Back to the Basics-Lesson 2

In my post of August 27 - Are-you-in-slump? I started sharing material from our Adult Bible class at Pinehill. This is will be of most interest to people fromwithin our "fellowship" or someone who is familiar with many of our "traditional" aproaches to teaching about becoming a part of "the body of Christ".

The theme of "back to the Basics" is taken from our experience in other areas of life where sometimes to make progress we have to first go back and deal with some thing we are missing in the basics. I found this carton that illustrates this need for some basic improvements (in this man's golf grip and swing)

The following was covered in classes September 3 & 10th. There is some overlap with the August 27 lesson but this is summary outlining "gaps" between "what we say we believe" and "what we practice" and giving "strategies" or approaches for closing those gaps.

Over past couple of weeks we have looked at our usage of the word “church” and “church of Christ” – how we understand it, how the world understands it and how it is used in the New Testament.

Our discussion has confirmed to me several things that I believe can “limit our growth”.

1. My first observation is that the word “church” as it is commonly used in the world and by many in the churches of Christ conveys something different than what most of us understand as the Biblical meaning

What do we say we believe? Most (if not all) of us here understand that the Biblical meaning of “church” is the “called out ones” (in other words it describes the status of our relationship with God. We also understand that that God does the adding (Acts 2:47) We believe that “being in the church” is of utmost importance.

What do we actually practice? We talk about”going to church” rather than “being the church”. We talk about the church as a building. We talk about “our church” or “the church” based on a the “label” (sign over the door) which we understand to convey a “standard” set of beliefs & practices There seems to be a “gap” between “what we say we believe” and “what we actually practice.

What is the consequence? This practice (however well intended) can limit our effectiveness in communicating that we want simply “to be a part of the church that Jesus died for” . It can also distract us from our main task of being “salt, leaven & light” to so that other people come to want the same thing. ?

How can we improve? (What can be done to “close the gap”?)

One way is to “go back to the basics” and change the way we talk about “church” -

a) talk about being Christians (no more – no less)

b) talk about being part of the family (of God)

c) talk about having confidence or assurance that God has added us to Christ’s body

d) talk about assembling with the church or about attending church services or going to do something with those in our church family. Talk about how we get together to honor and celebrate the relationship we have with God and with each other through Jesus

e) Above all, we need to avoid words and actions that make “attendance” equivalent to “relationship” and those that confuse “place” with” people”

2. My second observation is that we frequently use the term “Church of Christ” as a way to identify a specific set of beliefs & practices - This identifies us by "what we believe" not "who we are".

What do we say we believe? We describe ourselves as “non-denominational”. We say that we want to be ”Christians” only. We say that we want to use the teachings in the New Testament as the sole source of determining our beliefs and practices. (speaking where the Bible speaks and being silent where the Bible is silent)

What do we actually practice? We are very eager and ready to describe our understanding of what the New Testament pattern is for becoming a Christian and for worship. We have pamphlets, books and Bible study guides that describe these “core” beliefs backed up with lots of scripture “quotes” and explanations of why those scriptures mean what we say they mean. We have persuasive arguments to counter the views of others who see the topic in a different way.

What is the consequence? There are two possible consequences of our common practices

1. we become denominational in our thinking and practice. A denomination is a religious group that adheres to a specific set of beliefs and practices. When we talk about what the churches of Christ believe and reduce those things to a (relatively)small list of things that need to be believed and practiced to be accepted in our fellowship, this seems to make us a denomination.

2. In our passion and conviction that we need to be Christians as outlined in the New Testament writings, we start talking about “the church” or “the Lord’s church” – as if we are the “only ones” who understand what God intended about these things. We convey to others that we are the “only Christians” .

In general, I don’t think very many of us really believe we are the “onlyChristians” . (although I’m sure that some in our “fellowship” do). Certainly those who initiated the restoration movement called for people to be “Christians only” – (but so far as I know they never taught that this would made us the “only Christians”.).

Another consequence of the way we teach and talk about the “Church of Christ” is that (it seems to me) we are often “confused” and inconsistent at best and hypocritical at worst when we talk to and interact with others who say they are Christians.

How do you respond to someone that says “I’m a Christian”, I believe in Jesus”? Do you have reservations unless you find out they attend a “church of Christ”

On the other hand, I wonder about passages like (Rom.14:4, I John 4:2 and Phil 1:18) – are we dishonoring Jesus when we reject those who are proclaiming him as Lord?

At the end we can be “torn” – we are “reluctant” to be seen accepting other Christians whose beliefs and practices are different from ours but we are also “uncomfortable” with thinking that we alone have got it right.

I think many of us who “grew up” in a church of Christ or who left a “denomination” to become a part of a Church of Christ have a “discomfort” in this area. We understand so clearly and are strongly convicted about those things that webelieve the NT teaches about “becoming a Christian” and about the “New Testament pattern for the church” that we find it difficult to accept (extend recognition as a fellow Christian) to anyone who believes and practices differently than we do. (Ironically this passion for "doing things right" also ends up creating a "Heinz 57 varieties" of "churches of Christ" as we fuss over over almost anything imaginable.)

There are two extreme responses to resolving this “conflict”

1. We compromise, “waterdown” or “sidestep” talking about our beliefs to avoid seeming “dogmatic” and “divisive”.

2. On the other hand, we can become very “rigid” and tell others bluntly that ”we are right (and by implication saved) and they are wrong” (and by implication lost).

Neither of these extremes is “sound doctrine” The first one fails the test of “whatever is not of faith is sin” (Roms14:23). The second fails the test of love (among other tests).

It seems to me that we so often, in our passion for truth, have missed the point of Jesus’ prayer (John 17:20-21)

“that they (those who believe in Jesus) may be one as Jesus and the Father are one so that the world may believe that (God) have sent (Jesus) .

Ephesians 4 reiterates the importance of

“keeping the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace” – of proclaiming “one body, one Spirit, one hope one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God”.

Yet we focus more on the things that divide us (within and without), we argue and fail to

“to live a life worthy of the calling (we) have received.

We fail to be completely humble and gentle; patient, and bearing with one another in love.”

How can we improve?

One way is to “go back to the basics” and change the way we talk about the “church of Christ ” -

I suggest that we

a) talk about being a group of Christians who have come together as a family (or community) in response to our common faith in Jesus.

b) talk about how those beliefs provide us assurance of God’s grace and the transforming power of his Spirit.
c) talk about how –regardless of what we experience – good or bad – in our daily lives we are experiencing “life to the full” (John 10:10) as God grows his fruit within us (Gal 5:22-23 )

d) talk about how we are diligent in searching the scriptures to come to know Jesus better each day and how we would welcome any one to join with us we continue to do that.

e) talk about how we are on a ”journey of faith and discovery” -- a journey we have found leads to a (growing) belief in Jesus and desire to know him better and serve him better. A journey, which gives us an increasing assurance of his saving grace & spirit being at work in our lives.

f) talk about the fact that we have developed deep convictions about what the Bible teaches about how we become Christians, how we live as spirit directed servants, and how we worship to honor God, and while we respect those who have come to a different understanding from the Bible, we must – to preserve a clear conscience before God -- teach and practice those things until we come to a different understanding.

g) talk about the “name” church of Christ as a (Biblical –Rom. 16:16) label of convenience that we use to describe congregations that have similar beliefs and practices – congregations where we can expect to feel “at home” if we need to visit elsewhere or move to a new community.

Well -that's it for now--I pray that as we think on these things and "reason together" we can come more fully into that "walk in the light" that God has called us to.

God Bless
Charlie

A roller coaster week

It’s Sunday afternoon. I should just be posting my lesson from today’s Bible class and then taking a nap!! —however, it has been a “crazy” week and I need to do an up date on several things that have excited us and others that have saddened us. If God gives us tomorrow I will try to post the lesson then.

Where to start? I also gave the sermon this morning at Pinehill and it was on the subject “Begin at the beginning." One of the things I mentioned was the familiar quote from Lewis Carroll’s delightful children’s book “ALICE'S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND (1865)”. The quote occurs in the final chapter of Alice, when the Knave of Hearts is placed on trial – having been accused of stealing the Queen’s tarts .

“The White Rabbit put on his spectacles. 'Where shall I begin, please your Majesty?' he asked.
'Begin at the beginning,' the King said gravely, 'and go on till you come to the end: then stop.'”

So –beginning on Tuesday, we worked like the proverbial beavers and finished the garden project. (first picture shows it after removing the old stuff) It was very satisfying despite the sore backs and aching muscles. It was good that we wrapped it up because by Wednesday I was beginning to feel the pressure of needing to prepare a lesson for Sunday morning and I did get most of that done on Wednesday & Thursday. (2nd picture shows it finished after 15 wheelbarrows of soil mix and re-planting. )


Thursday we had the pleasure of receiving a call from Melissa saying that she & Alexander were now married and on their way to a short honeymoon. It was a joyful, with some tears welling up, and we were able to extend our congratulations to Alexander and her. She had called and talked to her mother Wednesday night—all bubbly and sharing fun she had had with the preparations—getting flowers and other last minute details. I told my Dad (who had ”eloped” with my mother and gotten married with only the preacher and a couple of witnesses present) that Melissa and Alexander had followed their example –except they had told their parents before hand that they were going to do it. We talked to her for a long time today and she gave us the "blow-by-blow" of the marriage ceremony and how she was feeling. It made it more real for me to hear her talking about it. She also sent some early pictures -- she says there are better ones on the way.

