October 13, 2003 · 11:02 pm

A long weekend Monday

Today was a quiet and sort of lazy day for me and I enjoyed every minute of it.  It is nice to have an extra day to the weekend.

This morning I started out with meeting with some friends to discuss the third chapter in Phillip Yancy’s book The Jesus I Never Knew  over breakfast.  It was good – both the breakfast and the time together. 

When I got back home it was almost noon and only Sara was home.  Her “boyfriend”  came over and they didn’t seem to need my company.  So I spent some time cleaning up some garden stuff and then decided to go out to the Little Red River Park for a hike through the woods.

The wind over the past week has pretty much stripped most of the leaves off the trees.  They were crunchy underfoot.  The colours are quickly changing from bright oranges and yellows to dull and dusty greys but the sky is clear and bright blue today and the temperatures are still warm.  Beautiful day to be out walking. 

I have posted some of my pictures of autumn under photos on my side bar.  Hope you enjoy them! 

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October 12, 2003 · 12:04 am

Thankfulness

 

I guess this will be the big theme for this weekend for us Canadians.  You Americans can pick it up later on when we are already gearing up for Christmas.    Our Wal Marts are just one step ahead of yours.

 

I don’t gush thankfulness.  Oh, there are times when I am full of thanks and it bubbles out but they are the times when some big event has just turned out as I would like it to.  Most of the time my thanks is for smaller more ordinary things.  The things that go on and make life what it is.  The things that give my life direction and meaning.

 

Just this morning, I was thankful for the sun on the golden leaves.  Thankful for the good cup of coffee in my hand as I watched the sun come up.  Thankful for the good nights sleep, a warm house and a comfortable and safe bed to sleep in.  For the place that I call home where I feel safe, where I can relax, where I can sit at my computer with it’s high speed access and communicate at ease across the globe. 

 

I’m thankful that I have family that are important to me and to whom I am important too.   I’m even thankful that they need me and feel at ease enough with me secure enough that I love them to unload some of their burdens on me.  And I am thankful that I can pass on their needs to God.  And that he listens to me and helps me carry whatever burdens I have picked up.

 

I am thankful for the work I have to do.  Not everyone has a career they enjoy.  Not everyone has seen God work through them as they practice their line of work seeing God use what I have to offer is a blessing indeed to be thankful for.

 

I am thankful for friends.  I am thankful for the mutual love and care we can give each other.   And I’m thankful that I can make new friends and that some friendships grow and become deep and meaningful.  I am thankful that I am married to my best friend and that our marriage is still full of love and mutual respect.

 

I am thankful for my senses and that all are still working adequately.  As I start to see the changes that age makes, the senses of sight and hearing, touch, smell and taste become more precious.  I can’t count on things lasting forever so I will be thankful for each day that I have them.  And every day that I can still think and react appropriately, I will be thankful for my mind; for the ability to learn new concepts and skills, for the pleasures of reading and listening to music and laughter at a good joke.

 

 The list could go on at length because there are so many things that I live with each day that I need to appreciate and give thanks for.  So many little things I live with and assume will go on and on when I know that they cannot.   So I will give thanks for each day I am given, for each moment of good health, for each moment when my mind is clear, for each moment when I can move around on my own, and in my times of distress, for each time when God shows me my utter dependence on him. 

 

I will thank God for his never ending provision of all I need. 

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October 11, 2003 · 3:01 pm

Look what I found

Checking out some links from Vivid, I came across this version of the Lords Prayer – in language only a post-modern could (might be able to) appreciate.  Thanks to Brianna at her site.

Let us Pray.

An Other who art in nothing
Narrative is thy (language) game
Thy societal construct is
No more or less real than any other
Give us this moment our perceptions
And deconstruct our stories
As we deconstruct those who out-narrate us
Lead us not into metanarrative
But deliver us from (un) reality
For thine is the societal construct
From interlude to interlude
Nihil

~Edward Green

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October 11, 2003 · 8:21 am

Thank You God For the Food

Kids are coming home for the long weekend.  At least some are.  Others have gone to special things far away and Leo is down south – visiting his brother, waiting to pick Grace up again and bring her home.

Here, we will head over to my dad and stepmom’s for Thanksgiving dinner on Sunday.  So I guess I will be going home to my parents too!

Kids come home carrying big loads sometimes.  Not just the dirty laundry either!  That I could deal with.  The emotional loads are a lot harder to deal with.  And I can’t just lug them off to the washer and get them all cleaned up.  Sometimes it is hard to even get them to open up their hampers of problems to help them sort it out.  Sometimes I don’t want them opening up their stinky hampers!  I just want a nice weekend.

Kids live complicated lives.  I wish I could help them to see things through brighter lenses.  But then I realize, I am probably not even looking at the same picture.  We are different generations and I will never understand some of what they see because it is unrecognizable from my angle.  Sometimes my angle is experience but sometimes it is just that I belong to an older culture and the world now is spinning more out of control.  It gives me a feeling of helplessness because I would like to fix things for them and I can’t.

God,

I wish I could do some of your work for you.

I see so many hurting people around

And you didn’t gift me with the powers

Of speech.  So

I stay silent.

But I see,

And I feel.

I hear them crying out

But am helpless

To help.

 

God,

Why does life have to dish out

Such inequitable portions?

The young and inexperienced ones

Get loaded down with

Depression,

Anxiety,

Stress.

Having their hopes,

Their dreams,

Crushed.

 

God,

I don’t like it but feel too old

To give advice, because I know

That I can’t fix it either.

You working out

Your plans

For them.

But God,

Give them

A vision, a sign

Of you.

 

And God,

Give me a vision again too.

I don’t like this starved feeling,

I need to feed with you too.

And I need

Extra

To share

With the kids

You’ve

Seated

Around my table.

