Blog on the Learig

  1 September 2026 In order to save money, some professions have been broken up into various different tasks and others have been trained to fulfil these particular tasks. By their very nature a profession is much more than the sum of its parts. It is much more holistic than that. I thought about this the other day when I read about Rajendra Dadabi, the Principal of   Tribhuvan Trishuli   Secondary School in north-central Nepal. At 9-20am on Wednesday 26 August, there were 900 students in the school. They were half way through the early shift. Another 700 were on their way by foot and bus. Rajendra got a phone call from a friend who lived five miles upstream. As Chris Haslam reported, he told the Principal that his village had gone, taken by the river. ‘Run!’ he said. Rajendra thought for a moment and assessed the situation. The three storey school was built of concrete and 60m above the river. A parent interrupted him. ‘The River is rising!’ Now he knew what to d...

  31 August 2026 The beauty of the gospel and, in particular, the person of Jesus is that he doesn’t favour stereotypical behaviour. We see that in his priorities. ‘The last shall be first, the first last!’ We see it in his reaction to others. ‘Why does he eat and drink with publicans and sinners?’ In particular, we see it in the open-hearted way he invites people to join his circle. John the Baptist recognises Jesus and acknowledges him as ‘The Lamb of God’. Two others hear him and are intrigued. They follow Jesus. He turns around and sees them. ‘What are you looking for?’ he asks. ‘Where do you live, Rabbi?’ they ask acknowledging his status as teacher. ‘Come and see!’ says Jesus rather enigmatically. And they do. It’s such a gentle and generous response. He accepts them and makes room for them. They become disciples. Andrew tells his brother, Peter. And the circle begins to grow. This is how it works. It’s essentially a ministry imbued with gentleness, characterised by acc...

  30 August 2026 In Psalm 121, the Psalmist sings, ‘I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help.’ My help comes from God but we look to the hills for help because of their permanence, strength and majesty. In Psalm 46, the Psalmist confirms this when he sings, ‘God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.’ Having declared that God is our strength, the Psalmist goes on to say, ‘Therefore will not we fear, though the earth be removed and though   the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea.’ Somehow, the Psalmist knew that this could happen. And now we have seen it for ourselves. When we lived in Stirling, we were surprised to discover that the Abbey Craig which houses the iconic Wallace Monument was breaking up. Boulders broke off and landed on the road. Metal fencing was constructed around it to protect drivers and pedestrians. When my dad had dementia and I was visiting Ardrishaig more often, I passed through the ‘Rest...

  29 August 2026 In ‘The Architecture of Hope’, Charles Jencks illustrates the different plans for the assorted Maggie’s Centres which have been specially built around the country. They were inspired by his wife, Maggie, who suffered from a terminal cancer. The architectural plans have interesting names – pinwheel, pinwheel spiral, central spiral, central doughnut, centric blob, spiral arms. All of these have a sense of circular movement about them. The pinwheel turns, the spiral spins, the doughnut has a circle at its centre. Maggie Jencks wanted to create ‘a friendly convivial atmosphere with food and drink offered as you come in the door.’ It is a philosophy which they called ‘kitchenism’. Unlike the hospital or the clinic, this was more like a home than a medical centre although lots of information is available there. At the heart of the Maggie’s Centre is the kitchen table and a cup of tea. It is a homely environment where people can gather together around the table an...

  28 August 2026 We couldn’t imagine how Francis could kiss the leper and yet, when he did, he discovered that he was embracing the risen Christ! This was the catalyst for his conversion. If he hadn’t had the courage, the world may have been deprived of its most popular and inspirational saint. Nor could we follow in the footsteps of that Victorian priest, Father Damien, who volunteered to work among the lepers isolated in a sin bin on the island of Molokai. But we were moved when he out his feet into a basin of boiling water and didn’t feel a thing! Damien became a leper too! In the 1930s, Stanley Browne was a doctor in the Belgian Congo. The village chiefs denied the existence of advanced leprous cases by   banishing them. Browne found them in the bush crawling out of huts with deformed limbs and ravaged faces. The image haunted him for life and inspired his international fight against leprosy. Each of these incidents were preceded by another of eternal significance....

  27 August 2026 ‘Embrace’ describes itself as ‘The Christian development charity tackling poverty and injustice in the Middle East’. Their catalogue of Christmas cards and carol sheets came in this week. In addition, there was an update on what has been happening in the charity. One of their stories relates to a church in Rahbeh in Northern Lebanon. Members travelled three hours to attend a small ‘Sustainable Agriculture Training Course’ run by Thimar which is working in partnership with Embrace. The members of the church wanted to start up a farming project to bring employment and support to low-income families in their community. With support from Thimar, a mixed farm of crops and a dairy herd was established with nine cows. The milk was sold to fund the farm. As time passed, the church realised that it would be more profitable to turn the milk into cheese. In addition, it would provide more employment. They began producing cheese in the church hall but soon required big...