Commemorating the life of Sadhu Sundar Singh (1889-1929)Sundar was raised a member of the Sikh religion and born to wealthy parents. While only fourteen years old, his mother died, and Sundar underwent a crisis of faith. His mother was a loving saintly woman and they were very close. In his anger, Sundar burned a copy the New Testament Bible in public."Although I believed that I had done a very good deed by burning the Bible, I felt unhappy," he said. Within three days Sundar Singh could bear his misery no longer. Late one night in December 1903, he rose from bed and prayed that God reveal himself to him if he really existed. Otherwise -- "I planned to throw myself in front of the train which passed by our house." For seven hours Sundar Singh prayed. "O God, if there is a God, reveal yourself to me tonight." The next train was due at five o'clock in the morning. The hours passed.Suddenly the room filled with a glow. A man appeared before him. Sundar Singh heard a voice say, "How long will you deny me? I died for you; I have given my life for you." He saw the man's hands, pierced by nails.Jesus was the last person Sundar was looking for. After all, Jesus was the 'foreign God' of the Christian teachers at his school… Amazed that his vision had taken the unexpected form of Jesus, Sundar was convinced in his heart that Jesus was the true Saviour, and that He was alive. Sundar fell on his knees before Him and experienced an astonishing peacefulness which he had never felt before. The vision disappeared, but peace and joy lingered within him.To meet Christ was only the beginning for Sundar Singh. He was a Sikh. Sikhs had endured terrible persecutions in their early history. As a consequence, they were fiercely loyal to their faith and to each other. Conversion to Christianity was considered treachery. Now every effort was made to woo or coerce Sundar Singh back to his ancestral faith.Despite his family's please, bribes, and threats, Sundar wanted to be baptized in the Christian faith. After his father spoke words of official rejection over him, Sundar became an outcast from his people. He cut off the hair he had worn long like every Sikh man. Against great opposition, he was baptized on his 16th birthday in 1905, in an English church in Simla.Conventional Indian churches were willing to grant him a pulpit, but their rules were foreign to his spirit. Indeed, he felt that a key reason the gospel was not accepted in India was because it came in a language foreign to Indians. He decided to become a sadhu (monk), so that he could dedicate himself to the Lord Jesus. He was convinced that this was the best way to introduce the Gospel to his people since it was the only way which his people were accustomed to. As a sadhu (monk), he wore a yellow robe, lived on the charity of others, abandoned all possession and maintained celibacy. In this lifestyle, he was free to devote himself to the Lord. Dressed in his thin yellow robe, Sundar Singh took to the road and began a life of spreading the simple message of love and peace and rebirth through Jesus. He carried no money or other possessions, only a New Testament."I am not worthy to follow in the footsteps of my Lord," he said, "but like Him, I want no home, no possessions. Like Him I will belong to the road, sharing the suffering of my people, eating with those who will give me shelter, and telling all people of the love of God."Sundar journeyed much. He travelled all over India and Ceylon. Between 1918-1919, he visited Malaysia, Japan and China. Between 1920-1922 he went to Western Europe, Australia and Israel. He preached in many cities; Jerusalem, Lima, Berlin and Amsterdam among others. Despite his growing fame, Sundar retained a modest nature, desiring only to follow Jesus' example: to repay evil with kindness and to win over his enemies by love. This attitude caused even his father to become a Christian later in life, and to support Sundar in ministry."He travelled India and Tibet, as well as the rest of the world, with the message that the modern interpretation of Jesus was sadly watered down. Sundar visited Tibet every summer. He even made a visit to Tibet, where he persisted in strenuous work, despite ill health. He went missing there, presumed murdered, and so we commemorate his death on this day in April 1929.
Bernard Mizeki was born in Mozambique in about 1861. When he was twelve or a little older, he left his home and went to Cape Town, South Africa, where for the next ten years he worked as a labourer, living in the slums of Cape Town but, unlike many migrant workers, rising above the squalor of his surroundings. After his day’s work, he attended night classes at an Anglican school run by the Cowley Fathers. So he became a Christian and was baptized in 1886. Besides the fundamentals of European schooling, he showed a rare aptitude for language study, mastering at least ten languages. In time these skills would be a valuable asset in the work of translating the Scriptures and prayer books and hymn books into African languages.After graduating from the school, he accompanied Bishop Knight-Bruce to Mashonaland, in Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), to work as a lay catechist. In 1891 he was sent to Nhowe, and there he built a mission complex. He grew crops, studied the local language, observed the daily office and cultivated friendships with the villagers. In due course he opened a school for the children, which further endeared him to the local people.Eventually he moved the mission complex on to a nearby plateau, next to a grove of trees sacred to the ancestral spirits of the Mashona. Although he had first obtained the chief’s permission, he angered the local religious leaders when he cut some of the trees down and carved crosses into others. But this clear assertion of the authority of Christ did not hinder the mission’s work and over the next five years (1891–6), the mission at Nhowe experienced many conversions.In 1896 there was a native uprising against the rule of Cecil Rhodes’ British South Africa Company, which administered Southern Rhodesia. Missionaries, regarded as agents of the colonial power, were especially vulnerable. Bernard was advised to flee but refused to desert his converts or his post. On 18 June 1896, he was speared to death outside his hut. His wife and a mission worker went for help and, when some distance away, claimed to have seen a blinding light on the hillside where Bernard had been lying, and heard a rushing sound, as though of many wings. Certainly, when they returned there was no sign of the body. The site of Bernard’s martyrdom has since become a popular place of pilgrimage.
