Wednesday, December 21, 2016

MERRY CHRISTMAS FROM THE WILSON'S

"Fast away the Old Year passes.... hail the New ye lads and lasses!"

It has been a pleasure being able to keep in touch with you all during 2016. 
We have had new readers join us from different parts of the earth. We think particularly of those from Russia, Germany and the Baltic States who regularly join us for Breakfast with Ian.
To you and all the "Old Faithfuls" spread across North America and The Commonwealth Pauline and I wish you the Merriest of Christmases and a New Year packed with Heaven sent blessings.
See you all again in January,

Ian

Why not visit us during the Christmas break at
www.barriechristianfellowship.com

Thursday, December 15, 2016

World War Two Christmas.(Part Two)

We look askance at our modern, enlightened school system that  has clinically and cynically removed carols, creches and the wonderful narrative of Jesus from its classrooms. It is almost as if it was Santa Claus who arrived by the virgin birth!
Back in my war-time school days it was not so. Could it be that the ever present threat of annihilation by bombs and V2 rockets brought the need of God's care and protection into daily focus in our lives? I think so.
There was never any problem with celebrating Christmas in my Junior school of Poppleton Road in York.
We were thankful that the vast hole that had been blown in our school's middle structure was repaired and now, one year later, in 1944 we sang carols lustily to the excellent conducting of Miss Christine Wisley. Furthermore, that year I was given a stuffed lamb to hold in our school nativity play. Christmas decorations were everywhere, bunting, tinsel and tiny painted bells. Their bright lights defiantly shone into the darkness of the gloomy years of war.
And lo, wise men came bearing gifts from the nearby American Air base. A small bag of sugar and cocoa, a shiny red apple and, best of all, a packet of chewing gum. We were warned by our teacher not to chew that gum before we left her classroom. Our school photo had been taken the previous week and I was given mine to take home to my proud parents. While looking at the handsome young man in his grey shirt and sweater I absently mindedly stretched out my american chewing gum from my lips which promptly stuck over the nose and left eye of my portrait. I never forgot that Christmas. I had a black and white photo with a smear across the face and memories of a stinging cane across my fingers with Merry Christmas from Miss Gibson.

Jubilate.

Ian




Tuesday, December 13, 2016

A World War 2 Christmas

Since the Christmas season is upon us I thought that I would give you all a break from politics and come to the centre of our Christian calendar: CHRISTMAS.
I have been recalling with my sister Anne, some of our shared recollections of our Christmas days spent in York in England during W.W.2.
In 1944  it was a "ration book" Christmas, but there again, all days were "ration book" days: a coupon for so much sugar, two coupons for so much coal, two coupons for so many eggs and so on. 
Nevertheless, the Wilson family always ate well at Christmas. My mother had a chicken house at the end of the garden and also tended a lame duck called Matilda. This duck had been rescued from the mouth of a weasel by a local farmer and given to my mother to nurse back to health. Matilda did not realize that she would be headed for the oven at Christmas 1944, along with a couple of her friends from the chicken run. We also had other goods that escaped Emmanuel Shinwell's ration book regime. My aunt  ran a bakery and had raisins, sweet mince and other ingredients that magically appeared from under-the-counter for our special pudding. We ate well, for not only did we have vitals but also Aunt Annie was the best cook in the city.
As for toys the fare was less abundant. My Uncle Harry was an engineer in a munitions factory and managed to turn out a spring loaded submarine and an exploding battle ship for my banner gift that year. Along with two handkerchiefs, three post office savings bonds and a Waddington's jig saw puzzle.
That night I was allowed to stay up until nine-o-clock and as I walked back home with my parents from the bakery, I looked into the starry sky and felt that I was the happiest kid in the world.

Jubilate .

Ian


Wednesday, December 7, 2016

Trump's New Team. Ben Carson.

It is a total refreshment to see committed and vocal Christians being appointed to President Elect, Donald Trump's new cabinet.
We have waited in vain for such appointments in Canada, but instead, have a spectrum of every creed and colour as part of Justin Trudeau's pledge to diversify our government.
Hope arises South of the border.
If you know your Bible history you will recall several occasions when God raised up His people to positions of great power and influence: an influence that changed world events.
 I speak of Joseph as chancellor of Egypt, Daniel as Nebuchadnezzar's advisor in chief, Queen Esther, wife to King of Chaldea and, of course, Moses in the court of Pharaoh.
In our own era there have been men and women of God without number who have been unique gifts to the nations as they advised their kings and presidents.
Ben Carson is one of the latest. An erstwhile rival of Trump for the presidency he has now been selected as a member of the inner circle. As outspoken as he was for Christ during the election campaign you can guarantee he will be just as vocal behind the closed door of the council room.
Yippee. It is turning out to be a wonderful Christmas.
Jubilate.

Ian

Sunday, December 4, 2016

Trump's New Team

A couple of weeks ago I posed the question "In the courts of Pharaoh and Nebuchadnezzar, who held the most power, the king or his council of wise men? I then suggested that it was a about a fifty-fifty balance.
We are now getting a clearer picture of the counsel of wise men around Donald Trump.
One of these is actually a wise woman, Betsy De Vos.
She is even more wealthy than Trump himself with an estimated worth of about five billion dollars. All of this accumulated through the smart business administration of various companies one of which is  the well known AMWAY corporation.
But don't be fooled. This lady is more than cash rich. She is rich in wisdom, rich in conviction, rich in experience and rich in her Christian faith.
She is determined to increase the number of charter schools in America and support parent's right to choose faith-based eduction for their children.
Her opinion, and well based, is that millions of children are pretty well 'dead on arrival' in the public school system. She is determined to give them "an escape route out from low-wattage, inferior tax-payer owned schools"
Perhaps her greatest accolade has come from the head of the Chicago Teachers Union who has called her a "nightmare."
Get ready folks. For parents who have longed for a new day to dawn in the schooling of their children( in morals as well as mathematics) a dream has just come true.
Jubilate.

