heron lunch

Heron showing off his lunch.

who's your audience?

I am reading a wonderful and challenging book called The Call – Finding and Fulfilling the Central Purpose of your Life by Os Guinness. As someone who is endlessly fascinated by the idea of destiny, I’m discovering many places where this book scratches my itch.

In Chapter 9 Mr. Guinness, in a few words, articulates a mind set that I suspect if entered into would make one impervious to the peer pressure and sense of alienation followers of Jesus so often feel in the world of 2006:

A life lived listening to the decisive call of God is a life lived before one audience that trumps all others – the Audience of One.”

And the sum-up statement of that chapter nails it yet again:

Do you wish to be inner-directed rather than other-directed and truly make one audience decisive, the Audience of One? Listen to Jesus of Nazareth; answer his call.

monday mural - Winnipeg, MB

Yesterday the home team – the B.C. Lions – won the Grey Cup (football). Now, I do not claim even reflected glory from this. Our very tiny Grey Cup party fizzled when someone (not I) got sick. My only participation in the game was to occasionally check on the score from the bedroom where I was reading.

The game was played in Winnipeg - and I realized, as soon as I saw this site what I would have wanted to do had I been there.


This mural is located at 756 Ellice Avenue in Winnipeg. The artist is Jill Sellers. Check out the link above for 552 more mural shots, photos of other art, and artist info from around that city.

the eagle has landed

or something like that. Today we sighted the eagle pair that nest in the tree at the end of the golf course. While we watched, one of them brought sticks and stuff to the nest. They're obviously repairing it. If you look closely, you'll see one eagle's head just above nest edge, while the other sits on the branch higher up.

globeandmail Q&A

There have been a couple of interesting Q&A forums in the Globe and Mail recently. In “Ask an Evangelical”* Aileen Van Ginkel (director for the Evangelical Fellowship of Canada’s Centre for Ministry Empowerment) answers general questions about Christianity.

In “Lorna Dueck took your questions on the Ted Haggard scandal” Ms. Dueck answers questions about the above scandal. Predictably, here there were lots of questions about how evangelicals view homosexuality and other hot-button moral issues.

I read the questions and answers with interest, asking myself, what would I have said?

This is a good exercise, I think – to challenge oneself to come up with answers to honest hard questions. We’re actually told to do this.

In the process, it's a good idea not to forget the advice given by the Bluedorn’s in The Thinking Toolbox about anticipating opposing arguments:

“After you have listed all the reasons why you believe something, the next step is to defeat the argument you have built. This may sound like a strange thing to do, but if you don’t try to defeat your own argument, someone else will.... It is not good enough to have convincing reasons for the things you believe. If you want to have a strong position, then you need to anticipate opposing arguments and prepare counter arguments.” (Lesson 7)

Of course in the end, even the most waterproof arguments will not convince someone to believe in God as revealed by the Jesus of the Bible who said, “I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” The Spirit of God does that.

* This link opens first on a 'Register' page. That's how the G&M wants it, I guess.

book review: Arthur, the Christmas Elf

Title: Arthur, the Christmas Elf -- A Christmas Adventure
Author: Valerie Connelly
Publisher: Nightengale Press, 2006 - 68 pages
Genre: Children's Fiction, Children's Activities
ISBN: 193344923

Arthur, the Christmas Elf is a story book that will keep on giving long after the read-aloud part is done. Fine-tuned through years of retelling it to her own youngsters, author Valerie Connelly’s tale about two self-absorbed children, a storm and Santa’s elf Arthur will help kids gain a new perspective on Christmas gifts in both the giving and getting departments.

The author-illustrated 43-page story section is only the first part of this two-part book, however. In the second part are instructions on how to make the seven craft projects mentioned in the story. These easy-to-make, family-tested projects use materials most people probably have around the house. The instructions are well-organized, easy to follow and include traceable patterns and photographs that illustrate the projects at various stages of completion.

I can see this dual-purpose and prize-winning book being a great addition to the Christmas of any family with kids up to and including teens. The story will probably become a holiday favorite. And the book may be the catalyst for a new tradition of kids and parents (or older siblings) spending quality time together making things in the days before Christmas, and then giving gifts that come more from the heart than the wallet.

coming soon to a theatre near you?

Well maybe. This was the scene at the Mud Bay Park parking lot – one of our favorite walking beaches – yesterday.

dreaming

This is not what it looks like here today. We are in the middle of a big wind (predicted up to 90 km. / hr) and rain storm with trees down, traffic lights out and fears of dykes giving way and flooding at high tide in some places. We are blessed to have kept our electricity so far.