Thursday night we finalized plans for Linda to ”go on tour” for a month starting October 9. The impetus for this was a call from our daughter(-in-law) Sarah last weekend. Kevin had just been told by his thesis supervisor that he needed to have his dissertation proposal and application for internship completed by November 15. He has been caring for Will while Sarah work’s and he has had a part-time job doing psychometric evaluations. In order to meet the deadline, he needs to give up the job and reduce his time with Will – Sarah said “We need you now” and Grandma didn’t need a lot of urging so she will be there to help for3 weeks. She will then fly from Vancouver to Chicago to watch Hunter & Camdyn while there Mom & Dad go for a cruise to celebrate their 15th anniversary.

We had learned earlier in the week of the passing of Mabel Whitehead—she was in her 99th year and had lived a full life remaining alert and full of life until very recently. Mabel and her husband Elmer were an active part of the Pinehill family up until Elmer’s death in 1991. Shortly thereafter Mabel moved to live with her daughter in North Bay and had remained there until her death.(moving to a care facility for the past few years)
In addition to our fond memories of Mabel from our church relationship, Elmer was the brother of my brother-in-law Morris (who is married to my oldest sister Goldie). Because of these connections, we went to Thessalon Friday morning to attend a memorial service for Mabel.

Our sister-in-law Marilyn had done some leg work and arranged for my family and Linda’s family to get together in Bruce Mines for a dinner Friday evening to share a late celebration of our 40th anniversary. We were looking forward to that event –and our plan was to spend the afternoon visiting with Linda’s Mom and then go to the dinner. I had brought my computer with the intent of doing some final touches on my sermon and preparing a Powerpoint outline to be used with it.

However, circumstances overtook us and the dinner had to be cancelled and our other plans changed.

When we arrived at Linda’s Mom’s we discovered that Linda’s 4 month old grand-niece (her brother Joe’s granddaughter) Magdalana had died suddenly in her sleep that morning. This was a devastating blow to Jessica (the mother) and her family. The baby was her only child and Joe’s only grandchild. (I had made a brief reference to the baby’s birth in my May 3 post-Rebuilding bridges)

We spent the rest of the day with Linda’s Mom – a lot of the time Linda was fielding and making phone calls to other family members. Arliss & Theresa both came by - to share in the bewilderment and sorrow that such a thing had happened.

We had given Jessica & the baby a ride to Thessalon in early July when Linda went down to help celebrate Arliss’ birthday – a precious memory for Linda – The picture taken at the party shows Jessica (in the background) with her 2 sisters Angela and Rebecca holding the baby.

When these tragedies happen, we feel so unequipped to know how to help and how to comfort. We turn to God in prayer – offering up grief, pain, anger … we have no answers…We feel guilt because we instinctively- selfishly think “Thank God” it wasn’t my (grand)child. Even the confidence that this child is “safe in the arms of Jesus” doesn’t stop the sense of helplessness—of not knowing how to comfort -- how to soften the pain – and so we do the best we can to be there with them and help them through. The funeral is tomorrow –Linda has been asked to say something about Jessica & Magdalana – I am praying that her words will provide some comfort. She doesn’t like giving talks and this will be difficult for her—but it was Jessica’s request – so she will do her best—.

In the midst of this “roller coaster” week, we were preparing for a visit by Bob & Roseann Ekman. They were here in Sault Ste Marie almost 30 years ago when Bob was the “preaching” minister at Pinehill. They left here in 1981 and we hadn’t seen them for well over 20 years. We have kept contact off & on by email and we were delighted when they contacted us about coming here to visit. They arrived yesterday afternoon and we had a great visit before, during and after dinner.

Russ Ward came by for a while. He was one of a number of people who had been brought into the church as a result of their work here. Bob had come to preaching later in his life and Pinehill was his first assignment. While their work here was fruitful in many ways, there were also some ”rocky relationships” with others. This morning after services Bob came up and offered an apology and asked forgiveness for those past mistakes. He said it had been a growing conviction that he needed to do this and it was facilitated by their move to Minnesota which put them within easy driving range of the Sault. I trust that it completed a healing process for any that were offended during the time Bob was here. We pray God’s blessings on them as they work with the church in Minnesota.

So its been a “week to remember” –If you are reading this we solicit your prayers for the Goodmurphy family as they deal with this tragedy. May they seek and find the God that God can work through tragedy for those that love Him. And there is no ending to this saga but this is the end for now.

God Bless
Charlie & Linda

Back to … school?

I thank those who commented on my “Charlie & Linda” post. JD (Hope Remains) ) commented and made reference to it on his site. Linda thought it was a bit much for me to make those comments publicly but it is what my heart was saying and I wanted the world (or least those of you who visit this site) to know how I felt and to give her the honor due to her. Several of my brothers and sisters sent congratulations by email. Lawrence (my youngest brother) and Lily sent a neat e-card showing 2 “dancing” matches with the sentiment that we were a perfect match (Click HERE for the “non-customized” version). Several of our church family gave us cards.

We enjoyed our overnight getaway in the “BBB”. – peace and solitude and time to reflect on 40 years of marriage. We both agree that it is unlikely that we will have another 40 years since that would put us both into triple digit ages – we’ll leave that up to God and just enjoy the time we are given.

We have frequently taken a “nth” honeymoon trip on the Labor day weekend – we tend to like to be spontaneous and not make reservations or other firm plans. Sometimes that has worked well and other times – not so well. Almost 30 years ago – not long after we moved to the Sault - we decided to take a trip into Michigan . We (I) forgot that there is a Mackinaw bridge walk on Labor day – as a result all the motels for miles around were fully booked. After driving a couple of hundred miles and ending up in Grayling at midnight without a place to stay we pulled the plug and just drove home. That’s the stuff that builds memories and makes or breaks a relationship. In our case these little misadventures have given us lots to laugh about as we think about making another of these “spur of the moment” trips. At least with the “BBB” we always have a place to sleep if we can find a place to park it.

Anyhow – for many years we had to be back from those trips because school (in Ontario) starts the Tuesday after Labor day. This hasn’t been a concern for at least the past 5 years since Melissa graduated from University – although for the 4 years she was at Queen’s we often celebrated our anniversary on the road to/from Kingston or in Kingston helping her move and get settled in. (Of course if I was teaching we usually had to be back for that so it was only a couple of years that there was complete freedom to get back “whenever”)

This year we are back into the “school” thing because Linda’s niece Alyssa is boarding with us with she attend Algoma University. Having someone around every day will require some adjustments in our lives but we are happy to see and experience that youthful enthusiasm.

I’m also back to teaching and this week we came back to finish up the gardening project. Finally, I am back to thinking through how to help our church family "fill the gaps" that have been left by the Lansdell's departure.

There is a theme here.

How often do we have this need to “get back” into a routine of doing thedaily things that we want to do, into completing projects, into making changes that we want to make, into discovering and getting on with new projects.

This has me thinking of 3 things that God has called us to do.

First, as outlined in my recent post (Sunday August 27) is we are called to an ongoing “transformation”, ever increasing faith and spiritual growth- we are called to a journey – not a destination.

Second, I’m also reminded that God knew that we would sometimes “plateau” or even “go into a slump” and at times be ready to give up. This is shown by the number of times we are encourages to “keep the faith”, to persevere in the face of trials, and to “not grow weary” .

Third – God has called us to a “rest” – but a rest were we honor and connect more fully with him that we are able to do in the course of “having Him in our daily living”. Mike Cope has a post pointing to a book on this subject.

Life is a journey with hills and valleys, a journey, which as the Chinese proverb says requires us to keep taking the “first step” , it requires focus and direction. We also need to think & plan to be sure we are on the right track -- or t least not the "wrong one". While need to "keep on keeping on"life also requires some time to stop and “smell the roses” by communing with God. My prayer today is for the wisdom to seek balance in these things.

God Bless
Charlie

Charlie & Linda - September 3 1966

Sonnet XLIII
by Elizabeth Barrett Browning

How do I love thee ? Let me count the ways.
I love thee to the depth and breadth and height
My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight
For the ends of Being and ideal Grace.
I love thee to the level of everyday's
Most quiet need, by sun and candle-light.
I love thee freely, as men strive for Right;
I love thee purely, as they turn from Praise.
I love thee with the passion put to use
In my old griefs, and with my childhood's faith.
I love thee with a love I seemed to lose
With my lost saints,--I love thee with the breath,
Smiles, tears, of all my life !--and, if God choose,
I shall but love thee better after death.

Proverbs 5:18-19

May your fountain be blessed,
and may you rejoice in the wife of your youth.
A loving doe, a graceful deer—
may her breasts satisfy you always,
may you ever be captivated by her love.

Guess How much I love you?

"I love you right up to the moon and back."

(from the the story about Little and Big Nutbrown Hares' efforts to express their love for each other
by Sam McBratney)

On September 3 1966 I married the most beautiful woman in the world. –My love for her was more than can be expressed by the poetic phrasing of Elizabeth Barrett Browning, or the erotic truths of the Proverbs or the childlike grasping for words of the Nut Brown Hares.

