FIRE IN OUR HEARTS
CITY ON A HILL
We walked into the crammed Octagon. Jim chuckled at the posh decor we had inherited. (I assured him that even with our ‘mansions’, we were poorer than the average Englishman.) Pete Matt, our family spokesman and holiday-school headmaster, was holding forth and soon the questions turned to discipline. Carol smiled sweetly as one of the children tugged at her hair. ‘Yes, we do train our kids quite carefully,’ she said. ‘Pete and I find that our children need the security of being under our authority. They need a lot of love and care and we try to spend as much time with them as we can. Of course, love means that we sometimes have to discipline them.’ ‘Yes, said Pete: ‘Proverbs 29:15 says, “A child left to himself disgraces his mother.” I think society is quite blind in this area, and we see the fruit of it on the streets.’ ‘What about toys?’ asked another. ‘Ugh!’ said Pete, ‘Consumerism gone mad!’ We like simple creative things like Lego and Meccano... and word games.’ ‘And pots and pans!’ added Carol. ‘So why don’t you have your own school?’ asked one person perched precariously on the window seat. ‘Too expensive and too much hassle!’ said matter-of-fact Pete with a twinkle in his eyes. ‘Apart from which they need to handle the world. We’re not a desert island, you know!’ ‘Look!’ whispered Jim, ‘I’ve got some questions for the admin group.’ ‘Hang on,’ I said, ‘they all change soon.’ Afterwards, we moved next door to one of the old bars where Ian ‘Insight’ answered Jim’s questions about joining. 202