Arrival

I have arrived in beautiful Courtice, Ontario (a suburb of Oshawa). I'm staying at my friends' house there. Here are a few highlights of the trip so far:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pgX-hiQdfFw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PJQVlVHsFF8

People I haven't seen in a while

Recently one of my friends that I met on my trip to Uganda last year came to visit Edmonton. (She lives in Vernon.) We got together last night along with another person from that trip (who lives in Edmonton), her boyfriend, and a cousin of the one from Vernon. Incidentally, this cousin has the same first name as the Vernon girl's second-cousin who was also on the Uganda trip. So when she emailed me last week to arrange a time to meet, I was a little confused about who I'd be seeing. And it turned out that I'd met her cousin 4 or 5 years ago at Navigators (a Christian ministry at the U of A). Small world, isn't it?

On Friday I leave for a week and a half in Toronto. I'm going with two friends and we're visiting friends of ours who moved there two years ago. (I also visited them last summer for a few days and mentioned them on this blog.) I'm excited to see them again and travel with these friends. I don't know if I'll get the chance to do a blog update next week, but I'll tell you about the trip sometime.

My Car's Thermometer

Every car develops some personality over time, but most of the time that means they're working worse. But in my case, my car actually developed a built-in thermometer all on its own. It can only tell the difference between below freezing and above freezing temperatures, but it's a start. Here's how it works: if the ABS warning light is on, the temperature is above 0°C, and if the light is off the temperature is below 0.

This started last year in the spring. I thought I might want to get my anti-lock brakes fixed before winter came, but the day the first significant snowfall came, the warning light stopped turning on and the anti-lock function on my brakes started working. (By the way, with the ABS light on, my brakes are still fine, they just don't do the anti-lock thing. If the light was blinking, then I'm in real danger, but that hasn't happened.) They worked for most of the winter and maybe stopped working for a while during a thaw. For the part of spring when the temperature was below zero at night and above zero during the day, the warning light would be off on my drive to work and on on my drive home.

Now I know what you're thinking: if ABS isn't working for half the year, my car is getting worse, not better. But who needs ABS when the temperature is above zero?

"Trying is the first step toward failure"--Homer Simpson

Back in January I mentioned that I would be involved in starting a new small group Bible/book study at church. After getting it started a month later than planned and then meeting for a couple months, we decided to call it quits. We'd had some interesting discussions, but in the end it wasn't attracting people and we agreed that it wasn't really meeting a need in our lives. All of us were already attending the same "Discovery Group" (basically Sunday school) on Sundays, and some similar discussions were going on there.

So was it a waste? I don't think so. Since it was a smaller group than the Sunday one, I think we each got a chance to say more, and we probably got to know each other better than we would've otherwise. And even in failure, we've learned some lessons that could help in the future.

In a way, it's a bit of a relief to have Wednesday evenings free. One of my hopes in getting this group going was to help build a stronger sense of community among some people at the church and have a place where we're free to discuss what's on our mind and to grow freely, not just in the direction that certain leaders want us to grow. I think that is already happening at this church, so if we don't need Wednesday night to make it happen, we might as well spend more time with friends and family instead (including the same friends who went to the Bible study).

Actually, I've come to appreciate my church more over the last year. As I've dealt with doubts about God and developed somewhat more liberal religious views, I've needed to learn to care less about what other Christians think. While I haven't told everybody at church a whole lot and I haven't told anybody everything, it seems like I'm still accepted and not thought of as a second-class Christian when I do voice my opinions or talk about struggles. And sometimes other people have similar things on their minds.

Senate

Let's face it, Alberta's 2004 Senator-in-Waiting election was a joke. Most people figured the winners would never actually be appointed to the Senate, and only the Progressive Conservatives and Alberta Alliance ran candidates. It's hard to take an election seriously when all the political parties come from the same side of the political spectrum. I couldn't blame Paul Martin for ignoring the election results.

