ARCHDEACON’S ADDRESS ON THE OCCASION OF THE RETIREMENT OF CHRISTOPHER RIGG AFTER 40 YEARS OF MINISTRY AS A READER
13th September 2009
“ As we pray to our God and Father about you, we think of your faithful work, your loving deeds, and the enduring hope you have because of our Lord Jesus Christ.” 1 Thessalonians 1.3
My dear friends, as Christopher comes to the end of over forty years of ministry as a Reader, those words of St Paul to the Church at Thessalonica are particularly apt. As we pray about you
we think of your faithful work
your loving deeds
and the enduring hope you have because of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Now the word ‘enduring’ in this verse translates one of my favourite Greek words – “hupomone”, which means “staying at it”- “sticking with it”- “endurance”- “steadfastness”. The verb from which the noun comes makes the meaning even clearer – “hupo-meno” means “staying put while everyone else clears off”.
And that is exactly what you Christopher, supported by Margery, have done over all these years. You have given the churches in which you have been involved, the one thing which they often lack, which is stability and continuity.
Lack of stability and continuity is one of the weaknesses of Chaplaincy life in our Diocese. Congregations come and go and often have huge annual turnovers of membership. Chaplains and Readers come and go and archdeacons come and go too. This is one of the problems we face in building up our link with the Ugandan Diocese of Luweero. As Bishop Evans said to me only last week - “you people in N.W. Europe come and go, but we are here to stay.” So the gift of continuity and “staying put” has been one of your greatest gifts to us all over the years. You have touched many lives and on behalf of the archdeaconry I would like to thank you for all those years of patient faithful ministry, and for “staying put”.
My dear Christopher and Margery, having given all these years of service to the church, you have also come to the point in your lives when you have decided to stop. That’s always a difficult decision for anyone to make, but it is also right at certain points in our lives to “let go and let God.” The congregations you have helped to plant and build up are all growing. The church in Eindhoven is now so big that they have outgrown their buildings, and the church in Zwolle is also growing in confidence and in numbers. As you look back I hope you will take some real satisfaction in what you have helped people to do. And looking ahead, we pray that the Lord will give you both many years together for one another and for your family. But remember the text I started with – as we look back we think “of your faithful work” and “your loving deeds” but as Christians we also dare to look forward in the light of “ the enduring hope we have because of our Lord Jesus Christ”.
For Christians retirement is never just an empty space to be filled with all the things you never had time to do when you were working. Christ is there just as much at the end of our journey as at the beginning. In fact if you think about it Christ is the ultimate example of “hupomone” – “staying with us” while others move on. Remember that, as the years go by – Christ is still there for you and loves you just as much as he ever did.
I should like to end by reading a letter which Bishop Geoffrey has written to you.
It sums up much of what we all feel today and ends with his blessing.
John de Wit
Dear Christopher,
Archdeacon John has informed me that you are to retire after serving for 40 years as a Reader, and that this is to be marked by a Choral Evensong on Sunday, 13th September.
You have had a long and distinguished ministry, about which you have written movingly in your reader's reminiscences, which I read with a sense not only of interest but of increasing admiration. Since 1966 - which was before I was myself ordained (that happened two years later) - you have served in the Netherlands, first at Eindhoven and latterly at Zwolle under the supervision of the Utrecht Chaplaincy. This is a remarkable record of service and, as Bishop of the Diocese, I want to thank you on behalf of the Diocese for all that you have so generously given - and Margery with you - to the sustaining of Christian life and giving pastoral care (through you visiting of the sick and taking communion to them, and in many other ways) in the places in which you have served. There will be many, over many generations, who have been grateful for your ministry, and many of them will be gathered to express those thanks in this special service.
As the time has come for you to retire from this ministry please know that all that you have done has been much appreciated - without ministry such as yours the church could not flourish and grow. I pray that God will bless you both in the years ahead.
Yours in Christ,
+Geoffrey Gibraltar
WINTER DRAWS ON - PUT YOUR CLOCKS BACK!
Summer time ends in the night of 24/25 October. Don't forget to put your clocks BACK one hour (2-00 am becomes 1-00 am) or you'll be far too early for church!