 

Thank you God for the food.

 

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October 10, 2003 · 8:30 am

Scribbled Words

Wrote this a few days ago.  I find writing, especially poetry, to be a stress reliever, maybe because I can hope for what I wish to be.  So I share with you my

Scribbled Words

Lord,

Like an open book

Read my heart.

Remove the stains

Of lies spilled,

Of self will smudged

On the clean pages

Once given.

 

Take

The broken sentences,

Make them flow.

Correct the misspelled

Words.  Erase

The question marks

Where none should be.

Remove redundancies in me.

 

Create

From scribbled words

A poem, a song.

Let my living

Become a volume,

Bound in your grace,

Embossed with your name

As author.

 

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October 10, 2003 · 8:21 am

Frustrations

Last night Grace was injured in her soccer game.  Nothing serious – just pulled her Quads.  But that still makes for a sore leg.  She needs a few days to recuperate, but she is off to Calgary for a dance workshop which she has been anticipating for a long time. (and which we have already paid for!) She is very upset.  The trip is planned, she meets her cousin down in Moose Jaw for the ride to Calgary, and Leo has taken a half day off work to drive her down and then go visit his brother who lives down that way.

So she is going.  She has ice on her leg, lots of ice packs with her and a big tensor bandage, and a bottle of ibuprofen. 

Now she starts looking for her dance sneakers – no where to be found.  To me this is the most frustrating because it will bother me until they are found.  And we think she may have left them at dance on Wednesday.  They are not at our house whereever they are.  So I can see my day being a hectic search for the shoes in between my work seeing kids at the school dental program.

These are times when a mother needs extra patience and the wisdom of God to track down the missing shoes!

Update:  I arrived at the school and was informed that my morning would be shorter than anticipated – some special event going on.  So I had extra time to go over to the dance studio which does not open till 2 pm normally.  I had phoned and left a message earlier with no returned call.  However, I was hoping someone would be there.  I got there and a meeting was in progress and the dance instructor opened up the studio for me.  There were the shoes! 

Thank you God for small prayers answered.  Now for the bigger concerns… A good reminder that he is with me.  If he cares enough about the little stuff I can be sure he has the bigger stuff under his control.  This knowledge helps me get through the really tough days.

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October 9, 2003 · 6:15 am

Been Busy Lately?

If your reply to questions about how you are doing has been “busy” read this and slow down a bit.

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October 8, 2003 · 10:59 pm

Off to the Congo

I just finished one run from the soccer pitch at Prime Minister’s park to the Warehouse where Grace dances.  Poor Grace – she had to sit on the bench since she missed too many soccer practices.  She needed to be at dance by 5:00 and since Sara was still playing, I had to return to the field after dropping Grace off.  Then I ended up missing Sara who forgot that I was driving a borrowed vehicle and didn’t see me waiting. Then when I went to look for her, she and I missed each other. 

One of my first priorities tonight is to package up the grad photos and the recording of Patricks performance in June.  There is other stuff too that we are sending out with Greg as he heads off to the Congo tomorrow.

Greg was over at my office for a few minutes this afternoon with his mother who works for me.  We were giving him last minute advice about what to expect for meals when he gets there and reminding him to pack enough immodium.  I think he is a bit nervous and I know his mom is. 

Greg is going to get the full immersion version of intercultural experience.  He is going to live with the father of the boys who live with us.  Going into a culture that is going to be completely strange, and he is not going to have a bunch of back-up missionary staff support.  Just us at home praying for him and a good reliable and trustworthy contact person in Dr. Kongawi.  But the language is going to be a major barrier and I warned him that he is going to feel like a complete idiot reverting to not being able to communicate except through another person (Dr. Kongawi).  It is a humbling experience to be without language.

And then we have the little problem of the border with the Central African Republic and the Congo being closed to crossings at Zongo/Bangui.  Could use some prayer as he goes since he can fly in to the city of Gemena but it will cost and he has no surplus of funds to pay for a charter flight even from MAF(Missionary Aviation Fellowship).

I told Greg that if he experiences nothing else, he will experience God’s provision and he will learn to rely on God for that.

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October 8, 2003 · 10:27 pm

Sad News

There was a terrible accident yesterday on Hwy 55 just east of town.  A school bus stopped to let some kids off and a pulp haul truck failed to stop for the line up of four vehicles stopped behind the bus.  The semi pretty much went over the last car in the line-up and so died a woman, a friend of ours since we began working at the Co-operative Health Centre. 

She was just beginning her retirement after being active in launching many good community projects.  She worked with me as we set up the School Based Dental Pilot Project then went on to help start Child/Mothers Futures Project and other such programs as the Community Against Family Violence, etc.  She leaves behind a legacy of working to improve the social programs in our community.  She lived life well.

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October 7, 2003 · 10:55 pm

Patient of the Day

Sometimes kids amaze me.  All of the kids we saw today were just great.  Usually there is at least one screamer – but not today.  And that made the day almost blissful.

We would expect a child of 7 or 8 to be able to handle having a filling or two.  But todays winner of patient of the day had to be the three year old who sat in my big chair.  She was so tiny.  It is hard to believe that such a small little thing could have such big holes in her teeth. 

If a dental visit still lingers in your recent memory, do you remember having your lower jaw frozen?  Did you feel just a little pinch and maybe wince or jump just a little?  Not this kid!  She was still as a mouse.  She sat there and let us fix her up and there was not a peep out of her the whole time – for two big fillings. 

She was referred to me as a management problem!  Someone was frightened off by her age I suspect.

She now has two new pink “Twinky Star” fillings and a mother who must be very proud of her. 

So Randall next time you are trying to whip up your courage to come see me, try and follow the example of this little 3 year old  —  OK?

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