Half of school children have never written a letter

The research, carried out to mark World Friendship Day on Monday, also revealed that one in five do not even know how to write a letter.

Odette Brooks, founder of Leaps and Bounds Educational Services told Premier she’s not surprised by the results, but it’s still saddening.

 

“I think we live in an age where speed is king so we want communication to have a sense of brevity,” she said.

“Young people now, they’re fully engaged in text messaging as their main form of written communication. The problem with that is the quality is compromised.”

World Vision uses letter writing as a way for families to build lasting friendships with the children they sponsor.

Lauren Vail, children’s communications officer at World Vision UK said it has many benefits.

“The education which sponsored children get is often poor,” she said.

“Letter writing helps these children develop their literacy and communication skills. Knowing that what you say is important to someone far away has a powerful impact on a child’s confidence.”

Brooks told Premier that writing letters should not be viewed as a thing of the past.

“Letter-writing does have its relevance today,” she added.

“It’s not some sort of archaic thing from the past. That’s why World Vision pen pal initiative is brilliant, because young people see letter writing is a brilliant way of keeping in touch with each other and expressing our ideas…

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Netflix Building Faith & Family-Family Library, VP Says; ‘It’s a Very Important Audience’

Netflix Building Faith & Family-Family Library, VP Says; ‘It’s a Very Important Audience’



Netflix is well-known for its edgy content, but a company vice president said the streaming service is working to produce family content, too.


“It’s a very important audience to us,” Netflix vice president of original series, Cindy Holland, said at the Television Critics Associations’ Summer Press Tour in California Sunday, according to Fox News. “It represents a significant percentage of the population not only here in the U.S., but around the world.”


Holland, who did not provide details, added that she “grew up in a place that was very much steeped in those traditions.”


“I want to make some great programming for my cousins and their families too,” she said. “So it is something that we are focused on really building out a robust slate of family-friendly programming.”


Her comments mirror what Brian Bird, a producer for When Calls the Heart and The Case For Christ, told Blasting News. He is producing a family-friendly series for Netflix.


“People are taking notice of the hunger out there for faith and family kind of content,” Bird said.


Bird wants families to be able to watch TV together.


“That was a cultural experience that was part of my growing-up years — watching Bonanza and [other] shows with my family. And that’s lost to us now. But When Calls the Heart is actually bringing it back, because we hear…

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Pope accepts resignation of Australian bishop convicted of sex abuse cover-up

Francis’ move followed mounting pressure from Australian priests and even the prime minister, Malcolm Turnbull.

Adelaide Archbishop Philip Wilson was convicted in May of failing to report to police the repeated abuse of two altar boys by a paedophile priest in the Hunter Valley region north of Sydney during the 1970s.

 

He became the highest-ranking Catholic cleric ever convicted in a criminal court of covering up abuse.

Wilson had declined to resign pending an appeal of his case.

Mr Turnbull added his voice to those calling for his sacking in an appeal to Francis on July 19.

The Vatican said that Francis has accepted Wilson’s resignation.

It is the second major announcement of a sex abuse-related resignation in as many days, after Francis’ dramatic sanctioning this weekend of a US cardinal, suggesting he is keen to clean up before he heads to Dublin next month for a Catholic family rally.

Wilson, who denied the accusations, had immediately stepped aside after he was convicted but refused to resign pending an appeal. Francis has appointed a temporary administrator to run the diocese in the meantime.

In a statement issued by the archdiocese, Wilson said he had submitted his resignation to Francis of his own will on July 20 – a day after Mr Turnbull’s call – and said he hoped his decision would help abuse victims and the rest of the Catholic community heal.

He said: “I had…

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Erdogan dismisses Trump’s threat of sanctions over imprisoned American pastor

Mr Erdogan told journalists on Sunday that the relationship between the two countries would be damaged if Washington persisted in what he described as “psychological warfare”.

His comments follow President Donald Trump announcing last week that he would impose “large sanctions “against Turkey over its treatment of Andrew Bruson.

