From our Sunday School Days (Lift up our hearts)

Hello, A subject hardly ever out of the news nowadays, I had never heard of as a child or as a young adult. FOOD BANKS. Why do we need food banks? I occasionally volunteer in helping our community food bank in Holbrooks, I'm sure I'm not wasting my time. The WFP, have stated that the last five years have been the worst food growing conditions since the thirties. Yet, the UKs biggest grocery is embarrassed with its latest financial results. A statement for Tesco, Tesco has said price pressures on grocers have eased as it reported bumper sales and profits for the past year. The UK's biggest supermarket chain said pre-tax profits hit £2.3bn, up from £882m, while sales rose by 4.4% to £68.2bn in the year to 24 February. I don't want to comment with my own opinion, rather let the combination of the WFP statement & Tesco profits do the talking. It's very loud!

The supermarkets are gouging the public but some are in trouble because of loans that need to be serviced. I suspect that Morrisons could collapse if organisations like Tesco used their better position to significantly cut prices. The supermarket has already sold its petrol stations and the bakeries are next.

Hello all, As well as the disappointing issues directly affecting our forum, there's hardly any part of the world that is not being devastated as I post this. Warfare in Europe & the Middle East. Floods in Dubai used to be music hall jokes. It's no joke. China & Russia in the headlines of severe flooding. I've been alive long enough to remember worldwide catastrophic events, but never ever on this scale of severity or constancy everywhere. Half way through Spring, I don't know where my watering cans are. That's no joke either. They may have rotted or rusted away. How I want to tell you what I believe, but the rules of our forum (that I fully subscribe to) prohibit that. What I can tell you is by quote. Our Father in Heaven says-; Come into or unto me........ I will give you rest. The events that we are all witnessing are what He describes as "Birth pains". You ladies on here will know all about birth pains, I haven't a clue, other than an observer. Love & God bless to us all.

Hello, However down or depressed that I or we might feel sometimes, I know that God has forgiven each one of us, no matter what. I'm not going to quote chapter & verse, as I know that you trust me. The Jewish King David, who is revered by so many, committed dreadful deeds. If today, he would have been serving a life sentence for murder as well as a host of other things. Yet God forgave him. He was forgiven, the minute he said sorry. You or I are no different. Oh, hopefully we haven't committed murder. If we had, we are still forgiven. All I have to do is say sorry & mean it. Can you remember as a child being naughty, maybe having been scolded by your mum or dad. After I had fully owned up, the feeling that I had of complete freshness was joy in itself. That's just how it is now with Him for each & everyone of us. We do need a lift sometimes, my hope is in Him. God Bless. PS. That in essence is my faith in Him summed up. God gives me (me a bag of rags) what I don't deserve.

Hello, I even get a chapel summer holiday. Today is my & the musicians last play day, before the August canned music month. There are just three of us who play week in & week out, so after we tried canned music last August, here we go again. Some churches have sufficient musicians to spread out a rota, but not at my chapel. Scripture states "Come ye apart & rest awhile". A lovely event happened yesterday. I was returning to Coventry on the train when a couple got on who had bought a new electronic keyboard/piano. I was sat at a tabled seat, they for some reason sat opposite me!?!? Anyway, I said to them, I can't play that up there on the luggage rack. They were so friendly. So, switched on & plugged into the train power supply we had dancing in the aisle. I didn't have it too loud, not everyone's cuppa tea on board a train but I started off with the Tiller-girl, dance routine. Everyone was up dancing including the train manager. They all entered into it. When I got to the sequence where the dancers go round in a circle, the dancers here moved in sequence along the aisle. Arriving at Birmingham International interrupted it which brought it to an end. Well, I've never been able to tell that kind of story before. The couple got off at Coventry who live in Binley. Have a lovely day, please.

Busking at its best !!!!!

Hello, What a dreadful day yesterday. I'm so, so sorry. From my stance of life & living, the fact that those who know me, my friends & forum members, that I do have a faith in a Father in Heaven, who is real to me, for me to remain silent whilst an arrow has torn our hearts is itself unreal. My crumb of comfort, is that the arrow in each of hearts can only be removed by our Father in Heaven in each one of us as individuals. When will He do that? When each one of us asks Him. The main difference between me & most folk, is that I read Scripture, not only as a daily reading, but from beginning to end, so I do know what Scripture says. Understanding is another thing. Knowing what it says is quite a good start, but understanding, I could get that wrong. Several times yesterday, I heard comments in public, "If there is a God of love, why this"? Scripture only describes God as a God of love, twice. *2. Yet His Roth is mentioned over five hundred times. *537. Now, I'm not stupid. Each of those stats are loaded with implications & ramifications. The current epock, Scripture describes as a broken period. That's where we are now. Christ describes these times as akin to birth pains. I've mentioned that before. It does mean that it gets worse before it gets better. So how on earth can I bring comfort to each of our aching souls, to the events yesterday, the events in the Middle East, where lives are torn apart daily & across the world. This is where my faith kicks in, but in reality. I only ever tell it as it is. I never share blind faith! The minute I take any issue to Him, He lifts that issue at that point in time from me. That in my life, has never failed. That's how I'm able to carry on. The minute I tell you what to do, not only do I breach every forum rule, I also breach my own belief. What I can do is share in all of my honesty my experience, which if it ever fails, you will be the second to know. I will be the first. Me sharing this kind of thing, brings me to my knees, because who am I? Little Philip, that Scripture describes as a bag of filthy rags. They are not just words. I know me better than anyone. Yet, I'm able to start a new day, hopefully sharing a crumb of comfort to any in distress this morning. The best is last. He has compassion for anyone who turns to Him. Even a bag of rags like me. PS. My use of the word "Roth", is specific, word usage changes over time for all sorts of reasons. Wrath has the same kind of meaning, but Roth goes back to descendants of Abraham. That's a fascinating study of itself.