Ian

Sunday, November 27, 2016

Adios Fidel Castro.

He is dead. Fidel Castro has finally departed this earthly scene after keeping his fiefdom of Cuba under sixty years of economic and ideological thraldom.
For almost six decades he ruled this island with the iron fist of tyranny. It was a regime based on fear, absolute autocracy, thought control and the suppression of christianity and free speech.
Castro was a thug who brandished an A.K 47 in one hand and  a copy of the communist manifesto in the other all the while puffing on his ubiquitous cigars.
His brand of dialectical marxism kept his people in abject poverty and in almost complete isolation from the rest of the advanced western world: and he was happy to have it that way. Firing squads, the jailing of dissidents and disdain for human rights were commonplace in his socialist paradise. 
He lived like a medieval king in an island fortress subjecting his people to daily harangues over radio and television.
Yesterday he went to meet his Maker and when the news arrived in Miami a million ex patriot Cubans went into all-out celebration.
Responding to this breaking news Donald Trump, President Elect, U.S.A. tweeted "The death of a brutal dictator, who caused his people unimaginable suffering."
On the other hand, our own Canadian  prime minister, Justin Trudeau, spoke this of Castro. "We mourn the passing of a legendary leader. It was a real honour to meet his three sons and his brother Raul on my recent visit to Cuba."
Perhaps we can now understand the depth of the problem that faces us from our parliament buildings in Ottawa.

Jubilate anyway.
Ian

Wednesday, November 23, 2016

Those Poppies Again.

As you can see from the mosaic, the people have spoken. This time loud and clear about the "can or cannot" of wearing poppies. 
The players in the recent international soccer game between England and Scotland wore black arm bands with red poppies attached. Then, on a mega scale in a game between Northern Ireland and Azerbaijan, the fans got in on the act.
Several thousand had placards painted in white, red and black and showed their defiance and disdain towards FIFA by making a monster poppy that filled one of the stands.
How dare they!
Now the righteous mongers from soccer's ruling body are set to fine the English and Scottish teams and, wait for it, also fine the Northern Irish fans for their impudence.
I can just imagine a delegation from the FIFA police arriving in Belfast to ask for the money!
Meantime we must bear in mind that it is less than a year since the chairman of FIFA, Sepp Blatter, resigned in disgrace after embezzeling money from the organization and several other of his cronies are facing jail terms for similar malfeance.
All of this coinciding with the centenary of the battle of the Somme where a million men from England, Scotland, Ireland, France, Wales and Germany lost their lives in bloody conflict so that member nations could play soccer instead of making war.

LEST WE FORGET.

Jubilate.

Ian (Immemorial for Oliver Wilson. Durham Light Infantry. The Battle of the Somme. 1916- 17)

Monday, November 21, 2016

No More "Good Friday's"

If there is one particular incident that highlights the great divide in America, it is the one that happened yesterday in Bloomington Indiana. 
 John Hamilton, the mayor of this far left community, has just renamed two of America's historical holidays. 
"Good Friday" has now become "Spring Holiday" and "Columbus Day" has been renamed "Fall Holiday."
According to Hamilton this will make the calendar "inclusive to all"
To all my international readers, this small piece of municipal legislation will help you understand the anger and outrage felt by the followers of Donald Trump, towards the liberal left.
This politically correct crowd have been busy for years airbrushing out traditional  American words from the lexicon (considered to be offensive to them) and also making war on the Christian faith by the banning of prayer from schools, creches from the public square, the ten commandments from court-house walls and by foisting a host of other holier-than-thou indignities upon the population.
The outcome of the recent election has flabbergasted this highbrow crowd.
How could the American people vote for a "Neanderthal" like Donald Trump?
I will give you one simple reason ( to go with hundreds of others).
The president-elect has stated that his first act of congress will be to mandate the use of "MERRY CHRISTMAS" in federal buildings instead of "HAPPY HOLIDAYS".
If that needs explaining to you then you wouldn't even begin to 
grasp the present mood in the United States.

Jubilate.

Ian

Friday, November 18, 2016

Trump/Clinton The Flawed Candidates.

I have just put the phone down to my brother-in-law in England. He and his friends stand speechless that Donald Trump could ever have been elected to the high office of president of the United States.
How could such a braggart, such a domineering, posturing demagogue, such a mysogynist ever be granted the keys to the White House by the American people?
Nor are such sentiments confined to my brother-in-law across in the U.K. There are a few people in Canada and, I may say, also in America who think the same way.
But let me remind both them and myself that this 2106 election was a straight choice between Donald Trump and Hilary Clinton and BOTH candidates had major and glaring vices that could have disqualified them from the job.
No. The people in America did not vote for a parish priest. They voted for someone who they hoped would bring about REAL change and bought millions of "Make America Great Again" hats and Tee shirts to articulate their hope. 
In the Old Testament it was always debatable whether the real power belonged to the King or to the wise men who advised him.
Let us, for  the sake of argument, say it was a fifty-fifty deal.
If that be so take heart in the fact that Mike Pence, vice president and Priebus, the New Chief of staff, are good Christian men and others such as General Flynn, Jeff Sessions and Rudy Giuliani represent a sane and solid phalanx for the new cabinet.
Don't worry folks. Trump is in the White House but God is still on His Great White Throne.

Jubilate.

Ian


Wednesday, November 16, 2016

Election 2016: The Aftermath.

