The year that term three week seven came early

That certain week that happens every year when the shine of being the oldest kids in the school wears off, suddenly a handful of them are taller than their teachers, their compasses are pointed towards high school (for better or for worse depending on whether the prospect fills you with excitement or fear - but both manifest poorly) and they go off the boil...it happened.  In the fourth week of term.  Three weeks early to my way of thinking. 

So what's a Scripture teacher to do?  Four things.

Firstly, thank God for the two and nearly a half terms of great teaching time before it all got hard.  Secondly pray for the children and their class teachers - both need prayer at this point.  Thirdly, pull out that intensely complicated geometric colouring in sheet that has been waiting in the wings all year just for this moment. 



I chose something like this...but FAR more complicated.

The kids went off the boil two weeks ago.  Not good.  Especially as I wasn't expecting it that particular day.  So last week I pulled out my colouring pages. 

"You colour this while I tell you today's story...and no two adjoining spaces are to be the same colour."

Met with shock and horror. 

"That's right.  But if you trust me on this one and do it in this kind of detail the pictures will look absolutely amazing when you are done.  And by the way, there is no rush.  Unlike so many other things I do when I am in your classroom, this isn't a race."

Last week went supremely well and I figure I have secured two or three more lessons of peace because all of the classes were told, in front of their classroom teachers, that the pictures were only allowed out of their trays for Scripture classes.

After that there are the last few lessons in the book - how the Bible fits together, the Ten Commandments and a lesson on prayer - all of which I LOVE teaching.  And then the Christmas lessons which are all sorts of fun.  I think we should be OK for the year.

And then the fourth thing for a Scripture teacher to do?  Keep praying that the gospel seeds that are being sown in classrooms here and elsewhere will at some point take root, grow and flourish.  This is good work.

Finding the height, depth, length and breadth of God's Word

My blogging buddy Amy put this quote from Spurgeon on Facebook this weekend.

The more you read the Bible, and the more you meditate upon it, the more you will be astonished with it. He who is but a casual reader of the Bible, does not know the height, the depth, the length and breadth of the mighty meanings contained in its pages. There are certain times when I discover a new vein of thought, and I put my hand to my head and say in astonishment, "Oh, it is wonderful. I never saw this before in the Scriptures." You will find the Scriptures enlarge as you enter them; the more you study them the less you will appear to know of them, for they widen out as we approach them.

Charles Spurgeon, in his sermon "Christ our Passover"

Thanks Amy.  A great encouragement.

Treat your time in the Bible like you treat your meal plan.

Yesterday there was a great post on the Desiring God site called Five Back-to-School Basics.  You may have missed it because

1.  maybe you don't live in the northern hemisphere, and
2.  so you aren't going back to school at the moment, or
3.  maybe you're just not at school at all. 

Perhaps I would have missed it too except that I, lover of lists and with a small hint from the title of the post, keenly observed the five point list.  And so I read it. 

The five points are:-

1. Thinking may be the most critical thing you ever do.
2. The most important book you'll read this fall is your Bible.
3. Someone younger than you needs you.
4.  Comparison in the classroom can be the birthplace of pride.
5.  Only the gospel saves anyone, even A-students.

They are great principles and they extend far, far beyond the reach of students in the classroom.

I especially liked point number two (but you already knew that) and most especially this part (emphasis is mine)...

Because of all the assigned pages, you’ll be tempted to sideline your Bible reading until the next test has passed, the next paper is done, or the next break is here. Instead, treat your time in the Bible like you treat your meal plan.

Your time soaking in Scripture will be the most fruitful and shaping time of your education. Nothing can replace the wealth you will find there, and nothing will prepare you better for life, family, vocation, or even your next class.

It is so easy to put off time in God's Word.  I know.  I really, REALLY know.  But I am amazingly diligent with my meal planning.  We eat every day.  What a great aim to be so hungry for God's Word that it receives the same priority as meal planning.

Read the whole post here.  It doesn't matter if you aren't going back to school this August.  The principles still apply.

The grand gesture of encouragement

You may have noticed that I have been thinking about the nature of encouragement lately. 

Last Friday evening we found ourselves with a bit of a situation on our hands.  Not overly serious in the end, but it added a layer of emotion and the need for even greater feats of juggling to an already complicated and oversubscribed weekend. 

