Changes

Sunday morning Roger announced that he & Sandra would be leaving Pinehill in September after almost 11 years of full-time service as a part of the Pinehill work.
(Roger is the "ugly" guy in the suit marring an otherwise lovely picture takenSaturday after Vicki & Kirk's wedding)

They are going to Troy Michigan. I think the old cliché “our loss is their gain” best sums it up from my view point This added to the sadness (for us) and joy (for them) that we were already feeling because knew that their son Kyle & his wife Anna would be leaving in August to move to Thunder Bay to attend Medical school AND their daughter Jessica would also be leaving to attend Lakehead University.

I have spent a lot of time in the last week in discussions with Lloyd about the process we will follow to address these needs. The first step is a congregational meeting on Wednesday evening to obtain suggestions and ideas about what to do and to begin selecting people to take charge of various things that need to be done. I have also spent a lot of time on the telephone receiving and making calls to people who I felt might have strong feelings about this situation so that I could listen to and understand their concerns. I’m not by nature a good listener – I’m more inclined to move quickly to problem solving so this has been an exercise (with Linda’s help) of trying (again) to make it more of a habit to follow the Stephen Covey principle of “seeking first to understand rather than to be understood” . Those who I have talked with are the ultimate judges of how successful I was but it seemed tome that in general I did manage to do more listening to what others thought than “telling” them what I thought.

Their leaving will affect the preaching, teaching (Roger with adults, Kyle with the youth and Sandra in the children’s classes) and other areas of where they are active. It will also have a large impact on our singing because the whole family is musically talented. Overall it will have a large impact on our efforts to serve Jesus and proclaim the gospel to others – even though we have many others involved in ministry efforts.

We have capabilities within to do most of the things that were being done – but we certainly don’t have the capacity to maintain the quality and energy that Roger and the rest of his family were providing. It will be a big hole to fill and we will need to remain committed to each person doing their part to keep us moving forward in our journey of faith as we figure out how to fill these holes.

Roger, Sandra Kyle and Jessica stayed with us for a few days when they moved here from Alabama in 1995. Over time they have become an integral part of the fabric of our lives and when they leave there will be a big hole . However, we believe that God has been at work in this and that they have been called to go to serve him in Troy and we must continue our calling to serve Him here in Sault Ste. Marie. (The picture of Jessica was taking (almost) 3 years ago on theoccasion ofKyle & Anna's wedding.

Roger,s mother Wilma is my first cousin. – so technically he is a “first cousin once removed” – however my parents both came from large families and I have more first cousins than I can ”shake a stick at” so that relationship isn’t the reason Roger & I developed a deep friendship. In fact, Roger & I both have similar blood relationships with many of the congregation and sometimes that relationship can present obstacles to our desire to be united in Christ regardless of who we are. Sometimes when you are a preacher or an elder in a situation where there are blood relationships – those related can be seen as receiving special treatment—or the inevitable “family feuds” can spill over into our relationship with each other in Christ

Roger is a bit over 15 years younger than I am and I never really knew him until he joined the work here at PineHill. He grew up as a ”preacher’s son” in places like North Bay Ontario and the Bayview congregation in Toronto. His father Clyde baptized Linda during a series of meetings held in Sault Ste Marie in the early 60’s and he officiated at our marriage in 1966 so we do have a long connection with Roger’s family- aside from Wilma being my cousin. Clyde & Wilma are retired and live in Meaford.

Sandra’s parents are from the south (Oklahoma or maybe Texas) and had moved to Ontario to work with the church in St. Thomas. They are retired now and live in the Beamsville area.

Kyle is very active in sports as well as being strong academically. – he played hockey & football while in high school. Last year he graduated from Harding (magna cum laude as I recall ) and returned to the Sault when his application for medical school fell through. We have employed him as a part time youth minister since last September and he has generated some good results with the small “core’ of kids that we have here. He met his (now) wife Anna while in high school. She grew up in a Christian family from a different “heritage” and we have enjoyed having her in the “church family” for the past year. Anna & Kyle are expecting their first child in late July so they'llhave their handsfull as he movesonintomed school.

Jessica is a very lovely young ladyand has been a leader in the teen/youthgroupfor several years. She has done wellin school- president of the student body -- and worked part-time for several years. This yearshe invested in herowncar and has been "proudly" chauferring" her parents andothers to services - at least someof the time.

Roger has been the preacher at Pinehill for almost 11 years. Serving as a the “minister” always has its challenges and rewards and his years here have had their share of both. I believe (with allowance for our human frailties and foibles– he handled the challenges in a Godly fashion and handled the success with grace and humility. Others may see it differently and such is life in churches.

(I think that the absence of challenges is a clear sign of an absence of effect teaching and preaching – the real issue is not that “problems exist” but rather how do we handle them. We are called to love and to possess a certain hope through our an obedient faith in Jesus ( Gal. 5:6; I Cor. 13:13, John 14:15).

In my view, churches can fail in 2 extremes – they can have a sense that loving means not challenging tomake changes regardless of what they believe and how they live (which violates the idea that love is acting in the other person’s best interests)

OR

they so focused teaching people to know and obey commands that they lose sight of the overriding importance of love (See I Cor 13:4-7) and faith (trusting God to keep his promise of grace when we fail to obey). What seems tome is better is for us to accept that when we fail to love – to obey – to trust - we accept that failure – and find a way to move on in spite of our weaknesses and differences – united in our common commitment to Jesus. -- allowing God’s spirit to continue his transforming work in our lives and thanking God for his grace & forgiveness.

Well as often happens I’ve gone to “preaching” and that’s not really the purpose here.

To the Lansdell’s - I am glad we have some time before we have to say “Farewell”. “May God bless you richly each day as you prepare for and then embark on this new phase in your journey of faith.

To those of us who remain – we need to do what we can do but always remember

And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love. (I Cor. 13:13)”

God Bless
Charlie & Linda

Wedding Joy

To-day Vicki Muhlholland and Kirk Smith were married at our building.

We first met them about a year ago. Our preacher Roger (Lansdell) had started a Wednesday evening series over the summer based on the Andy Griffith show (see http://www.barneyfife.com/) Roger & Sandra invited their neighbor's Steve & Shelly Slawson and they came to "check it out". Shelly invited her friend Vicki. She & Kirk and her mother Patricia also started to come. In the fall, they all started attending our services and over time they have become a part of "the family".

Early in the year they approached Roger and asked if he would marry them. He has studied with them about God's purpose in marriage and how they need to let God be the creative force in building a solid marriage. To-day they have begun that journey of faith together and we pray that they will be one "until death do them part" (poor english I know!).

Roger conducted a very nice ceremony. His son Kyle who has been serving as our part-time youth minister sang the songs. The first song was "I will be here" by Steven Curtis Chapman (a song I confess I'd never heard but I thought was very powerful).

The third verse seemed to speak to me in my marriage and I said to Linda afterward that I would very much want that to be always true in our lives -- but I also realize that I blow it a way too often. It goes ..

"I will be here...When you feel like bein' quiet
When you need to speak your mind
I will listen
And I will be here
When the laughter turns to cryin'
Through the winnin' and losin' and tryin'
We'll be together'
Cause I will be here"

Vicki's girls Kendra (left) & Katie were in the wedding party. They were part of the reason Linda started her class during the sermon time and are now part of the group we refer to as "Linda's kids".

Kirk's son Kyle (not a good picture due to the backlight from the windows but it's the only one I got!) was also a member of the wedding party. He lives in Michigan but is spending the summer here. We have enjoyed meeting him and having him at services for the past few weeks.

After the wedding there was a lunch catered in the church basement and we enjoyed visting with Vicki's father Larry and her aunt Kathy. It turned out that Linda knew Kathy from when she was working and they enjoyed catching up on what was happening in each other's lives.


Anna (Kyle's wife), Kyle, his sister Jessica and Sandra are sitting across from each other at the first table.

It was an enjoyable time and brings back memories of similar events in our lives. Yesterday - 5 years ago -- in 2001 our son Kevin and Sarah were married. Happy anniversary to them!!
God Bless
Charlie & Linda

A beautiful morning

As I sit looking out over Linda’s garden in the moments before sunrise I am reminded again of the beauty and tranquility of God’s creation. It is a cool morning – 5 deg C (41deg F) but clear and promising a very nice summer day.

Soon things that need to be done will press in on me. Soon the realities of what we humans have done with God’s “good” creation will press in on me and challenge the Spirit in this job of producing this fruit of joy peace and soon in my life. But for now I will simply watch the sunrise, listen to the birds and commune with my God as I pray and prepare this entry.

The last few days have been busy. I did my first run as a Red Cross volunteer driver taking a lady to the Group Heath Center for a procedure and then picking her up to return her home 2 hours later. Tuesday I vacuumed and cleaned out the car so it would be a little more presentable for a stranger. We also made reservations for a few days camping at Point Des Chenes for when Tammy & the kids are planning to be herein July.

