Spring — a Wonderful Season!

A wonderful season full of new life and  hope; it is no surprise that Easter falls in this season. We have been very busy on our wee farm this last month. Our small flock of Jacob’s sheep has provided us with twenty-nine new lambs. The weather has been wonderfully kind this year to these  young lives. It has been delightful to see the lambs stretch out in the grass, toasting themselves in the unseasonable warmth of the sun or just to watch as the energetic youngsters bound around the field in the evening … springtime!

Just gorgeous!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Frequently I help the ewe as she births, especially with the bigger lambs. Every live birth is just amazing , even to me at my age! You cannot help but think about God and His amazing creation. The ewe instinctively starts to lick her young, drying the little creature to prevent it succumbing to the cold and then she gently nudges the lamb onto its feet and in the direction of her life-giving milk; those first few mouthfuls of colostrum can mean the difference between life and death to a newborn. All the while her womb contracts and out pops numbers two and then sometimes three!

New arrivals

In the field the mother looks after her own little family intently. If another’s lamb tries to feed from her by mistake  a ‘non too’ gentle dunt sends the offending youngster in the direction of its own food source!

 

 

 

 

We had two little guys who were in very poor condition at birth; they were too weak to raise their heads off the straw, so no chance that they would be able to suckle from their mother. We had to give them colostrum via a tube,down their throats, into their stomachs; we didn’t hold out much hope for them but my husband and I persevered, feeding them three hourly at the start. The ‘boys’ Spot and Dean are now three weeks old  and bounding around the paddock!   You can imagine how much pleasure this has given us, but our grandchildren just love to come and see our new lambs; the special treat, of course, is to feed  Spot and Dean.

    Perfect siblings

 

 

 

 

Spring is the fantastic season when we  see God’s wonderful creation burst into activity but Easter  is when we see God’s love in action.

God loved the world so much that He gave His one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish but will have eternal life.  John 3 V 16 NLT

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   Amazon adventure for age 9+  and equally enjoyed by adults.

    Please see www.donthurtus.org  for more information.

Humanity’s Shame—- Abandoned Street children!

Today I watched a harrowing video about street kids in the Ukraine called  The Neglected . It was directed by David Gillanders a photojournalist from Glasgow. I was almost moved to tears by what I saw. Kids as young as eight years old living in the sewers: starved, malnourished, ill, drug abusing, abandoned, frightened, kids living in gangs, like packs of animals.

It reminded me of my  motives for writing  my novel  ‘The Dead Don’t Hurt Us’ ( Street kids often hide in lonely cemeteries). In the book I wrote a fictional account of children hiding in the sewers but David’s black and white pictures are so real, so shocking that I felt myself asking all over again why is this allowed to happen? Of course it is not just in the Ukraine, it is in every continent of the world; the cause poverty!

Whatever happened to upholding the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child?

There will be those who ask  ‘Why does God allow this to happen?’ Surely the question is  ’Why does humanity treat its young in this shocking way?’

I visit: schools, libraries, church groups and others in Scotland giving talks about my book and my reasons for writing it; to let my readers know about poverty and the life of the street child. Watching David’s film has spurred me on to shout louder! The profits from the sale of my book, paperback and e book go to street children’s charities.

So take a look at David Gillanders film; it will shock you but you need to know, to be able to do something to help!

The documentary  Neglected will be broadcast on Channel 4, Thursday 22nd March 12 midnight

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Profits for Street Kids

Amazon adventure for age 9+  and equally enjoyed by adults.

Slavery still exists…tell your friends!

Later this week some of my Soroptimist friends are coming round for supper; I’m a member of the local club. You might wonder who are Soroptimists? Soroptimist comes from the latin and means ‘wanting the best for our sisters’. We are part of Soroptimist International, a worldwide women’s organisation working to improve the rights and lives of women and girls. The views of Soroptimists are even heard at the United Nations.

After supper I’m showing my friends the CNN  Freedom Project video ‘Not My Life’  because I want them to realise that slavery and trafficking still exist and it’s not always in another country or somebody else’s problem.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1usmQ5wks0s

News of the thousands of trafficked people to the US Superbowl last year raises the prospect that many may well be trafficked to the Olympics in London. Hopefully our police forces will be well aware of this and so prevent thousands of women and girls from being moved into London to income generate for criminal gangs.

Who are the trafficked in the UK? Usually they are from poor communities in Eastern Europe or Africa but they can also be girls moved within the UK. What does it matter, after all they are just prostitutes? This of course is why so many of these girls are failed by the authorities because they are seen as illegal immigrants, or sex workers but in reality they are the victims and we must stand up for them.

