LineaLanoie's Weblog

Last night my sister and I were talking after supper, planning what we will do today.  She and her husband have gooten involved in the Sudanese community in Calgary through tutoring and through connections they made with Sudanese refugees while they spent their year in Eygypt. 

Right now they are planning for the trip to Calgary by a friend of theirs, Joseph (and I do not even know his last name); finding a place for all the Sudanese Christian communities in the city to meet and hear him and all the logistics that go with large gatherings of people.  Joseph is an Anglican pastor and is presently involved with the Sudanese governement at some level. 

Today I will get to meet some of her friends both Congolese and Sudanese.  I brought along a couple of dental mirrors to make myself useful, even though I can’t do anything more than just look. 

Last night she gave me a small booklet called 30 Days of Prayer for the Voiceless: addressing global issues of gender based injustice.  It is a little book bound to make a big impact.  You can’t even look at it without being affected.  She is going to give me a few copies and I will find some way to use them.  The organization Raise Their Voice has a website as well www.raisetheirvoice.wordpress.com   I encourage you to visit it but watch out – God may speak to you rather loudly through it.

Mother’s Day is just past.  I can’t think of a better way to honor women around the globe than to work for justice on behalf of the many voiceless women – women who don’t even know they are entitled to a voice.

I’m packed and ready to go.

My girls always refer to this weekend simply as "May Long"  In the past they have always felt a bit cheated if they didn’t get to do something fun – like go up to the lake with friends.  In actual fact, this is the one weekend of the year that no parent in Saskatchewan really wants their kids to take off to the lake with friends.  It seems each year there is a group of rowdy teens that trash one of the parks.  A pretty stupid thing to do.  Obviously the kids who take part in the vandalism are not in a deeply thinking state of mind.

But tomorrow morning I head off to Strathmore, AB with a car full of junior high kids or a bit older helpers for Jr High Jam, our church junior high retreat.  We will be packed into our vehicles about as tightly as can be but who wants to take more vehicles than needed with the price of gas as high as it is. 

If anyone’s legs cramp up, I’ll stop and let then run around the vehicle a few times and then on we will go. 

I think it will be a tiring but fun weekend.  The kids will have a good time.  And hopefully will learn some important things about God.  They may learn more in the car than at the retreat depending on the conversation and all. 

Sara is going with me.  She will get to see some cousins. I will get to see my sisters. 

My little sister turns the big 5-0 this year so we are going to have a sisterly get together.  We can compare our old husbands and other worn out parts we drag around with us.  We will eat something really good and have a good long talk.  We haven’t all been together since – well, I guess it was Dad’s funeral.  This occaision will be a bit more on the light side.  Should be fun. 

Sometimes my list of things I must do gets so long that it seems as if the end – well – I will never get there.  Problem is that as I check one more thing off the list, another seems to get added on to the other end.

Gotta find a way to stop that.

But that would mean saying "no" to a whole lot of things I still want to do.  And you know, there are only so many years left to work away at the list.

Last night I completed the paper and other requirements for the course I’m taking and sent them off via e-mail to the instructor.  She let me know that she got them today. 

So another step towards becoming a spiritual director is taken. 

I guess the paper, as much as I fret over getting it just right, is only a small part of the work involved.  The real work is takng place inside of me.  And this work will never be measured by a certificate achieved or passing grades.  The changes are mostly on the inside.  I want the changes to be profound and significant.  Mostly they are little and invisible.  But there are subtle changes God is working in me and I want to keep at it.  Even without a course, I don’t think I could trun back now. 

Next little project – stories for The Companion

You know when a guy is super comfortable with his identity – when he agrees to deliver his wife’s Avon orders to our office! 

The girls in the office tried to pry some advice out of him.  They were just wondering which makeup shades suited them best.  They thought the Avon guy should know these things.

Today the PA Strings played with the Saskatoon Symphony.

I didn’t realize how stressed I was about it till we got there and had to warm up with them.  Threee guys on big basses who are good.  And then us.  I guess I am the only real newcomer – first year person but these guys playing next to us were so good. 

It was quite the experience for Mother’s Day.  Can’t say I’ve ever had a Mother’s Day quite like it.

Now that it is over, I’m starved.  Good thing we are going out for supper.

Today the courier company actually returned my calls about me sink.  The poor sink.  They were sure that somehow we had not wanted to pay the UPS fee and were about to return MY SINK! 

We caught it in time. 

So, Monday or Tuesday it is to be delivered to Sand and Stone in Saskatoon.

We await the actual delivery.  With fear and trepidation.  I din’t know how difficult a delivery could be.