Wednesday, I replaced a solenoid on my truck in hopes of resolving an intermittent problem with getting the starter to “kick-in” . The battery terminals had some corrosion so I decided to clean them as well—and in the course of doing that one of the cable terminals broke off. I got a replacement part from Canadian tire, rigged it so I could get the truck started and then took it to Art Taylor’s garage yesterday to get it properly installed since that requires a special crimping tool. I also took the car in to have them see if they could fix the leak that has returned despite two prior(expensive) repairs. They didn’t find anything- although they tightened all the clamps and didn’t charge for the work. I now have to wait until I fill the tank and the leak occurs and then take it in so they can see exactly were it is coming from. (Maybe I’ll get lucky and the problem will just go away!

Wednesday (June 21) was also Melissa’ birthday—can’t believe that my “baby girl” is 28 but she is. We tried calling her several times (early morning and in the evening) but only got the machine. Turned out she was in Toronto planting her pumpkins (a whole other story that I might talk about another time). When she called last evening she had just gotten back and was tired, dirty and hungry – and anxious for bath, food and bed.

Wednesday evening we enjoyed a ”webcam” audio/video conversation with Chris & Camdyn and then with Kevin & Will. Kevin had to do an upgrade to MS messenger so we text messaged back& forth a bit while he was doing that. Will had discovered the “emotions” figures and so we had some fun exchanging various “smiley” faces and other pictures until we could get the video up & running. It is such a great thing to be able to see & hear them in this way.

Linda was out being “nanny” to the twins for a couple of hours yesterday and I spent a couple of hours with Lloyd Hotchkiss discussing things we needed to be doing in our role as elders for the Pinehill church.

Tuesday through Thursday I spent a quite a bit of time preparing for an ADnet Board Development session which was held last evening. I was working with Tom Marinelli (via email since he is in Toronto) to develop the agenda and a presentation on our assessment of the Board’s effectiveness and some suggested approaches to improving our ability to meet our obligations as a board. Last evening I presented the material and facilitated a “brainstorming” session on “what can we do to make things better?”

For me it was an enjoyable evening since I haven’t had much opportunity to do this kind of work lately and I like doing it—although it also reminded me why I retired because it can easily become stressful and I can easily “over commit” and end up under extreme pressure at the last minute trying to juggle doing “10 things at once”.

Enough of the “mundane” things about ourdailylives

Have you observed the number of times in Genesis 1 that “God saw that “it” was good” (vs. 4, 10, 12, 18, 21, 25) –And then very good (v. 31) – this was highlighted for me in the Creation song that Linda was teaching to her Sunday morning class last fall -- I haven’t been able to discover the source and so I hope that my putting it here doesn’t violate any copyright’s . It is sung to the tune of the song about the days of Christmas (On the first day of Christmas my true love sent to me .. and a partridge in appear tree)

The creation song

(Tune: The twelve days of Christmas)

Oh God made the world for us in only seven days
and the Lord saw that what he made was good

On the 1st day of creation, the Lord God made for us: Light to light the earth
and the Lord saw that what he made was good

On the 2nd day of creation, the Lord God made for us: Skies so very blue,
Light to light the earth and the Lord saw that what he made was good.

On the 3rd day of creation, the Lord God made for us: Land and sea and plants
Skies so very blue, Light to light the earth and the Lord saw that what he made was good.

On the 4th day of creation, the Lord God made for us: Sun and moon and stars;
Land and sea and plants; Skies so very blue, Light to light the earth
and the Lord saw that what he made was good.

On the 5th day of creation, the Lord God made for us: Fish and birds that fly;
Sun and moon and stars; Land and sea and plants; Skies so very blue,
Light to light the earth and the Lord saw that what he made was good.

On the 6th day of creation, the Lord God made for us: Animals and people;
Fish and birds that fly, Sun and moon and stars; Land and sea and plants;
Skies so very blue, Light to light the earth and the Lord saw that what he made was good.

On the 7th day, God rested from all the work he did; it was very good:
Animals and people; Fish and birds that fly, Sun and moon and stars, land and sea and plants,
Skies so very blue, Light to light the earth and the Lord saw that what he made was good

God Bless

Charlie & Linda

Wild About the Bible

Saturday June 17 was the big day. For the past 2 months we have been preparing for a children’s activity day. Sharon came up with the theme” Wild about the Bible –.

We wanted, in a way that would capture the imagination of the children, to instill an excitement about the Bible & Bible things.




We also wanted to help them to have confidence in the truth of the Bible accounts that include miracles (the story of Balaam – Numbers 22-24) while acknowledging that people use these accounts of miracles along with some of the difficulties with translation (use of the word unicorns in the KJV) and the more exotic prophetic visions (the wheels within the wheels of Ezekiel) to claim that the Bible is full of myths or, as Erich von Daniken claimed in his best seller ”Chariots of the Gods”, the Bible stories are records of aliens visiting earth.

The teaching material was based on a book by J. Stephen Lang called “Talking Donkeys and Wheels of Fire: Bible Stories That Are Truly Bizarre!.

Linda & I (really Linda) had Grades 1 & 2 and introducing these somewhat “philosophical” concepts at that age requires creativity, which - if I can brag a little -Linda has in abundance. (The picture shows Linda with Jacob, Katie & Tammy)

She decided to stay away from the “ET” question and focus on the true story of Balaam as an example of God’s power & love for his people.

She also dealt with the issue of unicorns in the KJV by reading the passages (one at a time) in KJV and then in NIV. She then asked the kids if they knew any words that sounded the same but meant different things (the technical term is homonyms). They came up with things like read & red, right & write and she covered about 10 or so of these “sounds the same” words to make the point that it is something difficult to understand meaning without context and that , while it is a different issue translating the Bible from Hebrew and Greek also resulted in some translating difficulties which don’t take away from God’s truth but do require us to be cautious in using isolated words and passages to draw conclusions about “truth” vs .”myth” vs. “speculative interpretation”.

One of the more creative things Linda did was to get a copy of the Irish Rover’s song that “speculates” that the reason there are no Unicorn’s today is that they didn’t come on to the ark when Noah called the animals. She used the song to introduce the segment about the Unicorns.

It was a fun day. We had 16 children in total ( would have liked more) -- of which 7 were kids that had not been coming to our Sunday school (and 9 who had).

Linda had invited Riley to come. When Travis & Tracy dropped him off they brought the twins. We gave them a tour so they could see what Linda & I had been doing in the classrooms.

We did teaching and crafts from 9:30 to 11:45, had lunch (hot dogs and chips) and then Kyle took them out for a number of activities including the “water balloon” toss which ended with a “water balloon” fight—it was a hot day and those that got soaked seemed not to mind it at all.

I know that I will miss someone but I do want to mention the people who worked so hard on Saturday (I’ve already talked about the many people who helped with the cleanup and redecorating of the classrooms to provide a brighter and “friendly” environment).

Sharon Seeler coordinated the materials and supplies and got it already to go- despite having to deal with Mark’s heart attack in the previous 2 weeks. Doris Ann Ray (with help from Randy) set up the jungle “ambience” that greeted people as the came through the door. She also made the “Balaam and the donkey” with the place for a face so we could provide each child with a picture to remind them of the day.

Barb & Vicki were on the registration table, Vicki took pictures and helped with other: logistical” things. Steve was there helping as well.


Sandra, Shelley, Linda (& Charlie), Marilyn & Rob, and Kyle taught the various classess. Doris Anne helped Kyle with the crafts and had a crafts table available after lunch for any that preferred not to be involved in the outdoor activities.

Verna, Cora and several others helped with the lemonade and cookies for break and helped with serving lunch. Lloyd, Roger & Randy ran the BBQ’s to cook the hotdogs.

It was tiring but the reward of happy smiling faces and children’s laughter made it more than worthwhile. Jesus tell sus that we need to become like little children to enter the kingdom – and we certainly need to bring the children to Jesus feet so they can learn of him and retain that passion for staying at his feet for the rest of their lives.

God Bless
Charlie & Linda

Celebrations

The rest of the week has been relatively uneventful. Thursday morning I went golfing with my Dad and Lloyd Hotchkiss. Did some yard work and other household stuff in the afternoon. Today (Friday) I did some cleanup work in the yard and catchup on the household accounts. Linda spent the day preparing for the Children’s activity day on Saturday. I was the “researcher” looking up things on the INTERNET when she wanted a picture or in one case she was looking for “homonyms” (words that sound alike but mean different things).

This afternoon I went to do the final orientation to allow me to act as a volunteer driver for the Red Cross - taking seniors to& from doctor’s appointments, shopping, etc. and earlier this evening I went to help with final preparations for the Children’s day to-morrow. Linda is helping baby sit Tracy’s twins.

