Smile God Loves You!! Psalm 100:5 - Sunday Scripture

This Sunday's Scripture on God's Love is Psalm 100 v 5  

 One of the things that makes God Good is His Everlasting Love which is exactly what this verse talks about and then it leads on to His Faithfulness.

Look at the powerful words we see in this verse telling us about the Lord, His Goodness, Love and Faithfulness.


It tells us 2 things about this Love

• it is steadfast  -  sure, dependable, unmovable, like an anchor
• it endures -  lasts, strives, overcomes everything

Because of this great dependable love that overcomes everything God is faithful to all of us who come to Him.

What else could we ask for to feel (as the well known hymn states)

"safe and secure from all alarms"

The Love that makes God the True Faithful One.

Calpe - A to Z of Places I have Visited

I have started writing about some places I have visited and posting them in alphabetical order.
Still wondering what I will do for the more unusual letters like Q  etc. but I think I have an idea for Z.

We have been to the same villa in Calpe 3 times and love both the villa and the town of Calpe.

We found it by chance on the internet and discovered that it is owned by a guy from Liverpool who is married to a Spanish girl and lives in the next small town to Calpe.

After we had already been there we invited my sister and her husband to come for a week with us to celebrate my birthday and their wedding anniversary (I mentioned the fact that she got married on my 13th birthday in the first post in this series on Alicante).



Calpe 

Calpe is found on the South East coast of Spain about an hour's drive north from Alicante airport.

The drive north along the coast is beautiful on a sunny day - and we have only seen it in the sun.

The town of Calpe sits right on the coast and has all the usual restaurants and tourist type shops but it is not overly full of tourists, at least you never feel like it is the way Benidorm would be.

Smaller seaside town with good sandy beaches and a very relaxing feel about it.

Meeting Friends

When I was planning this trip I had mentioned to our oldest son that we were going back to Calpe again.  Later he was talking with some friends of his and ours and they mentioned they were going to have a trip to Spain but then imagine his surprise when they said they were going to a place called Calpe.  He quickly told them we were also going there and then discovered that our holidays would overlap by three days.  So it was arranged that we would meet them the day after we arrived which would be the day before they left and we would have coffee on a beach north of Calpe.

Me, our friends from Wales and my sister & brother-in-law.

Not only did we find that nice beach and have a great time together chatting and drinking coffee and then having lunch but when they realised that my brother-in-law loved to eat at carveries they told us about the best one they had ever been to which was only 10 mins from that beach.

Well you can guess what happened - yes we met up again a few hours later at the restaurant and spent a lovely evening together as well.



Surrounding Area

While we were there we went round Calpe and also some of the small places nearby.

 Here is a picture I took of Fred taking a picture of Averil & Victor on one of the lovely coastal walks we found.

North and South of Calpe you will find many beaches and other little towns to walk around and of course stop for a coffee or cold drink.

Of course everywhere we go we always find something to laugh about and this time it was a medical van with my initials on it so of course a photo just had to be taken.




Calpe Rock

There are 2 main beaches in Calpe and they are very easy to get to from the town because the town is basically built beside them.

There is also a very large well-known rock at Calpe which juts out into the sea and the two beaches have formed on either side of that rock.

Here is a view from the beach on the right hand side of the rock

Victor got a good picture of it here.



And here is the view from the beach on the left hand side

The water was great for bathing there and we had fun - Fred and Victor and I are like kids when we get in the sea together.

The beach on the left was longer and had more shops along it which was good because the day we went there was the hottest day and we needed to buy a parasol to use on the beach or we could not have stayed for as long as we did.

Amazingly we had a view of the rock from our appartment as well.

A suppose the rock is so famous there because it is so large and hence very noticable for quite a few miles along the coastal road.

Have you ever been to Calpe? Check this out to see if it is worth visiting.

Our Appartment

While we were there the weather was very hot but the appartment and the grounds were lovely

 meaning that we had breakfast outside each morning and almost any other meal we had when not off exploring.

There was also a very nice pool a couple of mins walk from the appartment to go for a swim before dinner in the evenings.

The flora is very colourful in that area and around our appartment there was this lovely dark pink display of flowers which made a nice background for a picture before going out for a meal one evening.

This is why Northern Irish People get so fed up - Coffee & Conversation

Are you from Northern Ireland?

Do you know anyone from Northern Ireland personally?

Do you know they are referred to as Northern Irish a lot of the time?

As a Northern Irish person who has lived abroad in both America and Belgium I have come across many people who have talked to me as if they know more about my country than I do. 

Including more about my city of birth than I do (no prizes for guessing which city that is - the one that has been heard of everywhere).

If we were to talk to Americans or Canadians, they would be very offended if we lumped both of their countries together and said that because they are both on the same (very large) island then they are both American or both Canadian.

Or what about the Spanish and the Portuguese; let's decide they are all one nation because Portugal is just a small part beside the larger land of Spain?

But we the people from Northern Ireland are too polite to do that.

Instead we just grin and bare it when Americans do not know the difference between the two countries of Northern Ireland and Ireland (Eire).

HINT!   One is part of the UK and the other is Ireland.

Just to educate everyone in the world because honestly it's not just the Americans that treat us this way, I have a short video which will also entertain you.

Yes I know just to confuse you all even more we have suddenly introduced the term 

The British Isles 

but one of those countries isn't British!

Who knows the difference between Ireland and Northern Ireland?

Christian Songs For Kids - I Can Do all Things

Do you find it hard to get visuals and recordings for different kids songs?

