Another coincidence

Another coincidence

Those of you who read my blog will know that for a while now I have been going on about the difference between coincidences and answers to prayer.

More recently I have been checking through my memory banks to bring to mind some of those ‘answered prayers’ / ‘coincidences’ that happen to those who pray and follow Jesus.  Looking back, I regret not keeping mementos of some of those incidents.  Perhaps from now on I will do, however in life you often just say,’ thank you God’ and move on, though I hope I am grateful and really thankful and have regard for these specific answers.

The memento I could have kept of the story I am about to tell you, could have been copies of my bank statements, and even though I didn’t its still, nevertheless, a great answer to prayer and true.

This answer to prayer (or coincidence depending on your perspective) took place before UK decimalisation, so young readers might struggle with the figures, not understanding the notion of 240 pence making one pound.  Anyway, at this time I was living in the North of England, my salary was the grand total of £8.10s or for younger readers £8.50p.  My wife was the full time secretary for a local school and earned a grand total of £5.00 per week;  to put these amounts into perspective my rent was £5.10s per week (£5.50p), as you can see there was not a great deal of financial elbow room, there was very little money left over for frivolities.

Unfortunately for us we had somehow run up a deficit at the bank to the tune of £31.12s 32d and the bank unfortunately had allowed us to go overdrawn by this amount without any permission.  Now, however, they had called me in and wanted their money back.  I, of course, had said, yes, I would sort it out.  When I arrived home I told my wife that I had no idea what to do and that we had no chance of funding the deficit.

My wife suggested writing them a cheque, explained that would not work as that was where the money came from in the first place. We agreed that we needed to pray for God to help us, we needed a £31.12s 32d miracle, and frankly I had no idea where such a miracle could come from. In these situations, I find, that you always want to provide God with the answer that you have trusted him, in prayer, to sort out; I hope you know what I mean.

Later that week, I had a letter from an old friend, he wrote to me enclosing a cheque made out to myself and Pauline; the letter went something like this.

 As you know some years ago I had a serious motor accident, it’s taken years for the insurance company to make a settlement to us, but finally it has come.  I wanted at this time to say thank you to friends who helped me and my wife during this awful time, and so now I have the financial settlement I thought I would like to send you all a monetary thank you.  So enclosed is a cheque.  I know you will think that this is a funny amount £31.12s.32p but just to explain that for you, I had quite a few friends who helped us at that time so what I have done is taken the amount of our settlement, deducted 10%, I then divided that 10% between all the friends who helped me at the time and so that is why it is such a funny thank you amount.

Well of course my friend wanted to explain his reasoning behind the division of the thank you money, but what my friend did not know was that that cheque was to the exact £sd (pounds, shillings and pence for younger readers) amount of my unofficial overdraft.

When I think about this, it’s totally mind boggling, how everything came together in such perfect sync; the accident years before, the insurance company taking its time, the amount of friends my friend felt had helped them at the time, the long period of time it took to sort the settlement, that my friend was writing out the cheques during the week that I was concerned about my overdraft, the prayer my wife and I prayed that week, and that very week the letter arrived containing a cheque for the exact amount. 

It’s all just coincidence I hear some say, well how about a Father God who loves his children, knows their need and answers prayer.  How about that for an answer?

Adrian Hawkes

For adrianhawkes.blogspot.com

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Edited by Technicolour Text

The answer, my friend, is blowing in the wind

The answer, my friend, is blowing in the wind  

Many years ago, when my children were only 7 and 8 years old; talking about coincidences was in vogue, it seemed that every other conversation was about this subject.   Then, as now, I would find that my coincidences’ seemed to come in answer to prayer.  With both these elements in mind, I thought I would tell you a true story. 

