An Amalgam of Shetland Sagas
Numbers 24-27
September 2003 to February 2004
The
sheer variety of life continues to amaze us. At the end of February we
will have been on Shetland for two years. Now that the building work is
completed, we really feel as though our sojourn is under way. It has
been made all the richer by having the Pritties so happily installed at
Ruach.
Just before Christmas, they hosted a lovely
party for people they have been getting to know on Burra. Sally teased a
dormant gift out of me: I rescued my recorder from a long retirement and
played recorder sonatas by Handel and Jean Baptiste Loeillet from
Flanders – my favourite baroque composer. Sally accompanied me on her
magnificent grand piano and then played beautiful pieces by Mozart and
Chopin.
Then we sang Shetlandic songs, some of which
were so difficult to translate that even the experienced Burra speakers
were struggling with many of the phrases. She has been singing a
Shetlandic version of Psalm 23 around the churches; it is a new thing to
introduce the dialect in this way into church life. The daughter of the
com- poser was with us at Ruach and was really moved to hear her
mother’s music being sung again. The whole evening felt like a slice of
history, and in many ways a boost to keep the Shetland dialect alive.
She has subsequently set a song a local woman wrote in dialect to music.
Here’s the Psalm!
Da Twenty-Third Psalm
(M. Dunbar)
Da Loard’s my hird, I sanna want;
He finns me böls athin
Green mödoo girse an ledds me whaar
Da burns sae saftly rin.
He lukks my wilt an wanless sowl
Stravaigin far fare hame
Back ta da nairoo, windin gaet,
Fir sake o His ain name.
Tho I sood geng doon Daeth’s dark gyill
Nae ill sall come my wye,
Fir He will gaird me wi His staff
An comfort me firbye.
My table He haes coosed wi maet
Whin faanting göd da fremmed:
My cup wi hansels lippers ower
My head wi oil is sained.
Noo shörly aa my living days
Göd’s love sall hap me ower,
Until I win ta His ain hoose
Ta bide fir evermore.
It is always special to welcome old friends up
here. We had precious times of fellow- ship with Steven and Hazel, who
were really blessed by what the Lord did for them here. They have
written to us today:
A Shetland Saga Snippet
by Steven and Hazel
Hildreth
(Administrators for MFOT in the 1980’s)
1) From Steven .
‘Saga’ has nothing to do with being over 50 – it
just means a "tale" in old Norse! May we tell you our tale of Shetland
and the Lord?
Hazel and I have reached an important crossroads
in our lives. We had been seeking the way forward for several years and
finding it frustratingly elusive to find out where we should be living.
Most issues like this can and should be sorted
out in the local body, but we both felt that this was one where our
beloved Christian mentors Robert and Rosalind could have a crucial input
– even if it was only to ask the right questions – which is often three
parts of the answer. I confess, however, that I had some doubts over
whether it was fair to expect such specific advice or even whether the
Lord would speak decisively.
While that was the major reason for our visit
there was an overlapping one. Maybe because of my unusual Norse-sounding
surname I have long loved the lands of Nordic influence - around York
where we live and also Orkney which I have visited several times. Thirty
five years ago, in my early twenties, I worked closely with the Liberal
leader, Jo Grimond (1913-1993) who was the M.P. for Orkney and Shetland.
I told him then of my deep wish to visit Shetland. It was distance and
expense that has always put us off - but now at last the chance came to
make the trip with the "coincidental" receipt of a tax rebate just
before we discovered the eye watering cost of the air fares! (Twelve
hours on the Shetland ferry would have been stomach churning rather than
eye watering!).
But I have another confession to make . . . I
was a tiny bit miffed that the Westons and our other dear friends, the
Pritties, had beaten us to Shetland and written such gushing reports . .
. surely it could not really be better than "my" Orkney? The Shetland
Islands, however, are simply magnificent - empty white sand beaches,
tiny islands, soaring cliffs, beautiful birds, and a myriad of colours.
We felt our senses assaulted by the sheer variety of natural beauty. God
must have had such fun creating Shetland. The weather was glorious, even
in late October and we both sensed God's nearness in a very, very
special way. We saw a rainbow on each of our five days there -- on one
day we were even chased by one. It really is far more beautiful than
Orkney and marvellous to have visited it at last. I even found the
settlement of the man who just might have been responsible for my
surname - Hillswick is reputedly named "after a Norseman named Hildr"!
It was very good to see our friends again in the
surroundings that they had described and we received sound and enabling
counsel even though (confession number three!) I had the fleeting but
churlish thought like that of Naaman the leper that it seemed -- well --
a little unexciting and downbeat. But I had reckoned without God's
concentrated grace to us . . . Our last night on the islands was the
first night of a special long weekend conference on prophecy with a very
experienced speaker which the Shetland Intercessors Team had organised.
This speaker had a message for us which both confirmed the guidance that
we had just received but also added the spiritual insight that it was
necessary for us to move for a particular reason which we understood.
The churlish thoughts were chased away and replaced by a deep sense of
gratitude - for God's love and care and peace; for friends; for ministry
gifts; for the beautiful Shetland islands; for holidays . . .
