Exodus and the first nine plagues

 God the Creator saw the generations of the descendants of  Abraham, of Isaac and of Jacob living in the land of the Egyptians. The generations of Jacob were no longer guests in the land of Egypt but rather they were now slaves to till the land, build buildings and any other work demanded by the Pharaoh of Egypt. The Pharaoh commanded the Egyptian midwives to kill any of the male children of the descendants of Jacob at birth and God once again looked upon the generations of Abraham, of Isaac and of Jacob. They had been safe in Egypt but that safety net disappeared and now God needed to move them back to the Promised Land and to bury Joseph with his ancestors. It needed to be powerful to ensure that all of the descendants of Jacob left Egypt and returned to the Promised Land as God had a purpose in that. 

The first purpose was to let the people of all Earth know that He was God, the only God. Once again mankind had drifted away from the true God and once again the message had to be so overwhelming that all would heed it. I think that is what I take from the ten plagues visited on Egypt. Chapter 12 is the Tenth Plague and will be the beginning of my reading tomorrow. The first nine plagues did not force Pharaoh to let the Israeli people go but the tenth is to be that happening that results in everyone descendant of Jacob to return to the Promised Land. We do know in these first eleven chapters of Exodus that this was foretold by Joseph before he died in Chapter 50 of Genesis. At this time and in this place God the Creator once again proves His omnipotence to the peoples of the world. Word of mouth remains a powerful tool amongst Homo sapiens. There is only one God the Creator and we Homo sapiens must follow His wishes. But first He needs to move the descendants of Abraham, of Isaac and of Jacob as he promised Jacob back in Genesis Chapter 50 Verses 24- 25: 24: 'Then Joseph said to his brothers', "I am about to die, but God will surely come to you, and bring you up out of this land to the land that he swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob." 25: 'So Joseph made the Israelites swear, saying', "When God comes to you, you shall carry up my bones from here." 

It took a long time before we, Homo sapiens, learned to understand what God the Creator intended for us: Jesus, His only Son, brought us those words from God - to love God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength and to love our neighbour as ourself (two thousand plus years ago). At first after the return to the Promised Land there were so many rules (The Ten Commandments and many other rules to follow) but Homo sapiens was incapable of following so many rules and the prophecy promised a Saviour and Jesus came into our midst and brought us those two rules/commandments to follow and if we follow them then we can find that uplifted plain of peace. God no longer destroys earth in order to rid earth of the sins of Homo sapiens. He wants us to survive and we need to follow the simple commandments given to do that. Christianity, Islam and Judaism, the three great religions known to me, follow this known God the Creator but the whole world was created by God. Reading the Gospel of Jude will awaken in us once again the omnipotence of God the Creator and that is still to come in the reading just before Revelations. 

These two Chapters (Genesis and Exodus) are powerful and span a very long period of time. At 80 plus years my lifespan is but a mere wink of the eye in that entire length of time.  Prayers that we can find that uplifted plain of peace. I do believe that the Second World War brought us to Armageddon but we fought hard and we survived but once again that quasi peace that was created with the United Nations is no longer the shield that it was (antisemitism has crept back in (the attack on Israel in 2023) along with and in conjunction with lack of respect for one's neighbours; Russia's cruel war against Ukraine (which began in 2022). We must eliminate such happenings from our world to have peace. 