UN.Gift Box is an initiative I have just learnt about: throughout London the UN will have large boxes, with ribbons on top, enticing people to look into them, but inside will be information about trafficking. GIFT (Global initiative to Fight Trafficking)  is a project giving communities the chance to raise awareness of trafficking at the 2012 Olympics. For this project GIFT is partnered with Stop the Traffik.

So things are beginning to happen in an attempt to  stop this terrible violation of fellow human beings,  but let’s hope there is much more to come.

Related articles

• Soroptimist Program Wins National Award (prweb.com)
• Soroptimist Collaborates on Human Trafficking Awareness Week (kitsapsun.com)

It’s Good to be Connected!

Almost a hundred years ago , around 1919 , my father’s  19-year-old Uncle Gilbert, joined a ship  in Scotland bound for Argentina. His parents never saw him again . The only communication, as far as I am aware, was a request  for turnip seed to be sent to him . I ‘ve been  thinking of  how my great-grandmother must have felt  as her youngest child left home that morning. They lived in an isolated small farm cottage in Dumfriesshire with little access to transport. My granny, an older sister of Gilbert, used to walk  each week the sixteen mile round trip to the local market town of Lockerbie, to fetch the family provisions.

Why has this old family story come to my mind? Our youngest  has recently left home to work overseas but the difference, almost a hundred years later, is communication. Our initial concerns were relieved when we received a text from him to say that he  had landed in the far east; my great-grandmother would have had to wait weeks, if not months, for news of her son’s safe arrival. We have sent and received emails, and shared news with our son; the other night we spoke by video phone. Our daughters are in regular contact with their brother too. Our smart phones allow us to be in immediate contact should the need arise. Later in the year we plan to visit our son when he is in Australia; not even a  remote possibility for Gilbert’s parents. Poverty, transport costs and possibly ill-health would  have prevented such an opportunity for them.

The internet not only allows people to keep in close touch but it provides superb access to information; of course for an author like me, who lives in the country, this makes research so much easier. The internet can be a very useful tool for raising awareness of social ills such as trafficking and enslavement that I wrote about in my last blog.

Sadly though as with most technological  progress there is a price to pay. How do authors, film and record  producers protect their copyright? How can the activities of criminal gangs be restricted?How can our children and vulnerable adults be protected from sexual predators?

I am writing my next novel and it is hugely exciting that I will be able to make this available to my readers, in the form of an e-book, by uploading it here from my office.

By far the greatest benefit I believe is to be  able to keep in touch with loved ones, no matter where they are in the globe.

Modern Slavery

Over the past few months I have been following CNN Freedom Project. In my opinion this is investigative journalism at its best. In the UK the press has been having a rough time, and rightly so, with the phone hacking scandal, but CNN ‘s team of journalists has been doing a wonderful job, uncovering the horror story that is human  rafficking. The film ‘Not My Life ‘ that I have mentioned in a previous blog is a harrowing documentary on the trafficking and enslavement of thousands of people in many countries of the world.

The Freedom Project is beginning to bear fruit, for example, President Obama has declared January 2012 US anti-trafficking month. The Chinese have had a big crack down with many arrests and children freed from two child trafficking networks. In India bonded labourers have been freed. However these achievements are just the tip of the iceberg. The United Nations states that human trafficking is the third most profitable international crime coming behind illegal drugs and arms trafficking.

Why am I writing about all this ? Most of the traffic are women and children, the most vulnerable members of society . In some poor villages in India, for example, when a girl reaches puberty she is sold into prostitution; a long-standing tradition apparently. The International Labour organisation estimates that there are 9.4 million children in slavery: trafficked, debt bondage, prostitution, armed conflict.

What hope is there for these children and women? Firstly I would suggest letting as many people know about trafficking and slavery as possible, to raise awareness of the problem.  Ask our politicians what they plan to do about it. Most of us do not think it goes on in Europe and America but it does and on a huge scale. The UN estimates that trafficking is worth $32 billion dollars —  $15 billion dollars in the industrialised nations!

One my favourite quotes is:  ’All that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good people to do nothing.’ Edmund Burke 18th century philosopher .

We all must try to do something to raise awareness of modern-day slavery. I bought a   copy of  ’ Not My Life’ DVD  and plan to show it to my friends . It’s harrowing to watch but that is nothing compared to the lives of the slaves.

It’s Christmas … almost!

A few days ago  I heard John Lennon’s song ‘Happy Christmas (War is Over)’ playing in a shop; it’s always worth a listen:

“So this is Christmas

And what have you done?

