I did not expect to wake up to this!

It is a good day for a Sabbath. 

Today the loop was smaller.  I had a traveller with me for the uphill ride this morning, another joined me in the afternoon and the rest of the day was mostly a breeze.  Getting an order of service ready seemed pretty tame. 

Tomorrow we head around another loop in this three week ride.  A long loop anticipated and the speeds may exceed that of Monday.  No, maybe nothing can beat that.

Its good.  Its exhausting.  It seems as if God shows up around every bend in his incredible ways. 

Now, if I didn’t have a long paper and a final exam looming in the next few weeks it would be perfect.

Today was about bleeding profusely.  Now some bleeding is normal after an extraction but it should not keep up for three days.  Everyone was quite concerned.  I was too.  And I was very happy that I had not done the surgery.  That had been the oral surgeons job. 

So I called him and got the usual advice about pressure, etc and packing the socket.  Stuff I already knew.  I was hoping for some magic trick.  Instead I did pretty much as advised.  Removed suture, packed and replaced suture. Perhaps it was the adrenalin in the local anaesthetic, maybe the tighter suture or even the firmly held pressure, but it did finally stop bleeding.

Then we went on with the rest of our backed up day.

It reminded me again of working in the Congo.  I learned the hard way to stop bleeding one night.  The extraction had been difficult and some tearing had occurred down on the inside of the last bottom molar.  It was nicely stitched back up but that night I got a call from the clinic nurse.   — was bleeding, please come.  So off I went  and by lamp light examined my patient.  Indeed there was blood!  The nurse set up an IV of saline. That time I also had to reapply sutures and lots of pressure.  I recall sitting there with my finger on the bleeding wound like the Dutch boy holding his finger in the leaking dike.  And praying.  For all I was worth.  And we all survived. 

Bleeding can be scary.  I learned to be very cautious if I had a lingual tear.  I learned that a patient can lose a significant quantity of blood from a tooth socket.  I learned that pressure can stop most any bleeding.  And I learned that God hangs around while I learn my lessons and lets me lean on him. 

And those scary lessons learned have over time transformed into confidence which lets me  in turn calm the anxieties of my patients.  Maturity has got to count for something.

Something about blogging just does not call to me like it used to. I guess that is just the way things go. I still enjoy reading the blogs of the friends I know here but even that I am not so faithful at. Forgive me.

Life has just gotten in the way and it has become less important to write about it than to spend time just doing it.

But still there is something about writing out the thoughts of my heart that I want to do. It is good for me to do too. So I will try and return here.

The focus may change. That is, you may get more contemplative thoughts. If I have them.

Less activities. Maybe I will get back to photos again since they record things I feel in a visual way.

Talk to you later – hopefully not a month from now. I’ll try and do better than that.

Yesterday I made a trip to Saskatoon for the White Coat Ceremony for the 2nd year students at the College of Dentistry.  This is basically a time before they begin treating live patients when they vow to practice their new profession ethically.  This year the first class of the college was invited to cloak the students since this is our 40th anniversary since graduating. 

As I pointed out to the other 6 of my classmates who were there, we left behind our own legacy, notably the “Boot Play” trophy which is still passed on to the student who makes the biggest gaff of the year.  Like we did – to the student who left us to join the Med students.  We had other disasters we celebrated later with much laughter – the gold crown getting its final polish that was sucked up into the vacuum system and the long hair that got entangled in the old belt driven slow speed handpiece.  Those were the days!

Our class were the pioneers, making do in temporary quarters, learning to improvise when we lacked some tool.  Good training.  As Jim said we were a “first class” first class.  Yesterday seven of us were there for the ceremony but all ten of us are living and the seven of us that were there still are practicing to some degree. 

I spent the rest of the day applying for a new passport, had supper with Sara and saw her new lodging – way out on the south end of Saskatoon – a place that did not exist the last time I drove south of town.  Then decided to spend the evening with Dave, Annette and kids; watched a movie and slept over. 

Which is why I was up and driving home when the sun came up.  I took advantage of a day with no fixed agenda to drive off the beaten track and snap the red sky as the sun came over the fields and forest.

Tomorrow the kids come home – except for Rachelle, Asen and Ronin (sigh).  They will be home in a couple of weeks though. 

We should be 22 around the table(s) tomorrow night.  Then we all will head over to the church for the candlelight Christmas Eve service.  Back home after for our gift opening.  We will be up very late I suspect.  Sunday morning we will (Leo and I at least) get up for a casual breakfast/Sunday/Christmas Day service.  It will be good to worship our Saviour with the other brave souls who venture out.