I am also reminded of when I lived in the North of England,  a  14 year old would constantly come and talk to me about eternal things.  He was puzzled and sometimes annoyed with my answers, particularly any that involved prayer and its results.  One day he knocked on my door at 36 Wilton Way, when  I answered the door and he looked at me with great confidence, he said he had dropped in on his way home from school and had been thinking all day about my so called answers to prayer, ‘so called’ is how young  ‘Langys’ described it.   I smiled at his enthusiasm as I looked at him though the open door, observing his obvious new found confidence.  I said, ‘oh and what is the answer then?’  He said with delight, “they’re just coincidences!” “Well,” I said, “thank you for that, but it seems funny to me that when I pray I get a coincidence, which seems like an answer to prayer to me.”

Now I am sure that there is a much more complex discussion needed than what I said to that 14 year old, however, there isn’t the space here.  But I have tried in other places to discuss this further,  what I really wanted to do this time is to just tell you one of those coincidence stories, and let you make up your own mind.

As I was saying, this is a story about my  two young children aged 7 and 8; I had signed a form to say that they could go on a school trip, the terrible thing was that today was the day I had to send the money with the children to the school.  It was breakfast time, and  both girls where looking into my face imploring  me for  £5.00 each for the school trip.  This was £10.00 which I genuinely did not have and did not know where to find it from; I was regretting that I had signed the form in the distant hope that by the time came to pay the money I would have the required tenner!  It hadn’t materialised.  What was worse,  I now had two strident little girls nagging at me, demanding to know  what I was going to do about it, and they, let me tell you, were worse than facing the school authorities  or the teacher.

I tried some suggestions, how about if I came and talked to the teacher.  They remonstrated with me; that, apparently was far too embarrassing, everyone else, so they said, had already paid!  “I tell you what,” I said humbly, “I will come and see the school secretary, perhaps I can pay a little off each week.”  That, it seemed, to the two little girls, was an even worse idea, loud cries of, “oh Dad how could you!”  Where echoing throughout our breakfast time.

 Breakfast now over, and the time for them to leave for school had arrived.  We stood ready to go, with the girls still firing off angry comments at me. I interrupted them as they stood there, angry and forlorn, coats and scarves on, school bags on their shoulders, faced with telling the teacher they had no money and could not go on the trip.   I said, “Why don’t we stop right now, pray and ask God to do something as I really don’t know what else to do as you obviously don’t like my suggestions.”  They reluctantly agreed.  We bowed our heads and I explained to the Father that I did not have £10.00 even though I had said I would pay £10.00 for the children’s school trip, and I said, “I don’t know what to do for my children, so will you please, please help me!”  I think you can see that my prayer was heartfelt, whatever the children’s position was.

So that the discussion did not re-start, I immediately said, “Okay let’s get to school!”  I opened our kitchen door to walk through our side entrance to our front door.  We still live in the same house and it’s a bit strange in that we have two front doors, the main door is accessed through a corridor. When it’s blustery, this corridor turns into a wind tunnel.  It was one of those windy November days, and as I opened the door a gush of powerful wind blew in, bringing with it all the leaves of the neighbourhood. I didn’t go out, instead I  moved the children back out of the way and asked my wife for a dust pan and brush, deciding I needed to get this mess cleared  up before I taking the children to  school.  I began sweeping up the leaves, and to my amazement, and I have to say wonderment, in the middle of the great pile of leaves was a ten pound note, swept in by the wind with the leaves. 

The children were impressed, I was Impressed we stopped and said, “thank you Lord!”  I don’t know if someone lost it, or if it was a special delivery from God, however it seemed to me a very, very immediate answer to prayer. Needless to say, they went on the school trip.

Well I don’t know how well my children remember that happening all those years ago, but what is your take on the story, another coincidence or does God answer prayer?

Adrian L Hawkes

For Blogspot.com

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Edited By Technicolour Text

Advertising an Independent Sector School

Advertising an Independent Sector School

We are so persuaded by the ‘normal’ and what is perceived to be the right approach that those of us who do it differently always expect to have to swim upstream, to move against the odds to climb the mountain or whatever other metaphor you can think of to demonstrate an alternative.

