My Double Rainbow Revelation-by Heidi McLaughlin

            In January of each year I walk, pray and wait for God to give me two words or a phrase that will be my “teachable moments” and spotlight for the coming year.  January 2005 was the year I received a phrase that jolted my life.

            That year it was already the middle of January and I still had not received any direction and I knew it was time for another long walk. On a cold and dark evening I bundled up and walked through the vineyards and then up and down the hills of our beautiful neighbourhood.  Each time I put one foot in front of the other, I repeated this prayer: “God, do you have two words or something that will give me focus for the coming year?” I walked, waited and listened.  Halfway through my cold and dark adventure, a phrase came to me that was as clear as a banner across my forehead. “Reflect my Glory!”

            It almost took my breath away. Glory! That is a huge and mysterious phrase. God You are so Holy, Glorious and Majestic, what does that mean? How do I reflect your Glory?

            Those three words became even more ominous as I researched the word “Glory” and found it encompassed every single area of my life.

·      Everyone who is called by my name, whom I created for glory, whom I formed and made…” (Isa. 43:7 NIV).

             EVERYONE

·      “So whatever you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God” (1 Cor. 10:31 NIV).

            EVERYTHING

            After two months of studying this phrase and still not fully grasping the whole concept, I became as brave as Moses at the burning bush and said: “God, will you show me what it means to reflect Your Glory?”

            Weeks and months passed but I never gave up hope. One day in June of that year my husband Jack and I decided to go for a long walk. Even though it had been raining all morning we bravely ventured out with our umbrellas.  On this splendid spring morning the summer flowers and foliage had been washed by rain and were bursting with fresh brilliant colors. The grapes on the vines were just beginning to take shape. God was really showing off that day.

            Close to the end of our walk the sun broke through the clouds and we saw the most magnificent rainbow. If that wasn’t enough, what I saw next literally took my breath away, The most glorious second rainbow. But for the first time in my life I realized that the second rainbow was a REFLECTION of the first. It took my breath away because I knew this was God’s way of showing me what it means to “reflect His Glory.”  It showed me this: That I am a reflection of His beauty, His promises and His love. I stood in awe wanting to fall on my knees and worship.

            For me it was a revelation that I wear His coat of beauty and love wherever I go and whatever I do. With everything I do and say. I always ask myself this question: “When I write, speak or am among other people. Did I leave God’s love and beauty?”

            The discipline of asking God for two words each year has been one of the simplest, yet one of my most powerful spiritual practices. This year God gave me: Rejoice and Glorify.  I wonder what He will teach me this year.

Heidi McLaughlin lives in the beautiful vineyards of the Okanagan Valley in Kelowna, British Columbia. She is married to Pastor Jack and they have a wonderful, eclectic blended family of 5 children and 9 grandchildren. When Heidi is not working, she loves to curl up with a great book, or golf and laugh with her husband and special friends. You can reach her at: www.heartconnection.ca

Is God Like a Bad Date? by David Kitz

Like many Christians I began the year with a personal commitment to renew my prayer life. Now a few weeks into the year I can say there has been progress—no radical breakthroughs, but progress. Nevertheless, when it comes to prayer, I have this problem with timing. I'm not talking about my timing. I'm talking about God's timing. 

                                   Landestreu Church, SK, Photo by Donald Adam

I have a confession to make and here it is: I don't understand God.

Maybe a better way of putting this is to say that I have a limited understanding of God. Yes, I have studied a lot about God, and I have written a lot about Him, but my understanding is small—miniscule beside an all-knowing God of infinite wisdom.

When I pray, I want prompt answers. I run my life by a clock and a schedule, but God seems quite unimpressed by my propensity for planning. He's been known to show up when I least expect Him. Furthermore, when I desperately want Him to put in an appearance, He usually keeps me waiting. 

He's like a bad date. Speaking of a date, dear God, is that answer I want coming tomorrow, next week or next year?

I'm in good company. King David seemed to have the same problem with God. Hear his plea, "But I pray to you, LORD, in the time of your favor; in your great love, O God, answer me with your sure salvation."   

There's one thing I know. Amazing things happen in the time of God's favor. So like David, I'll call out to Him. I'll wait for Him. He is well worth waiting for, because when the LORD shows up everything changes. I change; the world changes.