Two important articles have been submitted which are really worth reading. However, since they are long, they have had to be 'serialized'. The first is from Mieps Fontein and her preface is a more than adequate introduction. Ed
THE RIGHT TO READ
Bi-centenary of the birth of Louis Braille (1809-1852)
Some of you may have seen me at Holy Trinity using the hymnbooks and reading the lesson in church. This would not be possible for me without the wonderful invention of Louis Braille. This Frenchman was the genius who invented a script for blind people which has never been changed since he designed it, and which is now used all over the world. It has opened many possibilities for blind people in education, literature and making a living for themselves, which otherwise would not have been possible.
Louis Braille became blind at the age of three as the result of an accident while playing with one of his father’s sharp tools. At the school for the blind in Paris where he subsequently became a student, children were taught how to read by feeling raised letters, made by pressing paper against shapes of copper wire. In this way the children could read, but writing was not possible.
When Louis Braille was 12, a former soldier visited the school and showed a system with dots and dashes for communicating secret script on the battlefield without speech. This gave Louis Braille the idea of developing something similar. He designed a system of characters consisting of combinations of six raised dots that can be felt with the top of one finger. It is amazing that he hit upon something so easy to feel and so simple in its structure. It could not only be read, but written as well, using paper held in a frame, and a pin to make the dots. Nowadays, of course, people mainly use Braille typewriters.
The Braille system is based on six dots in the shape of the six of a dice, three dots on the left and three on the right. From just these few dots 63 different combinations are possible, varying from a character consisting of only one dot to all six dots. These characters can represent letters of the alphabet, and many other things too. They are used for everything, including languages such as Arabic or Chinese, music notation, mathematics etc. In other words, one character can have different meanings, depending on what sort of document you are reading. For example: the character with six dots may be an abbreviation for the word “for” in an English text, an "é" in a French text, a semibreve F in music notation, and who knows what in maths or Chinese!
To be continued next month.
The following is an address by the Archbishop of Canterbury to the AGM of the Intercontinental Church Society at Lambeth Palace, on 9 June 2009
GOD'S MISSION AND OURS IN THE 21st CENTURY
When we think about mission, I suspect that among the many questions that arise in our minds, these five will recur quite often: Where do we start? What do we say? What do we do? Why are we doing it? How do we plan it? And what I want to suggest to you in the first part of my remarks this afternoon, is that Christ himself in Matthew 10 addresses those questions very directly and very clearly. And so I’ll begin by sharing some thoughts on that passage to suggest ways in which Christ shapes our sense of mission with the mission he gives to his disciples within his own lifetime on earth. But we need to recognize of course, that what he says to his disciples in his life on earth is not the whole story, and we would have to turn forward to Matthew 28 and the great commission to see that filled out further so that in the last of part of my lecture I’ll be referring to Matthew 28.
Matthew 10: initial lessons
Here are the first few verses (1 – 10) of that chapter.
Then Jesus summoned his twelve disciples and gave them authority over unclean spirits to cast them out, and to cure every disease and every sickness. These are the names of the twelve apostles: first, Simon, also known as Peter, and his brother Andrew; James, son of Zebedee, and his brother John; Philip and Bartholomew; Thomas and Matthew the tax collector; James son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus; Simon the Canaanaean, and Judas Iscariot, the one who betrayed him.
These twelve Jesus send out with the following instructions: ‘Go nowhere among the Gentiles, and enter no town of the Samaritans, but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. As you go proclaim the good news, ‘The kingdom of heaven has come near.’ Cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out demons. You have received without payment; give without payment. Take no gold, or silver, or copper in your belts, no bag for your journey, or two tunics, or sandals, or a staff; for labourers deserve their food’.
I want to suggest that these words answer the questions with which I began. First – where do we start? 'Go to the lost sheep of the house of Israel’. In other words it seems that Jesus is saying, ‘Start where God has started’. Israel is historically God’s people. The history of Israel is the preparation of the ground for this new mission, which is Christ’s. So feel your way for what God has been doing; sense how he has been working and then you will be able to proclaim what is new. In your mission, discover what God has done and the doors that God has actually opened.
