Tag Archives: famine

We all need a Rescuer, Protector, Deliverer, Saviour, or Helper at Some Time.

Posted in My thoughts by

 

Statistics tell us there are 27 million people displaced in the world today.
These people through circumstances not of there own making, have to leave their family, culture and language to live somewhere else.
They are seeking help.
They need a leader, saviour, protector, deliverer, rescuer, liberator, helper, healer and provider.
Different factors cause this.
People from poor countries seek to move to a country where there is a better standard of living.
Internal wars, disasters,or famine cause people to flee their own country.
Forced exile through persecution often happens.
Many Jews fled from Hitler, but many did not get away.
Many Irish had to leave because of famine in the nineteenth century.
They had to leave by boat on a long journey by sea.
Some did not make it.
They found refuge in America.  They were welcomed.
In Europe there is much movement of peoples within the EEC countries with borders opening.
Poor people from the East are coming into Europe through Greece.
Sadly they are not welcomed.  The Western nations see them as a burden on their own economies.
Movement of nations is nothing new.
I read of examples from the bible of people leaving their own countries.
Abraham left his home in the land of the Chaldeans and went where God told him to go.
Joseph was persecuted and rejected by his brothers because they were jealous of him.
Jacob and his family moved to Egypt when there was a famine in Israel.
His son Joseph became a saviour for his family.
The Jewish people were exiled from their land to Babylon because of their disobedience to God.
Naomi and her family left Bethlehem because of famine in the land.
The early Christians were scattered throughout the nations because of persecution.
In all these circumstances people needed and still need a leader, a deliverer, a helper or a liberator.
The defination of Messiah is deliverer, liberator, leader or anointed one.

Acts  5 v 42 says
The Messiah you are looking for is Jesus.

New Living Translation

Happy St Patrick’s Day.

 HAPPY ST PATRICK’S DAY
 Did you know that St Patrick’s Day, is the second biggest festival celebrated in the world after Christmas?  Why?  Ireland, this small island on the edge of Europe has many diaspora all over the world.  And where ever the Irish are they remember the Irish Patron Saint, Patrick.  It is a day for the wearing of the green.
St Patrick’s Centre lit up with green lights.  St Patrick’s grave is situated in the graveyard of the Church behind this centre.
Image
Wherever you live in the world I am sure you have heard of St Patrick.  Maybe you have Irish ancestors.  We travel to Canada and we meet people there who love Ireland even though they have never been here.  Some of our friends there have some relative in their  family line that came from Ireland.
Many people come to visit Ireland wanting to see where their ancestors come from.  Even some presidents of America claim to have Irish ancestors.  Information on the Internet has helped people with their searches.  We have had American students visit Ireland and they break into tears when they see the homeland where their forebears lived.
The Irish are in different parts of the world for various reasons.  In the 1800s there was a terrible famine in Ireland.  The population dropped to 4 million, because of death and exile.  In the 1600s some Irish were sent into Europe and the East Indies as slaves by Cromwell.
Down through the years the young people left Ireland for work in England, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and America.
Patrick came and lived among the Irish and through his love, and example he brought the love of God to the people.  It is said he used the Shamrock a small plant with three small leaves to explain the Trinity, three persons in the Godhead.  The Irish wear the Shamrock on St Patrick’s day.
Early Christians travelled to Scotland and down into Europe as far as Slovakia.  Brendan was in  Switzerland in 2012 to celebrate six hundred years since St Gallian went there from Ireland.
With living on an Island the Irish became sea faring people.  They built small wooden curraghs. The Irish monks travelled by small curraghs up the rivers of Europe.  St Brendan travelled with others to the land we now know as Canada on a boat made of wood and sealskins.
At one time in the nineteenth century there were eight million people living here.  Many lived in small holdings but were able to grow oats and potatoes, kept a few chickens.  A cow would have been kept for milk. They were able to live off their produce.  Porridge was made from the oats and the women made their own bread.  Soda bread and potato bread can only be bought in Ireland.
I grew up on a farm.  My mother baked bread, we had chickens, we had milk from the cows.  We did not go hungry.  Only on a Sunday did we have a chicken, a stew or soup. We lived well and dad and mum reared ten children.  We did not go hungry.  We were content.
We have a Christian heritage that has come down the generations from the days of St Patrick.  In the twentieth century many missionarys went from Ireland again to the nations, especially into India and Africa and set up schools and hospitals.   My mother’s sister worked in Nigeria around the 1960s.
Ireland had become infamous in the 1970s because of the war in Northern Ireland.  Injustice, bitterness, hatred, division and poverty erupted into war between people from Catholic and Protestant backgrounds.  What a shame it has brought to the name of Jesus.  Nations have looked at us and said God is love.  How come Christians are fighting one another.   In Russia and India people heard of the bombs and bullets.
In Chronicles the Word of God says “If my people will humble themselves and pray, and turn from their wicked ways I will heal their land.”  People began to pray.  I attended a woman’s prayer group.  We represented the different denominations in our country.  As we prayed we found the only One who brings forgiveness and reconciliation, Jesus.  Before he died on the cross he said about those who crucified him,  “Forgive them because they know not what they do”.  After thirty years the war ceased.  Thanks God for his mercy.
Ex President Clinton visited Derry recently and encouraged us that he is travelling all over the world to negotiate peace between warring groups.  He uses the example of the Northern Ireland as a place that lives in peace after thirty years of war.
May we travel again as missionaries of the Gospel, like St Patrick and bring the love of God, forgiveness  and reconciliation to the nations.