Thoughts for Today From the real world, sublime and challenging A place for more certain times – Punta del Este.In uncertain times we are allowed to have those moments and times of wobble when we cannot see over the horizon of situations. What is over the other side?To avoid the next wobble the diplomatic theory was that you do not cruise directly to the Falkland Islands from Argentina. So, we sailed back to Uraguay and Punte del Este. It was Brexit Day, Friday the 31st January, and a strange day in so many ways. We didn’t quite know what lay ahead. If you want unusual, then go to Punta del Este. The name means Eastern tip. It was smaller than expected, with a resident population of 130,000 which expands enormously during high-peak holiday times. The resort (with a heritage of a whaling industry going back one hundred and fifty years) is an hour and a half drive from Montivideo. Today it is famous for 20 miles of great beaches, restaurants, extravagant night life and even has its own Trump Tower Hotel. One side of the eastern tip is on the Atlantic coast where the surfing is particularly challenging. It is famous for the first naval battle of the Second World War – that of the River Plate and the eventual disabling of the Graf Spee at Montivideo harbour in December 1939.Our arrival at the eastern Brava Beach revealed the concrete sculpture of a large hand emerging from the sands. Designed by the Chilean Sculptor Mario Irrarrazabel and completed in just a couple of weeks in1982 as part of a national competition. There are two theories about its meaning. One is that it is a drowning hand to warn surfers of the dangers of surfing on that side of the peninsula, and the other being the ‘Helping Hand’ of humanity. Whatever, like all prevailing sculptures it makes us think.Here in the second picture we have the wobbly bridges of the Punta. Why? Good question. The first one built in 1965 for its novelty and for road safety to hopefully make people slow down on this busy river crossing. It became so busy a second one was built in 1998. Many come just to see the novelty bridges, originally designed not by a structural engineer, but by a builder! We returned to the ship via the Casa Pueblo, a white house folly of the artist and architect Carlos Vilaro. His son Carlos Paez Rodriguez, at the age of 18, as a member of the Old Christians Rugby Football club team was part of an ill-fated flight in 1972 to Chile for a match. He is famous for surviving 72 days along with 15 others in the Andes, recorded in the film ‘Alive’ 1993. It is story of the extreme lengths that human beings can go to in order to survive. Saturday was a Sea Day. The Captain of the Balmoral always gave us a 12 mid-day update about our position, projected weather, mileage and the depth of the sea. On this occasion he informed us that our Monday next destination, at West Point Island of the Falklands, would not be visited. This was because of the adverse weather conditions for a small boat transfer. He was hopeful of our landing at Port Stanley the following day… This may account why we had over 150 passengers attend the main service on the Sunday morning all praying for a safe landing at Port Stanley! It was a wobbly moment - would the weather be a helping hand? With blessings,Edward and JaneNext scheduled destination – Port Stanley, Falkland Islands
Tuesday 16th JuneThought for the DayOne of the Bible stories I can remember from my earliest school days is the parable "The good Samaritan". It is a story of help in an emergency coming from the least likely source and an example of loving compassion and generosity. How do you react in an emergency? • Do you run away? • Do you run around like corporal Jones in "Dad's Army", shouting "Don't panic! Don't panic!"? • Do you just freeze? • Or do you react in a calm and collected way, doing the necessary things in a generous and thoughtful manner?The problem with emergencies it that they come out of the blue, they are unique and they always seem to happen at the most awkward time. This year we have the coronavirus to contend with, which is an emergency that has affected the whole world. It is an enemy that we cannot see and cannot easily control. Jumping up and down in frustration will do no good whatsoever and will only raise our blood pressure. Most of us are in the same boat, with self-isolation social distancing, cancelled holidays and cancelled everything and worst of all not seeing when we might get back to “normal”, whatever that might be in the future. In my study I had a copy of that great wartime poster "Keep Calm and Carry on" for many years. Sometimes we really do need just to keep calm, because we cannot help others if we are not in control of ourselves.Luckily, in this country, we do not have the same number of disasters and emergencies, that countries such as Haiti and Bangladesh have to contend with. When we do have them we have the benefit of marvellous emergency services, an infrastructure that allows rapid response and a degree of national wealth that allows us to regain equilibrium in time.For many years I represented the Church of England in Warwickshire on committees that prepared ministers of religion, of all faiths, to help with pastoral care if emergencies and disasters should occur. I have been trained in how to be part of the emergency team and in dealing with the media, and I have a luminescent jacket with “CLERGY” on the back to wear with my dog-collar, which is somewhere in the garage. However, none of us know how we would react in a real emergency situation. The answer as far as I am concerned is that I know that my God goes with me wherever I go. Fortunately for most of us in this country we live in a reasonably safe and stable environment, but perhaps the example of the good Samaritan should inspire us all; the slogan on that wartime poster, "Keep calm and carry on", should help us when things are tough on a personal basis, and finally remember to let God go with you in all things that you attemptFr. Terry