We got talking to a couple in our B. & B. on our
last night. They were in Shetland because they were at a crossroads and
seeking the Lord too! We told them that there was a conference going on
which might help them . . . and it did! Isn’t God good?
2) Part of an email from Hazel
‘Dear Robert and Roz Thanks for everything – yet
again. Thank you for moving to Shetland and introducing us to it. As we
drove back after staying in St Andrews (where it felt a lot, lot colder
than Shetland) I thought of the words of the poem – Deep peace of the
running wave to you. Deep peace of the flowing air to you. Deep peace of
the quiet earth to you. Deep peace of the shining stars to you. Deep
peace of the Son of Peace to you.
These well-known words had real meaning for the
first time after being on Shetland because of the waves, and the earth
and the stars, and I had received this peace which was the thing I
needed after the turmoil of the past few years. I don't feel the same
person moving about the house this morning. I've totally fallen in love
with Shetland!
On leaving our guesthouse, the lady said "I want
to keep you". No-one has ever said that to us before! The couple we met
said it was meant to be that they met up with us. I had hoped before
coming that I would be able to tell someone else about the Christine
Larkin Conference and they were able to come along. Amazing timing for
them too. I took three rolls of film and bought a video on Shetland – an
early Christmas present that I want to show everyone. It is lovely to
picture you and the Pritties now where you live. You have done well.
Needless to say we will pray even more for you all and Shetland now. I
am sure we will be back.’
Meteorological
Milestones
No report from Shetland is complete without a
weather report. We enjoyed some really warm days at the start of
October, when we were able to sit on the rocks directly below our house
and listen to the waves lapping gently in without needing to wear too
many coats, watching the divers swimming to with a few feet of us, while
shoals of fish swarm at our feet in the perfectly clear waters. Who
would want to be anywhere else?
The weather has been kind to us in December too.
We have enjoyed five Azores style days, with the most beautiful lights
imaginable. What a treat! For the last few days a typical gale has been
blowing; nothing special but the snow, hail and rain have been coming
down horizontally from the north. The house is shuddering and groaning
and the car is rocking on its suspenders! When I tried to put on an over
coat yesterday it blew over my head and wrapped itself all round me.
The birds are making next to no headway against
the wind, so dozens of them are resting outside our window, pecking at
who knows what in the barren grass: all the way from long-billed curlews
down to tiny sparrows. When they take off down- wind, however, they zip
along like bullets from a machine gun. As I am writing, the wind is
banging and thudding and ham- mering the hurricane-proof roof until it
hums in agony but refuses to be torn off. There is nothing untoward
about all this: it is just a relatively innocuous Shetlandic ‘flan’.
We’ll let you know what it is like when a real wind hits us!
Twenty-one hours later. Spoke too soon. The wind
blew in our front door yesterday after- noon. (We do live in a very
exposed location)! You can picture Ros, self and Tim leaning with all
our strength against it. The wind just howled with laughter. Tried again
with a substantial chair and a heavy music stool. No go. More howls.
That was when Ros came up with the bright idea of wedging it with a
combination of carefully positioned planks and bricks. That kept us snug
enough over night.
Two weeks later: We promised to let you know
what it was like when a real wind hit us (as opposed to one of those
trifling zephyrs that stove in our front door a few weeks ago). The New
Year came in with a rush: a wind so strong that several knowledgeable
locals reckoned it was almost as powerful as the one that sank the Braer
back in January 1991. (I must be getting tired; I wrote 'that sank the
Blair!').
Mind you, the one that ushered in the New Year
in 1993 touched wind speeds of 200 mph in the extreme north of Shetland
before blowing the weather gauge away. And then there was one in 2000
that deposited a portion of The Rock's old roof in a field a quarter of
a mile away! This one merely snatched tiles from Ruach's roof, and
enjoyed itself ripping satellite dishes from people's houses. I was
greeted in one house on New Year's day by a comment that took me a few
moments to work out: 'The sky's been blown away!'
I wasn't worried about our roof - but it did
cross my mind that the whole house might take off with the roof still
firmly attached! You don't see many 'things' lying around on Shetland
for obvious reasons, but I did see some mangled farm gates. The seas
crashing in on the coast were enormous Good job the boats didn't sail
over New Year! There was a continual roar and howling in our bedroom.
The bed was shaking under us. The most amusing aspect was that the WC in
the en suite became a high-powered bidet shooting water up into the air!
Now is there a prophetic message in all this?
The wind that greeted the New Year a few years ago took off the roof of
the Methodist church in Lerwick. Christine Larkin, from Graham Cooke’s
ministry team, ran an excellent prophetic conference here in the autumn
and felt Lord showing her that He wants to 'take the roof off' in the
way we think and do church up here on Shetland. This year the roof of
the Church of Scotland in Scalloway suffered the same fate. God is
speaking – may we have ears to listen and hearts to change!
Landslide!