Response: LORD God, favor me. Show up in your perfect timing. I need you now. I need you always. You know best. Answer me with your sure salvation. Amen.

Your Turn: Do you sometimes get impatient with God?

 David Kitz is an award-winning author and a Bible dramatist. You can learn more about how he combines writing, drama and faith at http://www.davidkitz.ca/

Bringing in the New Year—Carolyn R. Wilker

We’re nearly two weeks into 2016, but for a few moments I want to reflect on the old year that we’ve just put aside.

This past year was momentous in so many ways and sad in others. Three people in my circle of acquaintances and friends—some for as long as 30 years—died in 2015, plus one young teen who attended our church. As I mourned the loss, I also felt grateful to have known Kathy, Susan and Patricia, and Samantha. I reflected on the blessings they brought to my life. Susan was part of my early writing life and edited my first book, Once Upon a Sandbox. Kathy had invited us to her place when we were new members at the church and then to the Bible Study she often hosted. Patricia was a kind and generous neighbour who became a friend, and Samantha is gone too soon at the age of 16.

 Even while I mourn the loss, there were good times aplenty. My husband and I gained a new granddaughter, an addition to the two small grandchildren we already have. I had new publishing credits (Hot Apple Cider with Cinnamon and Tower Poetry) and requests for a column in our national denominational magazine, Canada Lutheran, and publication therein, but also invitations to do my memoir workshop in new locations to new organizations. There have also been new friendships in the making and a fabulous writer’s critique group in my corner.

 Perhaps you’ve read the verse in the Bible about “putting your hand to the plough” and not looking back. The analogy works well for ploughing where you need to keep your eye on the furrows ahead and turn carefully. I think there’s much value in assessing what you’ve brought with you from the year in order to move ahead to the next.

On December 24th, Vitaliy Fursov, a fellow Toastmaster and acquaintance, offered his planning guide to fellow Facebook friends. He wrote, “This time of the year I usually take a quiet moment and enjoy a planning session for my next year. Well, that's what I've learned to do as a professional PM (project manager?). If one fails to plan, one plans to fail. I call it a year design.”

I downloaded his year design and began to think through the categories one at a time. Among the categories were things we’ve learned, challenges we’ve faced, and things that happened during the year that we’re proud of.  Then looking toward the new year the lessons we want to take with us. Those included things we perhaps need to delegate, keep, or leave behind (which might mean quitting something).

Going through the plan gave me some clarity, especially when I needed to make a decision this week. I looked at my notes and realized what needed to stay, what I must set aside and what I wanted to accomplish this year—which is not a resolution made on the spur of New Year’s Eve, but a longer range plan for using abilities and gifts.Perhaps even continuing on with a goal not yet achieved but what is on its way to completion.

There is value in looking back in order to move ahead. Specialists in mental health and therapy have done this for ages to help their clients. We can gain from it too. It doesn’t exclude praying for guidance or letting God help us make decisions. We can make plans and sometimes the goalpost moves and alters things even while we’re serving. With those items more clearly in focus, we can move ahead.

 I know what my goals are, but do you know yours?

 www.carolynwilker.ca

Twitter vs. religious conservatives? - Denyse O'Leary

Readers may recall that Facebook’s CEO Mark Zuckerberg promised German Chancellor Angela Merkel he would do something about Facebook groups expressing concern about the way migrants are changing Germany.

The problem is, while some groups might merit expulsion for expressions of hate, once the subject is politicized, we will not likely find even-handed enforcement. Those complaining about anti-Semitism could share some discouraging stories.

It may partly be a question of volume and reach: There are more anti-Semites in the world than there are anti-migrants in Germany. And that’s the central difficulty: Enforcing rules against hate speech selectively is worse than not enforcing them at all. Even if honestly meant, it amounts to siding with the group that can produce a bigger, more monotonous volume of hate than even a system like Facebook can keep up with.

Which brings us to Twitter’s effort to power down religious “hate.” Radio host Michael Brown reports at Townhall:

I can’t imagine that anyone thinks we need more incivility and hatred and incitement on social media, and I can understand why Twitter CEO Dick Costolo feels “ashamed” at how poorly his company has handled abusers.

