God is our refuge and strength, A very present help in trouble. (Ps. 46)

This week is going to be a combination of a service-type letter and a Blitherings because this week the group has to be cancelled. The Chaplaincy have an important planning meeting on Wednesday so none of the groups are running, so I am hoping that I can manage to get this sent out to you.

Let’s start with a prayer….

So we hail our God, Eternal God, Ras Tafari, hear us and help us and cause Thy face to shine upon us, Thy children.

Next is the chapter of the Kebra Negast….

6. CONCERNING THE SIN OF CAIN

And that accursed man Cain, the murderer of his brother, multiplied evil, and his seed did likewise, and they provoked God to wrath with their wickedness. They had not the fear of God before their eyes, and they never kept in mind that He had created them, and they never prayed to Him, and they never worshipped Him, and they never called upon Him, and they never rendered service to Him in fear; nay, they ate, and they drank, and they danced, and they played upon stringed instruments, and sang lewd songs thereto, and they worked uncleanness without law, without measure, and without rule. And the wickedness of the children of Cain multiplied, until at length in the greatness of their filthiness they introduced the seed of the ass into the mare, and the mule came into being, which God had not commanded—even like those who give their children who are believers unto those who deny God, and their offspring become the seed of the filthy Gomorraites, one half of them being of good and one half of them of evil seed. And as for those who do [this] wickedness, their judgment is ready, and their error in lasting.

Next is the psalm for this week. The earth has had a battering this week. First Storm Isha and then Storm Jocelyn have both given my hillside a good old rattle. The trees have creaked and some big branches have come down. Luckily our mountain stayed where it should have been but as in the psalm, the waters definitely did roar. I had always read verse 10 “be still, and know that I am God”, as something peaceful and gentle. Instead it is a statement in a time of war, it is a shake up, a ‘be in awe’ and a cry for acknowledgement of who our God is. Here is Psalm 46…..

1 God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble.

2 Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea,

3 though its waters roar and foam and the mountains quake with their surging.

4 There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God, the holy place where the Most High dwells.

5 God is within her, she will not fall; God will help her at break of day.

6 Nations are in uproar, kingdoms fall; he lifts his voice, the earth melts.

7 The LORD Almighty is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress.

8 Come and see what the LORD has done, the desolations he has brought on the earth.

9 He makes wars cease to the ends of the earth. He breaks the bow and shatters the spear; he burns the shields with fire.

10 He says, “Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.”

11 The LORD Almighty is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress.

Here is a prayer to end with. This is from Longevity website and written by Brian Ka….

Jah Rastafari, I and I call upon thee,

surround I and I with thy divine protection,

shield I and I from negativity and harm,

guide I and I on the path of righteousness,

and grant I and I spiritual strength and fortitude.

Jah Rastafari, hear I and I prayer.

Amen

***

It’s going to be a short Blitherings this week, I’m sorry, its been a busy week!

Along with everything else going on this week, I have spent a ridiculous amount of time storm watching! Wow! Those storm systems have been powerful….and even though Dilys is a particularly short sausage dog, you should see what happened to her ears when she went outside this week. I really wish I could show you a photograph of it but she always managed to race for the door too fast and I didn’t remember to have my camera ready.

This week has been eaten up with bathing Mali, visits from friends, sorting out tractors, bathing Mali, helping my middle daughter organise her filming schedule for her degree, picking her up from uni, bathing Mali, power cuts from the storms, dropping fuel off when my son runs out of fuel in the tractor…again, bathing Mali. There have been no repeats of the food stealing this week from Mali but she is such a mud-magnet!

I think that next week it will be time for the rams (the boy sheep) to go off to market. They’ve put a decent amount of weight on and there is very little grass left on the fields. They have been eating the hay that we cut last year and some beet that we bought in. Once they have gone, there will be just the breeding ewes (girl sheep) and they will have the field closest to the house. The rest of the fields will spread with muck, we have to get someone in to do that because we haven’t got a spreader, and then they will be left for this year’s hay.

This is going to have to be the lot for this letter…its 2am, I’m sat in the kitchen and everyone else has gone to bed. The fire is just about out, Dilys is snoring like a train and the whole house is rattling with the storm. I need to finish this letter to you and go bank the fire up with coal for the night and hope I can get this out to all of you tomorrow. I will leave you with this picture of Dilys, curled up for the night…

Blessings,

Elizabeth