But I’m going stir-crazy. I need a walk! Maybe I’ll go and climb some walls stairs.

book review - Winter Birds

UPDATE - November 28:

This book has made Publishers Weekly "Best Books of the Year"list

Title: Winter Birds
Author: Jamie Langston Turner
Publisher: Bethany House - 2006, 400 pages
Genre: Contemporary Christian fiction
ISBN: 0764200151

“At eighty I knew I must not delay. The branches of the tree were nearly bare. My method: I sent letters to nine people, family acquaintances, five of whom responded, to apply as Providers of Winter Hospice for Sophia Marie Langham Hess.”

The wealthy widow Sophia chooses, finally, to live with her nephew and his wife in a modest bungalow in Greenville, Mississippi. Winter Birds, Jamie Langston Turner’s sixth* novel, is the story of Ms. Hess in that winter season and the tale of the gradual unthawing of her heart in the home of Patrick and Rachel.

The time period spanned in this contemporary novel is about one year, though through Sophia’s flashbacks and memories we are able to piece together the entire life story of this intelligent but embittered octogenarian. The setting is spare. Mostly we’re in Sophia’s room which looks out over a playground, has in view a mortuary and, just outside the window, a bird feeder.

This book majors on characters. Sophia, the main character, who tells the entire story in first person (present tense, no less), is rich and complex. As a former English teacher and the widow of Eliot Hess, a noted Shakespeare professor, she shows herself to be intelligent, cultured and perceptive. She is also sneaky, funny and at times a less than reliable narrator, colored as her outlook is by low self-esteem, betrayal, disappointment and cynicism.

Other main characters Patrick and Rachel as well as secondary characters Terri, Steve and Potts are seen and interpreted through Sophia’s eyes in satisfying physical and psychological detail. Sophia’s penchant for people-watching leads to some amusing reflections - like this one at the Christmas dinner table, when most of the guests are gushing about the pin Sophia got as a gift and Sophia, catching the look on teenager Mindy’s face muses:

“Mindy is eying the pin, frowning slightly as if wondering how such a small thing, something she would never be caught wearing, can evoke such emotion from adults. Perhaps she will tell her friends about it later: “And this fat old woman was wearing this weird-looking bird pin that everyone was having a cow over!”

Langston Turner’s prose style is simple. In one place she has Sophia overhear aspiring writer Patrick report to Rachel “in painstaking detail” (Sophia thinks Patrick is an incredible bore) something his teacher has said about “two kinds of simplicity – one producing art, the other banality.” As I read this book, I got the feeling that simplicity producing art was the effect Langston Turner was after and, in my opinion, achieved. But if the prose is simple, other stylistic features like Shakespearean lines as titles and the descriptions of bird behavior under those titles, both of which are then woven into the story line of the chapter, make the book satisfyingly thoughtful and layered.

Death is a theme that runs through the entire story. That’s probably not surprising, as Sophia is 80 and feels that her own is imminent. This theme is underlined again and again as Sophia watches the goings-on at the mortuary across the street and obsessively reads the "Milestones" columns from old Time magazines, paying special attention to the obits. Other themes that emerge as the back story unfolds are betrayal and deception. What finally transforms this often pessimistic story into a hopeful one is the message that love has the power to heal and restore.

The Christian aspect of the novel is handled with a light touch. Sophia, herself a skeptic throughout the book, does a good job of articulating common objections to belief. These are countered not with platitudes and sermons but with actions. Rachel, Patrick and others do a good job of showing in their own imperfect ways, what it means to serve and love the way Jesus taught.

This book is easily one of my favorites of 2006. The beautiful writing full of wisdom, literary allusions and stylistic elegance give it the moodling possibilities of poetry. Its quiet but compelling plot, realistic characters and sly humor made me wish it were twice as long. It reminds me of Marilynne Robinson’s Gilead and, like that book, it’s one I’m planning to read again, this time with highlighter always at hand.

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Jamie Langston Turner's ‘Discussion Questions’ would be useful for reading clubs planning to dig deeper into Winter Birds.
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* Correction: I originally stated this was Ms. Langston Turner's third novel. It is actually her sixth, as pointed out to me (by Dan Turner) in a comment on the review I posted at Blogcritics.org.