SEPTEMBER THE ELEVENTH

Posted in Healing, My thoughts, Travel by

On Monday I returned from Scotland after leaving my youngest and last child off to university in Edinburgh. Fourteen years ago Brendan and I left our daughter Mary up to Aberdeen. We returned home to rear nine more of our children. Whew!!!! How did we do it? I can say it was by the power of the Holy Spirit that we accomplished the work. God gave us the strength one day at a time. Thank you Lord.
As I was thinking back I began to wonder what work I will return to do when I go home this time.
I did not have to wait long to find out. A taxi picked me up to take me to Glasgow airport. The taxi driver was friendly but I did not want to engage in conversation. After a while I thought I should respond to say something to him. He asked if I had enjoyed my time in Glasgow. I told him I was leaving my fourteenth child off to university. The questions came fast and furious after that. How old were my other children? How did you manage to rear that big family? You don’t look old enough to have all those children. I felt free to tell him how Jesus had helped me over the years, how he gave me strength to keep going, how he healed me of cancer. It turned out his mother was from Donegal and he was from a family of ten.
When I arrived in Belfast I got a lift with a young man to pick up my car. He was asking me if I had been to anywhere nice. I started over again telling him my story. He said I was too young to have so many children. I went on to give God the glory for him renewing my youth and keeping me alive.
Psalm 103 says He renews your youth like the eagles and satisfies you with good things.
I was feeling quite encouraged as I drove off home.
I saw a sign along the road which said “Potatoes for sale”. I screeched the brakes and turned left off into a side road. I always enjoy fresh potatoes grown locally. You can’t beat freshly boiled new potatoes and butter. I don’t like the packaged potatoes from the supermarket. It has been the staple food in Ireland. The crops of potatoes failed in the mid eighteen hundreds due to disease and many people died or left the country because of the famine. I have always had a bag of potatoes in my kitchen. My children would never go hungry.
One year a young lady from Boston came to help me for the summer, as my husband was travelling to India. Her mum rang her one day and her mum could not believe she was sitting down to a dinner of potatoes and beans! Back home Sheila would live on Mc Donald’s food or her favourite was a Sub sandwich with lashings of Ranch sauce. She was none the worse from living with us.
Sheila was to fly home on September the eleventh, when the twin towers fell. She was in shock as we watched the tragedy unfold on T V. We comforted her as best we could as she cried with her people back in America. She was able to get a flight home a few days later.
I am reminded of another young American woman who arrived into Dublin a few years later on the eleventh of September. Susan was coming to stay with her mum who lived here in Ireland. I met her in the airport. She was in a wheel chair with one suitcase. She had advanced M.E. a fatigue syndrome. It was amazing they let her fly in her condition. A kind friend on the other side in America had helped her get on the plane.
Susan lived with her mum for the next while and with rest, good food, love and the beauty of the Irish scenery she was getting more strength, but could not walk unaided. She came to visit us with her mum. Brendan and I offered to pray for her. The power of God touched her and she rose up and walked unaided. She completely recovered. In time she got married and had a child. There is a story in the bible where Peter and John spoke to a man who was crippled and commanded him to walk in the name of Jesus in Acts 3 v 6.
Back to my story about the potatoes. I met the potato man. I asked him if his potatoes were grown locally. He went on to tell me he used to grow crops himself but had to stop because he had arthritis in his spine and was in constant pain. He brought the potatoes in from Portrush. I soon forgot about the potatoes. I felt compassion for this young man who could not do the work he loved and support his family. I had been healed of cancer and pain and I wanted to tell James that Jesus could heal him too.
I spent the next thirty minutes telling him how I was healed by prayer to God. He told me his wife and children were praying for him. Well I said “God is about to answer their prayers, because I would like to pray for you”. He was agreeable. I believe the next time I call with him he will be healed and restored and growing his own potatoes. God, who made the universe and who made you and I, is kind. He can deliver us from our troubles, heal and restore.

I have just had potatoes for dinner.  Every time I have these potatoes I will remember James. I believe my work is to continue what I did on Monday, telling others what God has done for me.

Angela