A happy day

Such a happy day.

 The Jesus Army is a Christian movement with a focus on community.  They have centres in Coventry, London and Northampton, and publish a regular magazine called Jesus Life.  There was an excellent interview with Shane Claiborne in the current issue. If you click the link, you can see James with Shane, both of them wearing the bright red crosses of the Jesus Army. Yesterday Paul from the Northampton Jesus Centre and Julie and James from the Coventry Centre came to spend a few hours in our home to interview me about the books I write and the life of our household, for their magazine.




The painting on the wall is by Hebe (I love it), and the two pots of honey just by Paul's right shoulder come from the Jesus Army's own bees on their New Creation Farm.  I remember they used to sell it at the Farmer's Market in Aylesbury.  That small plant is a Christmas Cactus.  The Badger had a HUGE one, and it took up more space than seemed practical, so we Freecycled it in Aylesbury, but before it went I took a cutting so we could begin again because the Badger loves the flowers and so do I.

It turns out that the people of the Jesus Army really like my Hawk and Dove series of novels, because they are about relationships in community – not idealised relationships or perfect human beings, but life with rough edges living through the experience of being transformed by the grace of God, which is what being part of the Jesus Army is all about too.

The interview felt like a right thing to do, but I hadn’t expected to have such a nice time.  I’d met Paul before, because a few years back when I lived in Aylesbury he appeared from somewhere out of the Mists of Life into my computer and made friends with me.  Recently he called by to see me because he has family in Hastings and comes down here sometimes, and we have become friends because Paul's heart is drawn to simplicity. But Julie and James I had never met before.  And they are all three such lovely people – open and kind and full of faith.

This is us practising our Fi's trick of telling people, “Say ‘Sex’”, to make them smile for a photo - works every time!


 That's Hebe's clock in the background.  She looks after it, winds it up, and it does go, ticking industriously, but it kinda makes up the time as it goes along - as a clock it's not really into non-fiction, more fantasy; we like it all the more for that, it keeps us guessing and ensures we retain the essential natural bewilderment of the human condition.

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365 366 Day 68 Thursday March 8th  
(if you don’t know what I’m talking about, see here) 

   

This was a good thing, that’s why I bought it.  An insulated tiffin box, so you can keep your rice and dahl hot to eat later.  Problem: none of us ever used it.  Donated.