Growing older, growing wiser?

It’s hard to believe that our little girl, Emily, turned 10 yesterday! It hardly seems like yesterday that I was failing to keep up with an ambulance on the road from North Battleford to Saskatoon, where she was born all those years ago. I wasn’t able to keep up with it and I also found myself initially at the wrong hospital, but I did get there eventually with lots of time to spare, missing none of the excitement.

People always say that their kids grow up too fast, but you can’t keep them young and small forever. It seems already that she has a phone attached to her ear. In the morning before she goes to school we often feel that we are just her answering service! I just hope that as she continues to grow up that we will be there to help and support her as she makes the many decisions she will have to make, just as my parents were for me growing up.

She’s having an all-girl pyjama party tonight, so Cameron and I are heading for Sudbury for a guys night out. The last thing she wants is her little brother crashing her party, so we’ll make sure we’re gone for the evening. By the way, last week Cameron decided that he wanted his own blog, so he set up ‘may the force be with you’ which can be found on the links at the right or just click here. Check it out and give him some encouragement. He promises to update it this weekend.

The Remaining

We had a teen worship band, The Remaining,  from Sault Ste Marie at our place today to lead us in our Sunday gathering. We started off with a spaghetti lunch and once it was cleared away we got right into a time of worship. The place was rocking. The band has only been together for 13 weeks and are aged from 14-18, but it seemed like they had been together for longer than that. A couple of young ladies from the group shared some thoughts, along with some of their story, and left us with the challenge to get out of our comfort zone and find ways of connecting our respective generations with Jesus and the Good News of the Gospel. We plan to have them back again for sure.

Some pictures and video here.

Just beginning

So, it’s been almost a week since we had the grand opening of our new location in Elliot Lake. I figured I should share an update, so here it is.

It took just about a year from the date of purchase to the date of occupation and there were times, I have to admit, when I doubted it would happen. Red tape and regulations can wear you down after a while. But all of that is behind us now and we are finally in the place. The above sign greets you as you enter the building and it is our hope that people will stop referring to our space as the church or God’s house. Our old building had a sign that said ‘Welcome to the House of the Lord’ above the door and I hated it, but, for reasons that don’t really matter now, we were not able to remove it. So instead it remains where it is and has not followed us to the new place.

The place was buzzing last Saturday, beyond what we hoped or imagined, and many people from the community of all ages came to check us out. Quite a few came back for our worship celebration on Saturday evening, as well as having a few new faces for our Sunday lunchtime gathering. We decided to make some major changes to our Sunday ‘thing’. We now gather for lunch at 11.30am and get into some worship round about 12.45pm. We are hoping that this will help people get to know each other and lead to a better sense of community. We are also going to use our space during the week as a drop-in centre/cafe/hangout kind of spot and we’ll see how that develops as we encourage people to think beyond ’Sunday-go-to-church-Christianity’. We’re finding that lots of people from other fellowships want to be part of the drop-in/community thing, so we’re stressing that our building is more about community than SA building, so everyone is welcome to come and be part of what is happening without having to give up being a part of their particular fellowship.

Our biggest challenge now is not to fall back on the patterns of the past, but to keep on the path down which we believe God is leading us. We’ve been here almost 8 years, but it seems like it’s all just beginning. Looking forward to the next 8!

P.S. If you are interested in seeing some pictures from the opening click here.

Almost there!

It’s been a long process, but we are almost ready to start using our new building. I just got back from the final inspection and there are just a few minor issues to be dealt with, but none of them will hinder us in the moving in process. We should be ready to go with the grand opening on Saturday 23 May. It’s taken a year, but we always kept in our minds the fact that at some point we would be able to move in and use it. That moment has finally come. The next two weeks will be quite hectic, I imagine, but definitely worthwhile.

Staying put

Today was the day in the SA in Canada/Bermuda when officers would find out whether or not they are moving or not this year. We are not and happily enter year 9 of our time here in Elliot Lake. We are very happy with this as we are just in the middle of a time of great transition which we want to continue to be involved in. Added to that, I found out that one of my best friends from college days has been appointed (along with his family) to Sault Ste Marie. They’ve been in Flin Flon for the past 9 years, so we haven’t seen much of them recently. We look forward to lots of catching up.

