Blog 16

Well hello again from India.

This month; Kris and I testify at a bike meet of 70 + bikers.

I prove I am not divine, or perhaps I took my eyes from Him, (see comments from Kris)

We have had a sad loss (melons)

We make the papers!

I am going to begin by continuing my series looking at the commandments and how they fit today into our 21^st century lives.

The fifth commandment

Honour your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you.

Firstly I want to deal with the second part of this commandment.

‘that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you.’

It has been suggested by some that this is a bribe or an inducement to obey. Not so, what I believe God is saying is when love, honour, obedience and understanding is shared between parents and children, throughout the family there is harmony and peace where each helps the other, in this environment yes we may live longer but there is also the implied statement that by obeying Gods law the Jewish people as a whole ‘may be long in the land your God is giving you’.This I feel is about obeying just authority.

There are two statements here, one to obey your parents and therefore by implication God the father and the second, that by obedience to Him His people will prosper. Taken as a statement today I believe ‘the land’ can be looked at as the whole world and that by being obedient to Him all who come to Him will prosper, not in money or power but in their hearts and by gaining eternal life through His son Jesus Christ.

Many years ago I had I believed good reason to reject this commandment.

Those who have read my book will know the history behind that comment, for others I will only say my upbringing led me to a conclusion that over time I have come to regret.

I was abused as a child by my mother; regular sever beatings were the norm for me, my father for reasons of his own chose not to see it happening.

To honour one’s parents implies obedience, submission, and respect. Parents are to a child the ultimate authority. Parents are like a tool in the hands of God, moulding and shaping the child to maturity. It is their responsibility to guide the child as God guides them.

Obedience and submission are parts of a child’s healthy development as well as the demand from God that parents obey and honour him. I really do believe that if we truly lived in a society that honoured Gods laws above civil law we wouldn’t have the crime rates we do, the failure to have any moral standard or the misguided youth who know of nothing better in their sad lives, who believe in nothing, who will go on to achieve nothing. By this I don't mean they will not prosper in this life, I have known many drug dealers, thrives, evil people who live a materially rich life. But what of their spiritual life, in this they are totally ignorant of Gods love. All they have or will ever have is this life.

Obedience requires outward adherence to rules and commands, submission deals with the inward attitude and willingness towards those giving the commands. To obey is not enough.

This commandment becomes more difficult and complicated when applied in the context of dysfunctional, evil, or abusive parents.

A child has to obey, but when parents dishonour the child by ignoring Gods law then although the child must obey the parents they, not the child will be ultimately judged by God. The child may be powerless and although knowing the instruction is unfair, wrong or even criminal the child must obey or suffer punishment from the abusive parent(s).

This can cause many years of pain and a lifetime of mistrust for the child, but what of the parents?

After many years considering this very question I can give you my answer, please note this applies only to me as I cannot know all situations as God does, but if you are struggling as I did with abuse, please go now for help, do not allow it to continue, you are not to blame, then seek the love of Jesus, through Him you can be made whole.

I have often asked ‘why’ why was I abused, what had I done? The answer is of course I had done nothing to justify the treatment inflicted upon me. If this is so then one must ask’ What led to the abuse’ I believe in my own case it was the loss of another child, my brother born before me who did not survive that led my mother to treat me as she did.

For many years I could not forgive her, I could perhaps understand but to forgive requires much more.

Now as I sit here writing this I have forgiven, to not forgive would mean that I cannot allow God to show his mercy to me as I show it to my mother. To honour also means to forgive. What pain and torment she suffered I cannot guess, so truly I forgive and now honour my parents.

By honouring one’s parents, we also directly submit to God as the ultimate authority in our lives, He is our father so is head of the family of man. So to not honour your parents is to not honour Him.

So yes, honour your Father and Mother but accept also that they like you are far from perfect, pray for them and love them even when it is not returned for God made them, they may need His help, they may stray so far from His word that they never see the kingdom of God, all you as the child can do is obey God’s law and leave judgement in His hands.

 If like me you have reasons to find forgiveness difficult or for now maybe impossible then please try to understand that in this world there are forces that oppose God and delight in the hatred and pain that you feel. Some will call him Satan or the devil, the dark one, he has many names but he is as real as God, I know this, I have fought him and do so every day I remain a Christian. I was once his disciple, he wants me back, he wins the occasional battle, sometimes I am in despair but he cannot and will not win the war for my soul…. that belongs to Christ and armed with the shield of faith I am invincible.

Work

It’s week six for most of my students, time for the second of three tests they are given. In the first they each had an A4 with five pictures on it to identify. This time I did it as a ‘game show’ with myself as host. One by one the contestants were called forward to dip into ‘The bag of doom’ and withdraw a question (110 questions to choose from) and had 10 seconds to correctly answer. This may sound as though they were put under undue pressure but it was very light hearted and they all laughed if someone got a question wrong and clapped when they got it correct. From the results I am very pleased with the progress being made, scores were all 80% - 100% correct. I’m very proud of them all. I have also been asked to supply a teaching copy of Chringlish to a youth group teacher who having seen it pounced on it for her group!