Then to persuade people to join you is difficult; I always find the story of Moses and the release of the Israelite's from slavery interesting.  The Old Testament gives us a clue to some of their thinking.  They were all slaves; their next door neighbors were slaves, their friends where slaves, their wives and children were slaves, slavery was the norm.  When you have been brought up like that it’s very hard to be convinced of ‘freedom’ or for my purpose in what I am saying about education any other way of doing or thinking.  The Old Testament Scriptures tell us that they were mad with Moses for trying to set them free, what did you have in your slavery?” was Moses’ question, “well” they responded, “we had Leeks Onions and Cucumbers”.  The problem was they were not looking for freedom they were looking for bigger onions!

So when people consider putting their children into our school many of the cultural, the expected, and the ‘norm’ is not there!  How many classes do you have they say?  We don’t have class rooms, or classes, it’s an individualised method of education!  What GCSE’s do they take, is often the next question. Well, we don’t do that either, our students enter the ICCE certification.  More problems, all people really want is a bigger onion!

Does the system work, what does the school deliver, should be the next question, or from my point of view maybe the first question.  We are interested as an education establishment in not only good education for our students but also good character development.  We want them to know God, we want them to become leaders in whatever area of life they end up in, and we want them to become the best that they can.  So the big question should be do we succeed in those aims.  Not always, but let me tell you about our recent school leavers.  At the moment the school is around 40 students and growing, so I thought what I would do is look at the last two year’s leavers and tell you our results hoping that will help you to assess us and decided if we are successful or not?

So in 2010 9 students left our school, when I say left what I mean is that they had reached full school leaving age, I of course am not counting leavers who left mid education because they move area or changed to another school or things like that these are the student that one would count because they are completers.  Incidentally, in 2010 only one student left without gaining some paper qualification.  But let me show you what the full age students left with.

First those 2010 9 students:

A = foundation ICCE certification, went on to work as an Estate agent after college

B = Foundation ICCE certification, onto college to take Btec in IT

C= Intermediate ICCE certification, Canterbury university, degree in Business and accounts

D= left with nothing went on to an access course on to university

E= intermediate ICCE went to Kingston university to study Accounts degree

F= General ICCE certificate, went on to take level 3 NVQ CCLD and work with children

G = General ICCE certificate, went on to be a home maker

H= OCR basic certificate went on to a college course

I= General ICCE certificate then did access course studying English Now at London university doing a degree in English

Then in 201l we had 6 student complete:

J= General ICCE certificate, went on to Music college now taking a degree course there

K = Foundation ICCE certificate, went on to do Btec in IT

L= General ICCE certificate, went on to do a degree in Photography

M= Advanced ICCE certificate, went on to Brunel university to study medicine

N= Foundation ICCE certificate, went on to do Btec in IT

O= General ICCE certificate, went on to complete a Diploma in Music

So there are our leavers for the last two years what do you think?  Does it work?

Here are some comments from some of the students who have left us:

I asked one student how his first year at Canterbury University had gone. 

He responded, “I missed my London friends but the studies were fine.” 

I asked him for his opinion of our school system; here are some of his comments. 

“One of my uni modules is accounting, I had already done that subject for my Intermediate exam with International Certificate of Christian Education (ICCE), so of course I had that down as one of my options from the advanced level course.  However, when I saw the stuff at University I had to laugh and I said I wish my school studies had been this easy!”

I asked him if there was anything else he had noticed about his uni studies.

He said, “The Algebra, as with accounts, I wish that the school stuff had been as easy as the university material.”

His final comment was, “When you have been to a school using the ACE system a fundamental element that you learn is how to manage your study time and how to complete work within a given period. I am finding that my stuff gets done whereas lots of other students seem to have problems completing work and bringing it in on time.  We all have the same amount of time, and I think some of them are possibly brighter than me, but what they lack is the discipline that has been put into me over the years to complete the work on time.”

I also had the chance to talk with one of the lads who had completed his General Certificate at ICCE level, and asked him how his college studies were progressing. “Great!” he said, “but what is funny is how the other students don’t seem to be able to complete work on time, I have just handed in one of my first essays, the  lecturer said 1,000 words, I was about 400 over so I went to him and asked how critical the word count was?”

