Snow

We had a bit of snow this week. Well, quite a lot for us and the UK in general. Things come to a standstill and people lighten up a bit. We went into Wellington this morning and saw families, children of all ages, toboganning and lots of people walking about and being friendly. It was more than forecast for our area - about 5-6 inches - and near Exeter the A38 was blocked and many people were stranded.
We don't have a lot of snow in the south and west of England so it causes chaos. Canada and Scandinavian countries have plenty of snow and they design and plan things accordingly. In Richmond, Va, as in Cornwall and the rest of the west of England there is panic with a little snow. We lived in Co Durham for 5 years where they are more used to these things and they kept things going in the snow though once I couldn't get to one village when there was about a foot of the white stuff.
We had 3 students from Sierra Leone when I was in college and when the snow came they were so excited. I remember them running out into the car park and trying to catch the falling flakes.
Last evening when the snow was falling we looked out of the bedroom window and although it was obviously cloudy the area was quite well lit instead of being pitch dark in places away from the street lights. Perhaps the light is reflected from the low clouds and/or possibly dispersed by the snow flakes. It illuminated the area like very bright moonlight.
I think I read somewhere that all rain actually starts off as snow so in these conditions it just stays as snow.
Snow is beautifully white until it starts to get slushy and people and cars churn it up.
Of course snow is but a form of that most amazing substance, water. For all that water is so common and we all know that it is H2O in fact is structure and how it works is still not properly understood. It is so important for life and has several unusual properties - high surface tension, high boiling point for a molecule of it's size etc. I, and many others, regard all this as the work of the creator and give praise that such an amazing substance has been invented, developed and no doubt has some properties that have not been fully realised yet.
Snow on great mountains provides a slow release supply of water.
Now the sun is setting, with yellow glistening light on icy patches on the road outside.

Africa

In an email conversation I had recently someone who had been to Africa remarked, 'Bury my heart in Africa.' He had been there for three weeks and it left that deep an impression on him. Africa seems to do that. I lived there for nearly six years and although I have never been back I can't really get Africa out of my system. I have revisited it through reading and researches and especially in writing about Edwin W Smith. More recently there have been the missionary history conferences and the papers I prepared on the Zambezi valley, African missionaries in Zambia etc. I find that when I think I have finished researching Africa, it pops up again in some way. So, just last weekend 2 people contacted me who had come across my papers on dacb and thought I could help with something they were looking into. It was back to the notebooks, microfiche and books to find information for them. And it seems that I did get useful things for them.
Three years ago I meet the man who would replace me at Tonypandy. A man from Zambia! And I found that I could still hold a sort of conversation in Tonga after all these years.
Fred Welbourn introduced me to Africa with his 'Religion in Africa' seminar at Bristol, 1968-70, and that made a very positive impact though I never thought I would actually go there. I met Africans at Methodist International House and then when we offered to work overseas the call came from Zambia. The appointment as a chaplain to a girls secondary school was a surprise but turned out to be a great blessing. My interest in local history was put to good use when I was asked to prepare the church archives which I did at Kitwe.
And now I am down to give a talk at the Guild on experiences of Zambia - I decided to talk about surprises; quite a few to mention.
Why does Africa have such an impact?
The physical environment contributes. The scenery, mountains and valleys, Victoria Falls... and life that teems in the heat - birds, mammals, insects.
The social enviroment contributes too - with its communal emphasis, its spiritual openness and cultural features such as song and drama and dance. Music, and especially the religious choral music produced by country people sends a shiver down the spine. And after years of slow progress in mission the church has taken off immensely.
I was born in India and I have a feeling about India too and a hankering to go there - and Indian music has its effect too and I like meeting Asian people too. But Africa made a big impression.
Places we have been to make leave their impression. Africa made a big impression.