A message from L P King:

In November of 2011, we were getting ready to welcome a new Author, Jan Hawkins, and we were doing some fairly intense editing and our minds were naturally pre-occupied with the task at hand. Then, Jan casually mentioned a photograph that she would like me to see and asked if I would mind taking a look at it. Well, to say I was blown away when I received the email would be an understatement! We have Jan, and especially her sister, Karen Hawkins, to thank for the privilege of being able to publish this special image – one that I believe to be particularly poignant in these troubled times.

Here’s the story…. One day Karen was walking along the street in Darlinghurst, Sydney, with her children. The children were being boisterous and Karen was wishing she had something to keep them occupied. Then she spied the “magic box”. It was a box that had been left out on the footpath, ready for a rubbish pick-up by the local Council. Karen scooped up the box and implored her children to behave and as a reward they could take the magic box home and sift through the contents.

Once home Karen realised what it was that had been left out as rubbish….

The “magic box” contained…

Several old glass negatives from 1910 and they appeared to have been taken around The Rocks area in Sydney.

The Rocks is one of the most special historical places to visit if you are ever in Sydney in New South Wales - https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/The_Rocks,_New_South_Wales. Most Australians think of this area as where it all began and so much more. You can lose yourself in The Rocks on a Sunday afternoon and defy anyone to ever take that feeling of continuity away from you.

With Jan’s help the old glass negatives were developed by a photographer and we are so privileged to have the one we wish to share with you as Blank Cards and as a special A-4 Wall Calendar.

It portrays all the poverty and hardships of the era and yet there is still faith, hope and love. A mother sits in the middle of a single dilapidated room with her two children... and they are all praying. Take a little time to look closely at the photo, absorb it all. You can see the tiredness on the mother's gaunt face and appreciate how the little boy is concentrating so hard on his prayer. This has to be one of the most powerful images I have ever seen. When I prepared it for printing I just tidied up the torn edges a little bit and left it basically as it is. You can see the smudges and the dirt on the glass overlay of the negative but you can still feel the power of the image and I love how the light shines on the little girl.

It struck me as an image that has so much relevance today and especially now, as I think we will all agree that 2011 was one of the most challenging years ever for the entire world. People are tired, they have been tested, and there is a message in this image and this is why we have chosen this verse to go with it:

1 Corinthians 13:13

And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

Kind of puts things in perspective, doesn’t it?