THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK

Last week I was reading an article entitled Terry Waite - a patient man.

As I read more into the article I realised that that was a dramatic understatement.

Many readers will be able to remember back into the late 1980s when Terry Waite, the Church of England’s special envoy, was constantly returning to parts of the world where it was dangerous to be a Christian, to try to negotiate the release of people who had been taken hostage.

One day he himself was arrested and held hostage for five years in Lebanon.

For four of those years he was held in solitary confinement in a tiny windowless cell, chained to a wall.

He can remember all the beatings and the mock executions that he suffered.

He had to wear a mask when a guard came in so he was not allowed to see another human face for four years.

He was not allowed pen or paper and he could not have any form of communication with the outside world, even with his family.

The article that I was reading says: He reflects back on it all and says “Yes, it was a bit isolating”.

The words of a very humble man whose life is given to service and sacrifice.

How did he cope with this totally unjust solitary confinement?

He says: “I did my best to structure each day. I would do my exercise. Then I would write for an hour or two in my head. Then I would do mental arithmetic.

“I spent a lot of time dreaming up poetry and then I would do more exercises and so on.” Many people are finding the isolation of the lockdown very tough, and it is, but we have got television, radio, books, magazines, etc.

Even in the lockdown we have many blessings to count each day.