A letter to my friend

Dear Deb,

I know I have mentioned this before but every time I pull my slow cooker out of the cupboard I think of you and smile as I remember your public declaration that slow cookers are not for you, coming a week after I got one for my birthday.  I was quite struck by your post, in part because I value what you have to say and also because it followed my efforts of splitting my corner of the facebook community in half as they debated the merits of slow cookers over slow cooking in cast iron - and also the suitability of a slow cooker for a birthday gift.  Well, dear Deb, we are about six months down the track so I thought I would let you know what I think the old slow cooker now.

First up, the slow cooker is not for the most part, in my humble opinion, a time saver.  Where we all I went wrong ten years ago was thinking you could just throw everything in it in the morning, turn it on and come home to a delicious dinner.  That was a recipe for bland, broiled meat.  Blah.

When I use it now I take the time to brown things and get the sauces going.  As I like to cook in bulk where I can, it has taken up to an hour of preparation, frying off and creating at least the beginnings of delicious sauces before I reach that point of lobbing it all into the slow cooker and turning it on. So for the most part I look upon it as an electric casserole dish.  I do like that I can cook a casserole slowly, over eight hours, turning cheap, tough meat into something glorious.  And I like that I can leave it on all day.  One could argue that you can just slow cook like that in the oven or on the stove top.  For me, I don't really like leaving my oven on and unattended all day.  But I don't seem to mind leaving the slow cooker unattended while I leave the house to do other things.  

I got my men to get me a big one in order to do the bulk curries and casseroles.  Consequently it is a big item.  It takes up a lot of room in the cupboard.  It's heavy.  It's a bit unwieldy to clean.  I confess that I do have to pick my time and psych myself up to use it.  But when the time is right, it's a great thing.  I have used it maybe ten times in the last three months.

I've tried soups but I don't think I'll persist with this method for soup preparation.  It takes a very long time for all that liquid to warm up.  I'm happy enough with my big pot and going a bit faster for soup.  I should say though that a friend gave me THE most wonderful pea and ham soup recipe for the slow cooker BUT when I served it up one up one member of the family loved it, one tolerated it and one thought he was being poisoned.  There was quite some theatre.  We haven't had a scene like that at the dinner table in months.  Maybe years.  It was almost worth it.  Almost.  The recipe is not dependent upon a slow cooker.  I could recreate it in my soup pot if I was feeling like some dinner time amusement again some day.  I think my clan prefer the minestrone style of soup.  It may be a texture issue with the blended soups...they're not that keen on pumpkin soup either.

BUT dear Deb there are three recipes that are to die for.  And the lovely Jane has put them all on her blog.  Three recipes that are delicious and have had universal appeal at our dinner table.  Recipes that had me inviting friends over for dinner the first time I cooked them, so confident was I of their potential for dinnertime happiness.

Pulled pork.   I have already given this one the three hip hip hoorays on this blog.  And research indicates that there are recipes out there for doing it from scratch but the bottle of marinade seems to do the trick very nicely.  And this is indeed one recipe where you can just lob the TWO ingredients in, press the button and go.

Lamb's equivalent of pulled pork.  Oh Deb.  This is glorious.  Not cheap.  But it is absolute deliciousness.  It could be done in an oven.  But it works really well in the slow cooker.  I browned the lamb when I made it.  Despite what I said about taking the time to brown things, next time I make this I won't be browning the meat.  And again, like the pulled pork, this is a throw it in and leave it recipe.

The third one is Jane's recipe for beef stroganoff.  It's great for a family dinner with veg or pasta or rice.  It's great for a church feast.  It's great for leftovers, for freezing and for giving away to a family in need.  It's great.

And so to the $64 question.  Given what I know now, would I still get one given my time birthday again?  Well, I think yes.  I would maybe opt for the smaller version next time, although that wouldn't allow for leftovers.  I don't use it all the time.  But when I do I'm pretty sold on it.  Which is in no way meant to pressure you into asking for one for your birthday.  If you don't have a lot of space in your kitchen or you don't like to have an appliance that you only use occasionally I wouldn't get one.  And be warned too - not all recipes for the slow cooker will be as delicious as these three.  I have had some epic fails as well.  I am learning to know what will actually work and won't end up tasting like broiled, bland blahness.  It's not my favourite thing in the kitchen.  But unlike the one I bought ten years ago, I won't be giving this one away.  It has earned its spot in my kitchen.