We had an extraordinary landslide recently on
Shetland; it actually made national news. A sudden downburst of rain
following an exceptionally dry summer waterlogged the peat on a mountain
and caused the whole hill to slide away. It crumbled away in ten places
over a four mile stretch, sweeping sheep to their death and depositing
thousands of tons of mud in all directions. The crash barriers on the
only road that connects the north to the south mainland were swept away.
One of our friends was trapped in his car between two of the slides.
Apart from being terrified, he was sorry he didn’t have a book to keep
him company until he was rescued. Another friend was the last driver to
get through before it all came down.
The road was finally partially reopened on a
convoy system, but continued to be closed every evening for many days
after that – which caused major inconvenience for people living down on
South Mainland.
Sally Prittie wrote a powerful psalm-song about
the landslide. She has been bringing people together on Burra to form a
choir and have been having great fun together. She knows that a major
reason for her being here is to stir up the buried (rather than latent)
gifts of Shetlandic music. (Fiddle music is doing much better than the
folk song side of things). She has also set part of Catherine Brown’s
prophecy about Shetland to music:
‘You, O Shetland, are a land of quiet meditation
and a land where the Lion of Judah has been heard to roar, and will roar
again in the outpouring of My Spirit that will come upon My people. For
you are a people who have a heritage of walking in reverence and awe of
your Heavenly Faither. Holiness is whispered in your bones, and Holiness
will again revive the dead bones in Bride.’
A delight to be back in
Dresden
I think I landed in Germany with a slight
feeling of 'can it really be as good this time as it was several years
ago?' It most certainly was! It all came back – including the language.
We slipped constantly into prayer wherever we were, and between English
and German the whole time. It was a special delight to see Christiana
von Albrecht again, who has grown notably in the Lord.
The Creativity Conference went well: there were
even four or five 14 year olds present, one of whom is already known as
a prophetess in her church. (This always was the largest church in
Dresden, but it has grown since I was last there). It was very good to
see old friends again when preaching there the next day, and making new
ones too. The overall worship leader is only 18, but he has a lovely
heart. I even came across someone who used to be Kjell Schöberg’s taxi
driver!
One night the presence of the Lord was so strong
that we could hardly move; it accompanied a powerful impression that
‘being right isn’t enough!’ In the kingdom of God, that desire can
actually become a dangerous thing. It led to what I called a love bath
of conviction as the Lord took us inward on this subject, as well as
outward in intercession.
Should we always go out and immediately try to
put things right when we realise that we have insisted too hard? There
may well be times when that is indeed the appropriate thing to do, but
we felt the Lord warning us that to do so could easily become just
another subtle attempt to justify ourselves. Better just to place
everything we do in His hands and to trust His Spirit to prompt us as He
desires.
A special touch from
the Lord in Weimar
I had deliberately booked an extra day in
Germany, just in case the Lord had anything special up His sleeve. My
goodness, He did! I had been invited to spend some time with friends,
but I held back, sensing the Lord had something else in mind. When I
heard that there was to be a special Crescendo day in Weimar, three
hours drive to the west of Dresden, I felt this might be it. (I led a
weekend for the Christian musicians in Weimar five years ago at the
inaugural meeting of this group).
I was even more certain this was the right
course of action when I heard that one of the members I know fairly well
had fallen away from all contact with Christians and was going out
seriously with a Muslim. When we rang her, to our delight she expressed
a great willingness to come along to the day with us. We made an early
start and got to Weimar in time for coffee, which allowed me to be
introduced to a Canadian lady.
What happened next is so deep it can hardly be
put into words.
‘What did you say your name is?’ Patricia asked.
With dawning amazement, I realised that this was the lady I had led to
the Lord 26 years ago in Paris. (She has been singing with an opera in
Leipzig for the past seven years) but had been praying that the Lord
would somehow contrive to bring me across her path again! And I had
thought of her just a week before going to Dresden, when she had
suddenly ‘stood before me’ in my spirit. I had thought it such a shame
that I had no way of ever getting in touch with her again. I had
concluded that it was one of those ‘have to leave it to paradise’ jobs.
With tears streaming down her face, Patricia
shared this testimony at the start of the musicians' meeting. What a
perfect ice breaker! I then shared my side of the testimony. (You may
have read it else- where, but Patricia herself was unaware of it). One
Sunday morning in October 1977, for the one and only time in its
honourable career, my alarm clock failed to go off. This meant that I
was too late to go to the meeting I had planned to attend in Paris.
I asked the Lord what I should do instead, and
remembered that somebody had given me the name of an English pastor. I
assumed he must be a retired man, and might be glad of some company, so
I timed my visit to his address for afternoon tea. To my astonishment,
it turned out to be a thriving English speaking church and the pastor
was anything but retired! I was invited to give my testimony. At the end
of the afternoon meeting, this lovely Canadian lady (then an 18 year old
au pair) came up to me and said that if I was looking for someone to
convert I could convert her!
What a joy to help pray her into the kingdom! We
both became regular members of the very exciting fellowship we were
privileged to be a part of until we went our separate ways the following
summer. And here we were twenty six years later, basking in the Lord’s
goodness, and speaking German this time instead of French. It will not
be 27 years till we meet again!
