by Mike Watkins

I was talking with a pastor friend the other day in Kiev about the lack of a leader for his youth ministry as well as a problem that I solved in our new church meetings. My problem is that since we are small and getting started I was leading every aspect of the meetings. I opened the meeting, I lead worship, I made announcements, I preached & then closed the meetings. At the same time I noticed that the whole meeting had an awkward feeling that one of our team said was like being in school.

My friend was doing the same thing with his youth because he did not have anyone experienced enough to lead. After an hour of discussion, the root as well as the solution was uncovered. It is true we did not have anyone as experienced as ourselves to lead the team or the whole meeting for that matter, but we did have people who could lead individual parts of the meetings.

I had already decided to divide up various roles at this point so that I would not be seen as a schoolmaster or even worse, the church master. Our team had a great creative staff meeting where they even decided the topic that I would preach. Another guy helped me choose the songs, and since he plays guitar, he will also play a few.

In the end it was decided that my only role in the meeting would be to preach for 15 minutes, and our team was encouraged and empowered to have been a part of the whole process.

So who was the leader in all this? I lead our team, but I lead them to lead. The first step in my leadership is to help and encourage my team to take the first steps in their leadership. We have experienced full-time leaders on our team, but we also have volunteers who are just getting started. It is unrealistic to think that we will simply find someone among the untrained volunteers or new believers who is born with the full package for leading a meeting.

I am not the only one who is leading leaders either. We pass this principle of first steps on to everyone with whom we are working. The result is that we will have a happier team and less boring meetings, and as they grow in confidence and ability God’s kingdom will not simply grow but will multiply.

The things which you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses, entrust these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also. 2 Tim 2:2

Mike Watkins is a missionary, a fisher of men and the author of the blog “Simple Truths.”

Here I am again, continuing my exploration of WordPress. I am digging into Lisa Sabin-Wilson’s WordPress for Dummies and learning a lot.

After exploring the themes, my favorite by far is Fjords04, which I am currently using.

Linsey

A few weeks ago I had one of those wonderful procedures in the hospital where they put you under and probe your insides with a lighted tube — with a microscope on the end of it, no less (from the top part of my body, not the bottom, thank you very much).

Anyway, I rather enjoyed the anesthesia and the day off from work. I came home happily sedated and slept most of the afternoon away. I was surprised I could sleep at all that night, but I went straight off to dreamland. My rest felt weighty, groggy, though.

Manderley

The next morning I woke up with that heavy, unnatural feeling. Then suddenly I knew something had happened. I had done it.

I had dreamed an entire novel.

I’ve heard of people who have had this experience. One, I think, got a runaway best-seller out of it. As I lay there in the dark, I reviewed the major plot points. I was amazed. Yes, I congratulated myself. I had done it. This was a book. It seemed like a good one. Maybe even a little like that best-seller, I dared to hope. And I was certain, absolutely certain that I would remember it — at least the major points. I mean, they were right there in my head. Crystal clear. Or what seemed like crystal clear at the time. I promised myself I’d write it all down as soon as I got up . . .

The next night, I had just laid down and gotten all comfy and cozy in my bed when it hit me. Oh yes. I dreamed a novel last night, didn’t I? With a sinking feeling, I remembered I had gotten up, got dressed, gone off to work, came home, ate supper, watched TV and went to bed . . . without even a single thought about what I had dreamed.

What in the world was that book about? No idea. I strained and struggled, spat and sputtered, but there was nothing. I couldn’t remember a single, solitary plot point. Only a vague, wordless impression. And barely that.

Ah, what might have been.

I haven’t lost hope, though. For one thing, I’m pleased with the content of my current work in progress. And maybe I’ll have the dream again, or even a better one. Maybe sometime when I’m very relaxed and it’ll come back to me. Who knows?

Have any of you had that experience? Have you dreamed a book or a part of one? Did it work out for you? I’d like to hear about it.

Now I’m going to try an average size post (for me). Let’s see, what should I put in here?

This is not me...

Well, I did want to list the other Themes I tried out:

• Ocadia
• Ocean Mist
• Fjords04
• Albeo
• Dusk
• MistyLook
• Neat!
• Sweet Blossoms
• Solipsus

I also wanted to add a picture.  Do you like my new hairdo? (Actually, that’s not me. I’m not sure who it is, LOL.)

And now I’m going to add a post I did back in April on PF&HT. On second thought, I’ll add that as a new post.

As you can see, the Theme I’ve chosen is Fjords04. It was the most take-your-breath-away theme I saw, after looking at all of them and trying several out.

However, the posting space is kind of narrow, so I’m wondering how it will work out with long posts. Perhaps this theme is for people who’d like to post only a few sentences at a time. I’m not sure.

I do like that I can log in and post whenever I feel like. Fun!