I have always found this a problem so I am now sharing songs that I have used with children providing you with

Visuals 
(Powerpoint or Picture or details of how you can make one) 


Words   
(chords also available)


Recording  
(mp3 or video to learn the song) 


Then if you would like to download the visual of the song there will be a link provided to my creation, or I will direct you to where else you can find it.   

This month I am taking the theme of

SCRIPTURE  VERSES

The song I have chosen is 

I Can Do All Things
(Philippians 4:13)

I was planning to teach this Bible verse to the children in church one Sunday at the start of the service where we have a little spot for them but everyone in the congregation gets to join in to listen and sing with them and sometimes I think the congregation have as much fun as the kids.

Thinking of how to teach the verse I was trying out how it sounded saying it out loud in sections and I found I
kept wanting to repeat the words "All Things"

So that lead me to putting it to a little tune.

It also lead me to thinking of a way for them to do simple actions for the song and then the next thing was a Powerpoint visual.

POWERPOINT

When we sing the 3rd reference Philippians 4 13  we draw out the 4 13 a little at the end.



To Download a copy of this Powerpoint slide presentation for projecting    
CLICK HERE for (4:3)
CLICK HERE for (16:9)

To Download a copy of this visual for printing on A4 Card    
CLICK HERE for (A4)

WORDS

I can do all things, all things.
I can do all things, all things.
I can do all things, all things.
Through Christ
Through Christ
Through Christ
Who strengthens me
Philippians  4  13
Philippians  4  13
Philippians  4  13



To Download a copy of these words with chords for guitar and piano 
CLICK HERE

To Download a copy of these words with chords for guitar and piano 
CLICK HERE

ACTIONS

I can do all things  - nothing
All things -  pump arms in the air twice
Through Christ   -  point upwards
Who strengthens me   -  make a strong man pose
Philippians 4 13  -  hold hands together in front of you with palms up to represent the open Bible

RECORDING







Notes:
This song was written by myself so I have the copywrite for the song
But the words of course are straight from the Bible.

I Hope you enjoy the song and this is a help to you.

A short Song is an easy way to learn a Scripture verse like this one.

Previous Songs:   

Creation  -    Who Made?
Easter  -    He's Alive
Prayer  -    Whisper a Prayer
Bible Stories -    I will Make you Fishers of Men


(Click on the names of the songs above to view them)

Bratislava - A to Z of Places I have Visited

For the next few months I am going to write about some places I have visited and do them in alphabetical order.
Still wondering what I will do for the more unusual letters like Q and X etc. but maybe I will have a brilliant idea later.

Well I have visited several places that start with the letter B but I really wanted to pick Bratislava for 2 reasons.

Firstly we never started out intending to go to Bratislava but when we were there we had a very enjoyable time.
Secondly the other places I have visited that start with B could fall into other categories like one of the cities/towns of a specific country that I have been to other places in as well and I might do a little series later on those countries.


Well in 2010 we were planning to go to Vienna in Austria before we would be leaving our home of over 6 years in Belgium to return to live in Northern Ireland (another country I have lots of B places for).   So we started to see where we would fly to for Vienna and discovered that Ryanair flew to Bratislava which was in Slovakia and not Austria but just a train journey over the border to Vienna and it was a very cheap flight.

So we were in Slovakia a first for both Fred & I (even though he has travelled to far more countries than I have).

When we arrived we got the train from the airport to the city; it was still quite early in the morning and the weather was wet and windy so the first thing was a coffee.

Now Fred is not found of coffee and I love coffee but we hadn't a clue about the language and in the little cafe at the train station we had to guess the menu.

I found a coffee ok but he wasn't sure about tea so in the end he picked a coffee and it was different to any coffee we had seen before.   I was actually jealous of it but I just had to get a picture of him with that coffee.

That coffee was so good that he had the same sort of grin on his face after he had drunk it.


Then we felt the rain was not as heavy as earlier and we took a leisurely walk up through some of the the main streets of the city.

Photo Credit:  Pixabay

We came to the Market Square and really no market is very pleasant in the rain

and I was very glad I had my heavy, hooded warm coat for this morning adventure.

We did have a little wander around the market and got something to eat that we had never had before but I can't remember the name of it.  This is why I had decided that I should always carry a travel notebook with me but did I have it with me that day?  NO!


Here is a picture of the same square on a dry day.

Photo Credit:  Pixabay

On the way up to the market Square we had noticed something rather different on the ground so on the way back down we had another look and took a picture

of a soldier? in a manhole?

and then another picture closer up.

Apparently there are quite a few of these types of statues around Bratislava but this was the only one we saw on our short trip there.

We didn't have enough time to go to see the castle close up

Photo Credit:  Pixabay

but you can see it above in a picture over the city during sunset.

Photo Credit:  Pixabay

Then we also didn't get to see the UFO Tower which we didn't even know about.

Not very good at doing our research before leaving on this trip unfortunately and if we had known more and had better weather I think we would have really loved this city.  As it was I do have fond memories of that day.

Photo Credit:  Pixabay

We had to get back then to the train station to get the train to our destination of Vienna and we were glad that we had left ourselves plenty of time because when we got to the station we could not find where to get the train.

We were at the wrong station, there are two of them and the one we came to from the airport was not the one we needed to leave from to get to Vienna.  A little bus journey round the city was needed to find it.

Have you ever been to Bratislava? Check this out to see if it is worth visiting.

I would definitely recommend a day or two in Bratislava but hope for better weather than we got but if the weather is not so good just drop into the Train Station cafe and treat yourself to one of those delicious coffees if you can work out which one it is in the menu.

See Other posts in this series:

A for Alicante