Betty’s Aeroplane and Andy’s Violins

Two stories on yesterday’s news caught my attention:

Ninety-seven-year-old Betty Bromage from Cheltenham, broke her own world record as the oldest female wing walker. She’s done six wing walks since she was 87! Her achievement raised funds for the stroke unit at Cheltenham General Hospital where staff cared for her…

In a wonderful interview Betty said: ‘I’d just get bored of life otherwise. I can’t drive, I can’t see very well and I get a bit frustrated. So, I want to do the things I can do.’

Andy Parish, from Doddington, Cambridgeshire, runs ‘Heart of Oak Fiddles’. Andy obtains old oak tables through recycling centres and online auction sites, then in his workshop he fashions the tables into beautiful violins.

Musician Kerenza Peacock, playing one of Andy’s violins, was talking of playing it when performing at the Proms in the BBC Concert Orchestra…

I’m reading Jeremiah in my Bible… Lots of doom and gloom, death and destruction… The world hasn’t changed.

Jerusalem’s been conquered by the Babylonians; Jeremiah writes a letter to Jewish exiles in Babylon: ‘‘For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.’’

In times of darkness and despair there’s hope…

In her interview Betty Bromage remembered a quote that had inspired her: ‘We pass through this world but once, any good we can do, any kindness we can show, do it now, do not defer or neglect it, you will not pass this way again.’

These are words of Stephen Grellet (1772-1855). Born a French Roman Catholic, condemned to death in the French revolution, he escaped, and eventually, in the US became a Quaker. Stephen lived out his words, bringing words of hope to schools, hospitals and prisons… speaking out against slavery…

It’s the hope of a ninety-seven-year-old that refuses to give up… the hope that sees broken old tables transformed into beautiful violins… the hope that knows a God with positive future plans.