I am also trying to see what paragraphs look like with this post.

As some of you might know, I’m a member of Petit Four and Hot Tamales, who are on Blogger. No offensive, but so far, WordPress is way cooler.

I’m editing this post because I created it earlier. However, it was before I changed the date, so it’s appearing at the top. Sigh.

Linsey

The Piccolingo logo

As you have read about the Piccolingo – an European program aimed to promote early language learning for preschool children; I am wondering  and strongly hoping that this sort of project is achievable and manageable in the Dutch region.

The Lingua Franca Foundation (Lingua Franca Academy) – is seriously promoting such cause – wanting full exposure for very young children to adapt to more than one language. Having to master more than one language is considered a skill – and to be able to learn and sharpen one skill at a very tender age is a long lasting investment! Not many children having this unique advantage, but those who do, should be given full boost to further their knowledge in this field.

From my understanding and observation all these years, I can conclude that foreigners come to settle in this land of tulips for plenty of reasons. Some for work and business opportunity, some for furthering their education and knowledge, others for private reasons; for example wanting to re-connect to families who migrated  to the the Netherlands long ago, and most of them come to this country for the sake of love. Here in the Netherlands, it is common to see many ‘mixed’ couple with ‘mixed’ children strolling down the street. Seeing that many children come from a ‘mixed’ environment – having families coming from diverse backgrounds and speak with more than one language – this environment should be more encouraging – and not being oppressed nor ignored! – to suit the need of the present and the future. It is proven worldwide that people who possess and practice more than one language can benefit more in life.

Most pre-schools here in the Netherlands only stress the importance of one language; the Dutch language. Learning another language is only stressed upon after the age of 10 in the dutch school system. This is definitely not an ideal learning environment since brain stimulation for languages starts at a very tender age. It is  not a complicated manner. It’s rather simple actually. The younger you are, the easier and faster your brain capacity to absorb all information – ESPECIALLY when it comes to language. The brain works as a sponge – absorbing every word and store them all. The understanding of the word comes a bit later, but the very least is that the brain has been exposed to a ‘new’ word every time permissible!

It would be an idealistic world if you could see all generations able to socialize respectfully and with tolerance. Can this be possible? I surely think it is! If so, how? Well, personally, I think having knowledge of more than one language can break that barrier that keeps us apart and being ignorant. Language is a means of communicating; and to know more languages  brings people closer and open their minds to the differences they have and learn to understand how to live with one another respectfully and harmoniously.

Everything has to start from somewhere. So, I think it is  extremely crucial to start to learn another language from a very tender age. Not only the children learn another language and having fun by doing it, in addition and most importantly, they also learn that the world do not only revolve around them and they have to learn to live together and respect each other’s differences despite colour, race, religion etc.  After all, at that tender age, children see pass the differences and the colour of the skin due to their  purified souls. Then, perhaps, this idealistic world I mentioned before can actually exist…. Don’t you think so?

You can give us your opinion by completing the poll below…

You can also contribute to the discussion on our FaceBook Page here.

We appreciate your collaboration and we are really thankful for any ideas or suggestions, so don’t hesitate to make your opinion known to us.  Thank you.

]]> http://newurbanhabitat.com/2009/11/10/milestones/ Tue, 10 Nov 2009 22:53:12 +0000 newurbanhabitat http://newurbanhabitat.com/2009/11/10/milestones/

The ducks are flying low, black vees swooping between the trees. “Ga ga,” Ezra calls as they pass. He’s toddling along beside me. He weaves into a neighbor’s yard, and I reach for his hand to veer him back onto the sidewalk

Ezra took his first solo steps this week at seventeen months old. Most babies hit this milestone, oh, about a half-year before Ezra.

He took his time, but he’s hitting it in style. Within a day, he’s toddling everywhere – down the hall, across the park, and up and down the block. And he couldn’t be more thrilled about it.

“Hi, hi, hi,” he calls to a neighbor’s cat. He crouches and picks up a leaf, then stops to examine a lavender plant, refusing to budge for several minutes. “Vroom, vroom,” he says, watching someone ride by on a bicycle.

“Where’s the ball?” He points at a pumpkin on a doorstep.

I tend to walk fast. On walks, my husband is always tugging on my arm. “Slow down. I’m back here.” And my parents call my walks sprints. I just love that feeling of striding – legs pumping, arms gliding.

But I’m appreciating Ezra’s pace right now. My favorite season is almost over. The last yellow leaves are clinging to barren branches, and they shine like pendants in the afternoon sun. The sun, itself, won’t be with us for much longer. It usually goes into hiding until about mid-February. So Ezra and I are making the most of it, ambling around the neighborhood every chance we get.

Watching Ezra delight in his first walks makes me think of my four-year-old nephew. He just got his first pair of glasses. His grandmother says he stands at the window and gazes out, remarking on blades of grass, twigs, the grain of wood.

