The Seed Disperser - February 2022
Discover more from The Seed Disperser
The Seed Disperser - February 2022
This month's feature - Ideas for Lent
What’s in this month’s Seed Disperser
Featured this month – Lent Resources
Taking Flight for Lent
The Colour Purple - 5 Senses to Prayer
Stations for Lent & Easter
Inspiration this month – Ideas for Lent
Simplifying our lives
Feather and stone prayers
Special offers
25% discount on 5 Senses to Prayer Boxes
On a personal note
Finding hope in trying times
Featured this month - Lent Resources
The English word Lent comes from the Old English word lencten, a reference to the “lengthening” of the days in the Northern Hemisphere spring season. This year Lent runs from 2 March (Ash Wednesday) until 17 April (Easter Sunday). This covers a period of 40 days, not counting the Sundays. The 40 days mirror the time that the gospels tell us that Jesus fasted in the desert and was tempted. The Sundays are not included because Sundays are the days we think of Christ’s resurrection. As such they are considered as mini Easter Days rather than fasting days.
The church has used this same time period as a season for exercising spiritual disciplines in preparation for Easter, especially the disciplines of prayer, repentance, fasting, giving and self-denial.
Taking Flight for Lent & Easter
Taking Flight is our weekly lectionary resource filled with ideas for planning and preparing worship. Regular subscribers have already started receiving the Lent resources as we send it out a couple of weeks ahead. It’s not too late to sign up to receive the full Taking Flight Lent & Easter package. You’ll receive any editions you’ve missed and then continue to receive it weekly on Tuesday mornings (NZT).
Taking Flight’s whole series of Lent and Easter themes arising from the weekly lectionary readings:
6 Mar - Lent 1 – Testing - Luke 4.1-13
13 Mar - Lent 2 – Battle of the powers - Luke 13.31-35
20 Mar - Lent 3 – Turn to God - Luke 13.1-9
27 Mar - Lent 4 – Peace and forgiveness - Luke 15.1-3,11-32 & 2 Corinthians 5.16-21
3 Apr - Lent 5 – Streams in the desert - Isaiah 43.16-21 & Psalm 126
10 Apr - Palm Sunday – Whose king? - Luke 19.28-40 & Psalm 119.1-2,19-29
15 Apr - Good Friday – Road to the cross - John 18.1-19.42
17 Apr - Easter Sunday – Resurrection joy - John 20.1-18
Cost: $25 NZD
The Colour Purple - 5 Senses to Prayer Weekly Prayer Room
Our weekly prayer room is offering a seven week series for Lent. Woven throughout the series is the colour purple. Purple is the traditional church colour for Lent. It’s a sign of royalty and of something rare and precious. Purple is hard to define and hard to make. It’s a bit mysterious and it can be polarising. People perceive the colour differently and appreciate it differently. Purple is rare in nature. It’s a colour of shadows, observed in the half light of the early morning or late evening. Purple is also a colour of protest and causes, of drawing attention and taking notice, of joyous awakening.
Sign up to this sensory space for this period of reflection about what it means to each of us to be a follower of Jesus and how we can grow and strengthen our faith. Lent is a time of simplifying our lifestyles and slowing down to allow time and space for this reflection.
New subscribers can receive one free month and then move to a paid subscription for the remaining weeks of the series or beyond.
Cost: $5(USD) per month or $30(USD) per year
Stations for Lent and Easter
This was one of our earliest books when we started Kereru Publishing but it still sells well every year across the globe. If you’re looking for creative ideas for use in gatherings or in homes there are a range of station based worship ideas we’ve used in our own church settings. It’s available in PDF, EPUB and MOBI from Kereru Publishing. You can also find it in all major electronic book sellers and libraries.
Cost: $14.99 (NZD)
Inspiration this month - Ideas for Lent
Simplifying our lives
Our consumer-driven society means we can easily accumulate too much stuff. And it’s not just stuff, we can clutter our lives with too many activities. Even our heads can be cluttered with too many ideas and ambitions.
More stuff means mess that requires time and energy to clean up. It can be hard to keep track of what we own, resulting in us wasting time looking for things. We even rebuy items that we can’t find. Clearing away clutter gives us more physical space, and more mental space.
Decluttering this Lent allows us to see and concentrate on those things that are important. It will give us more energy and attention to devote to what matters most.
Here’s a checklist that came from Taking Flight. Use these ideas as starting ideas for your own decluttering exercise.
1. Decluttering my wardrobe
Are there items in there I could give to the op shop?
2. Decluttering my pantry
Are there items in there I could give to the food bank?
3. Decluttering the garage
Are there items in there I could give to the op shop or put on Trade Me?
4. Decluttering my activities
Are there present activities that I should not be involved with in 2022?
5. Decluttering my ideas
Are there areas of study that I should opt out of?
6. Decluttering my social media
Would it be helpful to spend less time on social media in 2022?
7. Decluttering my ambitions
Am I aiming to do too much in 2022?
8. Decluttering my media
Would I be better viewing or reading less in 2022?
9. Decluttering my library
Are there books that I could give to a second-hand bookshop?
10. Decluttering my worries
Do I have worries that I could hand over to the Lord?
Feather & Stone Prayers
We are living in strange and hard times. It’s pretty normal to experience a physical response to our thoughts and emotions, especially when everything feels heightened. Have you experienced the sensation of feeling so heavy you feel pulled down and oppressed by your thoughts and emotions and experiences? At other times you might feel so light and celebratory you feel like you're at one with creation. Both of these prayers tap into these real life experiences. Two ends of the spectrum of light to heavy but both can help us navigate through our world right now. These are simple prayers and they can be prayed at any time, any where. Hopefully you'll be able to find a feather and a stone outdoors.