Fame

The story is about 70 bikers who rode from all over India to a party weekend put on by the Udaipur Chapter of the ‘India Bull Riders Motorcycle Club’, (Bull as in Bullet, the bikes name, Royal Enfield Bullet). A great time was had by all; this picture was taken as we all went sightseeing in Udaipur. We partied, danced away the night and Kris and I were able to testify about our faith to many of them. Silly games played, new friends made we got home very tired on Tuesday, showered changed then returned to the venue so we could see the guys off Wednesday early morning, alas we overslept and missed most of them leaving……………….Ho Hum the best laid plans of mice and men.

Invite

This is the perfect time to visit India, warm in the daytime cool in the evenings. If there is anyone out there who knows us and would like to visit we have a spare bedroom, resort with bar and pool just 100mtr away, good food.

If you have always said ‘I would love to’ well this way there are no hotel bills to pay.

House rules. No drugs, no smoking, (Optional) Church Sunday Pm.

So, there you are an invite to visit.

Garden

Sadly we have had a loss, our melons all came up and then died. Our fault, wrong soil mix and planting time.

On the plus side we have a chest freezer just about full of veg from our garden. We now have overhead watering to cut down on the labour and combined with the summer shades we hope to extend the cropping season for some plants that can’t stand the summer heat.

The central bed in the front lawn is beginning to flower and we have baby tomatoes coming on our cherry tom plants. Bottle gourd is going well, bit like marrow in taste but a climber.

We are also for the first time trying spuds (potatoes) as it is hard to find big ones for baked spud! Radish are ready as are lettuce, Chinese cabbage seems to go on and on so never a shortage there. We have planted two papaya trees in the lawn border and a mango in the central bed.

Cherry trees look really good for two year plants, maybe first fruit next year! Maybe if we have time we will try strawberries again so far no luck, everyone says we can’t grow them so we have to try! The trees we planted in Kris’s herb garden (Orange, Lemon and Jack fruit) have all taken and are growing well, we have a pair of red berry (don’t ask me) bushes to put in now so got to get on with it………….apparently the fruit is used in chutney! Just now it is all slightly crazy trying to keep track of all that is going in or coming out but we are getting to grips with Northern Indian gardening. Oh by the way it’s now the start of winter, may drop to 7degC overnight if it gets bad.

The centre bed now starting to flower, new Papaya  tree's and a view of the bed through where the trees will grow.




If you look carefully you can see our now working overhead watering system, it does the entire veg garden. We have plans to extend it with drip feeders along the drive border.A 'ladies finger' flower.


'Ladies finger' fruit, slightly bitter, great with a curry! The cherry tomatoes are starting to flower.




This is a bottle gourd, treat as marrow although thinly sliced and fried with garlic it really yummy!

Things that made me go mmmmmm

Sitting on the bike cruising along at about 80K, the countryside is slipping by, the sun on my face thinking about God and his wonders. Getting back and seeing a post on face ache ‘Rather be riding my bike thinking of God than sitting in church thinking of my bike’…………….

Finding a new respect for spiders.

Kris cleaning up all the sawdust (I made) in the studio…………painting coming I think.

Realising again that Kris and I are so lucky, we are not rich but we have sufficient for our needs and a little left over to help others with, we have a nice house, we live in a nice area and have friends, above all we are happy in our love for each other and for God and what he has done for us and continues to do every day. We are content. Realising that as long as we give our lives to God we are ok, the problems start when we try to take control……….we have said this many times, we are in a small boat, we are rowing Jesus steering, as long as we keep rowing and let Him steer we have no problems, it’s when we think we don’t need Him to steer that’s when it all goes lumpy, ‘look out rocks ahead!’

Sitting in the garden watching all the life going on around me from insect to hawks over the mountains, some lovely butterflies here. Lizards wander through the veg patch hunting insects, it’s all so surreal at times.

One of our many garden visitors, this one eats the pests and any fallen fruit, better than insecticide any day.

Comments From Kris

Well here I go again, and here are my thoughts and observations in no particular order of time or date.

Chris and his divinity, well we were at a lake somewhere near the monsoon palace whilst on our time away with IBRMC (India Bull Riders Motorcycle Club) Desert Meet, when Chris decided to try and walk on water. Alas he must have lost focus on the Lord as he did not float but ended up nearly knee deep in the water. He announced to us all that he was not divine and it opened up a further opportunity to share our faith with others, isn't God good. The Desert Meet for me was fantastic it was my first such event. All the guys and the girls were friendly and welcoming, it reminded me of the first few bible weeks I attended in Builth Wells but the occasions I roughed it (Hee Hee) in Bed and Breakfast with hot water and cooked breakfast. We definitely had a great venue no camping outdoors and Chris and I bagged the bedroom with double bed, the other guys had the dining room with mattrasses on the floor. The Desert Meet will stay in my memory for ever with great hosts and some really fun events, Chris and I even danced in the evening. I admit my dancing is not up to scratch but who cares when you are having fun. I can't wait for our trip to Chennai which will be on a much larger scale.  