Forty years later I have discovered that I didn’t then know what beauty really was—her beauty has grown with each year, each tear, each laugh, each child, each pain, each hug and each time she has forgiven me. (and that’s been a lot of times)

Forty years later I have discovered that I didn’t know then what love really was. My love for her has grown with each year, each tear, each laugh, each child, each pain, each hug and each time she has forgiven me.

Happy Anniversary Linda-I love you - in uncountable ways – yes even -“right up to the moon and back” and I remain “captivated by your love”

I will be yours until God calls us home
Charlie

p.s. I'll go back to my plan about posting a Bible thought on Sundays - next week. This week we are "running away" to celebrate.

Katrina-after a year & a bit

Over the past couple of weeks as August came to an end there has been a lot of media coverage discussing the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and what had and hadn’t been done to help people put their lives back together.

Linda focused on the TV reports and I watched some of that –but a lot of my update on “Life after Katrina” came by following the blogs of John Dobbs –Out Here Hope Remains and Dee Andrews – The Wind Vane Chronicles.

John’s posts on August 29 , August 27 and August 25 give a good perspective on what it has been like on the Gulf Coast and some of the “lessons learned”- However the one that touched me the most was Looking up for Hope posted August 30 2006.

If you look at the slideshow of pictures you will see one with a Canadian flag—That was Linda’s handiwork -something we left as a piece of us to thank the people at Central for giving us this opportunity to serve. I want to share my comment to John regarding that posting “JD - Tell Jeff – Thanks for the ceiling tiles. It brought tears to our eyes as the memories flooded back as we watched the slide show I pray we can find away to return but for now it looks as if God is leading in another direction. Perhaps he will open a door that we haven't yet seen”

I also noted this from John’s post this Friday “Robbie Woods was helping out around the church yesterday and put together a filing cabinet I had bought for my office”. It so good to know that Robbie is still “walking with God”—We had the privilege of having him share with us his story about a ”wasted” life that led to a loss of every thing important to him, about the way he had encountered Jesus and had been brought to his knees. He was baptized around the time we were there and he was such an encouragement as you could almost see daily ”spurts” in the “transformation” that came from a “new life’ (Romans 12:2).

Robbie had a gift of making things from palm fronds.We have a rose and a cross that he made on display in the “BBB” as a reminder of him and all of the people we met in Pascagoula. John informed me in an email that they are hopeful that Robbie will soon be able to return to a ”regular ”job. We pray for this and his continued faithfulness to God.

Dee has also talked often about how Katrina had changed so many lives including hers. On August 25 she posted a blog describing what she was doing and feeling at that time in 2005. She had intended to continue the ”retrospective” for several days but by August 28 she had decided that it was better to look forward-to move on rather than reliving the pain of the past year.

She wrote in part “I do not want my life so tied to the past that I cannot see the present or the future. Many people do that, I think. In their need to remember, not forget, they embrace the loss so fiercely they become entangled in it. It ensnares them, robbing them of any further joy in life. I'm not discounting or dismissing loss and sorrow by any means. I have been - at times - consumed by loss and sorrow. We all have. As the young minister so eloquently and powerfully expressed it yesterday in both sermons, if we love, we can be - will be - tragically struck and burned with "rivets of grief," as can God. (He told me last night he'd borrowed it from a much older minister, but that's good I think. Beautiful imagery and he used it well.) But we scar up. We heal. We go on. We must not let the wounds fester so that we are immersed by them.”

My comment on that post was as follows

“Dee - I have tried to apply something I heard in "management training" that seemed very spiritual (although I never tried to see if I could support the thought from the Bible)

Anyhow --it seems to say something similar to what you have said here.

We should let our "vision" of the future shape our actions. Rather than - as we so often do --dragging the "past into the present" we should put the past into the past and draw the future back into the present.

Maybe better way to say it is "Live your dreams today" rather than (re)living the pain (and mistakes) of the past.

Thanks for the reminder that life is ahead - not behind -- and God is there showing the way.”

I share these thoughts for 2 reasons- one being that it has amazed me that 3 weeks of work –a mere drop in the ocean of what needed to be done - was enough to make a lasting impression on our lives-indeed we have been blessed more by giving than anything we could receive – and we have received so much more than we gave – we have friends, we have memories, we have an increased sense of God’s presence “in the storms of our lives” (see the “I” of the storm).

The second reason is hope that the faith and servant’s heart that is shown by these people might touch others and encourage more to go to ”receive the blessing of giving”

God Bless
Charlie & Linda

A quiet week (with exciting news)

Here is Thursday night and this is my first entry for this week. I’m telling myself that it is because I was too busy. However, it is also true that I didn’t really have much to write about. So to-day is just a brief note on my week.

I will start with the exciting news. In my posting about our visit with Melissa in Kingston I wrote “We had several long conversations with Melissa getting caught up on her life and talking about her plans for school and – hopefully—some time soon - a wedding. We had been kidding her the fact that Chris was married in the year of our 25th anniversary and Kevin in the year of our thirty-fifth -- so she had to either get married this year (our 40th) or wait for another 5 years – anyhow – time will tell but she may break the pattern."

What I couldn’t say then -- because Alexander hadn’t made it “official” by proposing -- was that she was quite certain she would be getting married soon. Saturday she called and said that, on Friday, he had “popped the question” and given her a ring. Sunday or Monday she called to confirm a ”good news/bad news” plan for their wedding that we had talked about but it hadn’t been completely settled.

The good news was that they are planning to be married on September 7. The bad news is that this will be very small civil ceremony. We wanted to be there as did others in her circle of family and friends but, since Alexander’s parents who are in Sweden can’t come now—they wanted to be fair to every one and limit the participation to a couple of their friends to ”standup” with them.

The GOOD news however,(which is like Melissa to do things differently) is that she still wants a wedding with the dress, attendants, family & friends – a full scale celebration of her marriage. That they are planning for next summer. So she will be married this year close to our 40th but she is also breaking the pattern of “multiples of 5” by delaying the “ceremony & party” until next year. I’m sure I’ll be posting more about this event as time goes forward.

So we are happy that she is getting married and that her and Alexander can go forward having made this commitment to each other. We are sad that we can’t be there--- and we look forward with anticipation to next year (although I’m not to keen about being involved in what I know will be some ”tense” times as Melissa and her mother are working through the details f the “million” things that have to be planned. (Update - I don't mean that I think they'll "fight" about it -- they get along well -- it is just that there will be so many decisions and that creates stress)

--- I pray this is a step on a life long journey together and that as they walk together in their love for each other they will seek God and walk with him as well.--

Other than that it has been a fairly quiet week.

Monday morning I got a call from my Dad asking if I wanted to go golfing and we set a timeof10 a.m. When I went to pick him up he had a puzzled look and said he was waiting for my nephew Ken— so I said “Did you know you called me?” –and he said “Oh – I thought I had called Ken”. – So off we went and had a good round of golf.

Monday afternoon I prepared a bulletin article for next Sunday that had to be to Karen by Tuesday. I also did some prep work for the courses I’m teaching this year at Algoma University and Linda had started work at tearing up and replanting one of her flower beds.

By Tuesday I was heavily involved in the ”reconstruction” -

Our house is built on a gravel hill and this bed at the edge of our patio had very little top soil-with gravel and rocks underneath. She had dug down about a foot and wanted it filled back in with a better base and more topsoil. Lots of shoveling and mixing Tuesday & Wednesday but it now has about 6 inches of fine gravel as a base, topped by 3 inches of the old top soil mixed with half composted leaves and then topped with a equal parts mix of topsoil, cow manure and peat moss. I try to look at these day-to-day experiences to find spiritual applications. In this case I was reminded that in our efforts to fulfill the mission that Jesus gave us (Matt. 28:19) we don’t have to worry about the ”back breaking” work of preparing the soil. We rather have the easier job of planting the seed—God does the rest.

Tuesday p.m. I got talking to Len Roetman –we had talked briefly the previous Friday and it was his birthday so I had wanted to arrange a golf game with him & my Dad. We had done a couple ofyears in a row a several years back but we hadn’t done it for a while. The reason we started this ”tradition” was that my Dad and Len’s son Len Jr. Both have their birthday’s on January 13 – and that’s not so good a time for golfing here in SSM so it was a Birthday celebration for the3 of them and I just tagged along.

In any case – we arranged to go Wednesday a.m. (Len Jr. is working so he couldn’t join us. We had a great time. I had a good visit with Len which we haven’t had a chance to do for a while (click HERE for more on our connection with the Roetman’s)

To-day I had a number of errands to run, paid some bills and made a trip for the Red Cross to take a lady to her Dr’s appointment. I also learned that one of the courses I was scheduled to teach had been cancelled due to insufficient registration. Fortunately, I had been focusing more effort on the other course although I had done course outlines and set up a course website. It is disappointing to put effort into preparations and have the course cancelled but it is what it is.

We also "closed out" the final chapter of "Roger at Pinehill". The movers had come in to pack so Linda & I met Roger, Sandra and Jessical for a "last breakfast" at Sandro's on Tuesday morning. Wednesday evening we had a full house for the final session of the "Mayberry series" with coffee & cake following -- lots of hugs and tears.

Oh I almost forgot the other big news for the week was the birth of David Stewart Seeler on Saturday -- 2 weeks ahead of schedule but a fine healthy baby boy. Mark & Sharon and older sister Amy are overjoyed.