Yesterday I did work on the Blake matches and made some interesting discoveries. The Blake matches that appear ancient are quite fascinating. Family trees on Ancestry that have early American families tend towards the Somerset Blake family as their thoughts on the emigrant family that came to America, however there are some that also choose the Wiltshire Blake family and again long trees with the early American families. I still have most of them to review and will continue that today. Why do I do that? The beginning of the Andover Blake family tree lies with Robert who left his will as an elderly person in 1521 according to my research. It is stated that the peoples of England did not have surnames until the arrival of the Normans. The surname Blake/Blak does not appear in the Domesday Books with that spelling.  The decision I am making is at what point do I begin the Genealogical Family Tree for the Blake Family of Andover. Presumably I will choose Robert who left his will in 1521 but now I am looking at the various histories that give some thoughts to the children of Robert living at Enham near Andover (generally thought to be Knights Enham). The Y-DNA of my Blake line is Western Hunter Gatherer which points to a very early arrival in the British Isles. There are a number of Western Hunter Gatherer families in this beautiful part of Hampshire extending over towards London. The item that still mystifies me somewhat is why chose Blake as that surname was by the 1300s coming into England from the Continent. I sense that the choice arose and was accepted because the benefit in particular of being related to the Normans or those they chose to put into positions of power was particularly advantageous. Makes sense to me but time and history will show whether I am right or wrong. 

Breakfast time, tea all drank and must do my solitaire puzzles.  

Genesis and the death of Joseph

 I completed the reading of the first book of the Bible - Genesis. Joseph has now died and has asked that his bones be taken back to the land that God swore to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob. God renamed Jacob with the name Israel. Joseph tells his brothers that God will come to you to take you back to the land of our ancestors. 

Until the Gutenberg Bible was printed using moveable metal type in the mid 1450s in Mainz, Germany,  the word of God was hand-copied by scribes. My grandfather could recite chapters of the Bible learned in his childhood at school in Upper Clatford. The school room still exists as part of that Church and when we visited it was awesome to have been in a place that my grandfather had talked about from his childhood. The font was especially interesting as my grandfather was baptized (as well as his eleven siblings) and recorded in the parish registers which I have on Fiche purchased from the Winchester Archives. 

It is fascinating to have stood in the footsteps of my great grandparents in All Saints Church back in 2008 and I am forever grateful to my now deceased cousin Ivan Kent for making that possible (they were our mutual great grandparents). We had corresponded for over twenty years when I first met him at the train station in  Dorchester, Dorset. Edward and I had flown to Heathrow from Canada and then caught the train to Dorchester at Victoria Station all on that same day of arrival. Edward could barely walk as his back bothered him after this first flight and I wondered if we should just go back home to be honest. But I hauled the two suitcases on the Underground and we just moved slowly. We had plenty of time to get to the Train Station. I slept for hours on the plane but Edward did not. I first planned to go in 2001 after my eldest daughter and I returned from our trip to Rome, Italy and London, England. Each year during the winter we would talk about going to England and Edward would think about it and say yes he wanted to do that but then change his mind when it came to actually booking the flight. 

Finally in early 2008 when I had just retired I said I really would like to go to meet my cousin and Ivan is fine with that and will meet me at the train in Dorchester. I think it maybe overwhelmed Edward that I was actually going and he decided to make the trip with me. He wanted to see Europe and the places where his ancestors lived he just didn't want to fly over the Atlantic Ocean. So we booked the flights and prepared for the trip which included a tour of England, Scotland and Wales after spending a few days in Weymouth, Dorset where I found a lovely place to stay close to Ivan and his wife Pat. It was my first knowledge of Voltaren and that worked like a charm to solve Edward's back problem after a few days. He loved it in England, Scotland and Wales both our tours with Ivan and Pat and our bus trip around the Island. Boarding the plane to go home the tenseness returned to him and the stewardess noted his anxiety and asked if she could help him and then offered a glass of gingerale. Extremely tense all the way home and as we passed over Newfoundland at the north and Labrador he relaxed; he was home. Sore back returned on the trip and the doctor said it was nerves; no back problem showed up but no xrays were taken. 