Anyhow – Monday I wrote about a bunch of “bad things” that were happening to people I know. Quick update: Mark Seeler is home—the tests didn’t show anything that required surgical treatment – the heart attack was very mild and he is recovering quickly – expecting to start back “light duty” at work next week.

Mrs. Ward is still in hospital with what has turned out to be gall stones rather than heart attack.

A couple of birthdays this week leads me to the topic of celebrations because June seems to be a particularly busy month in our family. To start Linda’s Mom celebrated her 82nd birthday on June 5th.

We were there on June 3rd to help her celebrate (just before we left to go to Aurora for the week).
Linda's sister Carol is on the right. Carol and her husband Jim celebrate their anniversary in June as well.

June 14 was my niece Debbie’s birthday.

In addition to going out for a family dinner we had a celebration for her at the church after Bible Study.

June 15 (Thursday) was my nephew Ken’s 25th birthday. That evening we went to his parent’s (Rob & Marilyn) place for supper to help him celebrate. (I forgot my camera but there is a picture of Ken with his parents and his sister in a post “A birthday & some anniversaries” a couple of weeks ago.)

Ken cooked the meat on the BBQ – a little unusual to have to cook your own birthday supper but he did a great job with the steaks and chops. My Dad and Jack & Barb King were also there. After dinner we enjoyed watching a DVD of some of my parent’s home movies from the 60’s which Barb hadn’t seen before. In addition to showing Rob& I & Dad as we were 40 years ago it had pictures of Barb’s mother and grandmother in that same time period. Lots of laughs and lots of memories.

June 18 is my sister Diamond’s birthday – I won’t mention her age but the youngest in our family (Lawrence) turned 50 in May (see earlier posting called “A birthday & some anniversaries”).

June 21 is our daughter’s Melissa’s birthday. This will be a special celebration for Melissa because yesterday she took and a passed her “orals” (comprehensive examination) about her knowledge of the area she is researching for her Ph.D. in environmental sciences. “All” she has left now is to do her research, writeher dissertation and defend it but still this was a major milestone. Of course her Mom & Dad are bursting with pride.

June 23 is our son Kevin’s 5th anniversary. He & Sarah were married in the chapel at Balls Falls Ontario on a beautiful June day. They now live in Coquitlam BC where Kevin is pursuing a Ph.D. in Neuropsychology. Sarah called today to tell us that they had taken our grandson Will for a consult with a dental surgeon about a broken front tooth. Their dentist had recommended that it either be extracted or capped. However, the dental surgeon thought it was best to just leave it and keep an eye on it- which was a big relief to them & to us – the idea of a 2 and a half year old having a general anesthetic wasn’t very appealing. We are grateful that our prayers have been answered this way – at least for now.

Of course my favorite June celebration comes this Sunday – Father’s day. It really doesn’t take a special day for me to realize how much my children care for me but it is still a neat thing to receive those special calls.

The question that these celebrations and special days brings to mind is whether we realize that every day is special - or has the possibility of being special if we are placing our trust in God. "This is the day the Lord has mad. I will rejoice and be glad in it" Psalm 118:24

God Bless
Charlie & Linda

Daily living (June 12-14)

So far this week we’ve been concentrating on projects around home.

Monday Linda finished up removing leaves and other debris from the back garden. Speaking of the garden we came home to lovely blooms on the rhodies and to lilacs. – they bloom late in the shaded area of our back yard. It is a lovely time of the year to sit at the table that we’ve put in the middle of the picture window which looks out over the back. – for breakfast or lunch.

I cut the grass and then got up on the roof to blow the “fallout” from the maple trees off the gutters. We have had an incredibly heavy amount of a yellow “fuzzy” pollen from one type of maple and then a snowstorm of keys from another. No one around here can remember anything like it in recent memory. While I was up there I trimmed a bunch of branches from the trees overhanging the roof (which took a lot of Tuesday morning to cut them up into bundles for pickup with the trash next week).

I had my truck towed to the garage to get the steering fixed. (I mentioned June 1 tthat it had broken down) – it turned out that it was a tie rod ends that had let go. Ended up that in addition to 4 tie rod ends, it needed a ball joint and new brake pads/rotors all around – the bill was north of $1500 – Ouch. I intend to sell it soon since we really don’t need to have 2 high cost vehicles on the go.

We also spent a fair bit of time on the phone talking to Roger about the situation with Nick and his girlfriend Tammy. Roger spent the whole day with them at bail court and then was back Tuesday a.m. before it was resolved.

Late afternoon I dropped Linda off at the grocery store , picked up my cable modem and then came back to help finish the shopping. Monday night I did some preliminary checking to confirm that my wireless bridge could be “seen” throughout the house from the planned location in the basement.

Tuesday - I had coffee with Roger before he went back to court. Dealing with the realities of losing a skirmish to Satan is always difficult – how to be the most support to Nick & Tammy was high on the agenda.

When I got home I was back doing yard work when the cable guy came and did the installation for the high speed INTERNET.

I made a trip to the police station to pickup my police check and dropped it off at the Red Cross needed to allow me to be a volunteer driver to take people to Doctor’s appointments. I stopped at Staples to pick up a router to allow me to connect my desktop and wireless bridge to the modem. (Actually, I was in a hurry and I ended up getting a switch and had to go back later to exchange for a router and to return the NIC card I had bought for the desktop and then discovered I didn’t need – for someone who is supposed to know about this stuff I wasn’t very efficient with my preparations!!).

Late afternoon I had a meeting at Sault College with Peggy Storey and Tom Marinelli (by teleconference) to discuss the agenda for a board development session for ADnet. I dropped Linda off to look for annuals for her planters and then stopped on the way back to help finish this and bring them home.

I spent a fair bit of time during the evening (until after midnight) connecting the components and configuring the desktop and laptop to set up a LAN and to get the INTERNET connections working. It was fun doing this since I hadn’t done any “hands on” IT stuff for quite a while.

We had an email from Sharon Seeler saying that Mark was home after having a procedure done in Petoskey – she says he is recovering and very glad to be home.

Wednesday: This morning Linda took me out to pick up my truck. When we got back she moved her flowers into the planters and I trimmed the shrubs in the front.

This evening we went to a family dinner to help celebrate my niece Debbie’s 50th birthday. We also had a small party for her at the church building after Bible study. I’ll try to include more about that - with some pictures in my next post.

Well – a busy week so far – lots of variety – nothing earth shattering but lots to think about as we focus on a daily walk with God – whether trimming trees, setting up networks or prayerfully seeking to help repair broken lives.

God Bless
Cahrlie & Linda

Living by Faith

I believe in the God revealed in the Bible and I believe the Bible is the source of God’s truth for our lives. I have faith that God will keep his promises if I place my trust in him.

Having said that many things happen in between faith and the reality of our daily lives that require me to daily “let go & let God” and some days that commitment to faith doesn’t even last until I’ve gotten out of bed (I think there’s a story about a prayer that end’s with “I think I’m going to really need your help today because I’m just about to get out of bed”)

I had a good week last week with my grandchildren – spent a lot of time on the deck watching them play in the pool and with their friends. Of course they often had small problems where grandpa had to intervene and help them – As you watch them play and think about what lies ahead in their lives you wish that you could be sure that they have only good things – that you could shield them from the drugs and pornography and criminal behaviors that a selfish “me” oriented society will put in front of them. Of course I know that is impossible -- what I need is the faith that let’s me pass on God’s wisdom to shape and guide their behavior.

Last week seemed like a week of reminders that faith isn’t a “vaccination” against bad things.

On Wednesday, Richard H. (see story about their anniversary a few weeks back) had a very unfortunate incident where he hit the accelerator rather than the brake while maneuvering out of a parking spot. Before it was over he had had an “encounter of the worst kind” with 5 parked vehicles. This was devastating to him as he had a very good driving record and he couldn’t understand how this had happened. While he was thankful that no one was hurt, when I talked to him Sunday he was still struggling with all the concerns that flood in and make it difficult to just let it go and move on with trust in God to work it out for good.

Friday, Mark Seeler experienced a heart attack – he seems to be recuperating but it reminds us all of our mortality. Mark had been a big part of getting the classrooms fixed up and was planning on more work around the building later on. His wife Sharon is spearheading the Children’s activity day planned for the 17th. We praise God that this wasn’t more serious. We pray for the wisdom to see ways to help them through this and that God will bless the plans for Saturday despite this setback. but we have to admit that it makes us wonder Why? …

Saturday, Florence Ward (Russ’s mother) also experienced a heart attack, She is one of these “ageless” seniors who never quits – always wanting to do something to help others
Then , we found out yesterday that Barb Hotchkiss has to have major surgery as soon as a slot is available in London Ontario.

