Filed under: at home
Today really feels like a holiday. I’m taking a five minute break from my day’s main activity, which is to listen to a teaching cd and take notes on it. All the leadership team at church have been given the same eight cds and instructed to do this task in the next four weeks. I’m really enjoying it, and learning so much. Of course, there is something delightful about sitting up in bed in my pjs, with my laptop and a hot cup of coffee, tapping away. I love to pause every few moments and look out on the rain-soaked garden. Such a decadent way to learn!
Hubs and I have been trying to get to the movies for ages to see The Other Boleyn Girl. I read the book not long ago, and quite enjoyed it, though it was a little like reading a very long soap opera. I was interested to see how they would make a movie out of a novel with so many intricacies, twists and turns. The novel was very much character-driven, and I was interested to see how this would be handled, too. We managed to race up to an early-afternoon show yesterday.
Overall, we were both disappointed. The plot jumped from one thing to the next, and though the film was close to two hours, it certainly didn’t draw me into the action. I felt no sympathy for the characters, and often felt like I was being ‘told’ how to think and respond to a situation. That deep, complex, many-layered friendship between the Boleyn sisters and their brother George became case of simple sibling rivalry, and George, I thought, was rather wet as a character. Ann seemed so young – she looked like a fifteen year old girl much of the time, and thus was somewhat unbelievable. Mary spent a lot of time with her mouth open in pretty confusion. She was constructed as a girl of sweetness and light, an innocent pawn in the hand of her power-hungry, but stupid father, and her plotting uncle. They did not capture the complexities of her nature, the internal struggles she underwent as a girl in competition with her sister. Funnily enough, the character I liked best was the mother. She was portrayed as a women in conflict, struggling to see her daughters prostituted for the sake of family status. She was a feminist, a strong woman, but ultimately had now power due to her gender. She handled her upper-class position well, and was believable in that role. I felt that the girls struggled a bit to portray the position of English aristocracy. Their performance was a bit raw, almost as though they didn’t believe their position either.
The redeeming features of the film were the sumptuous costumes and the stunning scenery. There was also some interesting camera work, which added to the visual feast of the film. It was worth seeing it for those features, but if you are interested in the plot and character development, don’t bother.
I have to talk a bit about clothes. You may have guessed by now that I really enjoy clothing and shopping and spiritual fun stuff like that. It’s who I am.
I’ve decided this winter to go with more skirts and dresses. I bought a lovely flowy, just-below-the-knee wool skirt in this charcoal colour. It is very fine merino wool, and it will go great with boots and black or red or even the gorgeous purple colour I’m seeing a lot of. I also bought a lovely wool dress, grey, which will look good with a long-sleeved shirt underneath and either leggings or tights. Boots will be funky, or those cute little ballerina flats. I’m looking forward to the cooler weather so I can try out these new looks.
My husband is pleased that I will be wearing more skirts. I never realised until blogging that some women wear skirts and dresses all the time. NO ONE does that here! Seriously, we are strangely lacking in full-on christian ‘modes’ like the skirts thing or extreme home-schooling thing or the extreme-modesty thing*. I find it fascinating and I think I would be a miserable failure in any of these camps. Ahem. But I digress. My husband is not into skirts and dresses because they are holy, but because he thinks they are hot. And I like to keep him happy. (It is not at all because I like to shop for new things. Heh heh!)
* I am in no way mocking any of these schools of thought. In fact, I subscirbe to the notion that often these things are good, even best for us, and I find some of them beautiful and challenging. I’m just saying that we don’t seem to run to extremes in the same way here. I wonder why that is? Maybe it’s just too hot to bother with extremes?? I dunno.
Before I started blogging I never realised how much talk there was on what women should be doing and what men should be doing. In the church I attended quite a few years ago, the women pretty much just cooked for the prayer breakfasts, did the flowers, cleaning, Sunday School and were a pretty amazing support and encouragment over all. As a young women, I remember wondering why women couldn’t organise communion and so on – I just thought it was a bit strange. I was happy, though, and it wasn’t until a few years later that I began to discover all that the Lord had placed in me, and I yearned for a place to utilise these gifts.
In the church we attend now, men and women do whatever. Leadership is based upon gifting, calling and character. Each of us is encouraged and spurred on to be the best that we can be in Christ, and none of it relates to gender. We wives are taught to honour and submit to our husbands, though, and we also show great esteem and honour to our leaders. It just all seems good and right, to me. In our marriage, we have a strong mutual fan club happening. He listens to me, respects what I say, and I do the same. There are times when we reach an impasse, and that is when I give him right of way. It’s all good. I see a clear line of authority happening in the Word, but I also see great love and respect and esteem on all sides. Authority is ruled and wielded by a rule of love.
Both my husband and I desire to see the other reach all they can be in God. We spur one another on to good deeds in Him. He steps into my areas of weakness and prods me into change, and I do the same for him. We work together as a team. At the end of the day, he is still the leader, but we are one, a team in this game of life.
We both ‘know’ that one day we will be running a ministry together. It is just something we feel called to do. I know that it won’t be a traditional ‘church’, more a place of training like the wonderful church we attend now. I’m not sure when it will be; we both have so much more growing to do, but I know it will happen as we allow Him to mould us and change us.
We’ve discussed how it will look, in the light of marriage and family. Both of us feel that ministry is not a masculine role; indeed, the best and strongest ministries operate with husband and wife hand in hand. We believe that we both will be called to work full-time in this, and it will take both of us to run our family full-time in this also. There will be times when he will have to take on the domestic responsibilities, and there will be times when it is best for me to do so.
We saw a little of this operating this weekend. We launched our outreach programme this weekend at church, the one I have been working on with a team of others. I spent a lot of time in meetings and at the computer. Usually on a Sunday morning my husband spends a lot of time getting ready for his worhsip ministry, while I take care of getting dinner ready ahead of time, running loads of washing ready for the working week, and organising stuff for kids church if I am on this day.
Yesterday, I spent the better part of the day working here. I had a speech to refine, teams to organise, powerpoints to put together. It took all my time and attention. My lovely man did the laundry, cleaned up the kitchen, hung out the washing and organised a number of things that needed doing. We did what needed to get done, and no job was more or less important. It was all about supporting each other as needed. I was working in the area where my gift and calling was needed, and he was supporting that. I do the same for him when it is his time to shine.
It works well.
I think one of the most irritating phrases is, “I’m so tired!”, and yet I find it slipping out of my mouth quite often. I think saying it just reinforces that feeling of inertia and the desire to be horizontal for a day or two. This last weekend was a full one; we had a wedding on Sunday that went pretty much all day. Hubs was playing guitar and coordinating all the music, so Sunday was the culmination of a lot of hard work for him. Someone actually came up to him after the ceremony and asked if the ‘band’ did lots of weddings, and did they have a card? He laughed and told her that they were just mates of the groom. It shows how great they sounded. I know we were busy on Saturday and Friday night, but my brain is only retaining the last three hours or so at present.
Teaching after a long day and a very late night is always fun. The long macchiato I sucked down on the way to work helped, but I am thinking I really need to wean myself off coffee again for a while. It perks you up but then you crash and burn about six hours later.
When we are that tired, there is always the danger of getting run down. It Is easier to fall ill in this state, so I make sure our food is full of nutrition to build up our strength. There was the temptation last night to just order pizza, but I knew this wouldn’t cut it, so I threw together a big salad made from fresh rocket from the garden, raspberry vinagrette, walnuts, avocado and shaved parmesan. Avocado is a powerhouse of nutrients, and dark green rocket is packed full of anti-oxidants. We try to eat a salad at least four times a week.
I also cooked a whole head of broccoli with dinner, which was organic spicy chicken wings and wedges. I think we had enough greens last night! We both woke up feeling a bit better this morning, and I know a really good meal helps with this. It is worth a bit of extra effort. I made sure that I took a healthy lunch, too; leftover vegetable and bean soup. I like the idea of prevention rather than cure, which is why I refused the school’s free flu vaccine and am sticking to a good diet. It is amazing what the body can throw off when it is well-nourished.
This weekend is a big one for me, as we are launching our child-sponsorship program in Cambodia, as well as the business sponsorship and leadership training. I am pretty much coordinating all this, and tomorrow will be packed with picking up the dvds, creating information packs, and working on our presentation. I am excited about it! It is so different to teaching, and yet I find myself enjoying every moment. I know I have an impact on the young lives in my daily care, but there is something about helping to feed and clothe the desperately needy that just feels so right. I love knowing that we are changing the destiny of several lives, and thus changing the face of a nation.
Filed under: Uncategorized
I was in the changerooms wanting to try on some clothes this afternoon. I walked up to the door of the only free cubicle, only to look inside and see two little boys aged about three sitting on the little bench.
Me: Oh, are you in here, boys?
Boy One: Ben’s mummy told us to sit in here and not to move.
Boy Two: Yeah, she told us to stay in here.
I stood outside the rest of the cubicles, waiting, and I could hear them say, “We told her, didn’t we?” “Yeah, we told her.” Eventually, Ben’s mummy came out and said to me, “Oh, sorry, I didn’t realise you needed the cubicle. Out you come, boys!” She made them wait outside while she finished changing, and I could hear the rest of the conversation.
“Don’t open the door boys! I’m not finished. Boys….BOYS! Close the door! No, don’t look under the door. That’s rather rude, don’t you think?”
Small pause. You could hear her mind whirring.
“Boys! Don’t look under anyone else’s door!” Anguished shriek. “Boys!”
Must be fun shopping with two small boys.
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Conversation Two: Our house. Night time. Our bedroom. (Don’t worry, I’m not going there.)
There are some things about men and women that are just…. just….. different. We live in a lovely (rental) home that doesn’t not have any flyscreens. This means that every bug in the neighbourhood enjoys free accomodation inside our house. At night, we lie in bed just before turning the lights off and do a quick mosquito check (I’ve heard that other couples don’t do this. What else is there to do before sleep?). I had the fly swatter by my side, when my husband spotted a bug. He said urgently, “Honey, pass me the weaponry!” (Pass me the weaponry??)
He did some kind of weird karate move, then hit the bug. His hits managed to squish and spread the bugs across a metre radius. Mine are light but effective: the bug dies, but there is minimal squashage. He is not satisfied with mere bug death; no, annihilation is in his sights. Our ceiling gets peppered with his squish marks. His eyes light up with victory every time he gets a bug. He loves copious accolades for each hit.
Men are weird.
Filed under: Uncategorized
My challenge to myself for the next week is to just love the Lord in my prayer time. No asking, no begging, no pleading. I’m not going to ask Him for one single thing. For one week, it is going to be all about Him.