Six months later I was absolutely amazed when he said to me, on a coffee break as we were both working away on items dealing with our family histories most days, "when are we taking our next tour of Europe." I had said absolutely nothing about our travels these six months other than responding to his request that I make a Powerpoint file of all the pictures from our trip which I did quite early on. We then developed the plan for the next trip which would see us for five days (going to Kew most of that time although lots of walking in London itself) in London and then a couple of weeks in Europe touring France, Belgium Germany, Switzerland, Italy, and back into France. No problems flying at all actually and as we sat in the airport in France awaiting our flight back to Montreal he talked about our next trip. Amazing really and as I slowly lost interest in all traveling Edward just could not get enough of all that traveling. I enjoyed seeing everything but we were seeing mostly Europe and the areas where his families had lived before emigrating to the American colonies from the early 1600s on. 

Genesis was always a book of the Bible that has so many visuals in my mind from Sunday School days. Re-reading it again and again stirred the imagination and brought God clearly into focus at the beginning of time for me. Now at 80 plus years of age I remember still that young child in my mind thinking about God and all that He has done for this world that I live in. Enjoying the trees and the flowers, the birds and the animals all around me now as an aged adult.  

Thank you God for all your gifts to mankind.  

A different happening

 Yesterday my doorbell rang while I was cleaning and when I looked out the upstairs window I thought it was my next door neighbour but could not really see him well and could have checked before I opened the door. However, it turned out the person (male) at the door was going door to door he said to meet people as he had just moved to the street opposite mine from Victoria BC. I did say that people would be rather surprised to have him come to the door and he went on his merry way. 

Still reading the Bible and Joseph is now in Egypt and Lord over the distribution of meal that he has stored up because he predicted a famine which did happen after seven years of plenty. Genesis continues to be the story of the family that lived in what is now Israel and continues to this day with descendants of Abraham living in the land from those times and the return of some of the Jewish people from Europe where they had scattered over the years. They returned because of the Holocaust. When I reach Ezekiel 36:24 we do have the verse: For I will take you out of the nations, I will gather you from all the countries and bring you back into your own land. But there are more verses Isaiah 11:12, Jeremiah 30:3, and Amos 9:15 that talk about assembling the scattered back to Israel and Judah. Then Isaiah 11:11 the prophecy that points to the modern State of Israel. These ancient writings have been handed down from many many years ago long before six million Jews were put to death in just a few short years during World War II. A person is responsible because he moved a nation to commit an atrocity we cannot forget because whenever we forget the possibility is there that history could repeat itself. Israel needs to feel safe in its borders. I think my one prayer that I would always say would be that no child in this world should go to bed fearing death because of hate. Because the child with that fear has the potential of becoming the adult that creates terror. 

These chapters I have just read are telling me the story of avoidance as two brothers distanced themselves so as not to be in conflict (Jacob and Esau). Is avoidance the way to peace? 

I continue to find reading the Bible to be calming me as the usual somewhat cool/somewhat warm days of June settle in on Canada. We are having lots of rain and the grass is lush but July is usually dry and hot; we will see. 

Prayers for the souls of the three police killed just in this month. A sadness all across Canada is felt with the flags at half mast remembering them.  

Today is cleaning day two and I will start in a bit and the usual summer routine - first clean the bathroom and then vacuum and then dust and then scrub floors. Another busy day and likely no work done. 

Tea all drank and breakfast soon and solitaire puzzles. 

As I remember from childhood

The stories of Genesis are a family story. It is amazing to see how the thought that the eldest daughter must marry first carried down through the ages. In a family of seven children I always knew I was number four. It was an interesting place to be actually. All the emphasis was on the two eldest (a daughter and a son) although the third child, the brother next to me in age had a special spot in the family because he was named for a young man who died in the Second World War. I was the listener in the family I think (actually named for my grandmother Blake's mother (Elizabeth Rawlins)) and perhaps in every family there is a listener; since I have kept to myself on a personal level that is unknown to me but simply a suspicion. I was really freer to pursue my life I think than my older siblings as they had the position of eldest daughter and eldest son to fulfill so had much expected of them. The next was named for one who died in the Second World War as a young man, Douglas Haig McAlpine, just 24 years of age in 1942. Douglas Haig McAlpine was one of  the Rovers (Scouting)  known to my parents also heavily involved in Scouting/Guiding during the 1920s, 1930s and into the 1940s in London, Ontario. 