In the immediate aftermath of the historic U.S election of 2016 have come a spate of mass protests ( all in the democratic strong holds of Los Angeles, New York, Portland  and Miami )
There have been placards proclaiming "American Tragedy" "Not My President ", "Dump Trump"  and a lot more.
One of the organizers of these social-media-driven protests has said that "We do not want to challenge the legitimacy of the election. We just want chance to MOURN." This need to mourn is born out by the emergency grief and loss centres that have sprung up across college campuses. Here, traumatized students can drop by for special free therapy sessions.
It is all enough to boggle the mind.
If the scale of grieving stretches from one to ten and there are kids that are off the scale because their election hopes backfired , then where would they be if real tragedy were to strike?
Lacking any of the milk of human kindness, Rudolf Guliani (likely the new Attorney General) has said these protesters are a bunch of cry babies who need to get back to their studies. 
But let us try to be a little more compassionate and believe that. come Christmas, it will be just a faint memory and that they will all be feeling better.
Meantime, one of the Trump camp who was asked his opinion about it all said "We have already registered our protest. WE VOTED."
Jubilate.

Ian

Sunday, November 13, 2016

The Undesirables and the Uneducated

One thing has become patently clear through all the passion and heat of the U.S. election 2016 and that is the insufferable high-mindedness of the media.
 Having backed the wrong horse in the run up to election day they are now in the business of examination, not SELF examination mind you. No, they are now analyzying not where THEY got it wrong but rather where THE PEOPLE who voted for Donald Trump got it wrong.
Their  conclusions are simple and unassailable. The folk from TRUMPISTAN are uneducated and therefore need to go through some sort of crash course before 2020 rolls around and we go through it all again.
The recommendation for the Democratic party is to get the people from Middle America (Middle Ages) re-educated so that their eyes may be opened as to what the real world is all about.
And as for those evangelical, Bible believing christians. Something needs to be done about them quickly, since fully 87% voted for the wrong party.
"Why", says Katie Couric (the erst while news anchor from ABC Televison)  "These people ACTUALLY BELIEVE THAT THE WORLD WAS MADE IN SEVEN DAYS!"
Well, it looks as though Pauline and I will need to sign up for Summer School next year, because we are numbered among those simpletons who believe in the Genesis creation account.
And by the way, we also believe in the story of the flood and may be going  to Kentucky in Trumpistan next year to see the big ark down there!

Jubilate.

Ian 


Friday, November 11, 2016

Trump and the "Fly-Over" People.

What went wrong? This question is being asked repeatedly by the people who thought that they had all the answers.
I'm talking about the pollsters, the pundits, the reporters and the politicians. The ones who REALLY know what's going on in the world.
The outcome of the US election 2016 shows that, in fact, they really didn't HAVE A CLUE.
According to all the polls Hilary Clinton was a "Shoe-in" for the presidency but pollsters, as arrogant as the rest of the experts, were wrong. They had overlooked the people who were actually going to affect the outcome and vote in huge numbers for Donald Trump.
These people are not the coastal urbanites that populate both east and west shores of America: no, they are the "fly-over people", the ones who live in the thousands of miles in BETWEEN Los Angeles and New York. Rural Americans who don't have their daily Starbucks or shuffle around Washington D.C in their hushpuppies and baggy sweaters.
They actually have minds of their own and decided (in their own strange way) that the brave new world offered to them by Secretary Clinton, a world where men could marry men and women women, where LGBT would be as common as ABC, where male and female washrooms would be available to both sexes, where refugees could come in unrestricted droves from all parts of the earth and where all religions could live in peace and harmony under the flag of 'Old Glory'.... they actually decided that they did not embrace this Utopian vision and voted instead for Donald Trump.
How terrible!   Yes indeed and get ready for more 'terrible' things to take place in the next four years.
Jubilate.

Ian

Wednesday, November 9, 2016

Oops. The Donald is the President.

A few hours ago I retired to bed early. Before I put my head on the pillow I wrote a post titled "Hilary: now what?" (you can read it below)
I ended the blog by saying that after four years on the job, Hilary may be only too happy to relinquish it.

I was wrong. Hilary was only four HOURS on the job. They were the hours between 8:00 pm and midnight when she was ahead in the polls. Then REALITY forced her to resign as a America's first female president as the GLASS CEILING over her Jarvis Centre Head quarters remained solidly intact.
 Pauline, my wife, hauled me out of bed to behold the stunned expressions of the media types and the "we-know-better-than-you people" and I spent the rest of the night viewing the results with relish.
Everything I said about the state of America still stands.
The only change I have to make is to delete the name of Hilary  Clinton and replace it with President Elect, Donald Trump.
Enjoy the moment.
I'm going back to bed.

Ian

Tuesday, November 8, 2016

Hilary. Now what?

There was never any suspense about the outcome of the 2016 election in America. The issue was decided way back in August after a series of blunders and blathers by Donald Trump that squandered whatever good will he may have built up with main street U.S.A. 
But with the first female president elected in the history of America we ask the question "Now what?"
This once great nation is bitterly divided not just between democrats and republicans, nor between black and white nor even between rich and poor (these demographics have existed for a century with the States still the United States.)
No, the great divide that has emerged is that of millions of disillusioned and embittered white male voters who feel that their nation, worked for and fought for by their fore fathers, is in decline. That they themselves no longer enjoy the pride and prestige that was automatically theirs by birth and that the standard of living experienced by the previous generation is increasingly beyond their reach. These are facts that exist beyond the realm of politics, and cannot, therefore, be solved BY politics.
What was once the throbbing heart of industrial America is now rightly described as The Rust Belt. What was once the great auto city of Detroit is largely a derelict ghost town and the mighty force of King Coal in West Virginia and Kentucky is being whittled down by windmills and solar panels as Green Energy challenges Fossil fuel.
These and other unassailable factors have produced a deep current of anger among millions of blue collar workers that will never be assuaged by the smooth rhetoric of any politician, least of all Hillary Clinton.
For the next four years America will have a woman democratic president scarcely tolerated by 50 % of the country and a congress and senate dominated by angry and disaffected Republicans.
Who would envy Clinton her job? A job that she has fiercely fought for all her life and one that she may be only too glad to relinquish in 2020.

