Transitions 1

I've been thinking of transitions I've observed in people. I've wanted to do some writing on it for several months. However, Merle is much more on the job with his blogs. I let mine sit on the back burner and don't get my thoughts written as readily. This Christmas season I've noticed some transitions in the children.

This year our brand of an advent calendar was ignored. Other years they avidly took turns every other day pulling their object out of the dated pockets to pin onto the manger scene. Gradually a star, angels, donkeys, sheep, cattle, shepherds, wisemen, camels and gifts filled the scene. On Christmas Day, baby Jesus was placed in the manger. That was always the great goal. There were fights about whose year it was to put baby Jesus in the manger. So I started keeping track of who had done it the last year, to be sure the other got to put him in in the current year. This year it was Dallas' turn. But no objects got pinned up on the nativity scene. One day he went to the hanging, pulled a few animals out of the pockets and said, "No one is putting anything up this year." I told him he could, but nothing happened. He's now almost 12 and Elaine is 13. I guess that stage is over.

Instead, Elaine got a 500 word puzzle out and put most of it together. When it was finished, she picked a 1000 work puzzle to work on. AND SHE STICKS AT IT FOR LONG PERIODS OF TIME! Utterly amazing!

Today she helped me in the bookstore. While she was on her way home with Merle, she was telling him about the twin 12 year old boys she'd seen at the store. From her mature vantage point of 13 years of age, she told him, "I just think 12 year olds look so young now!" Edith

Trailer

One of the interesting things about our property here in Sioux Lookout is that there are many surprizes stashed away in the bush. There are tires, lawnmowers, rototillers, gas tanks, a three wheeler, hot water heaters, a trampoline mat, culverts, a chevy suburban, metal chimney sections, and trailers thrown into the bush. When friends come to visit I try not to let them go home empty handed. So, the three wheeler and the rototillers are gone now. But there were more trailers than any other thing except old tires and batteries.

Actually there were four trailers, all in various states of disrepair discarded in the bush here. Last Summer I decided that when we got back from Haiti in August, I was going to advertize them in the classified ads and see if I could recover at least the cost of the ad, and get rid of the trailers.

I would have liked to have one for myself. I had dragged a frame up out of the bush. It looked like it had possibilities. But I never got anything done with it. Then when I was clearing brush in July I found a trailer that was smaller and more my size.

While we were in Haiti, our neighbour needed a trailer to take his pigs to the agricultural fair in Dryden. He left a message on my cell phone asking for permission, but I couldn't get messages while we were in Haiti. When I did get the message, I was hoping that he had taken the trailer. He must have decided that it would be easier to ask for forgiveness than to ask for permission, so he had taken the trailer and fixed it up enough to get his pigs to Dryden and back.

After we came back home, he brought the trailer over and said he hoped it was okay that he had borrowed it. I told him that he has only one problem, and that is that now that he has the trailer, he can't return it. In fact I offered him the trailer frame I had dragged out of the bush and never fixed up. He took that one too.

In October all four of us went down and pushed and pulled until we got the trailer I wanted out of the bush. We pulled it up to the shop. A few weeks ago I actually got it into the shop. I took off all the rotten lumber. I cut off the broken hitch. I took off the wheels.

Over Christmas break from school, Dallas and I are working on getting that trailer fixed up. We wire brushed the rust off of it and are now in the painting stage of fixing it up. Today we finished painting the primer coat and started on the topcoat. We hope to finish painting tomorrow.

Next week we should be able to start putting new decking and sides on it. We need to install a new hitch, safety chains, and lights. In a few weeks we should have it all ready to go.

Here are a few pictures of the painter apprentice at work.

Snow Pictures

Today I met with Wayne Schrock in the morning and then went and repaired Joe Ice's wheel chair. I had a good time with Wayne. He was the founding pastor of the church here in Sioux Lookout and has a wealth of knowledge and experience. It was great to hear his advice and receive his counsel for us as a church now.

This afternoon we went snowmobiling in the gravel pit again. I thought I would post some pictures for the sake of those of you who were wishing for a white Christmas. The problem is you just don't live North far enough.

This is the view from the back of the snowmobile. The child on the tobaggan has a great time and the dog gets his exercise too.

Here is the sliding hill in the gravel pit. Elaine is just starting down over the edge on the tobaggan.

Christmas Day 2006

We had an enjoyable Christmas day today. When the children got up we opened our gifts and then had breakfast.

Later in the morning we played ping pong for a while in the shop. After lunch the children, and I, and the dog went snowmobiling. We go to an abandoned gravel pit and tie the tobaggan behind the snowmobile and basically go around and around. We also did some sliding on the tobaggon down the side of the gravel pit. It is rather frightening since it is about a 40 foot, almost vertical, drop. The speed on the way down is breathtaking. It helps, of course, to have the snowmobile to come down around the side and pull the tobaggan and everyone back up to the top.

It was a beautiful clear winter day. It was also rather warm. This afternoon the high temperature was 14 degrees above zero F. So with the sun shining it felt really warm. A great day to be outside for long periods of time.

