Welcome to the week.
It’s cold here. Luckily someone brought us a bunch of books. Those two facts are related. She said “my father was clearing out his garage and he asked me to take the books that I’d been storing in it. I said I’d get round to it, but he said he wanted them removed right now. So I’ve brought them to you to use”. Which roughly translates as “I think they’re rubbish, my father thinks they’re rubbish, but neither of us can bring ourselves to bin them”. So we’re burning them. Don’t tell anybody. It feels a bit sacriligious burning books, like in the old soviet union or something. But I wracked my brains and really could not find a good use for tomes on accountancy, economics, sociology and a whole bunch of other stuff all thirty years out of date and not in good enough condition to be preserved for any sort of posterity; some of them even have half the chapters missing. They’re doing just fine in our wood stove with the occasional poke to make air spaces between the pages.
I preached on Zaccheus on Sunday and everyone liked it. It took me a while to decide whether that was a good thing or not; like if everyone thought it was good, then should I have pushed further to be more challenging. But on reflection I think it was OK. For those who read Spanish, or want to look at the pictures, it’ll be under the “sermons” tab on the website either later tonight or at some stage in the next day or two.
Our kid is practising his first (and most important!) chat-up line; “Mummy, you’re cute”. You too babe.
And this is a link to an article that I was reading this morning, thinking about how much difference an attention to practical detail can contribute to success or failure in mission. It made me say “oh yes and how” a couple of times. There are a few people who I’d like to send it to direct, but I don’t want to be taken the wrong way, so if I put it up here, and people come accross it by accident, then hey, that’s just fine too, and maybe I didn’t mean you personally….