“Oh” he replied, “I only ask for 1,000 as most of the students cannot get anywhere near that number, I am happy with anything up to 2000 words, but I would be surprised if many can even achieve 800.”

I asked him if he had made any other observations since he had left school.

He said, “A friend asked me if I could help her with her GCSE material as she had to take an exam in Maths, so I said I would come around and try. I was very surprised at the level, and helped her to complete the work and showed her how to work out the material.  I then asked if I could take a copy of the paper with me.  She agreed and explained that it was an old exam paper used for practice.  I took it home to my younger sister, she is just 13 years old, and said can you do this maths? She said, ‘Oh crumbs, yes of course, I am doing that stuff now.’”

For those who know anything about the system this girl is on PACE 1083 which according to ICCE is two units below where we would say a student is who has begun General certificate work.

There was another young lady at the New Year’s Eve party who had been to a school using the ACE system, but not at one of the schools that I run; she is currently reading English at Liverpool Hope University.  I asked how she had found it, and if anything she had learnt from the system was useful in ongoing university studies.  Her reply was amusing, “Well,” she said, “I am the only student in my group who knows how to  break down an English language sentence into its component parts, the whole class were saying, ‘we don’t even understand what we are being asked to do.’  So I ran my own tutorial group for my friends.  They asked how I knew how to do this, and I told them that I did it all when I was quite young in my Christian school, that it was standard practice.  I am just surprised that such basic things are part of this English course at university.”

Flack or no flack, the results speak for themselves.  You might say to me, are you trying to sell your system to us?  The answer to that is; you bet I am!

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Adrian Hawkes for adrianhawkes.blogspot.com

Edited by Gena Muoria

Adrian's Blog

Adrian’s Blog

I just thought you might find it interesting to know a little more about the Blog you read.

Why write a BLOG, and I guess that people do it for all sorts of reason, to tell friends, to advertise their wares, to just put their thought out there.  I guess for some people it’s almost therapeutic.

But for me, well yes I would like to put my ware out there, I have six books I would like you to read, but that’s writing as well isn’t it.  I guess the real reason for writing is that I want to see change in certain things.  I also think that I would like to use the words to make the world a better place. I also actually like to introduce lots of people to ‘the Word’ because I know having met the Word, that it changes life, our outlook, our culture perspective, and our value stem in fact everything for the better.

The other thing that I though you would like to know is who reads this Blog, that is quite fascinating to me, I am sure you know that these days with the internet you can track and analyse all sorts of things, and my Blog is no exception.  Here are some of the interesting data to date, well I think it’s interesting anyway and I hope you might too.  As you would expect as I live in the UK most readers come from that area of the world, on today statistics it’s so far to date 1877 of you in the UK have had a look at it.  The next country, which probably isn't such a surprise as we speak the same language and I have many friends there, but I suppose what does surprise me is how many, as of today’s date the stats tell me that in the USA  1409 of you have taken a peek.  Not so far behind the UK. 

What really does surprise me is country number three and four a long way behind in terms of numbers but hay welcome all of you from Russia, and South Korea who have had a look Russia is 189 and South Korea is 135.  I would really love you to click that comment button and just tell me what you think. 

I will of course say thank you to those of you who have joined my discussions and journey from Germany, Brazil, Slovenia, Slovakia, Kenya, Taiwan, Netherlands, Norway, France and Switzerland.  Thank you all for joining me and for reading my comments, now all I need is for you to join the discussions. So far almost 5,000 have joined me at some point thank you for that.

It is also interesting to see what you are all reading, and the stats tell me that the most read Blog is the one put up in October 2009 on the subject of woman, and I didn’t even write that one baa!  It was written by my good friend Dan Wooding of Assist News Service, he is a professional news hound so I guess I am happy that you like to read his stuff. For those who like tit bits, he was also our best man when we got married.  Check out his news service at www.assistnew.com  it is worth the time.  It also fun to note that my second most read is the one entitled Beer and bandits which I posted in May 2010 does that tell me something about you or about what I write about?

Venezuela 

I like the fact that you are still reading those Blogs that I posted some time ago, again thank for that.

