Walk The Lines by Mark Mason - A Review

The author walked the “London Underground overground”, as it is said in the subtitle. He “walked the lines” making his way on foot from one Tube station to the next following the respective lines. During this journey he met interesting people like a female cabby (black cab driver) apprentice and a “mind the gap” voice, and overheared everyday conversation. He also shares a lot of historical facts on buildings or areas he has been walking through. The walks include a night walk and one in deep winter shortly before Christmas.

The reader literally walks the streets with the author, seeing what he sees and hearing what he hears – all of course through the “filter” of the author’s eyes and ears, but nevertheless one gets a very good impression of the many different faces of the megacity and its people.

“Walk the Lines” is a real treat for everyone who loves London – not only the parts which tourists usually get to see, but all of it. As a “Londoner at heart” I thoroughly enjoyed reading it, giving me a little of the happy London feeling I miss so much during most of the time of my life, as I’m living far away and cannot visit the town even nearly as often as I would like (a London Tube station named “Stetten am kalten Markt” will sadly never become real and even the next airport is about 100 kilometres away from our remote little place in the south of Baden-Wuerttemberg). It was a good remedy for the symptoms of my londonitis – that is what I call the “illness” which makes me want to move to London and stay there for the rest of my earthly life. I think the londonitis comes from something one of the people the author talked to mentioned - that London was “full of misfits from all over the world … because [there] they can be themselves”. This was exactly my experience when I was studying at a college in London in 1987 / 88 (one of the best years of my life). I dressed in a way which would have taken me right into the newspaper or the nuthouse in the small town I came from – and even more in the village I’m living in now. In London nobody even looked at me because of that and I felt very safe in the anonymity.

The book made me want to do the same as the author did – walk (almost) all parts of London once in my life. On a rating of one to five stars this book gets six from me ;)

For the photo I wrapped it in my tubeline scarf (a scarf in the colours of the Tube lines), the pattern of which can be found in Lauren O’Farrell’s book “Stitch London”, another book for the London fan.

My 1 Euro per Day Experiment

Even though we are sponsoring eight children in Armenia already and pay the therapy costs for one of them, I decided to do the 1 Euro per day experiment nevertheless, on which I wrote in the previous blog post. Simply to see what is possible (with GOD's help always more than one thinks). Each day I put one Euro in an old savings box which had belonged to either me or one of my brothers and of which I didn’t even know it still existed – until I noticed it standing on a sideboard in my middle brother’s living-room. When I exclaimed “Oh, you still have it???” he gave it to me, and after I had put it on my own desk I soon realized what it was good for.

However, the money which I’m saving in there is not meant to sponsor another child, but to support projects which are important to me. No, sorry, I will not take any suggestions, as there are already more projects on my (invisible) list than I will ever be able to support! The money for January will be donated to support the Arise Conference.

The 1 Euro per Day Experiment

It is always impressive to see how much money is being given for charity when famous people appear in telethons and ask for donations. Suddenly people open their wallets which are closed most of the year – except when spending money for one’s own luxury.

In particular, many people seem to be unwilling to give on a regular basis, for example sponsoring a child in need – in spite of the fact that the monthly contributions for a sponsorship are ridiculously low compared to what the children are getting. For app. 25 to 35 Euros (33 to 47 USD / 21 to 29 GBP) the sponsorship organisations care for the basic needs of a child – food, clothing, medical care and school supplies.

If you are not sure whether you could afford a child sponsorship I invite you to take part in a little experiment. On each day for one or two (or more) months put the amount of one Euro ( the approximate equivalent in your currency) in a savings box and see whether by doing this you have to do without something which you are REALLY and URGENTLY in need of. If this is not the case, take the money and decide what to do with it. It’s entirely up to you!

Would Jesus have used Social Networks?

This question is difficult if not impossible to answer and so people like to answer this question according to their own preferences. I don’t know the answer either, but it is still funny to see what could have happened if social networks had already been there 2000 years ago :)

The Doctor's Lady by Jody Hedlund - Review

Obviously they existed even during the 19th century – the true Christian missionaries to the Native Americans. Those, who showed them the love of Christ without trying to convert them to their own “superior” Europeanism in the first place, a mistake many missionaries all over the world had made, even until well into the 20th century.