Well such as it is that’s been my week so far

God Bless
Charlie

Are you in a slump?

I’m going to try something new. I want to use Sundays to post some material from a series of Bible lessons that I have been presenting in a Sunday morning adult class.

For context I offer the following for consideration.

My desire in life is to know God and have an ever deepening and richer relationship with him – in other words to be a Christian because “Jesus is the way the truth and the life – and he shows us the way to find God. (John 14:6)

I offer these thoughts about my continuing quest to know Jesus and receive the “full” (abundant) life (John 10:10) in the hopes that it encourage others share in the rewards (Hebrews 11:6) of living as a child of the King .

The “Back to the basics” series” is based on the following observations

1. Christians are expected to grow continually in spiritual qualities and works of service (cf. “2 Corinthians 3:18 ...being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, 2 Thessalonians 1:3 … your faith is growing more and more, and the love every one of you has for each other is increasing; 2 Peter 1:8 For if you possess these qualities* in increasing measure,
*).

2. However, our experience suggests that Christians will, at times, encounter “plateaus” or “slumps” in their spiritual development (Typical of all human endeavor)

3. To achieve a “breakthrough” when we are at a “plateau” “in a slump” a good approach is to go back and reexamine the basics and make any needed corrections or renewed focus in areas where we may have “drifted off track” (or not have gotten it right in the first place)

One of the more basic things that influences our growth as Christians is our view of “church”—Do we see it as a place we go or as something we are? It seems to me that we so often talk of “going to church” rather than emphasizing that God wants us to “be the church” wherever we are and what ever we are doing.

Webster’s English Dictionary gives the following definitions
Church
1: a building for public esp. Christian worship
2: the clergy or officialdom of a religious body
3: a body or organization of religious believers as
3a: the whole body of Christians
3b: DENOMINATION
3c: CONGREGATION
4: public divine worship

In researching this lesson, I came across this description of the origins of the word church and how it relates to Biblical usage. It is from a group called Theophile International (I haven’t read all of their material so I can’t comment on their overall teaching but based on my other research I fully support this description of God’s view of the church)

What does church mean?

Etymology of the word "church": Middle English "chirche", from Old English "cirice", ultimately from Late Greek "kyriakon", from Greek, neuter of "kyriakos": of the lord, from kyrios lord, master.

This is very interesting. According to the dictionary the English word "church", originated from a Greek word meaning "of the Lord".

The Greek word "ekklesia", which is translated church, is a combination of the Greek word kaleo (which means to call) and ek, a preposition meaning out or out of. Therefore, ekklesia is properly translated as "called out ones".

So, while the common contemporary understanding of the word "church" is focusing upon a gathering, the actual meaning of the word is on our status as followers of Jesus. Within the context of His teachings that we are to be "in the world", but not "of the world", and that we are to hate our life "in this world", the application of being "the called out ones" is appropriate. The common usage which empowers the system of “churchianity” is not an appropriate interpretation of "ekklesia". For, the focus is not on the group, nor on the gathering of the group, but upon our status as belonging to the Lord and being called out of worldliness and self life.

One change in my basic thinking is that I now believe it is a mistake when we engage in discussions about what “our” church believes. I say this because I think this leads quickly to one of 2 “extremes” both of which I believe distorts God’s intention.

The first extreme is that we concede (by engaging in the discussion) that it is legitimate for us as human beings to identify a relatively short list of “belief & practice’ (doctrine & liturgy ) that “identify” us as a distinct “church’. To engage in this type of “denominating” of churches seems to be divisive and sectarian in nature rather than seeking to “be one as Jesus & the Father are one”(John 17:21-22) or to be seeking the unity described in Ephesians 4 .

The second extreme is to make the claim that we are Christ’s church and then use our list of beliefs and practices to define what people have to “believe & practice” for us to consider them to be a part of the church.
This logically leads to the position that ”only we” understand what God intended – but the “infighting” within various groups shows that even those who claim to have a corner on truth can’t agree on everything—and who is to decide which things we have to be “right” about and which one’s don’t matter.

There is another reason I believe we should steer away from discussions about ”what church do you belong to?” or “Why you should be a part of this church?”. I think that it is “ socially acceptable” to talk about “church” because it allows us to seem ”inclusive” and ”non confrontational”. It is less acceptable to talk about having a relationship with God & Jesus and surrendering ourselves to their will. (I don't know if this is true of other but I know it is true in my experience)

Soif I don’t want to talk about “church” what do I say if asked about “my”church?”

It seems to me that the answer is found in the original restoration plea of Campbell and Stone that we should be “Christians only” I think the best answer about a specific group of people who see themselves as a ”church” family” is to say “We are a group of Christians who are connected by a common love for and faith in Jesus”

Of course this begs the question of what do we mean by a Christian (that's another "basic" andI'llget to it eventually) but at least this takes us into the correct discussion of “relationship” rather than “rules”

In summary, we need to believe that we are the “eklesia” and that being "called" is God's work and God's judgement. We don't decide (define) the church we simply are (or are not) part of it dependent on our relationship with Jesus.

To me this is one of the “basics” that we need to ‘relearn” – Allowing ourselves to get sucked into a discussion about “which church is best” or “Why this church?” isn’t relevant –we need to get away from ”phamplets” describing “beliefs and practices” that differentiate (separate) us from others and get on with seeking how we can experience the “ones” (unity) of Ephesians .

(Note: This is NOT to say that I believe those things emphasized in the pamphlet aren’t true or important – it is just that reducing these Godly things to "phamplets" undermines the claim to that we are “just Christians” because most people will see it as a “creed” that “divides” us from others rather than a plea for unity by seeking Jesus through the word.)

If we believe (and I do) that there is only “one church”, then we simply need to encourage people to be disciples (Christians) and leave the “church” to God as a necessary consequence. And we certainly have to get away from using the beliefs of the group that we assemble with as the “litmus” test of who is a Christian and who isn’t.

As a closing note - (and I may well have missed something here because I’m still struggling with “What is post-modernism and what does it mean to Christians?) I’m beginning to think that the “post modernists” may have done what 150 years of restoration has failed to do – they have put the “kiss of death” onto denominations – they may be different in their thinking and they may have less of a passion for “a single truth” but it is clear that -- when they are “turned on” to “church” -- it is because they have been attracted by people who have a relationship with Jesus. They are not interested in joining a “church”.

Hope there was something here that makes sense to someone other than myself

Next week – I will revisit another “basic” that may remove obstacles to our growth.

God Bless
Charlie

Auf wiedersehen

Roger's last Sunday with us is to-morrow. His last "official duty" is the Andy Griffith class on Wednesday August 30. This posting represents the closing lines in the final chapter of the the book "Roger at Pinehill" ; a book which began in December 1995. This closing chapter started on June 25 2006 (see Changes at Pinehill -posted June 27 2006). Of course in September, (God willing) God will begin the sequel (Roger at Troy).

During the past week we have been saying “goodbye” to Roger & Sandra. Farewell’s to people you love are always painful and difficult. We try to sidestep this by saying that it is for the best, by celebrating the good times we have shared and by being happy for the new opportunities we will experience as a result – but the truth is that saying goodbye hurts.

The farewells started on Sunday at our monthly potluck when we presented Roger & Sandra with an afghan embroidered with their names and dates that that they were with us here. There was also a gift for Jessica although she wasn’t present – she was spending sometime visiting in Thunder Bay to get familiar with her new home. (Again I forgot my camera so the picture is from Thursday night).

Lloyd & I expressed our appreciation (on behalf of the congregation) for their (almost) 11 years of hard work and faithful service to the Lord at Pinehill. We recalled that the first weekend they were here. In December 1995 Sault Ste. Marie experienced a record snowfall and we had to cancel services – so his inaugural sermon was delayed. I guess they are leaving in September to avoid a repeat of this.

Tuesday morning Lloyd & Barbara and Linda & I had breakfast with Roger & Sandra at Sandro’s . This was Linda’s idea. I think she wanted to find out what we talked about so long almost every Tuesday morning for the past couple of years

She also gave them a wall hanging and welcome sign that she had bought (and failed to give them) as a housewarming present when they bought their house a few years ago. Now they will have something to "warm" their new home in Troy.

Thursday evening many of their church friends gathered for a farewell dinner at Giovanni’s (and this time I did bring my camera!!) It was an informal event although there were more gifts and we where able to honor Jessica as well. (She returned from Thunder Bay with the news that she was going to be rooming with Kyle & Anna which made her parents happy— for both financial and family reasons. )

The event was organized by Leona Devin and Barb King(somehow I didn't get a picture of Leona that night - this one was taken today at another event) .

Jack & Barb had become especially good friends with Roger & Sandra – Jack & Roger sharing a passion for hunting and other “fix up” projects around their homes.

Barb is a compassionate wise lady with a heart of gold and someone who is a good “sounding board” when dealing with the “people problems” which are part & parcel of the life of a preacher & his wife.

Most of the others who attended had had their lives touched in special ways through Roger’s ministry. I was asked to be “master of ceromonies” and rather than crying along with Sandra while trying to make yet another speech, I opened the floor to allow anyone present to comment. I didn’t take “minutes” so I apologize in advance if I miss someone or misquote someone but I wanted to share some of the comments that I do recall.