Hope you are well and that you have great school holidays. 

Love Meredith xx

Caring for missionaries #2 - writing letters

How to write to a missionary:

In the opening letter you write to a missionary, especially if you are unknown to them or have met them only once...

*   Introduce yourself.

*   Explain your connection or how you come to be writing to them.

For all subsequent letters, assume that they then know you. 

Things you can write about...

*   Personal news.

*   News from your church; local, state and federal news; the weather, sports news, political news, the price of things (petrol, housing, bananas...anything you think they might be interested in), new buildings going up in town – the sorts of things of daily life at home.

*   Words of encouragement – how you are specifically encouraged by their ministry, what you are reading in the Bible at the moment and how it is encouraging you, a Bible verse that will encourage them, the fact that you have prayed for them.

*   Encourage them not to feel burdened to reply, so actually tell them they don’t need to write back.  Your letter is a gift...so don’t ask lots and lots of questions, which begs for a response.  This is when your letter is sent as a “ministry of encouragement.”  However if you have developed a close relationship with them that includes regular specific prayer and perhaps even a level of accountability then you must ask questions every time...especially “How can I pray for you at the moment?” and “I was praying about such and such, how is that going now?” and “How are you doing with...?”

And what not to include...

*   Unless you have a very close, mutually prayerful relationship, don’t include a list of your own personal woes.  Letters to missionaries are for their encouragement.  They can’t help you in your difficulties and they may feel frustrated being so far away and unable to assist, which won’t help them to do their work.  Unburden closer to home and send words that build up and encourage offshore.

 Writing to people in secure locations:

Do not include...

*   Christian language – Bible, Christian, Church, congregation, prayer/praying, baptism, converts, Sunday, Christmas, Easter...

*   Bible verses or reference to the Bible.

*   The name of the organisation they work for or the key people who work in it – anything that might be found in an Internet search.

 

 

Dear ____________

 

It is good to be writing to you again.  I wanted to let you know that I have been thinking of you every day.  And the people we meet with every week also keep you in their thoughts.  I was speaking to state head of your company and he said that your work was going very well at every level, that you have many opportunities to do your work and that you feel well supported by the one we love the best.  That is wonderful news.

 

Love _____________

 

You need to keep it very general.  Check it carefully – and get someone else to check it – before you send it because it is easy to slip up.  In some locations it is vital to be this cautious.

Check on the website of the relevant missionary organization for your missionary for further advice, including advice specific to their organisation.
 

Greetings in the digital age - the Christmas edition

The Christmas cards are done.  Late this year.  And that was after I had culled the list.  The overseas ones were sent ten days out from Christmas.  The interstate ones went out with a week to spare.  The ones in and out of my own city were dropped in the post box yesterday.  On the 22nd December.  With a muttered apology to the poor postal workers who have to sort and maybe even deliver my mail this close to Christmas.  I'm appalled at myself.

There was considerable inertia to get the Christmas mail done this year.  Deb found the same.  On her post I put it down the to the recent full moon.  But the real reason for me was West Wing.  I am at the business end of the boxed set.  It's been a big six or eight months. And one evening early in December I was so tired after a busy day that I couldn't think of Christmas mail so I put on an episode.  That may or may not have led to one or two episodes more.  That certainly led to a late night.  So that by the next night I was so tired from my late night that there was nothing for it but to collapse on the sofa and watch West Wing...

Nothing like the pressure of a deadline (and that awful episode where Arnold Vinick's hand is broken from too many hand shakes) to break a bad habit and get you moving.  And I do like to write the annual Christmas letter.  If nothing else, in the absence of keeping a journal, it serves as my own little reminder of our year.  I've kept every one I've written since that year I dared to cross to the dark side of the photocopied Christmas letter.  That would be 1995.

I've said (ad nauseum, some might say) that we don't write letters anymore because we have email.  But then we don't actually correspond by email either.  And email has been overtaken by the shorter, sharper and snappier Facebook...and possibly by other means electronic that I don't even know about. 

