Church

Our seniors group, the XYZ of life, had Valentine’s today.

We recognize this is not Valentine’s, but its a good excuse.

Three couples were asked to share how they met, and finally got married.  The oldest couple are over 60 years married, the middle couple were married in the ’60’s, and the youngest couple’s ages combined don’t even add up to 60.

All saw God’s hand in it all.  The youngest couple met at school, the oldest couple’s wife was a school teacher, and the midde couple believe in school.

What struck me — beyond the inspiration that was given (and I do mean inspiration — I was blown away by married love!).

One couple was married on November 4th.  He was a farmer.  My dad was a farmer – he married my mom on November 3rd.  Something there about hard work and appropriate seasons!  Another couple ended up as farmers, even though the wife thought she would never marry one.  And the last couple met at an agricultural school — no need to explain about farming around here!

At the meeting I ran across another couple who’s family descendents have lived on the homesteaded farm for 101 years.  Almost makes me want to run out and buy my grandfather’s old farmstead (which in actual kilometers is closer to my current work than where we currently live).  I wonder if I could sell that to my wife — NOT!

AWANA track victory is in sight!  This is the car Dagen and I prepared.  First plan was to make a tank — in this case a camoflage vehicle.  Take a close look — this will not only serve as a protection vehicle, the speed will be incredible (or so we hope!!).

The shape of the church is a centuries old discussion.

My ancestors, in the middle of the last millenium, found themselves pushed out of both the Catholic church and the emerging Protestant Church.  We now call them the Radical Reformation — they were anabaptists.

I’m not sure what their church services were like.  I understand they practiced baptism, communion of some type, there was lots of preaching and indoctrination because of the “radicalness” of their approach.  They met in churhes (where permitted), in forests, at homes — wherever they could.  Perhaps for that reason I am not frustrated by those who have been pushed outside the institutional church. 

OK — there is some frustration!  I watch some people isolate themselves.  They are no earthly good in a society that needs “salt and light.”  I watch others maintain “victim” status, never dealing with real and perceived hurt, needing ministry and not giving ministry.  I even wonder when people will realize that everything has a structure — the question is not — “Let’s start a group without structure, or discipline, or expectations!” — ain’t gonna happen!!

Greg, your previous comment regarding the church in China is well worth considering — “ the hunger of believers to exercise their faith in community with worship, Word and sacraments overcame the loss of their ‘structure’. ” 

The current struggle within the Salvation Army church is also worth considering.  The Salvation Army dispensed with sacraments (baptism and communion) and kept worship and word — calling their meetings holiness meetings.  Now, a century or more later they are asking if sacraments need to be reinstated.  Or was worship and word enough?

Last year I worked with Dagen Armstrong to prepare an “AWANA” car.

You begin with a block of wood, a proposed design, some old paint, drills, planes and general woodworking tools.  The shape begins to emerge from the wood.

Our previous design was a race car with flame stripes surrounding the side panels.  We (note the “we” — I guess I’m taking a little more credit than I should) placed second in the race — a sloped track with four cars racing side by side.

This year we decided to work on this once again. 

This time the idea was to create a tank.  We chose a picture or two off the Net.  Google images provided sites to view — within seconds we had a design and colour scheme.

To the basement we proceeded.  The drill whirred, the plane scraped and the jig saw chomped off all the pieces that didn’t fit.  We then primed the shell and chose our paints from leftovers stashed behind a wall.  Monday we will paint again.  By the end of the week I’ll be displaying the marvel of a “car” on this website!  Tune in then!!