communication skills

Yesterday didn't make it to the pages of this blog! As you maybe noticed.

A combination of technical hitches and squeezes on my time.

Computers, for a start. Sometimes, for reasons best known to themselves, they lose their 'communication skills'. They don't seem to want to talk to one another.

Which is a bit of a bind since we rather depend on our computers here being in good communication with one another. A parable of life, of course.

However, a few weeks back, we signed up with a firm who are sort of computer psychiatrists. They understand what's going on in a sick computer's complex mind and, with enviable pastoral skill, are able to get them talking again.

Most of the time they do it over the phone, which means me running around like a busy nurse in the operating theatre (to change the image slightly), pressing different buttons, pulling and pushing power switches, that sort of thing.

Some of the time they do it on-line, where we simply sit back and watch the cursor 'magically' moving across the screen at their control some twenty or more miles away.

And sometimes, like Wednesday, they have to send someone in. A guy called Tom. Another Tom and Jerry caper.

But the man got it fixed at last, which is always a bit of a relief.

Only for there to be another minor problem today. Another breakdown in communication in another realm. This time between the computers and the printer. More phone calls. More 'nursing in the theatre' sort of running to and fro for me.

And more success. The guys are amazing, the way that from a distance they can suss the whole thing out and get the whole thing sorted for us here.

But it does take time. And time's been a bit on the short supply side of things these last few days.

I've had this report to get written, the final appraisal on Barry, our 'student' here. Not the sort of thing to be rushed and it took me most of yesterday, about five long hours in all (between my entertaining Tom the good computer cat).

I was just about done when an e-mail came in from the church's central offices. They've come up with a new form for these final appraisals, so would I use that form?

Do you laugh or cry?

Neither. I simply e-mailed back and sorted out a compromise deal of a sort. I didn't really fancy having another five hour stint.

Today's been busy with school.

The secondary school to start with, of course, then straight back here for the visit of the Primary 7s. Setting the whole place up, finalising all the little details, then welcoming the pupils in.

It must have been a good two hours we had with them, working through the whole of the Easter story with them all. It was great.

What amazingly well-behaved children they are! Polite, good fun, and eager for all that we were doing with them. Who knows just what will have lodged in their hearts.

A quick switch back from that sort of mode to a very different situation.

A lady was in to sort of 'organise' her funeral. She was young, and she wanted to know how before it was really too late she could ensure that her funeral was along the lines she wanted.

She wanted to be prepared - at least in that regard.

It was good to be able to talk things through. And good to have got the contact.

The SU group was on at the school, of course. The last of the term. So a quick dash over there as well.

We were working with them on a prayer they might lead at the school's end of term service next week. It was humbling to see how eager they were to come up with a prayer they might say. Like they were really pretty comfortable in the presence of God.

Tonight there's been a service out at Queensferry. Marking the start of the new minister there.

Between my being here and my being involved at Kirkliston, I'm viewed as a nearby neighbour, so there's a sort of three line whip. The sort of occasion I'm meant to be at.

I'd have been glad to have gone in any case. These are exciting days out there and it was good to be able to share in the start that they made tonight.

I'm sure I must have met the man before - the guy who's going to be their pastor as of now. He seemed to know me anyway, but I just can't put my finger on exactly when it was and why I actually met him.

The singing was lively and loud and the spirit was really alive. It was great to share in a celebration night like that.

Being out that way, I nipped across to Kirkliston after that.

I wanted to see the family whom I see from time to time. The folk whose son was killed in a dreadful accident way back in August of last year.

They're always so very welcoming and they treat me like a friend. Which is what I long they may prove the Lord himself to be as well.

That perhaps is a picture of what my life is really about.

Befriending folk in the name and the love of the Lord. No strings attached. No ulterior purpose.

Just doing what he did and sustaining vital friendships where the grace of God may flow.

Doing what Tom and his skilled computer colleagues do so well with all our machines.

Establishing communication.