Imagine seeing all of it for the first time.

This post is for Steady Mom’s 30 Minute Blog Challenge.

I think most mother’s remember their kids first steps. The Boy’s first steps unsupported were at playgroup. He was trying to catch up with a little girl a few months older than him, and let go of my hand and just took off. The Girl’s though- definitely stick out to me.

It was March 12th, 2006. The Husband’s parents were visiting us in England, and we were taking them sight-seeing. We went to Warwick Castle that day. The Girl was just shy of 11 months old. She had been cruising along at home for about a month at that point. She walked mostly on her own, but always with one hand on the wall, or a table, running her fingers along as she went for that extra sense of stabililty. The walls in our house were like the training wheels on The Boy’s bike- a feeling of security and independance all rolled into one.

That day I remember I really wanted to get a picture of her. She had that bright blue sweater on that really made her eyes stand out, and I thought she was just adorable. I stood her up next to one of the castle doors to take her picture. She wobbled a little bit, and smiled at me around the edges of her pacifier. I took the picture, and then turned to The Husband to show him the image in the viewing screen.

I looked back at her in time to see her stepping confidently across the space between us- 10 small steps, but with nothing to hold on to. She was grinning the entire time- it was like she knew that what she was doing at that moment was her own little history in the making.

She loves to hear that story. After all- how many kids can say they learned to walk in a castle!

First steps are often faltering, hesitant and lack direction,  so with that in mind, I write this first post not really knowing what to say, or whether it will appeal to any sort of target audience, or would this time have been better spent giving the dog a good brushing. I woke at 3am this morning with a bunch of topics and ideas in my head, literally tripping over each other in there desire to get out and be heard, so i am hoping that as time goes on i am actually able to entertain someone or win over a friend and/or fan or something.

I finally gave up trying to sleep at 3:30 and started to set this up, so please forgive me if it still looks ropy and incomplete, thats because it is – First Steps you see.

So why get up at an un godly hour to bang away on a keyboard then ? Well yesterday I noticed on a blog that i follow, a call for more ” testosterone ” aka male bloggers. Its quite amusing that as male and females of the same species we have been living in close proximity for a good few thousand years (or more if you believe we were all apes once, personally i doubt that because my tree climbing skills aren’t worth shit) and yet we still are hugely curious about the opposite sex. Well i know i am. I have been married more years than i care to say, and yet still don’t really know who this woman i am married to actually is.

She still manages to surprise me (sometimes good and sometimes bad)  and i certainly would not claim to understand how she thinks and our differing approaches to life often lead to a few bumps on the head.

That being said, i must go feed my zoo

E really started walking last week.  Granted, she took her first step weeks ago, but she’s been preferring crawling to walking for the most part, sometimes going a whole day without taking more than a couple of steps.  Suddenly, it seems like overnight, she’s walking everywhere on her own!  She still crawls, especially when she’s tired or feeling a little unsteady, and would rather hold our hands than walk on her own, but she’s doing it.

The other night, as I was tidying up before bed, E’s baby book caught my eye and it finally struck me that (besides the fact that I never finished it – probably should work on that tonight) her first year is over.  Well over, considering she’s now 14 months old.  Somehow, it took me another two months to grasp the significance of her first year.  So much newness and sweetness.  Yesterday, we were watching some of her old videos from her newborn days.  It’s hard to believe how quickly she has grown and will continue to grow.

Hallo,

ist zwar schon ein paar Wochen her, aber ich moechte doch kurz ein bischen was ueber unseren Kurzausflug in die Southern Highlands und Canberra erzaehlen…

Am 4.10. sind wir zu unserer bisher laengsten Tour aufgebrochen um die Hauptstadt zu besuchen. Da wussten wir noch nicht, dass sich die Aussage meiner lieben Kollegen bewarheiten sollte, dass man diese Stadt hoechstens einmal besuchen muss .

Auf unserem Weg haben wir einen kleinen Abstecher in die Southern Highlands gemacht, eine wunderschoene Gegend, einfach sehenswert! Leider hatten wir mit dem Wetter nicht soviel Glueck und es war meistens regnerisch und nebelig. So bin ich auch erstmal mutig im Nebel auf eine Aussichtsplatform fuer einen Wasserfall gestiefelt und habe erst gemerkt als ich drauf Stand, dass das wohl sowas wie ein Skywalk (OK, fuer meine Verhaeltnisse ) ist… Ich bin dann halt todesmutig gaaaanz langsam wieder zurueckgegangen. Von weitem sieht so ein Wasserfall ja auch ganz nett aus .

In Canberra angekommen, haben wir dann auch gemerkt warum man in eine Regierungsstadt vielleicht nicht unbedingt an einem Regierungsfeiertag fahren sollte. Habt ihr 28 days later gesehen? Viel voller wars nicht !