God had not finished blessing us that day
either. We took the friend whom we had made the trip to see out for
lunch, and had a precious time with her. I was pretty sure that her
boyfriend was being so nice because he was desperate to procure a German
passport by marrying her. As we explained, ‘you cannot marry a
passport!’ We also sensed he would be bringing a good deal of baggage
with him. How can you explain this without sounding offensive? I had a
picture of a train and explained that she was looking at the engine,
which was very attractive, but not noticing the carriages that were
lying in wait behind. She took the hint and expressed her willingness to
come free of her relationship, (even though he is so much ‘in her head’)
and to come back to the Lord’s people.
She is now staying with friends of ours in
Dresden and looking for a job and a new start there. Please do pray her
on her way; this is an utterly crucial time for her.
We also had time to go and visit our friends
Jurgen and Monica, who used to be the pastors of the Jesus Gemeinde
church, who we have often visited in the past. (We even found ourselves
together on the Isle of Skye once). They did a precious job ‘keeping’
the Lord’s people holy during the years of persecution, and are now
pastoring a church in Erfurt, four hours from Dresden. May the Lord be
extra special to them in their advancing years.
Mowbray Lodge,
Manchester and home again
So once again it was with a great sense of the
Lord's love and of 'mission accomplished' that I left Dresden and
hastened back to Mowbray Lodge, where Mum and Dad have been through a
torrid time. Mum is on the mend after a very nasty fall down the stairs,
but the pain, inconvenience and hassle factor have been high. It has
entailed being in hospital for more than a month, with all the stress
and inconvenience that that brings. (She went more than a week after
being admitted before being seen by a doctor (!) I was able to get down
for a few days just before Christmas. The nurse said she was unable to
tell me the scan results over the phone and I would need to come in and
book a private time with the consultant. She made it sound quite
ominous, but I remembered the wisdom of an American obstetrician who
once told me, ‘The medical profession are expert at inducing anxiety.’
So I did my best to stay even blood-pressured,
only to be met by a consultant who told me that the scan had revealed
nothing whatsoever! Why on earth couldn’t the staff sister have hinted
that there was nothing to worry about? The reason why Mum has taken so
many tumbles and now needs a Zimmer frame to walk with remains a
mystery. Mowbray Lodge has been revamped around to enable Mum to stay
downstairs, but they have obviously embarked on a life of reduced
mobility. Please continue to keep them in your prayers.
Ros and I did an intensive burst of gardening
(25 wheelbarrow loads!) to get the borders back under control, and left
with several hastily gathered bags of Bramley apples (Having to buy
apples up here in the autumn feels very strange after our Shropshire
orchard!) They lasted until the new year and brought a flavour of
Mowbray Lodge with them.
We took in a quick trip over to the West
Midlands to minister in a Baptist church. People appreciated the music,
the fact that Ros and I preached together, as well as the specific
challenge that we brought, to judge from the comeback we have had.
It was lovely to work with Wellspring again,
ministering in North Manchester in a region where commercial
developments (Temples of Mammon!) have reduced the local population from
over 20,000 to little more than 2,000. Many of those who have moved out
have remained faithful to the church, however, which is well pastored
and full of love. It was precious to catch up with several old friends
who had motored across for the occasion from as far as way as Liverpool
and Hull.
I had been asked to speak on the subject of
Hearing God’s Voice, which had prompted me to spend several weeks in the
run up to coming south preparing a detailed set of notes (100 pages
long) on the subject. This is now evolving into a full-scale publication
on ‘Listening to the Lord’ which I am doing my best to complete when
time permits.
I spoke for a short time and then invited
questions, to make sure that we were scratching where it itches, and
proceeded from there. After lunch, in a 'Prophecy and Intercession'
seminar, I felt the Lord encouraging us to do things in this seminar
that people can not get from books and tapes. I invited people to get
into groups of three and to prophesy in into each other’s lives about
their prayer lives, before they said anything about themselves. After
all, even in negaholic Britain, if you are a good cellist, teacher or
flower arranger, somebody will usually eventually say something
positive. But who will speak into the heart of our relationship with the
Lord? It was a precious time in which God met with many.
In a sense the Lord kept the best to last: an
easy journey up country, and then a delightful time with our friends in
Aberdeenshire, including a beautiful autumn walk along the river Dee. We
regard each other as our ‘near neighbours-across-the-water.’ For the
second year running part of my birthday was spent on the boat, but the
crossing was much better this time, and the ‘sea killer tablets’ worked
a treat.
Any would-be ‘Associate Shetlanders’ out there,
don’t forget that you can catch up on Francis and Sally’s delightful
Shetland Chronicle by writing to Ruach, Bridge End, Shetland, ZE2 9LE.
News from Ruth in
Uganda
Ruth is doing really well in Uganda, and says
the Lord is giving the grace to teach up to a hundred orphans at a time.