It’s of course a salutary reminder of the very general principle that mission is never a matter of taking God where he hasn’t been before, and introducing him to a lot of kind strangers. In every act of mission, God is there ahead of us. But by saying, ‘Go first to the lost sheep of Israel,’ Jesus is telling us that we need always to be alert to that prior history. We need to be reminded that mission is God’s before it is ours. And in relation to our title this afternoon that seems to be of central importance. So as we engage in mission, communicating the good news – the really new message of Jesus Christ and who he is and what he’s done – we will always be attending to the pattern of God’s presence and action, already there. It may take a lot of discerning and may not be at all obvious to start with. And yet there it is: we wouldn’t be there if a door had not been opened. And of course that has as an implication the rather sobering other side of the coin, which is that Jesus seems to be saying there, ‘Don’t waste energy trying to re-invent wheels, or go where there is no ground to sow upon,’ rather as Acts 16 seems to hint:
They went through the region of Phrygia and Galatia, having been forbidden by the Holy Spirit to speak the word in Asia. When they had come opposite Mysia, they attempted to go into Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus did not allow them.(Acts 16.6-7)
And as I read that rather puzzling passage, I have a sense that the Holy Spirit is saying to Paul and his companions, don’t waste your energy where God at this moment is not opening a door. Keep your eyes and ears open for the door God is opening; the place where God has already in some way turned over the soil. Where do we start? Where God has started. How do we start? By listening, looking, discerning for the way in which God has turned over the soil for us.
And that of course connects straight away to the second question and the second answer – what do we say? ‘As you go, proclaim the good news, ‘The kingdom of heaven has come near.’ What do we say in our mission? How do we communicate the newness of the new creation in Jesus Christ? Perhaps one of the first things we should say on the basis of all this, is God is nearer than we think. God is on the way to you before you have begun to be on the way to God. Mission is not about introducing a distant and rather shy God to people that he’s never met before. It’s much more a question of saying to people that God is more interested in you than you are in God. And the good news is that if you show signs of interest of response, trust and love, then that interest turns into profound intimacy and relationship. God is nearer than you think. God is already on the way. So that what we say about God in mission is actually very closely connected with the question of where and how do we start? We start recognizing God who is there before us, and we say to the people with whom we’re speaking, ‘God is already at work in you and the challenge is for you to recognize this and give your heart and your will to cooperating with what God wants to do with and in you. Our assumption must always be that God has started. I always think, in that respect, of the wonderful verse in George Herbert’s poem, Easter:
I got me flowers to straw thy way,
I got me flowers off many a tree;
But thou was up by break of day,
And brought’st thy sweets along with thee.
Before anybody gets to the empty tomb, God is already up ‘by break of day’. And so he is in all our mission endeavours. © Rowan Williams 2009
To be continued next month
PROCLAIM LIBERTY TO THE CAPTIVES ...
As some of you may know, a couple of us from Holy Trinity have become involved in prison visiting. Basically, we serve as church volunteers at the monthly ecumenical service, led by the protestant chaplain. There are times when it seems as though our contacts with the ‘residents’, as they are called, are superficial and of little effect, and then the rug is pulled from under your feet. Recently, the service ended with a poem set to music (a ‘candlelight’) written by Patrick, one of the residents and skillfully ‘orchestrated’ by the music group – also residents. The candlelight was dedicated to the church volunteers:
Thank you dear volunteers that you come a long way for us;
Thank you dear volunteers that you want to be here for us;
Thank you dear volunteers that your ears are open for us.
Now we must take if from here; build on our own resource;
But it will all work out: a new life and a new course.
Thank you dear volunteers for your trust and support;
Thank you dear volunteers for what you do for us all;
Thank you dear volunteers for all the years you have been
willing volunteers.
Now we must take if from here; build on our own resource;
But it will all work out: a new life and a new course.
Thank you dear volunteers – we light a candle of gratitude burning true;
Thank you dear volunteers – my "candlelight" is finished and offered to you.
Patrick
As I said, the rug was pulled from under our feet, and then you know you are doing God’s work.
AFRICAN CHARITY DINNER
On the 4th of July, while the Americans were celebrating their Independence Day, we were having our “gezellige” African charity dinner. The church hall was transformed into a real restaurant with African decorations. The atmosphere that evening with African music and outfits provided another unforgettable charity event. In total there were 34 guest and four kitchen crew including our chef, Ogo. It was a lovely summer evening and we enjoyed our starters in the garden. With much food and drinks, everybody was having a good time and joining in the excitement while the lucky raffle draw took place.
