Author: Carol Purves

Having a very small family and now being ‘older’ rather than ‘younger’ I’ve not had many wedding invitations recently. Therefore I was so excited to receive one for last Saturday. Josef came to England from the Czech Republic half a dozen years ago.

Although an engineer by trade, he had to work in a care home for a while until he qualified as a physiotherapist. He has now met and has married a lovely Christian local girl. Joseph has no family in this country and just a few relatives back in Europe.

Therefore those of us were kind to him when he first arrived in this country were invited as guests to his wedding. What a lovely unexpected pay-back for our kindness all those years ago.

Carol

From the windows of my house I can see a set of traffic lights. Day and night they continue their routine – red, amber, green, instructing the traffic to stop, get ready to proceed and then go.

How like the way God leads us through our Christian life. At times He asks us to stop and rest, to recover from the battering life has given us.  ‘He makes me to lie down in green pastures’ Ps 23:2-3

At other times we are to recharge our batteries for the next stage of life. We have opportunity for increased Christian fellowship, more time to study His word and a possibility of adding greater depth to our prayer. ‘Put on the whole armour of God.’ Eph 6:11

Then God give us the go head to embark on some new field of service. ‘Be strong and courageous.’ Joshua 1:9

The ‘green’ periods of life are not possible without the ‘red’ and ‘amber.’

The extremely heavy wind had blown most of the leaves  off the trees. With withering leaves hurled into untidy heaps, the garden looked a mess. My bulging schedule for the day hardly allowed time to clear up.  Matters were not helped when three-year-old Lucy wanted to help me.  With little grace I found her a small broom.

After a few moments I found Lucy slowly picking up leaf after leaf and examining them minutely. Before I could remonstrate with her to get on with the job, she handed me a beautiful golden leaf.

‘Look, pretty.’ She then rushed round picking up other ‘pretty’ specimens – yellow, red, purple, pink and golden brown, tracing their shapes with her little fingers.

I stood ashamed. I’d only seen another task in a full day; she had seen the perfect hand of the creator.  Lucy had open my eyes to a loving God who has given us so much beauty.

Carol

Hurricane Matthew

Before I cease from writing about my visit to the States, I will update you on how the hurricane affected my friends. Listening to the news it seems the hurricane didn’t make landfall after it left Haiti. (What terrible destruction they received in a country which hadn’t even recovered from the earthquake in 2010) South Carolina appeared to have very high winds and flooding. My friends living near Charlotte escaped the worst of the damage.

They were deluged with plenty of rain but fortunately no structural damage or flooding and few trees uprooted. An event at the nearby university was cancelled with tattered tents and signs.

Fortunately our weather seems so tame in comparison. The same can be said of our politics!

Carol

Weather

This state has had a very hot summer. But by the time I was there the temperature wasn’t much over 30 degrees.  It was a shock on my return to find it was under 15 degrees back in England. The heat wasn’t really a problem as one goes from air conditioned house to air conditioned car and then air conditioned buildings.

Because my friend had had a serious car accident at Easter she wasn’t driving. This meant we had walk about five minutes to the shops. We always went early in the morning before the heat of the day.  Walking is an unusual thing there as people just do not walk!

Unlike this country the weather is not the main topic of conversation. What do you say when it is nearly always sunny and hot.

I soon got used to being called ma’am but what I really didn’t like was being addressed as Miss Carol.

Carol

Language

Everyone I met was absolutely lovely, but we are divided by a language. On my computer I’m used to ‘color’ instead of ‘colour’ and ‘center’ instead of ‘centre.’ We also have the difference of ‘autumn’ or ‘fall; ‘rubbish’ or ‘garbage’ or ‘trash.’ I didn’t list all the differences and after a couple of weeks I accepted them without thought.

The one which really pulled me up short was ‘normative.’   Not in my Oxford English Dictionary but my computer accepted it. Help.

Carol

Travelling

I’ve just been in South Carolina to visit a friend for 2 1/2 weeks. I will share some of my happenings with you and this blog is about travelling (or should be traveling in America)

I can’t praise British Airways enough. Polite air hostesses and hosts. Nothing was too much trouble. After a particular bumpy ride flying into Manchester on the return journey, the passengers clapped a very smooth landing. Good feeling all round.

Some things were an enigma. Taxi fare from Manchester Station to hotel was a whopping £20 and £5 on the return journey. Same distance, about nine minutes each time.

Not yet learned how to sleep on the 8 hours nighttime return flight nor how to prevent catching serious bugs from the aircraft. Three days in bed is not a good way to start a holiday.

Carol

If you go wandering round my website, you will find the second re-print of my book on Gladys Aylward. There are not many changes, so maybe you will not want to buy this but you are sure to have many friends you can recommend it to.

Someone asked why another reprint? Well, all the original books have sold and so have the first reprint. As I travel round lecturing and talking about Gladys I find she still has a great following.

I’m not surprised. she was an intrepid young lady working for the Lord, travelling alone right across Russia to China at a time when travel was difficult, especially for females. She met extreme difficulties on the way, nearly losing her life on more than one occasion.

This book was printed by professional publishers who are my friends and the cover was done by a professional artist who is also my friend.

I obviously have the right friends.

Carol

I have temporarily left the cold shores of Britain to fly ‘across the pond’ to America. Watch this space. I’ll tell you all about it when I return.

Carol

‘In the year Uzziah died, I saw the Lord seated on the throne, high and exalted.’ Is 6:1 . This is what Isaiah recorded. When I read this story again, I found quite a new take on it.

There are three people in this story, Uzziah, Isaiah and God. Uzziah reigned from 792 to 749 BC, was struck down with leprosy and was leprous until he died. He has been dead for nearly 3 thousand years now.

Likewise Isaiah, was a faithful man of God and prophesied to a number of kings. There are many stories about him in the Bible and a whole book accredited to him. But he too has died.

Only one character in the story is still alive. God. The Lord alone remains. Kings may come and go; prophets die but our God goes on ‘for ever.’

Carol