She is leading Bible studies, doing a host of other things and getting
the time she needs on her own with the Lord. She preached on ‘Intimacy
with the Father’ recently and suddenly realised with a laugh that she is
doing what her Dad does! She bumped into our dear friend Terry Charlton
at both Heathrow and Entebbe airports; Terry’s trip to Kenya was greatly
blessed. Ruth writese:
‘Uganda is a beautiful, green country . . . and
the people are friendly, humble and hospitable. When we flew over to
Entebbe the sun rose in less than a minute! The sunsets are spectacular
– bright red, mauve and burnt orange tinged with gold. We spent a few
days orientation in Kampala – a crazy city full of lunatic taxis and
street stalls . . . Mbale is very peaceful by comparison.
It's great to feel settled now, and we have
become mates with the salt bread men (normal bread is yellow and too
sugary) and the milk men and boda-boda men. Boda-bodas are an amusing
form of transport. It's basically a bike with a cushion attached to the
back, which you sit on as someone pedals you – it's the equivalent of
15p to get to the other side of town! When we walk past them in the
morning, they leap from their shelter to their bike with cries of "yes
mzungu, we go!" Everywhere we go we are followed by chants of 'mzungu!'
I respond to the name 'white person' just as readily as to 'Ruth'! Our
team are cool, although sometimes it gets a bit intense seeing the same
faces 24/7. I'm sure they'd agree! We're very diverse which means we
have lots to learn from each other. Because there are four lads, the
house is generally in a state! I share a room with Sally, and we've been
having a laugh painting our bedroom wall African-style using acrylics.
Our house is lovely – we even have two flushing toilets!
Our next door neighbours are all wicked too, and
we can always ask them for any advice we need. We've been doing lots of
teaching - I teach Primary One (P1 - aged 4 to 8) and P3 (aged 10) at
one school, and P4 (aged 12) at another. They've just broken up for
their Christmas holidays, the equivalent to our Summer holidays.
Teaching and preparing has been a challenge – some days are really
fulfilling, others exhausting right down to depressing! The kids are all
at quite different abilities, and have an obsession with balloons.
Sometimes us brave mzungus line up to form a human net when we play
wateballoon volleyball. They come out with some amusing lines, such as
one incident when a girl was sitting in a lad's view of the blackboard,
so he told her "you remove your head!"
Disciplining them is hard – they fight a lot,
and the usual method here is by caning but we just put them in a corner
for a while. All four classes are held in one big church hall, so it
gets very noisy. There are no resources other than a blackboard and
benches for each class, and we supply the chalk. The two teachers, Henry
and Deo, are very committed but hardly getting any salary at all.
Prayers needed for this, as we're trying to help them find sustainable
income such as breeding farm chickens. With the spare time, as they
don't go back until the beginning of February, we're going to do door
evangelism. Please pray I have the words and wisdom of God as I find it
quite scary!
Yesterday we had a feast as it was report day –
I've never seen so much rice in my life! I helped the women peel matokee,
a kind of savoury banana mush that is very popular here. It leaves a
gluey residue that is practically impossible to remove – we tried soap,
water, scrubbing, this weird mud stuff with abrasive tiny pebbles that
made it look like I was wearing black gloves, and finally smearing oil
and paraffin did the trick! My hands have never felt so raw! We also run
various kids clubs which go well – they love "Sleeping Simba" and
"Bananas of the world - UNITE!" Many of the children we work with are
street kids and orphans. We do Bible studies and preach on many
occasions, which is great experience and has taught us a lot. Because
Uganda is more like a biblical culture in some ways than ours is, it’s
cool to see how the Bible can be applied in more direct ways – for
instance, where it says in Proverbs that the Lord loves honest scales. I
remember this when bargaining my potatoes down to a reasonable price!
I tried a bit of bricklaying yesterday using
plumb line, which reminded me of it being described as God's measurement
of Israel in Amos. In a sense I've realised that in the West, we manage
to hide ourselves in comfort and materialism that we forget our deep
need for God, to find our sense of security in him. Here, because in
some cases God is all they have, the level of faith seems to be so much
deeper.
Every Tuesday morning we present a short gospel
message and pray with the people at TASO, the Aids clinic. This is so
challenging and draining but God is really moving and we have seen
several people give their life to the Lord, and have had encouraging
feedback. Last week I prayed for a Muslim man called Lussain, whose
whole body was shaking. After I left him to go and hand out the eggs and
tea, it felt like I was shaking too, and I remembered that we are all
meant to carry each other's burdens and get onto their level. Praise
God, He meets us exactly where we are at! [Ruth was able to lead several
to the Lord there last week]. This Monday we're going to Kikibero, a
rural village in Mount Elgon, for a week, to do various kids clubs and
youth stuff, which will be the genuine mud hut experience! For new year
we're going to Jinja to do white water rafting which is totally my
thing: Grade 5 which will be exciting. The river has amusing names like
'the bad place'! We'll be meeting up with the other two Oasis teams from
Uganda, which I'm looking forward to.