I reflected here about the change in how we tackle greetings in the digital age when someone has passed away.  And it would seem that in one short year lots has changed about how we send Christmas greetings too. 

Last year we received lots of Christmas cards and as for previous years, many photocopied Christmas letters that I would place in a special box on the coffee table to read and enjoy during quiet moments.  And last year there were quite a few letters that arrived electronically, most of which I printed out to put in the box as well.

This year we have received lots of cards.  Most of them are from people who live within a five kilometre radius of our home.  Most of them hand delivered.  We attend a church with people who delight in swapping cards with one another so the last couple of Sundays have been fun.  There were quite a few received from friends at the end of the school year as well.  Then a few cards have come in the mail.   But the letters.  As of today the count is two in post and two attached to emails. 

That said, Facebook is becoming a fun place to hang about, so please don't hear me complaining about a lack of Christmas mail.  It's beginning to feel a lot like Christmas in that electronic neck of the woods.  And I get it.  The inertia was enormous this year.  I find myself wondering if this year is it.  There will always be a collection of souls who will receive a card from us, for any number of reasons.  But I am wondering whether next year I go essentially electronic.  My letter writing self would consider this to be crossing over to the really dark bit of the dark side of Christmas greetings.  But things have moved along really quickly in the digital world this year - a lot of it good  - and I feel I am moving along with it.  I guess another year will tell.

Or maybe it really was just the full moon, after all.

Greetings in the digital age

I've been interested to watch the progress of birthday greetings these last ten years.  Cards and phone calls gave way to text messages which gave way to the Facebook greeting.  Not exclusively.  I am talking in trends.  All different and all good in their way.

Last week I had cause to think about a different form of greeting and how the digital age has brought about change - how we communicate our sympathy when someone has died.  Brought to mind because last week a dear saint of long, faithful and loving ministry went Home to be with Lord.  We heard about his death via a beautiful message that his son left on Facebook.  What followed were more than 150 comments of condolence and remembrance.   And it was an absolute blessing to read through the comments - to see so many others blessed in the same way we had been by this dear man and his equally dear wife, to be reminded of some of the little but wonderful things (and thanks here to my friend who mentioned the twinkling eyes...you are so right) and to realise the great reach of this man's pastoral ministry. 

There was one comment that caught my attention, and I was struck by the gentle irony of reading it on Facebook.  It was a comment about one of the hallmarks of this couple's ministry - the gift of short and specific handwritten letters.  Letters of thanks for hospitality, letters of sympathy, letters of specific encouragement, letters to say they had prayed for the letter recipient. Short letters that don't take long to write. Letters that take about as long to write as it takes to find the current TO DO list and put "Write a letter to..." on it.  They were in the practice of writing short notes and were equipped with a stack of A5 white paper, pens, envelopes and stamps on their desks so that they were ready to go. I think they must have written thousands of letters. I know we received several and we don't even live in the same state.  I remember them talking to us about letter writing at one stage and taking note, because, well, they were speaking to a letter writer and their words struck a chord.

Please don't hear me bagging Facebook.  Last week it was used for great good.  It was such a blessing to read through all those comments, to remember all those good things and to have so much for which to thank God.  In the past these sorts of comments would have been consigned to the private and personal card or letter of sympathy, seen only by the bereaved.   Now in this digital age we get to share in the blessing of one another's sympathies and remembrances.  It made me wonder if this is the new sympathy card of the digital age.

I too left my comment.  And then I got my A5 paper out and wrote two letters - one to his widow and one to his son and wife.  Because Facebook is good.  But there was more to say.  And there is always something special about holding a letter written out of love and gratitude in your hands.

Feel free to call me old fashioned.  I don't mind.  And I am guessing the one who wrote the comment about letter writing also penned a note.  Probably on white A5 paper.

(HT: Alastair at Paradoxically Speaking.  I had written and deleted this post twice in the last week but then, when I left an entire post as a comment to this post, I realised it was something that wanted to be written here too.)

Look what came in the mail last week

Thanks so much Jenny.  I can't wait to use them.  As hoped, they are made on handmade paper which is always so nice to write on and the detail in the designs is wonderful.  Head on over to Jenny's blog for details if you would like to buy some as well and support a micro-enterprise venture in Kenya.