Jubilate.

ian

Saturday, November 5, 2016

'HISTORY' OR 'HIXTORY"

New levels of insanity have been reached here in Canada. Dr. Jordan Peterson is facing censure by Toronto University for failing to use gender neutral pronouns when addressing trans-gender students.
You may ask what are these pronouns that are currently being demanded by the the student body? 
Surely any informed person would know.
The trans gender folk want "Ze" or "Zir" for "she" or "he" or simply be referred to as "They"
So a dialogue between the student and teacher could go like this on a Monday morning. " Thomas, did THEY do THEIR essay that I asked THEY to complete? "   and other such nonsense.
Professor Jordan has said that he will address the student according to the role that they are playing. If they are a woman this week it will be "She". If they change genders, next week it will be a "He".
The politically correct crowd are incensed and are all for requiring fines, damages and mandatory anti-discrimination training for Dr Jordan.
Meanwhile a band of these strange zealots are calling for the word "HISTORY" to be changed to "HIXTORY" since the past is a compiled story of men and women both.

I have been searching for my own words to describe these actors in this theatre of the absurd. Ah! A phrase has come to mind:
They're a bunch of nut cases.
Jubilate

Ian

Wednesday, November 2, 2016

No Poppies at Wembley!

Fifa, an organization plagued by corruption, cover-ups, double-dealing and malfeance of every type has suddenly become sanitized.
The new leadership, which has replaced the disgraced Sepp Blatter, has issued a decree that the English and Scottish soccer teams who meet at Wembley this weekend will NOT be allowed to wear arm bands displaying poppies.
Imagine such hypocrisy!
As an Englishman I am intensely proud of the part that my nation (and my relatives) played in the first world war from whence the symbol of the poppy emerged. I am also very much aware that the game of soccer (short for Association football) was a gift given to the rest of the world by England.
Now, some nameless bureaucrats running a committee already raddled by crookedness of every sort dare tell the British that they cannot wear poppies while they play the game that they themselves invented.
Someone once said that a camel is a committee's definition of a horse. Too true and in the case of NO POPPIES at Wembley we are looking at the rear end of the horse.

Go ahead, boys. Play your game and may you and everyone who watches from the stands sport poppies, LARGE RED ONES.

Jubilate.

Ian

Saturday, October 29, 2016

Wonder Woman. The New United Nation's Ambassador!

Just when you think you have heard it all you hear something that proves you wrong.
The latest piece of lunacy out from the U.N building in New York is the announcement that Wonder Woman a.k.a. Lynda Carter, has been chosen as the new United Nations Honorary Ambassador.
This out-of-date figure from the Marvel comic era and the lead actor in a series of corny films was elected to this high office in the face of huge protest from the U.N. women's staff.

Listen to their spokeswoman, Christina Gallach:
"On every imaginable level we think she is a poor choice."
The rest of the staff said a loud "Amen"
The lady continued:
"With incredible living models we don't need a mascot or a cartoon figure to represent heroes for women across the world."
"Amen" again from the female choir who stood with their backs turned when Carter was given her award.
But, in the absence of the Virgin Mary and Mother Teresa, just who would fill this exalted position and please everybody on the wide female spectrum?
So, with raucus opposition from many quarters, we now have a new female world ambassador, appropriately dressed in a skin tight spandex suit made of the Stars and Stripes holding a logo for all teenage idols to read:
"THINK OF ALL THE WONDERS YOU CAN DO."
And we all pay for this Vaudeville show with our hard earned tax dollars.

Jubilate.

Ian

Tuesday, October 25, 2016

The Queer Verdict of the Homosexual Wedding Cake.

I often return to the years of my upbringing in England. Life was simpler and, looking back, I am glad it was.
A man married a woman and they were called Mr and Mrs and usually (90 % of the time) remained so until parted by death.
The idea of same sex marrying same sex was so horrific as to be never contemplated.
Homo sexuality was a punishable crime.
That was in Great Britain 1950.
But last week in the same realm, The Asher family bakery were found guilty of discrimination in their refusal to write on a cake 
"SUPPORT GAY MARRIAGE"
Mark you this bakery, run by born again Christians, had not refused to bake the cake. They had refused to write the homo sexual slogan on the top.
For this act of dissent they were brought to court by a certain Mr Lee, whose court fees were paid by the tax funded Northern Ireland Equalities Commission. Yesterday they were found guilty of knowing and willful discrimination against a "recognized minority of the population".
How times have changed and just where will these changing times take us?
It is hard to imagine but I think it is safe to say it will not be a better world.
 The very Hand of God that made "Britain Great" can also write a different epitaph on the walls of history. I have words that come to mind but perhaps my readers can supply their own.

Jubilate.
Ian

Friday, October 21, 2016

The Travesty of all Things Sacred.