Please pray for continued protection – I've had
perfect health so far, (apart from a very bad stomach early in the new
year) and for wisdom, guidance, biblical clarity, and to be more
Christ-like. And for God to move even more powerfully through and in us.
Cheers. Will keep y'all posted on my future happenings.’ Lots of love
ruth xxx
I’m a Shetlander: get
me ‘oot a’ here.
There is no cheap way of getting off the island.
Negotiations are under way but until they are successful it costs more
to go from Shetland to London than from Lon- don to New York. I found
the nearest thing though : a Highland Air flight to Inverness. It
crossed my mind to wonder as I raced to the airport very early one
morning why I had never seen a Highland Air check out counter at the
airport before. The reason soon became clear – I was the only passenger!
The pilot came looking for me, and we enjoyed the hour-long flight south
flying over Scapa Flow and into Cromaty on a beautiful if chilly dawn
morning (much colder on the mainland than on Gulf Stream swept
Shetland). It gave a different perspective sitting up front beside the
pilot!
Going to Inverness gave me the opportunity to
spend a few hours with friends in Inverness before heading south by Easy
Jet to Luton. The days were packed with friends and ministry contacts,
and enjoying the precious anointing in the chapel of Rob and Amanda’s
lovely house in London. It was up early every time to enjoy the novelty
of underground rides. (There are precious few of them on Shetland!) I
did experience some culture shock for the first day or two: the fact
that more people probably live in the average square mile of London than
on the whole of Shetland makes the head spin.
My main reason for heading south this time was
to speak at an Armenian-English wedding of some friends. It was a moving
occasion. The worship was wonderful, led by Louise Yeghnazar, who co-led
with Roland Worton at Malvern last year, and made the richer by other
dear friends joining the worship group.
Then it was on to a reception in a five star
city centre hotel, and to pretend that this is my normal habitat! It was
an excellent chance to catch up with old friends, to make new ones and
to witness to others. There were many highlights, especially being with
people I have been praying with in great depth over the phone for the
past few months.
It was a particular delight to meet a young
lawyer of only twenty-nine, who has already served as the deputy adviser
to the Armenian government and set up a school of ethics for business
leaders in Armenia to train up the next generation of leaders in that
country. He is a good man and this is a seriously strategic vision. He
is eager to come and spend time with us up here in Shetland. May the
Lord find the right time for him to come up.
I had an hour’s walk home after the buses had
stopped running. I didn’t want to disturb my hosts, no taxis could be
bothered to stop and it was good to be reminded of what city life is all
about.
It was precious to minister again at the Iranian
fellowship. It is a joy to see the work proliferating now. At a
conference in Leeds recently there were over 350 Iranian Christians
present from the northern cities. One woman who heard me preach had just
committed her life to the Lord. She is an Iranian film director and is
about to go back to Iran. Pray for people like her to be greatly used in
opening up this country where surveillance is still so tight.
A recent television film, highlighted just how
restrictive and punitive the country really is whenever anybody mentions
the word ‘democracy.’ Many are even now being tortured during
imprisonment in that country.
I missed my flight back to Inverness by a few
minutes (Easy Jet really do close their counters forty minutes to the
minute before take off!) It was a bit frustrating at the time but I
managed to transfer to a flight to Edinburgh, and did over three hours
of useful editing on a train back up to Inverness.
My late night arrival in Inverness was followed
by a pre dawn rise to catch the newspaper plane back to Shetland. This
is something else. You arrive at the hangar (as opposed to the terminal)
in sub-zero temperatures, clamber onto the wing of the plane (which
requires some considerable callisthenic agility) and then thrust
yourself upwards and forwards to scramble through a tiny porthole into
the pilot’s seat. You then wriggle across into the co- pilot’s seat and
wait to be cleared for take off, with a ton and a half of newspapers
bound for Orkney and Shetland to enjoy a magical trip over John o’Groats
in the half light.
Dawn came as we touched down on Orkney;
(beautiful, but not to be compared with Shetland!); the pilot took a
detour over Fair Isle to give me a better view and then we were circling
down to land at Sumburgh Head in the extreme south of the island on a
truly beautiful morning.
Tidal Wave
When we closed MFOT down, we felt it was right
to organise a youth event for the summer of 2004. We considered various
venues and, much to our surprise and delight were finally led back to
Malvern College, in Worcestershire, where we have held so many
conferences in the past! The college just happened to be free for the
precise days we wanted: 2nd-7th August 2004. The venue will be the St
Edwards Centre that we have used before.
As we have no ‘outside’ forms of publicity,
could we ask you to distribute the details of Tidal Wave to friends who
might be interested. Early bookings would be of great help to us for
organising the event.
I mentioned it to sixth formers in Shetland when
ministering at the Anderson high school CU the other day. The Anderson
has again come out as the top school in Scotland, and the CU are making
a positive impact on the school. Tidal Wave is a new venture in its own
right. May the Lord make it a really special and personal time for
everyone.
