Out or In...?

Doing my usual nosey round children's ministry websites/local church developments. I have copied this from a church website from somewhere far, far away:

" Since children's ministry is one of the most important things we do and the main service is designed for adults, children 6th grade and under are not permitted in the adult service. They will have a better experience and learn about God in a more appropriate manner in KidVenture. Check-in begins 20 minutes before each service."

Any comments?

Blogging slowdown

Every time I go to blog, something stops it happening.

Ah, that's right, it's called LIFE! :-)
As our house is on the market, if we get a call to say a viewer is coming then everything has to stop for Operation Tidy-Up. We have two of the untidiest kids ever. Fortunately they are on a "holiday" to grandma's for two days so last night's Operation Tidy-Up went smoothly. We can rest assured that the ant collection will remain in the garden (thanks to a Canadian bug vacuum - the joy of North American toys) and that the doll's nappies (soiled) are packed away in the Baby Annabel suitcase and will REMAIN THERE.

Did mean to post some Canadian pictures last night, will get round to it soon, I promise. Our main prayer is for our house to sell so that we can count up all the pennies so we can buy a house in the new town. However, we are not homeless and in a little under three weeks time we will be renting. Wow. Haven't done that since I was 19.

Had a bank interview yesterday and some of the mortgage and financial stuff happening in the UK today makes for grim reading. We are affected by it in some ways (stamp duty agghhhhh!) and yet I feel strangely calm. I can't explain it beyind the fact that God started this process of moving and he will oversee every detail of it. He has been nothing but good to me my whole life long. This journey has showed us as a family that all we need is him. I have just done a little study on the word "riches" and in the New Testament Ephesians is flooded with references to God's riches for those who believe. This does not necessarily refer of course to material wealth, although I have always known "enough", some of which has come in amazing circumstances. Encouraging stuff.

Hopefully post more soon.
Deep in preparation and work for leaving and for the summer holiday club - this year almost 70 children out of 120 have no church connection at all! (We always have lots of our own children who come). I am looking forward to it very much.

Help Ma Boab

The title of this post refers to a unique Scottish expression of disbelief - as perpetuated by that well known Dundee based family - The Broons.
Help Ma Boab! (cried Daphne)
I've just read some suggestions for doctrinal books for children from a non-UK blog (she says tactfully). The person who put this list together clearly has no affinity with a child's world and that's really all I am going to say.

I found two of John Stott's books suggested for Third Years (age 13-14)
I'm not saying that John Stott writes loftily (I freely admit I had to read The Cross of Christ slowly and carefully. It had lots of pages and small print. And my SP's copy had a broken spine so I had to make like sudoko and get the pages to add up to something corresponding to chapter and page numbers) but check out an example of an Intermediate 1 English paper and you will see what I mean. Print that off and put that side by side with The Bondage of the Will by Martin Luther (recommended for 14 year olds).

But I'm being unfair. This list may have been compiled for third and fourth years who have been privately educated or homeschooled and who will read at a higher level than the majority of children. I can't help but admit my bias, which is often tilted towards the low achiever, the one with less positive life chances, the one looked down upon or forgotten. I can't help but love on them...and be passionate about wanting knowledge of our wonderful God to be theirs too.

I get quite frustrated sometimes when things about God are made inaccessible by our wordiness or lengthiness and I am getting more certain that the time is coming in my life when I may attempt to write a series of booklets to explain a little more about theology and doctrine at a child's level of reading and comprehension. I have spent a pretty long time thinking that I just don't have the ability to do this but I'm beginning to think - "well, why not? Why not combine my years in teaching, my knowledge of children's human and spiritual development, my theological qualification-to-be, my present practice and my feel for the "gap" in information and just give it a go?" If it's rubbish, I can take being told that.

There is so much bias out there in theology anyway, can I attempt to present some information on the meaning of salvation and the atonement from all angles (much like one of my favourite books does, which I have raved about before: The Nature of the Atonement) because children can understand pictures a little easier than adults at times? A child of 5-7 is capable of understanding the healing metaphor of the atonement (hat tip to Joel Green), s/he understands the principles of substitution (he took my place), s/he understands market place and courtroom pictures to explain the atonement; s/he understands Christus Victor theory in that she knows that Jesus defeated God's enemy once and for all - in fact by the time a child reaches 8 or 9 years of age she or he can understand that many pictures can be used to explain what God has done through Jesus.

An 8 year old would agree that a "rainbow of metaphors" are possible. S/he wouldn't refuse to stand alongside someone that thought - and even spoke out about - another view of the meaning of the atonement. S/he probably wouldn't fall out with someone (and I do truly presume this has not happened in the real world today) because they thought that God sent his son to die because of X Y or Z. They would simply say "he loves me and I love him". We are to become like unsophisticated little children. Simplify.

Midway through the Canada trip.....

Ooooh, at this stage in our holidays, I have some amazing photos to share but forgot to bring a USB lead for the camera and dear reader, you understand that I would much rather be swimming in Lake Huron than sitting here in the public library uploading photos (mainly of my scared children as we wooped and screamed with delight approaching the tumbling Niagara Falls in the Maid of the Mist)

Had an awesome time at our all age conference in Toronto and now we are on the Bruce peninsula, Lake Huron, Ontario, enjoying balmy weather and more majestic scenery.

Oh Canada!

We're off to Canada later today - on Canada Day, appropriately.
We're going here again for three days, where I went in March 2006 with my six year old daughter and a friend and her six year old, and had a great time at an all age conference, returned home, sat on my bubbling feelings for three months (I kept really quiet!) then spoke to my then-SP to share the vision I had to bring the conference over here.

