So, I'm preparing a sermon! That is such a weird thing for me to say. As part of VLI we have to do a preaching/teaching module and we get to preach to the group (three times) ... as well as the senior pastor, Steve Nicholson. That is so nerve-racking. I managed to get through the first one (on Luke 14:25 - 33) with rave reviews - must have paid people enough then! The next one I'm preparing is on marriage. I am having so much fun researching marriage today and back in the first century - the internet can truly be a wonderful thing. However, I really ought to have a little less fun, and do more stuff that needs to be done - walk dog, do laundry, get the groceries, run errands,clean the house - you know all those dreary mundane chores that contribute so much to the smooth running of the home.

Oh well.

We have skunks lodging under the back porch - again. They don't even pay rent. And they do leave their smell - the house can be quite unbearable at times. We have put some dried fox urine (bought on the 'net) - and some moth balls in their hole(s) to see whether that will drive them away. Which it did before - but they came back. This time once they leave we are going to have to fill the holes with concrete. We do have to make sure they aren't there at the time because, apparently, dead skunk smell strongly rivals live skunk smell .... and they look so cute from a distance!

Last Sunday during a conversation with Steve Nicholson and others, he commented that sometimes people in the shadows have to 'step up' I replied that in the past year I have stepped up (to new responsibilities/challenges etc) more than in the last twenty. He said that I must have prayed that my life was too boring or something .... and I have to confess that I did. Almost exactly two years ago I was in one of the cubicles in the bathrooms at church crying my heart out to God, that there had to be more for a middle aged mother of four than Sunday School. (don't get me wrong, I have taught in Sunday School for many years, it just seems to be the caracature of a middle aged woman) - and boy, he has answered that prayer big time. Lot's of what is being done in me is embryonic at the moment, but when I think of where things can lead, I find it really scary - and exciting. Go on, pray that prayer too - you don't want a quiet life now do you?