With that in mind, Twitter’s guidelines are understandable, stating, “You may not promote violence against or directly attack or threaten other people on the basis of race, ethnicity, national origin, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, religious affiliation, age, disability, or disease.”

But what exactly does this mean?

As a Canadian long involved in the free speech wars I can tell him what it means: If someone who has political cachet makes a big to-do about feeling attacked or threatened, their target has committed an offence.

Twitter is a digital medium; no one can reach out from the screen and upset someone’s coffee onto their lap. For that very reason, claims about “violence,” “attack,” or “threat” may be entirely metaphorical, yet potent, especially when the target is not Cool.

For some idea of what to expect, as Brown recounts,

Recently, in an eye-opening Facebook experiment conducted by the Shurat HaDin, Israel Law Center, two Facebook pages were launched simultaneously, one anti-Israeli and the other anti-Palestinian. Progressively hateful posts were uploaded to each site simultaneously, culminating with calls to kill the Jews on one page and to kill the Palestinians on the other page.

Both pages were then reported to Facebook simultaneously, after which Facebook removed the anti-Palestinian site, finding it to be in violation of Facebook’s community standards, while leaving the anti-Israeli site untouched, since it was not found to be in violation.

Family values groups can expect the same treatment as a matter of course. Mozilla developer and executive Brendan Eich was fired after an IRS employee leaked to gay lobbyists the fact that he had given money to a marriage defense group. It will sound something like this: “‘Mozilla believes both in equality and freedom of speech. Equality is necessary for meaningful speech,’ Baker said.”

There was no significant outcry from within the high tech industry at the Orwellian justification.

Groups not protected by political correctness may end up needing new methods of new media communication. But it is early days yet.

See also: Decision time for Facebook: Censor or no?

and

Whoa, Rosie! Twitter is not a family conference! We all have family problems, and let’s all just keep them off the internet.

Denyse O’Leary is a Canadian journalist, author, and blogger.

The Delights of Reading

 I confess, I have no idea what my boys and my husband are talking about sometimes. They quote movie lines at me and well, I'm just not a movie person. However, if someone reads a quote from a book I've read I'm likely going to be able to say who said it lickitty split.

Right now I'm exploring the delights of Flavia De Luce in Alan Bradley's mystery series. This precocious young girl has bewitched me with some potion or other that she's concocted in her Uncle Tar's laboratory!

I love books. I devour them. A good thick novel with a great plot and it's a two night festival of tension, suspense, plot thickening ecstasy. When I meet someone who says they don't like to read, the first thing I want to do is convince them how much they're missing!


As far back as I can remember books have been a daily part of my life. From fairy tales to laying in bed with my mom reading The Bobsey Twins and then on to The Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew - books have taken me on adventures I could never have dreamed. As a teenager I took a detour through Romance, and in my young adult years I sidelined into Sidney Sheldon and the such, but Lord of the Rings took me into serious fantasy and Brother Cadfael gave me a Morbid Taste for Bones.

When we moved four times in the last four years, my husband remarked that I needed to get rid of some of my books. I told him he would get rid of some of his old DVD's before any book left my possession. When I ran out of bookshelves, it wasn't time to thin my collection out - it was time to buy new bookshelves.

In 2012 I started enjoying the pleasure of rereading some older series of books. I finished Ellis Peter's Cadfael mysteries and then moved on to Anne Perry's Pitt and Monk series. It's like meeting up with old friends and reminiscing about old times. It is a treasure to own books and be able to read them again and again. I've lost count of the number of times I've read my Jane Austen collection.





All of this is to say that without books my desire to write would not have been nurtured, watered and fed. A good writer reads and reads and reads some more. I'm sure many writers reading this post will agree with me that reading was their first love. Writing flowed from that well of creativity brought about by being immersed in another land, another time and place.

I have to be careful, though. Reading can sometimes take the place of writing. I get all tangled up in the mystery and suspense I can't stop. Series are even worse because then you have to have the next one and the next...


Balance. That's the key.






