Author: Carol Purves

At this time of the yearI just have to share with you our autumn colours .  I know whereever you live you will have the same wonderful scenes, especially if you live on the west side of Canada or the States.  But here in the Lake District they are particularly spectacular.  Each year it happens so quickly.

Last Friday I went down to Cockermouth and hardly a tree had turned.  Then yesterday, just five days later the  trees and bushes seemed to be like cup cakes topped with every shade of red, gold, brown, russet and yellow.  I found it difficult to concentrate on my driving.  I could just see myself saying ‘Sorry I crashed officer, but I was admiring the autumn colours.’

Some people would say that Mother Nature is wonderful.  I only half agree with that.  I say isn’t Mother Nature controlled by a Father God, wonderful.  It doesn’t just happen, you know.

Carol, in multi-coloured Cumbria.

We need to live simply so that others can simply live.

We do not rest in God’s immediate deliverance, but in His ultimate love.

She had a boyfriend with a broken leg, but she broke it off.

As writers we are sowing the seed, not reaping the harvest.

With her marriage she got a name and a dress.

God in His mercy doesn’t give us what we deserve, but by His grace gives us what we don’t deserve.

There are three signs of old age, one is loss of memory.  I forget the other two.

All that is not eternal, is eternally out of date.  C.S.Lewis

Christians, like snowflakes are frail, but stuck together can stop traffic.

Carol, a collector of wise sayings

We’ve just had another meeting of the Carlisle Christian Writers and two records were broken.  The first half of our meeting was held in the sunny garden.  (This is the end of September!!) and we had the hightest number present for any September meeting.

What a meeting it was!  We celebrated the Poetry Reading Evening that John had held for his new Poetry book and noted that Barbara will be doing a book signing for her new book in the local library.  What a talented lot we are!

‘Outside the Box’ was our homework.  One member pointed out that God often worked O.T. B.  When the Israelites had to cross the Red Sea, they could have used hundred of boats, gone round the top or swum.  But God solved the problem in a unique way (also dispatching the Egyptians)

The Israelite needed to beseige Jericho.  They didn’t do it with catapults, javalins, or starvation.  God did it with a walk and a shout!

When the Israelites needed to finish the battle with the Amorites and the time ran out, God made the sun stand still for 24 hours.

You beat that sort of God.

Carol, who often only thinks inside the box.

Usually found in the British Libruary in London, this illuminated manuscript gospel book is residing in Durham Cathebral until the end of September.  Produced about 715 AD, it was possibly produced as homage to St Cuthbert.  The work was done in a monastry off the Northumberland coast at Lindisfarne, hence the name.

The Christian manuscript contains the gospels of Matthew, Luke, Mark and John and the life and teaching of Jesus and was used for ceremonial purposes to promote the Christian religion.

I don’t usually blog about what I haven’t done, but my friend and I were hoping to travel eastwards to see these gospels.  Unfortunately there were not many days when we were both free and because the viewing was so popular, we couldn’t get a booking at a reasonable time.  Arriving back in Carlisle at 11 or 12, even if we managed to catch that particular train just wasn’t on.  British Museum here I come.

Carol, the non-traveller.

This was the month that Alan Ladd, the actor was born who died in 1964.  It was also the month when the athlete Jessie Owens of Berlin Olympic Games fame was born.  He died in 1980.  In this September George Bernard Shaw was at the height of his fame.  The Treaty of Constantinople was signed in Istanbul between the Ottoman Empire and the Kingdom of Bulgaria.  Neither the lst World War or the 2nd had happened. How long ago it all seems!

More importantly September 1913 was the month my friend Vi Taylor was born; she is still going strong.  A group of fellow writers celebrated her birthday in her lovely stone cottage with the most stunning view of Blencathra and Sharp Edge.  As we watched the clouds cast a myria patterns on the landscape.  No wonder she is still going strong.  Vi’s memory is remarkable and she is writes in her own individual and easily reconisable style.

As we all celebrated we didn’t look back, we looked forward; Vi is so interested in everything and everybody.  I think she’s trying to outlive her seventeenth century cottage.

Carol, the young

Just returned from a lovely holiday over the water.  For five days, five of us went to this small island – 33 miles by 13.  The sailing was only 66.7 miles (57.9 nautical miles.), 3 3/4 hours.  So many locals say they’ve never been there; I didn’t intend to remain one of those.

There was plenty to do.  Douglas is now the capital (previously Castletown) with a fine Victorian promanade facing the sheltered bay.  Our exploration of this town was curtailed by a day of driving rain.  Maybe another visit is called for.