Another year over”

This song always makes me stop and think. This year because so much has happened, in our family and small publishing company, I decided to write an update for friends and family. I’ve discovered over the years that folks are quite polarised about such enclosures in Christmas cards. Some think they are great and like to read and hear of the antics of others, but some  think that we should keep up better with our loved ones and friends and then we wouldn’t need to write such pieces. My own view is that it would be wonderful to keep in close contact with all our friends but in reality it doesn’t happen because everyone seems to be so busy; I love reading news of friends and the ease with which photographs can be included makes the letters so much more interesting. Don’t forget we Grandmas just love to let everyone know about new arrivals, it’s such good news!

Of course over two thousand years ago there was the Good News story—- the birth of our Saviour. Jesus is the reason for the season, but sometimes as we walk downtown or listen to  our television programmes it just seems to be consumer madness we see with very little reference to the real Christmas story.

Last week I had the privilege of opening  a school Christmas concert; the older children had read and enjoyed my book

‘The Dead Don’t Hurt Us’

I was asked  talk a little about my book. For those of you who are new to my blog, my  book is an adventure story  based on the my experiences as a doctor in the Amazon jungle. The  plight of street children is highlighted in the novel and the profits from the sale of my book go to street children’s charities.

So I spoke to the audience about the fact that for street children, Christmas is just another day: to rake in  garbage bins for food or to steal so they don’t starve to death, a day to avoid the police who may beat them up or adults who wish to harm them. (One of the reasons so many  hide in cemeteries is ’because the dead don’t hurt them !) I asked my audience to compare the Christmas they expected with the day of the street child.

But some of the students had already made the comparison; the money raised from their wonderful concert was given to support the work of  The Vine Trust  in Peru.  Who says young people don’t care  … it’s just not true!

So this is Christmas — what have you done? It is worth a thought.

Our family have been very blessed in many ways this year. It has been a very  busy and fulfilling year but there is so much more to do next year …God willing!

Letters in the Christmas cards ….   good or bad ? Let me know what you think.

I hope you  have a  good Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Whitewater Kayaking!

We are expecting a delivery today!  Astwood Publishing’s  latest book is arriving from the printers. This book ‘Holy Whitewater’is a dynamic book written by a very energetic young man who loves kayaking ! Scott Burton’s ‘relaxation’ is to speed down the river Tay, Scotland longest river, through whitewater rapids, dodging boulders and other hazards  in a plastic  kayak! Sounds totally mad to me!

Scott and I do  have a couple of things in common but kayaking isn’t one of them. The first is a love of  rivers: I grew up on a small farm in the south  of Scotland where a river runs through, alongside  the hayfield. As a teenager I loved  to walk by the river and noticed the calm shallow sections  that were safe to paddle; sometimes we would picnic on the bank. Then there was the rocky part with  the white turbulent water tumbling over the rocks, a place we could dangle our toes in the flow if my dad was with us. Further on, over the dyke,  in our  neighbour’s farm was a very deep section known as Potts Pool. My dad warned us about this dangerous part of the river; we had to stay away from it completely if he wasn’t with us.  Of course in the winter, if we had a bad storm, the river would flood  right across the hayfield and surrounding valley forcing the cattle to take refuge on the higher ground.

River Milk

The other thing we have in common is our love of God. I have been a Christian for  a long time now and Scott is a Church of Scotland minister.  So it is hardly surprising  that as  I read Scott’s manuscript I quickly identified with his view of  the spirituality of kayaking. Many of my biggest personal decisions have been made walking beside a river or on the seashore because for me these are  wonderful places to be close to God.  I think it’s because I know that  the river has been tumbling along or the tide has been ebbing and flowing for thousands of years, watched by many generations of people, they remind me that I am  ‘but dust’. Scott very skilfully takes the reader on a journey from the pleasant places in the river to the sudden, unexpected, tough parts with the Creator continually  parenting:  guiding, warning, supporting and  encouraging  each traveller.

So we , here at Astwood Publishing, are very pleased to announce that Holy Whitewater is here at last!

Scott’s book will be available in the UK from next week and the North America from next year.  A good read not only  for the sports enthusiast, but for anyone searching out the answers to the tough questions of life.

Helping Hands

Spot

Our fields are  full of sheep just now. Sadly not for much longer as the ‘boys’ are about to leave us. Off to the local market; I don’t like to think much beyond this. Our family  have a policy of not naming any animal that will end up in the food chain. But it is really hard not to name a lamb or  get attached  when you feed the creature many times a day. This year we had a little triplet ‘boy’ who was neglected by his mother. We gave him extra milk from a bottle four times a day; we called him Spot because of the red identification blob on his flank. My husband trained Spot to come to us; each time we went to the field to feed him we would whistle on him and  he would come running, the rest of the lambs ignoring us completely. This was the first time we had found a use for Pavlov’s theory!  Spot survived and is now in the furthest field from the house with all the other ‘boys’. Fortunately he doesn’t respond to the whistle anymore and now that he is a mature ram I can’t recognise him. He’s off to the market in a few days but I comfort myself with the knowledge that he has had a good life and that if it wasn’t for our initial care he wouldn’t have survived for more than a couple of weeks.