Just before my head hit the pillow at the late end of that day I received a text message from a sweet, sweet friend who had become aware of said situation.  She simply said that she, her husband and her mother had prayed for this situation and then she wished us good night.

Perfect timing.  At the end of a long day.  Just prior to sleep before the beginning of what was looking like a near impossible day ahead.  And not with the promise to pray, but passing on the message that the prayer had already been prayed.  Perfect, perfect encouragement.

Stumped as to how to encourage someone?  Too time poor to cook meals for someone or write a carefully worded note?  Too resource poor to provide someone with a few days break away?  Too skills-poor to fix that person's garden, finish their home renovation gone wrong or make their car work again?

Sometimes an act of encouragement might seem very small - but it might end up being the grandest of all gestures.  That short text with the prayer behind it spurred me on all weekend.  And thanks be to God the situation is by and large resolved.

Some more comfort

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God.  For just as we share abundantly in the sufferings of Christ, so also our comfort abounds through Christ.   If we are distressed, it is for your comfort and salvation; if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which produces in you patient endurance of the same sufferings we suffer.  And our hope for you is firm, because we know that just as you share in our sufferings, so also you share in our comfort.

2 Corinthians 1:3-7

Aramaic, Latin and Greek

"Pilate had a notice prepared and fastened to the cross.  It read: JESUS OF NAZARETH, THE KING OF THE JEWS.  Many of the Jews read this sign, for the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city, and the sign was written in Aramaic, Latin and Greek." 
John 19:19

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"The highly respected German scholar Adolf Harnack calculated that by A.D. 250 no less than 30,000 Christians lived in Rome.  Most of these came from the poorer classes.  We know this because for more than a century Christians in Rome spoke Greek, the language of slaves and poor men.  True Romans of the upper classes used Latin."
From Church History in Plain Language by Bruce L. Shelley p.31

 

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And I have this noted in the margins of my previous Bible at John 19:19...

Pilate's sign:
Aramaic/Hebrew - the language of religion.
Greek- the language of culture and thought.
Latin - the language of government, law and institutions.

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Just in case you ever wondered why Pilate wrote his sign in three languages.

Status Report: August

Reading: Church History in Plain Language by Bruce L. Shelley.  It's good to be reading a church history survey again.  Once again I am reminded of what I wrote here about church history...

The first time I read through an overview of the history of the church (2000 years thus far) my overwhelming thought was, "It is a miracle that the church has survived." As much as the church has been carried along, under God, by faithful men and women, so also have other men and women done their best to see its undoing. Were the church a human construct, it simply wouldn't have survived. The church is truly God's church. To read church history is to see evidence that God is sovereign. And that is a great blessing. Praise be to God.

Also reading: Emma by Jane Austen.  My fourth Austen for the year.  For times when I want something light for a chapter or two.  It's unusual for me to have two books on the go at once.  But it seems to be working at the moment.

And reading: the Bible.  But you already knew that.  (So make that three books on the go at once.)

Convicted: last Sunday during church when I heard this single verse read out:

"The Lord is in his holy temple; let all the earth keep silence before him." Habakkuk 2:20. 

There hasn't been enough keeping silence before the Lord lately.

Loving: this quote that a friend (a real one) put up on Facebook earlier this week.  From Keith Thomas’s The Ends of Life: Roads to Fulfilment in Early Modern England:

"In 1657 the inhabitants of the London parish of St Dunstan’s in the West prosecuted one James Farr ‘for making and selling of a drink called 'coffee', whereby in making the same he annoyeth his neighbours by evil smells".

Discovered: that when Google took away Google Reader (which was actually well before 1st July in my neck of cyberspace) they didn't take away my reading list.  I thought that would go too and that I would lose the links to the blogs I like.  So I put all the links into an old fashioned "Favourites" list, just in case Feedly didn't come through with the goods, and found that the reading list remains.  Good news.

Enjoying:  a new twist on gravy that I learned from Recipes+.  You dice half an onion into absolute tiny-ness and sauté it.  When done add a teaspoon or two of balsamic vinegar.  Then (and the purists should turn away for this next bit) blend in three tablespoons of gravy powder and the required amount of water.  And there you have it.  Very delicious gravy with a tang.

Also enjoying: the season of lemons.  Lots of friends with lots of lemon trees = lots of lemons.  I squeeze them and freeze the juice in individual iceblocks - enough for hot lemon drinks in the winter and cold lemon drinks in the summer.  People keep asking me, "Are you sure you want some more lemons?  Don't take them if you really don't want them."  Truly, there can never be too many lemons.  Enjoying the profits of a friend's grapefruit tree at the moment too.

