We are heading west to do a week of parental care and will have zero access to the internet during that time. So, no posts for a few days. I will miss daily blogging and the great interaction with other people it has brought into my life, but I think I will survive the computer free week...I hope....wish my lawn could be growth free as well while I am gone as the rain we are experiencing has it growing by inches every day! Sigh.........I had forgotten after a few years of apt. living, how much work having a yard creates! I don't suppose I could prevail upon the folk taking care of our house in our absence......naaaa...I couldn't do that........could I?
More inane chatter next week. Have a good one everybody!
Wednesday, May 23, 2012
A Rather Amazing Day!
Today was incredibly special for a number of reasons.
This afternoon we attended a memorial service for our friend Jill. It was a wonderful tribute to someone who never let adversity stop her from accomplishing her mission in life. Jill was a spirited evangelist most of her life and brought many people to Jesus.
It also was a longer service than we had expected when we planned out the rest of our day.
We felt just terrible that we had to actually leave the service before it was over. Of course we had been seated by the usher about 5 rows from the front of the huge sanctuary and so everyone saw us leaving so very rudely. It was embarrassing to say the least. Here were the Anglican priest and his wife walking out early during a funeral for the Alliance pastor's wife......bad form, bad form!!!
However, the pastoral counselling session resulted in a new soul entering the Kingdom of God. It was thrilling. I think that Jill would have forgiven our hasty exit from her memorial service for that event. That was the sort of event she lived for and it seemed a fitting ending to the afternoon of tributes to a woman so spiritually gifted.
Another wonderful meeting happened last evening.
Through a series of blog links that I looked at several years ago I began regularly reading the blogs of a pastor and his wife in another province. We hooked up as well via email once or twice a few years ago. Turns out this couple used to live in the same town as Jill and her husband and knew them well. So, they came to the funeral yesterday.
We were able to meet them and they came to our home for the evening. What fun for Dell to have another pastor to talk to, to share the joys and failures of ministry. We can see why this couple have had a ministry of going into troubled churches and bringing healing and hope. They made us feel very loved within the first 2 minutes of our visit. We shared all manner of things, laughed and drank tea together.....it was a fun evening.
With great gratitude to the blogosphere we are enjoying having new friends.
The other small joy for us was when a thunder storm rolled through town and the electrical power DIDN'T go out! Trust me, this is an event worthy of dance and song. In our town the electricity only needs to become aware of lightning in a neighbouring municipality to have empathy outages!! But yesterday there were no clocks to reset, no computers beeping to let us know they were starving for power, no entertainment systems to resurrect.....
All in all a glorious day! Thank you God!
This afternoon we attended a memorial service for our friend Jill. It was a wonderful tribute to someone who never let adversity stop her from accomplishing her mission in life. Jill was a spirited evangelist most of her life and brought many people to Jesus.
It also was a longer service than we had expected when we planned out the rest of our day.
We felt just terrible that we had to actually leave the service before it was over. Of course we had been seated by the usher about 5 rows from the front of the huge sanctuary and so everyone saw us leaving so very rudely. It was embarrassing to say the least. Here were the Anglican priest and his wife walking out early during a funeral for the Alliance pastor's wife......bad form, bad form!!!
However, the pastoral counselling session resulted in a new soul entering the Kingdom of God. It was thrilling. I think that Jill would have forgiven our hasty exit from her memorial service for that event. That was the sort of event she lived for and it seemed a fitting ending to the afternoon of tributes to a woman so spiritually gifted.
Another wonderful meeting happened last evening.
Through a series of blog links that I looked at several years ago I began regularly reading the blogs of a pastor and his wife in another province. We hooked up as well via email once or twice a few years ago. Turns out this couple used to live in the same town as Jill and her husband and knew them well. So, they came to the funeral yesterday.
We were able to meet them and they came to our home for the evening. What fun for Dell to have another pastor to talk to, to share the joys and failures of ministry. We can see why this couple have had a ministry of going into troubled churches and bringing healing and hope. They made us feel very loved within the first 2 minutes of our visit. We shared all manner of things, laughed and drank tea together.....it was a fun evening.
