Thoughts

My mind seems to run blank when I look at my computer screen and the empty blog post window. I really want to post something here, on my blog, to keep you, my reader, up to date with what's been happening in my life over the last week or so. Yet, my life hasn't had much change since my last post... so if I wrote something, anything about my life, you'd get bored (especially if you'd read the last post I wrote last week, and the post before that). I'm also not going to write about what's happening next year. The School of Intercessory Prayer SOIP finishes on 17 December and after that I don't have fixed plans about what I'm going to do next. I'm not worried... there's no need to be worried about what's going to happen in four months time. God knows what's going to happen then and He'll let me know when the time's right for me to know. He's always done. I'm kinda hoping that my life will continue to reflect what Jesus is doing in me, and that one day I'll be able to reflect Him as honestly as I can. I know that I'm only human, but its my deep desire to know God more, to another level. That's why I followed His calling on my life and that's why I came to Holland, why I applied to do the SOIP at Youth With A Mission YWAM Heidebeek. 

Since I arrived in eastern Holland, I've been helping the people I'm staying with, doing practical stuff. Over the last week we've been trimming a lot of their trees, and then moving the branches into a pile. It has got me thinking. Sometimes, God wants to put us through a challenging time to prune us from things that aren't from Him. Over the last few years I went through a few different times of pruning and now, it seems I've come into a time of relative rest and growth. I love practical work, I love being able to work with my hands, so helping Joyce with her two ponies and the other work (like moving the branches) I've been doing here is something I real enjoying (I'm so grateful that God has given me hands that I can use practically). Though it does leave me falling into bed at night really tired (however it's usually a satisfied type of tiredness).

As I bring this post to a close, I can't help but wonder if what I've written has made sense. I'll write again soon, maybe with something more interesting.

Letting "The Lawnmowers" Out

Fey

Its been an incredible last couple of weeks since I arrived in the Netherlands' the eastern border region (this border is shared with Germany). Yes, the Dutch might be harder to understand than in the western part of the country (because most of the people here speak Dutch and German fluently), but the landscape and the people are beautiful.

I'm extremely fortunate with who I'm staying with. The couple, Hans and Joyce, I'm staying with have allowed me to stay with them before the School of Intercessory Prayer SOIP starts. Whilst I've been here I've had the incredible opportunity to help Joyce with looking after their two highland ponies, Asha and Fey. The Highland pony originally comes from the Scottish Highlands and is one of the oldest breeds in Great Britain. They're a hardy breed because they've been forced to adapt to living in very tough terrain, with unpredictable weather, so because of this, they can be left out almost all year round without blankets.

Asha and Fey are two beautiful highland ponies who are extremely happy and friendly animals who find everything interesting. They love putting their noses into anything that could potentially be food, which is where this post gets its title from. Joyce and I have jokingly called the ponies "the lawnmowers" because they'll graze an area of long grass to the ground, almost. When we go to let them out, we're greeted with a lot of whinnying and excitement. They love eating. They can get quite impatient if they think we're not working fast enough to get a new section corded off for them to graze. Joyce usually makes them circle round so she can open the electric lines when they've got their backs turned because otherwise they might knock her over in their desperation to get to food. Its really funny to see.

Asha

Whilst I've been here, Joyce bought a buggy for Asha, the younger of the two highland ponies. We've been getting her used to pulling it, and having the harness on. She's been doing great despite being a bit headstrong. Yesterday, she pulled the buggy at a trot, which she hasn't wanted to do before, with the larger, heavier buggy. Joyce and I both agreed that she really enjoyed herself. Fey and I watched from the sidelines.

The times I've walked down to see the ponies, they've usually come over to say 'hi' when I've called them. They're ever hopeful that they'll get a tasty morsel (which is something that they don't usually get during the day, though Joyce and I use bread crumbs to bring them into the paddock so we can shut the electric wires* behind them). We don't want them eating all the time because then they could get sick. So we usually bring them into a grassless enclosure during the night.

Beyond helping out with the ponies, I've been going to different activities with Hans and Joyce. I've been going to their connect group once a week, the prayer meeting for the street and I also was able to share part of my testimony at Hans and Joyce's church this morning, before Hans' sermon.

*Joyce uses electric wires to keep the ponies from running wild. The electricity that runs through these wires aren't strong enough to hurt the ponies in any way, but enough to give them a little shock. This little shock is just strong enough to prevent them from pushing out of the grazing area that Joyce and I have set up. Every time Joyce and I go to see them, we have to make sure that the electricity is turned off (the ponies don't know this, they think there's electricity running through it all the time).

To Be Or Not To Be :: A Vegetarian

How it all began…

I gather many of you are surprised at my sudden decision to become a vegetarian… given that last year I didn't go down this road because I claimed I loved my meat too much. A year is a long time. Three hundred six five days of thinking time (or there about)… and in my case that's a lot of time to discuss, with myself and with God, about what becoming a vegetarian means, what it'll entail and why I'd do it.

Yes, I do love meat, but animal cruelty plays a role in my decision. For those of you who have never been to Africa, you won't have seen the "normal" method of transporting chicken or cows. It's simple, hang as many chickens as you can to the handlebars and saddle of your moped motorbike as possible. To get the cows to the slaughter house you make sure the  cows can't lie down by tying their horns to the lorry frame (most lorries in Eastern Africa are have open lorry beds), making sure that you can get s lot in. I'm not saying everyone does this. I know there are a few who do transport their livestock in a nicer manner, but in the nineteen years I lived in Uganda it was a regular sight on the road.

Animals are also kept in horrible conditions in the developed world. That's why there's organizations like the RSPCA (Royal Society for the Protetion and Care of Animals) and free range products. I could buy free range meat, yet no one will ask why I'm doing that. I want to be more radical than that. Saying I'm a vegetarian means I have a cause. We can all choose where we want to take a stand, what causes we'll fight for. I've chosen mine. Have you chosen yours?

Why did I become a vegetarian when I was younger if animal cruelty is the case?

I was brought up eatting what was put in front of me. If I didn't like the look of it, I needed to at least taste it. It also made life easier for the people my family visited. You see, as missionaries, we saw a lot of people on our visit to England and Holland. We ate meals with a lot of different people and it was easier for our hosts if we weren't fussy. I also hadn't thought of it in depth before last summer.

When you live in community like I did, even when I was cooking my own meals, I didn't have the time to actively persue all the ins and out of vegetarianism. Maybe I still don't know what it means, but I am more aware than I was this time last year. I've spent the last ten days with friends of my parents on the Dutch border with Germany, this couple are vegetarians, so, for the last ten days. I haven't had any meat. I haven't missed it. I also spent a week with a good friend of mine, from my DTS, and his wife, who is a vegetarian. I asked questions and in turn I questioned myself.

The answer is simple. I chose to become a vegetarian because I believe that we need to look after the world around us. Animals aren't there to be mistreated. We shouldn't mistreat each other either. I love my meat, but I love seeing animals alive and well treated even more than that (however I do understand when farmers need to be kill their animals because there's too many animals for a given area; I just think they should do it in a manner that doesn't traumatise the creature). It's my choice, and I've chosen this path.