Off: to squeeze a few more lemons, make a cup of tea and think about what's coming up this month.  How is August looking for you?

Calm to comfort

And if I want to be of true comfort - and along the way, exercise the self-discipline to not dump - then God will provide those resources. 

One of my favourite hymns.  Note especially the third verse, given the current conversation. 

Sing-a-long below the lyrics.

May the mind of Christ my Saviour
live in me from day to day,
by His love and power and controlling
all I do and say.

May the Word of God dwell richly
in my heart from hour to hour
so that all may see I triumph
only through His power.

May the peace of God my Father
rule my life in everything,
that I may be calm to comfort
sick and sorrowing.

May the love of Jesus fill me
as the waters fill the sea;
Him exalting, self-abasing,
this is victory.

May I run the race before me
strong and brace to face the foe,
looking only unto Jesus
as I onward go.

 

Katie Barclay Wilkinson (1859 - 1928)

 

 

Comfort in, dump out

This weekend I read a FANTASTIC article from the Los Angeles Times called "How Not To Say The Wrong Thing" by Susan Silk and Barry Goldman.  It's about how not to be a discouragement when someone is in a situation of serious illness, grief, trauma, bereavement or difficulty.  It is called the Ring Theory.  You can read the full article here. 

Quoting directly from the article, the Ring Theory works like this:

Illustration by Wes Bausmith from here

Draw a circle. This is the center ring. In it, put the name of the person at the center of the current trauma...  Now draw a larger circle around the first one. In that ring put the name of the person next closest to the trauma... Repeat the process as many times as you need to. In each larger ring put the next closest people. Parents and children before more distant relatives. Intimate friends in smaller rings, less intimate friends in larger ones...

Here are the rules. The person in the center ring can say anything she wants to anyone, anywhere. She can kvetch and complain and whine and moan and curse the heavens and say, "Life is unfair" and "Why me?" That's the one payoff for being in the center ring.

Everyone else can say those things too, but only to people in larger rings.

Comfort in, dump out.  That is, you find your spot within the circles and then you offer only words or actions of comfort to anyone further in than you.  If you need to dump on someone, you do that with those further out from your spot.

What is dumping?  It's saying things like...
   I couldn't believe how awful he looked.
   I felt sick seeing him in hospital.
   I hate going into hospitals.
   I don't agree with some of the decisions the family is making on his behalf.
   He is taking a long time to get over this.
   I saw him the other day and he looked fine to me.  He's just putting it on.
   I remember when my neighbour was in that situation.  She...(blah blah blah)
   I remember when I had a similar problem. This is what happened...(blah blah blah)
   This whole thing is really putting a dampener on our lives.
   Do want to know what I would do if this was happening to me?
   Are you still dragging yourself around?

Or doing dopey stuff like asking someone closer to the centre to look after your kids for you all weekend so that you can get away for a bit because the whole thing is getting you down.

The point is this.  Your aim is to not make things harder for those further in than you.  If you are struggling and you're not the person in the middle you should set out to find the support you need from those who are further from the centre and probably feeling stronger than you are, so that you can be strong to comfort and support those who are closer to or right in at the centre.

Comfort in, dump out.  Good thinking.

Holiday Bible Club

A display connected to the theme for the week.

Every year during the first week of the July school holidays our church runs a Holiday Bible Club for primary school aged children.  This has been happening here for a long time - 24 or 25 years I've heard it said - so it's a well oiled machine.  A couple of dear ones have asked me to blog about it so here goes.

What it looks like

HBC runs for five mornings 9am to 12pm.  On the first four days (Monday to Thursday) it looks like this...

9:00 - 9:15  Registration and drop off.  While that is happening the children are ushered into the hall (via the church so that they can see what a church looks like) to colour in a picture connected with the day's story.  The pictures are glued onto a mural that builds up over the week along a big section of the hall wall.

9:15 - 9:45  The children go outside for fast, furious, non-stop action games.  That is, the children are run ragged for half an hour to burn off energy so that they're ready to sit still and listen.

9:45 - 10:45  Teaching time.  We have someone from OAC Ministries come each year to run this hour of Bible teaching through stories, games, quizzes, puppets and all sorts of fun.  The folk at OAC are really, REALLY good at what they do.  Outsourcing the teaching to experts in the field frees us up to make sure the rest of the programme is as good as we can make it.

