doctrine, directly or indirectly, has its basis in the literal events of the first eleven chapters of the Bible”.

This journey has thrown light on the Bible in an astonishing way. What a lesser understanding I tolerated for all these years, though I have always believed the Bible to be the “word of God”. Now I see that the Bible, written by God for our understanding and help, towers above all the thoughts of man, and that all else is defined by it, and not the other way around. Incidentally it also sweeps much that at present passes for science into the trash.

We know that all history is produced by the winners (kings do not write about the battles they lose) and is then reinterpreted regularly to reflect the current view. Egyptian priests inserted the names of non-existent rulers by the dozen into their records to show the antiquity of that dynasty,  just as the Vatican established a department dedicated to the forging of documents to confirm its own authority.

We live in an age of unsurpassed access to information, much of which is grossly inaccurate or just plain lies. The ancients misrepresented their history just as we do today. 

Christmas 2018 News

December comes around again and challenges us to write a newsletter, not to tell you what wonderful people we are, but to keep in touch. In this astonishingly well-connected age, most people do relatively little keeping-in-touch, hence the reason for this. This is the first letter we have written for a number of years; perhaps it was too much effort before, or we aimed too high.

You probably know that in January 2016 builders began to integrate our ground floor and integral garage into one living space. The garage turned into a little study at the front, plus a utility room and shower room/toilet, and the kitchen and back lounge was renewed throughout. Now we can live wholly on the ground floor should eventual decrepitude render upstairs unattainable, and we are very happy with the results. The garden received a full width level patio and the planting of perennials to reduce work.

Of course, two days before the work started, Mike suffered a TIA from which he has gradually recovered apart from low level memory loss. Being human, we both feel the effects of getting a little older, but remain generally quite well.

It will be apparent to you that our intention is to remain in Reading where our friends are. Road traffic increases and we routinely use a sat-nav even for the weekly visit to ALDI to bypass jams.

In January we attended the Thanksgiving for Janet’s Aunt Lucy in Stourbridge. She was 96 and a much-loved Auntie. Janet had always felt close to her because they had followed a similar career in nursing.

In April we attended the Thanksgiving in Reading for Pam Jarvis who had been a particular friend to Janet in Reading.

In June, long haul flights having become too tiring especially for Janet, we enjoyed a couple of week’s holiday near St Mawes in Cornwall on a farm with entertainment provided by moo-cows scratching their heads on an adjacent stone wall, a boat trip across the water to Falmouth and excursions to National Trust gardens, a death experience for Mike because he will never be able to emulate them.

In July we travelled up to Liverpool to attend the Thanksgiving for Alan Turnbull who, with Marion his wife, had been very supportive to us in the mission work in which we were jointly involved in Malawi, Central Africa between 1993 and 1995.

It is quite impossible to express our gratefulness for their kindness for so many things, even lending us their house and car at different times, and their love especially when Malawi felt more like a war zone than the warm heart of Africa.

In August, Janet’s father moved to the Isle of Wight and we visited him after some weeks. Richard, one of Janet’s three brothers and his wife Jeanette are caring for him in their beautiful home in Wootton Bridge, and he is settling in well to his new surroundings and enjoys being part of a family again.

In September, our dear Japanese friend Kik died after a long illness. She had lived with us all together for about seven years, had become a part of the family, been a bright and shining light, and we loved her dearly.

At intervals we travelled north-east to Norfolk to visit Mike’s brother Paul and wife Carol in Aylsham; they always look after us very well.

Both of us are wired into the 21st century with PCs, tablets and smartphones; Janet to keep in touch via WhatsApp, etc, and Mike to read the newspaper. Mike is known to occasionally use computers for useful things when they are not requiring updates or repairs.

We greatly value our church, Earley Christian Fellowship, are concerned about the immense moral, cultural and political changes occurring in the UK, and fully aware that the only way forward is dependence upon God. Our church friends, here and around the country, continue to be a great blessing to us, and we hope that we can be a blessing to them through hospitality, through input into the church, and having people to stay from time to time.

Sons Tim and Ben, in their thirties, are making their way professionally: Tim is working in Reading in systems management, and Ben is working in Bracknell and is engaged.

We want to assure you of our love; we increasingly value the love of family and friends.

A Guid New Year to Ane an' A'. (Christmas 2010 News)

Mike and Janet
at the World Outreach Summit
in South Africa in 2007
(the paunch is an illusion)

Again, we want to thank you for Christmas Cards and Newsletters that we have received over the last few weeks, all pored over (or should that be pawed over) with great interest.

We value all our friends and relatives, and hope that we will be able to maintain more contact with many of you as increasing seniority slows our pace of life.

However if our experience since Mike turned 65 is anything to go by, Parkinson’s law - activities expand to occupy all available time - continues to operate.