Other books are SUNCATHCERS, SOME WILDFLOWER IN MY HEART, BY THE LIGHT OF A THOUSAND STARS, A GARDEN TO KEEP, and NO DARK VALLEY. All are published by Bethany House.

I apologize for the error - but am happy to know that there are even more books out there by this fine author.

monday mural - Cloverdale BC

On our way to the Remembrance Day ceremony on Saturday, we passed this mural. It does a good job of representing Cloverdale (one of Surrey’s several town centers), known for its flea markets, antique shops and the rodeo. Cloverdale’s quaint western-town streets have also made it a favorite location for movie and commercial shoots. Smallville, Postal, Hot Rod and others were filmed there.

More Cloverdale at the mural blog

we remember

Ernie and I joined hundreds of others at the Cenotaph in Cloverdale this morning for a Remembrance Day ceremony.


On the way to the square, we caught sight of these Mounties, all ready to join the parade of dignitaries.



A special event this morning was the unveiling and dedication of a new statue on the cenotaph memorial

The representation of a World War 1 soldier, kneeling at the grave of a fallen comrade was commissioned to replace an earlier similar one which was melted down to make bullets for World War II. This new piece was paid for in part with funds raised by Surrey school children.

Before we left, we unpinned our poppies and placed them with hundreds of others on the memorial as a token of our remembrance and thanks to Canadian soldiers past and present.

We remember.

thoughts on personal ambition

If you seek great things for yourself – God has called me for this and that; you are putting a barrier to God’s use of you. As long as you have a personal interest in your own character, or any set ambition, you cannot get through into identification with God’s interests. You can only get there by losing forever any idea of yourself and by letting God take you right out into His purpose for the world, and because your goings are of the Lord, you can never understand your ways.

I have to learn that the aim in life is God’s not mine. God is using me from His great personal standpoint, and all He asks of me is that I trust Him, and never say – Lord this gives me such a heartache. To talk in that way makes me a clog.

When I stop telling God what I want, He can catch me up for what He wants without let or hindrance. He can crumple me up or exalt me, He can do anything He chooses. He simply asks me to have implicit faith in Himself and in His goodness.

Oswald Chambers - from My Utmost for His Highest.

self promotion?

I have been reading A Poet’s Guide to Poetry by Mary Kinzie. It is a very technical book, for people dedicated to the study and writing of poetry. I must admit some of it is quite beyond me.

However, I can’t help but feel the passion Ms. Kinzie has for her subject. This endorsement on the cover says it well:

“Mary Kinzie’s A Poet’s Guide to Poetry is an exacting, thorough and loving book about the excitements and technical intimacies of poetry. I don’t know any other book that speaks so lucidly and says so much about the formal life of poetry and how poetry lives that life inside us.” W. S. Di Pietro.

Yesterday I googled Ms. Kinzie and came across this fascinating essay (or whatever – this writing seems, in a way, almost a collage of prose poems) by her. In the paragraph below, she puts into words something I’ve felt in my gut for a while now about the self-promotion one must supposedly do in order to be noticed, read, bought and considered successful as a writer:

“The surer I became about the mystery of words in time, the more intricate the disdain of the professionals around me. This was a world in which there was a constant encouragement to promote onself, to mention every little mention of oneself. To be your own entrepreneur. Deadly to art. I tried not to play, but did just a little – enough so that I neither made a good showing among them nor kept my heart pure. Caving in “just a little” is the hateful side of humiliation, for one is driven by fear of going under, by doing nothing. This anxiety doesn’t end with a small cowardice. It is a world based on worry, because they themselves are always heartily, greedily worrying, scratching the sand of their little plots of earth.”

In contrast, I think of the words of Jesus in Matthew 6, where He concludes:

“Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear.’(or ‘Will I get read and published? Will people buy my book?) For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things shall be added to you.” Matthew 6:31-33

This surely goes against the common wisdom to relentlessly self-promote often dispensed on blogs like this one. But somehow, I can’t help but think it’s the way God wants us to live and work. If what we write is to the advantage of His kingdom and His glory, He will see to its promotion in ways we never dreamed.

promptings' potpourri

(literary edition)

I heard Adrian Plass for the first time Saturday night. He and his wife Bridget are on tour with Steve Bell.

He is a funny and complex man. I bought his book The Sacred Diary of Adrian Plass Aged 37¾ (the double value edition, which includes The Growing Up Pains to the Sacred Diary). In the Preface he says:" I don’t think I shall ever be unhappy enough to write such a funny book again."

