By Roy Collins

of Rojen Christian Ministry

Introduction

These stories were written by Roy about two or three months before he went home to his Lord. During our thirty years together he didn`t write very much and I am certain that God gave him these to assure him that his home would be in heaven.

He spent many hours setting up and maintaining Rojen Christian Ministry, and this name will be kept in his honour.

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Contents:

The Fish Tank

The Stool

The Boat Race

Cars

Time

The Pier Fire

Who do you think you are?

Stuff

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The FishTank

I have restarted tropical fish keeping (I had a tank for several years before coming to Somerset). Sitting looking at the community I have established in the aquarium, the following thoughts came to my mind.

I call it a “Community” because the group is made up of several different types of fish, very much like our Church community, made up as it is, of a number of different types of people. Bear with me as I go through the list of what I notice as I sit in my wheelchair just observing.

There are those fish that seem to be very busy, bustling around, and generally contributing to the life of the tank and giving a good impression to the casual passer by.

There are those who get on with finding the good things around them, and keeping what they have found to themselves.

Then there are those who are only appear at feeding time (a special occasion in the life of a fish).

There are those who go about their business quietly and without a fuss and are often missed by the observer but would be greatly missed. Some of the group keep very much to themselves, and take little part in presenting the life of the community within the tank.

I must also mention the newcomers to the aquarium. Sometimes fish are introduced from outside and occasionally they are small fry. Unfortunately the majority of the group take little notice of these recent arrivals except to ignore them as if they had no right to be in the group. Such fish don`t seem to realize that these newcomers are the future of the Community.

On the whole they all seem to get on well together without too many disagreements.

Just occasionally the keeper of the aquarium has to take a hand in renewing damage to the environment or making some minor adjustments to the look of the place.

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The Stool

Several years ago Jennifer and I visited a farm implements museum.

I was fascinated because in the 50`s and early 60`s I worked in a Corn Merchants and came into contact with all sorts of farms. Some very large and modern, others very small and locked in a previous century. So I recognised many of the exhibits. Many were very primitive and crude almost home made affairs. A lot were ultra modern, in shiny new red paint: huge and awe inspiring by their complexity. I remember on that visit being intrigued by a simple small wooden milking stool. The building was old; an original old high roofed barn with a cobbled floor. One display was of a wax work figure of a milk maid sitting on the stool doing her work of milking a cow. An everyday task amongst many, I have no doubt, on a busy small farm.

Afterwards I thought about that milkmaid on her three legged stool and pondered why three legs? I soon realised that on an uneven floor a four legged stool would be unstable. It would be bound to wobble as always one of the four legs would not be in contact with the floor, the balancing act on the part of the milkmaid would soon give way to her falling off and spilling the pail of milk held between her knees. So she relied on three legs to keep her steady.

Rather like a Christian. We have three legs to rely on to keep us steady and so enable us to continue with our tasks in a busy life.

They are Father God, Jesus Christ the Son, our crucified Saviour, and the Holy Spirit, the comforter promised by Jesus. These Three will keep us steady as we rely on them to support us as we get on with our lives as active Christian Disciples.

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The Boat Race

More musings which may, or may not, be relevant to those of us travelling along the path toward the Heavenly kingdom.

When I was a lot younger than I am now I was able to enjoy boating, that is, I used to hire a rowing boat for an hour or so on the local lake and spend a pleasant afternoon in the sunshine.

That all came back to me recently when watching the Oxford and Cambridge annual Boat Race.

In each boat there were eight men putting their all in getting their skiff to the eventual destination. None of the eight, once started could see where they were going. They could clearly see where they had been; see what they had gone through, rough water, difficult episodes in the journey, uncertainty about why they were where they were and whether it was all worth it. But they had little idea about what lay in front of them. Would it be calm water around the next bend? Would they have enough stamina left to finish the race? The one reassuring thing that they could rely upon was that the Cox could see the way ahead and was able and willing to guide the crew safely to the destination, was able to encourage and bolster the efforts of them all.

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Cars

The recent celebration of the model T Ford`s 100th. Birthday brought to my mind the days when I lived at home, not my home with Jennifer, but at home with my parents and two brothers. The elder of these was Ron. He died some years ago in Australia of a heart attack.

I recalled, as I watched the procession of very elderly model T Fords going to their celebration, the time Ron spent in the shed, come garage, at the bottom of the garden, tinkering with a broken down and very ancient Austin Seven Ruby tourer.

I have never been very interested in the insides of motor cars: as long as they went it was alright by me. Not with Ron and his friends Alan and Doug. They spent hours and hours renovating this, to me, worn out wreck. This went on for what seemed months, with my parents getting more and more annoyed with having bits of car littering the kitchen and Dad unable to get into his shed. At last the body seemed back together and the remaining concern seems to have been getting the actual engine of the thing sorted. No matter what they did, no matter where they went for another spare part, no matter what magazine they searched out and read, no matter what advice they got, the thing would not do what internal combustion engines are supposed to do: Start.

It was about this time I became a Christian and a text that I have remembered clearly from that time is in Psalm 51 & verse 10: “Create in me a clean heart and renew a steadfast spirit within me.” That was the trouble, the heart of the machine. It needed renewing and until that was done it would not serve the ambition of the three young men.

Eventually they did get a new engine or heart for the car and they were able to travel forward to their chosen destination. Does your heart need cleaning out and renewing? The Lord can do it, is anxious to do it but we have to bring it to Him and ask Him first.

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