With great gratitude to the blogosphere we are enjoying having new friends.
The other small joy for us was when a thunder storm rolled through town and the electrical power DIDN'T go out! Trust me, this is an event worthy of dance and song. In our town the electricity only needs to become aware of lightning in a neighbouring municipality to have empathy outages!! But yesterday there were no clocks to reset, no computers beeping to let us know they were starving for power, no entertainment systems to resurrect.....
All in all a glorious day! Thank you God!
Monday, May 21, 2012
Theological Dunderhead
It is a happy long weekend Monday around my house. My phone has not been ringing off the hook today, even though my husband is at home, so I have accomplished a ton of work. A day uninterrupted and voila, the house is cleaned from top to bottom! YAY!!
To occupy my mind while doing these tasks I started thinking about where I am at right now spiritually. Some things have changed for me over the past 2 years.
In our last town I had many folks that I met just hanging around downtown, or while riding the transit buses, who wanted to know about Jesus and why I choose to try to follow him. None of these people are theological scholars, some are so illiterate they would have a difficult time dealing with the liturgy in my denominational services, some are mentally ill and struggling just to cope with each day. I fell in love with these people. All of them were lonely and eager to chat, some were in quite desperate life circumstances. It was very easy to talk to them about Jesus and to tell them about him so simply. Basic Sunday school theology was all that was required for most of them. Over a period of several years some of the conversations we had actually bore solid spiritual fruit. It was an amazing time of ministry and making new friends I would have never chosen under different circumstances.
But now my husband has returned to full time ministry...post seminary....post double Masters degree seminary. We have moved away from my dear street friends and I have not connected in my new town with people who are anything like them. That is okay, it is time to do other things and I am enjoying the things I am now doing.
However, new ministry for my husband has me surrounded by theologians, and Masters and Doctorate level conversation once again. That is a good thing, I continue to learn wonderful scholarly things, but I find I am not participating in many conversations with my husband and his pastor/professor friends. It isn't that I don't understand their conversation: I audited the classes and read the textbooks. But because I don't have those letters after my name I am afraid to participate, and to have to admit to my lack of immersion in the theological studies they dearly love. As soon as these people find out I do not have a degree at their level I am usually immediately written off as having nothing to offer, and perhaps they are correct. I likely don't. But sometimes it hurts to be written off so thoroughly by people who are making rather large assumptions about me when they don't know me at all.
When my husband was still in seminary he invited 2 pastors, new to the area, to have dinner in our home. The lady pastor walked in my door, greeted me, asked me what degree programme I was taking and when I said I wasn't taking a degree programme, her response was to say, "oh..", turn around and not say another word to me in my own home for the rest of the evening. She and her husband wrote me off in that instant and we never did really connect on any other level over the several years we were aquainted. It was the first time that had happened to me, but it certainly was not the last.
Some people are very impressed by their academic abilities and others equally impressed by their own ignorance, and darned proud in both cases. Is there some kind of middle ground person who isn't satisfied with the usual Sunday school theology taught in many church services and also isn't afraid to talk to the least academic folk around?
Does it so often have to be a "them" and "us" mentality and practise between those who are well educated and those who simply haven't the same knowledge for whatever reason? Is it not possible to get together at least occasionally with people of differing interests than our own and attempt to carry on some sort of meaningful conversation? Can neither side expand their own minds to accommodate the other once in awhile?
Do uneducated people have to behave as if people who are educated automatically think they are better quality people, and worthy of scorn? Do they have to assume that academic knowledge automatically precludes pragmatism?
Do well educated people have to behave as if having a conversation with the less well educated is going to taint them in some way?
I realize I am talking in sweeping generalities here. There are wonderful people on both sides of the academic vs non-academic issue who are capable of relating to a broad swath of other human beings, but those on each side of this particular issue sometimes seem all too capable of looking down on each other and not taking each other seriously.