He and wife Bridget did some hilarious skits. I found, on his web site, a sampling of what they do (short Windows Media Player videos).

Pray for Each Other

Church Poem

His Media Page has links to more video and audio files.

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Surrey prize-winning short-story writer Donna Farley will be blogging some of her out-of-print short stories at Deja Pubd. This piece, "The First Shall be Last and the Last Shall be First" appeared in Dreams and Visions #12, 1992. The disclaimer about it being a bit dated is right (the kids still listened to tapes!), but it’s a lively and amusing read all the same.

monday mural - Smithers B.C.

This week's mural comemorates Canadian soldiers killed in W.W.I , II and the Korean War. I photgraphed it in the summer of 2005 when we spent a few hours poking around in Smithers enroute to Prince Rupert. It's painted on the wall of the Smithers' Legion.

Remembrance Day is this Saturday.

you . . . and me

From pastor's sermon this morning:

"We must be the church wherever we are. These walls are not the church. Be Jesus at work, school, play. You are the best possible reason why someone would be interested in knowing Jesus."

- Brent Cantelon

Photo: Crescent Beach pier - Surrey, BC

our so-busy, excellent weekend

We have the most excellent weekend on tap.

It starts with tonight when we’re having guests for dinner, and then going as a six-some to hear Steve Bell and Adrian Plass (Yummy!).


Tomorrow night, our choir is doing backup vocals at the release of the new CD, “Hope is Waking,” our church is putting out. Here is how it’s described in our E-bulletin.

“Hope Is Waking” is a mixture of musical textures featuring 12 of our very own original songs. Recorded right here in our CLA studio, it is a sound of joy, sorrow, intimacy, praise, passion, warfare, and hope. It is our prayer that the honesty and integrity of these expressions will capture your heart and turn you towards the Father …… the only One truly worthy of our worship.

In a way this is like a dream come true for me. I have watched many a variety show on TV and thought how much fun it would be to do the harmonies and the boo-she-bop-bop stuff around the main feature. Well, tomorrow night we’re doing that. This is even better though – doing it in worship (by the way - no boo-she-bop-bops)!

One wee fly in the ointment. They’re videotaping the evening with a view to making a DVD, thus no water bottles, sneezing, scratching, grimaces etc. etc. ! It all adds up to no pressure!?

book review - I SPAT by Stephanie R.Bridges

Title: I SPAT

Author: Stephanie R. Bridges

Publisher: Publish America

Genre: Poetry

ISBN: 1424119766

In her first chapbook, I SPAT (acronym for In Spirit, Power and Truth), poet Stephanie Bridges raps, rhythms and rhymes her spiritual journey in thirty poems that range from a defense of God as judge (“Follow the Sun”) to apologies to the children she’s aborted (“Anjel” and “Angel”). The poem section is preceded by her story "Bridges to God," told in prose. In it she chronicles her journey through various addictions and self-destructive behaviors. In the end, she explains how these became bridges to the God who pursued her through every circumstance.

I like the transparency that comes through much of Bridges’ work. She doesn’t avoid talking about experiences and behaviors she has struggled with like rape, abortion, and various addictions. And she isn’t shy to tell on herself:

“I am a vegetarian
Engaging in carnivorous relationships
A non-smoker
With nicotine on my lips”

- “Myself”

Especially moving are the poems she addresses to the kids she chose not to have – and the one she birthed, but with an attitude.

“I prayed my baby dead
As I lay alone in the hospital bed
Nurses poked and doctors pervaded
But to no avail she refused to debut

- “Lovingly”

Bridges’ work isn’t all dark and gloomy, though. There is also freedom and a sense of acceptance, joy and celebration:

“...No dress code
Come as you are
Leave your past at the door
Cause there’s redemption at the bar
You can dance
Sing
Party non-stop. . .”

- “G’sus N’em”

Despite a variety in subject matter, a sense of unity is achieved with the use of formatting (title, Bible verse reference, centered poem, another Bible reference and the verse quoted in full). There is also a similarity in the the rhythms and rhyme patterns that flow through much of Bridges’ work. I am reminded of rap. Many of these poems beg for out-loud performance.

The spiritual angle of the book is never subtle. The Scriptures that bracket each selection become another facet of what Bridges conveys. The book as a whole leaves no doubt who Bridges credits for her escape from an addictive lifestyle. And in her story and poems she sends the message that she continues to rely on God through the challenges of life as a single mom to four kids.

