February 7, 2010
As a congregation we go to make and serve soup about every 6 weeks or so at the Salvation Army Outpost down on Central Avenue. Yesterday this was our responsibility again. MJ was there early making the soup. I got there at about 10 am. There are things to do ahead of time – buns to cut, butter and prepare. Tables to set up, coffee and juice to make. There were about nine of us – all ages pretty much – getting ready.
We served 150 or so bowls of soup. It was great soup too. I had a bowl myself sometime in the course of the day.
At some point in the process of serving bowls of soup, I sat down to chat with an older woman who had brought her own package of what looked like chicken strips and fries. Maybe she was just there for the coffee, who knows. But she was there and not a real part of the usual street people crowd. I made some small comments about the weather asking how she was doing, etc. Just small talk to say how are you.
She began to chat, telling me about her husband who was now up in a nursing home. Perhaps her own memory not so sharp any more since she couldn’t remember the name of it, just that it was by the hospital. She had children who “followed the Lord” going on some mission trip to someplace that she couldn’t remember either. She sort of rambled on for awhile and I found myself having to make a deliberate effort to give her my attention.
I wondered a bit if I should take my leave from her and get back to my business of serving soup but she seemed lonely and needing to talk. So I figured that talking to some lonely woman was at least as important at that moment as serving someone food. So we talked and as I finally got up to go back to work, she thanked me for the visit saying, “I don’t get to talk to someone very often. I’m just an old woman and most people don’t bother to be nice.”
That was my blessing for the day.
February 2, 2010
Thank God that my children are not total idiots like the young guy I saw today. He was squeezed into my full schedule as an emergency. Got in a fight Saturday in Edmonton. Says proudly that, yeah, he threw the first punch and the taxi driver is charging him. But he won – so he says.
Except he has a front tooth pushed back a few millimetres so that now he can’t really close his teeth together. And that tooth is (surprise, surprise) dead and needs a root canal and braces to realign it – or it will need to come out. Oh, yeah and a black eye.
His idea of winning is totally lost on me.
Sounds to me as if he is one big loser – or at least horribly lost.
Can’t help reflecting that this guy is so far from the kind of human being that I believe God intended any person to be. Evil comes in different forms but causing such human waste is part of how I see evil at work.
January 31, 2010
Things are getting a bit crazy but I am still here – up in my little study. Studying.
There has not been a lot of time for anything else although I am speaking this morning. Fortunately when one takes a seminary class, it provides lots of stuff to speak about. At least in this case when the class is about the missional church.
The class I start tomorrow may not – Old Testament I. It will be heavy on history and I am not a historian. However I have my own personal historian on site and I think he will like me asking him all sorts of questions.
I am also working to finish up my Greek class as quickly as possible to get it off my back. Three classes at once since I am still needing to write my term paper for the class I took in January.
I may not post very often. I won’t likely do anything much but study and work I guess.
On the bright side, Leo and I booked our flights for Europe this July. We are going. Belgium, Portugal, Spain, England. Hope we can do it all in 6 weeks. Toronto is on the list to visit as well on the way back.
January 21, 2010
I got this little bit of wisdom from Henri Nouwen this morning:
The Voice in the Garden of Solitude
Solitude is the garden for our hearts, which yearn for love. It is the place where our aloneness can bear fruit. It is the home for our restless bodies and anxious minds. Solitude, whether it is connected with a physical space or not, is essential for our spiritual lives. It is not an easy place to be, since we are so insecure and fearful that we are easily distracted by whatever promises immediate satisfaction. Solitude is not immediately satisfying, because in solitude we meet our demons, our addictions, our feelings of lust and anger, and our immense need for recognition and approval. But if we do not run away, we will meet there also the One who says, "Do not be afraid. I am with you, and I will guide you through the valley of darkness."
Let’s keep returning to our solitude.
This is where I am needing to go again. Into solitude.
Just seems that no matter where I go these days I take a little Greek voice in my head that repeats constantly, “You should be studying” (subjunctive mood by the way)
I need to finish this course so it will be silenced.
January 18, 2010
I got back from Chicago late last night. It was a long day of waits in airports starting at 2 pm and ending at about 2 am in the early hours of the morning.
Back at work this morning and it was a busy day, what with one assistant sick. At least my hand is almost back to normal – except if I push against the first knuckle just so – then it kind of gives out on me. But I can manage. And it is getting steadily better.
The day has been long and I am off to bed shortly. I am back at the studies – Greek and the Missional church and soon will have to add Old Testament to the mix. Got to get this Greek done, and the term paper for the missional class before I am overwhelmed.
And did I mention that I am tired?
Nite all.
January 13, 2010
One thing for sure, the kind of thinking required to do well in a seminary class is very different than the kind of linear, logical, technical thinking of dentistry.
And it is good, different as it should be, I suppose since the consideration of how we as Christians are sent out into the world is anything but technical. We have shared reading from texts, discussed the changing face of our world and neighbourhoods and listened to great teachers from a variety of backgrounds. We’ve spent hours preparing presentations of our own – for class on Friday – and that has been fun and challenging. Advertising – the “air we breathe” as one aspect of pop culture.
So my brain has been expanding – sometimes close to exploding. but the challenge to the grey matter is likely not harmful. It does take a few classes to get into the groove of a different way of thought.
Tonight I have been re-reading a booklet and writing my reflections into a paper due on Friday. The library is a great place to work. And there is internet. Of course, how can one work these days without it?
And the weather here – well it is probably better than travelling down to Florida – is fairly balmy and today the sun was shining. Of course we were all inside around tables and not outside in it. Such is the life of a student.
January 9, 2010
Made it to Toronto last night about midnight their time. The flight was good – not full, so I shared a seat with myself. Every introverts dream seating.
I watched a good Canadian made movie about a single mom from Palestine moving to the US – the challenges of moving to a new place with racial and religious prejudice. That helped the 3 hours pass faster. I also read one of the books I need to be up on for my course.
And my book promised for delivery by Jan 8 did not arrive by Jan 8, so I am short on the required reading. The joys of living in the boonies.
But anyway, I am sitting here in Rachelle and Asen’s living room while Ronin watches his new DVD and plays with his cars. He’s a good kid – let me sleep in his room last night on his comfy bed. It is fun to see him and his mom and dad too. This afternoon I will let Rachelle do a pedicure and manicure and all sorts of esthetic wonders on me as I visit her at work.
January 4, 2010
We learned the news tonight that a good friend died suddenly on Sunday night. Keith Fullerton was a spiritual father to Leo and I. He was our pastor in Saskatoon when we were students learning about life and faith and he was the pastor that sent us off to the Congo. You can read more about him here.
It has been good to keep in touch over the years, visiting when the occasion permitted. I guess it is a few years past now since we spent some time together in their home in Surrey. They gave my car with the broken window a safe place to sleep while we waited for the glass people to open on a Monday morning.
Keith was retired but not really. He was always busy serving in some capacity. I last saw him at Alive this fall. He continued to be down to earth, loving life and people and keeping up with current issues in theology. The term pastor suited him well.
Funerals never fall at convenient times and this next week is full of travel and study for me and travel and work for Leo so I doubt we will be able to go and celebrate his life with friends. My thoughts and prayers are with his family. We will all miss him but we will meet again.
January 2, 2010
It seems as if a strange phenomenon happens to me – when I get busier, I become more efficient. Therefore, I suppose I should look on the unexpected events of this week so much as an inconvenient imposition on my time maybe but more as a helpful impetus to efficiency.
One week from today I should be on my way to Chicago to take a J-Term intensive class at my denominations seminary. The class material looks good and the professor is an old colleague from the Congo. Well, actually, he is probably not “old” at least not exactly older than me but we have known each other for a considerable time. The class is entitled Pastoring the Missional Church. Even though I’m not likely to ever pastor a church in an institutional setting the material speaks of a subject that I feel a connection to – how to interact with the culture in which I find myself in ways that are consistent with the teachings of Christ; how to live out my faith in ways that demonstrate God’s love and care for the people I interact with. This I know is something I am called to even if the setting for me is uncertain now.
So, anyway, I have a lot of reading to do to get ready for the class and a couple of short papers to write reviewing the books.
On top of this, I have a Greek quiz to get done this weekend. So, this evening or tomorrow afternoon that is one thing I will be doing.
And then circumstances threw another big change into my schedule. Got a call on Tuesday that a space had opened up in a very nice home for my aunt but that we should either move her there on Thursday (New Years Eve) or next week. Since next week I have a full slate of patients and since this kind of a move involves a huge amount of time for paperwork and packing not available when I am working, I chose to get the move done this week. So far, the past three afternoons have been entirely taken up with this move and I expect today will be no different. But today should finish the move. I hope.
I have found that in spite of the full schedule things are getting accomplished. I don’t have a lot of time to just relax though and very little time to enjoy the outdoors like I was anticipating. But –37 C is a little cold for outdoor activities anyway, eh?