Twenty minutes

 

Letter writing it seems is a dying artform.  Lots of people say, "Oh no!  I don't write letters anymore.  I just send emails."  True at one level.  I can type much faster than I can write with pen and paper these days.  But it isn't true at another level, because how many of us actually correspond with others via email?  I send lots of emails - but they are mostly short, usually on one subject, written with the aim of getting something done.  I think I am keeping up with those who are beyond my immediate vicinity.  But actually, I'm not.  Because I rarely write a letter these days.  I think I have had two bursts of letter writing this year.  And I don't seem to get around to writing emails that would count as correspondence all that often.

This year, with my friends in Kiribati, I have been trying to keep in touch regularly.  Telephone calls haven't really been an option, although there have a been one or two lovely phone conversations.  I have written them two or three letters - and they do get there but it takes about three weeks.  Which is good, really.  But mostly I have been emailing.

Sometimes I hit a busy patch (or so I perceive it to be) and I don't email for a while.  But in recent months I have decided that I'm sure my friends would rather get a short email that not hear from us at all. It's the keeping in touch that counts. 

And so one day, in the midst of a busy patch, I had twenty minutes exactly.  I can't remember what it was that was happening on the otherside of the twenty minutes...time to collect the children from school, time to start preparations for tea...no matter.  I had twenty minutes.  Not the sort of twenty minutes that might be useful for a quick job inside utilising one or other packet of cleaning wipes or twenty minutes that could be gainfully employed with a quick stint of weeding the garden.  It was the sort of twenty minutes that would be spent quickly roaming around facebook and google reader.  But instead of taking a wander through the hallowed halls of the internet I opened up an email and started to write. 

As it turns out, you can write quite a lot in twenty minutes.  And so I have continued to do this.  Because as it also turns out, there are quite a lot of twenty minute slots to be found in the week if you look hard enough and want to find them.  If I am tired I write less because I make typing errors along the way.  If I have slept well I write more.  So I grab those twenty minute time slots and instead of frittering them away, I have been using them to write to my friends in Kiribati.  (Or occasionally to someone else...sorry if it wasn't to you.  I do owe a few people a twenty minute email.)  

And a week or two ago I even went above and beyond and used a couple of twenty minute slots to write short letters.  Yes.  Pen and paper. 

Do you have someone whose day would be made by receiving an email or a short letter?  Twenty minutes is surprisingly easy to grab at some stage in the week.  Then it is a bit like an exam.  When the clock says, "Your time starts now," you just have to get busy and start writing.  Have a go.  It will make someone smile and be such an encouragement to them.

Feminine Threads - a great book for women and men

I finished reading Feminine Threads:Women in the Tapestry of Christian History by Diana Lynn Severance on Tuesday afternoon.  On Tuesday evening I wrote a letter to Dr Severance to thank her for writing this outstanding book.

Feminine Threads is a church history book.  And there are lots of good reasons to read church history.  If you are a church history novice then this would be a good place to start.  It is a slim volume (just over 300 pages) and it provides a good survey of the history of the Christian church.  There is enough detail to get a sense of the major events and flavours of the various periods of the church, starting with the New Testament era and finishing in current times.  The book was published earlier this year so it's right up to date.

What sets this church history survey apart is that it's told through the stories of the women of the times.  Some of them are the mothers, sisters and wives of famous men in church history.  Others are (or have become) famous in their own right - for reasons ranging from being born a queen through to the powerful testimony of lives well lived despite (or maybe because of) humble beginnings.  

Interestingly, as I turned the pages of this book I observed that many of the women's stories were quite similar.  Don't think for a minute though that this book is repetitive and boring.  What changes is the political, social, economic, theological, geographical and cultural landscape.  And of course each story has its unique blend of personality, relationships and opportunities.  But what is deeply comforting is the repetition of women responding to their enormously varied circumstances with godliness, faithfulness, abiding trust in and dependence upon Him and seeking to bring Him all honour and glory.