When all the people involved are part of the Christian community it is a problem! We often find the grace to love the "unlovely" when we are part of different social communities, but when our paths cross in the church community both sides can become somewhat uppity!
I feel that my own spiritual life has suffered in the past couple of years because I am too afraid to attempt to participate more often in the academic discussions. I find myself refusing to be drawn in now even when the opportunity is presented. I need to get over it! Just because I enjoy street people (and often prefer them) doesn't mean I am some kind of stupid person. I have to stop acting as though it does.
To occupy my mind while doing these tasks I started thinking about where I am at right now spiritually. Some things have changed for me over the past 2 years.
In our last town I had many folks that I met just hanging around downtown, or while riding the transit buses, who wanted to know about Jesus and why I choose to try to follow him. None of these people are theological scholars, some are so illiterate they would have a difficult time dealing with the liturgy in my denominational services, some are mentally ill and struggling just to cope with each day. I fell in love with these people. All of them were lonely and eager to chat, some were in quite desperate life circumstances. It was very easy to talk to them about Jesus and to tell them about him so simply. Basic Sunday school theology was all that was required for most of them. Over a period of several years some of the conversations we had actually bore solid spiritual fruit. It was an amazing time of ministry and making new friends I would have never chosen under different circumstances.
But now my husband has returned to full time ministry...post seminary....post double Masters degree seminary. We have moved away from my dear street friends and I have not connected in my new town with people who are anything like them. That is okay, it is time to do other things and I am enjoying the things I am now doing.
However, new ministry for my husband has me surrounded by theologians, and Masters and Doctorate level conversation once again. That is a good thing, I continue to learn wonderful scholarly things, but I find I am not participating in many conversations with my husband and his pastor/professor friends. It isn't that I don't understand their conversation: I audited the classes and read the textbooks. But because I don't have those letters after my name I am afraid to participate, and to have to admit to my lack of immersion in the theological studies they dearly love. As soon as these people find out I do not have a degree at their level I am usually immediately written off as having nothing to offer, and perhaps they are correct. I likely don't. But sometimes it hurts to be written off so thoroughly by people who are making rather large assumptions about me when they don't know me at all.
When my husband was still in seminary he invited 2 pastors, new to the area, to have dinner in our home. The lady pastor walked in my door, greeted me, asked me what degree programme I was taking and when I said I wasn't taking a degree programme, her response was to say, "oh..", turn around and not say another word to me in my own home for the rest of the evening. She and her husband wrote me off in that instant and we never did really connect on any other level over the several years we were aquainted. It was the first time that had happened to me, but it certainly was not the last.
Some people are very impressed by their academic abilities and others equally impressed by their own ignorance, and darned proud in both cases. Is there some kind of middle ground person who isn't satisfied with the usual Sunday school theology taught in many church services and also isn't afraid to talk to the least academic folk around?
Does it so often have to be a "them" and "us" mentality and practise between those who are well educated and those who simply haven't the same knowledge for whatever reason? Is it not possible to get together at least occasionally with people of differing interests than our own and attempt to carry on some sort of meaningful conversation? Can neither side expand their own minds to accommodate the other once in awhile?
Do uneducated people have to behave as if people who are educated automatically think they are better quality people, and worthy of scorn? Do they have to assume that academic knowledge automatically precludes pragmatism?
Do well educated people have to behave as if having a conversation with the less well educated is going to taint them in some way?
I realize I am talking in sweeping generalities here. There are wonderful people on both sides of the academic vs non-academic issue who are capable of relating to a broad swath of other human beings, but those on each side of this particular issue sometimes seem all too capable of looking down on each other and not taking each other seriously.
When all the people involved are part of the Christian community it is a problem! We often find the grace to love the "unlovely" when we are part of different social communities, but when our paths cross in the church community both sides can become somewhat uppity!