“The Doctor’s Lady” is a historical romance novel based on the story of a missionary couple who had lived with the Nez Percé tribe for several years. The novel describes the long and exhausting journey of the main (fictional) characters, Priscilla and Eli, across the North American continent during the first half of the 19th century. Apart from the strains of this journey, they also have to deal with the growing complications in their relationship which started as a marriage in name to make it possible for them to become missionaries.

It is one of those books you can hardly stop reading once you started and which makes you rejoice and suffer with the characters. It’s exciting from the first to the last page! Very highly recommended, just like Jody Hedlund’s previous novel “The Preacher’s Bride”.

It's getting cold

This is the time of year to switch on the heaters. However, we are still refusing to do so and only using the wood stove for as long as possible. This means that most of our current life at home takes place in the sitting room, as it is too cold in the other rooms to stay there for long. We also keep warm with warmer clothes and, if necessary, blankets. The reason why we are doing this is to save money.

A good side effect of it is that we get a little (though just a very little) impression of how it feels to have to live in a place without proper heating. Of course, we are still spoiled. Our home is well insulated, there is no draught, we have got windows instead of just plastic foil and it is not dripping through our roof when it rains. So despite our little retrenchment we are not nearly as bad off as for example the people who have to live in these huts in Gyumri in the north of Armenia:

By Gentle Powers

I did not know there was an English version of this song / poem as well. While listening to it, please keep in mind that Dietrich Bonhoeffer, when he wrote this poem for his family, fiancée and friends, was in a Nazi prison and already knew that they would kill him – which they eventually did in April 1945, just weeks before the war was over.

Today I dedicate this song to Pastor Youcef Nadarkhani who is waiting for his execution in an Iranian prison. His only “crime” is that he became a Christian.

10 Years Ago Today...

… at about 3pm CET my brother phoned my parents and me from work and told us to turn on the TV. A plane had crashed into the World Trade Center in New York. We saw how the smoke came out of one of the towers and assumed it had been a horrible accident. Then we heard the screams of the people and the horror-stricken voice of the reporter when another plane crashed into the second tower. It was surreal to me and I had the feeling that this was not really happening, but at the same time I knew that it was something much worse than an accident. We saw the people waving from the windows, climbing alongside the façade of the building and jumping or falling in a desperate attempt to save their lives or even to die a quicker death. Eventually the towers collapsed and then we knew that it was over for all the many people who had still been inside. By and by we also heard about the other hijacked planes and more people killed.

In the following years many more people – and many of them innocent - died in the attempt of the free world to defend its freedom against those who just abuse our liberty and tolerance to install cruel dictatorships. However justified this defence is, as it is the duty of a state to defend its people, we should not fall into the trap of wanting revenge – at least not those among us who are Christians!

“Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everybody. If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God's wrath, for it is written: It is mine to avenge; I will repay, says the Lord. On the contrary: If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head. Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.” - Romans 12:17-21

End of Summer Break

This song goes well with the topic, I think… ;)

I can hardly believe I haven’t posted anything here for so long. However, taking a break from my blogs did not mean taking a break from life, of course. I have been busy with two novels – published one meanwhile, still busy with the second. This was okay, as we didn’t have much of a summer this year – or rather, we had the summer in spring, with a lot of sun and warm weather, but since June it has been more or less a mixture between autumn and spring. Sometimes cold humid weather, sometimes warm humid weather. I wouldn’t have cared so much, if this humid weather had not caused me pain. My head was aching often and so were the scars and adhesions inside my body. My body needs dry weather to function reasonably well, so this summer was not for me :(

Palaces and Calluses

This rather unusual combination of words is the title of the debut novel by Rebecca Woodhead. I will not tell you anything more about it, but rather let the author talk about herself and her book. I suppose what she has to tell you is much more interesting than anything I could write here ;)



You can buy the book – highly recommended by me :) - via Rebecca’s website!

As you probably have noticed, the video had originally been made for someone else’s blog, but I couldn’t find the URL for it.