It was a great success and I’m proud to say that we raised € 905 in profit for the windows fund. I would like to thank Ogo and the rest of the kitchen staff for helping with all the preparations and the washing up. And also thanks to all the people who contributed to the prizes for the raffle. I would also like to thank all the people who supported this charity event and I look forward for the next one.
Kim
RECIPIES FROM THE AFRICAN DINNER
CHICKEN IN CASHEW NUT AND FUNGUS SAUCE
400 gr. basmati rice
400 gr. chicken filet
200 gr. tomatoes
200 gr. onions
100 gr. spring onions
25 gr. fungus (dried mushrooms)
175 gr. unsalted cashew nuts
1 piece of ginger
100 ml. fish sauce
150 ml. oyster sauce
4 tbsp. oil
Soak the fungus in a bowl of warm water for 40 min. Wash the chicken filet and cut into pieces. Chop the onions, peel and grate the ginger and cut the rest of the vegetables. Pour away the water and cut the fungus into pieces. Heat the oil in a frying pan and fry the cashew nuts on a low heat stirring occasionally for about 5 min. Then dish onto a piece of kitchen paper. Heat the remaining oil on high heat and fry the chicken for about 6 min.
Add the fungus and the ginger and cook for 5 min. Then add the other ingredients, the cashew nuts and the tomatoes and cook for another 5 min. Serve with the cooked basmati rice.
COOKED YAM IN TOMATO SAUCE
1 kg. yam
400 gr. tomatoes
2 tbsp. tomato paste
250 gr. onions
1 tsp. (or 1 bundle fresh) basil
15 ml. vegetable oil
Stock cube, salt and pepper
Peel (1 cm thick) and wash the yam and cut into big pieces and cook in about 1.5 litre water with a pinch of salt for max. 20 min. In the meantime, peel and chop onions. Wash the tomatoes and cut into pieces. Put the tomatoes, tomato paste, pepper and half of the onions into a blender. Cook the blended tomato mixture in a pan for about 10 min. on a low heat till the water has evaporated. Add the oil, basil, stock cube and the rest of the onions. Stir and cook for about 5 min. Pour away the water of the yam and serve with the tomato sauce.
PRAYER CHAIN
If you have any requests for the prayer chain, or if you feel called to take part in this ministry, please contact Anne Miechielsen
SLEEP TIGHT
When Summer Time ends on 25th October, why not seize the moment and get your bedtime routine organised for the winter ahead?
It seems that one in five of us sleep badly, wake early, and so feel irritable and tired as each day begins. Experts call this ?junk sleep?, and warn that we can?t expect to be as productive at work, as emotionally stable in our relationships, or even as slim as we would be if we got a proper seven to seven and a half hours a night. Another depressing thing: if you don?t get enough sleep, you will age faster. The changes in your hormone functions will be similar to those which come with ageing.
So ? how to sleep better? If your problem is very bad, visit your doctor to make sure you are medically okay. Then, here are some tips to help you prepare for sleep: think of your bedroom as a sanctuary from the world; aim to make it spacious, quiet and peaceful; take out the TV; move out the work papers; put away the mess; use soft lighting and hang thick curtains to protect from light; keep your bed clean and inviting!
What time do you go to bed? Make it the same time every night, and aim for some exercise about 4 hours beforehand. Walking, jogging or swimming in the early evening is great for you ? the exercise gets rid of the stress of the day, and helps you to unwind and relax. Turn off the TV and computer at least an hour before bed, and listen to relaxing music or read instead. Have a warm bath, review the day mentally and let it go.
Reading a Psalm before you sleep will help focus your mind on God and his love for you, and will remind you of the spiritual dimension in life. God is your refuge, and wants you to turn to him for help. Do so, and then turn off the light!
THE STORY BEHIND HARVEST 'FESTIVALS'
Who began Harvest Festivals, or rather Harvest Thanksgiving? Have you ever wondered? It seems pretty obvious to thank God for the harvest, but actually, it is a comparatively recent church service. Less than 200 years ago, harvest was not formally ?celebrated? in church, but in the taverns and on village greens of the countryside, with wild drinking and eating before the harshness of winter set in.
Then in 1834 an eccentric clergyman called the Rev Robert Stephen Hawker arrived in Morwenstowe, a tiny hamlet of a few farms perched high on the windswept cliffs of the north Cornish coast. The church had been without a vicar for years, but now Robert Hawker strode the lanes of Morwenstowe in a bright purple or red cassock.