I feel that my own spiritual life has suffered in the past couple of years because I am too afraid to attempt to participate more often in the academic discussions. I find myself refusing to be drawn in now even when the opportunity is presented. I need to get over it! Just because I enjoy street people (and often prefer them) doesn't mean I am some kind of stupid person. I have to stop acting as though it does.
Sunday, May 20, 2012
Delicious Sunday
What a lovely day today....a warm sunny day....a nice relief after all the bad news of the week. Even church went well in both towns despite low numbers due to long weekend holidays. Learned a new song in one of the churches, a good lively little number that I hope we sing again soon.
My husband's sermon was a wonderful lesson in simple logic: if we are called to follow Jesus then he must be going somewhere. So where is he going? He is going into the world to spread the good news of God's love. So if Jesus has now returned to heaven but is also continuing his presence on the earth, how can he be in 2 places at the same time? It is through his people, us who contain his Spirit, whose mission it is to spread the good news of God's love. Since not everyone has heard of God's love there is still much for us as his people to do. Why is this necessary in the first place? It is necessary because we are living in 2 worlds: the world that God loves so much he sent his only son to live and die and rise again to show the way to God, and the world that does not love God back; the Kingdom of God and the kingdom of this world, and it is all mixed ip together. Jesus is trying to show us how to bring the Kingdom of God to the kingdom of this world by coming to earth and showing his people how to do it too.
And then after church came the weekly question for Sunday afternoons: what are we going to do for lunch? Too tired to eat out. So what's in the refrigerator? We decided on simple pita wrapped sausages but somehow that grew to include fresh farm asparagus and home made french fries and salad. YUUUUMMM!!!
So, cereal for supper then? Yup.....
In other good news, a friend from BC who is currently visiting in Tokyo, attended our former church there this morning and met some of our dear Japanese friends. He sent photos. What wonderful memories of our time there. However at this moment I am too full to even enjoy the thought of fresh sushi. What? Too full to even think of sushi without enjoying the thought???
So, cereal for supper then? Yup.....
My husband's sermon was a wonderful lesson in simple logic: if we are called to follow Jesus then he must be going somewhere. So where is he going? He is going into the world to spread the good news of God's love. So if Jesus has now returned to heaven but is also continuing his presence on the earth, how can he be in 2 places at the same time? It is through his people, us who contain his Spirit, whose mission it is to spread the good news of God's love. Since not everyone has heard of God's love there is still much for us as his people to do. Why is this necessary in the first place? It is necessary because we are living in 2 worlds: the world that God loves so much he sent his only son to live and die and rise again to show the way to God, and the world that does not love God back; the Kingdom of God and the kingdom of this world, and it is all mixed ip together. Jesus is trying to show us how to bring the Kingdom of God to the kingdom of this world by coming to earth and showing his people how to do it too.
And then after church came the weekly question for Sunday afternoons: what are we going to do for lunch? Too tired to eat out. So what's in the refrigerator? We decided on simple pita wrapped sausages but somehow that grew to include fresh farm asparagus and home made french fries and salad. YUUUUMMM!!!
So, cereal for supper then? Yup.....
In other good news, a friend from BC who is currently visiting in Tokyo, attended our former church there this morning and met some of our dear Japanese friends. He sent photos. What wonderful memories of our time there. However at this moment I am too full to even enjoy the thought of fresh sushi. What? Too full to even think of sushi without enjoying the thought???
So, cereal for supper then? Yup.....
Friday, May 18, 2012
Happy News At Last!!
Just got a phone call from the son! He is leaving for college in about 3 weeks but is getting all the To Do's knocked off his list one by one.
The good news today is that his finances have completely come together now, he got at least a bit of student loan approved as of today, and he has sublet his apt. for the entire time he will be away. What a huge relief that is.
He also was able to take on an animation design project for an event in his city that will be good advertising for his work, and also net him some extra cash. This will tickle his little workaholic heart. Unfortunately the event where his work is being featured will be occurring after he has left for school, but how lovely to be asked and to be able to squeeze in time do the work.