Finally, on top of all that, Nick – who had been overcoming his past addictions and criminal behaviors and building a relationship with Jesus through faith -- was overcome by his demons and is now in custody for cocaine possession. How it hurts when we see people fail – can we understand that his failings are similar in nature to our own lapses – a lack of faith – albeit – the consequences may be more severe. We pray that he won’t give up on Jesus and that we won’t give up on him.

The gap between what we know is true about God’s love and care for us and how we behave in the face of life’s realities is real and sometimes very large – thank God for his grace, which helps us through these lapses in faith and for the renewal and the strengthening of faith that often comes as a result.

Well on to another week. I’m hope to have my high(er) speed INTERNET access set by tomorrow evening and that may help me be a little more regular in making these entries

God Bless
Charlie & Linda

Lucky or Good or…?

When we were working on the class room project we discovered that Mark Seeler has a number of sayings that he likes to use. Early in the project he had cut some door casings too short for the door he was working on. When he got down to the last door he was out of long pieces and he thought he would have to splice it together out of shorter pieces but it turned out the last door was enough shorter that the one he had cut too short was just right for it. He said “I’d rather be lucky than good anyday. Now when it comes to working on trim he is very good but that doesn’t take away from the pleasure we feel when something we did that seemed to be a mistake works out in the end.

In any case, I was reminded of this saying this morning. We are in Aurora Illinois “grandparent-sitting” with Tammye & the kids while Chris is away on a supervisory training course related to his new job as a Sergeant on the Aurora police force.

This morning while we were having coffee on the deck before Tammye left for work I said “So do you have any repairs or fix-up projects that I could do for you while I’m here?”. She said that their oven still wasn’t working. When we were here in February Chris said he thought it was the ignitor but he had gotten a new one and put it in and it still wasn’t working.

Now I am fairly good at troubleshooting and repairing appliances as long as it doesn’t get too deeply into the electronics. However; I don’t have much experience with gas appliances. So I started to look at it. Without getting into too much detail the first lucky move was that I decided to pull it out from the wall to see if I could see anything there. It turns out that these appliances are generally designed to be serviced from the front so I might not have done that if I was “good” with gas. The second piece of luck was that when I saw there wasn’t anything back there I decided we might as well clean the floor before putting it back. The third piece of luck was that while I was doing that I found this little small plastic handle that Linda looked at and saw writing that said ”Off when down”. The 4th piece of luck was that there was an envelop taped to the back that had a schematic showing how the oven igniter worked and showed a picture of an oven gas shutoff valve that had a small handle to turn it on and off.

I located this valve by removing the oven drawer and sure enough the handle was missing. It is a spring loaded valve so it had closed which explained why the oven wouldn't light. The tough part was that it in the back corner at the top. I could barely get my hands on it and I couldn’t see it and touch it at the same time.

If I had been “good” I probably would have disconnected the gas lines and removed the part but I really didn’t want to do that. So I came up with this scheme of using a loop of fishing line to pull the valve out so I return the handle to the slot in the valve. After about 5 tries, 15 minutes later I managed to drop the handle into place. The oven is now working fine and so I say along with Mark “I’d rather be lucky than good any day.”

We made good time on the trip yesterday despite a slow start --We left house shortly after one and pulled out of the US side of the bridge plaza onto I-75 an hour later(This is a distance of less than 5 miles we usually expect it to take 15 to 20 minutes. The US border checks had traffic backed up well over half way across the bridge although once we got there we were waved past with very little delay. We arrived here 8 hours after we got on I-75 which is about 30 minutes less than average so it worked out. Probably most of the time was gained because we didn’t stop to eat – we grabbed some wraps at Subway and took turns driving while the other ate. But the other thing was that the usual traffic jams along the south end of Lake Michigan and on the Tri-state didn’t materialize.

The expanded I-Pass lanes at the tool booths really seem to be helping on the Tri-state. Of course the incentive of charging twice as much for cash as that for those using the I-pass transponders has really increased the use of automated toll collection which means a much smaller number of vehicles that need to even slow down . For us out-of towner’s it has doubled our cost to use I-294 & I-88 but we have little choice unless we want to spend 3 hours in stop & go traffic .instead of 45 minutes on the toll road.

So were we lucky on the trip or not? I’m not so sure—in fact I wonder sometimes what luck really means – when things don’t work – even when there is a strong ”causal” relationships to our choices or our “clumsiness” we blame it on “bad” luck. When things go well we may either take credit because of our “brilliance” or we may say it was ”good luck” or we may credit it to God's looking out for us. What do others think – Do you feel lucky?

God Bless
Charlie & Linda

Another week

Well we are (more or less) done with our classroom project. There is some trim left and we need to clean it up after that is done. Linda has really added her decorative flair to making these rooms look bright & cheerful places to be – they were pretty dungy & grungy when we started. I’ll put up some pictures eventually.

We went to Thessalon yesterday to help celebrate Linda’s Mom’s 82nd birthday which is actually on Monday. Two of Linda's sisters, their husbands and some of the grandchildren and great grandchildren were there as well. Only a small fraction of the total crew since Linda is the oldest in a family of 10. I was recruited to hang a hummingbird feeder and several wind chimes that hadn’t gotten done since the move to town last fall,

We are doing a presentation on our Pascagoula mission for the young people this a.m.

We are off to Chicago area (Aurora Ill) to stay with Tammye & the kids while Chris is off on a course. We will be back on Saturday,

That’s all I have time for now

Cgod Bless
Charlie & Linda

Surprises

Life is full of surprises. This seems to have been particularly true of my life over the past couples of days – Of course it was also full of a lot of predictable things too but that’s not as much fun to write about.

If you have been reading (Is anyone reading – I wouldn’t mind some comments – even if you hate what I’m saying? For a while I could display the location of visitors and that at least gave me some idea but I have had to remove that because the person providing the software could no longer do it. I have tried to make it easy to comment by allowing anyone to comment but I would ask that you NOT use the anonymous option – I like to know who’s “out there” – Well enough whining about what I want and lets get back to the surprises. )

If you have been reading , you may know that Linda & I have been working on this project to redecorate several classrooms in the church building along with several other people.

Surprise 1: We were there working Tuesday morning when our friend Russ Ward showed up to work at installing trim. He was expecting Mark Seeler to be there and he was surprised when Mark wasn’t there. He went ahead anyhow and finished off several runs of molding around the ceiling – with a little help from Linda & I.

Surprise 2: We were there putting up a wallpaper border in one room – a surprise to me. I’m a project manager in a former life and I know that nailing down scope and preventing scope creep is critical to getting things done on time and within budget. Linda is very creative and she isn’t done until it looks right – which means we ended up painting a lot of things I hadn’t counted on and doing things like borders and curtains that she didn’t know were needed when we started. That’s OK because my job was to help her get the rooms done to her satisfaction so “scope creep” wasn’t a major priority (although I do grumble about it a little).

Surprise 3: Another in this series of surprises came Tuesday evening when we dropped by to put up some window decorations and discovered that Mark Seeler was there working wondering what had happened to Russ. Obviously they had communicated well on the day but somehow missed on the time, So again Linda & I helped a little between doing the things we were there to do.

Surprise 4: Roger & Sandra are doing the painting and other decorations in one of the rooms. . We had pre-painted the trim before it was installed leaving only a small amount of touch-up to do later. Since we were nearly out of paint Roger had gotten another quart to paint some bulletin board frames. He used that quart to do touch up on the baseboard in “their” room – and he got an unpleasant surprise. It turned out that the tint was off and the touchup stood out like the proverbial “sore thumb”. This morning I went back to the paint store to get that remedied. (since I was the one who had originally made the purchases). (They admitted that the color was off and replaced it with the correct tint) and Sandra re-did the touch-up this evening after Bible Study. – so the baseboard is now 100% complete.

Well – building projects are always full of suprises so not much new here – a couple of other unrelated surprises – one good – one not so good”

Wedding photos – 15 years later. Linda had discovered a film a few months ago that had “exposed” written on the outside. We had put it aside intending to take it to be developed but for whatever reason hadn’t done it. This week she had another film to get developed and we happened to remember the “mystery” film so we took it as well. I went to pick them up this morning and you might imagine my surprise when I discovered it was pictures of Chris & Tammye’s wedding taken in November 1991. As best we can tell it must have been from Tammye’s camera and was accidentally left in a drawer here in the rush they had getting ready to leave for the Dominican republic – No not on their honeymoon. They were married on November 9 and left November 11 for a 2 year assignment as house parents in a residential school for trouble (North American) teens. There was a picture of Linda’s Dad who had passed away in 1995 and Tammye’s Dad who passed away several years ago. Quite a nostalgia trip ---

Vehicles that break: I wasn’t to pleased with the fact that I had a gas smell and a warning light (Check engine) on the car. I took it in yesterday and it appears that there is a problem with the gasoline "evaporation" system. This is supposed to a closed systems that maintains a vacuum to avoid fumes from escaping into the atmosphere – I have been fighting this problem for over 2 years and have had the tank replaced and other work done – and spent a fortune. Latest work was done last fall and I hoped that was the end of it. It now appears that something else has failed in that same system or that one of the previous repairs didn’t last very long – Makes you want to cry. As if that wasn’t bad enough to-day I had gone to pick up Dad at the store - where he had gone following his Wednesday p.m. bowling and when I was going into his parking lot with the truck I heard a loud “clunk” – When I got back on the street I had a severe “wobble” in the front end. I was able to get home by driving very slowly – There is nothing obviously broken but I suspect that a broken universal joint in the “drive shaft” that transfers power to the front wheel.