If the moves are something that interest you click here.

Some random thoughts

The current economic situation should bring us freedom and simplicity, but for the people that I work for it seems to be bringing a barricading in mentality.

A cold shower first thing in the morning can be a good thing, but it’s not best if it is spraying out of the back of the toilet.

I dislike being told that I ‘have to participate’ in something that I believe is not good for me or for those around me.

The one good thing about the Leafs always missing the play-offs is that it frees up my evenings after the first week of April.

Reading books can seriously challenge one’s complacency and that’s what I like the most about it.

If I’d known what I know now, I may not have chosen the path that I did, but did I really have a choice at the time?

‘Unknown Caller’ is one of the best U2 songs ever.

It all boils down to ‘Love God and love your neighbour as yourself’. Without that nothing else really matters or makes a difference.

Happy Easter!

Spine Beach - Easter 2009

I managed to get up in time this morning to head down to one of the local beaches for a sunrise service at 6.40am, which was led by the local United Church. It was a bit chilly, but there was no wind, so it was a fairly pleasant morning. About 30 of us huddled together and shared in song and prayer as we celebrated our risen Lord. If we’d wanted, we could’ve literally still walked on the water today. We then all headed back to the United Church for some well-appreciated coffee, hot cross buns and Finnish bread. It was a great start to the day and by the time I got home the rest of the family were up and had some freshly baked croissants waiting for me.

This morning was our final gathering in our present location. We were expecting it to be fairly low key, as we knew there were a few who would be away for Easter. To our surprise the place was fairly packed and it was a very uplifting time of sharing together for the last time on Dieppe Ave. During the sharing time there was a good mixture of memories, Easter experiences and hopes for the future. Then most people just hung around and fellowshipped over coffee, tea, cake, vegetables and cookies.

Our new location is not ready yet, but we felt that Easter Sunday would be a good time to bring our present location and what we do there to an end. We might be able to gather in our new place on the first Sunday of May, if all goes according to plan. If not then we will definitely be fully moved in before the grand opening on May23. Some people have been worried about what to do in the next few weeks as far as getting together goes. In response a few people have offered their houses for informal gatherings over the next few weeks. This will hopefully give people a taste of the informal more ‘organic’ type of gatherings that we hope to have in our new place, where we hope to move towards a model of the ‘priesthood of all believers’ that goes beyond the talk to actual practice.

Wherever you are, whatever you are doing, however you celebrate, I trust that you have a blessed and happy Easter.

A question?

Earlier this week I was given cause, by an English friend of mine, to reflect upon an ethics paper I wrote a couple of years ago on the topic of same-sex marriage. Having reflected upon what I wrote, I feel that my approach to the topic was fairly compassionate and, hopefully, in line with the way in which Jesus would have his followers live in this world today.

As I thought about this topic again, it got me thinking about how unfortunate and sad it is that the two hot-button topics (same-sex partnerships and abortion) that seem to define Christianity in the minds of the general public are things that didn’t seem to be on Jesus’ mind as he ministered on this earth almost 2,000 years ago. So my question is this:

Why, as Christians, have we allowed two seemingly non-issues in the mind of Jesus paint a distorted picture of what is supposed to be the greatest message of love ever, ignoring very often the things that Jesus actually commanded us to do?

Priceless!

This is too funny:

Reunited with an old friend

The above CD and DVD arrived in the mail this past week and so I was reunited with an old friend. I have had this on vinyl for a number of years (it was released in the mid-80s), but nearly all my vinyl is thousands of miles away in Orkney at my folks’ house, so not so easy to access these days. For whatever reason it was only released on CD just over a year ago. I was finally able to get my hands on a copy, so I am well pleased.

If you’re a fan of the diversity that is David Byrne, or like small wind ensembles mixed with spoken word, then this CD is for you. If not, then you should try to check it out anyway. Who knows, you may enjoy it!

The following is probably my favourite track. The other tracks are available at YouTube as well. Enjoy: