Catching Up

A comment I received from Steve the other day got me thinking that I'm fairly inconsitent with my posting here, so the following is just a catch-up of random things that have been going on recently:

The future of the SA

It seems to me that the SA (at least in the Western world) is dying on its feet, although there are some exceptions to this. Many of the systemic problems in the Army are ignored or reacted to when things have gone too far. About 10 years ago, at a series of lectures at the CFOT in Toronto, Don Posterski gave the warning that the one thing that could cripple the Army as it entered the 21st Century would be the outdated system of hierarchy that it follows.

At a recent officers' prayer fellowship in Sudbury discussion at lunchtime got around to the latest article in the Officer magazine by the General. In this article he basically said that the question of the sacraments would not be reopened during his tenure and that it would be up to TCs and DCs to make sure that officers in their jurisdiction followed the Army line in this. I await my call. Anyway, during the discussion an officer of over 20 years stated that he didn't like the way the 'new breed of officer' were trying to change the Army in the way that they were. Ironically, many of those seeking change are older officers and/or generational Salvationists concerned for the future of the Army. Presumably my colleague is happy at the mediocrity of the Army in our Division and elsewhere.

I had high hopes for the rumoured changes within our Territory, but when they were announced it was quite the disappointment as they were nowhere near as radical as they needed to be. Word is that the man at the top balked at the whole package and offered permission if the plan was shrinked and called a trial. The fact that one person can have that power still baffles me. Gotta love that hierarchy!

For over a year now we have been trying to be proactive in our location, but have continually banged our heads against the brick walls of red tape. We are no further ahead now than we were this time last year and have just been asked to start the whole process over again. Gotta love that system!

Anyway enough of that stuff for now (for a good read on the future of the church in general click here).

Bulgaria

I spent a few days last week fundraising for an upcoming missions trip to Bulgaria. In exactly one months time I leave for Bulgaria for a two week mission with my friend and local pastor, Jeff Harris. We will be spending most of our time in Samokov and a few days in Sofia and Kurdzhali. In Samokov a lot of our work will be in an orphanage there and at a gypsy church, as well as partnering with some local churches. We fly out on 14 May with Alitalia to Sofia, via Milan and return the same way on 30 May. I'm looking forward to the challenge and change.

Movies

With the weather being so lousy lately, I have been watching quite a few movies, both old and new. Some of these, in no particular order, are as follows:

'Babel' - enjoyed this more than I thought I would. Interesting how the connections were made, showing that in some aspects we do live in a small world.
'The Departed' - not for the faint-hearted. I can see why it won the Oscar.
'300' - good guy movie. Short on philosophy, long on action.
'The Deer Hunter' - one of my all-time favourites. Picked up the DVD recently, which is why I watched it again.
'Stranger Than Fiction' - quite funny. Different type of role for Will Ferrell.
'Children of Men' - must see movie. Very thought-provoking. Very different from the book, which is also a good read.
'Little Miss Sunshine' - funny, crude and unpredictable.
'Flags of Our Fathers' - not what I thought it would be, which made it a lot better than I expected. I want to see the other one now.
'Bowling For Columbine' - had seen it before, but bought the DVD and watched it again. Michael Moore is great; Charlton Heston is soooo scary.

Easter

We were asked out for brunch after church on Easter Sunday. It turned out to be more than brunch and better than church. We were asked to our friends', Jeff and Ginny, house along with a number of their other friends. There were about 20 of us there, including children. They do 'church' in their house for their family every Sunday, but wanted to share with some of their friends for Easter. The food was good and the fellowship was excellent. I'd love to be a part of more of this informal type of gathering and it is the kind of thing we had been hoping to move towards with our church.

Sports

What can be said about the Leafs that hasn't been said already? The Raptors are the team to watch just now. The Jays are off to a great start. Rangers should be a force to reckon with next year, as Walter and Ally will get to start off the season.

Family

Pamela is in Toronto this weekend for a course and will be back tomorrow. She hits the big 4-0 in a couple of months time. Emily and Cameron are doing fine and continue to be lots of fun. Everyone in Scotland seem to be doing okay.

Well, that's probably enough catching up for now.

Busy, busy, busy...

Crazy days just now. Hardly time to catch your breath! I can't wait for the 25th to come around so I can get off the merry-go-round.

