Working 9 to 5...

So I'm trying to analyse exactly what I do at this time of year. Every now and again I try to think through which is the quietest time of the year for COOL, and I always tend towards June, and then am always surprised how much time work takes up during this month.
Well only three assemblies this week and just the one visit to the High School, so what have I done all week? Monday was my annual appraisal followed by a SoundWaves team meeting in the evening, having cooked for Malcolm and Colin. With Ruth being ill for a couple of days it adds some time pressure, but she recovered quickly. Then Tuesday I only had one meeting, which was for the potential HMI inspection of the Skye & Lochalsh learning community. That doesn't officially include us as we don't recieve any public funds, but we're so involved with many aspects of the young people that it's good to be represented. Wednesday was anothe day of filming for the Holiday Club, and it was good to have the help of Rachel and Kaylan from the visiting American team with the Free Church. Another day at home (with the car in for a service) on Thursday before three school visits and the Bible study on Friday night. One more full day of work this week as the SoundWaves team headed to Inverness for a training seminar on Communicating with Children. Good to share a meal together and also good to be encouraged that we seem to be doing ok in terms of how we deliver our children's work on Tuesday nights, though it wasn't a time of gaining much extra info.
So I seem to be right that I have less contact time at this time of year, but the Holiday Club preparation, amongst other bits and pieces of admin, seem to more than compensate. Night times at the moment tend to consist of some film on TV whilst writing the quiz for the Clubs, in my 'pigeon' ActionScript programming. Takes quite a long time when you don't really know what you're doing; the code won't look pretty but it'll work! And then the video processing for the Bible teaching took up another couple of days, with maybe a couple more to go. On the horizon for the coming couple of weeks is some prop making for the club as well as writing the group times. So that's why this time of year is busily quiet! Time spent in front of the PC passes very qucikly and 12 hour days are not unusual, fitting in buts and pieces whenever I have spare time. If we were to block off time to write a whoile holiday club, had immediate access to all the resources (including inspiration) on hand all the time, I guess the team cwould put everything together in less than two weeks. But the real world doesn;t work like that, but we'll be ready for July!

Call to Prayer

The week of the bi-annual Prayer for Youth meetings always tends to be busy, as I run a prayer meeting in each of the four parishes for four nights of the week. That means full days and out of every evening, with the Friday Night group on the fifth. But is thas been a good week for prayer as God calls us to a new place. Great to see half the meeting on Monday in Ratagan made up of praying school age people, many of whom also come to the 60 Second Club. The main themes this week were prayer for the proposed Bible Reading Club, the Discispleship program and then for young people as God laid them on our hearts, as we considered the access we have to the throne of God. This was partnered on Wednesday night by an open prayer meeting for all the churches to cry out to God. As it turned out, this was dominated by confession of where we have taken our own churches at the expense of the one true Church. A significant time for us in Skye & Lochalsh which we plan to build on in coming weeks.
Another P7 visit in Broadford and an assembly in Elgol looked like a quiet week on paper. But at this time of year as we prepare for the Holiday Club season, there is a lot of work to be done in front of the computer and designing things for use at the clubs, as well as planning the programs. We seem to be slightly ahead of ourselves this year, though there is a lot left to do.