Minister's Letter

February 2010

Dear friends

I always find the article for the February magazine a bit strange to write because New Year seems so long ago yet it is the first one of the year.

Although I have spoken to many of you since New Year this is then official “Happy New Year” from the Minister to everyone.

I don’t know what your 2009 was like? Was it really marvellous or was it absolutely horrible?
For most of us, there were probably times that could be described by each of those words. In 2010 all we can really hope for is more of the “marvellous” and less of the “horrible”. This is true both in our personal lives and in the life of the world. 2009 was not a good year for the economy and 2010 does not look to be going to be any better. The war in Afghanistan does not seem to be calming down. The news was full of stories of murder and violence, and of course, 2010 started with the terrible earthquake in Haiti.

Many of you also will have had a bad year personally, with your own difficulties and tragedies.
But as Christians, we have this comfort that through both marvellous and horrible Jesus is with us. He is there for us and he will give us the strength to get through the “horrible”. He will comfort us. He will see us safely through this year as he did last year.

I am sure you all know the poem “at the gate of the year” it was the one King George VI quoted in his Christmas broadcast 1939 and I don’t think you could find a worse year than 1939 or 1940.

So I am quoting it for us in 2010.

The Gate of the Year

And I said to the man who stood at the gate of the year:
"Give me a light, that I may tread safely into the unknown!"
And he replied:
"Go out into the darkness and put your hand into the Hand of God.
That shall be to you better than light and safer than a known way."

So, I went forth, and finding the Hand of God, trod gladly into the night
And He led me toward the hills and the breaking of day in the lone East.

So, heart, be still!
What need our little life,
Our human life, to know,
If God hath comprehension?
In all the dizzy strife
Of things both high and low
God hideth His intention.

The Desert 1908
Marie Louise Haskins 1876 – 1957

Elaine