Rural life in those days was harsh, and Hawker soon realised the sheer effort needed to survive in those parts. Harvest was the only thing that got people through the winter: a poor one meant starvation. Each bad year Hawker buried some of his congregation.
But the summer of 1843 was perfect, and the harvest that year was exceptionally bountiful. The people of Morwenstowe were getting set to celebrate with their usual abandon, when Hawker stepped in. Who, he asked, did they think had given them the harvest? Were they not going to even say ?thank you? to Him?
Abashed, the people came to church, and Hawker led them in giving thanks to God for his rich blessing upon them. The ?Christian? Harvest Thanksgiving had arrived ? in Morwenstowe.
Nowadays Harvest Thanksgiving is enjoyed by both regular church-goers and visitors, making it one of the most popular services in the church year.
We shall be holding our Harvest Thanksgiving on the first Sunday in October (All Age Worship). Will you be coming to give thanks for the Lord's bounty?
THE AFRICAN DINNER CREW!
SOME QUOTATIONS WORTH THINKING ABOUT!
If you?re not allowed to laugh in heaven, I don?t want to go there. (Martin Luther)
The Himalayas are the raised letters upon which we blind children put our fingers to spell out the name of God. (J H Barrows)
Everyone says forgiveness is a lovely idea until he has something to forgive. (CS Lewis)
NIGHT OF THE CHURCHES
(Kerkennacht)
On Friday June 19th Holy trinity Church opened its doors for a very special celebration called Kerkennacht. This is an annual event organised on the initiative of the Utrechtse Stedelijke Raad van Kerken. This year it was our turn to welcome visitors from inside and outside our church. We used this opportunity to unveil the West Window which was taken out last year and was beautifully restored, and installed again last May. The West Window is the first of our nine windows which we hope to get repaired in due course. The re-dedication of the window by Father John de Wit was the centre piece of the programme for that evening. It took place in the presence of about 90 people. Altogether we had 110 people celebrating with us which was a great success.
The choir of Holy trinity church was singing when most people were coming in which created a nice atmosphere. Following the unveiling of the window we had a variety of musical performances. Just to mention a few items, it was ?joyful? to listen to the ?noise? of our wonderful ladies choir (Joyful Noise!) which sang with great enthusiasm. Fiona Korff (soprano) accompanied by Henk Korff (organ) and John de Wit (cello) gave an exquisite performance of Panis Angelicus.
As usual, we had lovely refreshments provided by our volunteers. All-in-all, it was a very happy occasion.
The Window Subcommittee would like to take the opportunity of thanking everyone who has so generously donated money up to now. A special mention should be made to Barbara Mooyaart who donated her 90th birthday present to the windows. We would like to give a special thanks for ?2,500 from the Rabo Bank and ?2,500 from the Elise Mathilde Fonds, and also to the Fentener van Vlissingenfonds. The total cost of the West Window restoration came to a little more than ?30.000, so we will need to continue raising money until all the windows are restored. We will be very happy to receive further donations for our project.
Mieps
A PRAYER: RISE UP ...
come to thee is to come home from exile, to come to land out of the raging storm, to come to rest after long labour, to come to the goal of my desires and the summit of my wishes. O raise me, draw me. Thy grace can do it. Send forth thy Holy Spirit to kindle sacred flames of love in my heart, and I will continue to rise until I leave life and time behind me, and indeed come away?.
Charles Haddon Spurgeon 1834 ? 1892, the well known Baptist preacher
WITH HARVEST THANKSGIVING IN MIND ...
Thanksgiving is the vibration of the soul's heartstrings under the soft touch of God's benevolence.
A PROPER DO
This month a pair of our elderly, but well off, neighbours were celebrating both their fifty-fifth wedding anniversary and her birthday. To mark this milestone in their lives they hired a room at a local restaurant and invited the 'Good and the Great' of the district to a party. For some reason we got included onto the guest list. I suspect that sort of mistake happens when you let elderly people use computers. So we dug out our best bib and tucker and got all dressed up for the occasion. I even went as far as wearing one of my two ties. I chose the Anderson tartan one as I keep the black one for more solemn occasions, like funerals. Of course you never want to be the first to arrive as you then have to stand around making small talk to the hosts until the others come, so we turned up about fifteen minutes after the official kick-off. By that time, the car park at the restaurant was half full and the queue of guests waiting to be greeted, stretched right out of the restaurant door. This, we dutifully joined as it inched forwards.