Ask any newcomer to planet Earth what was his interpretation of the Holy Days of Christmas, St Valentines, Easter and Hallowed Evening and he would give you an unprejudiced answer.
Why! Christmas is a glorification of someone called Santa; St Valentine's is an extravaganza of chocolates, flowers, red hearts and human romance; Easter is a Spring ritual where the Easter bunny pops out of his burrow and showers people with chocolate eggs, and Halloween is a bizarre night where  humans run around dressed in ghastly suits, toting severed heads under their arms and try to scare the wits out of each other.
In other words they would not have a clue that these four occasions were events on the CHRISTIAN calendar. Days set apart to celebrate God at work in the world of men. Times to contemplate the greatness, grace and love of God in sending His Son into the world through the Virgin Mary: Christmas. The death, burial and resurrection of Christ for the salvation of the human race: Easter.
The resurrection of saintly men and women whose lives have influenced millions through the ages. All Saints Day.
The martyrdom of a Roman soldier for the sake of his faith. St Valentine Day.
Thus the hijacking by the devil, of the purity, truth and loving acts of God is complete.  
O, let me apologize. The devil is only a fairy tale figure who we let out from his fiery den on one day of the year, October 31st.
Well folks, there is another day on God's calendar, shortly to come, when the God will send His Son Jesus back to the earth to judge both the living and the dead. Judgement Day, we can guarantee, will be no laughing matter.

Jubilate.

Ian 

Wednesday, October 19, 2016

A Profile in Heroism

My wife Pauline read me an article today that had brought tears to her eyes.
I think it deserves to be brought to a wider audience.
It is of the recent trial of Brian Stewart convicted of attempted murder of his son "Badger" Stewart.
In itself that would be a hideous crime but what made this far more horrific was that he injected this four year boy with HIV tainted blood.
Stewart, a veteran from the Iraq war, was working in a laboratory where he had access to virus infected blood. After an argument with his common law wife over the paternity of his child, he took a phial of the deadly toxin and injected his son, thinking it would end his life.
It very nearly did. With his immune system almost trashed little badger fought for his life. For several years he was on 24 different medications a day. He endured the slights of his school friends and the taunts of bullies.
Yet some how he lived on. 
Then at the age of fourteen he read in the Bible of the love of God and the salvation of Jesus Christ. It was a turning point in his life. With his new faith he found forgiveness in his heart for his father who was serving time in a Missouri prison for attempted murder. Miraculously he also gained strength and vigour. His medications were reduced to a single daily pill and he is now, by definition, free from AIDS.
Further more this young man, at the age of twenty four, is sought after as a motivational speaker, is engaged to be married and runs a charity called "He Is Valiant."
Not bad for some one who was given up for dead at the age of four years old.
I hope you find encouragement through this short post.
Jubilate.
Ian


Wednesday, October 12, 2016

Those poor chaps from ISIS.

Spare a thought for the defectors from ISIS. There is a steady stream of them breaking ranks and asking for asylum from the Syrian forces. In fact an internment camp has been set up to house these wretched people.
When interviewed there is a common theme. They are fed up, disillusioned, home sick and wish they had never signed up to fight for ISIS. Many come from Europe.
Listen to one of the Jihadist's from Holland speaking of his disappointment with his lost cause.
"ISIS treat us very bad, especially people from another country.It is very hard to live here. It is not our life style because we are used to a lot of things, and then when we come here they treat us very badly, and try to control our life."
To which my wife Pauline replied. "O those poor people. They signed up to murder as many as they could, and now they are missing their trip to McDonalds, unemployment cheques  and Easy Street in Europe."
Well said, Pauline.
My only concern is that they will give their sob story to the local embassy, show their passports, be welcomed home and soon be living next door to us.
Stranger things have happened.

Jubilate.
Ian


Friday, October 7, 2016

Thanksgiving. Thanks but no thanks.

It was with good reason that the early Pilgrim Fathers fell down on their knees when they reached Cape Cod three hundred and fifty years ago.
They had endured a stormy Atlantic journey in their tiny boat "Mayflower" and, when they eventually put their feet on dry land, they gave loud thanks and promptly named the spot PROVIDENCE.
This principle of giving thanks was later enshrined in the annual American calendar as a special day. Since wild turkey served to enrich the diet of the early settlers, these resourceful people named the bird the national emblem of America. A place of honour it still holds to this day which has not been taken over by the bald eagle!
Times have changed however, and not for the better.
For example, here in Canada, 5 million turkeys will meet their fate this weekend, roasted, basted, dressed and later stuffed into the mouths of 30 million or Canadians. Of this vast number of hungry humans less than a few percent will even think about giving God thanks before they tuck into their dinner. Saying grace before our meals has now become passe in modern Canada even on Thanks Giving Day.
Why, the day itself is now being termed "Turkey" Day and the bird is becoming the predominant symbol in all the frenetic marketing that goes on in the grocery stores at this time of year.
Ah, if only all thirty million of us could be shipped from England to Newfoundland in a fleet of tiny Mayflowers to endure our first winter under canvas and tree branches! I do not doubt that the volume of thanks coming from a table loaded with roast turkey would increase dramatically.
Jubilate.
Ian

Monday, October 3, 2016

Kim's Jewels. Gone in a crack!

If you were like me, you would find it difficult to evoke sympathy on hearing the news that Kim Kardashian has been robbed at gunpoint. The thieves broke into her luxury Paris apartment last night and relieved her of her rings, bracelets and necklaces to the tune of a cool ten million dollars. All in matter of fifteen minutes.
This was a daring heist where the crooks were dressed up as police. They knocked on the door the building, tied up the security guard, then knocked on Kim's door, tied her up and took off with the swag.
Reportedly one of the rings was worth five million dollars. Which brings me to my point of having no sympathy for the lady.
I have spent much of my life around poor people: our fellow denizens of planet earth in India, Africa, Mexico and other places. Kim's ring would have fed one of their villages for a LIFETIME.
Not that I am advocating robbing the rich to give to the poor but what happened last night does underscore the wisdom of Christ's words: "Lay not up treasures on earth where burglars can break in and steal, but lay up treasures in Heaven where you will have eternal reward."
A movie that I can recommend is called "Flawless" It stars Demi Moore and Michael Caine. Both pull off the world's greatest diamond heist. Neither are caught. The suspenseful end is what happens to the prize diamond after the whole pile has been recovered by the police. Sufficient to say that a lot of poor people ended up being cared for!
Jubilate.

