Salvogesis

Let me tell you three stories. These are all true stories; they all happened this week and they do have some other things in common too. They all have a rope in the story. They all have peril. 2 of them have water. 2 of them have happen endings.   One evening this week Susan suggested that I should take Heather kayaking for a couple of hours before dinner. She said be home at 7pm. Dinner's at 7pm. Be home at 7pm.   I threw the kayaks in the back of the vehicle. Heather and I quickly drove out to Sproat Lake. We didn’t have that much time. We got out there. Heather was already a little tired, I think. I asked her where we wanted to go on the lake; she said, she wanted to go to Manitoba Island. (There is this small private island that you can reach from the boat launch and whoever owns the island has a Manitoba flag that they fly from it, thus Heather and I call it Manitoba Island.)   It was pretty choppy out there. The waves were pretty high and the wind was blowing quite ...

The earth is on fire. Rena and Tim’s son’s family and some friends of Mary Anne and others are in and around Vernon. There is a massive fire burning between Vernon and Kamloops (more than 557 km2 have been on fire there at one time this week alone). Susan, Sarah-Grace, Heather and I were just up there during our furlough. We saw helicopters carrying buckets almost every day, dropping chemicals on the ground (while the water bombers sit quietly by the Lake here). Roads were blocked due to the fire.   There were places we couldn’t go. We checked the news every day to see if we would need to be evacuated (like we needed to flee while on our previous holiday; when the plague of coronavirus hit the world, we scrambled to try to get safely home). This recent trip we stayed in Salmon Arm for a week.   There was smoke everywhere. We went kayaking, as well as tourist-ing: sometimes you couldn’t even see across the lake it was so smoky and the sun was a strange orange-y-red ball of fire...

There has been a lot of civil unrest and other things in the world lately: Let’s have a bit of a quiz to see if you can identify the incidents in the press (from 2011): This country is now under military rule after their President Mubarak who had won 5 consecutive elections was ousted. (Egypt) This country issued warrant for its past President and its Prime Minister resigned this week. (Tunisia) Civil unrest continues in this country and the American Military surrounded the nation this week; Canada even sent the HMCS Charlottetown there. (Libya) A Canadian man has recently been abducted by the Taliban in this country. (Afghanistan) I read a headline also this week that says this country invades Denmark. Who invades Denmark? (Holland) The headline read: Holland Invades Denmark. Sounds scary. Anybody know what the story was about? What the article is really about though is a little less scary: The Canadian women’s curling championship, the Scotties Tournament of Hearts, was thi...

Therefore, rid yourselves of all malice and all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander of every kind. Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation, now that you have tasted that the Lord is good. We have been packing boxes lately as we are preparing to move across the country yet again. Moving is a difficult time: saying goodbye to old friends even as you prepare to make new friends; trying to tie up loose ends at your current position and find out as much as you can about your new one; cleaning the house from top to bottom; and packing boxes. As we pick up each item we have to decide do we want to bring it with us into our new life or not. That is the same as when we become a Christian or whenever we move closer to our Lord. Do we want to bring malice and all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander of every kind with us or do we want to leave it behind. Actually, every day it is like we are packing to move to our new heavenly home ...