Whatever He Says

Many years ago a friend asked me to go sailing with her. She was a member of the Toronto Sailing Club which would mean we would sail on Lake Ontario out of Queen's Quay. It was a wonderful opportunity because it was Canada Day and we would watch the fireworks from the water. I didn't know Jill really well. I was a Program Manager for a few programs at Christian Horizons and she was a nutritionist at, what is now, South Lake Regional Centre. We had got to know each other through work and developed a friendship from there. She had learned to sail a few years before our adventure and wasn't very experienced. I had sailed occasionally throughout my growing up years and wasn't experienced either. I had always sailed on calmer waters - on land-locked lakes or sheltered areas of Georgian Bay. I never had sailed recreationally on any of the great lakes, and had a smattering of knowledge on the basics. We met a group down there and they started divvying up persons to boats. The...

Saturday evening - just before leaving an unscheduled day of work. Dear praying friends, I am so grateful for your understanding and faithful prayer support. After working 12 emergency hours today, and leaning into Jesus' victory (which is already won!) , I have managed to stay just shy of the precipice that overlooks the bottomless pit of despair. It has been one of the toughest battles I've ever fought. In the last hour, God has revealed, finally, his plan for tomorrow. Today I was a good soldier - by his grace alone, trust me! I did end up having to work today but I refused to give up hope that I would be able to go to Dad's birthday celebration tomorrow, and I refused to let go of my joy in the middle of my shipwrecked plans for today. Only, I'm sure, because there was an army of people praying for me, including you. With a great amount of twisting around of peoples' lives and schedules, God has provided enough staff to cover the day tomorrow in the program wher...

by Susan Stewart L et us go up and take the land for we can surely do it! Numbers 13:30 Those were Caleb's words as he returned from scouting out the promised land. He chose to focus on the promises of God and his ability to bring them to fruition rather than on the size of the obstacles. He was confident in God's ability to bring them through, in spite of the negative voices around him. It's Friday night. I've had a really full week, both at work and at home. I spent an extra long day today, complicated by things like staffing shortages, sewage backups and one distraction (most of them legitimate) after another. The "to do" pile grew far larger today than it was yesterday. I've run out of places to stack things as the piles of paper threaten to overwhelm me. I think they are like Belinda's Amish friendship bread; they keep multiplying and I have no idea how! (I wish I could give some of them away to my friends like Belinda keeps doing.) It's been ...

Numbers 16:47-48 (The Message) The Message (MSG) Eugene H. Peterson 47-48 Aaron grabbed the censer, as directed by Moses, and ran into the midst of the congregation. The plague had already begun. He put burning incense into the censer and atoned for the people. He stood there between the living and the dead and stopped the plague. Paul and I are still slowly digesting Watchman Nee's little book, Sit, Walk, Stand , a tiny bit at a time over breakfast each morning. We must seem like very slow readers, but we want to absorb this teacher/preacher's thoughts and consider them well. We had just finished reading Watchman's words about the great legacy to the Church; the name of Jesus, in which we are invited to pray, when I read in the book of Numbers chapter 16, verses 47-48, the story of the plague that was judgement for the sins of the people and which was stopped when Aaron the priest, burned incense before the Lord and atoned for the people. The image of Aaron, standing b...

It is Tuesday--cell group evening--cell group without Paul who left on a business trip on Sunday; Paul who is the technical part of my brain. I push my way in through the front door, laden with rustling bags holding crusty Calabrese bread--fragrant and yeasty, a cake to celebrate a birthday—and a favourite ice cream—Iditarod. The butter chicken made the night before is soon on the stove warming, the rice heating in the microwave and green beans steaming. Darkly delicious coffee drips into the waiting glass carafe, redolent and promising. I wrestle the screen into submission, sweating with the unaccustomed effort of hoisting it on high. People begin to arrive. Laughter, plates clattering, cutlery distributed, many hands loading plates with plentiful food, spreading soft bread with pale yellow, salty butter. Latecomers arrive, they too gather plates of food and soon, replete, with coffee or cold drinks in hand, it is time for session 5 of the Alpha series. I tell the traditional Alpha op...

By Ang Cat It started in November. The Toronto Mass Choir came to our church. They are a gospel choir and they rocked the roof off in rambunctious Caribbean praise and soothed us with gentle waves of soulful worship. We danced and sang and praised our God and Savior~King, Jesus. At the end they announced that they would be having another Power Up workshop weekend in February, a time where participants go to learn different aspects of music and ultimately to learn to sing with a gospel choir. Well, we did. My friend Carolyn and I just came back from a romping, intense, dancing, shaking, laughing, learning, exhausting one of a kind weekend. Each of us attended different kinds of workshops ranging from Song Writing and Musicianship 101 to Hip Hop Dance. Yes my 41 year old friend went and pulled all her muscles trying to contort herself into different shapes as she leapt in the air and then spun on the floor. She is still limping. The prize of the whole weekend though was the time spent wi...

Paul always gets edgy when he’s going away. He is ready several hours early; bag packed, coat at the ready and his nervousness always rubs off on me. This time it’s almost time for him to leave and we have lunch before he goes. I feel like half of my brain is leaving; the half that knows how to turn on the T.V. and operate the array of 4 remote controls that lie on our coffee table. This is not a big problem. I can happily exist without T.V., but on Tuesday night at cell group there is a projector to operate. I’m definitely nervous about that. Author Malcolm Gladwell in his book, The Tipping Point, explains an interesting aspect of relationships; Transactive Memory. Although the words “transactive memory” don’t spring to mind the moment you think about intimate relationships, he says that this is part of what intimacy means and that couples, families and work groups form unspoken agreements about who will remember what. We don’t all need to know everything; we just need to know who kno...