Ian

Friday, September 30, 2016

Fixing the 'Fixers" in Manilla.

The president of the Philippines has suddenly emerged as the scourge of the nation's drug dealers. Duterte came into the office as president with the vow, that he would take care of the nation's drug epidemic by a simple method: eliminating every drug dealer in the land. Nobody listened or, if they did, they were not paying much attention. But, as of today, the whole world is on full alert; especially the UNDERworld. In a few short months Duterte and his police force have killed three thousand drug pedlars, many by old-style executions with a bullet to the head, right there on the street.
No trials, no lawyers, no investigations just the Wild West way of taking care of business.
 Howls of outrage from the liberal West have left Duterte unmoved. In plainest of terms he has said "You ain't seen nothing yet."
In this old fashioned approach to problem solving he follows on in the footsteps of Chairman Mao who fixed the opium problem in China by locking up twenty million users until they had all gone "Cold Turkey". Closer to hand he had the example of Lee Kuan Yu from Singapore who executed all dealers and drug pushers, cleaned up the island and in twenty years made it an economic powerhouse.
If you are horrified at the brutality of it all, listen to the reasoning behind this purge of the island's underbelly.
He says: "I am prepared to eliminate every drug dealer and pusher in the Philippines if it means saving our younger generation from a life time of enslavement and slow death at the hands of the drug lords. This is a war and I mean to win it."
Now who would argue with that?

Jubilate.

Ian

Tuesday, September 27, 2016

My Friend Eddie

I felt that I should write a few lines on the passing of my friend Eddie Weber.
Eddie was a legend in his own lifetime down in the Elmira Mennonite country in Ontario.
He would have classed himself as a Mennonite but had broken with the Old Order (those who still drive a horse and buggy instead of a car and who shun electric power on their farms). Yet Eddie still kept his contact with the soil, with his Mennonite friends and with Christian faith.
Eddie farmed in one of the richest tracts of land in Ontario, near Kitchener. His wife was Emma and he had a son and a daughter. My daughter married his grandson Cameron. I suppose farming was not adventurous enough for Eddie for, in mid-life, he branched into demolition, pulling down barns, exploding buildings and stuff like that.
Cameron still recalls Eddie allowing him to hit the plunger at the age of four to blow down an old silo tower. Well into his seventies, Eddy could be seen driving his trucks loaded with precious antique beams and barn boards, sometimes headed to the States to welcoming dealers. At 80 years old Eddie retired from the risky business of handling dynamite and began working at a local feed mill, lifting 100 pound sacks of meal and loading up customers half ton trucks. He didn't need the money but the job kept him in contact with people and it was people Eddie loved. To enhance that contact Eddie would drive the cars of senior citizens ( he never considered himself to be one) down to Florida. They flew, he drove, in order that they could have their vehicles for the winter. Come spring he would drive their cars back to Canada again.
The day came when Eddie decided to call it quits. Instead of his truck he rode round Floradale on his bike. That kept him in contact with his village friends and today he is in contact with thousands more in Heaven. Eddie went to be with the Lord last week and I know exactly what he will be doing. TALKING. If you place your own faith in Christ as Eddie did, you will be meeting him one day and continue this conversation.
Jubilate.
Ian

Thursday, September 22, 2016

Brangelina now Brad and Angelina.


We may or may not have been surprised by yesterday's announcement that the premier, power-couple from Hollywood, Brad Pitt and Angeline Jolie, have called it quits.
They had been married for two years and together for fifteen with a family of six kids, four of whom were adopted.
It is always a sad moment when any couple, married for however long, break-up and go their different ways.
It is of little surprise when they are listed among the beautiful people of Hollywood.
However, there is a brighter side to the gloomy track record of Tinsel Town marriages.
Let me list one or two:
Sharon and Ozzy Osbourne married for 34 years.( Ozzy is the guy who bit heads off bats!)
Meryl Streep and Don Gummer. Married for 38 years.
Kurt Russel and Goldie Hawn. Married for 38 years.
Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson: Married for thirty years.
There are many more.
What is the secret of the longevity of their unions?
Why, the same as any of us lesser mortals who get married and stay married.
Try this simple formula.
Keep your marriage vows. Love each other as you said you would when you were standing at the altar. Be ready to ask for forgiveness more than once in twenty years. Never forget  your wife's birthday!
Love her more than you love the kids and vice versa.
Finally, build  the house of your faith and your future on something bigger than yourselves.. namely THE LORD JESUS CHRIST.
It has worked for Pauline and me for 48 years. It will work for you as well.

Jubilate.

Ian

Sunday, September 18, 2016

Three Bombs in one day. Now what?

Three bombs yesterday. Two in New York and one in New Jersey.
One went off and left people running  down the street pierced by glass and streaming with blood. The other, a pressure cooker, was defused before it exploded. The third blew up on a trash bin near the New Jersey shore line.  These are the facts. 
Anybody in their right mind could say "Yes. They are all connected."
Anybody in their right mind could say:"An obvious act of terror."
Anybody in their right mind...
It would appear that "right minds" are in short supply in New York today.
Bill Blasio, the Mayor, described the whole thing as "An intentional explosion but not necessarily and act of terror."
Hilary Clinton was quoted as saying "There has been an explosion in New York, but let's be cautious about saying it was a bomb."
Meanwhile, on the same day in Minnesota, a madman goes on a rampage and knifes a dozen people in a mall, all the while screaming "Allah Akbar".
The media then cautioned everyone by saying that there is no proven connection with radical Islam.
How can America win the war on terror when its leaders constantly feed us with such baffle gab and political hooch?
Perhaps the cycle of mayhem and massacre will continue until the REALLY BIG ONE happens. Then God will send the leader such a great nation deserves, to do the job God has sent him to do.

