There are many tasks I need to buckle down and work on the rest of this week. The sermon is coming but it has not come easily. The quiet in my house now that everyone has gone home is good but it is easy to procrastinate and otherwise find ways to waste time.
The computer is a great tool and also a great distraction.
I have a set of photos taken over Christmas posted at Flikr
Now back to work.
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Filed under church, Dealing with stuff, Photos, Worship events
This preaching gig (if one can call it a gig) has its rewards. It seems that if I speak my family lets me off from noon meal responsibilities. And lets me nap in the afternoon. Not bad. They don’t let me take a long nap or cook my meals after doing a good wisdom tooth extraction at the office.
Today we had a most delicious stew prepared by Rachelle. Venison, vegies and potatoes in a tomato based sauce. Very very good.
And a good nap is – well, always good. And after partying with my staff last night doubly good.
Yesterday we went on a sleigh ride with real horses in the absolutely freezing cold. We were all bundled up to an almost unrecognizable state. I am sorry I have no pictures of that!
I loved the smell of horse and the out of doors. It brought back memories of my dad. It was just the sort of thing he would have done and enjoyed. Funny how memories are triggered by smells and places.
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Filed under Christmas, church, Day to Day, Dental, Photos
We had a party tonight. It was our annual Family Advent Program with the usual astonishing talent and this year it was followed by a catered finger food (ie:wings and ribs and wraps and lots of sweet stuff) meal and games night. I think Pictionary was the biggest hit. We had a good evening together simply enjoying each other’s company.
And Roger had a great time – even caught up on reading the paper. I swear this is his favorite activity!
Among the musical greats doing their stuff was Massa with an animated version of one of the latest Lingala Christmas tunes,
the Vandersluys Family Singers,
And Meself trying my best to bow some tunes out of my new bass. (You can tell I am concentrating by the serious look I have.)
There are more pictures which I will post over on Flikr.
Filed under Christmas, church, Music, Photos, Worship events
Last night it ate my sermon!
Maybe I was just too tired but I accidentally hit the don’t save changes button when it asked.
I guess it is not really the fault of the computer – operator error. In other words, "How could I have been so dumb?"
So finally, I went to bed very late with the realization that I was not going to remember how to say the things I had seemed to put down on "paper" so clearly and actually slept. Till 4 am.
Now it is 6 and I have rewritten it and saved it. Now comes going over it. Revising. But at least I have the essence of what I need to say saved!
And I am going back to bed to sleep.
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Filed under church, Day to Day, Dealing with stuff, Writings
Today we said good bye to Meg. Meg joined us one Sunday following a joint Good Friday service just after she had moved to Prince Albert. That Good Friday our worship group was leading the music. I still remember the day. I was still pretty fresh at playing my recorder in public and was pretty nervous. We played one of Megs favorite songs and she came to check out our church the next Sunday and stayed.
Meg has given so much of herself to us at Gateway Covenant. She joined us on the worship team playing guitar. She’s participated in a small group. She has blessed us with speaking and she has shared with us her work with Wycliff as she has worked on the Cree translation. She has become a friend.
Now she is moving on – out to Nova Scotia and to another First Nations group – The Micmac people.
We really are going to miss her.
If I knew how I would cause this posting to have a bright purple background. Alas, I’m not that smart.
There have been too many of these good bye things these days.
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Filed under church
It was. And still has a bit to go before its over.
There was so much grief and sadness wrapped in with excitement and anticipation. The adventure of new things mixed in with the loss of the old ways and customary things.
Final – well not "final" is the true sense of the word but conclusive enough for now – goodbyes were said to the Friesen’s, Randall, Lauralea and Micah, as we all sort of hung around, not really wanting to be the ones to leave first. Maybe not so many tears were shed as just a sense of deep aching in the heart. These last ten years have been so good.
Beginnings took place as well. Marc begins his new adventure as our part time office /administrator/speaker on some Sunday’s person while we wait for a new pastor. He is going to do well. I appreciated what he said this morning. I think that means he is going to let God use him to take us along the next steps of the path. So this will be a good adventure with him and God.
I began teaching the youth class today as well. What a great bunch of youth. I am going to have a good time with them. We are exploring Spiritual Pathways together and the truth is that I will probably learn at least as much from them as I teach. So, this part is my little corner on the adventure too – as well as speaking about once a month.
In some ways today seemed a bit like spring – like the mother and father birds giving us the final nudge off the edge of the comfy nest, watching us spread our tiny little wings as we flap them furiously and begin flight on our own. The nice part is that there seems to be this updraft that is carrying us along. Our wings may be way too small for the job but we are helped along by a force way bigger than we are.
So, this is it. We are off and flying solo with a lot of help. And it is, I believe, going to be good.
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Filed under church, Dealing with stuff
It felt a bit weird having a church council meeting – with no pastor Randall. There was a void.
It felt weird to have him come in and fill us in on this weeks unexpected events that he is faithfully hanging around for and then have him leave and let us get on with our meeting.
It felt weird to launch out on our own into the discussions about the upcoming schedule, setting up a search committee for a new pastor, etc.
It sort of brings it home clearly that this church does not belong to the pastor, that we are the church and it belongs to God.
So here we go, launching off into the unknown, needing to discern so many things for the future.
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Filed under church
A couple of us still get together for early morning prayer at the church – Gatecrashers. It is early and some days hard to get there but I am always so glad when I do.
This morning was no different.
Good to be in the presence of God with a friend talking about the needs of our church, our friends, our families and bringing it all to God at the start of the day.
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Filed under church, Day to Day
We began reading the book The Real Mary by Scott McKnight. I think it will be a good book to read and discuss as a group of women. Sometimes our discussion wanders a ways from the original topic so we touched on everything from the humanity of Jesus to the Trinity. It was good to look back at the passages in Luke and Matthew and think about what the real Mary has to tell us about faith and trust. We have lots to learn from her and our challenges are not so big as hers must have been.
My challenge is to act as something of a leader. Sometimes I feel as if we go on wild goose chases. However, that must be a sign that we are free enough to ask questions – another topic we touched on – that God gave us minds that ask questions so that we should not be afraid to explore. Questions keep us from being sucked into taking another’s word as truth without understanding.
Now I am tired and tomorrow begins another busy week.
Good night all.
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Filed under church, Day to Day, Reading
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