 

The US Vice President Mike Pence also took to Twitter to promise the pastor will always have the support of the American administration to ensure he is returned home, On Sunday he tweeted transferring Mr Brunson to home arrest was “just not good enough”.

Andrew and Norine Brunson/Facebook

 

Brunson, a 50 year old evangelical pastor from Black Mountain, North Carolina, was arrested in December 2016 and later charged with links to a failed plot to overthrow the Turkish government in July 2016.

Israel reported Turkey had made a u-turn over a deal brokered by Mr Trump, in which the Jewish state would return a Turkish national accused of smuggling money to the militant group Hamas in exchange for Mr Brunson’s freedom.

 

However, Mr…

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Fireman turned policeman dies at 29

Adam Jobbers-Miller grew up in Wayne, New Jersey, the son of a fireman. He served as a volunteer fireman with his father before he was hired as a police officer in Fort Myers, Florida.

Jobbers-Miller was shot in the head on July 21 while responding to a report of a gunman at a gas station. He underwent surgery but died of his injuries a week later.

It takes tremendous courage to risk one’s life as a firefighter or a police officer. Jobbers-Miller did both.

In other news, the remains of Capt. Lawrence Dickson have been identified. He was the first of more than two dozen black aviators known as Tuskegee Airmen who went missing in action during World War II. Dickson was twenty-four when he went down on a mission over Austria on December 23, 1944.

Meanwhile, remains believed to be those of fifty-five American servicemen were flown out of North Korea on Friday. “These incredible American heroes will soon lay at rest on sacred American soil,” President Trump said.

A fifty-fifty chance of survival

It takes courage to do a hard thing that others will not do. If it were easy, it would already be done.

Rocket Men is Robert Kurson’s bestselling story of the Apollo 8 space mission. I was gripped by the book from start to finish. Kurson timed his narrative for the fiftieth anniversary of the first manned mission to leave Earth’s orbit, reach the Moon, orbit it, and return to Earth safely.

While I was vaguely familiar with Apollo 8 (I was ten years old at the time), I remember far better the Apollo 11 mission that placed the first man on the Moon six months later. What I didn’t realize was that, without Apollo 8, there would have been no Apollo 11. If NASA could not fly astronauts safely to and from the Moon, they obviously could not put them safely on it.

Nor did I realize the incredible courage of the three men who made the journey. Frank Borman, Jim Lovell, and Bill Anders flew on Saturn V, the most powerful machine that had ever been built….

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Dead bishop was victim of ‘brutal murder’, reports suggest

Church leaders confirmed the death of Bishop Epiphanius but the circumstances around his death remain uncertain.

The Coptic Archbishop of London, Archbishop Angaelos said: “Mourning the tragic death of our brother and friend Bishop Epiphanius, Abbot of St Makarious Monastery.

 

“A kind and gentle man, and a faithful shepherd and theologian of the Coptic Orthodox Church.”

The religious figure’s body was discovery in the monastery near Wadi el-Natroun in Beheira Governorate on Sunday.

The media Twitter page of the UK Coptic Orthodox Church said: “Reports emerging of the brutal murder today of Coptic Bishop Epiphanius, Abbot of Saint Macarius Monastery, Egypt.”

 

Bishop Epiphanius’ head was smashed and there were injuries to his back, according to unnamed security officials who spoke with the Associated Press news agency.

Egypt’s Christian minority, which constitutes ten per cent of the Muslim-majority country, has been targeted in a series of attacks by Islamic militants since winter 2016.

Twenty-nine people were killed when a suicide bomber targeted St Peter and St Paul’s Church in Cairo on 22nd December 2016.

Stay up to date with the latest news stories from a Christian perspective. Sign up to our daily newsletter and receive more stories like this straight to your inbox every morning.