Keep praying.
Ian



Tuesday, September 13, 2016

The Red Cross or the Red Boss.

Just who is Clay Higgins? He is the Louisiana marshall who was kicked out of a Red Cross shelter after praying for the victims of a recent flood.
If you thought that this humanitarian gesture symbolizes all that the Red Cross stands for, you would be wrong.
Marshall Higgins was told to desist from praying and to leave the shelter because the Red Cross is a 'faith neutral' charity.
Just who are these people who wish to bring political tyranny on loving, well meaning people who demonstrate all the care and concern of the Good Samaritan through their volunteer work?
Were this a Red Crescent centre where people were praying in the name of Jesus, maybe they would have a point. But not only are these "correctivists" bullies of the first order they are also ignorant of the Red Cross history.
   The cross was the adopted sign of the "Knights of Saint John of the Hospital" in the crusades a thousand years ago.
It was later, ( in the 1800's) broadened to involve all medical care given in war, and was based in Geneva in Switzerland. The Red Cross, as we know it today, is a christian based emergency help organization, with the obvious emphasis being on the CROSS and on the BLOOD.
Now ten centuries of history is being challenged by these bullies and bumpkins in the shelters of America.
I say "Be gone with you!" Go and get a job at the Red Crescent and see what happens when you try to stop the Imams praying with their people.

Jubilate .
Ian

Saturday, September 10, 2016

UNITED CHURCH; TRYING TO KICK OUT AN ATHEIST MINISTER.

Unbelievable as it may seem the United Church of Canada has yet another problem.
We know about the national membership falling from over a million ten years ago to a little over four hundred thousand in 2016.
We know about the crisis that ensued when they voted to ordain homosexuals. We know that this crisis was followed by another when they decided to marry men with men and women with women. We know about their decision to adopt inclusive language in their liturgy when God was no longer "Our Father" but "O Supreme Being".
But this week's fiasco tops the lot.  One of their very own, the Reverend Gretta Vosper, from West Hill in Scarborough, has declared her new found faith as an atheist.
She is now preaching love, kindness and human connection without  the interventions of a supernatural God and, unsurprisingly the ruling body of the United Church are not sure what to do with her.
Should they let her stay with her West Hill congregation where she is "respected and loved" or should they defrock her (kick her out).
After a year of dithering H.Q. are asking the lady to leave peacefully. She is refusing to do so. Now it is off to court with her lawyers arguing why should an atheist not be allowed to preach to a christian congregation?
Well, I guess if we wait another ten years the United Church National membership may be reduced to fifty with Gretta leading the flock!
Jubilate.
Ian.

Thursday, September 8, 2016

One Grim Milestone.

Having closed the Kitchen two months ago it was the with the hope that when I re-opened the restaurant in September it would be to better news. It is not to be.
On Monday of this week, the city of Chicago reported it 500th murder of the year. A milestone on the road to hell.
500 of its citizens dead, mostly through gunfire and double that number seriously injured. If you think that these sound like war statistics you would be right.
It is estimated that since the year 2000 more people have been shot, stabbed and strangled in America than in all the nation's wars since the second world war.
Let the figures speak for themselves. The conclusion must surely be that America is a country at war with itself.
At war on its streets, at war in its schools, at war in Congress, at war on its roads and at war in its hospitals (where millions of children have met death by abortion).
Nor will the outcome of the 2016 election help to heal the land.
This great nation was once called "The City on a Hill" That was when the banner of the Gospel of Christ flew proudly aloft.
If the bleeding of this awful wound is to be staunched it will only be when the Nation returns to former things. When it returns to former pathways and to the unchanging standard of Righteousness that exalts any nation.
If this post adds a tiny breath to that clarion call it will not have been written in vain.
Jubilate.
Ian


Tuesday, July 19, 2016

BWI RESTAURANT. CLOSED FOR THE REST OF THE SUMMER

When I read this morning that the German Civil Liberties  Organization had criticized the Rapid Response Unit for shooting dead the axe madman in Germany, I realized that it was time for me to take a break.
This illegal Afghan refugee, who had been recruited by ISIS, went berserk yesterday on a train slaughtering unprotected passengers with a knife and a hammer. He was shot dead before he could inflict further carnage.
Now, this morning, the police have been roundly condemned by the far left for killing, not capturing, this terrorist.
Enough said. 
I am closing my restaurant until September. Enjoy breakfast at home. God willing I will be seeing you again in a few week's time.

Jubilate.
Ian

Friday, July 15, 2016

Nice Today, Where Next?

News flashes are jumping across my T.V.  screen. People running for their lives, police sirens wailing, paramedics in emergency vehicles, panic everywhere. It is in France. It is on Bastille Day, and, before ever the rest of the news has been filled in, I know that it is another terrorist attack and that this latest act of savagery will have been the handiwork of a radical muslim.
No more spin from the media please. No more politically correct verbiage from the politicians. No more soothing phrases and long, lachrymose adjectives from those who know better than the rest of us.
Islamic terror is the greatest menace to the peace, prosperity and personal safety of our generation and some one, somewhere, has to face up to the fact. If that is Donald Trump in America, so be it. But whoever the leaders are in the western nations the moment has arrived and in the name of all that is truth and sanity LEAD.
And when you lead do not lump Christianity into the madness that is called multi-faith/multi-culturism.
Christ and His people stand AGAINST and ABOVE all that we now see happening in the name of religion.

