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BLUEBELL WALKS AT RUSHALL FARM Come and enjoy a family walk in the bluebell woods at Rushall Manor Saturday 1st and Sunday 2nd May 11am – 6pm Walks up to 5 miles Wheelchair access to bluebells Refreshments available Donation of £5 adults/£2 children All proceeds to the Reading Multiple Sclerosis Society Rushall Manor is off Back Lane, Bradfield movement) right where I live, I know it’s the last thing the authorities want to happen. Small wonder then, that since I arrived, I’ve had frequent visits from secret police. They turn up in civilian dress but are fairly conspicuous due to their inordinate interest in things that none of my neighbours would ever be interested in. The man who visited me every week during my first year here wanted to know everything about everything. So, as soon as it became apparent that he wasn’t just being friendly, I plied him with all kinds of info as soon as he came through the door. I told him where I was going, who I was seeing, how much I was paying for everything I bought, what I thought about my home country, and a good deal of other useless information. The poor man ended up with more data than he knew what to do with – and that was before he’d even asked his first question! At the same time, I worked hard to be his friend. I asked about his family and invited him to bring them over for a visit – which he did, once I assisted my tame ‘spy’ with job applications and did many other things to help him. Doing this took some of the tension out of his frequent and often inconvenient visits and helped me to see this man as a potential brother in Christ rather than a time-consuming irritant. My mail is opened, but I see to it that I only receive care packages rather than personal letters at my home address – so it really doesn’t matter. The people monitoring my mail only look at it, they never take anything. I also take it for granted that my phone conversations are monitored, along with all the on-line activity. It creates a certain amount of stress, but I pretend that this is perfectly normal, and try not to let it bother me! A few months ago I was speaking with a local believer who lives under far greater pressure than I do. He reminded me that if the government is upset with me it will simply throw me out of the country. If it gets upset with him, he will go to prison, or worse. His simple advice was, ‘Jesus said that we should let everyone see our light rather than hiding it away and that is what we should do.’ Good advice, yes! But the burden for me is how to let my light shine without doing something unwise that could create grief for my brothers and sisters. There are believers in CANs who suffer each day for the cause of Christ, and although I know that God can use their tears to work out his purposes, I don’t want to unnecessarily contribute to their suffering. So I don’t take my friend’s advice lightly – I take it very seriously indeed. ‘Always look at everyone as your friend,’ he advised me. ‘Consider them safe and trustworthy. Don’t be guided by cynicism or fear. Every decision made out of fear is a wrong decision!’ Wise words. ‘Live Christ before them wholeheartedly,’ he 4 MAY 2010
continued, ‘if they hate the gospel, it’ll soon become apparent – and that’s your signal to back off. But err on the side of love, rather than caution. You won’t be sorry – even if you suffer.’ Extracted from OMF magazine. www.omf.org.uk Poverty. Let’s end it. Christian Aid Week 2010 That is the message for this year’s Christian Aid Week - 9 to 15 May. What began as the churches’ response to the horrors of the refugee crisis in Europe after the Second World War has become the country’s biggest ‘houseto-house’ collection – with 300,000 volunteers delivering envelopes and picking them back up from householders in the week. In all, it raises more than £9 million a year. If you can help us in any way this year please visit www.2.christianaid.org.uk/getinvolved/ christianaidweek for more details. May Gardens I don’t know about you, but I have the greatest difficulty in getting on top of weeding, there is so much to do; the great pundits all say use the hoe at every opportunity to keep the surface soil ‘moving’, thus leaving the seedling to wither on the surface; that is fine for the annual weeds but if you chop a dandelion root in half it seems to come up again with even more vigour and you may even have two live roots for the price of one! The use of weed killers needs to be done with great care as the odd splash of a weed killer, particularly the systemic kind (the ones that work through the plants’ growing cells); even a single droplet on to a single leaf or even the stem of a plant may affect the strength or life of that plant as I have found to my cost; a number of years ago I watered onto the weeds around the base of a young apple tree a weed killer and thoughtlessly splashed the lower trunk of the tree; while the tree was not killed it has greatly retarded its growth and limited its flowering capacity – it will recover but what carelessness. Do not use weed killers in a strong wind as one cannot control the droplets of the weed killer. It is also worth mentioning ‘selective weed killers’ that are used on lawns which are designed to kill all plants except grasses and this includes your flower border plants; so if you are going to apply a selective weed killer do make certain that you protect your plants – put up a barrier while the weed killer dries out. On a visit to Wisley a little while ago I was reminded that one really should keep the blades of ones secateurs clean particularly as one uses them to remove dead or diseased material from plants or trees; I have found the answer is to use a bit of wire wool dipped in white spirit or methylated spirit and rub it over the blades to keep them bright, this removes any sap or dead matter – remember that if you went for surgery you would expect the hospital tools of the trade to be disease free. During this month I would expect that you will be doing a fair amount of planting out of seedlings- do remember that however wet the soil may be you must water the seedlings or plants in, the easiest way to kill a plant off is to leave air gaps between the new environment and the plant’s hair roots. Broad beans should be coming into flower and setting their pods now, don’t be greedy and try to get too many from each plant; at about the sixth ‘bean level’ most plants will be attacked by black fly and if left will take over the *am* at All Saints’ Church, Upper Bucklebury. 8.45am-12pm every Monday morning Why not come along and meet new people, chat with good friends, and enjoy a warm atmosphere and good coffee (or tea!) MAY 2010 5
Page 1 and 2: A couple of weeks ago, I went to ha
Page 3: Life in a CAN Living for Christ is
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Page 9 and 10: into a lamp post.” Cathedral atte
Page 11 and 12: M + P Services Tree Care, Hedges Tr
Page 13 and 14: BUCKLEBURY MEMORIAL HALL Registered
Page 15 and 16: L INTERIORS curtains poles carpet f
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Page 19 and 20: Buckram and Bump Curtains • Blind

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