This is an accessible, gritty yet hopeful book of poetry. It will appeal to those open to considering the answers given to life’s knotty problems in the Bible and the Christian faith.

r.i.p.

Brother HL1435

May 29, 2004 to November 1, 2006

Brother HL1435, died yesterday after a brief but terminal illness. He was installed in August of 2006 after two and a half months in the box, waiting for his dad, HL1230, to retire. He has always been prompt and reliable in delivering, in his 29 months with us, thousands of crisp physician letters and hopeful manuscript pages. He was especially appreciated for his generous paper tray and paper jam-free feed apparatus. In the end, though, this is what seemed to have done him in (maybe if we’d been more appreciative, told him how much we loved him ... sniff!).

We first realized he was ill on Sunday, when he stopped printing after completing only three pages of a many-page job. In the last few days he has been sounding more and more laryngitic, though still able to print one page at a time. Yesterday he quit entirely.

Brother was predeceased by his grandparents Okidata and Fujitsu and his Brother parents. He is survived by ECI the CPU, Spectrum the monitor, the Microsoft siblings Mouse and Keyboard, and the Labec speaker twins Left and Right.

Brother will be greatly missed and hard to replace. In lieu of flowers, please send money. (Oops ... kidding!)

gossip benches

Gossip benches on the Serpentine.

monday mural - Agassiz, BC

Much of northwestern B.C. is shoveling out from under a dump of snow this weekend – a reminder that winter is already here, even if not officially by the calendar.

The weather reminded me of this mural from the town of Agassiz B.C. It’s enough to make one shiver without any snow in sight! The mural is signed “Skoda Razmpoosh ‘97"

More Agassiz murals here

words that live

The Word of God is quick and powerful. In the beginning He spoke to nothing, and it become something. Chaos heard it and became order, darkness heard it and became light. “And God said – and it was so.” These twin phrases, as cause and effect, occur throughout the Genesis story of the creation. The said accounts for the so. The so is the said put into the continuous present.

That God is here and that He is speaking – these truths are back of all other Bible truths; without them there could be no revelation at all. God did not write a book and send it by messenger to be read at a distance by unaided minds. He spoke a Book and lives in His spoken words, constantly speaking His words and causing the power of them to persist across the years. God breathed on clay and it became a man; He breathes on men and they become clay. “Return ye children of men,” was the word spoken at the Fall by which God decreed the death of every man, and no added word has He needed to speak. The sad procession of mankind across the face of the earth from birth to the grave is proof that His original Word was enough.

[...] It is important that we get still to wait on God. And it is best that we get alone, preferably with our Bible outspread before us. Then if we will we may draw near to God and begin to hear Him speak to us in our hearts. I think for the average person the progression will be something like this: First a sound as of a Presence walking in the garden. Then a voice, more intelligible, but still far from clear. Then the happy moment when the Spirit begins to illuminate the Scriptures, and that which had been only a sound or at best a voice, now becomes an intelligible word, warm and intimate and clear as the word of a dear friend. Then will come life and light, and best of all, ability to see and rest in and embrace Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord of all.

[...] If you would follow on to know the Lord, come at once to the open Bible expecting it to speak to you. Do not come with the notion that it is a thing which you may push around at your convenience. It is more than a thing, it is a voice, a word, the very Word of the living God.

quoted from The Pursuit of God - “The Speaking Voice” by A. W. Tozer

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Here is a modern-day true story about this alive Word.

can I keep it -- please?

It’s still the insect time of year here.

If one were a collector (as we used to be, scooping creepy-crawlies into plastic tubs filled with leaves, held captive by lids that we’d punched full of holes) wouldn’t these caterpillars in their fashionable faux fur be a trophy?



I’m actually partial to slugs myself – the banana ones that match my earmuffs.



Today, though, a little creature invited itself right into our house. E. was taking apart the lettuce to wash it when he found this healthy specimen. “Can I keep it please?” he asked, carrying it into my workroom on a towel.

Sure little boy.

I guess if there’s one thing that worm proves, it’s that the claims of organic lettuce at our veggie store aren’t empty!

heron patrol

Our walk around the golf course the other day was like a heron patrol. Great blue herons were everywhere

in the water

and on the path.

In fact as we got closer to this one, I kept snapping pictures, thinking each would be the closest I could get.

Finally he was right in front of me.

and then beside me.

Getting this close to a heron is unusual. Normally, even stopping to watch one of these solitary fisher-birds causes them to up and flap away, all the while kwarking at being disturbed.


