Tuesday, May 31, 2005
Identity Crisis!
Four days after becoming a Senior Citizen (of sorts) I boarded a (school) bus for a five hour trip with 40 teen-agers (and a few adults) to a weekend youth conference in Edmonton. There at "YC 2005" some sixteen thousand young people were gathered in Rexall Place, the colliseum where Wayne Gretsky used to play hockey (there's a statue of him holding up the Stanley Cup outside). Soon the places was vibrating with loud music, and louder kids. I appreciated the worship band but the other singing groups (like Delerious , Tree 63, and Audio Adrenaline) were a little (no, a lot) too loud for me. Earplugs helped but they could stop my body from vibrating with the booming bass sounds. Then they ended the conference with Toby Mac! His rap style took "loud" to another level. (And I think I caught about five words of what he said!) My recomendation: get the Gaither Vocal Band next year!
The speakers, Miles McPherson and Mike Pilavachki, were right on. Several hundred kids came to Christ the first evening. Everyone was challenged to go deeper in our relationship with Christ. Sunday morning the call came to stand if we were willing to do anything for God (including crawling across broken glass to get to someone with the gospel). Mile P. did not make it easy, yet a good number of young people and leaders responded.
Back on the practical side of the weekend. I spent two nights in a Holiday Inn room with 3 young guys. Friday night allowed for five hours sleep. Saturday night was (a little) better and I got about six. I thought the kids would be dead on the ride home, but they wern't! I finally got back into my own bed at 1:30 a.m. and still made it it work by 8:00, dragging one hind leg! I think I'm getting too old for this, but apparently God doesn't. I must say it was a blessing to be involved, to be able to pray with (and for) various people and to meet a number of old friends at the conference!
The speakers, Miles McPherson and Mike Pilavachki, were right on. Several hundred kids came to Christ the first evening. Everyone was challenged to go deeper in our relationship with Christ. Sunday morning the call came to stand if we were willing to do anything for God (including crawling across broken glass to get to someone with the gospel). Mile P. did not make it easy, yet a good number of young people and leaders responded.
Back on the practical side of the weekend. I spent two nights in a Holiday Inn room with 3 young guys. Friday night allowed for five hours sleep. Saturday night was (a little) better and I got about six. I thought the kids would be dead on the ride home, but they wern't! I finally got back into my own bed at 1:30 a.m. and still made it it work by 8:00, dragging one hind leg! I think I'm getting too old for this, but apparently God doesn't. I must say it was a blessing to be involved, to be able to pray with (and for) various people and to meet a number of old friends at the conference!
Sunday, May 22, 2005
Renovations Begin
From the outside our house looks very normal, except for the dark green oversized dumpster you can see on the right side of the photo. The next several pictures show a much different story. The man doing the demolition part of the renovations is from our church. He has a business called "Alberta Disaster Services" that does reclaimation work after floods and fires, etc.
The garage looks well-used. Both Ron and I have been using it. The motorcycle in the corner is Ron's. He bought it just befoe he went tree planting. The stack of tires are the winter tires I got from Dad Smith. I just took them off the truck. This part of the house will see very little change during the renovations.
Our kitchen as it now appears. The cupboards are completely gone. You can see the pipes where the sink once was.The blackened ceiling and the 1 by 4's on the walls still have to be taken down. The green thing visible through the window is the dumpster outside.
Our living room in the midst of demolition! The carpet and drywall (Gyprock) have been removed. All the strapping has to be removed from the walls and ceiling and the insulation taken out. The room you can see into in the far corner is the master bedroom. Eventually the windows will be replaced too.
To everything there is a season,
A time for every purpose under heaven: ...
A time to break down,
And a time to build up.
(Ecclesiastes 2:1,3b)
The bathroom looks worse that an outhouse! The toilet and vanity are already removed!
The bathroom from another angle. The tub has to go. No more soot baths! :)
Our freshly mowed back yard as seen from our deck. The trees are a nice feature.The signs of life and growth around the house are God's encouragement to us that the things inside will be renewed too. Our contractor says he can be done by August first, which is two weeks before we have to be out of our temporary home.
God brings order out of chaos. (See Genesis 1:2ff) And He created us human beings, especially men, to do the same.(Genesis 1:26-28). To that end He gives us strength to clean up, build, rebuild, and restore things in our lives. So we trust our loving Creator as we move ahead with the situations of life, such as the one Colleen and I face right now.
Friday, May 20, 2005
The Pinnicle Of Life
In three days my brother Ted will be standing on the top of the next hill in the road of life. At age 40, people identified him with the "over the hill gang!" Well, since then he's been through the valley and up the next hill. But now he's reached the pinnicle of life.
What is it? That magic age, douple nickles, the earliest of milestones when a person begins to be considered as a "senior." Well, he's about to go breezing by that mile-post on his way to the next. On the downward slope those next markers wizz past quicker and quicker! And they just get bigger and more foreboding: 60, 65, 70,75, 80, 100. "One hundred?" Well that's still almost another lifetime away!
By now you've probably figured out that Ted is not the only one streeking past mile marker "55." Yep, he and I were born on May 23, 1950. Right in the middle of the previous century. Many years before the Internet. Before CDs, Even before cassetes (and 8 track tapes--remember them?). Before computers. Before Watergate. Before the Viet Nam War. Before man (supposidly) landed on the Moon. Before Sputnik. Before the Beatles. Before Elvis. Even before Television! (But not before the neuclear age had started.)