After we came back from snowmobiling we put together the gingerbread house. This evening we are having company for supper.

Here are the gift openers

Here is the gingerbread house under construction

Here is the gingerbread house and its builders after completion

Reflections on Holiness

Here are some conclusions from a research project completed by George Barna in 2006. He basically confirms what many of us suspected, which is that many people who identify themselves as born again, do not experience a changed life.

He also created a new category of believers. The first one is people who are Born Again. The second is Evangelical. The third and new category that he identifies is what he calls revolutionaries. After his reflections on Holiness I will give you his qualifications for Born Again, Evangelical and Revolutionary. Which category do you think you fit into?

Reflections on Holiness

The new survey findings, when combined with existing knowledge about the state of faith in America, caused the survey’s director, George Barna, to suggest that churches need to take this body of information seriously.

“Realize that the results portray a body of Christians who attend church and read the Bible, but do not understand the concept or significance of holiness, do not personally desire to be holy, and therefore do little, if anything to pursue it. However, the data identify a remnant that understands holiness, wants to live a holy life, and is engaged in its pursuit. The challenge to the nation’s Christian ministries is to foster a genuine hunger for holiness among the masses who claim they love God but who are ignorant about biblical teachings regarding holiness.”

Pointing to data from several of his recent surveys on spiritual maturity in the U.S., Barna noted, “To initiate the education of people regarding holiness, we must arrest their attention and teach its importance. To align their hearts with the notion of being holy, we must move them away from a ‘cheap grace’ theology and replace people’s self-absorption with focus on God and His ways. To help them pursue holiness, we must help them comprehend and accept biblical theology regarding God, Satan, the purposes of life on earth, the nature of spiritual transformation and maturity, and the necessity of bearing spiritual fruit.”

Now here are the three categories:

“Born again Christians” are defined as people who said they have made a personal commitment to Jesus Christ that is still important in their life today and who also indicated they believe that when they die they will go to Heaven because they had confessed their sins and had accepted Jesus Christ as their savior. Respondents were not asked to describe themselves as “born again.”

“Evangelicals” meet the born again criteria (described above) plus seven other conditions. Those include saying their faith is very important in their life today; believing they have a personal responsibility to share their religious beliefs about Christ with non-Christians; believing that Satan exists; believing that eternal salvation is possible only through grace, not works; believing that Jesus Christ lived a sinless life on earth; asserting that the Bible is accurate in all that it teaches; and describing God as the all-knowing, all-powerful, perfect deity who created the universe and still rules it today. Being classified as an evangelical is not dependent upon church attendance or the denominational affiliation of the church they attend. Respondents were not asked to describe themselves as “evangelical.”

“Revolutionaries” were classified on the basis of meeting 11 specific criteria. They had have a clear sense of the meaning and purpose of their life; describe their relationship with and faith in God as the top priority in their life; consider themselves to be "Christian"; read the Bible regularly; pray regularly; deem their faith to be very important in their life; contend that the main objective in their life is to love God with all their heart, mind, strength and soul; describe God as the "all-knowing, all-powerful being who created the universe and still rules it today"; have made a personal commitment to Jesus Christ that is important in their life today; believe that when they die they will go to heaven only because they have confessed their sins and accepted Jesus Christ as their savior; and say that their faith in Christ has "greatly transformed" their life.

So what are you? I find it fascinating that the effort to live the transformed life is considered to be revolutionary!

Cornerstone Christmas Program

CORNERSTONE CHRISTIAN SCHOOL STUDENTS

Last evening was the Cornerstone Christian School Christmas program. It was a nice program. Elaine was the narrator, and Dallas was one of the wise men. The program was held at New Life Assembly because of the number of people attending. They have a bigger auditorium than we do at Believers Fellowship.

Elaine and Dallas' grandmother and her partner came for the program. It was nice to have them there.

Now the children have school today and then a Christmas party day tomorrow at school. They are off school then for Christmas break until January 8.

The Flight I am Glad I Wasn't On

This news Item from the BBC made me thankful that I wasn't flying in Saudi Arabi this week!

Mass mouse escape on Saudi plane

Mice: Not known as frequent flyers en masse

More than 100 passengers on a Saudi plane were left panic-stricken by the unexpected appearance of furry fellow flyers - dozens of mice.

The small rodents - about 80 in total, according to a local newspaper - escaped from the bag of a man travelling on the domestic flight.

An airline official said the aircraft was at 28,000 feet (8,500m) when mice began scurrying around the cabin.

Some of the mice fell on passengers' heads, Al-Hayat newspaper reports.

The incident occurred on a Saudi Arabian Airlines flight from the capital, Riyadh, to north-eastern town of Tabuk.

The flight landed safely and the bag's owner was detained by police investigating how he managed to get the mice onto the plane.

No explanation was given for the man's live cargo.

Passion 07

I believe that God wants us as men to get our act together and be real men of God. But often we struggle with our fears, anxieties and our anger. We often don't know how to live open and accountable lives with other men, because we are too busy trying to impress each other with the things we own, the number of zeros in our bank account balance, the size of the animals we have killed, or the mental ability of our brains.

Often too late in life we discover that the things we tried to impress ourselves, and others, with really don't matter that much. The book of Proverbs, in the Bible, is written, based on the assumption that wisdom can be passed on from one generation to another. We don't need to learn everything by experience. We can learn from other people.

There is a need for young men to have a chance to dialogue with older men, and gain ideas and wisdom without needing to acquire all of it through experience.

There is a great event planned for August of 2007. It is called Passion 07. It is a combination of a boot camp and teaching. I think this is a wonderful opportunity for all young men 16 and up.

Here is their website: Click here for Passion 07

Sioux Narrows

This weekend we had two main activities. We attended the Ashawaabic Ministries Christmas Program on Friday evening and Sunday evening. They had Kenny and Millie Jackson, Lloyd and Nellie Redsky, Darris Ferris, Dale Jack, Rick Martin, Abe Kakepetum and Willie and Rhoda Longenecker there to sing. It was well attended and we enjoyed the music.

Saturday we went to Sioux Narrows to visit with the Darrell Nisly family. Darrell is the director of Believers Fellowship. We had a great time with their family. Elaine and Dallas enjoyed playing with their two younger boys, Andrew and Jonathan.

Darrell and Kathy's oldest daughter, Katrina, was the first person to enroll as a student in the Institute for Global Opportunities in Thailand. She will be going over there in April.

This morning we were at the Believers Fellowship church in Sioux Narrows. We had a nice time with their people there.

One of the things about Sioux Narrows is that no discharge of weapons is allowed inside the town limits. They think the deer almost outnumber the people. Darrells have deer coming up and eating out of their birdfeeder, just feet from their dining room window.

Here is a picture of a Sioux Narrows deer. This one was along the highway, just North of Darrell's house.

Butchering

Today we were in Sioux Narrows for the annual butchering event. Someof the staff men had killed four cows last weekand had them hanging in the shop in Sioux Narrows. We gathered there today and with about a dozen people we cut up the meat.

We started at 6:00 AM and finished around 3:00 PM. In the picture below are Steve Beiler and Nate Hochstetler. Both of them have meat cutting experience.They certainly did a fine job of organization. The day went very smoothly. We ended up with over 1100 lbs. of meat to divide out between the staff families.

We also had a lot of fun working together.

The Hunter Becomes the Hunted

This afternoon the children and I went snowmobiling and sliding. We went sliding in the gravel pit near our place. After sliding for a while we were snowmobiling around the gravel pit.

Near sundown we looked up and saw a timber wolf walking down the road by the gravel pit. It stopped and watched us for a few mintues, then went on down the road. We decided to follow it on the snowmobile.

We came to a branch in the road, and were not sure which way the wolf went. Just as we were about to turn around we saw him down the road to the left. We turned and followed him but lost track of him again. I was just about to turn around when we saw him ahead of us on the road again.

This time we were able to catch up with him and got within 50 feet of him. He went into the bush, then turned and looked at us. We watched him and he watched us.

Then we went to the top of the hill and stopped to turn the snowmobile around. When I had swung the back of the snowmobile around, I looked back down the road. Just at the crest of the hill, stood the wolf, intently watching us. It was kind of freaky to realize that he was now following us.

I guess we had a mutual interest in each other. Just as we started back we saw a snowshoe hare. I think that is probably what the wolf was really looking for.

Here are a few pictures from this afternoon.

Churches That Matter

This week I attended a symposium sponsored by Living Hope Native Ministries. The focus of the symposium was "Churches That Matter". The question that we were discusing was how we can have churches that really make a difference in our communities and that are an important part of our communities.

There were eight focus points suggested as characteristics of churches that matter:

1. Churches that matter worship God corporately and inspire worship in others.

2. Churches that matter nuture growing disciples and encourage the use of their gifts in serving others.

3. Churches that matter respond to sin, pain, and trauma with the healing power of love, truth, and compassion.

4. Churches that matter insist on honesty, transparency, and integrity in all aspects of personal and corporate church life.

5. Churches that matter create a community of faith known for its loving relationships - where people feel they can really belong.

6. Churches that matter preach and teach from the Bible things that all people should know.

7. Churches that matter impact their world with the power of the Gospel and the life of Jesus Christ.

8. Churches that matter maintain meaningful accountability relationships for the congregation, leaders, and members - both within and beyond the local church.

In the discussion of these points, I was challenged regarding the need for meaningful relationships within the local church. One of the things I value about our Mennonite churches is that we have a concept of community. Traditionally, we have cared for one another within the local church.

Anyway, I would be interested in knowing how you think your church is doing regarding these eight points. Does it matter if your church exists in your community or not. If your church closed would it be missed in the community? What things do you think your church does well? Which ones do you think could be improved?