Saint Michael’s Church
Serving God and Bishop’s Stortford
Clergy Letter For November 2009
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CLERGY LETTER FOR NOVEMBER 2009 |
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The Rev's June Knight writes.. |
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Dear Friends, As a child I longed to have the Encyclopaedia Britannica, but it was not a priority for my parents in post war Britain, struggling to bring up a little family. With this hidden desire, imagine my sheer delight in ‘finding’ the internet, an enormous library of ‘encyclopaedias’, available at the touch of a button, or should I say at the ‘click of a mouse’; the only problem is finding your way to genuine web sites and sifting out the relevant facts. So where is all this leading you may well be thinking! Over the last couple of months I have been watching a site in our copse used by rabbits. Daily these old warrens were getting larger and larger ‘ big rabbits’ I thought! I began to wonder if I had been lucky enough to become host to a badger sett. I hunted for tell-tale signs, such as scratching posts and badger dung, but being a novice on badger trails I did not know what badger dung looked like. So I Googled into my lap top ‘Badger pooh’ and up came a wonderful picture of just that! And to my excitement it matched the findings in my wood. Apparently badgers use a communal loo, called a badger latrine or dung pit, which is very distinctive and different from foxes, deer etc. So my 21st century encyclopaedia had solved and confirmed the excavations taking place in my woodland. To-day I learned that each badger eats something in the region of 20,000 worms each year, as well as fruit, nuts and grain, I had long been suspecting that the fallen apples and plums were feeding a badger colony somewhere in the region. Badgers do not hibernate and their cubs are born in February and start emerging around May – so much excitement ahead. Watch out for Badger Watching evenings at the White Cottage – ‘Badger Watch with God’! How different would that be! A slight worrying aspect of my new visitors is that Badgers are protected by law under the ‘Protection of Badgers Act 1992’ and under this law it is an offence to allow a dog to enter a sett. I hope you read this letter Minty! (Minty, in case you have not read previous Country File reports, is my nine months old Border Collie). Finding this type of information in my ‘new encyclopaedia’ has been most helpful. We Christians often forget that our Bibles are a type of encyclopaedia on matters of life and how to live our lives to the best of our ability. During the week someone who was going through a very stressful situation asked me for a Bible reference to help them cope. After some thought I read some words from the New Testament. Something we often forget is that God’s word is living and active, in other words, to believe what we read. To ask God for His help is very powerful and often gives us the peace we are looking for. It did for my friend, for which I thank God. God’s presence and His word has been an enormous comfort to me over the past few months since losing my beloved David; I really don’t know how people exist through times of trauma without the knowledge and love of God. I could exist without my internet, but without my Bible and the love of God and the comfort and support of friends and family, I would have felt like giving up. Here at the White Cottage it has been a year of endings and goodbyes. Our twelve chickens had been very unwell earlier in the year and despite several applications of very powerful sprays and potions, they failed to pick up so with deep regret I had to bid them farewell – so hence no more curate's eggs. Another goodbye has been to Branston and Pickle, my two very elderly Border Collies. I know many of you have enjoyed their faithful ministry over the last few years. Little did David and I realise when we added Minty to our family in April, that within such a short time, life would change so dramatically. But I do believe God’s timing is always perfect, perfect for His eternal plan, not our mortal one.
Love and blessings June |
Office Address:
Saint Michael’s Church
Windhill
Bishops Stortford
Hertfordshire
CM23 2ND