The Bible is a powerful book read by many the world over and much of the Old Testament is the basis of the three major religions of the world - Christianity, Islam and Judaism. What do I accomplish in re-reading once again the entire Bible from cover to cover? I am not sure what I am looking for but the desire to re-read is powerful in my mind and I will read to the end of Revelations. I already feel calmer in my mind as if it is something that I need to do at this age of nearly 81 years. I am mostly withdrawn from the world around me except for my blog which is on a public forum. 

Today is cleaning day and it is the top floor. Shortly I will clean the bathroom first and then vacuum and dust. The usual order as that is the way that I live in an orderly fashion. The tree is now gone from next door and the tomato plants are growing much quicker as they are getting more sun in the morning now. They would have grown anyway but perhaps not quite as fast or as large as they are now. There is too much shade in the yard now for that type of plant to do well. The walnut tree dominates and blocks out all the sun through the afternoon but contributes nothing as it is a tree weed rather than a favoured greenhouse tree. It poisons the ground around it trying to grow more walnut trees!

Yesterday was a quiet day and actually very warm but we spent most of it indoors working on our projects. The special Indigenous Prayer Service at Church also included a tribute to Father's Day and the last day for the Choirs to sing as a block until the Fall return. The hymns will now be many of my favourites as one must count on the members of the congregation to sing and less common hymns are not generally chosen in this Common Time of the Church Year that is the Trinity or the Pentecost as it has been named these last years. It is the time of Jesus taking on his Ministry and ends with Christ the King Sunday just prior to Advent One. It is the way I live my life now following the Church Calendar just as I did as a child. 

I am working on the First Chromosome for the Blake file and it is slow work. Parts of it are known to me and it includes a number of common areas that are probably looking at areas in the British Isles so I might need to regard that thought as I work my way through. The preponderance of matches early in the length are shared with individuals having early Colonial ancestry in the New England States. The Blake grandparent includes both Blake and Knight. The Blake from Andover, Hampshire, England area and the Knight from the area to the west and south of Blandford Forum, Dorset, England. Both groups are known to be colonials with Blake being primarily in New England and Knight primarily in Newfoundland. Separating Blake and Knight is the object and it will take a while to sort through the First chromosome. All the other chromosomes are ready to look at the small number that I could not separate into Blake or Knight.  Phasing the great-grandparents is simply bringing my known lines squarely back into the 1800s beginning with 1837 (the eldest of the eight great-grandparent was born (William Robert Pincombe) and the youngest great-grandparent was born in 1859 (Ellen Taylor). Seven of the great-grandparents appear on the census of the British Isles (six of them died and are buried in the British Isles). One great-grandparent was born in Canada (parents from Holme on the Wolds, East Riding of Yorkshire and Bewcastle, Cumberland) as my first Canadian born ancestor (Grace Gray, 1839) and one migrated as a child with his family William Robert Pincombe in 1850 (coming to what became Canada from England was thought to be just migrating to another area that was part of the British Empire rather than emigration). Both of these individuals are buried in Canada. 

Time for breakfast, tea all drank and solitaire puzzles to do.  

I have completed to the end of Genesis Chapter 21

 Time has passed so quickly and if one recorded all the births and the deaths one could know that but I am not sure that is what I am to learn whilst I re-read the Bible. I think it is the birth of Abram and then his son Isaac that is monumental in the Chapters of Genesis I have just read. Abram now Abraham is one of the great patriarchs of the Church to this day and is a patriarch in all three of the Great Religions of the World - Christianity, Islam and Judaism. As I read through these many chapters this morning it is the Tower of Babel that stands out for me as well. That always intrigued me as a child because at that point I had never heard anyone speak any language other than English. This was before television and in London, Ontario I was far away from the French language in Quebec or the First Nations and Inuit languages but that would change quickly as time passed. In eighty years our lives have changed so very very much. 

