10 Guernsey Parishes

TUBS, CC BY-SA 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0>,
via Wikimedia Commons

The parishes of Guernsey are the 10 civil parishes of the Bailiwick of Guernsey in the Channel Islands. They are based on ancient ecclesiastical parishes, each with its own parish church from which they get their names. They are the main administrative divisions of Guernsey, and are each governed by an elected council known as a Douzaine.

1. (Sainte Marie de) Castel
2. (Sainte Marguerite de) Forest
3. St Andrew
4. St Martin
5. St Peter Port
6. St Pierre du Bois
7. St Sampson
8. St Saviour
9. Torteval
10. Vale

The occupation museum

Heather Cowper, CC BY 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0>,
via Wikimedia Commons

We spent a pleasant morning today in Guernsey's German Occupation Museum. The result of one man's vision it is a remarkable large and well presented record of the five years occupation that Guernsey underwent 1940-1945. See website.

Lord's Day October 18 2026

Jonadab, Public domain,
via Wikimedia Commons

I was preaching here in Guernsey yesterday in the morning and evening. I preached on two more of the seven churches of Asia, having looked at Laodicea on the Friday. We looked at Smyrna in the morning and Pregamum in the evening. The congregation is small and the older side but eager to hear the Word. There was one visitor in the morning but she will be leaving the island soon. It is hard when it is so rare for newcomers to be there. We had a lovely time in the afternoon at the home of a couple in the church. The three srmons can be found on the church website in audio form at the moment (click here).

Why no Daniel in Daniel 3?

Unknown artist 3rd century A.D., Rome, Public domain,
via Wikimedia Commons

One of the features of Daniel 3 is that it is the only chapter where the lead character Daniel is not mentioned. It's like a solo album where on one track the lead artist doesn't play.

But why is Daniel not mentioned? No doubt the writer is keen to show us that Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego were men of faith in their own right not just pale imitations of Daniel. However, there must be a reason why Daniel is not mentioned.

It cannot be that Daniel compromised his faith at this point and bowed down to the statue. Perhaps he was on an official royal assignment elsewhere in the kingdom. He had been promoted by King Nebuchadnezzar to rule over the entire province of Babylon and serve as chief administrator over the wisemen. He may have been away from the Plain of Dura on a diplomatic mission or royal duty elsewhere. It is alos possible that because Nebuchadnezzar held Daniel in such high regard after Daniel interpreted his dream  that he simply overlooked Daniel's failure to attend the ceremony.

The other fruiful line of thought is that the who accused and reported the three Hebrew friends targeted them because they had administrative roles in the province. Daniel was not targeted either out of fear of his high rank and favour with the king or because he was not present in the group that they reported.

In the end we do not know for certain but sometimes these questions are still worth thinking about even though we cannot come to a very firm conclusion.

10 Fun Ways to remember the names of Daniel's friends

Kjetil Ree, Michael Barera and Tim Evanson, CC BY-SA 3.0, 2.0 and 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0, 4.0 and 2.0>,
all via Wikimedia Commons

1. Coat-Rack, Crab-Shack and To-Bed-I-Go (The classic everyday object rhyme)
2. Your shack, my shack and a bungalow (The ultimate property-themed favourite)
3. Your shack, my shack and a condo (The modernised real estate upgrade)
4. Shed rack, man shack and lumbago (The bad back version) 
5. A shack, a track and a bungalow (The railroad variation)
6. Shake a shack, mess a shack and away we go (The chaotic home renovation or burger chain variant)
7. Rack, Shack and Benny (The famous VeggieTales chocolate factory nicknames)
8. Make the bed, shake the bed and into bed we go (The perfect bedtime-routine cadence)
9. Shake-a-snack, munch-a-snack and a bagel-to-go (The fast-food snack routine)
10. Sugar, Mustard and a baked potato (The root vegetable substitute)

Three things I didn't know

As old as I am, I'm still learning things I either didn't know or have somehow forgotten. Two recent examples

1. The Hawaiian islands were formerly known as the Sandwich Islands. (James Cook named the chain in 1778 in honour of his patron, John Montagu, the 4th Earl of Sandwich (the same British nobleman who inspired the food item). The name was used by Europeans and Western maps through the 19th century before changing back to the native name Hawaiʻi as the islands unified under the Kingdom of Hawaiʻi.

2. Canadian thanksgiving is six weeks before the American one. It falls on the second Monday in October (October 12 this year).

3. The controversial Hawaiian pizza was invented in Canada. It was invented in Ontario in 1962 by a Greek immigrant, Sam Panopolous at his family's Satellite Restaurant. It is called Hawaiian fom the brand of pineapple chinks first used.

Guernsey

My wife and I are currently in Guernsey with our good friends Robert and Elaine Yerby. It is my fourth of fifth time on the island which is lovely and quiet and rural. I am chiefly here to preach at the anniversary services of La Villiaze Congregational Church where Robert has been pastor these last five years. I preached yesterday evening (Friday) and will reach tomorrow morning and evening, God willing. There is a meal tonight in a local hotel.

On arriving here, I received an interesting message from my mobule provider. It begins "Tesco Mobile: Welcome to JERSEY, which is one of our Home From Home destinations - using data and calling/texting UK & Home From Home numbers will come out of any free credit or bundles you have. Picture messages will be 55p to send ...."