Jubilate OUR GOD REIGNS!

Ian

Wednesday, July 13, 2016

Enter the New Prime Minister

Having campaigned against the exit of Britain from the European Union, David Cameron made his own exit from his office of Prime Minister. It was a sudden one and, just as quickly, he was replaced this afternoon by Theresa May his erstwhile right hand lady who has been duly given the keys to # 10 Downing Street.
How strange that first ladies are appearing everywhere: Nicola Sturgeon, head of the Scottish Nationalist Party, Angela Merkel, chancellor of Germany and Theresa herself, now Prime Minister of the U.K.
Back in the days of the Ancient Greeks there were three goddesses that led the nation a merry dance. They had fine names as well:
Fate, Fury and Fortune.
It remains to be seen what will be reserved in the future for my home and native land but let us earnestly hope that it is more in the way of good Fortune than sinister Fate or Fury.
I, for one, do not envy Theresa in her new job.
Words of Sir Walter Scott come to mind which  he penned many years ago concerning the rule of people. Allow me to quote them.

" Who o'er the herd would wish to reign,
Fantastic, fickle, fierce and vain?
Vain as the leaf upon the stream,
And fickle as a changeful dream;
Fantastic as a woman's mood,
And fierce as Frenzied fevered blood.
Thou many-headed monster thing.
O who would wish to be thy king?"

Stay tuned, its going to be an interesting ride.
Jubilate.
Ian

Friday, July 8, 2016

The USA : DEATH IN DALLAS.

My friends abroad are often askance at some of the 'beyond bizarre' events that happen in America.
How, they ask, can these things take place?
 After the "wild west" shoot out that occurred in Dallas last night, where eleven police officers were shot, they will be asking the question again.
Other nations in the civilized world experience strife and civil disorder: name a country and you will be able to point to trouble in it's history. However, there is one factor above all others that contributes to the present mayhem. It is this. The whole nation is awash with guns. From North to South, East to West, America is an armed camp with fire arms of every description.
Half a billion privately owned weapons for a population of 350 million. Do the math
In other nations pikes and staves may be used in a civil disturbance. 
Not in America where, as we saw last night in Dallas, snipers shot from darkened roof tops to kill police officers in light summer uniforms.
Speaking this morning from Europe, President Obama called for calm and the urgent need to bring "our country together".
Words easily spoken, but the legislation that has been passed in the last twenty years has had the opposite effect. Legislation that has widened the fractures in society. Laws that have eliminated the Christian faith from the classroom, from the court room and from the workplace. Laws to end life in the mother's womb. Laws that enable assisted suicide. Laws that aggressively promote the abhorrent lifestyle of homo-sexuality, and now the President calls for PRAYERS for national unity.
From out of the wafting clouds of gun smoke I seem to hear voice  saying "Physician heal THYSELF"
Ian

Sunday, July 3, 2016

UNCLE OLIVER

My Uncle Oliver was born in England in the closing years of the nineteenth century. That meant he was eligible for call-up in 1915 for the Great War. By the tender age of seventeen he was in France and, a hundred years ago today, he went"over the top" at the Battle of the Somme River.
He survived the battle; six hundred thousand of his country men did not. They never returned from the human meat grinder which goes under the brief title of "WAR".
Such was the carnage of that conflict that my three aunts, sisters of Oliver, never married. There were few men of their age left in the area of Durham County where they lived.
A few years earlier these missing men had enrolled for the battle. Whole soccer teams, cricket clubs, 'old boys' associations were recruited. One went: they all went. One died: they all died.
A hundred years ago this week began the five month battle of the Somme River.
Grim, gallant memorials to that horror story stand in granite, in towns and villages across England and France (and in my home city of Barrie in Canada).
But MY memorial is of my Uncle Oliver, sixty years after the battle, slowly smoking his cigarette as he stared at the distant moors, as silent at the blue smoke that spiralled in his darkened living room.
Rest in Peace Uncle Oliver.

Your proud nephew, Ian.

Thursday, June 30, 2016

BREXIT #2. SOCCER EURO 2016

It happened yesterday in France where England's soccer eleven were ignominiously ousted from EURO 2016.
We might term this, BREXIT # 2.
England, once a soccer Titan (the inventor of the game no less), were sent home by peanut size Iceland, total population 340,000!
It was another example of a team with the roar of a lion being vanquished by a mighty mouse.
How could it be that a galaxy of stars could be beaten by a team ranked 94th in the world (the final score was England 1, Iceland 2); that an awesome assembly of 'somebodys' could be humbled by a collection of 'nobodys'.
That a stellar cast of multi-millionaires could be daunted by a team of part timers, a bewhiskered set of norsemen who looked as if they had just rowed to France on a Viking Long-Ship.
Perhaps therein lies the secret. Everyone of this unlikely crew had a 'son' at the end of their name. Erikson, Gunnarson, Thorson, Haraldason and so on. They were all sons of somebody and they played as a team. At the end of the game they approached their twenty thousand fans and led them in a wild Norse cheer that went off like a collective thunderclap and, you can bet your life on it, that everyone of those fans had 'sons' at the end of their name.
In other words "FAMILY" triumphed over "FAME"
As it always must and always will.
Now that the United Kingdom is about to leave the great conglomerate of the European Union we can get back to being our own family with 'sons' at the end of our name. If we do, you can bank on it, we will be world beaters once again.
Jubilate 
Ian