This was also the day we were scheduled to go on the mountain railway up Snafell, the highest mountain (2, 035 ft).  The visibility at the top was absolutely nil.  It was difficult to see the back of the one-carriage train from the front.  The visit to the cafe was most welcome.  Maybe another visit is called for. 

The visit to the Laxey Wheel was also a culpit of the weather.  The 94 steps up to the viewing platform looked dangerous.  The wheel, the largest of its kind in the world was used to pump water out of the nearby lead mines.  Maybe another visit is called for.

Keep reading;  The rest of the holiday was sunny and warm.

Carol, the mini Manx adventurer.

Extracts from my book on Amazon, titled Amazonian Missionary

“If they were the first white men in the area, it was rather scary.  What kind of reception would they receive when they reached the first village on the riverbank?

‘It’s good Joao and Warinao are so skilled at navigating these canoes.  It wouldn’t do to bump into one of those logs’, said Edwin.

‘Especially as some of those logs are crocodiles’, said Harold.

Edwin turned pale uner his recently acquired South American tan.”

Another extract –

“Harold found it difficult to explain the gospel; their cutlute was so different.

‘Big Chief, we were sent by the Great Spirit with a message for you’

‘Do you know the Great Spirit’? he was asked.

‘Yes, we’re His messengers.’

‘What does he look like?’

‘We don’t know because He is a spirit.  You believe in spirits, but you don’t know what they look like.

It was an uphill task.

Another extract.

“The native returned from battle.

‘We won the fight.  Our enemies have been beaten and we captured two of them’.

‘Where are they now?’

‘Oh, we ate them.’

Read more on Amazon, ‘Amazonian Missionary’, the life of Harold Wildish  by Carol Purves.

Carol, the missionary writer.

What else could I write about at this time of year but the Keswick Convention? (that is the original convention set among the fabulous beauty of the English Lake District) It’s completely awe-inspiring; from every part of the town the mountains form a magnificant backdrop to the area.

In July and August the population is swelled by nearly 4,000 conventioners.  I was only able to attend on some days but managed to hear the Bible studies by John Lennox.  An eniment scientist, my simple mind found him very deep and my notes are not clear enough to quote to you. 

One thought I think I can share is – the atheists say the world created the gods; the Christian mindset says God created the world. – see Genesis 1 & 2.  If you want to hear all the things he actually said, you can obtain the CD’s, DVD.s or USB etc.

This Sunday (28th July) on BBC 4 at 8.10 am a service from the convention will be broadcast.

Carol, the conventioner

Carlisle Christian Writers meeting again.  We had a lovely talk by a young student studying for a degree in Creative Writing.  She was delightful.  As she belongs to the ‘on-line generation’ I know she will be reading this, so I say again, she was delightful.

As writers we need to be creative and think ‘outside the box’.  To that end we were presented with three objects and thought what children might see them as.  For example with a box they would imagine it was a train, a station, a garage etc.

Firstly ‘a candle’.  Our ingenious ideas included, a space rocket, a totum pole, a shrunken tower, plane with a light or melted down to grease a bicycle chain.  Next a glass of water.  We imagined it as a home for tadpoles, used for a water fight, launch for a rocket or a kaleidoscope using coloured paper.  Finally a book which could contain secret instructions, hide a will, upended used as a garage, or heaven forbid, torn up for a paper chase.

One clever member used all three items together; the candle was a rocket, the glass of water the launch pad and the book for spectators to sit and watch.  That was real imagination.

Carol, thinking outside the box – a song

Then the quiet part of the holiday, which was no cooler. We stayed in chalets on the southern shore of the Sea of Galiee.  I was amazed to see the sights that Jesus had seen, Capernaum, Nazareth, Jericho (now being excavated), a sail on the Lake in a ‘Jesus’ boat, seeing where the Jordan  joined and  left the Sea of Galilee, Caesarea Philippi.  Also the places where Jesus performed miracles, preached and visited.

In the midst of this tranquility we went up the Golan Heights and realised that the problems of the world were still very much with us.  There had been an ‘incident’ a few days previously and the military presence had been reinforced.  How we needed to pray for Syria, Lebanon, Jordan and places where the refugees have fled to.

Our first stop on the way back to the airport was Caesarea on the shores of the blue Mediterranean.  The end had come.  We went from a high of 42 degrees to 9 and that was on a warm London evening. 

What a memorable and blessed time we had.  I think it would be good if every Christian was able to visit the Holy Land; it really brought the Bible to life.

Carol, the returned prodigal.