The binhole in Mousehole
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I love it when local
news becomes national news. A problem with wheelie bins in a sleepy Cornish
fishing village shouldn’t really be breaking news on our web feeds and
newspaper columns, but that’s what happened a couple of days ago.
The wonderfully
named village of Mousehole hit the national news[1] when
the local Cornwall Council changed the wheelie bins for new ones. But the
trouble is that they didn’t take the old ones away. Apparently there have been
10,000 requests to the council to get them taken away, but it still hasn’t
happened.
So what was
described by poet Dylan Thomas as one of England’s prettiest villages, “Mousehole”
has become dubbed “Binhole” due to the rather unattractive wheelie bins that
are accumulating in the streets and getting covered in seagull poo. Photos show
them in clusters down the street, or stacked on top of each other waiting for
the council to come and take them away.
Somehow in the summer months between the Trump shooting and the Olympics there isn’t an awful lot of news, so we get to hear about the “binhole in Mousehole”, and it feels kind of appropriate to hear of a local drama in a seaside village.
Local news becoming
breaking news? It’s happened again and again in the Bible. Who would have
thought that local news- (a young girl is pregnant) changed the world- her son born
in a stable is the Son of God?
Who would have
thought that local carpenter coming into town on a donkey marked the arrival of
God’s King to save the planet?
But the wonderful
thing about the God of the Bible is that he’s interested in the ordinary people
in ordinary places and making their lives extraordinary. He’s come to make
international news as he turns lives upside down with the good news of faith, forgiveness
and a future.
Thanks so much for
listening, and have a great summer whether you are going to Cornwall, Cape Cod
or staying in Kimbolton.
[1] https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13650689/england-loveliest-village-bins-colour-council.html