The Sporting Column: A
Real Fiesta
Here’s the back page stuff for the sport’s
enthusiast! Shetland is particularly well equipped for those who love
sport, and we have benefited too. Ros only has to limber down the lane
to pick up the local rowing team. On the last of the summer regattas she
joined the mixed Whiteness and Weisdale team. In pouring rain, the men
powered her team to victory, beating the mighty Burra crew in the
process. Ros didn’t know what had hit her to be travelling at such
speed; after catching some crabs early on, she revelled in the sight of
seeing a line of boats behind instead of way ahead of her!
Notwithstanding her rowing prowess, I had been
very aware for many months that there was ‘something up’ with Ros’s
health. An exploratory operation had revealed some problems but nothing
deemed worthy of immediate attention. I was convinced that something
needed to be found. We eventually discovered that Ros has an underactive
thyroid gland which will require lifelong medication.
My health had been a bit dodgy too. I have been
diagnosed as having diabetes since moving up here, and the condition has
worsened in the last year. (It’s a particularly common problem up here).
Notwithstanding, Tim and I managed a game of outdoor cricket. They do
not have many of them up here (there's only one outdoor pitch on the
island!) but we found out about it just in time for the last game of the
season. The game is rather different up here in that bowling is
restricted to one end only due to the strength of the wind!!!! The years
rolled away and I loved every minute of it. Great fun.
Needless to say one of the first things we set
up in the garage at The Rock was the table tennis table. I haven’t
played seriously for years, and was surprised to find how much faster
the game has become in the meantime. Both the facilities and the
standards are high up here. Traditional players may be surprised to
learn that games are now only played up to 11 points [instead of 21]
with two serves at a time.
To give you an idea of where the standards are
at up here: my first game was against the best fourteen year old girl in
Scotland. I was annihilated by another player, who turned out to be the
Scottish number five – it was like playing an armoured armadillo. For
the first time in my life I found I had no overdrive left to resort to,
and began to wonder if I was ever going to win a game again. Just when I
was ruing the fact that my reflexes aren't what they used to be, the
real humbling came . . .
Wait for it – Hold your breath – I’m not sure I
believe it either: I lost my fist league match (with all the Prittie
family in at- tendance) to someone who is in the same class as Anna’s
youngest daughter (ie only ten!!. Fair do’s, she is the Number One in
Scotland for the 13s and under, plays in four different leagues in
Shetland. She has got all the shots, and, like many of the top junior
players up here, an unflappable temperament. No wonder the coach says
she is the brightest prospect they have ever had on Shetland. It was a
most surprising sensation to find myself at full stretch against someone
barely tall enough to emerge above the table at the opposite end. Hurry
up Dominic! (He plays with his feet on a peerie stool!)
Anyway, after a few weeks of watching the ball
hurtling past me at immense velocity, most of my form returned. Tim and
I play in a team of three for Westside United in the ‘B’ league and for
Scalloway in the ‘A’ league. Five months on and Westside United are top
of the ‘B’ League, but only by one point. We’ve had some really exciting
and hard-fought games, but finally lost our unbeaten doubles record last
week after umpteen final deuces in a most acrobatic match that was even
the main backpage story in the Shetland Times.
It’s a very different story in the ‘A’ League
where I lose as many as I win. There again I am giving away thirty years
or so to many of my opponents! My moment of glory came when with Andrew,
my doubles partner in the ‘A’ League, we won winning the deciding game –
the doubles – in straight sets. Both our opponents had beaten me in the
singles, and one of them is a member of the Croatian national squad!
And I got my revenge on the young lassie by
winning a playoff against her for ninth place in the Top 12 Island
tournament.
Steven mentioned the rainbows in his saga. There
seems to have been one almost every day for the past few weeks; they
have been awesomely beautiful. We missed the autumn leaves and colours,
and have long since been in the season that reminds you why post boxes
up here have metal flaps fitted in front of them – to prevent the
letters from being sucked out again by the wind. It’s a funny feeling
chucking your black plastic bags of bruck (rubbish) into the Esse cart
(dust cart) only to watch them sail out again!
Midwifery Matters: MSc
Marvels!
Ros has been presiding over a regular roller
coaster at work. It has been immensely challenging, but we are close to
finding a way forward for the maternity services. The Shetland Health
Board have been able to employ a succession of locum consultants for the
past few months to tide us over. The plan now is to establish a regular
consultant post. It is a complex story, but the long and the short of it
is that this arrangement should be more than satisfactory if the right
person can be found now that a number of the GPs have come back on line
in a backup capacity. Please join us in prayer for God to bring the
right person!
Many people have commented on the difference Ros
has brought to the maternity department, but it has been at a
considerable cost. She delivered a talented Christian musician’s baby
the other day – the sister of the first woman she delivered on Shetland.
They had been praying hard for Ros to be available, and and it worked
out perfectly with the shift patterns.
The best thing is that she has finally been
allowed to work her scheduled 38 hours over three and half days instead
of five. It would have helped so much if this had happened months ago,
but we are appreciating the extra day and a half off a week so much. We
were finding the more than full time schedule hard to handle. Dominic is
lovely but immensely demanding! This has happened at just the right
time. The Lord has been directing Ros very clearly to begin a
distance-learning MSc in Midwifery from Caledonian University, Glasgow.