Mike writing…

Over the last few days we have been trying to reduce the paperwork in the house, and, in the process, have come across copies of letters going back to 1990. It was in January 1993 we went as a young family to Malawi to do whatever the Lord showed us to do. We had felt for some years that it was too easy to carry on as we were, in a lower-middle-class very comfortable existence, and we wanted to ‘up’ our contribution to the spread of the gospel.

Somehow we were accepted by World Outreach, although our background must have been very different from others that they had partnered with, and they must have been aware how naïve we were. But they were willing to run with us and be supportive in whatever way they could, and in January 1995 we unilaterally decided to return to the UK.

The two years in Central Africa were life-changing, and it is even possible that others benefited from having us around in Africa just as we definitely benefited greatly from them. Financially in today’s terms it cost us about a quarter of a million pounds in terms of the smaller house we now have, but it was a good deal, and we would do it again.

It is not possible to evaluate what benefit it was to the children young men Tim (now 28) and Ben (26) both grown up and now away from home. Except that one evening a few years ago I gave Tim a lift to football, and after he had parked the car, found him playing without self-consciousness in the middle of a game of 25 or so big, powerful black lads with dreadlocks, any one of whom I would have been scared to meet on a dark night.

Since then the years have rolled on, and God has continued to talk to us about many things – we don’t imagine that we are any different from you in this respect – and cared for us through redundancy, church splits and varying health, and we are wondering what next we can do to ‘up’ our contribution to the spread of the gospel.

We see opportunities to become involved with charities working in the town – there are so many ways we could help others – but something stops us each time. We are aware that it is so easy to be exclusive – so many people are and we need to consider “Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me”.

So we have come to 2010 with me reaching 65 in August with Janet a few years behind. Since 2003 I had worked as Operations Director for World Outreach UK, creating office systems and running the UK office. In November 2009 I relinquished this responsibility and one year later resigned fully from the UK trust to allow me to completely clear my desk.

Since December 2009, Janet has been caring in our home for a lady friend with early-onset Alzheimer’s. Because she has been a friend for almost ten years, Janet felt that it was something that we could do for a time, with my agreement and support. So Janet does most of the caring, and I the paperwork, and both are almost full time jobs.

We enjoy the company of dear friends at Earley Christian Fellowship, but feel that life is ‘on hold’ for the moment. In the mean time we try to ‘shake the house down’ – to discard non-essentials: books, furniture, clothes, without knowing what the next stage is going to be. Will we move? We don’t know. We hang on to the Lord and live a day at a time. Will we go abroad again? We read somewhere "25,000 people come to the Lord in sub-Saharan Africa every day". Is there some way we can help? We are open to doing so.

It’s too easy to settle for being comfortable, but we don’t think it’s what God made us for. We see a heavenly city and want to secure all our futures there.

This comes with all our love to you – thank you for your love and for continuing to be a friend.

Janet writing…

Over the last few years it’s been difficult getting to all the jobs that need to be done to rejuvenate the house, mainly because Mike’s stronger muscles have not been available for these tasks.

So, in answer to prayer, we were very pleased to obtain the service of Polish builders to replace the back fence – the neighbours were delighted – the low front wall – the neighbours were even more delighted – and to repaint soffit and fascias – the bits around the roof overhang. Mike even entered into the spirit of renewal and got a ton of topsoil dumped at the front so that he could re-grass the garden and plant shrubs in soil rather than clay – the neighbours were ecstatic. They are keen gardeners.

The Polish builders turned out to have Russian and Rumanian components, and we discovered that they had to use simplified English to communicate even among themselves!

In our holidays this year we have been unable to chase the sun, but have enjoyed the generous hospitality of friends in the UK. In July we spent a few days with a friend who lives in Babbacombe on Tor Bay and moved on to other friends in Penryn near Falmouth. How clear are the skies and bright the colours in that part of the world! And what a delight to bask in the sun at Kynance Cove; we were last there 30 years ago on our honeymoon!

In October we were able to spend a couple of days discovering Symonds Yat, followed by a few days with friends in Leintwardine. And in December we visited family in Aylsham for the 70th birthday of Mike’s brother, the only other relative Mike has in the UK.

To sum up the year — I have learned more about the faithfulness of God. His strength in my weakness and His incredible kindness to us as a family.

To finish off...

It is three years ago that Tim left Computer 2000 in Basingstoke where they increased targets every time he got near them, and took a job in DEFRA - you know who they are: they used to pay subsidies to farmers with fields that they later discovered to be in the middle of the North Sea. That's all sorted out now!

Ben is working hard for a company in Bracknell, getting close to or achieving targets. For both of them, it’s the business of establishing themselves where the longer-term future is a little bit clearer.