So long - you big beautiful unsociable discriminating birds.

book review - Redeemed

Title: Redeemed
Author: Donna Dawson
Publisher: Word Alive Press, 2006
ISBN: 189492875X
Genre: Christian fiction (Contemporary)

Heather MacDonald suffers from mysterious and uncontrolled fits of rage. When, at fourteen, she realizes she is a threat to harm her family, she decides to run away from home. On the streets of Toronto, Heather finds a new family amongst the street people. She also comes face to face with grave danger and an evil that joins the blackness within her in trying to destroy her completely. But in Redeemed, Donna Dawson’s first novel, evil loses as the darkness is overcome and throwaway lives are put back together again by the power and grace of God.

Dawson’s characters are interesting. Main character Jekyl-and-Hyde Heather is joined by Hildy, Jimmy, Cyrus, Shorty and later the sinister Andy to make up a motley and colorful cast of losers. They are sympathetically though realistically drawn by Dawson, who goes beneath their rough exteriors to uncover the human side of these societal rejects.

Apart from short sections based in the present which precede each chapter, the events of the story are told in order and the plot moves along pretty smoothly (despite a slow start where Dawson tells the story of Heather’s parents). Those pre-chapter bits seemed designed to stitch the story together. However I found some of them forced and awkward in the way they led Heather to review past years in orderly flashbacks written partly in past perfect tense which distanced me from the action. As a whole though, the story was nicely paced and easy to follow, with plot twists that kept my interest till the end.

Dawson’s writing style is lively with only the occasional overwritten passage that could have benefitted from an editor’s simplifying. Another stylistic element was the use of multiple points of view (on one page I found myself in the head of a different character in each of four paragraphs). However, this happened throughout and though it gave me some mental whiplash at first, I felt Dawson carried off this tricky technique effectively. It certainly gave me, in several key scenes, a sense of immediacy and being in the know.

A strength of the story is in its themes and symbols. This is a tale of light versus darkness, good versus evil and, as the title suggests, redemption. Coming through also is compassion for the poor and homeless, and love and respect for all people no matter what their exterior. Near the end there is even a scene symbolic of Christ’s sacrificial death. The Christian message of God’s power to triumph over evil and change lives is delivered clearly and without apology.

Redeemed is a lively read that will have you walking some miles in the shoes of the destitute. But that road leads, finally, to a hopeful place.

monday mural - lakehead university catacombs

The tunnels connecting various buildings of Lakehead University in Thunder Bay, Ontario were covered with murals. This is a detail from one wall which was a montage of subjects and styles. More on view here.

getting ready to move

The owner of the tenement which I have occupied for many years has given notice that he will furnish but little or nothing for more repairs. I am advised to be ready to move.

At first this was not a very welcome notice. The surroundings here are in many respects very pleasant, and were it not for the evidence of decay, I should consider the house good enough. But even a light wind causes it to tremble and totter, and all the braces are not sufficient to make it secure. So I am getting ready to move.

It is strange how quickly one’s interest is transferred to the prospective home. I have been consulting maps of the new country and reading descriptions of its inhabitants. One who visited it has returned, and from him I learn that it is beautiful beyond description; language breaks down in attempting to tell of what he heard while there. He says that in order to make an investment there, he has suffered the loss of all things that he owned here, and even rejoices in what others would call making a sacrifice. Another, whose love to me has been proven by the greatest possible test, is now there. He has sent me several clusters of the most delicious fruits. After tasting them, all food here seems insipid.

Two or three times I have been down by the border of the river that forms the boundary, and have wished myself among the company of those who were singing praises to the King on the other side. Many of my friends have moved there. Before leaving they spoke of my coming later. I have seen the smile upon their faces as they passed out of sight. Often I am asked to make some new investments here, but my answer in every case is, “I am getting ready to move.”

– Selected, from Streams in the Desert.

high praise -- and battle

This year more than ever I’m loving being in our church choir. It’s a choir that is mostly there to enhance and encourage corporate worship (rather than do special music in performance mode).

Last week we went on a short retreat. Dean, one of our leaders, gave a talk that especially resonated with me, about the life of someone who leads in worship in a public way. He broke that life down into three components:
- the daily and secret life of one’s personal relationship with God, and worship there.
- a lifestyle of worship (which, put simply, is OBEDIENCE).
- the Sunday morning time of worship, singing in the choir or worship team (or playing an instrument).