10:45 - 11:00  Morning tea.  Our trusty team in the church kitchen put on a morning tea fit for a birthday party five mornings in a row.

Craft for Daniel in the lions' den

11:00 - 11:50  The children do a craft activity connected with the theme of the teaching time.  We try to have someone ready to play games with those who finish early so that everyone is kept busy and occupied right up until the last moment.

11:50-12:00  Final notices, a prayer and off the children go home with their parents.


On the Friday we reverse the order and invite the parents to join with their children from 10:30am.
9:00 - 9:15  Registration and colouring in.
9:15 - 9:45  Action games
9:45 - 10:30  Craft
10:30 - 11:00  Parents, children and leaders have morning tea together.
11:00 - 11:50  Teaching time - which includes a bit of summary of the week, new material and a presentation of the Gospel for the children and their parents, all at the skillful hands of the OAC presenters.
11:50 - 12:00  Wrap up, prayers and farewells.

Nuts and bolts

Teaching time
Each year we run to the theme provided to us by our speakers.  This year it was Heroes from the Bible.  Other recent themes have included The Beatitudes, The Fruit of the Spirit, Stories Jesus Told and a theme that tied in with the Olympics.  There is memory verse for each day.

To charge or not to charge
There is debate about this.  But we charge $5 per day per child with all sorts of exceptions for differing circumstances.  The money collected goes towards paying for OAC to come and for some reimbursement for craft and food costs where required.

Dress up day
We didn't do it this year, but some years we have a dress-up day, usually on the Thursday.  Last year when we did the Beatitudes everyone got to come in yellow and black (bee colours) and we even had a few dressed up as bees.

Correspondence
We send a letter of invitation during term two to children who have attended HBC in the last three years.  Each day of HBC the children take home a letter which includes a summary of the day's story and teaching, the memory verse for the day, advanced notice for the Friday morning tea arrangements, notices about the bookstall running and any other thing we might need to advise and contact details for the church.  And 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.

Advertising
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.

Why didn't I pray?

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?

And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people.  Eph 6:18

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?

Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.  Matt 11:28

During recent weeks, when I found myself fretting over something again and again why, instead, didn't I pray?

Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.  Phil 4:6

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?

Carry each other's burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.  Gal 6:2

When I was wronged or just plain irritated why, instead of harbouring bitter thoughts, didn't I pray?

Bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you.  Luke 6:28

When I was standing in the queue for all that time why, instead of staring into space blankly, didn't I pray?

Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus.  1Thes 5:16-18

Why didn't I pray?

Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up. Luke 18:1

The best advice ever

There's lots of good advice out there.

Always eat breakfast.

When you do, rinse the leftover weetbix off the bowl before it sets like cement.

Stick the mobile phone that went through a cycle in the washing machine in a jar of rice to dry it out.  (Not sure if that goes for smart phones...I haven't graduated that far yet.  Actually, I don't think I have ever had to put a phone in a jar of rice...but I'm told it works.)

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.

Speak less and listen more.

 

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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. 

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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. 

See to it that no one falls short of the grace of God and that no bitter root grows up to cause trouble.

Hebrews 12:15.

Status Report: July

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.

Almost: ready for the Holiday Bible Club programme that our church runs for five mornings during the first week of the July holidays for school children.  I had to overcome significant inertia to get my contributions of craft projects for the HBC prepared.  Thank you to those who heard my whinges and prayed.  I'm well on my way now.  And I am especially pleased with the lion puppet and also Gideon's tea light in a jar.  (Deb...that tea light craft idea I sent you has finally risen to the surface.  I knew it would be useful one day.  But wow...it took me ages to find paper doilies in the shops.  And I felt ridiculous asking shop assistants for them.)

Reading: Mansfield Park by Jane Austen.  I thought I knew all of her novels but it seems I am not familiar with this particular one, so it has been great to read an Austen novel cold, as it were, without seeing it through my memories of a film or TV series.  Dear Jane does turn a beautiful phrase.  The question is, will Fanny marry Edmund or Mr Crawford, leaving Edmund to marry Mary Crawford? Or maybe she won't marry at all but become Aunt Norris' companion.  Fifty pages to go...

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. 

Signing: off for now.  More craft preparation to do.  In front of a West Wing episode.