He said YES (he is such a releaser of people. Or was retirement-happy. You choose!), the church promised to financially underwrite the idea and eighteen months later, in October 2007, Families on Fire took on a Scottish twist. It was the fulfillment of a vision and an incredible time. You can probably read about my digging back through the archives to October and November 2007. So I am so looking forward to going back as a participant and not host :-)

Then we are off to Niagara and downtown Toronto, then spend a week up north in a lakeside cabin, then back to spend a day with the children's pastors who have become our friends. They are great!! Love them.

Wishing you, dear readers, a wonderful rest whatever you do and wherever you go. Please pop a comment in the box below to tell Something About Your Summer. Don't be shy - leave a wee message to cheer me up in the hotel lobby!

I've been tagged!

Thanks to Anne for this great meme. I've only been tagged once before so I hope I've done it right!

My ex... boyfriend was a fisherman from Orkney. This is quite some time ago (she adds hastily) and he had loads of money and bought me the most expensive bible I have ever owned - a leather bound Thomson Chain Reference Bible, giant size - and then flew me to Shetland for my birthday (how romantic. Seagulls and freezing fog) Oooops, how come everyone else has written about their bosses? As a true-to-form Heat reader, the phrase "my ex" can only refer to romantic attachments from the past....

Maybe I should... start packing for my holiday instead of blogging here!?!?

I love... my Father God, my family, my friends, my job! I love this country too. Is it OK to say that and not sound nationalistic? I mean, I love what is ahead for us here, I sense God is stirring the church in Scotland up for the good and I think there could be a dropping of denominational barriers ahead as we get on with the job of bringing the kingdom in.....

People would say ....like Anne, I find this hard to speculate on as I am leaving my current situation and city and people are saying lots of nice things to me and generally make me go all weepy. I am pretty certain some would say I can be cheeky and a bit irreverent (only a few months ago our office administrator and myself took it in turns to fire elastic bands from the office photocopier the length of the office to try and "score a goal" through the narrow window vent. Then we had a phase of using only Jack Bauer 24 speak in the office - she'd "patch people through to me" and "reposition the satellites to trace the Senior Pastor's whereabouts" etc, to much hilarity which got us frowned at a little.)

I don't understand... How working families tax credit is calculated. Roadworks planned to start on Mondays. Why it rains after you put your washing out despite the sky being sunny. Men (sometimes).

When I wake up in the morning... I immediately snuggle down again and try to ignore the noise from my children.

I lost... respect for the current government when the Home Office locked away a family of ours with four children under 10 for 31 days in August 2006 in an English detention centre for doing nothing wrong other than being asylum seekers from Rwanda....

Life is full of... purpose. Not a single thing I have ever done, been or experienced is wasted.

My past is...something I look back on with gratitude.

I get annoyed when... people drive at 25 mph. Hog the middle lane. Put their fog light on at dusk AND IT'S NOT FOGGY. Turn right with no advance indication. (do you spot a theme here? Driver. Lynn. Intolerant. (<--- rearrange to form a phrase)

Parties are... a chance to chat and laugh and dance (depending on the party); a definite occasion for a babysitter. Unless its your child's 8th birthday party of course. In which case you'd be a bad parent.

I wish... that NEVER again would any child be harmed. For that transformation to be amongst the first in the new heaven and earth

Dogs... are smelly.

Cats... are less smelly. Unless you're beside their litter tray. Then they're smelly too.

Tomorrow... I'm going to have a lie in. Then be a "chatting person" at a local community festival where our church is getting involved in providing children's activities and free food and chat.

I have a low tolerance for... miscommunication in any shape or form. I am pretty sure it accounts for about 95% of all fall-outs in this world. Take emails for example - I try to send even just a short acknowledgement "thanks for this" etc - prevents miscommunication/misunderstanding/disharmony! Sometimes emails don't get through whereas paper put in the boss's tray always does get there, if you put it there. If I haven't returned a phone call, I'm bothered by it until I do it! (I'm probably like this because I work with so many volunteers and people need to feel I'll listen and respond to them)

If I had a million dollars... I'd bless my mum and dad with all they needed for retirement, invest the rest, tithe to my local church, with gifts and offerings above that to children's projects e.g. Tear Fund's work to provide refuges and skills training for child prostitutes in Thailand. Or Iris Ministry's babyhouse in Maputo.

I'm totally terrified of... nothing really. There are things I don't like, like spiders, and I don't relish the thought of having a major illness or operation, but I'm not walking in fear of any of these things. On the spider front, that's what a perfectly good shoe is for.

Now I tag: Amie, Lorraine, Lucy, Brodie and Stuart.

Results

I received my results today and I was overwhelmed and delighted. I got the highest marks I have ever got in 5 years of very part-time study, whilst I was cramming in more modules than ever before in a term.

God is so good and faithful to me. Every hour that I struggled with my assignments and reading I talked to him about it (using, in the main, the word "help!")

I got 17 for my New Testament studies on the Gospels. (you write three short essays under unseen exam conditions, marked out of 20 and then averaged). I got 18, 17 and 16 which made 17 overall.

In the OT theology class, my three essays scored 16, 16 and 16. Regular readers may know I was really worried about the OT as I struggled with the amount of Hebrew knowledge it felt like one needed to know but as I sat down to sit the exam last Thursday I nearly exploded with joy and praise all the way through as I just knew what to say. It was an exam that felt like worship to the one true living God indeed.

And for my extended placement and research paper, I was marked on an 18 for the actual placement and then 15 and 15 for research and placement papers (I'm always better at the practical stuff; just let me get on with it and do it!) but then that's a pretty respectable 16 overall. Can't remember if 17 upwards is Outstanding on the Common Assessment Scale or "just" Very Good, but I'm chuffed to bits.

Only 3 modules to go next session then its all over!!
The BA Theo party is booked............