Along with our group sessions, we had time to get away by ourselves and alone with God. I was grabbed by wonderful Psalm 149, especially verse 6:

"Let the high praises of God be in their mouth,
And a two-edged sword in their hand. . ."

To us moderns this may seem like an odd combination: praise and battle. But in the Old Testament, success in battle was all bound up with worship and praise and God being exalted.

Anyway, while meditating on this verse, specifically the phrase "the high praises of God," I determined to compile such a prayer for myself from scripture. I’ve been working on it for the past couple of mornings (and of course getting blessed beyond measure!). If you’d like to see what I’ve come up with so far, it’s long – and here. If you have suggestions of high praise passages I’ve left out, I’d love to hear them.

what's in a name?

This little news item from Voice of the Martyrs newsletter caught my eye:

Three-month-old Ilya Eyvazov has no official name. Local authorities in the town of Aliabad (Azerbaijan) at first refused to issue a birth certificate when they saw the baby's name was the Russian form of Elijah. After a month, Novruz Eyvazov, the baby's father, succeeded only in securing a birth certificate that left his son's name blank. Considered part of a "foreign" religious sect, the three Baptist congregations in Aliabad face ongoing harassment from the local government, which has refused them official church registration for the past 13 years.

I wouldn’t normally associate refusal to register a child’s name as persecution. However in this Maine-sized country of almost 8 million people, where 93% are Muslim and only 1.8% follow the religion “other” (that ‘other’ excluding Russian and Armenian Orthodox), choosing to call your child Elijah is obviously a big enough deal to withhold the very basic right of having his name / personhood acknowledged.

It would seem the Azeri officials are aware of the weight the name Elijah brings with it – both in story and meaning. The prophet Elijah in the Old Testament was the man through whom God did all kinds of signs and wonders in Israel and who shamed King Ahab, Queen Jezebel and the prophets of Baal. Plus Elijah means “Yah is God.” That would certainly rankle! I love it that these people are taking a stand with something as taken-for granted as a name.

Join with me in praying for little Ilya and his family – that his name will be allowed to be registered on that certificate, and that he will have an Elijah destiny on his life.

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today we are two!

Yep, it's the second blogaversary here at promptings

Here's a bit of trivia about the last two years.

- My first post, October 19, 2004, was about a book.

- My first earned link was to the article “Gay nuptials - what would Jesus do?”

- Some popular searches that have brought people here are raspberry squares, Sunday Adelaja, communion thoughts, and veggie cars.

- Blogging became even more fun when I got my digital camera.

- This is my 724th post (which averages out to 1.008 posts per day) on a hash of subjects from spiritual reflections, to memes, to book reviews, to photos, to lists, to recipes, to family happenings to – you name it...

- And I’ll probably continue posting the same variety in the future – because that’s what keeps blogging fun for me.

- So a BIG THANKS! to everyone who has come by to read in the last 730 days!

- Shoot, I forgot to make a cake. Oh well, I guess I’ll just have to celebrate with a potato bun!

saucy potato buns

Rebecca’s Potatofest 2006 immediately brought to mind potato buns. This is something I’ve never eaten (till today) but my mother-in-law used to make them for her family (apparently they originally come from Auntie Pauline’s family - and are of good Ukrainian origin) and hubby has been raving about them ever since I’ve known him. So I determined that in honor of Potatofest and E., I would attempt potato buns. Here is the result.

Potato Buns

Ingredients:
- 2 cups leftover mashed potatoes
- Unbaked bread or bun dough, enough for 12 or 13 rolls.


(I make dough in the bread machine and today used the following bun dough recipe:

1 1/4 cups warm water
1 egg
3 ½ cups all-purpose flour
1/4 cup margarine
½ cup sugar
3/4 tsp. salt
3 tsp. yeast (Quick-rise instant)

Set bread machine to dough cycle.)

Method:
- Divide dough into 12 portions
- Roll each dough piece into a rectangle/oval shape
- Spread potatoes in the center
- Enclose potatoes by folding over ends and pinching sides together in a seam.
- Place rolls, seam side down, onto greased 9 x 13 baking pan.
- Let rise 40 minutes

Bake at 350 F. oven for 30 minutes or until brown.

Sauce

Ingredients:
2 medium-sized onions, chopped
fresh dill - as much as you like
1 cup coffee cream (10%)
1 cup sour cream
salt & pepper to taste

Method:
Chop and saute onions in a bit of butter or margarine
Add chopped dill and heat through
Add creams and heat slowly, just till boiling (but don’t boil to avoid curdling)
Add salt and pepper to taste.