Kirk Smith had several comments. Now Kirk is very out spoken and sometimes people “cringe” when he says he has something to say -- but the reality is he speaks from the heart and says it like he sees –. always “authentic” -- . which is a good thing. There was some kidding around with Roger but beneath it was the encouragement of telling us how Roger had made a difference in his “life journey”-- encouraging his faith and introducing him to the Pinehill family. We pray that we can continue to grow together in this walk. (see the June 24 entry Wedding Joy for more about Kirk and his lovely wife Vicki)

Steve Rose commented on the fact that the thing he liked most about Roger was that he challenged him to think. Sometimes it made him angry, sometimes he disagreed but he never was left “in a rut”. ( Steve (in middle) & Jillena attended Pinehill for several years but now attend a church in Michigan closer to where they live - We were happy that they were able to make the trip across the border in the midst of a slow down by Candain customs workers to attendthis gathering)

In a similar vein, Ilse Herzog (see - near the bottom of - my May 28 posting for more about the Herzog’s) recounted a story from when she worked and had a boss that everybody “disliked” because he was always changing things, always challenging the “status quo”. However, when this person moved on she was in tears and told him “I never thought that I would be sad because you are leaving but I am”.

In the same way she had often felt that Roger’s approach was lacking, that she disagreed with him . However, she had also had many long conversations on spiritual issues and had been challenged to grow. So, her feeling about Roger leaving was the same “I never thought it would be true but I’m very sad that he is going” – (as an aside – growth at almost 80 years for a lady who has has been an example of faith and a knowledgable Bible student for many years is no mean feat and I felt humbled by this acknowledgement that we can all continue to learn no matter how long we have been Christians or how old we are)

My Dad recalled knowing Roger when he was “knee high to a grasshopper” and mused that he guessed that this “bratty little kid” had turned out OK . Barb Hotchkiss commended Sandra. Marion Long recounted her first experience in meeting Roger and making a comment -- that made for a good laugh as she recounted it. Something about Roger complaining that the bedroom at their house was very small and Marion responding – “Well what do you do in a bedroom anyway?” We’ll leave that alone -- which Roger said was the only response he could make at the time. for her work this what he says is very authentic and what he had to say was sharing in his journey – with its ups & downs – is encouraging to all of us.

For all of these comments – joking or serious -- positive or “spurring” -- there was a hearty round of “amen’s” which seemed to say that others shared the sentiment that was being expressed. I can only hope that Roger listened more to the “ encouragement to improve” than he did to the accolades - because he needs humility more than hubris (sorry Rog - I couldn’t resist )

Roger started his tenure here with a series on the sermon on the mount. I guess I should have been suspicious when he came back to that foundational set of lessons by Jesus earlier this year. One thing that Roger has done which has benefited many of us is that he has always researched and restudied each passage of scripture looking for a fresh approach and new insights in his sermons – rather than just dusting off a previous lesson—or using a sermon outline from someone else’s book.

He has encouraged us to be “Bereans”(searching the scriptures for God’s truth ) (Acts 17:11). He has consistently challenged us to seek to know Jesus – to fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith (Hebrews 12:2). Most importantly, he challenged us to avoid the “comfortable pew” of tradition, to be careful about regurgitating the same answers to the same questions – which are often answers to questions that people weren’t asking or answers that didn’t make sense to people because they weren’t relevant to that persons’s needs and experience. As I said on Sunday “Of course he made mistakes (and even admitted to some of them); of course we sometimes thought he was wrong but that often led to an open loving dialog that brought us both closer to truth. (knowing the heart of Jesus)

How do you say “goodbye” to a friend and encourager? I thought of the phrase “until we meet again” and have used the German version of that in the title (influenced by the German heritage of the Herzog’s and Steve Rose –perhaps but mostly because I like the way it sounds. and the theme of "until we meet again)

I “googled” “until we meet again” to get the spelling and discovered a list of how to say has Goodbye in 450 languages.

I also got thinking about how did people say Goodbye in the Bible. My blogging friend Dee Andrews (click Here) recently ran a contest about trees. So I’m starting a contest on “Unique ways of saying Goodbye to friends who are “moving on” . I’ll “plagarize” Dee’ rules and include them in a later post. But for now just email your entries to mlw@soonet.ca . I’ll give a special prize (actually the prize is being acknowledged in this blog) for “Goodbyes in the Bible” I have dibs on David & Jonathan (1 Samuel 19 & 20).

Of course there is room for a category “songs of Goodbye” and I include these 2 as starters.

Happy Trails by Roy Rogers and Dale Evens –with alternative 1st verse

Happy trails to you, it's great to say "hello".
And to share with you the trail we've come to know.
It started on the day that we met Jesus,
He came into our hearts and then he freed us.
For a life that's true, a happy trail to you.

Some trails are happy ones,Others are blue.
It's the way you ride the trail that counts,
Here's a happy one for you.
Happy trails to you, until we meet again.

Happy trails to you, keep smilin' until then.
Who cares about the clouds when we're together?
Just sing a song and bring the sunny weather.
Happy trails to you, 'till we meet again.

God Be With You (Jeremiah E. Rankin, 1828-1904 William G. Tomer, 1832-1896)
God be with you till we meet again;
By His counsels guide, uphold you,
With His sheep securely fold you;
God be with you till we meet again.

Chorus
Till we meet, till we meet,
Till we meet at Jesus' feet;
Till we meet, till we meet,
God be with you till we meet again.

God be with you till we meet again;
Neath His wings protecting hide you;
Daily bread still provide you;
God be with you till we meet again.

Chorus

God be with you till we meet again;
When life's perils thick confound you;
Put His arms unfailing round you;
God be with you till we meet again.

Chorus

God be with you till we meet again;
Keep love's banner floating o'er you,
Strike death's threatening wave before you;
God be with you till we meet again.

Chorus

So to Roger, Sandra, Jessica (and Kyle & Anna)

- See you later, Hasta la vista, Caio, Sayonara, Auf wiedersehen

Go with God our friends and May God Bless you richly
Charlie & Linda

On Tour

Last week we took what will likely be our last road trip with the “BBB” for this year. The original purpose of the trip was to take my Dad to “the island” (Manitoulin) - the land of the “Haweaters” - for a golf game with my cousin Norris. It also turned out that our friends Dave & Maxine Bringleson were going to be camping at their lot on Lake Kagawong so we planned to spend a couple of days with them.

My mother was raised on Barrie Island which is just a short causeway away from being a part of Manitoulin. Linda’s maternal grandparents were both raised on the Manitoulin. So we have some “roots” there. Last year we were there for a Baker (my mother's family) reunion. The picture shows Dad with those of our family who were present.

When I was growing up a reference to “the island” was understood to be Manitoulin/Barrie Island. When Linda & I moved to Sault Ste. Marie (over 30 years ago) we soon discovered that we had to be careful when speaking of “the island” since most people here think it means St. Joseph Island (click HERE for a “virtual tour”).

We left here Monday morning (August 14) and made a short stop in Thessalon. Dad & I remained in the motor home while Linda visited with her mother. We were parked on the main street and I saw Marilla Mulligan walk by – so I called her over and we chatted for a while. Marilla is the daughter of Jack & Barb King who are very good friends from the church here. During the conversation she asked where we were headed. It occurred to me that here we were in this “bus” going on a trip to play golf— so I said we were taking Dad “on a golf tour”. We also saw and talked to Arliss Klazinga –Arliss is the daughter of Colleen Seabrook who is also a friend from church. We knew both Marilla and Arliss when they were growing up here in the Sault -- this is one of the advantages of having connections in a small town—if you sit there for a while you are bound to see someone you know.

Our first stop on the “tour” was at Richard & Myra Tallman’s. Myra is my cousin. Her brother Norris who lives in Ottawa was visiting and he had contacted my Dad to arrange the (3rd annual) golf game (They had met in Meaford for a game the previous 2 years). Wilma Lansdell, who I’ve mentioned before, is Myra and Norris’s sister . Their late father Clarence was my Dad’s older brother. Actually, I likely owe my existence to Uncle Clarence because he married Martha Robertson who was my mother’s cousin. It was at their wedding that my Dad met and fell for my mother and the rest, as they say, is history.

Richard& Myra “retired” to the Manitoulin in the late 80’s. to join their son Peter and his family who had purchased a dairy farm there. They severed a lot from the farm and built a lovely home on the hill overlooking “treasure island” on Lake Mindemoya . Peter (with Richard’s help) operated a dairy farm for several years until 2004 when he sold of the diary herd and went back to school to get his teaching certificate. The picture was taken at the Bringleson's on Wednesday afternoon when Richard & Myra (left)and Norris & Julie (right)came in to drop Dad off for the afternoon.

Anyhow – enough geography and personal history.

We arrived at Richard & Myra’s place on the north side of Lake Mindemoya ( on Hwy 551 between M’Chigeeng and Mindemoya) around 4. Myra had prepared a great turkey supper and afterwards we visited & played dominoes until bedtime.

Tuesday morning was the big golf game. Dad played with Norris & his wife Julie. I played with Peter and his daughter Emma. Unfortunately (or fortunately depending on your view) I forgot my camera so I don’t have any pictures – We enjoyed ourselves and I managed to find as many balls as I lost so, by my definition, I had a good game.

