Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
I really do seem to have put the cat among the pigeons as they say in "Old Blighty"
Violet, you are close to my heart, the amount of posts I have written, some several hundred words long, that have suddenly vanished in front of my eyes cannot be counted. I thought it was only because I am an old man and nor totally familiar with Computers.
Sometimes the post suddenly turned up days or weeks later as I was scanning through a forum.
I wholehearted ly agree with what you and "No Doubt" and the others have said.
It was whilst I was watching a religious programme on T.V. that I first heard, in that beautiful lilt the Welsh have in their voices, that "The Chapel is not the building. It is the people inside." We had a visitor from our childhood pop in last night - from Wales - he and his wife and family have all settled down in a lovely tiny Welsh village.
Just as in our childhood in Peterhead, when all the churches cooperated he was telling us that it is alive and well in that village. Praise the Lord, I say.
Circa 1950 we had a sort of committee of churches including the Roman Catholic Church, i.e. Congregational, Methodist, Church of Scotland ( I am not too sure about the Salvation Army but anyway we ALL went to it after our own church service. Likewise, the Royal National Mission For Deepsea Fisherman, was a universal meeting place for all and sundry and many a married couple met for the first ime there even though they belonged to different denominations.
Many considered "The Mission" to BE THEIR CHURCH.
Even today many are buried by the mission supernintendent. At their own request.
Our own Minister was the Secretary and the Catholic Priest was the Treasurer, of that association of local churches and all benefitted from it.
Tragically they all seem to be drifting apart nowadays.
Our friend told us ther were only abou twenty members in his church which met in a small hall.
But, from what he said, they are very active in "Spreading THE WORD of THE LORD" and, like us, he was very sad at the state his childhood church had ended up in.
Who spoke about food?
All those years ago one man was usually appointed to take care of the old and infirm. A weeks supply of groceries here and a few bags of coal there.
They all knew each other so well from childhood they KNEW what was wanted or needed most. Some received a regular small sum of money to eke out their pension - if they had one.
That has all been stopped.
I was five months out of work in Hong Kong between leaving ships to entry into a power company. I ran short of money - it IS an expensive place - and quitely approached the Southern Baptist Pastor and asked if I could get a loan from the church I had assisted him in creating. I got much the same reply as Distant Warrior's poor father got.
Out of the blue, a six foot plus Chinese friend who had been mate on a ship with me, came to our house and simply said, "My godmother was saying that times must be hard for both of you. Would you like a HK$3,000.00 loan?"
My wife and I looked at each other flabbergasted. We had never even seen the woman.
The friend was a third generation Methodist from northern China - six foot plus in hieght! - WHO said that the Chinese are all small????
Anyway, with grateful prayers of thanks we accepted the offer which was passed to us with no fuss or I.O.U.????? over a cup of green tea in his godmother's house.
Shortly afterwards I received a telephone call asking me if I would like a position in the power company just as I had approached my old shipping company to ask for my job back.
All other appications for jobs in Hong Kong had failed.
Thankyou all for your various contributions and it is not boastful to say that I am glad to find that my thoughts are so widely believed by others in various nations.
One question. How do I print out one post. The last time I tried it I had six pages of A4 pouring out of the printer.
God Bless you all.
reekie.