Monday 3 December 2007

Do spell-checkers make Freudian slips?

This might amuse you: I was typing a letter today inviting people to take up some free training as specialist mental health hospital visitors. I used the word 'befrienders' which the spell-checker objected to and underlined in red - when I checked the alternative the spell-checker was suggesting, it wanted to change befrienders to bartenders! Now there's an idea ...

Sunday 2 December 2007

Bonus blessings

The original inspiration for the idea of creating a Church library came from two people independently of each other recommending I read a particular book, but each having already loaned their copy to someone else when I asked to borrow it. Thus was born the idea of creating an online catalogue of the books on our private bookshelves and having a system for tracking loans. That was my starting point - and at that point I hadn't envisaged being responsible for managing a physical stock of books ... but then of course I learned of the large box of children's books which someone had kindly donated and having loved reading as a child, I was very keen to make these available to our kids. Then someone donated the library of Christian literature they had been given ... and it seemed only right to catalogue all the books lining the wall of the foyer at the Beacon building ... and then today I tried to resist when I was given yet another bag full of books but upon glancing in the bag, my resolve was undone. There they were, shining in pristine glory, looking 'as new' ... how could a bibliophile refuse?

So what are the 'bonus blessings' of this post's title?

As I've been cataloguing all the books, various charming bookmarks have dropped out. Here is the poem from one such:

The Power of Prayer
The day was long, the burden I had borne
Seemed heavier than I could longer bear,
And then it lifted - but I did not know
Someone had knelt in prayer;
Had taken me to God that very hour,
And asked the easing of the load, and He,
In infinite compassion, had stooped down
And taken it from me.
We cannot tell how often as we pray
For some bewildered one, hurt and distressed,
The answer comes, but many times those hearts
Find sudden peace and rest.
Someone had prayed, and Faith, a reaching hand,
Took hold of God, and brought Him down that day!
So many, many hearts have need of prayer:
Oh, let us pray!
And another bonus blessing: in that bag of books I received today is the very book that inspired the creation of the library. Praise the Lord :-)