HE NEVER SAID A MUMBLIN' WORD (arr. Howard Davies) Camberwell Citadel Ba...

Words of Encouragement from the Messengers of the Kingdom Session

Compelled by Love - International Staff Songsters

My Movie

Time is a storm in which we are all lost.

April 16 - Part One

Time is a storm in which we are all lost.[1]

I wonder how many thousands, in these uncertain times, have uttered the wish; I wish it were I and not my mother, father, son , daughter, sibling or dear...that had to bear this dreadful virus malady.
How often have I cried, 'Oh that it were I and not my son or daughter that had to bear those dreadful thing; broken body parts, dislocations, loss of infant twins, a 12 year old son trapped in a stall with a rearing 17 hand gelding....' I shudder as I recall each incident!

Time is the longest distance between two places.[2]
Millions of us, locked down until the virus is further curbed, identify the sentiment as an existential reality, perhaps with the weeks testing and eroding our grace. Our calendars have been wiped clean as our savings and investment balances shrink. The much anticipated regular salary of millions are becoming lingering sentiments, dispair dawning afresh each morning.
In an attempt to cut short the lock-down’s dull and dreary reality, innovative, unorthodox endeavours are made by some to offset the boredom.

Monopoly becomes monotonous, and puzzles too puzzling, TV game shows too cyclical and contrived.

The Sun, a British tabloid is banned in Liverpool where we live, due their false and damning accusations about Liverpudlians and ‘our’ football club 30 years ago (we have2).
None-the-less The Sun still worms its way into our online news casts using notorious headlines: ‘A GRAN whose once-in-a-lifetime safari trip that was ruined by by coronavirus has instead created a 6ft elephant in the garden to ride on.


Covid-19 pandemic struck, and Gail swapped her Amboseli safari adventure for a elephant topiary next to the back yard fence. (a topiary – who knew; training a plant by clipping the foliage and twigs to develop and maintain clearly defined shapes.) ‘A trip to Kenya would have been a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.’ Gail and husband Eric, who is disabled and unable to leave their home, have been stuck indoors like millions of other Brits during the coronavirus crisis. Millions living in the UK are ‘killing time’ utilizing their Netflix subscriptions. In fact, the COVID-19 situation is cementing Netflix’s global [direct-to-consumer] dominance pushing price target to new heights. Netflix added 7.8 million paying subscribers in the first quarter of 2020. With cinemas closed, Netflix and other streaming outfits watch their income rise as the COVID-19 outbreak keeps people confined and watching flicks in their homes.
The best of times is now.The sell-out audience swayed at the finale crescendo, sung with gusto;On December 16, 2019 at the Rockefeller Arts Center a 50th Anniversary Gala Pops Concert presented "La Cage Aux Folles, filmed earlier in King Concert Hall at the State University of New York, performed by a star-studded line up of vocalist and the Western New York Chamber Orchestra.
The best of times is now.
As for tomorrow,
Well, who knows? Who knows? Who knows?
So hold this moment fast, And live and love
As hard as you know how.
And make this moment last
Because the best of times is now,
Is now, is now.
Now, not some forgotten yesterday.
Now, tomorrow is too far away.
So hold this moment fast, And live and love
As hard as you know how.
And make this moment last,
Because the best of times is now,
Is now, is now. https://youtu.be/gmmNRzXtpu8
It was the best of times, but was it the age of foolishness, the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair,

Just a month later...it was the worst of times - Would an age of wisdom follow; an epoch of belief, the epoch of incredulity, the season of Light? (Charles Dickens - A Tale of Two Cities)

Chinese officials and President Xi Jinping warned the public, following a delay from January 14 to 20, that they were likely facing a pandemic from a new coronavirus, with the city of Wuhan at the epicenter of the disease. By that time, more than 3,000 people had been infected during almost a week of public silence, according to internal documents obtained by The Associated Press.

China's attempt to walk a line from the beginning of the outbreak, between alerting the public and avoiding panic resulted in governments around the world dragging their feet for weeks and even months in addressing the virus. The delay set the stage for a pandemic that has infected more than 2 million people and taken more than 133,000 lives.[3]

Sven Ljungholm,
SA Soldier Liverpool, UK



















[1] William Carlos Williams American poet and physician practicing both pediatrics and general medicine Wikipedia

[2] Tennessee Williams, The Glass Menagerie [3] The Washington Post April 16, 2020

Gorton Message of Encouragement

A message from the Territorial Commander | The Salvation Army

Tetelestai, I did exactly what I set out to do.

A father watches his child writhe in agony, and suffers more in the watching than if he bore the pain himself* (which, of course, He did.. 'How often has a parent cried, `0 that it were I and not he that had to bear this dreadful thing.'* .... gasping for breath,  Jesus hoisted Himself up on the cross one last time and uttered, “It is finished.” With that, he bowed his head and gave up his spirit. (John 19:28-30) 
It is finished" is the English translation of the Greek word Tetelestai, which comes from the verb teleo, (a word I learned and taught in philosophy 101) which means ‘to bring to an end, I did exactly what I set out to do. It is finished" is the English translation of the Greek word Tetelestai, which comes from the verb teleo, (a word I learned in and taught; philosophy 101) which means ‘to bring to an end, I did exactly what I set out to do. It's remarkable how the Covid-19 virus galvanized our SA troops into an evangelistic media outbreak! Many SA units shared excellent Easter web casts, and a few, not so much, ‘I did exactly what I set out to do.’ The Australia territory Easter Sunday online service featured an excellent vocal soloist and an in-depth sermon on the Passover and sacrificial lambs. (worth sharing or noting for future sermon prep https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5pwA7zeE63I) Some SA units, perhaps in their haste or lack of experience were less effective, and even lessened the impact webcasts can provide. This is particularly disappointing when produced by SA centres with the necessary resources to produce the very best in presenting the message of the Cross. Perhaps a seasoned former officer, or several, will step forward to create a Master's plan in producing web casts that will draw the audience into the Easter story and into our worship halls. It will be shared, with your assistance. with all SA Headquarters immediately; well in time for Christmas and next Easter. Many active and former Salvationists come to mind who'd well qualify to lead such a commission. Naturally, the findings will be shared with the FSAOF in order that you can employ the findings in your own denomination and place of worship. Please share with me the link to quality SA webcasts in your area. selmoscow@`ol.com   Easter blessings... 