After lunch, we left Dad at Myra’s for more visiting and we headed off to Kagawong. The camp lot is about a mile & a half (2 km) off the highway on a narrow gravel road through the bush.

They had been hit pretty hard by high winds (maybe a small tornado) in early July.

There were several big trees down that had been across the road but they had been cleaned up so we had no serious problems getting in. We had brought our extendable pruning shears and I had to walk along and trim back some branches to make room for the BBB.

We got in and set up a couple of hours before Dave & Maxine arrived. Wednesday morning Dave & I did some cleanup work around the campsite.

Thursday morning Dave & I cleaned up a couple of big cedars that had been broken off by the storm. Linda did some painting to brighten up the “little house out back”. All in all it was a great visit. Pictures show Dave outside there trailer and Maxine withLinda

Dave & Maxine are long time friends. We met in the mid-70’s when we were asked by a visiting preacher to have Bible studies with them.. This developed into a close friendship and Christian fellowship.

Their children were close in ages to ours. We had many good times together as our families grew up together.

We helped them build a house on St. Joseph Island and visited with them many times while they lived there. We went cross country sking in winter and enjoyed times at camp at Goulais Bay in the summer. However, Dave’s work took him to Elliot Lake where he worked in the mines until they closed. He then studied for and wrote his tests to qualify as a stationary engineer. He worked in Thessalon, then moved to Cochrane and then Red Rock. When they moved away we still saw they once in awhile because Dave’s family is from the Sault and Max is from Manitoulin Island so they would be in the Sault fairly often. However, as their children married and moved to Southern Ontario and we were frequently away on long week ends visiting our kids – it seemed we rarely connected.

It was a blessing when we discovered they would be on the Manitoulin the same time as we were and we were so grateful for this chance to renew and strengthen our friendship.

Alas, all good things must come to an end so Friday, we picked Dad up and headed home. –

God Bless
Charlie & Linda

The “I” of the storm

I’ve been “off the air” for over a week. I’ll talk more about “what’s been happening” as I catch up over the next few days.

Today is about a topic that has been running through my mind off & on for several months.

It seems that this year has been the year for us to experience (mostly the aftermath) of violent storms.

In March we saw first hand the devastating effects of Katrina and Rita on the Gulf Coast (Click HERE to see John Dobb’s “by the numbers” report from FEMA to get an idea of the magnitudeof that damage) However, it wasn’t just the property damage – it was people like the Kelly’s and Charlotte who lost almost everything they had and were forced out of their homes –- and they were among the “lucky ones” who weren’t injured, who had other places to go, who were able to rebuild and restore some semblance of ”normality” in their lives.

In July/August we saw and then experienced first hand the power of tornadoes that swept through Northern Ontario (see Stormy North and A “twist”of Fate)

Last week, we saw first hand some of the damage that was done by the first of those tornadoes and damaging winds as the first July storm swept across the Manitoulin Island (I’ll have some pictures from our friend’s camp in a later post). Just this morning we saw the reports of the devastating F-2 tornadoes in Saskatchewan. (see Tornado story)

This “taste” of ”damaging” storms has convinced me that I never want to be anywhere near the “eye” of F2 (or higher) tornado or a category 4 or 5 hurricane or an building destroying earthquake or any of those types of natural disasters that cause such wide spread damage to property and leave hurting, broken people in their wake.

This may seem like an obvious statement—after all, not many would want these experiences. My point is that without first hand experience it is difficult to really understand how destructive and how frightening these disasters can be.

One of my favorite accounts in the Bible -- (Is it possible to have 1000 favorites – because my favorite story seems to depend on the situation and circumstances –which I guess is an illustration of the richness of God’s revelation to us and the complexity and diversity of the challenges we encounter in life)

Re-phrasing - My favorites Bible accounts about storms are
Jesus coming to the disciples “walking on the water (Matt. 14:22-32) and
Jesus sleeping while the storm rages and then calming it (Matt.8:23-27)

Maybe I’m rambling a bit but my thought in all this is that it isn’t so much about “where is the “eye” of the storm ?” so we can get away or stay away from it. Rather it is more important to ask “Where am ”I” in the storm?

So some thoughts on that

One of the gifts we can give our children is to go where the storms have been (if the storms don’t come to us) -There they can experience the realities of finding God in the midst of the storm. They can experience the “ups” (trust in Jesus in spite of the storm) and ”downs” (sinking into the waves of despair) of faith. In those "ups" and "downs" they can see that, while God may not prevent pain, he can give us a way through it—if we trust in him ( (see John Dobb’s story about Jenelle & Emily and Alice & Christina for more on this thought).

Of course this can and should be done at home or anywhere by going into our communities and finding those who lives have been turned upside down by the storms of life— poverty, crime, addictions and the like. I just think that physical disasters allow us to develop faith and compassion which will let us better deal with the more “invisible “but nonetheless devastating storms—some of which are the direct result of poor personal choices.

(When we were raising our children I think we may have protected them from the storms rather than taking them into the “I” of the storm—I wonder if that was a mistake. If it was, I pray that God’s working in their lives has not been hindered too much by my failure to seethis then.)

I have ”mused” before ( see “Why not me?”) on the question of ”why” some people seem to experience one “storm” after another while other’s ( and I include myself here) seem to go through life just seeing the “fringes” of the storm or ”reminders” of the possibility of storms. Some wonder “where is God in the midst of all the pain and chaos of their lives?”. Others struggle with demonstrating faith in the midst of ”mild winds and small waves”.

I have been reading Philip Yancy’s book “Disappointment with God” (see for example Zondervan listing) and I think that he speaks to both these situations. It is after all a matter of “perception”. The real underlying “disaster” in all our lives is to “deny God”.

How we find faith and remain loyal to our God is the critical "struggle" of our lives?

I think it is just as tough (perhaps tougher ) to do this if we are “healthy, (relatively) wealthy and wise (by this world’s standards) as it is "easy" to “curse" God when we are in serious storms (as Job’s wife suggested that he do –Job 2:9).

For those who may havelost faith because you didn't see God inthe "storm"(or in the "calm"_ Yancy is a good place to go for some questions and help in rediscovering the Invisible God (another book he wrote).

If your life is (relatively” smooth and easy – then my advice is seek the “I” of the storm. Once you find God there (and you can)—he will stay with you –in the good times and the bad.

(Sounds like the “marriage vows”—for better or worse, sickness & health,etc.. This appropriate because as Yancy points out God’s greatest desire is that we love him “freely” even when he seems to be ”silent & invisible”)

God Bless
Charlie

A bundle of joy, Hot Water and New Beginnings

Well I spent a fair bit of time last week telling the story of our summer vacation. While I was doing that life went on. So to-day I’ll cover some things that happened here at home.

First – the “bundle of joy”: Bayleigh Elizabeth Lansdell was born 6:30 a.m. Friday August 4 - Her parents Kyle & Anna and first time grandparent’s Roger & Sandra are understandably proud and joyful about this. The picture of her with “Grandma” Sandra is one sent by Roger the morning she was born. Refer to my postings from June 27 (Roger resigns) and July 2 (Jessica’s graduation) for more info on the Lansdell’s and our connection with them.

Have you ever gotten into ”hot water”? – well this literally happened to us this week. Wednesday evening Linda noticed that the tile in our downstairs bathroom was lifting a bit. Thursday morning she checked and there was water seeping up from under the tiles. – we started tracing it and found that our hot water tank was leaking. So the rest of Thursday and part of Friday morning was taken up with draining and removing the old tank and installing a new one.

We used the dehumidifier to dry up the water that had seeped into the bathroom and into the carpet in the adjoining bedroom but there wasn’t a major “flood”. As with so many things that happen, we were very thankful about the timing. If it had been doing that the whole time we were away there likely would have been damage to the tiles and carpet to deal with in addition to the replacement of the tank.

So, we had the expense of a new tank; I got to brush up on my limited plumbing skills. (No leaks!!); Roger had the “pleasure” of helping me carry out the old tank and bring in the new one and we were “out of hot water” (well actually we had hot water again but it was inside the tank where it was supposed to be!!!

"New beginnings" come with mixed emotions -
This morning was Kyle & Anna’s last Sunday with us. Kyle was leaving this afternoon with a trailer moving their stuff to Thunderbay where heisentering the NorthernMedicalschool . Anna’s parents are taking her up on Tuesday. Kyle was taking care of the Lord’s Table and he did a really neat thing that was very powerful.(I didn’t have my camera or I would have had a good picture to go with this). Anyhow, he went up with Bayleigh (the new baby) in his arms. He talked about how he & Anna had prayed together and ”dedicated” the baby to God. Then he said he realized that as a father it was very difficult to say “whatever you want God take her for your service”. He then went on to read the story of Abraham being asked to sacrifice Isaac and talked about how difficult it would be for a father to do that – even though in the end God provided another sacrifice. He then said – but God didn’t spare his own son who had been sacrificed for our sins and how he (Kyle) as a father now had a small idea of how much the parent God loves us- because he sent his much loved son to die on our behalf. The sight of that young father using this illustration to help us appreciate God’s love for us brought tears to many eyes as the reality of this truth of the illustration .

At the close of the service we had a presentation to wish them well and we prayed for God's blessings on them as they begin this new stage in their lives. They will be missed here but I am confident that they will be a blessing to those they meet in their new situation.