It is this that makes Feminine Threads a profoundly encouraging book for women.  I found myself convicted ever more deeply to be praying for those in my midst and I feel warmly encouraged to press on with the humble activities that fill my week, walking in the footsteps of those who have, by faith, gone before me. 

And what's in this book for men?  The opportunity to more fully apprehend God's good plans for women as set out in the Bible and to see that in action time and again through history in order to encourage and build up the women in your own lives who are seeking to live in ways that please and honour God. 

And of course men and women alike get a good dose of church history along the way, which is always edifying. 

Millions of women in following Christ have followed the New Testament pattern of Christian women - lifting up the needs of others in prayer, mentoring other Christians, supporting church leaders, showing hospitality, fellow-labouring as missionaries, supporthing their husbands in Christian work, instructing other women, evangelising and sharing the Word with others, teaching children, and helping those in need and distress. These Christian women were from the poor and rich, from every class of society, and from every continent of the globe. They were not perfect, but they have obtained a good testimony through faith in the One who gave His life a ransom to redeem them for God. They are the feminine threads in the rich tapestry of Christian history

That is the final paragraph of Feminine Threads: Women in the Tapestry of Christian History by Diana Lynn Severance. It summarises the content and essence of this clearly, eloquently and beautifully written book. I can't commend it to you highly enough.  Put it on your Christmas list.  At the top.

Lists and Letters

I'm a list writer.

Why do I write lists?

1. To remember what I need to do.
2. To help me organise the day/week and give a little bit of structure to my life.
3. To make sure things get done when they need to be done.
4. To have the pleasure of being able to cross things off when they are done.
And yes, I have been known on a bad day to write something onto a list that I'd already done just so I could strike it off and feel some small sense of achievement...I know, I know…

I've got the whole list writing thing down to a fairly fine art these days. I have a diary and a book. The diary is for keeping track of events. The book is for everything else. The book is a simple, inexpensive A5 spiral bound thing. And it serves two purposes.

Firstly it replaces scraps of paper. What used to be written onto scraps of paper – a reminder note to myself, a phone message, the address someone just gave me over the phone, the recipe, the name and number of the three roof plumbers I am going to call for quotes to get the roof fixed – all go in the book. There are no more scraps of paper in my house. Well, not any which belong to me anyway.

The second use of the book is the TO DO lists. I seem to write a TO DO list about once a week. It's not something I do at a specified time of the week. But it seems to happen about once a week because it takes about a week to clear a list (or to get sick of the sight of the old one!)

My TO DO lists include:

1. People to ring.
2. Emails, letters and (more recently) blog posts to write.
3. Things to prepare (like scripture lessons, Bible studies, meeting preparation).
4. Jobs to do (banking, trips to the post office, birthday presents to buy, specific cooking for events or people and so on).
My TO DO lists don't include

1. Domestic tasks – unless it is going to be a particularly BIG week and things need to be prioritised.
2. Things that happen every day – like making breakfast.
3. Every single little thing.
4. Things I know I am just not going to get to – like defrosting the fridge.
But I have discovered that THANK YOU NOTES do not belong on a TO DO list. After we have attended a lovely event or after being the recipient of a gift or beautiful act of service it often occurs to me that I should write a quick THANK YOU NOTE. So typically Ilook for my book and add this intention to my TO DO list.

Unfortunately in the last month I have missed several opportunities to bless someone with a THANK YOU NOTE. Yes, these opportunities make it onto my TO DO list. But by putting "Write thank you note to..." on the list (to be attended to some time later in the week) the spontaneity and immediacy is lost. And by the time I get around to writing a THANK YOU NOTE on Friday for something (for example) that happened last Sunday – when I will see that person again at church before the postman has had the opportunity to deliver my letter – the moment has passed.

And the ironic thing is that THANK YOU NOTES don't take very long to write if you have a stack of paper, a nice pen, some envelopes and stamps ready on your desk for such moments. It's not quite as quick as noting it on a TO DO list – but it's not far off. And it is far better to act on these opportunities to bless someone who has blessed you rather than seeing good intentions lost to inaction because the period between the event and the letter has become too great.

NOTE TO SELF:If it occurs to me that I should write a THANK YOU NOTE to someone then I will not put it on my TO DO list. I will just write the note – and enjoy the moment.