We were just recovering from the Second World War when I was a young child. My first real memory of my family is my older brothers pretending to be airplanes flying into Berlin to save the city from starvation as the Soviet Union had cut off access by land. Berlin was a divided city following the Yalta and Potsdam Conferences with governance by France, United Kingdom, the United States and the Soviet Union and already the bleak time ahead of us as the Iron Curtain tumbled down, which was created by the Soviet Union, was being discussed. We were listening to the radio and my grandfather, father, mother and siblings were all in the room. It was a tense time so is perhaps why it is my earliest memory. 

Does this lead my mind forward because that is what I am looking for I think. I seemed to be needing some special thinking these days and I have no idea why. But the reading is calming me because it tells of that deep past that is the ancestry of every Homo sapiens walking the face of the earth today. These written words date back a long way in time and Sodom and Gomorrah stand out for all time as the Creator's words with regard to how we live our life. We must show love for our neighbour which really means respect. 

It leads me to NATO in my thoughts as this organization has grown from its earliest roots  that fateful date 4 April 1949. It was and continues as a mutual defense alliance to defend our way of life from the Soviet expansion after Stalin had promised to withdraw the Soviet Union troops from the occupied areas of Eastern Europe. The founding members had three goals - deter Soviet expansion, foster collective security and promote European stability. And that is where my thoughts remain with this ongoing illegal war between Ukraine and Russia which Russia started. NATO has never been involved in aggression and that is not its mandate. The desire to protect children was the thought in my mind through these past couple of years but one realizes there is no protection for the children of the world where the laws of the Creator are not followed namely love one's neighbour as oneself. 

The Bible doesn't explain any of that to me in these early chapters but is really a collection of thoughts and details of happenings that were important to the peoples of the time at that time which is why they were written down. The Creator God no longer walked with man at the time of writing as far as we know and the need to remember all of this was important to the people who recorded it. Sort of like my grandfather passing on stories to me that I now recall because they were repeated to me time and time again. Why didn't he write it all down? One wonders that now but I think about my grandfather and I was a young child capable of memorizing great amounts as he had learned because we had such a close relationship and he enjoyed teaching me so many things. Would his writing have persisted was possibly the thought in his mind so he fell back on the usual mode of passage of information in the time that he lived although lots of books had been written but I was only a young child just eight years of age when he died. He chose well really as my mind was capable of pulling back all those stories from the hidden spots in my brain and I did share them in my recorded stories in files because that is the way and  they are backed up. Will they exist? I am not sure that matters because I have shared them in my blog which appear to be read by thousands although it has been suggested to me they are just bots reading. However the comments which I receive but do not publish suggest that real people do read this blog. 

I will continue with my reading until I reach the end of Revelations. I am a fast reader and sometimes as I read I wonder should I record that? But the actuality is the Bible is the most read book in the world so why would I record other than what God sent Jesus to tell us - to love God with all our heart, mind, soul and strength,  and love our neighbour as ourself. It is a while since I read the Bible although I read the Bible Reading of the day and until yesterday pretty much every day for many years. I can remember when I was ill after my first child was born that I was re-reading the Bible, my new Bible that I bought not long after I came out of the hospital. That is a vague memory as I had been very very ill but it also could be I used my Bible I won at a Bible Challenge for being the first to find so many verses when I was eight years old and first went to Bethel Chapel as they had a Bible study for children after school which I finally persuaded my parents to let me attend after they discussed it with our priest. The priest said let her go and follow her interests. 

Cloudy today and it is Sunday and I will try to attend my Church online and if not there are other services online or I can just read through the Service as I have it at hand.  

Tea all drank and must do my solitaire puzzles. 

I am able to be at my Church today and it is a special service - National Indigenous Day of  Prayer which is dedicated to the First Nations, Inuit and Métis peoples.