Thursday night was the last night of the Alpha Course. While I’m sad it’s over, I’ll be eternally grateful to have had the experience. As I look back over the last 12 weeks, I feel blessed by the gifts of faith and friendship.
Welcome to the 63rd edition of The Sunday Spark, a series with weekly thoughts and highlights, nuggets of learning, and a decluttering challenge for the week. In addition to reflections on faith and friendship, this week I look at dropping emissions in Europe, harnessing the power of sand, and decluttering bathroom drawers.
On my mind this week: Faith and friendship
I’m always grateful for my church friends. During my cancer treatment 13 years ago, I received an abundance of spiritual and practical support from my faith community. I’m not sure I would have got through the experience without them.
Thanks to an amazing group of volunteers and leaders, our church has been running the Alpha Course for over 20 years. I did the course about 12 years ago, but this year I decided to sign up to help out for a couple of reasons.
First, as I prepare for retirement, I want to get more involved in my church and community. More importantly though, I felt called to do it because I thought I must have missed something the first time I participated in the program. Unlike others who have taken Alpha and found it transformative, I didn’t have that life-changing experience I heard about.
The structure of the Alpha Course includes a mix of large and small group activities. The evening starts with a delicious meal where small group members have a chance to get to know each other informally. After that we watch a video and break into our small groups for discussion. We wrap up the evening with the larger group for praise and worship music.
The magic of the small group
Group dynamics are always fascinating. Any time you get a random group of people together, you never know what you’ll get. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t.
In the first couple of weeks, the group composition changed as some people decided the program is not for them and new people joined. By week three, our group was settled. That’s when I realized there was something very special about our small group.
We all have different backgrounds but, as each of us opened up as the weeks went on, common threads in our life experience came to light. It was an important reminder that despite our differences, there is much we share in our human experience.
I knew I’d meet some new people at Alpha. And I expected the small group discussions would give me a chance to explore and strengthen my faith. I certainly didn’t expect to develop deep connections with people I’d never met before the end of February.
As I think about the experience, I believe it must have been divine intervention that brought our group together. I’m grateful for the gifts of faith and friendship.
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Three highlights of the week
It’s important to celebrate big milestones and simple pleasures in life. Keeping the trend going, here are three highlights and simple pleasures of the week gone by:
- Spring truly has arrived! We’ve had some warm days this week and the leaves have really popped. As I sat on my deck after work one day, I loved seeing the Blue Jays, Cardinals, and Red-winged Blackbirds at the feeder. Warmer weather also means it’s time to dry laundry outdoors again. I love the scent of clothes dried on the line.
- It was so nice to have my daughter Colleen home for a few days. I’ve missed playing cards with her and watching our TV shows together!
- On Friday, I met a friend for coffee and then had lunch at my mum’s.
Things I learned this week
Life is all about learning. Here are a couple of things I learned this week:
European emissions dropping
The Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air reports that emissions from fossil fuels in Europe have dropped by 8% to reach their lowest level in 60 years. The decline was largely driven by a cleaner electricity mix.
If Europe can do that, it’s time for North Americans to stop making excuses and embrace change!
Harnessing the power of sand
If you’ve ever walked barefoot on a sandy beach, you already know that sand has the potential to store energy. Ouch!
In some promising news, a company in Finland is harnessing the power of sand to store energy and release it during times when solar and wind energy aren’t as plentiful.
(Source: Euro News)
This week’s decluttering challenge – Bathroom drawers
In 2024, I’ve been revisiting the 52-Week Decluttering Challenge I completed in 2021. This week’s challenge was decluttering the bathroom drawers. Although I only got rid of 6 things, I felt good that I’ve done a good job of containing the clutter over the last three years. You can find the details, along with my tips and learnings, in this week’s decluttering post.
If you’d like to join the challenge, visit this post to download your free checklists and jump right in with this week’s task.
I’d love to hear what you think about any of this week’s topics. Drop me a comment below and let me know your thoughts and ideas.
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I bet the Alpha Conference was something special to attend. I used to hear others talking about the Acts Retreat. The point is, whenever people gather together to hear the word of God, it’s a great thing!
It really was a wonderful experience, Kim. Amen to that!
It is great to hear that fossil fuel emissions have dropped in Europe.
America needs more railways so people stop flying as often between states.
I agree that North America needs to invest in public transit infrastructure. The sheer vastness of the countries and sparse populations makes it impractical in a lot of areas, though. But there are definitely parts of both Canada and the USA where high speed train service would make sense.