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The Five Stages of Recovery When Toxic People Leave the Church

I have been working with church leaders for three decades on the issue of toxicity in the church. Toxic church members grieve the Holy Spirit with “bitterness, anger and wrath, shouting and slander” (Ephesians 4:30-31). They are gossipers, naysayers, bullies, and generally negative people. You can count on them to gossip, spread rumors, and disrupt the unity of the church.

They are the opposite of what God commanded of church members: “And be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving one another, just as God also forgave you in Christ” (Ephesians 4:32).

Pastors and other church leaders are often hesitant to deal with toxicity in the church. I get it. It’s just more conflict, confrontation, and possible loss of members.

But here is the hard reality: the congregation will not move forward with toxic church members.

I will save the discussion for later on how to deal with toxicity in the church. For now, let’s look at what happens in a church when toxic members leave. Essentially, for the church, it becomes short and mid-term pain for longer-term gain.

  1. Stage One: Exodus. The church will definitely lose members. After all, it has already lost the toxic members. And it is more common than not for the toxic members to have a following of other members. They will likely leave too. Some of the followers are toxic themselves; others simply have not heard the full story.
  2. Stage Two: Questioning. The majority of church members typically are unaware of the conflict and strife caused by…

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I wanted a boy but God gives you what you need

The American said she was “confident” of giving birth to a boy “but God blessed me with my previous True”, in a message to social media followers.

Referring to her eight-year-old nephew, she wrote on Twitter: “I wanted a boy so badly because Mason and I are so close. I love our bond.

“I felt confident in having a boy but God blessed me with my precious True and now I wouldn’t know what to do with a boy.

“True has made me sweeter and more gentle. God gives you what you need. My BFF [usually intended to mean ‘best friends forever’] 4Life.”

Along with her sisters Kim and Kourtney, Khloé shot to fame as a star of the hit TV series Keeping Up with the Kardashians – which debuted in 2007.

 

The 33-year-old previously expressed her anticipation of reading Bible stories to three month-old True.

She also described “waiting and wondering” before her “greatest dream” was realised when she learned of her pregnancy.

Posting on her Instagram account last December, she added: “God had a plan all along. He knew what He was doing.”

Stay up to date with the latest…

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Our Daily Bread Devotional 30 July 2018 – Overcoming Challenges

Topic: Overcoming Challenges [Our Daily Bread 30 Monday July, 2018]

Read: Nehemiah 6:1–9, 15, Bible in a Year: Psalms 51–53; Romans 2

So the wall was completed on the twenty-fifth of Elul, in fifty-two days. Nehemiah 6:15

We gathered monthly to hold one another accountable to our individual goals. My friend Mary wanted to reupholster the seats of her dining room chairs before the year’s end. At our November meeting she wittily reported her progress from October: “It took ten months and two hours to recover my chairs.” After months of not being able to obtain the materials required, or find the quiet hours away from her demanding job and her toddler’s needs, the project took merely two hours of committed work to finish.

The Lord called Nehemiah to a far greater project: to bring restoration to Jerusalem after its walls had lain in ruin for 150 years (Nehemiah 2:3–5, 12). As he led the people in the labor, they experienced mockery, attacks, distraction, and temptation to sin (4:3, 8; 6:10–12). Yet God equipped them to stand firm—resolute in their efforts—completing a daunting task in just fifty-two days.

Overcoming such challenges requires much more than a personal desire or goal; Nehemiah was driven by an understanding that God appointed him to the task. His sense of purpose invigorated the people to follow his leadership despite incredible opposition. When God charges us with a task—whether to repair a relationship or share what He’s done in our lives—He gives us whatever skills and strength are necessary to continue in our effort to do what He’s asked, no matter what challenges come our way.

Prayer: Lord, please equip me with Your strength to persevere and finish the tasks You’ve given me. May my labors bring You glory.

God equips us to overcome obstacles and complete the tasks He’s given us to do.

If you missed yesterday devotional, please click to read “Our Daily Bread Devotionals HERE

This message was written By Amy Boucher Pye [Our Daily Bread Ministries.]

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