I hope there are no more surprises on this front for a while.

A couple of closing notes.

Linda went back to the dentist today to allow them to try (for the 4th time) to fit a replacement dental bridge that has been in progress since January. And it FIT!! –she was relieved about that. The bad news is that they had just sent the metal framework to be sure it was right – they now have to add the ceramic covering and bake it on – hopefully nothing goes wrong in that process.

I have mentioned Mark & Sharon Seeler before (Mark I’ve mentioned above) They sent this note out to-day “Please keep Kurt and Roxy Picker in your prayers at this time. Kurt is the minister at Grace Chapel Church of Christ in Atlanta, GA (which the Seeler’s attended before moving here last fall – CW). He and his wife were seriously injured in a motorcycle accident last night while traveling on their 30th wedding anniversary in the North Carolina area.

God Bless
Charlie & Linda

Monday – A good day today

Sunday morning Roger was away attending a 60th birthday party for his uncle Steve May. Steve is a long tome friend of ours who preaches at the church in Sundridge Ontario. Anyhow, I filled in for Roger – my sermon was based on our experiences in March in Pascagoula. – using this opening paragraph of Dicken’s Tale of 2 cities to lead to some contrasts that I perceived in the pre- and post- Katrina attitudes of (some of) the Christians I had met there.

Sunday p.m. we had our usual LIFE group study looking at how we can encourage one another through “random acts of kindness”. It was a good time of sharing and I learned some interesting things about people I have known for years.

However, despite these good things, I really didn’t have a very good day. Friday I shared that I was in a slump. I don’t know about anyone else but it continues to amaze me that I can know it is happening. I can think through logically what I need to do to “turn it around”, I can even do those things and yet it is almost inevitable that I have to really “crash and burn” before I can get back on the road and those closest to me – particularly Linda end up bearing the brunt of my angst (That’s odd I just tried to look angst up in the dictionary to be sure it meant what I thought and I couldn’t find it. – ah well it will have to mean what I want it to mean and I hope it means the same thing to you!!).

Anyhow, my anxiety and tendency to respond angrily to minor events continued through the weekend. It came to a head Sunday night and the storm has now passed. I‘m now “normal” again (although my normal leaves a lot of room for God to work on me). I have concluded that the “root cause” this time was that I’m still working through the “grieving” process of giving up my work life to move into retirement. I said to a friend that, as much as people tell you that you that retirement can be like losing a loved one – I didn’t really believe it until I’ve started to experience it. I think I’ve been in denial and now the reality is coming home.
I have talked about the need to “re-invent” myself but I haven’t really worked out what this new way of living is really all about. Perhaps that is a good metaphor for our Christian walk.

I do know that the answer to working through these “ditches” in my life comes when I finally turn it over to Him and stop trying to fix it myself. Of course God gave us intelligence, directions for living and that ability to make choices – so turning it over to him doesn’t mean lying down in a corner and saying OK God – fix it. – but it also doesn’t mean that I have to figure it out all on my own and be perfect in how I react to every situation. His grace and forgiveness is there when I mess it up. It is that confidence in His love that ultimately provides me with the power to turn away from anger & despair and to return with Paul to “being content no matter what life throws at me” (paraphrase of Philippians 4).

So Monday, Linda & I decided we should each take the day to do what we wanted to do for ourselves and finish the painting later in the week. I had heard about the need for drivers to take seniors to/from doctor’s appointments or shopping. and I had an appointment at the Red Cross to complete the application process so I did that.

On my way home I stopped by to see my Dad. My Mom & he were married May 29, 1937 and spent 62 years together before she died in 1999. So I wanted to spend some time with him because it is a day when he misses her a lot. I was going to take him golfing but he had already been out with his friend Don and it was hot (I see from John Dobbs blog that it was in the 90’s in Mississippi yesterday) – well we hit the high 80’s.

Instead of golf, I had him come over for the latter part of the afternoon and we played cribbage – for once I actually beat him 2 games straight. Usually, he wins them all. I grilled some pork chops and roasted some potatoes on the BBQ and with Linda’s coaching prepared the rest of our dinner. After dinner, Goldie , Morris & Debbie dropped by – they were in the Sault for some reason – I think in part that they too wanted to spend some time with Dad.

Linda spent a good part of the morning shopping at Value Village – it turned out to be 50% off and she had a ball and came home with a bunch of small stuff -pictures, yard ornaments, etc. some for home and some to decorate the classrooms at the building. She ran into my sister-in-law Marilyn and had lunch with her at Swiss Chalet.

I also had time in the early afternoon to get caught up on a bunch of small things – doing my household chores, dealing with an income tax issue, cleaning up some backlogged email. Overall it was a very good day – despite the fact that there were a couple of distressing things that I encountered.

Kyle Lansdell who has been working part-time as youth minister and my nephew Ken had driven a group of young people to Mackinaw Island for an outing on Sunday. They took bicycles so Kyle was driving his Dad’s truck. Ken was driving Rob’s van. They had a great time to-gether but unfortunately, as they were leaving the parking lot to come home Kyle got in a spot were he had to backup. Ken had been following him and had stopped behind him – well you guessed the truck hit the van and crunched the fender. (Ford’s are tough so no damage to the truck).

It was a tough thing for both Ken & Rob (Ken's Dad) to have something like that happen when they were doing a good thing – exacerbated by the fact that the van was almost new (and that last July 1 someone ran a stop sign and demolished it’s predecessor). I really felt sorry for all involved.

I also was able to make contact with a lady from our church who had been absent for a couple of weeks and discovered she had decided to go elsewhere. It is always sad when someone doesn’t feel their needs are being met and chooses to look elsewhere. I think honesty demands that we acknowledge that we have failed in some way in encouraging and supporting that individual. At the same time people are accountable for their own choices and we can’t control those choices. I pray that she keeps her focus on following Jesus and that she finds a group of Christians to meet with that can fill the part of her spiritual journey that she was apparently missing

God Bless
Charlie & Linda

A Birthday and some Anniversaries

This is a "catchup" posting covering some things I didn't get to last week.

You must be getting older when your youngest sibling has just turned 50. I mentioned before that I had made a trip to Beamsville May 13-15 – in part to travel with my brother Rob to a medical checkup but also to help my youngest brother Lawrence celebrate his 50th birthday on May 15.

My parents - Mervyn & Jean - brought 8 children into this world over an 18 year period from 1938 to 1956. -- 3 girls and 5 boys. I’m in the middle of the boys and in the middle 2 of the 8 (the middle of 8 is between 4 & 5 – so my younger sister Ruby and I – at numbers 4 & 5 -- are the middle children).

The picture, which was taken at the surprise party on his birthday, shows Lawrence (at the left) with his 2 sons (Mervyn) Lee and Gregory (at the back) and his wife Lily and our Dad in the front. His daughter Lene, her husband Bruce and granddaughter Kahlan live in Pampa TX so weren’t able to be there but they did call during the party to say a surprise second Happy Birthday (having already called earlier in the day to avoid creating suspicion that more was coming later).

We managed to completely surprise him by having a “fake” birthday gathering on Sunday at my sister Ruby’s house. The real reason was that it was Mother’s Day and since Rob, Dad & I, my oldest sister Goldie and her husband Morris were in the area – she had invited Lawrence's family and Goldie's son son James and his children Chris, Shaun & Sarah. -- 17 in total -- for Sunday dinner. Ruby’s husband Art was traveling and her youngest son was enroute to Papua New Guinea so it really wasn’t much of a Mother’s day rest for her. She said she was going to celebrate Mother’s day on Father’s day

Last Sunday was our monthly potluck at church. It also turned into a anniversary celebration to honor Ralph and Gladys Forfar on their 60th anniversary (May 24th.). At the same time, we acknowledged Richard & Ilse Herzog who celebrated their 59th anniversary on May 17 and my brother Rob & his wife Marilyn who celebrated their 27th on May 21.

Ralph & Gladys have been part of the Pinehill church for longer than I have been around the Sault (which goes back over 40 years). And the same is true of Richard & Ilse Herzog.

