Community.

This is our fourth year here.  We moved in 2008, and are now settled. 
I'm not a big fan of change though, and moving is always an upheaval.  Some people see it as fun, others as horrendous.  I guess I'm somewhere in the middle.  Not only was it a move away from our old jobs, our old church, and my side of the family, it was also a move into a very new phase of my life - being the at-home dad. 
We work in a school, and for the first few weeks, I was wondering what my 'place' would be in things.  I spent a fair amount of time feeling a little out of place.  Then came a suggestion from a friend who works here.  Perhaps I should play football on Monday nights with some of the lads.  Awesome idea, I thought.  I like playing football, it would give me a chance to get to know some more people at the school, and it would also be a chance to do a 'boy' thing (I'm surrounded by girls here...).
So Monday nights kicked off (ho ho ho) and I got into the habit of trekking down to the sports hall or astro for a bit of a kickaround.  Nothing too strenuous (thankfully!).  But as time went on, the attendance was somewhat sporadic, and there were some occasions when not enough people turned up for a game.  Occasionally, no-one at all turned up.  This meant that Monday nights were either a high point, or a very low point of my week.  The weeks that lads turned up, we'd have a good time.  But weeks when I found myself wandering home alone, having stood in the cold like a complete loser waiting for nothing to happen, well, they weren't so great.
Three years on, and things have developed.  Monday night is now a completely regular fixture, and is almost always a (even the!) highlight of my week.  This is a massive boost for me.  It makes me feel like I'm a part of the community.  Last week, most of the lads arrived in what seemed to be a new set of footy tops.  I thought it looked pretty impressive.  When we're just having two teams, I'm generally one captain, and the other member of staff who runs the session (they're his lads!) is the other.  Last week, we got them all lined up ready to be picked.  Imagine my surprise when he got them all to shut up, and then presented me with this:

I don't think they'll ever quite appreciate how much it means to me to be made to feel such a part of the group.  It reminded me how important it is for us to be a welcoming community to others.  We should go out of our way to make them feel they belong, until they really do, and they really believe it.
Who can you encourage this week, to show them they're a valued member of your 'community'?