I really needed an emotional boost today and am so grateful to have one. Nothing makes me happier than other peoples' good news! YAY!! Congratulations son, the path set before you is clear.
The good news today is that his finances have completely come together now, he got at least a bit of student loan approved as of today, and he has sublet his apt. for the entire time he will be away. What a huge relief that is.
He also was able to take on an animation design project for an event in his city that will be good advertising for his work, and also net him some extra cash. This will tickle his little workaholic heart. Unfortunately the event where his work is being featured will be occurring after he has left for school, but how lovely to be asked and to be able to squeeze in time do the work.
I really needed an emotional boost today and am so grateful to have one. Nothing makes me happier than other peoples' good news! YAY!! Congratulations son, the path set before you is clear.
More Bad News for the Local Retail Sector
As you can tell from my morning posts I am feeling pretty sad today.....losing Jill from our lives is a real blow and I can't seem to stop crying for her husband and family. Going into the post office and other downtown businesses this morning and seeing her funeral card posted in all of them gave me a strong sense of loss, not only personally, but for our town and church community. Jill was the best example I have ever seen as far as being a ministry helpmeet for her husband.
Anyway, I decided to walk off my sadness by going for my first walk downtown and back since November. It felt so good to be outside on my own, going wherever I wanted to go with only some swelling of my ankle to show for it. The sky is very overcast, a few drops of rain sprinkle down every few minutes, the temperatures are coolish....a perfect day for me to be out walking. I took myself out for lunch and was gone for 2 hours. It was lovely.
The humidity brings out the smell of the newly blooming lilacs and although that really bothers my allergies it smelled terrific today. Achoooooo!!! I brushed my hand against one of the blossoming branches and although I washed my hands thoroughly when I got home, the odor has remained. So I am alternately grinning with joy about the new birth of spring flowers and sneezing like a maniac.
Went into the dollar store to pick up a couple of things and found out that, after over 8 months of attempting to sell the store, there has been no sale and so the store will simply close out next month. Another gaping hole is appearing in the downtown retail business sector. How tough of shape is a town in when a large successful dollar store has no buyers???
Unlike some towns, we cannot blame an influx of new businesses along the highway for the declining retail opportunities downtown. Even one of the major highway stores closed down last year and the mall out there has very few stores left in it. It started losing stores about 3 years ago and the trend has continued.
The future here is going to be interesting indeed. Hopefully there will be better news coming soon to our town and area.
Anyway, I decided to walk off my sadness by going for my first walk downtown and back since November. It felt so good to be outside on my own, going wherever I wanted to go with only some swelling of my ankle to show for it. The sky is very overcast, a few drops of rain sprinkle down every few minutes, the temperatures are coolish....a perfect day for me to be out walking. I took myself out for lunch and was gone for 2 hours. It was lovely.
The humidity brings out the smell of the newly blooming lilacs and although that really bothers my allergies it smelled terrific today. Achoooooo!!! I brushed my hand against one of the blossoming branches and although I washed my hands thoroughly when I got home, the odor has remained. So I am alternately grinning with joy about the new birth of spring flowers and sneezing like a maniac.
Went into the dollar store to pick up a couple of things and found out that, after over 8 months of attempting to sell the store, there has been no sale and so the store will simply close out next month. Another gaping hole is appearing in the downtown retail business sector. How tough of shape is a town in when a large successful dollar store has no buyers???
Unlike some towns, we cannot blame an influx of new businesses along the highway for the declining retail opportunities downtown. Even one of the major highway stores closed down last year and the mall out there has very few stores left in it. It started losing stores about 3 years ago and the trend has continued.
The future here is going to be interesting indeed. Hopefully there will be better news coming soon to our town and area.
The Passing of Jill Baker
Thank you for praying for Ron and Jill. Jill went to be with Jesus last night. We are waiting to hear about funeral arrangements. Please pray for Ron. This is devastating and completely unexpected for him. Pray for their family. Thank you so much. So grateful that Ron has a large and supportive congregation.
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