Midweek Meeting October 14 2026

This week it was homegroups. Emmanuel has four home groups, each linked up on Whatsapp. About 15 of us gathered (half and half men and women, a little opn the older side maybe) in the front room of a couple who've been in the church since the beginning. A cuppa and biscuits were kindly supplied then Paul led us in looking over last Sunday morning's sermon, with contributions from several there. We then listed prayer points and spent about half an hour in prayer. There's good atmosphere and it was encouraging to see so many out midweek. It is also easier to get to know a quarter of what is for us a fairly large church.

Lord's Day October 11 2026

So it was off in the car to Emmanuel again on Sunday. It was a little more regular this week although the evening service started an hour earlier at 5 pm, which nearly caught us out. On those Sundays the service is followed by tea and provides an opportunity to invite people in. Paul preached in the morning on 1 John 4:1-5, part of a series on 1 John, In the evening the preacher was Ross Frierson, an American church planter who has been in Cardiff for nine years and hopes to work with Emmanuel in the future. He preached helpfully from Hebrews 2:5-9. All on YouTube.

Induction at Ebenezer Swansea

It was a great joy to be present at the induction for Fabio Silva, who we know from London, to the pastorate of Ebenezer Baptist Church, Swansea, a church I have known of these many years. Taking part were the elders of the church, Fabio, and, from the London end Mike Gilbart-Smith and Jeremy Walker, who preached. You can see it on YouTube here. We wish Fabio and his wife Salia and the family every blessing on this new situation.

10 Tain verbs

1. attain
2. detain
3. obtain
4. retain
5. abstain
6. contain
7. sustain
8. maintain
9. appertain
10. ascertain

(also entertain)

10 Terms to do with whales and whaling

Mother and baby sperm whale (Gabriel Barathieu, CC BY-SA 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons)

1. Cetacean - a fully aquatic, air-breathing marine mammal belonging to the biological order Cetacea, which includes whales, dolphins, and porpoises
2. Pyloric stomach (or pyloric chamber) - the final multi-chambered compartment of the stomach system in whales and other cataceans before it connects to the small intestine.
3. Ambergris - a solid, waxy, flammable substance produced in the digestive system of sperm whales.
4. Baleen - a row of flexible, horny plates made of keratin that hang from the upper jaws of certain filter-feeding whales instead of teeth.
5. Flensing - the act of stripping the blubber, skin, or outer fat layer from a marine mammal, such as a whale or seal.
6. Blubber - a thick layer of vascularised adipose tissue (fat) found directly beneath the skin of marine mammals like whales, seals and walruses.
7. Spermaceti - a waxy, semi-liquid substance found inside specialised head cavities (the spermaceti organ and "junk") of sperm whales and some other cetaceans.
8. Harpoon - a long, barbed, spear-like tool or weapon used to pierce, capture, and haul in large marine animals such as whales, sharks, seals or large fish.
9. Krill - small, shrimp-like marine crustaceans belonging to the order Euphausiacea that live in all of the world's oceans. Baleen whales (blue, humpback, fin, minke, etc) depend on krill as their primary food source. A blue whale can consume up to 4-17.6 tons (3.6 to 16 metric tons) of krill a day during the feeding season.
10. Flukes - the horizontal lobes of a whale's tail

10 ways the earliest Christian martyrs apparently died

Rembrandt, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Caravaggio, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

1. Stephen was stoned
2. James the Great was beheaded
3. Matthew was slain with a halberd
4. Matthias was stoned and beheaded
5. Andrew and Bartholomew were crucified
6. Peter was crucified upside down (his preference)
7. Thomas was thrust through with a spear
8. Simon Zelotes was sawn in half
9. Luke was hanged from an olive tree
10. John Mark was dragged through the streets until dead

Midweek Meeting October 7 2026

It was good to be at the midweek meeting of Emmanuel Baptist, Cardiff, tonight. About 35 of us were there and the pastor, Paul Whitely, led. First, a short Bible study from Psalm 116 on prayer, then a song and a brief time gathering information before the time of prayer. About 8 or 9 prayed, all men. It was a privilege to be there.

10 ways the early Christians were tortured

Public Domain via Wikipedia

In the beginning, the emperor threatened them with bonds and imprisonment. But a while later, when he began to work the matter in good earnest, he devised innumerable sorts of torments and punishments, such as

1. whippings and scourgings,
2. rackings,
3. horrible scrapings,
4. sword,
5. and fire.
6. A great number were put in boats, which were then sunk; they drowned in the bottom of the sea.
7. Also, hanging them on crosses, binding them to the bodies of dead trees with their heads downward;
8. hanging them by their middles on gallows till they died of hunger;
9. throwing them alive to wild beasts which would devour them, such as lions, bears, leopards, and wild bulls.
10. Pricking and thrusting them with daggers and the talons of beasts till they were almost dead;

(also, pricking and thrusting them with daggers and the talons of beasts till they were almost dead; lifting them up on high with their heads downward. There were other sorts of punishments, most tragic - or rather, tyrannical and pitiful to describe: such as first binding them to trees and their boughs, then pulling and tearing apart their members and joints; mangling them with axes; choking them with smoke by small fires; severing their hands, ears, feet and other joints)