We are off on another short trip this week –leaving Monday returning Friday. We are going to the Manitoulin Island taking my Dad so he can golf with my cousin Norris and also to spend a couple of days camping with our dear friends David & Maxine Bringleson. I probably won’t be able to do apost again until next Saturday.

As a closing thought , I’ve mentioned before that Linda & I are doing a daily Bible reading from the “365 day Bible. The Old Testament reading recently was from Ezra 8:21-23. I think we might call this the “traveller’s prayer”.

21There, by the Ahava Canal, I proclaimed a fast, so that we might humble ourselves before our God and ask him for a safe journey for us and our children, with all our possessions. 22 I was ashamed to ask the king for soldiers and horsemen to protect us from enemies on the road, because we had told the king, "The gracious hand of our God is on everyone who looks to him, but his great anger is against all who forsake him." 23 So we fasted and petitioned our God about this, and he answered our prayer.

How often do we fail to be ashamed that we depend on our own preparations rather than humbling ourselves before God and petitioning him for a safe journey?

I’m not suggesting that we shouldn’t do everything we can reasonably do to be prepared for our trips but I do know that I often fail to make the one preparation that is the most important.

Prayer –don’t leave home without it!!

God Bless
Charlie & Linda

Summer Vacation – Part 3 – A “twist” of Fate

Wednesday (August 2) as we drove from Kingston to Haliburton, we heard reports of thunderstorms potentially severe for all of Southern Ontario – which is a large territory so we really didn’t have any reason to avoid any particular place. It continued to be very hot and muggy (HUMIDEX made it like 40C or 104F) and we thought a thunderstorm would be nice to cool things down and we always enjoy watching the lightening and listening to the rain on the roof of the “BBB”. And after all how severe could a thunderstorm be -- Famous last words!! (As an aside - some day I'll have to tell you about "Linda's" mansion in Madoc which we stopped to see on our way through)

Linda’s sister Stephanie wasn’t expecting us until at least Thursday and we planned to stop somewhere for the night.

We found Rip’s Sleepy Hollow - a very nice campground - about halfway between Haliburton and Stephanie’s. (The picture is from their website).

Our campsite was on a slope facing down to the lake with a nice tree on the site. (tree just left of center in the picture). To get it level, we had to put the front wheels up on the ramps that I made to carry with us. As we were doing that one of the campground attendants came by and Linda said that it was such a nice spot looking out over the lake that she hoped there would be a thunderstorm that we could watch. The next morning he came back and said - Well was that storm good enough for you!!

After supper, it had clouded over and we were laying on the bed reading with the windows open. Linda heard some thunder and got up to lookout the window. She said she heard a sound like a freight train and saw a wall of water coming across the lake. She closed the windows just as we were hit with the strongest winds and most torrential rain I have ever experienced.

It was swirling around the “BBB” and we started rocking back& forth -- enough that I started to get concerned about whether we might be lifted off the ground. However, within less than a minute the worst of it was already over (although I didn’t know it at the time). I was able to look out and see that the trailers one either side were still OK and my reasoning was as long as they’re not moving we are OK because we are heavier.

Around the same time we saw these guys in a trailer about 50 yards away come rushing out in their undershorts and go charging into the bush at the back of their trailer. We couldn’t see very well with the heavy rain and with the storm it was getting dark. The next morning we found out that a tree had come down just missing the corner of their trailer and hitting the one guy’s truck.

We also found out in the morning that another trailer- a couple hundred yards away had 2 trees fall on it and the lady was hit on the head – but no one was injured in the campground or as far as we know in the whole area.

We sat in the front seats and watched the storm (at more” normal levels rage on for perhaps 30 minutes. A couple of times it got more intense but nothing like that first barrage. Then as fast as it came it was gone (except for the rain which continued for quite awhile.

The power went off at the first of the storm and we could see the flashing red lights from the emergency vehicles on the main road about ½ mile away. We found out later that a stand of pines had been hit by a “real” twister” sending treetops all over the place and taking out 2 hydro poles. The emergency vehicles were there because the road was blocked by trees and downed lines.

Before the storm died down Linda called Stephanie on the cell phone and asked her how she was. She said “Not too good – we just had a big storm and “all” our trees have comedown. Linda said "I now we are right next door and we had it too" . Stephanie was obviously very shaken up. They have lived there for almost 20 years and never had any wind damage before this. Their power was out and didn’t get restored until Saturday morning When they heard the storm coming they headed for the basement. They were all fine and they had no damage to their house but they did lose 9 trees including 5 “multi-stem” cherry trees. – it was so sad to see such beautiful trees uprooted and destroyed but it was still better than losing a house or being injured.

As soon as the wind had died down , we started to see people going down to the beach to check on their boats and then we saw some people walking around the beach area with flashlights. Shortly after that the campground people came and knocked on our door to make sure we were OK – when we asked if there was much damage they said we lost a bunch of trees at the beach.

This was a very nice grove of perhaps 40 trees. (The before picture is fromtheir website -the after picture was taken from the beach - looking back towards the campground. You can see the "BBB" in the background (centre). Over half the trees were broken or uprooted – they came down in a “twisted” pattern so I think there was a small tornado there as well. (The tree that came down where the trailers where all fell the same direction which is characteristic of a straight line wind rather than a “twister”)

The tree that was right next to us was swaying pretty badly during the storm and I was worried it might come down and hit us but it stayed up and seemed OK. The next day we discovered that it had along crack below a fork so it was very close to breaking off.

The reports the next day (click HERE and HERE) confirmed that devastation of the stand of pines near us (at West Guildford) was caused by an F1 tornado. Just today there was a followup report that said that this storm resulted in at least 8 tornados – more than for any single weather disturbance to hit Ontario for at least 21 years. –click HERE -- and there we where right in the middle of it. We were thankful that we didn’t suffer any damage and that no one was hurt but I guess that will teach me to say – after being in Mississippi – you really can’t imagine what one of these storms are like unless you experience it and we just don’t have weather like that in the North.(snow maybe but no tornadoes or hurricanes—which is true of where we live but we had ventured into the Ontario tornado band and God decided we needed to see it first hand.)

Anyhow, Thursday morning Stephanie came by to see us and told us that it would be impossible for us to get to her place with the “BBB” because she had to maneuver her way around fallen trees with her Sunfire and, at times wasn’t sure she would make it through. She is a PSW (Personal support worker) and she was trying to get to see a lot of her clients since many of them are older people that can’t fend well for themselves. She was having difficulty getting to some of the places and in any case her ability to do much for them was limited because the power was off.

Later in the day she came back and took us to her place. They have a long narrow lot stretching from the road back to the lake. There was a nice row of trees along their neigborslane that provided anatural separation between the lots. The bulk of the trees fell from there into Wayne & Stephanie's yard. Wayne (Stepanie's husband) was starting to cut up some of the trees that had fallen so we helped with that for a while and then we all went back to the campground to prepare supper because we had power (from our generator) and a gas stove and water (in our onboard tank) .
By the time we traveled the roads on Thursday they had been cleared to allow for the Hydro trucks and other heavier equipment needed for repairs so I could see that we would be able to get there with the “beast”. So we did that Friday morning. The campground had a generator going to keep their water system operating so I filled my holding tank before we left.

The rest of Friday and much of Saturday I helped Wayne cut up downed trees and pile the branches. The roar of chainsaws was a consistent background sounduntil welefton Monday morning. The picture shows the piles of wood we cut and on the left one of three piles of brush that resulted)

(My friend John Sanders would have loved this because he had never operated a chainsaw until he went to Mississippi and he fell in love with doing tree removals. I enjoy working with a chainsaw but don't often get a chance so, while I would rather the trees had fallen, I did enjoy helping cleanthem up)

This turned out to be a “wrong place” (no one would think being in the sights of a tornado was the right place to be –would they??) but at the “right time” because we were able to bring cooking capability to a household that would have been living off cold food or BBQ for 3days if we hadn’t been there and we were also able to help with the cleanup. The other thing about this was that we ended up staying for a couple days longer and as Linda said “We got to know them a lot better than we would have in a “normal” visit.

Stephanie is the youngest in Linda’s family and there is 26 years difference in age. Stephanie is actually 6 months younger than our oldest Chris. It was a bit of a unique then when they were younger and growing up. A couple of times Chris and Stephanie were at the same social event and some of his buddies would ask about the “cute chick” he was talking to and he would say “that’s my aunt” and they’d say “Yeah – right!!”. Anyhow, Linda was away from home by the time Stephanie was born so they really didn’t spend much time together when she was young and then she moved away almost 20 years ago so Linda only got to see her a day or 2 at a time usually with a bunch of other people around.

This time they got to spend a lot of time being sisters and sharing the things that were happening in their lives.

We got to know her younger daughter Kelsey quite well. Linda worked with her to make several craft items which they both enjoyed. I played cribbage with her one afternoon and we played cards (something called 31 as a group one evening. They had a large number ofmonarch butterflies and one afternoon Kelsey hadone sitting on her hand.

The visit was good and oddly enough made better because of the storm. God works in mysterious ways. I got to know Wayne a little better as we talked while we worked. Their older daughter Sierra was working 12 hour shifts at a grocery store in Hailburton so we didn’t get to see her as much. I also missed getting her picture until Monday morning when I caught her on her way out to work.