Both couples were supportive and helpful to me as a young man fresh from the country when I came to the “big” city in my late teens to work for a summer at the steel plant. They also befriended Linda (before we were married) when I was away at school and she was in Nursing training here in the Sault. We left the area after we married while I was finishing university studies. We moved to the Sault in 1974 and being a part of a church family with both these couples who have devoted their lives to serving God is a continual blessing.

Ralph was the person in charge of the young people’s class when I first here (in the early 60's)and he provided a lot of wisdom to a young man just starting out. He is a forester and he is now in his late 80’s but is still active planting trees. Gladys, for several years, collected stuffed animals, cleaned them and shipped them to the Dominican Republic. She has been less active recently due to various health problems.

Richard and Ilse came to Canada from Germany following WWII. They have been part of the church here ever since. They have set a standard of commitment to worship and service to the church that is difficult to match. Richard served as an elder for many years and he continues to minister in his song leading. Ilse was a Sunday school teacher and mentor to many ladies. She is well known for her hospitality having many friends and visitors into her home for superb German food. Her knowledge of the Bible is legendary. They both still spend a morning once every few weeks helping at the local soup kitchen.

Rob & Marilyn were married in Burnaby BC. Linda & I traveled to the wedding with our youngest (Melissa) as a babe in arms. Rob has worked at Algoma Steel since the early 70’s and plans to retire next year.

Marilyn is a school teacher and after raising their family has worked with Program Read – a literacy program for adults. Both Rob & Marilyn are active in the church. Rob has served as Treasurer for many years and Marilyn co-leads the Sunday school program and teaches most of the time.

Their son Ken is still at home. He graduated from Algoma University in Geography and returned to Sault College for a diploma in GIS but hasn't yet been sucessful in finding work in his field. Patricia (Trish) graduated from the Education program at Nipissing University last spring and is working (half days) with the kindergarten program that operates on the campus of Great Lakes Christian college in Beamsville. She works in a video store the rest of the time to earn enough to cover her living expenses.

It is a great thing to have a bother & sister-in-law so close by who share many of the same values and interests together.

Well that's a wrap on the "special ocassions" for now

God Bless
Charlie

Promises – Discipline, Focus & Balance (May 26)

It has been a week since I last posted an entry ….

This past Sunday Roger spoke on the part of the Sermon on the mount where Jesus said “Let your “yes be yes” and your “no be no”. He made the point that the underlying principle here was that God expects absolute honesty in all of our dealings. The people Jesus was speaking to had many practices to establish the degree to which they could be untruthful without being “liars” depending on the type of oath that was used. – and we do that today – "If I cross my fingers then I can fib".

Have you ever heard yourself say – “to be perfectly honest with you” or “to tell the truth”. Over the past couple of years I have tried to remove those phrases from my language. When I heard myself saying this, I would stop and say (something like) “Oops – That seems to be saying that I haven’t been being honest with you before and I want to be honest all the time so I’m going start over and drop that phrase). While I occasionally have failed in this, it has helped me to be more conscious of always being truthful so I wouldn’t have to come back and correct something later when the “stretching” of the truth becomes apparent. (which we cover up by saying “I didn’t really intend to say that” or “What I really meant to say was”)

The thrust of Roger’s lesson was that we should be so committed to being truthful and honest in all our dealings that any oath is unnecessary – rather than the lesson we often take which is that we shouldn’t use oaths. He also gave some practical approaches to help us deal with the reality that “telling the truth even when it hurts”. Things like being honest about the fact that we do struggle with truthfulness and being careful about our promises.

This brings me back to the beginning of this posting “It has been a week ..).

I could rationalize by saying I was too busy but the reality is that I was in a slump. There is a long-standing “bad habit” in my approach to life that has to deal with my ability to make and keep promises to myself (and others). I call it my “buffet table” approach to making promises. There are only a few people I know (my wife being one) who can go through the line at a church pot luck and only take as much as she needs and avoid the things that are really not good for you. My eyes are always bigger than my stomach (or at least bigger than what my stomach should be getting because I usually do eat it all!!).

My approach to work has always been that way. When someone says this needs to be done, I’m the first to say “I’ll do it” – and then the juggling begins – what is going to get done – what can I avoid – etc. etc. My favorite line for many years was “If it wasn’t for the last minute nothing would get done”. If I didn’t have a crisis of 3 or 4 things that had to be done “right now” I would put off starting stuff and “play around” with things that I didn’t have to do until things got so bad I couldn’t ignore them any more.

The reality with this approach was that my life was filled with never started, half done or poorly done projects although I worked hard enough and long enough under pressure to meet the commitments that were of most importance – those that would allow me to advance my career, those that would defuse a family crisis – etc . and I also became a good judge of who would and wouldn’t accept my lame “the dog ate my homework” type of excuses when things were late. One consequence of this was that I often spent more time on the "urgent things" rather than making time for the "important things"

Several years ago I met Terry Miller who is a consultant that I now consider to be a friend. Terry coached me about making and keeping promises – rather than trying to manage priorities. The basic idea was always know what you have on your plate and what it is going to take to fulfill those commitments. Focus on the actions that must be taken each day to meet those commitments and when you are looking at a new commitment only “pick it up and put it on your plate” if you can do it without interfering with other commitments. And if you can’t -- either say No! or, if that isn’t possible, renegotiate some other commitment to allow you to do it. This is a very powerful approach to dealing with life rather than the normal approach of the being stressed out by trying to juggle 10 balls when you are only capable of juggling 5.

When I had the discipline to manage my commitments (i.e. always ask can I do this and still meet my other promises?), kept focused on the daily review of all of the commitments and progress and took action to “renegotiate” when I could no longer meet some FUTURE commitment because “life happened” , I could keep balance in my life –

However, as I have often said there is a big difference between knowing and doing. It seemed that I just couldn’t stand success so, every so often, when it was working well, I would lose my discipline of managing commitments, start focusing on “today’s project” and I would lose my “balance” – things would begin to pile up, deadlines would be missed. My reaction was to make it even worse by spending time on frivolous things like TV or computer games rather than biting the bullet and doing the work needed to get back into balance. I would get depressed and moody and stressed often without really knowing why. Eventually - usually when I was really in trouble, I would finally recognize what happened, pull out Terry’s notes or give him a call and get myself back on track.

Well, that is what has been going on this past week. The church painting project took more time than I thought it would. I wasn’t watching my commitments and a bunch of small things started to pile up, I had a sermon to prepare for Sunday because Roger was away and I just stopped doing anything useful when we weren’t at the church painting. That included the blog (which may be questionable as a useful activity but it is part of a commitment I have made to myself because I find it helpful to write these things down and I hope that there may be some value to others who may read this.)

To-day I’m in the process of regaining my balance. I’ve written out the list of commitments --- I’ve sorted out which ones I need to change and I have done the Nike thing (jo do it!) on a bunch of small things. There is less clutter and more reality in the current list – Life is good.

God Bless
Charlie

Watching paint dry (May 17-18)

When we went to Pascagoula our first big project was painting the Kelly house. I remarked then that this was one of my least favorite things. Well, somehow that seems to be where God is leading us right now. We have been occupied the past several with a painting project. I’m working on saying “Oh boy more painting - my favorite thing (you might have to go back to my entry about Max Lucado’s lesson - around April 2 - to get this.

We are painting over paneling, which has required that we do a “high adherence” primer first followed by a finish coat. There are also several doorways and doors to (re)paint.

Wednesday we took a break from 1 to 4:30 in order to go to the funeral home. It was a long line but we were able to express our support for Guy (Chris’ friend) and Mike Case. Since our house was a second home for Guy for several years, we felt like he was a part of our family. It was good to see him even if only for a few moments. He lives in the Ottawa area now and doesn’t get back to the Sault very often. We got his telephone number and passed it on to Chris.

Wednesday evening we kept painting until just before services – so we went to Bible study in our paint clothes – partly to illustrate that in certain circumstances being there may be more important than the clothes you are wearing but mostly because we wanted to finish the primer coat on the 2 rooms we were working on.

Wednesday was the 59th wedding anniversary for Richard & Ilse Herzog and it is also Ilse birthday. They brought cakes and other deserts to have a celebration with their church friends. They said this was the European way – and although they have been in Canada for well over 50 years they still retina a lot of their German traditions and heritage.

Anyhow in the past 2 days we have painted 2 classrooms at the church building and Linda has put wallpaper around the top 2 ft of the one room (it has a 10 ft ceiling). We plan to finish the 2 rooms to-day and the doors. I was talking to Russ Ward last evening. He & Mark Seeler are hoping to install some trim on Saturday so we will need to be sure that the trim is painted as well.

Anyhow – while it may not be quite as bad as “watching paint dry" :) :) (humor intended) not a lot of excitement in our lives – although we have experienced that range of “weeping with those that weep” “and “rejoicing with those that rejoice”.