This month has been a blur. Every day since late November (apart from Sunday) has been Christmas kettles and all that goes with that. They are doing as well as last year. Last Wednesday was Cameron's school concert. Tomorrow night is Emily's. On Friday I finished off a Psychology course. Tuesday was packing Christmas hampers and a Food Bank board meeting. There is the constant ringing of the church phone people looking for help, as well as those offering their help. Three weeks ago Moose FM, our local radio station, called us to ask if we would like to be one of the recipients of their Christmas Radiothon. We would get all the money raised in Elliot Lake and the North Shore/Algoma and another group would get all the money raised on Manitoulin Island. This took place on Friday and Saturday of this weekend. It was unexpected, but we were glad to be thought of.

I met with Bob Alexander, who is one the main DJs/announcer at the station. He told me that this was something that his management had said they had to do, as all the northern stations affiliated with Moose were doing it. He said he chose us for all the work we do at Christmas, making sure that the children have a good Christmas. He did warn me, though, that in the past couple of months they had done three high profile Radiothons and that his fear was that the people of our area were all Radiothoned out. We figured that if we got about $2,000.00 that would be great.

On Friday I didn't have to spend much time at the station, but I was there for the arrival of the police cruiser that was to be filled with toys and for the raising to the roof of the other announcer, Dave Chisholm, who had decided to spend as much of the Radiothon on the roof of the station. He said he would come down when the total reached $10,000.00. Everyone figured the guy would be up there for good, but more of that later.

On Friday the Radiothon commenced at 6am and ran until 2pm. When I got to the station just before 10 the total was already over $2,000.00. Maybe we had estimated a little low, but we'd just have to wait and see. At 3pm the police cruiser arrived at the church. It was packed with stufeed toys - maybe 500 as a rough estimate. They are in our church basement now and we will endeavour to get them all our by the end of this week. At the end of the first day the total was over $10,000.00! Dave Chisholm decided to stay on the roof until 24 hours was up. In the end he came down after 26.
We spent all day Saturday at the radio station, along with a number of volunteers from our church, as well as others from the community. Things got off to a slow start on Saturday and Bob and I put it down to Friday going so well. We had local singers and choirs coming on both days to sing on air and it was all a very festive time.

By lunchtime on Saturday the total was at close to $13,000.00 and we figured we might be fortunate to reach $15,000.00 by 4pm, but even now things had gone beyond our wildest dreams. All day we were able to eat some great food donated for the Radiothon workers and volunteers by M&M Meatshops and the Pizza Gallery.

Between 2 and 3pm things just started to go crazy again. At one point Bob asked me make some comments live on air and I was practically lost for words. At 4pm when the Radiothon went off the air we had just broken the $20.000.00 mark. The breakdown was about $6,000.00 for the Manitoulin group and $14,000.00 for the Elliot Lake SA. The whole experience was overwhelming and Bob says we will definitely be doing it again next year.
Today was our Church Christmas Lunch, which took place after our Worship this morning. Thankfully, we have two couples in the church who take on the task of organising this each year. It was very enjoyable.

This week will continue to be all go, go, go. Tomorrow we will start working on the tax receipts from the Radiothon - everyone who donated $10.00 or more is entitled to a tax receipt. Also tomorrow we are taking last minute applications for those who missed the Christmas Hamper applications in November. They will get their assistance on Wednesday, whilst the hampers will be given out on Thursday and Friday (220+ families at the last count). Tomorrow I will be back at the radio station to pick up the pile of toys that were brought in over the 2 days of the Radiothon, followed by a couple of runs to the TD bank to get the toys that have been donated by their customers and clients. Thankfully we now have a minivan! On Tuesday we will be getting the toy hampers ready for giving out on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. In between all of this I will have to work out getting some toys out to some of the communities along the north shore. There's also the small matter of 2 church services toprepare for next Sunday. The one at night is our annual Christmas Eve Candlelight Service, which I always enjoy.

Whilst all of this has been going on, we have also been getting the floors in the quarters (our house) replaced, which involved lots of packing of things during the latter part of last week. They started on Friday and will finish up on Tuesday, hopefully. The kids are a little ticked, because we have not been able to decorate for Christmas or get our tree up becuase of this, but that will happen either Tuesday or Wednesday night.

Once Christmas day comes around we will finally be able to relax.