For those of you who have read my novel, ‘The Dead Dont Hurt Us’, you will remember how Miguel and his brothers looked after Tim and Katie, the two British survivors  of a plane crash in the Amazon Jungle. Often the village boys put their own lives in danger to protect the gringo  children. Perhaps Miguel and his brothers had been influenced by the way their uncle had taken them in when they were orphaned. Later in the book the street children, Rico and Andres, put themselves at risk to rescue Tim and Katie from the brutality of the police; these street kids had known the fear of a police chase as they  been rescued in the past by street boys.

Have a look at the dedicated website www.donthurtus.org for more information about the novel and the charities we support.

There are times in life when we are weak and vulnerable and require the help of others but we must remember to look out for those in need.  This morning I was listening to the television; the topic under discussion was the abuse of some elderly people by some care workers. (Most care workers do a terrific job.) The interviewees was making the point that care staff need better training in the human rights of the elderly.  Over two thousand years ago, Jesus said ‘Do unto others as you would have done unto you.’ Luke Ch 6 v 31. I think we would  do well to remember His instruction; if mankind did, we wouldn’t need human rights legislation at all.

Slum Boy

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Next to the house we have the girls and Jake! Jake is our two year old ram ..and you guessed it …  the cycle starts again. Keep posted for some wonderful pictures at lambing time in February.

Jake

Trafficking and modern-day slavery.

Have you ever watch a really shocking documentary? One that makes you want to shout out about the injustices you have just seen; one that makes you want to do something to make a difference,  even if that is just to tell someone else what you’ve learned. Recently I sat down and watched such a documentary…   ‘Not My Life’ http://notmylife.org/ a short film  directed by Robert Bilheimer,  part  of the  CNN  Freedom Project  http://thecnnfreedomproject.blogs.cnn.com/

I had heard about this Project  on  trafficking around the world, some months earlier ; I had read some of the reports and seen some of the shorter pieces  on CNN, so I was well aware of the sort of activities the criminal gangs  involved  in the world of modern-day slavery were up to. But it still shocked me ! I’m glad about that because it lets me know I’m not hardened to these disturbing facts. Sometimes our televisions feed us  with so many dreadful stories  that we do become immune to the suffering of others but we must guard against this or our world will never become a  better place where human rights are respected. It’s bad enough to hear of adults  trafficked from one region to another to work for  nothing but  many of the enslaved people around the world are in fact children.

Vulnerable children can be found in shanty towns like this.

Children working in sweat shops, brothels, as fisherboys or on the streets begging . Some of the kids are as young as five or six, all denied their basic human rights as set out in the Rights of The Child Convention. The right to: a childhood free from harm , to education,  to be healthy,  to be treated fairly,  to be heard.

Robert Bilhimer asks the question  ‘What does all this say about the human race that we abuse our children this way?’

I have ordered my copy of ”Not My Life’ and plan to show it to my friends to make them aware of the terrible injustices and cruelty of modern-day slavery.

What a beautiful season!

I’ve just come back from a lovely walk with our dog Angus; we walked round the local reservoir. The colours were just magnificent;  the deep golden brown hues of  the deciduous trees stood out with such clarity against the conifers. The paths were softened to the foot by the layers of fallen leaf; I think our friends across the Atlantic have chosen well when they called this amazing season the fall.

I had the privilege of working in the Amazon jungle of Peru  as I’ve mentioned in my posts before . Working in such hot humid areas where the season never really changes, other than the amount of rainfall and it’s still always hot , really made me think about our seasons here in the UK. Autumn is spectacular with its vibrant colours, winter can be bleak and dreich as we say in Scotland, which makes spring all the more wonderful when it arrives. Summer can be full of hope at the start with a lovely May, but often followed by some awful wet days in July and August. This  variability is probably  the reason Brits ar renowned for talking about the weather!  But there is nothing like a good walk  to see the handiwork of our Maker.

Here’s a verse from this ‘amateur’ poet  about praising  God.

To Praise you Father is My Delight

I’ll praise you Father the
Creator of the earth,

From day, to month, to year
to last breath.

You made the mountain, the
rivers and seas,

The planets, the people, the
animals and trees.

I’ll praise you Jesus for all
you have given me,

My life, my mission and for
setting me free.