God Bless
Charlie & Linda

Tragedy

I returned from my trip to Beamsville (near St. Catherines/Niagara Falls) and Toronto last evening. I was traveling with my brother Rob and my Dad. There were 2 purposes for the trip – one was that Rob had an annual checkup for a medical condition that requires consultation with a specialist in Toronto. he was told (what I would guess is the thing you want to hear in a situation like this) “Nothing has changed – come back again next year”.

The second reason was that my youngest sibling – my brother Lawrence turned 50 on Monday and we had a chance to be a part of 2 different birthday celebrations – one Sunday and one Monday. I have some pictures and other details of that that I hope to cover another time.

It was a bit difficult not being home on Mother’s day. Don Smith at Beamsville preached a touching mother's day sermon and that made it more difficult for me to be awy from the mother of my children. Don quoted the passage about "Igo to prepare a pace for you - in my house there are many mansions ,,,: (not an exact quote) which had been one of my mother's favoorite passages and was used at her funeral. This brought tears to my eyes and my Dad was overcome with tears in thinking of here.

Linda was alone for much of the day – she had had a busy week and was looking for a quiet afternoon after doing her class Sunday morning. It was quieter than she expected. Saturday evening I had called to let her know I’d arrived safely at my sister Ruby’s place in Beamsville and in the course of dealing with taking good from the oven she had changed phones and left one of the hook. She didn’t discover it until late afternoon when she decided to call her mother after waiting patiently for a couple of hours for her kids to call.
She said it was quite amazing that she had barely got on the phone with her mother when one after the other of the kids called (we have call waiting so she was able to let them know she was here and then called them back).

I was speaking to Arlene King at services in Beamsville on Sunday morning. Her husband Byron is the son of Jack & Barb King who are part of our church family here in the Sault. Byron drives transport and, when I asked Arlene about him, she said he had called her that morning from the Sault area and that he had had to detour around the scene of a serious accident that had happened early Sunday morning.

When I got back to Ruby’s place I went on the Sootoday site to see if there were any references to this. I discovered that a Sault Ste. Marie police officer had been killed in a horrific collision at one of the major intersections in the city. I got more information on Monday the Sault Star online. This was the first time in the 150 year history of policing in Sault Ste Marie that an officer had been killed in the line of duty.

Of course this event was shocking to us. The Soo is a relatively small town (80,000) and it is rare when these tragic events occur that we don’t know someone who knows someone … who is directly involved. Of course events involving police officers always give us pause because Chris is a policeman. When I arrive d home last evening I was reading more about the accident and we also saw the obituary notice – and discovered 2 connections that brought this event even closer to home.

First he was the brother-in-law of Paula Case. Paula’s husband Mike attends Pine hill and they are the parents of Vanessa (who I had mentioned recently. She has just had a baby and Linda has been providing her some advice). But the stronger connection is that the officer’s brother Guy was Chris’ best friend for several years and was best man at Chris’ wedding. We called Chris to let him know and he was very shaken by it.
This is very much one of those situations that are difficult to understand. The lady driving the other vehicle was intoxicated and has been charged with a number of criminal offences. So we have 2 families whose lives have been turned upside down. The issues of bad choices and innocent choices that lead to this event doesn’t change the reality of the pain that is being felt and the brokenness of the lives involved. We pray that God’s love can be felt and received into healing those hurts.

God Bless
Charlie & Linda-

Why not me?

Seems like I’m down to doing this every other day. Partly because there isn’t that much happening in my life and partly because I’m having problems with my “free” high speed internet – I guess I’ll have to break down and upgrade to something more dependable.

I was also experiencing "car repair" shock -- we had a noise in our front wheel so I took it to Art my long time mechanic. It was a bad wheel bearing and that along with a couple of other things he found ( a battery post that fell apart when they were checking th ecable, and a brake line that "broke when it was touched" added up to a bill that was north of $800. Again I was thankful that these things were discovered in the shop rather than having left me stranded on the highway .

These "fortuitous" discoveries and my “near miss” (this is what the industrial people call a “close call”) when I barely avoided serious injury (Tuesday) and our "alls well that ends well" incident with the BBB on March 29 in San Antonio has had me thinking about how we are thankful that God has protected us – and I am – and I believe he does.

However, I’m more impressed by the faith of those who praise God for his gifts when sudden tragic events cause death or serious injury, when someone has to go through the horrors of serious illnesses, . I am in awe of those who remain strong in their faith and are convinced even in those “bad times” that God is protecting them and holding them in his arms

But it leaves me with a “weird” thought. Why is it that some people seem to be “Teflon coated” and while they may have some “close calls” they avoid the real tragedies. (I’m almost afraid to say this and have an irresistible urge to “knock on wood”) but I feel I fit in this category). I have lived over 60 years – doing a lot of stupid things – and haven’t had so much as a broken bone. The love of my life is similarly blessed and our 3 children and 3 grandchildren have so far escaped any real serious events. Others I know have had multiple accidents, serious crippling illnesses, are wheelchair bound – have had deaths and other tragedies. I know that it isn’t so much about what happens to us here as it is about our relationship with God – but it still raises questions. Most of the discussion and writing deals with “Why do bad things happen to good people?” – My question is “Why do other people of the same (or less) “goodness” escape bad things?”.

I think the best answer to both questions is “I don’t know – God knows and our job is to be thankful and praise him no matter what – and to trust that he will work good from the good and from the bad. I don’t believe that God is “arbitrarily” deciding OK I’ll keep Charlie from harm but I’ll let John suffer – that seems inconsistent with his promises to love us and be merciful. So we all were born with certain DNA and we all have made many life choices that bring us to the point riding behind a truck that backs up or buying a motorhome with a defective ball joint – what is God’s role in that outcome – the best I can come is that he may influence the timing and detailed choices to shape the outcome to allows the most good to occur in his kingdom.

Does this bother anyone else? Am I asking the wrong questions? (Actually I suspect this is also true – finding answers is often based on asking the right questions).

Enough rambling for today.

I’m accompanying my brother to Toronto area this weekend so probably won’t post again until I’m back next Wednesday.

God Bless
Charlie

Choices & Consequences (May 8-9)

So far (with one exception – I’ll get to that later) it has been a quiet week doing chores around the house and running errands. Linda has been gone all day helping Tracy with the twins and I’ve been getting a taste of what it must have been like for her when I was away at work all day and she was doing the “keeping the home fires burning” thing.

My Dad called Monday morning and asked me to go golfing with him since it was predicted to be the nicest day of the week. So I was out doing that Monday p.m. – with “Whitfield rules” (several Mulligans and a half dozen “free drops” and lots of “gimmees” on the green) I was under a 100 on 18 holes – but it is an easy course mostly par 3 so that’s still nothing to brag about. Dad still beat me. However, the valuable thing was spending the time with him.

So here’s the “exception” – Ever make a snap decision that turned out to be very stupid in hindsight. Tuesday morning I was riding my bike in to Sandro’s for breakfast with Roger - I was headed for the walkway along the side to chain the bike to a post. As I came in there was a guy parked (parallel with nothing in front of him) along the side blocking the access. I was going to go around the front of the truck when I noticed that he had just gotten in and had started the truck. Thinking he was going to pull forward I swung in behind to go onto to the walkway – You’ve probably guessed – he started backing up. I was yelling loudly – trying to stop and get out of the way – I (and the bike) ended up flat on the ground behind the truck. Fortunately the driver heard my yelling and saw my hands flailing and stopped. The bike wasn't damaged and neither was I but the consequences could have been much worse and I was really thankful to God for protecting me from serious harm.

Anyhow that incident got me wondering about how many times we make similar choices and don’t even realize how much danger we are placing ourselves in because the consequences aren’t immediate or obvious. I think this is especially true in the life choices we make that affect our relationship with God. I hope that a “close call” from a poorly thought out choice will (once again) remind me of the importance of thinking ahead to possible consequences when making choices – and that this is as true of small daily choices -- as it is of the “big” choices about life.

I’m also having some challenges really living by the words of Jesus to “seek the kingdom first and all these things will be given as well” – Part of the problem is that my list of “needed things” is much larger than the “food, clothing & shelter” list that Jesus seems to have been focusing on and part of it is that I really haven’t completely adjusted to the reduced income in retirement – which has been gradual since, for the first 2 years, I had some “residual” income from work and other sources that is no longer there. This is on my mind because my laptop (purchased slightly over 1 year ago) is acting up and our 10 year old car is making noises that require a visit to the garage - both of these things have the potential of destroying my budget for this year. However, I am looking back at the message we heard from Max Lucado about being thankful and I am thankful that I have both a car and a laptop. I am thankful that there hasn’t been catastrophic failures and in the case of the laptop I’m thankful that it has forced me to make a backup CD of the more important files. And (oh how silly I am to compain) I’m thankful that I have a second computer (desktop) to use while the laptop is in the shop. Finally I'm thankful because this is going to force me to move back to my office for the more "heavy duty" work on the computer which will be much better for my health (posture) . I want to say – ohboy another problem – my favorite thing – but I’m not quite there yet.