Aufgrund mangelnder Shopping-Moeglichkeiten (Kulturbanausen ) haben wir uns dann das War Memorial und das Museum of Australia angesehen. Das war aber auf jeden Fall sehr empfehlenswert!

Als das Wetter ein bischen besser zu werden schien, haben wir kurzerhand beschlossen nochmal in die Southern Highlands zu fahren um uns die Gegend bei besserem Wetter anzuschauen. Leider hatte sich das Unwetter nur hinter nem Huege versteckt und wir haben wieder nen nassen A*** bekommen.

Alles in allem wars gut Canberra mal gesehen zu haben, ob wir unbedingt nochmal hinmuessen… .

Achja, schonmal im Formule 1 Hotel uebernachtet? Wer mir erzaehlen kann wie man nach dem Duschen die Toilette nochmal benutzen kann, bekommt ein Bier in Deutschland !

Viele Gruesse
Marcel

Anthony is so close to walking! He could do it if he decided he wanted to, but right now crawling is still faster for him. He is excited about walking, and will practice like crazy when the mood strikes him. He usually gets a little crazy right before bedtime and decides to walk all over the place, so tonight I took some video of him practicing his skills. He can walk across the room, stop, turn corners, stand up from sitting, etc. I think the video shows most of those skills (there’s even a little growling in there for good measure). I spliced together a few videos into one, and also included a video of him crawling at the end just so you can get an idea of how quickly he can crawl!

David and I spend time encouraging Anthony to walk, and take turns having him walk between the two of us. Madeline tends to get a little jealous of all of the attention being lavished on her brother, so she insists that she walk between the two of us as well. It’s pretty comical because she mimics the way Anthony walks. Kind of like Frankenstein! She puts her arms out in front of her, walks on her tip-toes, and pretends to be wobbly. I think it looks like Anthony just got off a spinning ride at a carnival because he looks all disoriented when he is trying to walk. It will actually be kind of sad when he masters walking because he provides us endless entertainment with his cute, little Frankenstein walk!

Yes !

We have been waiting that moment for a (too long) while, now, and it is done !

What ?  The Lingua Franca Foundation is born! It was yesterday, in a notary office somewhere near Maastricht.  The baby is well and the happy parent are overwhelmed with emotion, of course.

The statutes have been signed at a little more than 4 PM, local time.  And the Lingua Franca Foundation is now a reality! A reality of which we’ll regularly inform you on this very blog.

So we hope too see you soon.  For fresh and stunning good news about the Lingua Franca Foundation, its projects and the people who, everyday, make it a fascinating experience.

Now, you can already learn more about us by visiting our  About Page.

See you soon!

Ника решила занятся живописью. Нашли ей учительницу живописи в Chatsworth – Арину. Очень приятная семья и подход к обучению нам нравится. Внизу пример того что Ника рисовала в другой школе (за один день) и того что она рисовала у Арины (четыре урока)

 У какого то учителя рисования (Юля водила я не знаю)

У Арины

10 Ways to Prepare for Homeownership

1. Decide what you can afford. Generally, you can afford a home equal in value to between two and three times your gross income.

2. Develop your home wish list. Then, prioritize the features on your list.

3. Select where you want to live. Compile a list of three or four neighborhoods you’d like to live in, taking into account items such as schools, recreational facilities, area expansion plans, and safety.

4. Start saving. Do you have enough money saved to qualify for a mortgage and cover your down payment?  Ideally, you should have 20 percent of the purchase price saved as a down payment. Also, don’t forget to factor in closing costs. Closing costs — including taxes, attorney’s fee, and transfer fees — average between 2 and 7 percent of the home price.

5. Get your credit in order. Obtain a copy of your credit report to make sure it is accurate and to correct any errors immediately. A credit report provides a history of your credit, bad debts, and any late payments.
6. Determine your mortgage qualifications. How large of mortgage do you qualify for? Also, explore different loan options — such as 30-year or 15-year fixed mortgages or ARMs — and decide what’s best for you.

7. Get preapproved. Organize all the documentation a lender will need to preapprove you for a loan. You might need W-2 forms, copies of at least one pay stub, account numbers, and copies of two to four months of bank or credit union statements.

8. Weigh other sources of help with a down payment. Do you qualify for any special mortgage or down payment assistance programs? Check with your state and local government on down payment assistance programs for first-time buyers. Or, if you have an IRA account, you can use the money you’ve saved to buy your fist home without paying a penalty for early withdrawal.

9. Calculate the costs of homeownership. This should include property taxes, insurance, maintenance and utilities, and association fees, if applicable.

10. Contact a REALTOR®. Find an experienced REALTOR® who can help guide you through the process.