(A little background in case you aren't familiar with this: In the Canadian senate, Senators are appointed by the Prime Minister; they aren't elected. But occasionally, Alberta elects "Senators in Waiting" to send a message to the Prime Minister that many people in our province want an elected Senate, and to say who we want our next Senators to be.)

Now Stephen Harper has said he'll appoint Bert Brown (the winner of our 2004 election) to the Senate. Stephane Dion criticized this move saying Harper may not have picked the best person for the job. I don't know much about Bert Brown and I don't remember if I voted for him, so I don't know if Dion is right or not. (Of course I'm such a good judge of character that I would never vote for anyone who wasn't the best candidate.) But ultimately I'm glad Harper is appointing Brown because this should lend some legitimacy to future Senate elections. If Harper is still Prime Minister when that time comes (and I'm not saying whether I would vote for Harper or not), maybe the Liberals and NDP will take this vote more seriously and run candidates. A serious, well-fought race with a wide spectrum of candidates would be harder for any Prime Minister to ignore.

Two Short Stories

After hearing about the high number of murders we've had in Edmonton in the last few years, sometimes it's nice to hear some other perspectives. Yesterday the company served lunch for everyone at work, and I was eating with a couple of mechanical engineers. One of them is from Toronto and got transferred here for six months. She went to get some more food, and when she came back she remarked, "People are so friendly here." Someone had stopped to talk to her as she was going to get food, but it sounded like she finds Albertans in general quite friendly.

So there you have it. Despite all the murders, Edmonton (and area) is still a very friendly city.

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Today my church put on a first aid course for the people who work with the youth and kids, so I was there. Some of the youth in our church are leaders in the children's ministry, so they were there too. At one point, when we were practicing bandaging major wounds, one of them started singing "Nothing But the Blood of Jesus."

My first aid partner remarked, "Definitely church kids."

A Stranger on the Road

One Sunday a long time ago, two men were walking to the village of Emmaus, seven miles from Jerusalem. As they walked along they were talking about everything that had happened recently. As they talked and discussed these things, another man suddenly came and began walking with them. They didn't recognize him.

He asked them, “What are you discussing so intently as you walk along?”

They stopped short, sadness written across their faces. Then one of them, Cleopas, replied, “You must be the only person in Jerusalem who hasn’t heard about all the things that have happened there the last few days.”

“What things?” the stranger asked.

“The things that happened to Jesus, the man from Nazareth,” they said. “He was a prophet who did powerful miracles, and he was a mighty teacher in the eyes of God and all the people. But our leading priests and other religious leaders handed him over to be condemned to death, and they crucified him. We had hoped he was the Messiah who had come to rescue Israel. This all happened three days ago.

“Then some women from our group of his followers were at his tomb early this morning, and they came back with an amazing report. They said his body was missing, and they had seen angels who told them Jesus is alive! Some of our men ran out to see, and sure enough, his body was gone, just as the women had said.”

Then the stranger said to them, “You foolish people! You find it so hard to believe all that the prophets wrote in the Scriptures. Wasn’t it clearly predicted that the Messiah would have to suffer all these things before entering his glory?” Then he took them through the writings of Moses and all the prophets, explaining from all the Scriptures the things concerning Jesus.

By this time they were nearing Emmaus and the end of their journey. The stranger acted as if he were going on, but they begged him, “Stay the night with us, since it is getting late.” So he went home with them. As they sat down to eat, he took the bread and blessed it. Then he broke it and gave it to them. Suddenly, their eyes were opened, and they recognized him. It was Jesus! God had kept them from recognizing him until that moment. And at that moment he disappeared!

They said to each other, “Didn’t our hearts burn within us as he talked with us on the road and explained the Scriptures to us?” And within the hour they were on their way back to Jerusalem. There they found the eleven disciples and the others who had gathered with them, who said, “The Lord has really risen! He appeared to Peter.”

(Adapted and mostly copied from Luke 24:13-34, NLT)

Happy Easter! May you find that your deepest hopes that were dashed will be fulfilled after all.