At Week’s End

Today at my third and final covenant service, I did something I haven’t done. Leading up to the sermon, I made a quick decision to forget the prepared one and make an off the cuff one. Now the sermon I had been using for the two previous week’s was a recycled one (I got busy leading up to my course), so it wasn’t like I was forsaking a week’s hard work. But, I had been thinking about something for the past two weeks or so since I watched the second episode of Lark Rise to Candleford.

In that particular episode, Dorcas (one of the main characters) hires a new maid, who has had a hard life and doesn’t take responsibility nor does she respect other people things. Not because she is hateful, but, as we learn, hasn’t been taught how to growing up with an abusive father. Dorcas resolves to stick with this girl and teach her, promising never to throw her out of the house.

I had been thinking a lot about Mellor and how hard they are trying. They have started prayer groups and bible studies and instigated an ecumenical group to look at how we can work together. I don’t get to see them often enough, so it was a year since my bold plan of reading through Advent (2007) through Acts to see that it had borne fruit. At this church, we are making plans to reach out to others with the Alpha course. With it being covenant service, this reminded us that, like Dorcas’s maid, those with little to no contact with Christianity needed to be taught what it means to be a Christian (I think there is an unspoken assumption among many Christians here that everyone is really a Christian deep down, but just need to come back to church). I pushed this further saying that because we need to have a covenant service each year, we ourselves need to be taught again and again. I ended finally by saying that God will never kick us out (actually, it may appear that I am on shaky ground with John 15.1-10 with the pruning imagery, but I believe I could have expanded would this not have been off the cuff).

All in all, I did well. I don’t usually do spur of the minute talks like this very well. I repeat myself, forget points or blur them, but all of it made sense. I don’t think this will encourage me to do this very often. I have actually been thinking about this for two weeks now, wondering if this would work as a sermon. So, not as off the cuff as it could be.

In other news, taxes are more or less completed, so I will be freed up by not worrying! Clergy Tax was extremely helpful and friendly. This week I will be trying not to be too jealous of my sister, who is visiting Disney World (and so far, it sounds like her trip is already lots of fun). But, like my fellow Methoblogger Craig Adams, we have just got a new Wii, so I will be relieving stress on that!

All About April
April appears to be cruising along – she has instigated the arrival of the Wii in an effort to keep us fit. Our friends Tim and Natalie have one and that has spurred us on. So, we are both nursing sore arms due to working muscles we don’t normally use! In work news, she has signed up to take a Customer Service course at the college.

Savannah Says
Savannah continues to amaze us. She grows bigger and bigger and knows how to make us laugh. She likes to hold the Wii remote and copy what we do (making swinging motions). She knows how to push April’s buttons, though: instead of calling out for ‘mummy’, she will at times shout out for ‘April’! She still runs up to my computer, wanting to watch ‘Bob!’, ‘Nina!’, and ‘Cook!’

Savannah has a big week ahead. On Friday, she turns 2! Yes, she is getting old!

Weekend Forecast
So, how much time will I spend on the Wii this week and will it prevent me from getting work done? Well, I forecast that April will hide the remotes from me, so it will be kept to a minimum!