Both prayers are written by Caroline Bindon and have previously appeared in our 5 Senses to Prayer Weekly Prayer Room.
Heavy Stone Prayer
Find a large smooth stone and hold it in your hand. Feel the weight of it resting in your hand, feel the smooth texture as you run your hand over the stone and move it around in your palm. Shift it from one hand to the other. Think about your life right now. Do you feel any sense of heaviness within? Is it a physical sensation? Are you weary or burdened? Perhaps you can name the thoughts, emotions or experiences that are creating this heavy feeling in your heart? If so, shift the stone from one hand to the other, naming each thing that is making you feel heavy. Give these things to God, inviting God to take the burden and the heaviness away.
Further suggestions and adaptations on using this prayer
Place the stone somewhere you will see it during the week. As you feel a heaviness within, pick it up and pray, giving your heavy thoughts to God.
What heavy work do you do around your work or home? Do you lift furniture, groceries, boxes. Do you push and pull lawn mowers, vacuum cleaners, mops? Do you work out at the gym or go running or walking? Take notice of the 'heavy work' you do this week. Notice the lifting, the pushing, the pulling or any activity involving resistance or heavy work. Turn this heavy work into an opportunity for prayer and as you carry out your activity, offer a one sentence prayer to God.
Gather a pile of stones and make a decorative feature of them or place them in a pot plant. As you arrange your stones, say a one word prayer acknowledging heavy things in your heart with each stone you place.
5 Senses to Prayer ©Caroline Bindon
Feather Prayer
Feather Prayer
Find a feather outdoors. Hold your feather and gently touch the back of your hand, your bare arms, your cheeks, your forehead and your legs. How does it feel to you? How heavy is the feather? There is a saying ‘as light as a feather’. Ponder the saying. Have you ever felt a lightness inside of you when you’ve made up with a friend after an argument, when you’ve got your marks back from a test, when you’ve watched a sunrise or seen a budding flower, when you’ve received a hug from a special person or any other moment? Does the saying ‘as light as a feather’ describe the feelings of a burden lifted within? As you play with your feather, think of past events in the day, week, month, year or even earlier in your life when you’ve experienced such lightness. Give thanks to God for each experience in a one word prayer.
Further suggestions and adaptations on using this prayer
As you go through your day or week, take note of times when you feel a lightness of spirit inside. Give thanks to God for this moment.
Make a list of as many things you can think of that you do that you'd consider to be activities or actions 'as light as a feather' - dusting, eating a sponge cake, tiptoeing around the garden, dancing, carrying a small child, working with fabric or yarn... as you go through your day or week take note of these 'light as a feather' activities and turn them into a prayer opportunity.
Find an old fashioned feather quill and write out a prayer or words of praise and thanks to God.
5 Senses to Prayer ©Caroline Bindon
Special Offer - 25% Discount
Our prayer boxes are a great idea for Lent or for a regular spiritual practice. They’re also great if you can’t get out to church or are isolating at home. Each box comes with all equipment included. Find yourself a quiet spot and follow the postcard prayers as you pray through the box using experiential equipment. It takes about twenty minutes to half an hour to go through the whole sequence and the box can be re-used again and again. Each box comes with a booklet and a set of postcards.
We made the call early in the pandemic to pause on releasing new themed boxes and still do not have a planned date for our next new release. This is primarily due to the shipping and stock supply constraints caused by the pandemic. The good news is we do still have some stock left of all of our boxes. We had also paused shipping internationally but have reinstated this on our website and we will now ship overseas. However, please allow for additional time for the goods to reach you and be warned the shipping prices have increased.
We have three box options. Click on the blue name to go to our website to purchase. Use the code LENT22 at the checkout to receive the 25% discount.
Basic Box Sale price $26.25 (NZD)
Never Ending Circles Box Sale price $26.25 (NZD)
Mini Never Ending Circles Box Sale price $15.00 (NZD)
On a Personal Note…
We’ve had an enjoyable low-key summer with a couple of holidays on Awhitu Peninsula and the rest of the time spent on our own Whangaparaoa Peninsula. Andrew’s hand (and back) have healed enough that he has recently been back out on the water, joyously zipping about Big Manly Bay in his little inflatable and catching fish. Caroline enjoyed some camping on our back lawn with our two youngest grandchildren while it was still school holidays.
The year always feels like it begins with a roar in February and while we started the month with a few ideas and plans, like many people we’ve hit the pause button on some things for now as the case numbers for Omicron rise across the country. We know many people feel exhausted, uncertain and anxious. The pandemic has highlighted inequality and injustice. Our hope and prayer is that the hard work gone into the high vaccination rates will limit the impact of the virus, particularly amongst the poor and marginalised in our country.
As Lent approaches, we turn to prayer and our own simple rituals and practices as we lean deeply into our faith and find hope and comfort in being followers of Jesus. We hope there is something in this Seed Disperser that will help you on our faith journey too.
Our prayers of hope are with you all
On the journey
Andrew and Caroline
Kereru Publishing – Resourcing Christian Spirituality
The story of the Kereru is a metaphor for the church in New Zealand and in the western world. Our dream is to provide resources to engage, encourage and inspire a generation of seed dispersers for the Christian faith.
Andrew Gamman and Caroline Bindon are founders of Kereru Publishing. They live among the kereru on the Whangaparaoa Peninsula just to the north of Auckland city in New Zealand.