Kathie is a writer who happens 
to be working as a Salvation Army
Officer right now in Richmond, BC.

www.kathiechiu.com

2016 is an Open Door by Rose McCormick Brandon

Jonathan Goforth

Missionaries Jonathan and Rosalind Goforth arrived in China in March 1888. Their assignment to open a new field in the northern section of Honan province was a daunting one. The young couple struggled to learn the language, adjust to the climate and raise a large family in primitive surroundings. They met many discouraging challenges, including the death of a child.

 

One day a letter arrived from Hudson Taylor, then a pioneer with China Inland Missions. He wrote:

We understand North Honan is to be your field; we, as a mission, have tried for ten years to enter that province from the south, and have only just succeeded. It is one of the most anti-foreign provinces in China . . . Brother, if you would enter that province, you must go forward on your knees.

The Goforths took Taylor’s advice. With persistence and prayer, they mastered the language. People began responding to their message of a loving Christ. A female convert filled their need of an assistant Bible teacher for women.



Rosalind Goforth

Years later, Rosalind Goforth wrote a little book that has become one of my favourites, How I Know God Answers Prayer. She wrote of miracles of revival, guidance, healing and comfort. Through the Boxer Rebellion and many other life threatening events, the Goforths proceeded on their knees.

Prayer sends tremors down the enemy’s spine. It puts courage in the weak-kneed and takes the whine and worry out of life. It resurrects the fallen and revives the discouraged.

Only God can give us courage to face impossible situations. Only He can open closed doors.

The new year, 2016, is an open door. Let's go through it on our knees.

See! I have set before you a door wide open which no one is able to shut . .  Rev. 3:8

Prayer: Father, make me alert to the opportunities You provide. Give me courage to walk through the doors You open for me. I dedicate this new year, 2016, to You. At the end of it, I want to be found Faithful to Your Word and to Your purpose for my life.

***

  Rose McCormick Brandon is the author of four books,, including Promises of Home - Stories of Canada's British Home Children, and many articles. Visit her website: http://writingfromtheheart, her faith blog, Listening to my Hair Grow and British Home Child blog, Promises of Home.

A True Gift – More than Ink and Paper (Peter A. Black)

My gratitude was real . . . and surprising, even to me.

I beamed, “Thank you Lord . . . what a gift!” Gifts come in many shapes and sizes and in various forms. We often think of gifts as ‘things’ – something we give to or receive from someone else.
 

This ‘gift’? A magazine article.* Words. Black ink on white paper. Also a coloured photo of a smiling, greying-haired woman of Asian ethnicity. I first met Debbie Sirjoosingh three decades ago and heard her address a number of conferences over the years.

I still sense the throb of passion with which she spoke of her love for the people of Ethiopia, the country where she was serving. People were dying in the tens of thousands from disease and starvation, during famine and political upheaval. She’d shared the love of Jesus there, treating the sick and distributing food. After six years, Debbie returned to her work amongst her beloved Turkana people of northwest Kenya.

This woman has been a gift from God to thousands. That ‘gift’ article updated me on her life, and I’m thrilled that her fruitful labour continues and her passion remains unabated today. An afterglow lingered in my soul right through Christmas.

Upon her original arrival at a remote area of Turkana in the early 1980s, she was greeted by 60 degree Celsius temperatures, parched land and whirling, blowing sand and a dried-up river bed and virtually no water.
 

A grass hut became home and a small rodent-infested hut her dispensary. No phone, no post office and no newspapers. Neither was there electricity or medical doctors. And yet, in her heart she belonged. “[That’s] where God desired me to serve Him: among the Turkana people . . .” she said. 

Although she didn’t know the language and had no one to teach her, Debbie learned by living and interacting with the people and loving them in practical ways. Back then, most local Turkana had never heard the name of Jesus. Many years before, a German missionary couple had shared Jesus’ message, but were long gone.

Photo Credit: SAGE, Fall 2015
www.paoc.org

“My heart danced with joy,” Debbie said, “knowing that I was sent by the Lord who loves me, to minister to a forgotten people.”

I was truly humbled when reading her words: “I worked on the ground, on bended knees, delivering babies, washing and binding very infected wounds, dividing my bed sheets to give to the naked, cooking porridge and tea to serve the hungry, excavating graves with pick-axe and shovel to bury the ones who succumbed.”