For the future for all of us, it’s a case of ‘watch this space’. According to the astronomers, we live in an expanding universe, and that’s how we see things too.

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And lastly, for your entertainment, since we all know that the world is going mad, we offer:

€400,000 for the “Flying Gorillas” dance troupe

The EU’s Culture Programme funded the “Flying Gorillas” with €200,000 in 2007 and 2009. Hornchurch’s Queen’s Theatre described the show in 2005: “Using their own language of rhythm, music and gibberish, The Flying Gorillas explore ideas of friendship, tolerance, argument and understanding. Featuring the exciting Tango, the brilliant Smelly Foot Dance and the incredibly difficult Iguana Four-Step, Tango Argumentino has an all-acoustic score using saxophones, clarinets, steel pans, didgeridoo, musical saw, Chinese percussion, rhythm bananas and some spectacular belching.” The project’s website says, “If there is any message, it’s that serious dance, music and theatre are fun.”

See Top 50 EU Waste 2010

And EU wastes £3.6bn in one year

Today Janet gave me the go-ahead

Today Janet gave me the go-ahead: she said "If you want to go to Africa again to preach the gospel, if God shows you that is what he wants you to do I will back you".

"Do you really mean that" I asked. "Of course I really mean that" she replied. "If God makes it clear that it is what he wants you to do I'll back you to the hilt".

Tonight I lay awake thinking about it. When we returned from Africa in February 1995, we were brought home by 10 different reasons including having run out of money, God graciously gave us enough extra money to buy our present house and redo the wiring, plumbing and some re-decoration.

From experiences indelibly imprinted on my mind by our time in Africa I had considered putting razor wire round the garden only to discover it would be frowned upon by the law. It had taken many months to recover from the fear of dark nights and stories of hold-ups with AK47s with which we had lived in Malawi. Did I want to go through that again? I had forgotten how that felt.

Over the meal table we had discussed why I wanted to go. Statistics from World Outreach told us that in 1900 sub-saharan Africa was only 3% Christian, but is now 50% Christian with 25,000 new believers being added every day. Who is caring for them? Or are they being sidelined into cults and weird denominations rather than being liberated into the pure gospel of a loving God.

And how can we stay in the UK, growing old, knowing what gospel grace we know? when there could be opportunities to help in Africa.

Was our time in Malawi from January 1993 to February 1995 'unfinished business', or was it just an experience along the way?

Why did we both spent time most days reading the scriptures and asking the Lord to explain them to us if we weren't going to use all this knowledge somewhere?

"I didn't have a thyroid problem last time we were in Africa. Now my body can't control it's temperature properly and I can't handle hot weather, so God will need to do something if I am to cope" Janet commented.

"And I don't have any formal theological qualifications". It was Pippa who had reminded us the previous Sunday that the church group from which we came had regarded Bible school as superfluous once 'the Holy Ghost has come' and we 'have no need that any man teach us for when he is come he will lead us into all truth'.

And that is how it had been, except that graduation from a Bible School might (a) open doors and (b) provide confidence that we could accomplish what we had in our hearts to do.

But if God is putting into our hearts to return to Africa, surely he will open the way and take us where he wants us to go? "One thing is sure", I had said to Janet this afternoon, "If God does not open the way we are going nowhere. I don't have the energy any more to push doors open. By lunchtime every day I am exhausted and it's easy to get very little done in a day".

So I lay in my bed and thought about all this, and then got up to write it all down while it remained fresh in my mind.

"What timescale?" I had asked. Janet replied after some thought "August 2011 I should think. There is too much to do for it to happen any earlier, and that will give us time to get ready and put everything into place". I shall have been retired one year.

The days since I put down the work of the World Outreach office at the end of November 2009 have been thoroughly unsatisfactory. Motivating myself to do anything at all has been very difficult. Not that I have been sitting around doing nothing - far from it. But the jobs I have set myself: to clear the house of things we could manage without, and to redecorate very simply, were just not happening. It has been difficult to detach myself from the World Outreach work which I had eaten, drunk and slept since 2003 and even today I have been again adding entries to the Operations Guide in response to a request from the new Operations Director. The website is gradually dying although the design of the new one is still continuing to grow in my mind.

"Can I share our thoughts of returning to Africa with friends?" I had asked Janet. "Yes, with closer friends, but not everyone because it may cause them to become unsettled. You're going to have to begin to put out feelers and talk to people because things won't just happen by themselves. You will have to make them happen".

It was on Sunday morning that Graham and Lisa Stevenson had spoken at the morning church meeting we attend about the parable of the talents and I had felt strongly affected by his words not to bury what we had in the ground.

So after writing this, making a hot drink, and talking to the Lord about it, I returned to bed.