Two Hundred Mile Challenges
St Herbert's Island is four or five acres, well covered with wood. St Herbert was particularly distinguished for friendship to St Cuthbert bishop of Lindisfarne, with whom he was contemporary; and, according to Bede, at the intercession of St. Herbert both these holy men expired on the same day, and in the same hour and minute in 678 or 687.
The Hermit of Derwentwater
At Lindisfarne, expecting death,
The good St Cuthbert lay,
With wasted frame and feeble breath;
And monks were there to pray.
The brotherhood had gathered round,
His parting words to hear,
To see his saintly labours crown'd,
And stretch him on the bier.
His eyes grew dim; his voice sunk low;
The choral song arose;
And ere its sounds had ceas'd to flow,
His spirit found repose.
At that same hour, a holy man,
St Herbert, well renown'd,
Gave token that his earthly span
Had reach'd its utmost bound.
St Cuthbert, in his early years,
Had let him on his way;
When the tree falls, the fruit it bears
Will surely, too, decay.
The monks of Lindisfarne meanwhile
Were gazing on their dead;
At that same hour, Derwent isle
A kindred soul had fled.
A young man from southern England felt he must walk out his troubles until he reached a holy island. He looked at maps, thinking Holy Island might be somewhere in Turkey. To his surprise he found Holy Island in Northumbria. He hitched a few lifts, but he also walked more than two hundred miles with a heavy back pack. Upon arrival he said he needed two weeks in order to sort things out. He has read the four Gospels for the first time and prays, works and shares something each day. Pray that he grows into the full stature God has for him.
Eighteen theological students from Bergen came, and twelve key workers of the new Forge Scotland initiative prepared here for launches in Edinburgh and Glasgow. It was good to meet Alan Hirsch again.
Challenges. Challenges. Challenges.
