Update

Here's the first time I wrote about this project almost a year ago.

I thought you'd like to hear how it's going. And I wanted to share with you about my visit this weekend. As I'd promised, I packed up a box of books from my personal resource shelf to add to the Stratford library collection.

I met Elizabeth and Carol after church on Sunday to view their NEW and refreshed library space. Remember some time ago we purged some of the ancient books and "stuff" from their cramped shelf space. We talked about how to respectfully dispose of once-treasured books. (One day I'll write about a ritual you may want to employ for your church library!)

New shelves are up, cleared and stacked with fresh, colourful and sorted books. Clean, cleared floor and wall spaces make this room really inviting. They're making lists of some books they're still missing. Soon there will be "wish list" for donors who want to fill in those gaps as memorial gifts or just in support of making this library more useful to more people.

We talked about ways to feature some of the periodicals they possess. We're on the lookout for what people want to use--children's ministry ideas, preaching resources, devotional material, excellent fiction and biographies. And they're creating some quick "info-mercials" to bring their excellent and evolving library treasures during sharing time in Sunday services.

Some more costly (or just plain heavy) books will be for use in the library exclusively; so this means they'll need to put a good comfy chair on their "shopping/wish list." Now that this room no longer receives that miscellaneous "junk for Jesus" that some of our church libraries seem to attract, it really IS a real destination place. Kid books attractively displayed on the lower shelves will need a couple of accompanying floor cushions.

I've got still more books if you'd like to earn them. Just let me know you're making a place in your refreshed and ready-to-use congregational library. Give me a call and I'll put you on my list. Meanwhile: Congratulations Elizabeth, Carol and Stratford for a terrific library project. I'll let you know what they do next. They're dreaming big!