I could go on and tell you which search engines and what referring sites you use, but I won’t enough already.  Just to say again thank you, hope you enjoy, and most of all I hope together we can effect change for the better. Don’t forget would love to hear from you.

Adrian Hawkes

For Adrian Hawkes Blog spot www.adrianhawkes.blogspot.com

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Edited By: Technicolour text

Leadership - Vision

Leadership – the book, Vision

Talks for UCB 3 min

 I always  feel sad when I come the end of my chance  to talk with you. I hope you have found our times together helpful, as I have chatted about the subject of leadership. I have written a book on the subject and in it I cover many other areas that I haven’t had time  to talk to you about in this series.   I looked through all the subjects in my book, ‘Leadership and…’ to decide what to share with you during this last talk, should I tell you about decision makers or small groups of people, or perhaps the platform? Goals? Work or loyalty? And I was very tempted by the chapter on Solomon’s clothes,  there’s one I wish I had time for right now,  but as I pondered it became very clear what should I talk about  during our final time together.  I decided it has to be vision.

Scripture says that where there is no vision, people perish.  Now maybe it’s just the people I mix with but there has been a bit of a backlash against vision.  Maybe you are not aware of that and if not don’t let it worry you.  The thing is that people, and I understand why they do, react against the fact that leaders want everyone to buy into their vision, and sometimes   they exhaust people in trying to see things achieved and the vision reached, and why their vision anyway? Why not mine?

Well here are some answers; firstly do you have a vision?   People regularly   come and chat with me, seeking advice about the direction their life is taking, or not, as the case may be, they may say things like, ‘ I don’t have a vision, I really would like one, what should I do?’  I’m sorry but I have a stock answer which is, ‘get on board someone else’s vision!’  Don’t forget that scripture says, without one people perish

Secondly   as leaders, aren't we all called to lead?  Yes we are, but we are also called to follow. Scripture states that we should be under authority, and if we are all practicing servant leadership then things will work really well.  I would also hope that as a leader you are following  a vision God has given you,  one that reflects what Jesus would say,  ‘I must be about my Father’s business.’ Or let’s put it another way, the Father’s vision is what I plan to accomplish. 

So let’s think again about those who have no vision, if it is the Father’s vision that your leader is following, why not get on board? A key point to bear in mind is that the Father’s vision is broad enough to encompass other visions.  For the church community to function smoothly and effectively, you will all be following a God given vision but that does not eliminate the possibility that God can also give you a vision, at which point  you should be able to say to the leadership, ‘ hey I really want to do this and accomplish what I believe God has shown me,’   and if we are all under authority, in close relationship with the Father and his purposes, it should be equally possible for the leaders to say, ‘That’s great! That extends the vision in this area and makes things work better in that area. How  fantastic that we are going in the same direction.’   Often when we cannot respond in that way, then  perhaps what is wrong is that the vision is too small.

In many ways God has given us the broader visions, outlining them several times in scripture. He wants us to catch His vision, the top priority he give us is to ‘seek FIRST the Kingdom of God  Then we are told, ‘tell the good news.’ I know you know it, but let me say it again, the good news is about a person and that person is Jesus. He is the good news. We are told to, ‘tell it in Jerusalem, in Samaria and to the uttermost parts of the world.’  That’s a big job, a big vision isn't it? 

Finally we are told to, ‘make disciples of the nations.’  I think that gives most of us enough to do for the rest of our lives don’t you?

A vision keeps you fresh; it actually keeps you alive and moving forward.  I have a little saying that some puzzle over; it goes like this ‘the worst enemy of better is very good.’  The thing is that when things are bad you can usually see that there is a need for some vision to make them better, but when things are going well that can put you in the danger zone.  Unless you are alert, you could end up settling down and dying off.  Don’t do it!  We have not arrived; the kingdom has not yet come, there are still dreams to dream and a vision to have. 

Get a vision of leading, forging ahead, keeping going and kingdom seeking!  If you haven’t got one then get on board with someone who has.   There is a promised land to be possessed, there is a Kingdom to be found and we have the power to bring it to earth if we know our God, that’s why he told us to pray and work, ‘your kingdom come your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.’  Happy seeking!  Thank you for listening God bless you as you dream and vision His plans.