Then I will crash and just chill out the rest of the day.  If I get my way.

It would have been nice to have some snow for Christmas but they are predicting +2 or so and I suspect not much snow will remain.  Shouldn’t complain – better than –40.

Started cooking the meat for tourtiere and finished off my writing for the Advent Candle lighting tomorrow. Then a little ballerina arrived.  She was dressed all in pink and we began what ended up being a day spent together.  We all went out to choose trees and threw three of them on top of my little Matrix with the car top carriers.  Delivered them.  Went for lunch at McD’s and then for groceries.  Interesting, grocery shopping with a 3 year old.  She decided that she needed a bag of marshmallows.  She wanted to ride in the cart, then out of it, then hung on behind for awhile.  She held the list and we did manage to get everything on it and make it to church for music practice in time. 

At worship practice we were treated to an hour of interpretive dance and attempts to help Birdie play the organ.  Mrs. Birdie was most tolerant, bless her.

One week left till Christmas.  Lots left to do I’m afraid. 

Anyway, it is done.  Now I am free to do all the preparations I need to do before Christmas.  Tomorrow we go buy a tree and set that up.  I must take out my pork and get it ready for tourtiere.  There are many items on the grocery list to go shopping for.  And then I must sort out the gifts and see what I am still missing.  Leo’s arrived yesterday.  I do love on-line shopping.

Yesterday was a particularly good day at our house.  Rachelle called – she was promoted to manager of her store.  Sara got her acceptance letter to SAIT for Respiratory Therapy. Zaka came over for a sleep over and got to play Wii mini-golf with Grandpa and Nan.  Nan made his first ever foray into the world of haute cuisine – Brownies for his class potluck.  And I was putting the finishing touches on my paper.

Today, I am indulging in some of the many treats at the office as I write this.  Too many of those by far.  I hope I don’t gain too many pounds over the next two weeks.  I plan to enjoy those two weeks anyway.

Today at church we became aware of another worthwhile project.  Family Futures of Prince Albert is launching a fundraising project “Unto Us A Child Is Born.”  This is a program that gives support to  young mothers and children. Mothers with young children in need receive support so they can be better parents and understand better how to feed and nurture their children.  I can’t think of a better way to honour Christ on his birthday than to help children get a better start in life.  It is not a Christian organization however I think that when a group targets Christian churches as part of their fundraising and we respond generously we state loudly that we care for the least among us in Christ’s name. 

Another group with which I am involved is Fresh Start Ministries.  This is a compassionate ministry with the Nazarene Church but they gladly let others join them in reaching out to the hungry and homeless people of Prince Albert.  In fact I am chair of their board.  I know that we can use funds to help distribute hampers and small gifts to the homeless.  We are just a small organization but the opportunities for service to these people is huge.  If you need a good local charity to support send me an e-mail. 

These are just a few of the opportunities to get involved.  If they are not enough for you then get over to one of the groups that sponsors children overseas like World Vision or Compassion and send a little extra their way.

We already have enough stuff to put under our trees at Christmas time.  Lets spend some of our excessive wealth on others that really need it.

The Church planter conference that I am at – re:CALL – is as good as I expected.  Maybe better.  You can check out what is going on here.   I’ve been to workshops by Karen Wilk: Learning to Live in the Neighbourhood for Transformation and Shari Russell: First Nations and today I think I will attend the one by Christine Pohl: Recovering Hospitality as Christian Tradition.  Good stuff.

It been a really busy couple of days.  All the Covenant folks kind of hang out together too and that is great.  I do sort of feel a bit like the grandmother to this group – not that they make me feel old or anything.  It is really great to be with so many young leaders of the church.  Getting together with Marc and Dixie, LT(well he’s not Cov. but we like him) new folks from Ontario as well as the Winnipeg gang and other pastors from across Canada is always fun.  Jamie obligingly signed a copy of his book, The Cost of Community which I brought along  for that very reason.  I just wish I had more time to read the fun stuff they were selling on the table outside the meeting place!

I am anticipating enjoying the rest of my week as well.  I will be in ECCC board meetings for the next few days, then a committee meeting Saturday, will worship with the folks at Faith Covenant Sunday morning, at Little Flowers Sunday evening, run out to Otterburne to get the inside story on the trailer life of a seminary student.  I have to find some time to shop for a gift for my 4 year old grandaughter too since I miss her big party on Saturday.  In between all, I have to keep up with my class and start work on my exegesis paper. 

Life is good.  No shortage of things to do.