To serve, slather hot potato buns with sauce. Or E. said his Mom used to soak the buns briefly right in the pan of sauce before serving.

Variation:
We’ve never tried this but are thinking that mixing the potatoes with a bit of cooked and seasoned ground beef would make this a bread, meat, potatoes, vegetable and gravy meal all in one.

fungifest

Rebecca is having a potatofest. After seeing many and varied mushrooms on our walk today, I think I need to have a fungifest. I think I also need to get a fungus field guide. (Don’t worry, we just looked, we didn’t eat.)

monday mural - Zajac Ranch, Mission BC

This mural showing travel by stagecoach is painted on one of the out-buildings (the machine shed?) of Zajac Ranch in Mission, B.C. It's where our church choir had a retreat Friday night through Saturday. (Artist: Dean Lauze)

This beautiful spot at the end of a long gravel road that seems to lead nowhere is quite the place. Situated on the shore of Stave Lake, it’s mostly used for children with disabilities and life-threatening illnesses. This weekend an oncology camp – kids in various stages of cancer, along with their families – shared the camp with us.

Our modern residence building had pods of rooms with each pod containing its own bathroom – flush toilet and shower – and a big common room with couches and a fireplace. In summer, camp activities include water stuff like swimming and canoeing, horseback riding, playing (playground, gym and climbing wall) and I’ve heard they’re building a pool and a hot tub.

Firesides and programs can happen at the amphitheatre, a concreted hill with rings of slat seats and a fire pit (where we big kids roasted marshmallows Friday night).

At mealtimes, true to camp form, tables had to compete for who got to go next by doing stuff like singing songs about the counselor, looking the most royal, dancing, and putting on a cowboy act – just like old, old times! Needless to say, that rowdy group of kids – where only a few extra-pale faces and bandana’d heads gave away their condition – beat our staid bunch every time!

(More Zajac Ranch murals here.)

confessions at PT

Pictured: Sheree Plett, Jonathan Anderson, Lance Odegard with Ron Reed in the background.
Photo credit: me

Last night we went to another one of those story and song things at Pacific Theatre, this time called “Confessions.” These non-glitzy evenings are made up of readings (poems, stories, monologues, read mostly by Ron Reed, although yesterday Rebecca deBoer also read) interspersed with music. That is acoustic and various including folk, jazz, blues, country. Last night we heard from Sheree Plett, Nelson Boschman, Jonathan Anderson (also playing guitar, banjo and other instruments) and Alberta-based Lance Odegard, with backup of Nelson Boschman and Brett Ziegler- keyboards, Becca Robertson - upright bass, and Kenton Wiens - drums.

True to the confession theme, almost every piece had some aspect in it of guilt about not measuring up or failing. Ron started off by confessing how in his busy-ness he’d been neglecting Pacific Theatre and as a result was afraid the program was poorly put together. Of course by the end of the evening we realized that was all part of the act because, for me at least, the program was seamless.

Some bits I loved (in memory- not program-order):
- Ron’s crazy dream that exposed all kinds of insecurities
- Ron reading the poem “Plums.”
- Rebecca reading a piece from Traveling Mercies, where Anne Lamott confesses to getting livid with her son when he wouldn’t turn off the TV in honor of Ash Wednesday.
- Jonathan singing “Bitter Seed.”
- Ron reading a Stuart McLean story of a school dance and a girl in green and how a layering of lies led to a disappointing night, but also a lesson about how to live.
- Ron reading the story of how Christian students at one school put up a confession booth on campus in the middle of party week.
- Lance singing "Sunset is an Angel Weeping” and "Pilot Me."
- Rebecca reading a story of a girl who remembered the summer she was eight when her mother read the Gospels to them and she had a crush on Jesus – likened him to George of the Beetles, who were hugely popular right then. That crush subsided, and now she hardly believes in anything, though she wishes she could, followed by Jonathan singing “Long and Winding Road.”
- Sheree singing – in her plaintive voice – “I Am an Orphan Girl.”

(Here are the evening's credits - from Ron Reed's Pacific Theatre blog.)

I left the evening feeling wined and dined on soul food. I love these nights!

Confessions runs twice more – tonight and Saturday. (Tonight Sheree Plett is the featured singer, someone else on Sat.) If you’re in the area, go!