We heard last night that she has won a prestigious national HSA award
that should cover her tuition fees and get her an all expenses trip down
to the Dorchester Hotel to receive her award in the full glare of
newspaper and media publicity! Our second appearance in a posh hotel in
one calendar year – most unusual.
A Prayer of Blessing
May the fair winds of His blessing bring you
deep refreshment –
and may the winds of adversity also serve to strengthen you,
even as the wind drives the roots of the oak tree deeper into the
ground.
May He direct your steps to places and people
that inspire you,
and prompt you to pray prayers which motivate God to respond in power!
May the Lord anoint your eye to see potential
that has not yet been released –
and may you unlock frozen and hurting hearts in the process.
May you be willing to go after souls that are
straying and
pray with the passion of the Church in Africa and China
rather than the circumspection of the comfort-loving West.
May renewed strength keep you reaching up to God
and out to other people.
May your life be a pure stream that flows over
and around immovable rocks –
and may He keep you free from the pettiness of empire-builders.
May the Lord help you to keep in touch with the
people He directs you to,
so that bridges are strengthened and visions fulfilled.
(Robert Weston)
Final word: February
2004
I’m looking out of the window at curlews pecking
their bills through the six or seven inches of snow that is all that
remains now of the downfalls we have had over the past few days. The
evenings are lighter now, partly because they really are lengthening out
now but even more because the landscape is white all round. It’s not
every year one finds a foot or more of snow in one’s garage! It’s at
times like this that one remembers that there really is no land between
the North Pole and us. One of our cars was stranded down the lane for
nearly a week. The other one, the 4x4, relishes the conditions he was
built for.
It’s a real winter wonderland right now, but
even this far north this sort of weather doesn’t last for long. It was
crystal clear last night, as I made my way home up Tingwall Loch from a
late night prayer meeting with Francis and Sally. It hit me yet again
what an incredible gift it is that we are together again up here working
for the Lord. All the more so as Chloe and Gemma (Anna’s oldest
daughters) have been here helping to do the printing and collating for
this massive send out: it really has felt like Mowbray Lodge transported
to the north!
As always, for every article we have included in
these substantial intercessory insights, many more have had to be
discarded in favour of space. We do hope you will take the time and
trouble to persevere with them. We have posted them
here. It has always been our intention
that this web site should be at the heart of our ministry up here.
Perhaps that is why we have experienced so many delays in getting it up
and running. But now, thanks to Sam Leckie, from the Lerwick church, who
generously gave us much time and expertise to crack the code and Hannah
Prittie who took it on from there, it is functioning sufficiently to use
for intercessory purposes. (If you are technophobically willing to have
a go, do pay us a visit. You can always access a computer in a public
library if you do not have your own machine. But please note that we
will be revising the slide shows to make them fit better in due time.
The site is still in its infancy!
We have had some excellent prayer and planning
meetings for the Fire from the North Conference (2-9 August 2005). I
have been asked to be the Chair for this Conference and the Lord is
putting a strong team together. Hannah Prittie has also done a splendid
job in redesigning the information booklet. Please write to us for
copies of this, or download it here.
We hope you will really appreciate the prayer
poems too. Ideas for these have been coming thick and fast over the past
few months. It has been a pleasure to work them up, and we hope that
that will speak deeply to you. Poetry, like music, can reach the heart
in ways that prose alone can not.
We haven’t had a lot of time off recently, but
we have a got a week’s holiday coming up early in March, in between a
flying visit south (day of prayer based at Elam Ministries, 28th
February, preaching at Guy Rothwell’s church in Harpenden 29th February,
plus a trip to Mowbray Lodge and two midwifery speaking engagements
which Ros is doing in the north of Scotland). We are flying out from
Glasgow airport on March 4th for a week’s package holiday in Portugal.
We are very much looking forward to it!
Please could you pray for Lynn Rothwell? She has
been suffering from acute pains recently and is due an operation
shortly. Grace Nadin is meanwhile heading off to live in Javea, near
Valencia in Spain, to head up the worship in an English speaking church,
working for Josep Rossello, the youngest Episcopalian bishop in the
world. It is a pioneering situation and she will initially be doing a
temping job selling locker space on the beach until taking up an
appointment teaching English at the Firs Independent School. The way the
Lord has led her there is really wonderful. She has been offered
accommodation for as long as she wants it, until she decides whether to
buy or rent in Spain.
Tim meanwhile has just started his prelims.
We’ve been hearing new words from Dominic round the house, saying that
he’s got to go and do his homework and ‘ivision (revision)!!
Once again, we would like to thank all of you
who pray for us from the bottom of our hearts, even if you don’t feel
you do so mega-often or regularly. Please don’t come down from the
watchman walls: our levels of busyness are set to remain high as we
continue in prayer-communication with many people, and attend to a
hundred and one other things. As ever, this comes with muckle love fae
wis ‘a – ‘much love from us all’ from the far north
Robert, Rosalind, Tim and Dominic
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