Hello, I'm resting between duties in my local, The Earl in Coventry. My previous post has got me thinking about our roots. Where do we belong? Who has ideas about that?

Hello, I wouldn't like this topic, to be thought of any differently to any other topic. It's not sacred. There are times & places where we can be blunt & straight with one another, but this website is not that place. It's a wellbeing topic. It demands respect & tenderness. If I say something that causes offence, then I am totally wrong in all normal discussions. That's doesn't mean that I approve of murder or antisocial behaviour, just as you on here don't. It's where we try to encourage one another when we are down. How you on here lifted me during the dreadful years of my Pam's illness. I will never forget that. I've gifts in my lounge now, from tender hearted folk on here. Yes, I was lifted. That's my attempt now when we suffer awful events, that we all might be lifted. Coventry is a cosmopolitan community. It always has been. Even the phrase "To be sent to Coventry" didn't start last week. It's often the mixing of communities that fosters real growth. Sometimes, the mixing process can be daunting if it's not managed fairly, just like our weather forecast for Thursday. Look how Coventry saw the development of the industrial revolution, but without a lot of the social issues affecting other industrial towns. Coventry had the skills of sorting issues out as problems arouse, without smashing up machinery. It's these thoughts running through my mind now that I'm begging the question, where do we come from. Cornwall has always been an odd bog, hey! Yet, very new historical evidence is suggesting that the ancestors of the skills of Cornwall, may have been the Phoenician traders. They had the skills of mining, ship building & trading. We know that they, the Phoenicians had a minister of metals who may have actually lived in Cornwall all of those thousands of years ago. The Romans adopted their style of government. Cornwall had so much of the industrial revolution initial technology, but they couldn't mass produce. In walks the Midlands skills of cast iron technology, big stuff, but it was Coventry that brought together the skills of fine tuning. Honing metals like works of art. Why? The watchmaker skills. Now look, we can't leave our Irish community out. They brought some of the finest linen skills here. Then what happens? Courtaulds, but who had the skills of ribbon making? Joseph Cash. This makes me so excited about our city. A city that has never thrown away it's L plates. Now even closer to home. I don't know of another discussion forum like ours. Why? Because you the members have the exceptional skills to contribute to it like you do. So, where do you & I come from, where do we belong, where do each one of us fit into this fabulous city Coventry, even with a few warts.

Hello, It's quite an odd feeling for me that I'm on hols for the month of August. Hols from all duties, volunteering in the week as well as Sunday duties, organist & pianist. It's singing to canned music today. I've explained previously that our chapel has insufficient musicians to have stand ins. We benefited so much for having the break last year. I've shared some photos of my simplistic days out on the railway topic. That's what they are for me. Simplistic. Having a break from routine I'm sure is really beneficial for our body & mind, but I'm reminded that for some folk the preparation & so on can be stressful. Statistics confirm that. I don't think I could cope with a packaged holiday of any kind now. Any comments for what you enjoy as summer holidays or breaks from routine?

I couldn't do the lying on a beach type holiday. I'd be bored out of my mind. Even as a kid I had to be building a sandcastle or exploring.

I am living one long holiday these days Philip and it's not anything to do with the lovely beaches here in WA. but in my garden. The trouble is I tend to talk to Leo (my little mate on the left there) whilst out there so I am not lost for company. Also a lot of time these days is remembering my roots and the great times I had with my husband who is probably planting his runner beans up there in the clouds somewhere. Bless him. Life goes on so we must make the most of it while we can. Bless you all too for letting me share this time on the forum which now has become a part of all our lives too I am sure.

That's me that is. I loved holidays by the seaside, but couldn't understand why my parents were happy to sit in the sun on the beach, for hours on end, not doing anything active. I was bored within minutes. So I would wander off exploring. Or dig big holes in the sand, to see how deep I could dig. But I was both amazed and disappointed at the same time, when seawater would flood the bottom of the hole, and it wasn't long before the whole thing collapsed. Another of my tricks, as a little boy, was to wander off down the beach towards the sea, then get lost in the crowd, so that I was out of my parents' sight. I would then slowly circle round the edge of the beach, and creep up behind the deckchairs of my parents and my grandmother. Spade in hand, I would quietly dig a trench, the width of a deckchair, about 6" behind the chair, and about 12" deep. The result was that after a time, as the damp sand of the trench dried out, the back of the deckchair would soddenly fall into the trench, startling whoever was in the chair. Believe it or not, I was aright little devil. Well, I was bored. Same goes today. I like the sunny weather, but do not want to be directly in the sun's rays. I've never understood why people want to lounge in the sun on the beach all day, getting a tan. I think people should be content with whatever their natural skin colour happens to be. And of course, there's the risk of skin cancer. I haven't been away on holiday since before the pandemic, and frankly don't miss it. I have odd days off work, when there are specific things I want to do in this country. My old boss had never been abroad until he retired, and since then has visited over 50 counties. Why bother, I wonder. Travelling on planes is no fun. I've been to a few counties years ago, and frankly it all merges. So you go to another country/city, let's say Barcelona for argument's sake. "Here's the main shopping mall." Yes, we've got those in England. "Here's the So-and-so Cathedral." Yes, we've got three in Coventry (I was told by a guide). In Liverpool and Brum they've got one to spare. To quote a blue badge guide, "Here's ABC... another bloomin' church". Yeah, got plenty of those back home in England, seen them before.