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So, yesterday a Facebook and text message arrived in front of me.  A friend asked if I would like to show up at a prayer time this morning at 6:00.  At the church. 

Well, I was going to be at the church anyways, so what is a few hours earlier.  Of course, when winter light doesn’t appear until 8:30 . . .

At the same time, I have been working (said in the positive sense) on understanding and applying prayer in my life.  In October I spent a week of personal retreat – one day especially devoted to prayer and fasting.  I also picked up, at that time, a startlingly green notebook (which I can’t lose) to use to journal prayer requests.  And I started to pray for “the fives”.  Each month I pray specifically for those in leadership in ministry (I started with five – and renew the list each month – right now the list is over 15 and growing). 

So, the idea of prayer was not out of my mind – in fact, quite there.  On Sunday, our Associate Pastor asked for people to show up for prayer the next day at 6:00 in the morning.  Six people showed.  And they decided to also pray on Thursday at 6:00.  I think there is a movement about to happen here!

The format was simple.  Assign a prayer request to each person.  Not a lot of explanation, just pray!  Then, the whole group prayed out loud together until things died down (and they just do!).  Then go around the circle and assign new requests.  Today we prayed for church leadership, other churches in town, for our community, for the rural municipality around Kindersley, for missionaries, for those sitting in the circle.  In 40 minutes we covered a large amount of prayer points.

God loves to hear from us.  And in turn we will hear from God.  I wonder what the coming days and months will hold?

I have volunteered recently to work with a group of people.  This group follows after a personal interest of mine – preservation of history.

One of my graduate degrees focused on archival work.  The opportunity was given to me to be employed while taking my schooling.  All I had to do (and did) was itemize the group of papers that had arrived in the provincial archives.  Following that, my next place of employment allowed me to help gather and work with the archives of the institution and denomination.  After several years, I was also given the opportunity to serve as president of the provincial archival society.

For almost two decades I have quietly laid aside the active part of this passion for history.  Of course, anyone who listens to my sermons or probes my understandings will run across “story”, which is most often related to understanding and applying history.

Now, I am back into the fray of history. 

This time the entrance back seems to be more related to administration than research and study.  The museum was looking for board members.

Serving on a board is different than researching.  The first thing that I have done is visit with the manager of the museum, and contact the chair of the board to get some sense of this particular board.  And last night I read the last three years of minutes.

I am surprised by the opportunities, and yet inclined to think that more could be done.  Having served on boards for years, I realize the culture of the board needs to head outward and not in a maintenance mode.  I’m interested to see where this board will go.  An adventure, to say the least (or the most!).

When I talk to people I am constantly translating. 

First nations culture is different than my culture.  Relationship is vital and time is not as important.  I remember preaching at church services where start time was 1:30 – OK, more like 2:00, when everyone had arrived.  Or talking with those in an Asian culture where community is first consulted and always in the back of your mind.  Shame is placed on families, not just on the individual.

Imagine the time that is required to develop a deep relationship.  Imagine the energy that must be consumed.  Imagine the resources that must be available.

Now, imagine a culture that is similar to your own.  Time, energy and resources are quickly allocated to other than mere understanding of each other.  I think that was one of the reasons that my marriage to Jill was so successful.  Yes, we had our differences, but I knew they were differences.  I didn’t have to read between the lines or check out whether I was on the same page.

So, in courting this time around, I realized that a common culture would alleviate the time, energy and resources factor.  After a few days of someone finishing your sentences and finding that mind reading seemed to be the order of the day, I became comfortable with exploring the future rather than spending all my time on mining the past.

Being over 5o, I am much more open to time being outside of chronology, of energy being focused and resources being well used. 

Common culture is not a bad thing!!

When someone falls 60 feet (20 meter) from the sky, what usually happens?  No parachute.  No net.  Just sand at the bottom (and somewhat packed at that).

You can hear the story of Nick Gilbert and how God preserved him.  The story was related in our church service yesterday. 

Nick is not an imported speaker.  He is one of our congregation.  His story is taken from a real life adventure while he was quading in Idaho.  Not too long ago. 

And he lived to tell the story.  He’s walking and talking and hugging his kids.

Check out the story here:

http://www.sermoncloud.com/kindersley-alliance/nicks-ordeal/