Carol Purves

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.

Still with me.  Good.  A visit to the Dead Sea meant it was imperative to ‘swim’ in it.  Not as gungy as I thought it would be; I just laid in the water.  My main concern was walking on the stones; my feet aren’t made for stones.

Having seen where the Dead Sea Scrolls were found at Qumran we then visited the Israel Museum and saw the actual scrolls.  Fascinating and brilliant museum.

Bethlehem was our next stop.  Oh dear, I didn’t like it at all.  The Church of the Nativity was very ornate (though I had expected that) and the supposed place of birth was marked with a star where people were kneeling and kissing it.  I didn’t feel any sense of wonder (though fortunately my friends did) ( I think I need to concentrate on what actually did take place, Jesus was indeed born for me and you)

A 15 ft high concrete wall is being built around the city to cope with the sucidal bombers (and this is working)  Unfortunately, it is also affecting the economy of the place, especially for those living in Bethlehem and working in Jerusalem.  The check points can be impenitratable  barriers.

Stay with me for more.

Carol, the by now quite tired traveller.

Coaching from Jerusalem to the Dead Sea area was quite an experience.  The Judean Desert was so vast, so bleak, so empty and so dry.  It’s easy to imagine John the Baptist hanging out there.  The intense heat seemed to bounce off the shimmering sand.  Not the place to be without water!  We stopped at various places and read relevant Biblical passages, as we sheltered from the blazing sun under convenient shelters. (No good having the tourists dying of sun stroke!)

Qumran was where the Dead Sea Scrolls were found, high up the hillside in caves not usually reached.  I wondered if there were any more scrolls there, but no doubt they have been thoroughly searched.  Qumran was hot, hot.

Our next visit was to Masada, an isolated rock plateau where Herod the Great built one of his fortresses.  About forty years previously a group of Jewish rebels, the Sicarii, committed mass suicide rather than be captured by the Romans.  Stirring stuff.  We travelled up and down by cable car, though some tough members of our party walked down. Again it was hot, hot.

Keep reading, there is more to come.

Carol, still travelling in the Holy Land.

When I’ve finished posting this, I’m going to sit in the sun enjoying the summer which has eventually arrived.  Hot in the sun, but nothing like Israel.  It reached 41-42 degrees most days.  I didn’t come home sun burnt as I had to cover up with large sun-hat, long sleeves and crop trousers.

Each morning at home I pull back the curtains to see what the weather is.  In Israel, every morning as I pulled the curtains back, I remarked to my friend ‘It’s hot and sunny again’.

The time spent in Jerusalem involved a great deal of walking; there was so much to see.  After we’d seen most of one side of the city, we went through one of the Gates and followed the alleyways up and down the uneven steps in areas where the light seldom penetrated past the tall buildings.  It was not the Via Dolorosa but nearby; not so touristy. 

It was on these steps that I could imagine Jesus toiling with his cross on his back; the unevenness, the jostling crowds pressing on every side and the concentrated noise.

Goodness, I haven’t got very far in my narrative.  I’m only on the second day.

Carol, on her travels in Israel

Off on holiday again.  This time to Israel.  It was probably more an experience than a holiday.  I had been warned it would be energetic and it certainly was.  In the 9 days we packed in about 12 days worth of sight-seeing. 

Holiday memories soon fade away, but I don’t think these memories will ever fade.  Not only were there many interesting places to see but I now read my Bible with more understanding.  I read this morning that Jesus was in Galilee.  I’ve been there too.  Although the buildings and some of the landscape have changed, the sea hasn’t.  I can truly imagine Jesus being there.

We started in Jerusalem with two walking tours, so much to see.  I did opt out of one of the tours but still saw plenty.  One of the best memories was the view from the Mount of Olives (No longer just a name, but now a place to me)  The view down to the Kidron Valley and up to Jerusalem was unforgetable.

Unfortunately on the Mount there was a church of the Teardrop, the place where Jesus was supposed to have cried over the fate of Jerusalem.  (Wherever anything Biblical has happened, a church has been erected) 

More to follow

Carol on her visit to Israel.