Things that made me go mmmmmmm

Well there is the pillion passenger carrying a ten to twelve foot ladder upright and keeping it well balanced as the rider of the motorbike weaves in and out of busy traffic. Yesterday I saw a pillion passenger holding onto a single sprung mattress with his right arm keeping the mattrass at the side of the scooter but keeping it off the ground. I thought I had seen everything, but no. 

Today I was riding in the city and it was even more crazy than usual and I wondered why, but then I realised it is coming up to Diwali. The city is beautifully decorated but you have to weave in and out of all the metal poles holding up the bunting and decorations which are spaced about 20 feet apart down the sides and centre of the roads. In between these up at the top there are metres and metres of tinsel and other glittering decorations, lights and material strewn across the streets. Traffic weaving in and out both on the right and wrong side of the road, well it is India after all. In a day or two some of these streets will be closed to traffic for the festivities. It is also a good time to buy things very similar to British Christmas and New Year Sales lots of offers on the go. 

I have just given flu symptoms to Chris as I am just trying to get over a bad cold, change of climate I am told and our immunity not up to speed with local bugs yet. 

Chris and I went on a ride to Chittorgarh Fort and surrounding areas the other day we did about 300Kms, my poor derriere was a little numb to say the least, but it was good practice for Chennai. We had a very close encounter with a cow, but we (Chris that is) managed to weave out of the way, it just dived onto the road from the central reservation, the car overtaking us on the inside of us slammed on his brakes, we don't know if he hit it or not but we were soooo close. I feel so confident being a passenger with Chris as he is such a good rider, I realise we may ditch the bike one day if the unexpected happens but Chris will do his level best to avoid hazards when possible.

My fingers are repairing but it is difficult when people grab your hand to shake it and I don't get time to warn them not too, I did knock my hand the other day accidentally and I am just getting over that as it was right where the worst break was, very very painful, I must take more care. 

We now have a new broadband connection and so far it is much quicker. I was stopped today by a stranger whilst out riding, he flagged me down so I pulled over to see what was wrong...had my number plate fallen off? it turns out he thought I was Swiss because of the St George Cross I have on my bike, he is married to a Swiss girl and they are about to open a coffee shop in the old town and Chris and I are going to be invited to the opening, isn't life interesting. 

Chris and I were invited to a pre Diwali event at a training school we know; where it turned out we were to be the honoured guests, the students are studying Hospitality and I guess we were the guinea pigs. It was a great evening where the students performed for us mainly dancing but some singing too, very talented guys. As Chris said to me do you remember when you were that agile, yeah I do but it was a very long time ago. Then there was some dancing for us all after that and food of course, all in all an excellent night just a shame we both had bad colds and were not at our fittest. *

We have been so very blessed by the people we have met since we came here and the people we continue to meet, it is all in God's plan as he is the one guiding our paths.

I expect that there are lots of Christmas decorations up all over the UK, there are decorations here too some of the Malls started decorating for Christmas a few weeks ago, more will go up after Diwali I expect. Well the monsoon is over and winter has arrived about 70F today, cool nights as well.

* Comment here from Chris, they also want to use Chringlish, amazed it has been picked up by so many English teachers for their early learners.

Update on Chris, it is not even man flu I have given turns out he has Malaria, and we have just spent  days at the hospital being allowed home only to sleep. Chris has had IV fluids, antibiotics and lots of tests, he still feels really poorly, poor thing. Chris saw our local doctor initially who thought it was mild malaria and viral, but his condition got worse so took him to local hospital as he did not feel up to longer journey into town to go to American Hospital. This doctor thought he had food poisoning and viral fever with gastro enteritis, we did not agree and after insisting I convinced the doctor to do tests for Dengue and Malaria as I felt Chris had symptoms of this, even if I was wasting my money. Test for Dengue negative but positive for Malaria He has Jaundice and is now having correct treatment. Chris persuaded the doctor to let me give the IV drugs at home and after the doctor checked my skills he agreed. So I gave first in hospital this morning and will give next 3 IV doses here at home then Chris starts oral medication. We have to have repeat blood tests in a couple of days. So a big prayer request can you all pray for a swift recovery and healing for Chris. He is feeling very exhausted and has really bad muscle and joint pain. Thanks.

With that we will close for now and hope enjoyed this blog. 

God Bless one and all

C&K