Salvogesis

  My parents took Susan, our kids and I on an Alaska cruise to celebrate their 60 th anniversary. It was great. We were able to see wonderful scenery in Glacier National Park and elsewhere. We were able to see whales – so many whales – and other wildlife. It was good celebrating with family. It was fun to do the activities on ship and explore Juneau, Skagway, and Ketchikan. The girls and I really enjoyed the trivia – especially music trivia - nights. We even won two of the contests and received plastic tulips as a prize! Heather and I were able to be part of a show in Skagway where they invited us up on stage. We also met some very interesting people – One lunch I sat with a lady from Japan who studied at Regent College in Vancouver and is currently working on her PHD on Malachi – she spent 10 years translating Bibles in Uzbekistan. It was certainly providential to have her sitting next to me at lunch one day. She told me how one of the Bible translators working with her, an Uzbek...

  Last year here I spoke about Human Trafficking and the workers at San Group. They said they paid between $20 000.00 and $30 000.00 to come here to work for a wage in excess of $30/hr. They said they never received that wage. They said they were subject to unsafe working conditions: working with toxic chemicals without proper protective gear, working long hours, many days in a row. They were afraid for themselves, and they were afraid for the safe transportation of their family. They showed us where they lived. They explained to us how they lived. They asked us to help them flee.   fifteen of the 16 workers were taken out of town to a secure Salvation Army facility in Victoria where they could have their physical, emotional and spiritual care needs met and where they could get the legal and other counsel that they needed.   The years prior I spoke here about our Emergency Disaster Services work and pointing people to salvation from natural disasters. This was really on m...

He humbles those who dwell on high, He lays the lofty city low; He levels it to the ground and casts it down to the dust. Feet trample it down— the feet of the oppressed, the footsteps of the poor. The path of the righteous is level; you, the Upright One, make the way of the righteous smooth. Yes, Lord, walking in the way of your laws, we wait for You; Your name and renown are the desire of our hearts. I think the humbling of the exalted and the uplifting of the humbled is important to Isaiah. We have chatted about its meaning previously: God wants to gather us close to him like a parent picking up his children, or even a farmer picking up soil or seeds or anything else he can hold in the palm of his hand that he loves. Sometimes, as the Lord is picking us up we have a desire to reach heights quicker or greater than He is lifting us at the moment and as a result we try to lift ourselves up; we leap from the Lord’s hands. When we do this, of course, we wind up falling to the ground. We ...

Isaiah 9:6-7a:   For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given:   and the government shall be upon his shoulder:   and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor,   The mighty God,   The everlasting Father,   The Prince of Peace.   Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end,     This was a verse that I had to memorize as a small child growing up on the Island here. It was my line in a church Christmas pageant many years ago. The Christmas pageants were always quite exciting and performing in them was always a little nerve-racking. The church was always filled to capacity – even the balconies and the lobbies were full. There were stage lights shining on us. There was a microphone in front of each of us as we spoke. With all of this going on it could be very difficult to remember your line. Thankfully, I did. And I still do. This memory verse has stayed w...

When we were stationed in Toronto, we participated in the Santa Shuffle, an annual fun race put on by The Salvation Army. Even Heather when she was very little participated and got a medal. I have been injured since the beginning of covid (hamstring and meniscus) but before then – off and on - since I was in my 30s, I have done a bit of running. When I lived in Vancouver, I faithfully ran every second day. I lived about 5km from my office – I used to run there and back. In Winnipeg I lived almost 10km from the College; a colleague and I did that run more than once. In Toronto I would run past the many Officers’ quarters regularly as we all seemed to live in the same area, and here in Port Alberni I even ran with Rebecca a bit before she moved and then I was later injured. Running can be fun – but when you get out of the habit and have to start again or when you start for the very first time it can be a chore. And sometimes those hills in your first few runs can feel like mountains and ...

Surely the arm of the Lord is not too short to save. No matter what you have done the Lord can save you. Horrible things happen. Some of the things I have heard in the previous couple of days alone: ·          PTSD ·          Doctors playing with medications ·          People are OD-ing at an incredible rate ·          AA groups aren't meeting ·          People's children are missing ·          People are dying of cancer ·          People are having their legs amputated ·          I have heard of spiritual abuse  ·          People are losing their sight and people are losing their mind The Lord’s arm is not...