So – What did YOU do on your summer vacation?
God Bless
Charlie & Linda

Summer Vacation – Part 2

At the end of my posting yesterday, we were enroute to Kingston to see our daughter Melissa on the second stage of our “summer vacation”.

While we were settling in at the *MART “campground”, we received a call from Melissa about her car. I had bought her an old “clunker” (1985 Dodge Omni) in 2002 and her mechanic was telling her that it was time to send it to the automobile graveyard. So that gave us another “job” to do while we were there. (I didn't get a picture of it this time but the one here shows it parked by the "BBB" when we visited Melissa in 2004)

Thinking about the situation with her car reminds me of 2 things --

First, as it says in James 4:13-17 we never know what will happen tomorrow and we need always to make our plans with the prayer that “If it is the Lord’s will we will live and do this or that”. We so often begin to believe that we are in control and that things will go as we plan. I am thankful for these gentle reminders that God is in control and that our primary mission is to honor and love him. Everything else we do needs to be seen in this context and always with the understanding that “his will be done”.

We didn’t plan to be dealing with the “death” of a car but it had to happen sometime and this was the "right time" because we could be there to help her work it out. It was also a case of being in the "right place" when needed since the car was registered in my name and I needed to sign the "death certificate" (paperwork needed to dispose of it).

Second, in his post for Friday July 28 John Dobbs (Hope Remains) mentions the “Prattville van”. We remember John Sanders driving us to work on our project in that van and his comment that they would likely use it until “the wheels fell off”. According to John’s report it seems it “died” around the same time. However, the real reason I mention it was John’s comment that “ We do not need anything new, just reliable people movers.”

Melissa uses her vehicle for trips around town for the “necessities” of living – going to school, shopping, doing laundry, going to exercise classes and the like. She didn’t want anything fancy but not having a vehicle after 4 years would be a challenge.

We arrived at he Kingston KOA early Friday afternoon. Melissa came out for supper. Saturday morning she came back out and we looked through the ads to see if we could find something “reasonable” that would get her around without having to spend a fortune.

We came across a single owner 1994 Ford Escort wagon that seemed like it might do. It was being sold “as is” so Melissa got the lady to agree to let her take it to her mechanic to check it over before she made an offer.

Monday morning we took it to Cosme Auto Services. While we were there we made arrangements to dispose of the old car (Melissa said she called it” Frederic”) and cleaned it out. It was a sad moment for Melissa since it was her first car and she had become attached to its peculiarities.

Who would ever forget their first vehicle. Mine was a 1955 Chev station wagon that was given to me by my Dad in 1961 – it had been rolled once so the body wasn't in great shape and it had engine problems but it was mine and it got me were I wanted to go (most of the time). Any first car stories out there?

Anyhow, it took a couple of days before the mechanic could check it over. Overall it was in good shape and the mechanic thought it should be OK for her purposes. It needed some work on the brake lines and exhaust and based on the cost of the repairs required to pass the “safety” check. Melissa made an offer and it was accepted. She hadn’t actually completed the deal before we left and I haven’t heard for sure but I’m assuming she is has “wheels” again.

It was sweltering hot the whole time we were there so we spent a lot of time inside the “BBB” with the air conditioning going. Melissa rented a car for the weekend since her’s had “died”. That was a good thing as well because “Frederic” didn’t have air conditioning and we would have melted if we had to go without.

We had several long conversations with Melissa getting caught up on her life and talking about her plans for school and – hopefully—some time soon - a wedding.

We had been kidding her the fact that Chris was married in the year of our 25th anniversary and Kevin in the year of our thirty-fifth -- so she had to either get married this year (our 40th) or wait for another 5 years – anyhow – time will tell but she may break the pattern.

We also got to visit with and get to know her friend Alexander a little bit better. He is from Sweden. They met 3years ago when he was in Kingston as an exchange student. Melissa has visited with him in Sweden and has met his family. We met him in 2005 when he was back for a visit. He was able to get a one year “work experience” visa. It is a serious relationship and they don’t want to be separated again so I guess they’ll have to figure something out before the year is up.

Alexander was supposed to be working afternoons but Friday they sent him home early so he could come back and do the early shift (6 to 3). He is the “cold line chef” for Pan Chancho Café & Bakery--which means he puts together the sandwiches. Anyhow, the switch in shifts meant that we got to visit with him more than we might have otherwise.

On Saturday we met him after work for a late lunch at Tir Nan Og . We spent that evening together, had a late (for us) supper around 7:30 so Alexander could get home to sleep before getting up at 5:00 for his shift. Sunday Melissa came out for brunch and, after Alexander’s shift we went to the Charleston Lake provincial park for a picnic and swimming (at least they swam –I went in for a short dip –mostly we laid in the shade and read. We had supper together at the KOA.

Monday evening theywanted tocook for us but it was too hot in the apartment (no air conditioning) so they brought the “fixings” and Alexander did the cooking in the “BBB”—we had a Swedish meal including a “cabbage pudding” (we would call it a casserole- with cabbage, rice and hamburger)- very good.

Tuesday at noon we had lunch with John Dorland and his wife Ruth. John is an old classmate of mine from my days at Queen’s. We had lost touch with each other until he contacted me in 2005 because he was coming to Sault Ste Marie to go cross country skiing. It was strange to discover that he was living in Kingston. Anyhow, we thought it would be nice to chat about old times. So we met at Chien Noir (The Black Dog) and had a pleasant lunch talking about our families and various people we knew.

Wednesday morning we packed up and headed for Haliburton – I and, as it turned out – we drove into the “eye of the storm” – but that’s for tomorrow.

God Bless
Charlie & Linda

What did you do on your summer vacation? (Part 1)

It seems like forever since I’ve posted an entry and I will be a couple of days catching up. Teachers often begin a new school year by asking students to write an essay about their experiences during the summer vacation . Later in life, we often have conversations with our friends describing our vacations. So if you’ll bear with me, I plan to do that here – in three parts.

In a recent adult Bible class Lloyd Hotchkiss spent several weeks showing the tight connection between the way human families function and the way the church (God’s family) functions. It is clear that family units have a big part to play in God’s ongoing work of restoring the relationship with his created beings that was destroyed by Adam & Eve in the garden.

Understanding how to build healthy family relationships will help us to build strong churches and vice versa. Jesus taught that we needed to put a higher priority on our relationship with his followers than on earthly families but he also reaffirmed the importance of strong families.

I mention families because both Linda & I come from large families (8 in my case and 10 in her’s). This vacation was primarily about family -- at least that was the plan. A couple of unexpected events intervened but they served – as is often the case – to provide an opportunity for richer family sharing than might otherwise have occurred.

We left home on the morning of July 25 and returned on Monday (August 7). It was a trip that might be classified as being in the right place at the right time and the right place at the wrong time – or something like that.

We experienced pleasant family visits, the “death” of a car, and a tornado (Yes that’s right –a tornado—but you’ll have to wait a couple of days for the details), However, after 2 weeks on the road, we (and the “BBB”) returned home safe & sound with many pleasant memories to fill our hearts.

Our first stop was Clear Lake camp. My sister Ruby and (most of) her family where there and we had a good visit.

Ruby & Art have three children. James and his wife January live in Waterloo. (They are in the foreground of the first picture -my sister Diamond & my Dad are in the background). Their daughter Eowyn (see second picture) is the oldest of 2 grandchildren.

Their second son Trevor lives in Toronto. He has recently met Sarah who was there with him. I think the relationship has possibilities since she appeared to survive the “inquisition” of all the aunt’s and uncle’s at a family dinner Tuesday evening. We played a variety of games in the evenings and we came to appreciate her “weird” sense of humor.

I’ve mentioned before that Art & Ruby’s youngest son Craig, his wife Jeri and their daughter Hannah moved to Papua New Guinea in May. That would be a bit of a trek for a family vacation so they understandably weren’t able to make it. For more information on their mission click HERE

Tuesday night we gathered at my (oldest) sister Goldie’s house. Goldie and her husband live year round on the shore of Bright Lake -- about 2 miles (3 kilometres) from the Clear Lake camp.

We had brought my Dad down with us. My brother Rob, Marilyn and their son Ken along with my youngest sister Diamond came down (from the Sault) for the evening and Goldie’s daughter Lori came by so there were eighteen of us there. (At last count including in-laws my Dad & Mom have around 100 descendents so it wasn’t really that big a family gathering).

(I think I may have mentioned this before as well but you may have noted the reference to the “family jewels” --the three ”girls” in the family -- Goldie, Ruby and Diamond.-- in the picture Ruby is on left and Goldie is on the right )

Art has just retired from his tenure as President of Great Lakes Christian College (in Beamsville Ontario) and he had also hit the milestone of entering his seventh decade in May (Linda says I’m crazy to put turning 60 in this way since it sounds even worse – however a mathematical fact is a mathematical fact and it doesn’t make any difference how you state it). Anyhow, the family here went together and gave him a gift certificate at Canadian Tire to use for one of the many home projects Ruby has lined up for him. (We also had 2 cakes - one for birthday and one for retirement)

Thursday afternoon we headed out and drove to North Bay and stayed overnight at Walmart (Oh boy – my favorite place – see my April 3 blog entry for an explanation of this)

Anyhow – to-morrow I will talk more about family and the “death” of Fredrick the car