Adrian Hawkes

Editor A Brookes

For UCB 3 min Script

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Leadership - Getting it Wrong

Leadership – Getting it wrong

Talks for UCB

3 min.

I hope you have remembered what I said at the beginning of this series which was that all of us are called to be leaders; or to put it in Bible language, we are prophet’s priest and kings.

Alongside this universal calling there are always several people in each church community who take special responsibility for others, and that brings with it all sorts of pressures. One of those pressures is the problem of being right.  I guess you have all seen that joke that sometimes sits on a manager’s desk which says, ‘Rule number one. The boss is always right’.  ‘Rule numbers two, if the boss is wrong, refer to rule number one’.  The reality is that being in leadership does not always mean that you are right.

That in itself presents another pressure, one of our culture and our age.  Generally people do not like or expect anyone in leadership to be wrong.  Just watch what happens when a politician tries to admit to being wrong and misses the mark; the response is rarely,   ‘that’s great they have admitted they are wrong, lets forgive them and move on’. Usually it is quite the reverse immediately there is a flurry of frantic digging in order to reveal further failings  and  we demand they resign, no that’s not enough, die, and even that is not enough, we want to dance on a their grave.

 Coupled with the possibility of being wrong, there is also the cultural pressure whereby we want our leaders to know the answer to everything.  I am a leader, and sometimes I am wrong and sometimes I do not know the answer and what is worse sometimes I can see a problem, which I am sure everyone else can see. I know this because they come and tell me, often in conspiratorial tones, ‘there is a problem’.  I know there is problem and I didn’t need anyone to tell me what I already know,  what I  need is for someone to give me an answer to the problem, as I don’t have one.

So what can we do?  Firstly I think that it is very helpful to admit we are wrong as quickly as possible and learn to put up with people’s reactions and disappointment. We should also look for help both from God and our fellow travellers; perhaps when they see us admit that we are wrong  it might encourage them in their own struggle to get things right.

Secondly all of us need to treat those who lead us with respect when they say that they do not have an answer to some particular conundrum; maybe accepting and believing that they simply do not know.

Thirdly, and this is a hard one, I am convinced we need to learn to say ‘I am sorry,’ that can be a great help to all.  But isn’t it a hard word to use? 

Let me finish by telling you a positive story to illustrate what I mean.

For more than thirty years I have been involved in running independent Christian Schools and in two of them I hold the role of principal. A while ago a young lady of around twelve years old was brought to my office for some misdemeanour, it was my job to tell her off; I did so, very sternly and the young lady ended up with tears running down her cheeks.  She left my office very, very subdued and quiet, so I thought I had down my job well.   The next day, to my horror, I discovered that I had reprimanded a totally innocent person, who was in no way guilty of any wrongdoing.  What should I do?  I asked a member of staff to find the young lady and bring her to my office as quickly as possible.  She walked in with fear in her face, I asked her to sit down and she did so, very carefully, her hands folded meekly in her lap.  I explained to her that on the previous day I had made a terrible mistake when I told her off and I said I wanted to apologise. I looked into her fearful eyes and said, ‘I’m sorry, please forgive me’.  The transformation was instantaneous, the fear disappeared and the young lady burst into the largest smile I have ever seen, I was afraid that her face would come apart if she smiled any more.

Suffice to say   she went away very happy, and I must admit that I also felt good.  Being wrong and saying sorry really made my day and I think it made her day too. I am pretty certain that the story got repeated many times to her schoolmate’s. 

Did being wrong in that case make me a lesser person?  I don’t think so; I think dealing with being wrong after the event in the right way made a positive difference don’t you?  Unlike how some of us react to our fallible politicians she didn’t want to kill me, it was just the reverse, I think she thought she had a received a fantastic present. Don’t kill people for being wrong, be like our God; full of grace and forgiveness.

Adrian Hawkes

For UCB 3 min talks

Editor A Brookes

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