 every child who attends receives a letter by mail during the first week back at school thanking them for their attendance, reminding them of the things we learned, wishing them well for the term ahead and with some information about our normal Sunday services.
Other advertising is via flyers to all the students who do Scripture in the local primary school, posters in the local shops and library and letters are sent to local churches and nearby schools for their newsletters.
That's it in a nutshell. Seems so straight forward when you put it like that. :-) Let me know if you want more info, and if anyone else has these sort of programmes running at their church, please let me know what themes you have used. I'd be interested to collect ideas for future reference.
After an afternoon spent with a friend talking deep and good things over a pot of tea why, to finish off our time together, didn't I pray?
When I sat and listened to someone talking about how truly hard life is at the moment, instead of saying, "I will pray for you," why, then and there, didn't I pray?
During recent weeks, when I found myself fretting over something again and again why, instead, didn't I pray?
While on the phone and hearing the details of a friend's crisis or as I sat and read the email with the bad news why, on the spot, didn't I pray?
When I was wronged or just plain irritated why, instead of harbouring bitter thoughts, didn't I pray?
When I was standing in the queue for all that time why, instead of staring into space blankly, didn't I pray?
There's lots of good advice out there.
When you do, rinse the leftover weetbix off the bowl before it sets like cement.
It's always important to use your manners.
Plan for it to work.
If you have been off work sick, come the afternoon of the day you think, "I am well enough to go back to work tomorrow", go to the supermarket and buy eight things from eight different aisles. When you get home, if you have enough energy to put all eight items away as soon as get back, then you are well enough to go back to work. If you need to sit/rest/have a nap first to recover from the shopping trip then you need another day off.
But what is the best advice I have ever received?
The best specific advice I have ever received was from a dear, trusted friend, just before our first son was born. She said, "Five minutes is better than no minutes." She was referring to Bible reading. What? Only five minutes? But what great advice it turned out to be. Because having a baby rocked my Bible reading world. It isn't that mums of new babies don't have time to read. New mums don't lack time, but what they do lack is a) the capacity to maintain that very wonderful routine of rising early and enjoying a long, uninterrupted quiet time and b) the capacity to concentrate for a long time. Or even a short time really. And it was truly good to have my friend's advice in my back pocket for the many times when I was tempted to think, "If I can't have a decent block of Bible reading time then it's just not worth even bothering." Because it is worth bothering to read even a little bit of the Bible and five minutes is so much better than no minutes in that particular season of life when the big, hour long block just isn't going to happen.
That was advice for a specific time of life...and it was life saving advice.
The best, more general advice, I have ever received is this. Always pray against bitterness. When bitterness takes hold it escalates into all sorts of horribleness. Often quickly. So much can be avoided if bitter thoughts are nipped in the bud. Bitterness due to some injustice - great or small. Bitterness wrought of some slow, simmering annoyance. Bitterness from feeling hard done by. Bitterness because I am a sinner and prone to bitter thoughts. I was glad to receive this advice many years ago. I haven't always been so good at applying it. But I always look upon it as the best advice I have ever received...and the best advice I would do well to heed.
Amazed: that it is July. So soon.
Sorted: myself onto Feedly by way of a reader with the impending demise of Google Reader. It was an 11th hour bid - late at night on 30th June. And happily it seemed I didn't need to get myself Chrome to manage it - it was quite happy with Internet Explorer. (I've got no idea what I'm talking about...tossing about all these techno-terms. Don't be fooled.) That said, from where I am sitting right now, it doesn't seem to have disappeared yet, although as Ali said here, maybe it just isn't 1st July in Google-land quite yet. Shall see what tomorrow brings.
Saw: The Great Gatsby during June. I went during the middle of the day in the middle of the week - it felt even naughtier than being out on a school night - on my own and armed with a bag of maltesers that I didn't need to share with anyone (not the jumbo sized bag FYI.) It was an opulent, depressing, visually rich, sad, perfectly executed film. Magnificent. Luhrmann absolutely nailed it.
Love: love, LOVED a visit from my dear buddy also during June. She flew in from another part of Australia and stayed with us for a few days, en route to other parts. So wonderful to share time with her again. It will be my turn to cross the border to visit her in a year or two. A most blessed friendship that always picks up where it left off and always, always deepens with each pass. And it was she who worked out that the apple peeler gadget could slink, adding to the fun of her visit.
Chuffed: with the lovely Ally's lovely collection of teacup pictures. Looking at these is as good as sitting down with a cup of Early Grey tea and a good book.
Enjoyed: the Egyptian exhibition brought out from the British Museum to our local museum. Immensely. The boys loved the mummies and the canopic jars. Real canopic jars that would have been used to house some poor distinguished Egyptian's innards. I loved studying the papyrus documents and writings carved on stone. It made me ponder the Bible anew - amazing to think that all those pages of the Bible would have been recorded like that, giving me fresh wonderment at the writing and preservation of God's Word. I tried to pass my wonder onto the boys but it is very hard to compete with canopic jars.
Watching: West Wing all over again and loving it. And I have to say that the last five or ten minutes of episode ten in series one are probably the best ten minutes of television you'll ever see.
Continuing: to think about a quote I read on Wendy's blog a while ago from Ted and Joni Eareckson-Tada's book Joni and Ken, an Untold Love Story. Says Joni, "If I were sitting next to you this very moment... wherever you are... I know what I would say to you. I would say, 'Oh, please pray for your partner.' Hands down, it beats any how-to marriage manual or nationally renowned couples' conference."
Looking forward: to all your good advice.
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