Remembrance

In 1939, at the time of the Munich crisis, Neville Chamberlain broadcast to the nation about the difficulties presented by Hitler over Czechoslovakia, describing it as a, "Far away country of which we know nothing".  There were many in Britain who knew a lot more about Czechoslovakia than Chamberlain who, prior to Munich, had never been abroad.

When visiting churches in New Zealand, the war memorials are striking.  This one is in the Maori (Anglican) church of St Faith's in Rotorua.  Yesterday we came across a personal memorial to a young Maori who had died in the Lybian desert.  The memorial was at the entry to a cave in the middle of a geothermal park around which he had guided visitors as a teenager before going off to fight in a foreign country of which he knew nothing.  These encounters are rather humbling.