bcasts in your area.
Sven Ljungholm
selmoscow@aol.com   Easter blessings... 

The Salvation Army announces Easter live-stream details

The Salvation Army’s national leaders in Australia, Commissioners Janine and Robert Donaldson are encouraging Salvationists to gather together ‘virtually’ this Easter for The Salvation Army's nationally live-streamed Easter services. The Commissioners will lead a live-streamed traditional-style Good Friday service.
I’ve known the Army’s Worship Arts Team manager Ken Waterworth, who co-ordinated the project, and his family for many decades. Ken said Territorial Headquarters Melbourne, will host the traditional service, and Ingle Farm Corps in Adelaide will host the contemporary services.
The services have been pre-recorded by Salvo Studios, the Army's video production team.
Ken, who has been involved in organising major concerts and worship events for The Salvation Army for many years, said it was a significant undertaking to co-ordinate the various components of the services to ensure they would be of a high standard at such a “special time on the Christian calendar”.
He said it was “quite a process from beginning to end” to ensure the services adhered to COVID-19 restrictions, were copyright compliant and met live-streaming licensing requirements.
Salvationist vocalist Julia Roper and pianist Captain Gareth MacDonald will feature in the traditional service.

 * Major Howard Webber

Andakt i Dala-Järna kyrka, Annandag påsk

WHEN JESUS LOOKED O'ER GALILEE

Gaither Vocal Band - Written In Red (Live)

EYAM AND THE GREAT PLAGUE OF 1665

When we think of the Great Plague of 1665 we tend to think of the epicentre, London, but the sacrifices of the people in the small Derbyshire village of Eyam, population 350, may have saved the cities of northern England from the worst of it.

In the August of 1665 the village tailor, George Viccars, received a box from London containing cloth that he had ordered which turned out to contain plague-carrying fleas. Before the week had ended the tailor was dead, and within the next three weeks a further five people died. In October a further 23 people were dead.

With the coming of winter the situation improved with no deaths; the disease seemed to have abated giving the villagers false hope. But in the May, the following year, two people died and the following month the numbers rose dramatically. So as to be able to concentrate on the needs of the suffering the vicar, William Mompesson, wanted to send his wife, Catherine, and their family away to safety. But Catherine refused to go and just sent the children away to Yorkshire. She remained so as to support her husband by visiting the sick. 

It was during June 1666 that that Mompesson and another clergyman living in the village, Thomas Stanley, made the momentous decision to quarantine the village; to cut it off from the outside world in an effort to stop the disease spreading northwards. The villagers made a courageous pact knowing that it could mean certain death for many of them and their family members. Quarantining themselves for twelve months, they saw the death toll rise within the village. 

People from the surrounding area would leave food for the villagers on the village boundary stones, and the villagers would leave money washed in vinegar to pay for it, ensuring there was no contact. Over 260 villagers died including Catherine. One survivor, Elizabeth Hancock, buried her husband and six children within eight days; there was not one family unaffected by tragedy. Amazingly, only two people in all that time broke their commitment and left the village. The selfless sacrifice of those dear villagers may well have saved thousands.

 Webber, Major (retired)The Salvation Army UK

LEAD US, HEAVENLY FATHER, LEAD US

James Edmeston (1791-1867), was an architect and surveyor by profession, who loved literature and wrote over 2,000 hymns, at one time writing one hymn every Sunday.  In the architectural world he became known for his training of Sir George Gilbert Scott, the first in a family line of eminent architects whose grandson, Sir Giles Gilbert Scott designed The Salvation Army’s William Booth College at Denmark Hill and the UK’s iconic red telephone box, among other projects.

‘Lead us, heavenly Father, lead us,’ is sometimes known as the Hymn to the Trinity, with each of its three verses addressing a different person of the Trinity. I feel that the first verse is a wonderful prayer for today, with its reference to this world’s tempestuous sea. How we long for God to lead us over those seas that would otherwise threaten to sink us. 

It calls on God to guard us, to guide us, to keep us and to feed us, four things that are very much on our minds just now, with an awareness that there is no-one who can really help us but God himself. None of the experts around the world really know where all this is leading and what life will be like on the other side of all of it.

Yet, the truth is that whatever we may lose, if things are never the same again, and life never returns to how once it was, we are still richly blessed. We want for nothing if we are truly God’s children having been adopted into a deep intimate relationship with God our Father, through the wonderful work of his Son our Saviour, Jesus. 

Lead us, heavenly Father, lead us

O’er the world’s tempestuous sea;

Guard us, guide us, keep us, feed us,

For we have no help but thee,

Yet possessing every blessing

If our God our Father be.

God bless and keep you all.

Howard, Webber Major (retired)        
UK

Southport Salvation Army - Sunday Worship - 29th March 2020