¹³ I am still confident of this:
       I will see the goodness of the LORD
       in the land of the living.

 ¹⁴ Wait for the LORD;
       be strong and take heart
       and wait for the LORD.

Years ago I started collecting thoughts, ideas, quotations and the odd cartoon from the paper.  I now have 3 books of random 'thoughts'.  The books each have a different purpose.  One is mainly poems for 'school'.  One is primarily 'spiritual' and the third more 'secular'; not that there is a defined line between these things, but it helps to bring some order.

One of my original musings dates way back to when I was 9!  I will admit that I've not contributed to these books much recently, but I like to browse through.

Thought I might pass on a few thoughts...

-

Great occasions for serving God come seldom, but little ones surround us daily.

-

God asks not for success but faithfulness;

Not for great skill, but that we do His will.

-

And how about this one from Spurgeon? "By perseverance the snail reached the ark." !!

Last weekend we took a trip to Martin Mere, a Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust (WWT) centre.  The WWT is a leading conservation organisation saving wetlands for wildlife and people across the world.  We went with the Cicada club, members of which have all had a cochlear implant like my dad.  It was the first time I'd met with the group and it was strange to have so many cochlear implants in one place!

I'm not a bird person and know very little about them, however it was quite something to see all the birds they had at the centre.  I took several photos thinking at the time that I would remember what they are, but I have no idea! 

The point of this photo was that all 6 birds in the shot are different species.  Amazing.

There were many different ponds there.  Some were clear like this one, but others were completely frozen.  As we walked around we passed through different area of the world.  I think we were in Africa here and those birds are native to South Africa.  Shame we didn't get the nice weather too....

--

Fairly sure these were from the USA - really beautiful colours.

These flamingoes had been allowed out.  In the severe weather they are kept in because they slip on the ice and break their legs.  They are such an amazing colour.  I haven't captured it here - so vivid.

Perhaps our favourite birds were the nenes (pronounced naynay).  They are also called Hawaiian geese and were nearly extinct until recently. The man who started the Trust was instrumental in saving these birds. 

They were very friendly and hungry too.

They came and ate from our hands.  Wonderful!

They also had a family of otters living there.They are Asian otters which are a third the size of British otters.  The man threw shrimp in to the family and the mother collected them to take back to her young. 

A great day out!

PRAY!

Often when we pray we don't see the result, or at least not very quickly, and sometimes we don't see the result at all.  That can happen for all kinds of reasons, not least because we may be praying for people a long way away...

When I was in Congo I worked with a couple called Frank and June Williams who worked for World Vision.  June and I taught together in a school and we often had Bible study at their house.  Before their posting to Congo they had worked in Haiti for quite some time and had many stories to tell about the land and its people. 

When the disaster struck Haiti last Tuesday I was still awake and saw it on the late news.  My mind went straight to the Williams family and their 3 children, but I thought they were in the States.  I prayed for them and thanked God for the work they'd done there, but they remained on my heart and in my thoughts.  As the story unfolded I realised what a great picture their stories had painted, I felt as though I knew the land. 

Yesterday I received the news that they were back in Haiti, in the middle of the earthquake.  And as I read I realised why I'd had them constantly in my mind for the last few days and I was glad I'd prayed... Please do click on the link below to see how God miraculously protected the family.  Some mutual friends have now heard directly from June who is now back in the States with the two girls.   http://www.apostlesct.org/?q=HaitiPrayersAndRelief  
 

Back in the summer when we visited Eureka I found a product called Gelli Baff in their shop.  I decided that it looked like fun and bought some for Christmas.  (It was too expensive for 'just a treat'!)   I then found more (on sale too) elsewhere and decided it would be nice to have a box each for the boys.  They do different colours too. (Shhh, don't tell them, but I've got yet another box hidden away for a surprise maybe at Easter or in the summer!)

The boys enjoy having a bath and were intrigued by this 'stuff' so quickly persuaded me to give it a try.

We sprinkled it in.

After a few minutes it turned into something resembling coloured semolina.  I think that each particle of the powder had swelled with water.  (I did wonder if it's similar to the stuff they use in disposable nappies?)  They had a great time playing in it, seeing what it could do.  It only partially drained through a funnel so I was glad there was a promise that it would drain properly after you'd followed all the instructions! 

When they were finished I poured in the 'un-gelli' powder and it returned almost to the normal consistency of water.

It's not recommended for under 5's unless under constant supervision, but on a cold miserable day when going out is out of the question it is a fantastic way to spend an hour or so and it didn't leave any mess either!

I'd just finished writing this and was checking my links when I found this information: Gellibaff is a harmless powder which holds 400 times its own weight in water. A similar substance is used in disposable nappies. The dissolver sachet is pure table salt, the same as you put on your chips!  Nice to know I was right about the nappies!