Of butterflies, bumblebees and barbeques

The office I work in benefits from lots of windows and zero air conditioning, so in the height of summer with temperatures in London competing with the molten core of the earth, the windows are wide open. A welcome breeze, accompanied with a shrill-brain-drilling type noise from the engineers next door, and several unfortunate bees. I say unfortunate, but usually I'm the one who ends up worse off. Last year, my heroic actions of 'saving the bee' resulted in me having to fill in the 'accident book' as the chair I was standing on to open the window, happened to have wheels and I landed clumsily on top of a printer. I think the bee escaped unhurt. I had bruises, and a new walk, similar to Quasimodo.

So a lot of people have been talking to me about bees lately. Which is interesting and I think it's good to defend the cause of the humble bee. My own personal interest in bees dates back as far as the Wuzzles. Remember Bumblelion? Very cute, half lion, half bumblebee. 100% fictional. What can I say, it was the 80s. I was young.

Thanks to Liz for this article on bees. Bumblebees are amazing, we rely on them to pollinate our plants, without plants we wouldn't have food. Bees are under threat because of the toxins in pesticides that have severe effects on them. A lot of agricultural changes have led to the decline in countryside, and loss of habitat. Climate change as well is thought to contribute to this. It's interesting that this article headlines with the financial loss that could happen if bees die out. Economic loss is one thing, but biodiversity is something I think that can't be measured on a profit and loss spreadsheet.

We had a barbeque in the garden not so long ago. And I was persuaded into buying butterfly friendly charcoal... Bioregional - friendly to flutterbies.

Bioregional uses wood from UK forests, which reduces the environmental impact as it means it doesn't have to travel as far to get to the shops - less carbon. They are also committed not just to replanting but to encouraging a natural habitat for butterflies and bird species that are considered to be at risk.

In some cases, regular charcoal comes from tropical forests, and if the trees aren't replanted this leads to deforestation, reducing the natural habitat, which leads to a reduction in the variation of species, and global warming. Using charcoal which comes from local sources has less impact on the earth and doesn't destroy the natural habitat for the wide variety of species that make the forest their home. So without sounding like a tree hugger, erm, because that's not what I am.... two things. One, watch you don't tread on any bumblebees because bees are very useful. And quite pretty. And useful for things other than making honey. And two, it's BBQ season. So get out there, and enjoy the terrific weather and toss a... sausage... or a marshmallow on your butterfly friendly barbie.

Shiny new car feeling

I recently crashed my car, into a silly little wooden post in a car park. And I've lived with the dent and the associated shame (yes, careless driver shame) for about 5 months. But finally this week I decided to have it 'dealt with'.... professionally. My little silver motor arrived back in near perfect condition. In fact, it had additional dents ironed out, so it's much better than prior to the actual traumatic event.

High fives all round.

But I had to pay someone to fix it. On my own, I would have made it worse. I did try to fix my grandmother's broken keyboard once - with fimo. I was actually responsible for breaking it - i dropped it the day before Christmas.... and I don't think she ever noticed that there was some squidgy black substance around the end of the casing.

Restoration is a bit of a theme in the Bible. Nehemiah weeps over his city, that the walls have been destroyed and is so moved to do something about it. Restored walls - that beautiful picture of being built up again. And relationships, and people, constantly we read about hurt and anger and suffering and brokenness. And it's this mess that God steps into and restores. God, our creator and designer, is also our restorer.

Last week a few of us got together and prayed for an end to violence against women across the world. Restored is a new alliance in the UK which seeks to bring a biblical perspective of, and to equip the church to respond to gender based violence. And the church do need to address this issue, to talk about it, because violence, whether it's physical, or pyschological, of financial, or verbal or sexual... is not how God intended his world to be. It happens behind closed doors and we might not even know it's happening. It might even happening in our churches and perhaps we'd prefer not to talk about it. But I think it is time for the church to do something. Exactly because our God cares deeply for restored relationships, because he knows about the brokenness and the hurt and the suffering in our beaten up world.

So we prayed, and actually, it was hard. Really really emotionally difficult to read the stories of women and young girls in the DRC who have been gang raped and left for dead, physically abused to the point where they know longer feel they are a woman was just heartbreaking. In this immense and brutal darkness, there are a few glimmers of hope, or reconstructive surgery, of healing both spiritual and physical. Read The Times online for the story of Panzi hospital.

I mentioned Restored in an earlier blog, their official launch is on 26th June - if you want to find out more you might be interested in their launch event. The Bringing Hope conference, organised by Faith and Freedom is in Colchester on 26 June.

I'd encourage you to go along if you're interested in knowing what the church can do about this issue. Or if you've been affected, then please do seek support. Contact the National Domestic Violence helpline. Restoring relationships is not a one-sided thing: restoration requires both victim and perpetrator to learn to live in a pattern that doesn't repeat these actions and break out of the cycle.

We all need someone to help us with our mess, our brokenness. We just can't do it on our own. As a church, we need to start talking about these things and to support those experiencing emotional, or physical harm. And as we do this, we start to bring restoration to our families, to our church, to our towns and cities. God speaks in Jeremiah 31: I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with loving kindness. I will build you up again and you will be rebuilt.

How awesome that we can be part of bringing a little bit of heaven to earth, with God's help.