In 1950 Mom brought her identical twin sons back to a home that did not have a telephone, electriity, or running water. It was heated with a simple wood and coal stove which was also used for cooking. The Mail box was two and a half miles away. And the nearest grocery store was 20 miles away via dirt roads. The trip took an hour, one way, back then. And Dad farmed 250 acres of land with a little 18 horse power tractor and a team of horses. Frotunately all our meat, milk, eggs, potatoes, and veggies were produced within a few yards of the house! Our family lived poor in many ways, but we ate like kings. Steak on a weekday evening was not uncommon. But things like pop and candy bars were rare. Ice cream cones showed up at places like the country store we sometimes visited or the annual "Farmer's Day" picnic.
Enough reminnising! I thank my LORD for giving me 55 good and healthy years. I've survived pneumonia at age 10, and falling in the river at age 11. And at age 40 I survived a serious accident that landed the tail end of our van in the same river (about 50 miles further down stream). (Suzanne was with me.) And I've survived many more miles on the road and in the air. Praise the Lord. And He's allowed me to go to some exotic places and see some amazing things like the world's greatest amusement park, the world's largest airplane, the world's largest mall (many times), travelling on a winter road across a large lake and an ever larger northern deseret, going a mile below ground, flying over a glacier (under low cloud and between two mountains) and many other ordinary, and extra-ordinary things. In our travels around the nouth west corner of our continent, Colleen and I (and sometimes our children as well) have witnessed the wonder of God's creation by seeing Moose, Deer, Elk, Antelope, Black Bear, Grizzly Bear, Eagles, Mountain Sheep, and Mountain Goats in the wild! But one of the greatest wonders has been seeing my grandson grow into a hansome young lad of six. (Oops, here I am reminnissing again.) Yet the greatest joy has been helping a few people along the way to find faith in Christ and/or grow into more mature children of our Heavenly Father. God is good!
What is it? That magic age, douple nickles, the earliest of milestones when a person begins to be considered as a "senior." Well, he's about to go breezing by that mile-post on his way to the next. On the downward slope those next markers wizz past quicker and quicker! And they just get bigger and more foreboding: 60, 65, 70,75, 80, 100. "One hundred?" Well that's still almost another lifetime away!
By now you've probably figured out that Ted is not the only one streeking past mile marker "55." Yep, he and I were born on May 23, 1950. Right in the middle of the previous century. Many years before the Internet. Before CDs, Even before cassetes (and 8 track tapes--remember them?). Before computers. Before Watergate. Before the Viet Nam War. Before man (supposidly) landed on the Moon. Before Sputnik. Before the Beatles. Before Elvis. Even before Television! (But not before the neuclear age had started.)
In 1950 Mom brought her identical twin sons back to a home that did not have a telephone, electriity, or running water. It was heated with a simple wood and coal stove which was also used for cooking. The Mail box was two and a half miles away. And the nearest grocery store was 20 miles away via dirt roads. The trip took an hour, one way, back then. And Dad farmed 250 acres of land with a little 18 horse power tractor and a team of horses. Frotunately all our meat, milk, eggs, potatoes, and veggies were produced within a few yards of the house! Our family lived poor in many ways, but we ate like kings. Steak on a weekday evening was not uncommon. But things like pop and candy bars were rare. Ice cream cones showed up at places like the country store we sometimes visited or the annual "Farmer's Day" picnic.
Enough reminnising! I thank my LORD for giving me 55 good and healthy years. I've survived pneumonia at age 10, and falling in the river at age 11. And at age 40 I survived a serious accident that landed the tail end of our van in the same river (about 50 miles further down stream). (Suzanne was with me.) And I've survived many more miles on the road and in the air. Praise the Lord. And He's allowed me to go to some exotic places and see some amazing things like the world's greatest amusement park, the world's largest airplane, the world's largest mall (many times), travelling on a winter road across a large lake and an ever larger northern deseret, going a mile below ground, flying over a glacier (under low cloud and between two mountains) and many other ordinary, and extra-ordinary things. In our travels around the nouth west corner of our continent, Colleen and I (and sometimes our children as well) have witnessed the wonder of God's creation by seeing Moose, Deer, Elk, Antelope, Black Bear, Grizzly Bear, Eagles, Mountain Sheep, and Mountain Goats in the wild! But one of the greatest wonders has been seeing my grandson grow into a hansome young lad of six. (Oops, here I am reminnissing again.) Yet the greatest joy has been helping a few people along the way to find faith in Christ and/or grow into more mature children of our Heavenly Father. God is good!
Friday, May 06, 2005
Our Temporary Home
This is the trailer down the street that will be out home for the summer. It was a guys residence up until now. It was moved here for that purpose about seven years ago.
It did not feel like home until we got our "stuff" in it and the living room and dining area set up. Then the empty double wide did not seem like home ay more. We also put about a quarter of our stuff in storage in a building that the Bible college has.
The next day I had a hard time finding things. I said to myself: "We finally have a house but we cannot live in it. And we have all this stuff but we can't find it!" It makes me appreciate what we do have (and can find). And it also causes me to reflect on where our real home and our real treasures are. "Even so, come Lord Jesus!"
The Trailer from another angle. The building behind it is half men's dorm and half classroom space. (About a third of each building is visible in this photo.