As we moved up the line we passed the dining room where all the tables were set ready for dinner. However I noticed that, oddly enough, there were no chairs. This mystery was soon solved as we went through the next door and into the reception room. Actually it doubled as a ballroom but was now filled with tables and all the chairs from the dining room. Eventually we got to the head of the line, handed over our presents and were greeted by the festive couple. We now made a dive for an empty table. Once we got there and settled down we discovered that we were among the youngest present. Everyone else had also got dressed up in their best togs and so we had trouble recognising them, now that they were not wearing wellies and a tractor.
The tables had been carefully set out with six chairs round each of them. On every table were six cups, six cakes and six napkins. The tables had been set out with military precision and spaced so that the (slim) serving staff could easily move between them when passing out the goodies. I noticed that as most of the guests were elderly they were also not quite as sylph like as the staff, so moving between the tables was a bit tricky. As it was primarily the ballroom, it had no curtains or any other form of sound absorbing material on the walls. This raised the level of the background noise to the point that hearing what your neighbour was saying was difficult. That plus the fact that they all speak with a thick accent around these parts meant that I didn't stand a chance of understanding them at all. So I just sat there smiling at what I hoped were the appropriate places in the conversation. Like all ballrooms these days it had fancy effect lighting. Mercifully this was not switched on but the, mandatory, large mirrored ball hung like the Sword of Damocles over the heads of those unfortunate enough to choose the centre table. It also picked up some stray rays from the setting sun and reflected them onto the tables where they appeared as small white patches. These were dead ringers for drops of milk and several people tried to wipe them up.
Now it was the turn of the Shakers and Movers to do their thing. The Shakers are the ones who insist on going round the entire room introducing themselves and shaking everyone's hands. Now when they arrive at your table you must stop your conversation, put down your coffee and cake, wipe your fingers on your napkin, stand up, shake their hand, mutter your name and sit down again. Then of course as soon as you pick up your things, the next one arrives. The Movers are those who always want more chairs at their table than have been supplied. They spy an empty seat, sidle up to the table, briefly inquire if anyone is sitting there, then whisk it away before you can answer. As the chairs were dinning room chairs and thus rather heavy, and the spacing between the tables quite tight, this was not as easy as it normally is. However once the Movers were done, getting between the tables was all but impossible as the already narrow gaps had been reduced to nothing. For some reason people like to move their chairs back from the table then sit on the very edge of the chair so they can reach the table thus taking up even more space. The man who has a smallholding just up the road from us came with his wife, and sat at our table before the Movers pinched all the spare chairs, so we had someone to shout at over the background noise. He looked even more out of place than we did and spent the entire time nervously rubbing his hands together. His wife however was quite relaxed and appeared to be enjoying herself.
There was naturally a Guest of Honour. He is the same one we get at all these sorts of things. He was a local politician, although he is retired now. That said, he still sounds like he is still running for office, as he 'works the room' shaking hands, slapping backs and, if there are any present, kissing babies. I'm sure you have all met his type before.
Meanwhile the boys and girls of the staff were doing their best to distribute the food and drink. But they were severely hampered by the lack of space. I was left on several occasions with my tongue hanging out, dying for a glass of plonk, while the girl, carrying a huge tray of the stuff, was only a few feet away from me but could not figure a way through to where I was sitting. As well as the drinks there were also the dreaded 'hapjes'. Harry spent ages trying to ensure he only got veggie ones. I didn't take any chances and just stuck to the wine, when it was available.
The birthday girl then decided to 'do the rounds' and came to every table. As she is now rather bad on her pins this took quite some time since a chair had to be found for her at every stop.
Eventually we decided it was time to leave and so we went, said our goodbyes to the happy couple and got outside where the lack of noise was wonderful. When we got to the car park we discovered that, parked among all the cars, was a very big blue tractor. I could just picture the scene in my mind's eye: one couple all dolled up ready to go to the party and to their horror they discover that the car's battery is flat. So he jumps on the tractor and, with his wife (in her best dress) holding on to his waist while standing on the drawbar they rush off to the party. It's a terrible thing to have an imagination like mine.
Jamie
Services at Holy Trinity Church, Utrecht
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