Eric Bailey's

I put a link in the image so if you want to read about Mike Cope's understanding of Christmas and a family story of his (he may be a preacher, but I wouldn't let Erica call this a "preacher story"). It is called the "Quarter of Rememberance".

I have been receiving a few little gifts from the kids on the bus this week. I started last week with a hand-made card and then yesterday was the big stuff (a couple of nice mugs), and today I got some treats (it is easy to understand why some of the bus drivers start to resemble Santa after a while with all the treats they get).

Hey did you notice that Santa and Satan have all the same letters just mixed a little...

We had our big Christmas dinner and present opening last night since we are leaving before Christmas and my in-laws left this morning. It was nice and I was surprised with a second very expensive gift (Erica and I got new tires from the rest of the family for Christmas and for our anniversary). My wife got me a golf membership for the three city run courses in town. Since I rarely use any privately owned ones this is a wonderful gift. Now she expects me to work on my game enough to make the "pro"s this year (or at least to keep up with her dad).

The boys did not receive two of their big gifts yet. One from us did not arrive yet, and the other we have (from Neil and Darcy) needs to wait until we get back from this trip so I can set it up one night and they can wake up to it in the morning.

Merry Christmas.

I was reading the other day to my nephew, and my son joined us. My nephew was facinated with the book. A little while later when he would start to fuss, I would hold the cover of the book up where he could see it and he would stop fussing and look at the yellow, red and blue. He really seemed to like the story time and the book itself later.

Well Yesterday was the (annual?) performance review for me. The elders went over the forms that people filled out and gave me a print out of the results to look at while we talked. The results were entirely anonymous, so that people could be straight forward without feeling like they would hurt my feelings, or anything like that. It was interesting and depending on how you read the scale it is either okay, or just barely bad.

All the numbers from the questions were averaged for their question, and the whole was averaged for an over-all rating. People had one question that asked them to give an overall rating (that averaged to 2.7 on a scale of 1-excellent, 2-good, 3-adequate, 4-poor) and the average of all the questions (except that one) worked out to 2.65 which means that people were consistent. I'm not sure exactly what else it means, but at least the congregation is consistent.

Interestingly one of hte areas on the survey was preaching. There was an amazing range of answers on this one. I can understand some range but I wonder about the extent of the range and what that can mean to me as I seek to improve. Is it just style and expectation for some people that caused such a low rating, or is there something specific that I would want to know about that would help me improve? I hope to start taping my sermon (a temporary step till I am able to record them either onto cd or straight onto computer). By taping, I'll be able to hear what everyone else is hearing when I speak and I will be able to work on some things that I notice.

I don't feel as down as I usually do at this point after a performance review, and I am not sure why. Either the method really worked for me, or else I am still not dealing with the results. Oh well, I guess as time goes on I will find out.

Today I went to another training session of "For the Love of Reading". This time I was invited to come, so that I could share my experience at having led sessions before. I was contacted because my boys Principal invited me to be the person leading these sessions at their school. I was again reminded of the importance of reading to children, but more than just that, of talking with them, sharing the stories of life.

All of life is a story waiting for you to tell it. Sometimes we just need someone to help us with a starting point. I like to use the photo album idea because each picture that you look at will tell a story. One of the activities that is suggested is a basket full of items, and each person picks one and tells a story about that item (meaning, significance or make up something).

One of the comments that someone made while I was learning to drive the bus is "someone should write a story about what it is like being a bus driver." I have started the story a couple of times now, but I have not developed it much. Maybe someday that story will make its way out. I might have to go back and steal some of my "training" blogs for some of it. The story continues to develop.

I tried to blog earlier but I guess that the computer would not let me. Sometimes it doesn't like to work for me.

I have my own bus route now. I may have mentioned this already. I am enjoying the driving, although I am starting to feel a little tired during the last part of the run these days. I need to watch myself so that I get enough rest during the week so that I don't have tired problems while driving.

The kids on the bus are interesting. It is a different mix from day to day and they are begining to get used to me. I heard today that I am more strict than their last driver. That makes me smile. Me strict. I can live with that description. I even told a student that I may have to write her up if the problem continues. I'm pretty sure I saw her thow something from the bus. Mostly for my discipline I have been stopping the bus and going to the back to talk to students about ssitting down, or putting the suckers away (a major offense to eat sucker on the bus).

I am looking at various ideas around church stuff too right now. New arrangement for the rooms, new equipment for the church, or something else that is needed. I have a new toy now that I got the old tape machine attached to the new sound system and it works. Next I just have to play with the speakers (the old ones) to get them not to interfer with the sound system.

I should have a fun week, if somethings comes to mind I will post another blog sooner than a whole week later.