Lionel Messi played his last game for Argentina. The 39-year-old, who many think is the greatest football player in history, brought his 21-year international career to an end, scoring his 126th international goal in front of a crowd of 85,000 in Buenos Aires.
Students from Belfairs Academy, in Leigh-on-Sea, Essex, have been visiting a local care home. Teenage students and elderly residents have been enjoying art lessons together. We watched the art work, listened to appreciative conversations…
The World Conker Championships will take place this Sunday in the village of Southwick, Northamptonshire. Competitors will battle for the titles of Conker King and Conker Queen. Despite initial concerns, they’ve concluded that there are sufficient large playing conkers for the 2026 event to go ahead.
This morning, reading Matthew’s gospel… Jesus, talking to his disciples about a bleak future – wars, famines, earthquakes – tough times for all, says, ‘He who endures to the end will be saved.’ It’s about patient determination, keeping going through adversity…
Musing… The long-term committed efforts of Lionel Messi playing football over many years… Fifteen-year-olds and eighty-five-year-olds producing their best art together… Conker championship competitors playing with cheerful stamina… Enduring to the end.
Pamela Brown-Peterside, struggling to come to terms with the death of a young mother at a hospital in rural Uganda, asks Dr Jonah how he copes. He replies:
‘We do our best with what we have, but sometimes it’s not good enough. We have to accept that… Death is part of life, whether you work in medicine or not…’
‘…Bundibugyo is a very difficult place to practice medicine. Extremely difficult at times. If I didn’t have a deep sense that it was my calling, that this is where God wants me to be, I wouldn’t be here. I wouldn’t be able to do this day after day.’
I know folks who started a fitness routine, a marriage, a faith journey… very well. The challenge is enduring, endeavouring, day after day, to the end.