What a gift: one woman, one compassion-filled heart, alone with God!  I’d also heard some time ago that she’d dug foundations and helped erect buildings for housing practical services and ministries for the people of the community. Churches have been established and pastors raised up and equipped to minister amongst the Turkana.

Currently, with funding from praying friends and donor supporters in Canada and assistance from ERDO (denominational-based NGO) and in cooperation with Kenya Ministry of Health, much has been accomplished. Presently a solar-powered health centre is under construction. It will soon be opened to care for the medical needs of 50,000 people and will provide both in-patient and out-patient care.

Although told that there was no water in the area, through prayer Debbie and those involved were led to “the exact spot to sink a borehole,” so they now have water to support the development. She has trained Turkana students who are continuing their education in various aspects of nursing, nutrition, agriculture, and more.

This intrepid follower of Jesus is still gripped by a passionate forward-reaching grace. “My journey continues, hand in hand with Him, until eternity,” she said.  And so, one year flows into the next and Deborah Sirjoosingh continues to go with the flow, sailing on and serving wherever the will of God carries her.

Hers has been an ‘incarnational’ Christian life. And that is what Christmas is about. God was incarnate – “robed in flesh” – in Jesus Christ. He still is, in people like Debbie. More than ink and paper, God’s Best Gifts are “the word made flesh.”

~~~

*Photo credit and updated information courtesy of SAGE, Fall 2015; www.paoc.org;

Article by Deborah Sirjoosingh with Freda Myco.

 

(A shorter edition of the above post was published in Peter's weekly column, P-Pep! in The Standard Guide Advocate, Dec. 17, 2015.)

~~+~~
Author:
"Parables from the Pond" – a children's/ family book (Word Alive Press)
"Raise Your Gaze . . . Mindful Musings of  Grateful Heart (Angel Hope Publishing)
Blog 
Email

Moving On - Eleanor Shepherd

During the past week, I have had the opportunity to be with 16,000 mostly college age students and their leaders at the International Mission Conference in St. Louis, that is sponsored by InterVarsity called Urbana.  Although such a setting can be quite intimidating for an introvert like me, it was also inspiring and encouraging to see the enthusiasm and the fervour of these young people and to listen to them tell of their own faith journeys.

One thing that really struck me was the passion that these young people had for those in the world who are being persecuted for their faith.  As some of the stories of these experiences were shared the young people did not hesitate to gather around the banners of countries where people are suffering and join together in prayer for those were suffering and daily wrestled with the challenges of not having the freedoms that many of us take for granted.

One of the threads that I found running through so many of the inspirational talks and the workshops was that for faith to be real it has to be lived out in the world in which they live every day.                      There is no point saying one is a follower of Jesus and they  not treating others with dignity and

respect.  I found in these young folk a genuine desire to be what they say they are and I value that greatly.  Too often, I felt that in our generation we acted in a way that was expected, even if that did not reflect who were really were.  The lack of authenticity in that stance evoked a reaction in the next generation and I believe that as a result they are working at developing a more authentic faith, that makes things messier that we were able to tolerate.

This attempt to be authentic, also permits those of us who are older to admit that we have not always been what we said or even thought we were.  It gives us the freedom to recognize the error of our own actions and attitudes and repent of the ways in which we have placed barriers to the transmission of faith to the next generation.  It also gives us patience with them, in the knowledge that they too will not get it all right and will also need to step back at times and acknowledge their errors.  Perhaps it will not take so long for them to do so.  At any rate, as we make allowances for each other we are able to offer grace to one another.

This has been a good way for me to finish off what has been at times a difficult year, with some challenges both personally and professionally that I was not anticipating.  It also gives me hope and confidence for the year to come.  With age, I am increasingly aware that my footprint is becoming smaller and that of those who follow me is growing larger.  Watching these young people and learning from them has given me hope that their desire is as great as mine was to make this world a better place and they will exert their efforts to do so.  May I be gracious in stepping back so they can take centre stage and fulfill God's dreams for them, knowing that I can trust them to give it their best shot, and God will be as faithful in honouring their efforts as He has mine.

Word Guild Award
2011

Word Guild Award
2009