Have a good week and God Bless
Charlie

Family ties (May 5-7)

The rest of Friday was uneventful. We went to the church building and took measurements for the rooms. We went to Value Village where Linda looked around for some curtain materials for the classroom we are redecorating and then to the paint store to get pricing for the paint – Sunday I did a preliminary work plan & “budget” estimate for review at the progress update meeting. This week I need to finalize the work plan and get some materials to be ready for Saturday’s work day.

Sharon Valli dropped in for a short visit on her way home from the university. Her husband Pauli has had to work out of town for the past several years and they are counting the days until he can retire in 2 years.

Saturday was fairly cool which was good because I spent most of the day inside - I finished the Powerpoint and notes for our Pascagoula presentation Sunday night. I cleaned up some email. I have a separate account for Algoma University and it was backlogged since I’m not teaching right now I don’t check it every day.

Linda had been talking to her sister-in-law June about the new Robin Williams movie “RV” and she called Saturday asking if we wanted to go out to dinner and then to the movie. We went out to Harmony beach (30 miles north on Hwy 17) to have smelts These are a small fish (4 to 6 inches) are caught in nets at the mouth of rivers as the head upstream to spawn— having an annual feed of fried smelt is a bit of a tradition in the north – although we hadn’t done this for many years. Unfortunately, the batch of smelts we got were “sour” and we ended up having whitefish instead – the movie was funny – how could it not be with Robin Williams in it -- with an theme that promoted personal integrity and family values. Of course the RV “incidents” were extreme but we could relate to many of them from our experiences. We had some great laughs at some of the sequences.

It had been several years since we had been to a movie theatre and many more years since we had spent time with Terry and June other than at Goodmurphy family events.

Sunday morning we went to services. Roger spoke on God’s view of marriage – based on Jesus comments regarding divorce in Matt 5. After service one couple shared their intent to be married in June and invited the congregation to attend. We pray that with God’s help they can build the type of marriage that is “until death do us part”.

Sunday evening we presented our report on our trip to Pascagoula to give the people here some understanding of what the people on the Gulf coast were dealing with. We also shared our belief that this was something of value to us in our faith journey- strengthening our understanding of it being “more blessed to give than receive” and our understanding that the measure of our love for God is demonstrated by loving and having compassion on others in need.

Linda had also told June about our Sunday night presentation while helping her with the twins last week and June had said that maybe she & Terry would come to that. Unfortunately, Linda, at the time they were talking Linda thought we were doing it during the fellowship time at 7:00 following the evening assembly. Because we were out Saturday night and they hadn’t mentioned it Linda thought they wouldn’t come and so we hadn’t let them know it was really at 6. SWouldn't you know .. they showed up at 7 and missed the presentation – we will have them over sometime soon and give them a private viewing. In any case, they were there for lunch and Terry had a chance to visit with some of the people he knows So one consequence of the “twins” has been a chance to get to visit Terry & June more times in the past week that we usually do in a year.

Well its another week – Linda will be busy with the twins and I have a long list of things to do so I need to get at it.

Confession is good for the soul?

Linda had a bad day yesterday (Thursday) . She woke up with a severe pain in her upper back (rib cage) – not sure what caused it. Perhaps she stretched a muscle working in the yard on Wednesday. In any case, she was not able to do much all day. She was sufficiently recovered to go and help June (her sister-in-law) baby-sit Tracy’s twins and her 4)year old Riley. She said it was a busytimeeven with the 2of them there. Tracy & Travis went out with some friends to a smelt fry near Harmony (its a Norther thing, eh?)

I know I have a number of bad habits. Habits that are non-productive and harmful to being who I want to be. Yesterday, I ended up going on a “binge” of playing free cell on the computer. It started innocently enough – Linda & I are doing a presentation at the church Sunday night to report on our Katrina work in Pascagoula. Since she wasn’t up for working outside and it was a little cool, I started making up the Powerpoint and wanted some pictures from the INTERNET – but my connection was flaky so this was taking a long time and I thought I would play while waiting. I hit a game that was difficult and I just couldn’t let it go until got it – which took several hours - so the presentation didn’t get done.

I enjoy doing games & puzzles as a means of exercising my brain but when they divert me from doing the things that need to be done it is “not a good thing ”. Linda says I’m addicted to these things and perhaps it is true – at least it allows me to better understand the “loss of control” that causes those with more serious addictions to ruin their health, bodies and relationships in pursuit of some thing – whether it be drugs, alcohol, work, pornography..Regardless of whether it is a mild addiction or just a bad habit the saying is that “confession is good for the soul” so I’m hoping that this disclosure will help me avoid these excesses in the future.

I did spend a couple of hours cleaning up some more leaves—we are getting there ---

In the evening I went and helped my Dad fill in his census form – May 16 is Canadian census day. I discovered that we were “lucky” because we got a short form – Dad had a long form - I guess they randomly do that to get stats on income and other things related to the life patterns of the Canadian population.

Last night I thought “All in all, not much to ‘write home abouttoday’ and told myself – based on the immortal words from ‘Gone with the wind’ -- ‘Tomorrow’s another day’

This morning did get off to a better start – I was up earlier and had some “quiet time” – I finally got at least some of the stuff I wanted for the Katrina presentation and made good progress on that. Linda was feeling much better and we spent sometime planning our day and doing our daily Bible reading .

My friend Russ Ward had called last night wanting to know I he could use my truck to pickup some building materials. He came by around 9:30, we had coffee and talked for a while then made the run to Home depot to get his stuff. It was great to spend some time with him catching up on the things that are going on in his life.
Friday’s are the day that Linda & I call “our day” – we avoid making (many) outside commitments and we look for things to dotogether—today we are going to the church building to do some work on her classroom – removing snowflakes and replacing them with butterflies—and working out more details on our project to paint classrooms before the VBS in June.

Hope you have a great Friday and weekend
God Bless
Charlie & Linda

Blog pourri

I am relatively new to this world of writing a (potentially) public journal using a web log or blog . I have a couple of preachers that I can thank (or blame) depending on what you think of this - Roger for suggesting it in the first place and John Dobbs for pointing me to the tools to use and then encouraging me to keep on. I mention this because I like this ability to share both the “mundane” things of day to day living and the (hopefully) more important thoughts I have on how to capture the promise that Jesus made when he said he had come so that we might have life and have it more abundantly. (John 10:9-11 KJV). However, I'm also not always sure what to include and what to leave behind.

This morning I thought I would have a quick look at a couple of other blogs that I had found through John’s Hope Remains. I dropped in on Mike Cope - and found an interesting commentary (May 2nd post) from a book dealing with a Christian view of Sex, Love & marriage (not necessarily in that order.)

Caution: The rest of these blog references are written by preachers and generally deal with church related topics—particularly aimed at those who are attend “churches of Christ”.

I visited Marvin Phillips and read his report on the Tulsa soulwinning workshop. –Then I went to Gary Kirkendal who I had heard speak when we were in Pascagoula in March. I stumbled into a passionate dialog related to his “At Our Wits End” post for April 27th and the associated comments . I ended up putting in my 50 cents worth. (That’s 2 cents with inflation!!) and then moved onto a related discussion on Danny Dodd’s blog about why preachers abandon their “roots”and move to other groups or become “shoe salesmen” (I also heard Danny speak when we were in Pascagoula) – couldn’t help myself so I weighed in on that discussion as well. This was an interesting (to me) “blog tour”. I’ll have to do it again soon – when I can afford to get “lost in cyperspace” for a couple of hours. Which won’t be for a day or two.—likely more if my partner has any influence and she does!!!

Rest of the day was spent working with Linda in our backyard. We have lots of trees and the leaves from last fall had been used to cover the flower beds – we spent to-day cleaning out and bagging most of these – I have over a dozen full bags of leaves in the garage to haul to dump at the local composting operation tomorrow.

We called and talked to Camdyn because today was REALLY her birthday – we had celebrated early when we were there in April (see post for April 21 or thereabouts)

I did take a break around lunch to do some email while Linda was off visiting Vanessa and “mentoring” her on mothering her new baby.

This evening we went to our Wednesday Bible study and after had coffee at Tim Horton’s with Roger and Sandra - nominally to talk about what was needed to prepare class rooms for the half day” VBS” that is being planned for June. We did cover a few other topics as well!!

Filled the car with gas on the way home and it took $80 –a record!! Wasn’t that long ago that it had to be bone dry to get $40 into it—but we are thankful we have a car to put gas into.

God Bless
Charlie & Linda