Archive for the 'Devotional Writing' Category

More of my writing

As from late last year I’ve taken on the role of webmaster of our church website. This means writing for three other sites in addition to this one. Sometimes I think I must be a little crazy, but this new one will be shared by several other writers. Any articles with the letters TH at the end were written by me.

For those of you who may be interested in reading some of my writings on spiritual matters, click here to read what I’ve written on the Murray Bridge Church of Christ site. Some of the articles will be current news items, while many others will be devotional thoughts on a range of topics.

You may also be interested in reading my other sites:

About writing, reading and lecturing

Regular readers of this site must be wondering whether I’ve dropped off the planet.

Both of my readers.

In reality, this site still continues to chug along with a steady readership despite not having new articles posted regularly. It must have something to do with the content written and posted here over the last six years. I missed writing anything for this site’s 6th birthday on March 6th. Happy Birthday!

Over recent months I have still been writing and very busy on writing type activities. Late last year I was offered a lecturing position at the university where I recently achieved my Master of Arts degree. This has meant a great deal of time in writing and preparing the lectures. My lectures are designed to help students new to tertiary studies on how to research a topic and then turn this into an academic essay. I am pleased that this is going really well.

More recently I have been asked to lecture in children’s literature to student teachers studying at the same university. This is an area I am very passionate about and have significant qualifications in this area. Not only do I write children’s stories, I have 35 years of classroom experience in using children’s literature to enhance student development. Furthermore, about a quarter of that time was spent as a teacher librarian. I’m really looking forward to teaching this extra unit in second semester.

Another thing I have been doing recently is getting back to reading more books. Over recent years the amount of reading I have done has shifted from books to more online material. I plan to redress that imbalance in the coming year or so; there are so many great books that I haven’t read yet – or wish to reread.

Another pressure upon my time for writing here since January has been my church life. Our pastor resigned unexpectedly in January and as one of the Eldership team it has been my responsibility to see that programmes still continue to move along. This has involved some preaching – a sermon takes many hours to write and prepare – a few extra meetings, and writing material, including devotional style editorials, for our weekly newsletter.

I trust I’ll find time to add new articles here on a regular basis in the coming weeks and months.

Good writing.

Your Life is a Metaphor

Inspiration

Inspiration comes to writers – and people in many other spheres of life – in many, varied and sometimes strange ways. For example, a few years ago I had a sudden insight during a sermon at church. Something that was said – I don’t remember what it was – gave me an idea for a children’s novel. Over the next few months I actually wrote that novel. It is now in the final stages of editing and will be soon ready to send off to a publisher.

New Inspiration

During today’s sermon, Daryll, our pastor, used a string of metaphors to introduce his topic. Immediately I was inspired to write a series pieces using metaphors. It’s only an idea at this stage. Not sure if these pieces of writing will be articles, stories (true or fictional), poems, devotionals, whatever.

Daryll found the list in chapter 5 of the Rick Warren book “The Purpose Driven Life.” (published by Zondervan).

Some Metaphors for Life

  • Life is a three-ring circus.
  • Life is a minefield.
  • Life is a roller coaster.
  • Life is a puzzle.
  • Life is a symphony.
  • Life is a journey.
  • Life is a dance.
  • Life is a carousel (sometimes you’re up, sometimes you’re down, and sometimes you just go round and round).
  • Life is a game of cards (you have to play the hand you are dealt).
  • Life is a race.
  • Life is a marathon.
  • Life is a battle.

Of course, both the author and Daryll forgot to mention my alltime favourite from none other than that great philosopher, Forrest Gump:

  • (Insert southern drawl) “My Mama always said:’Life is like a box of chocolates: you never know what you are going to get.”

Actually – that last one is in fact a simile – not a metaphor. Oh well, never mind.

The point is this; inspiration for writing is all around us, in the commonplace, in those we meet everyday, in ordinary situations. We just have to open our eyes, our ears – all our senses – to the possibilities.

And that idea is far removed from the main thrust of Daryll’s sermon this morning.

Life is like a maze: just when you think you have found the way out, another interesting path opens up before you.

Another Useful Writer’s Newsletter

The Spirit Led Writer

I’ve subscribed to the Christian writers’ electronic newsletter The Spirit Led Writer for some time now and have found some very interesting and worthwhile articles contained in it. It is a monthly digest type magazine written by a wide range of authors who write for the Christian market.

Inspirational

Many of the articles are well thought out and easy to read. Others are quite inspirational, like the article in the current issue written by Susan Sundwall called Finding Inspiration: Heeding the Breath of God. In this article Susan explores what it means to be inspired by God in one’s writing and the types of markets that accept this genre. She ends the article by listing some markets that pay for inspirational writing.

This newsletter boasts a high standing in the writing community. It was named one of the 101 Best Web Sites for Writers in both 2003 and 2004 by Writers’ Digest Magazine.
To read other articles, or to subscribe click here.

Welcome

Welcome to this web site, the home page of writer Trevor Hampel. This site needs lots of work on it so stay tuned.

Just to arouse a little curiosity here are some of the things I write:

Picture books, novels for young readers, puppet scripts, poetry – both for children and adults, devotionals, short stories and articles.