It’s Monday evening the 16th of November.  My world has returned to normal.  Elaine is back on the island.  Many of you know the pull of grand-mothering as a powerful thing.  We have two beautiful granddaughters in Fredericton and occasionally Elaine is called to spend a few days doing what seems to come so natural to her.

Earlier today I edited Harley’s video from yesterday’s service.  It was a pleasure going through the presentation again.  I was reminded of how ready young people seem to be to respond to a call of their own, one that is equally as powerful as grand-mothering.  You can call it whatever you might but that responsiveness is inspirational to me.  I was reminded of it again during the Remembrance Day service at the high school.  So many who went off to war were very young people with full lives to live and yet they laid it all on the line for a cause that was bigger than they were.  Wow … just, WOW!

Jesus stirred that passion in people as well.  Young fishermen walked away from their livelihood.  They left their traps (nets) and followed him.  His call, … “If any man would come after me let him deny himself, take up his cross and follow me.”  Jesus would have been a breath of fresh air in the stagnant, closed religious system of the day.  He was a legitimate miracle worker.  You never knew what might happen when you followed Jesus, as a groupie or an apprentice.

All that was exciting but the other part was terrifying … self-denial and even self-sacrifice.  That’s what crosses conjured in jesus’ day … images of brutal dehumanizing death.  Still they followed.

So going to India is no big deal to someone who has a reason to go.  It would have to be people and their desperate circumstance, the belief that one person can be a difference and in turn make one.  Thanks Harley, for the reminder.

There were 22 kids there yesterday and several workers who went home very tired.  They wanted to be where they were yesterday as well.  People like Gayla, Carolyn, Kirby, Margaret and other invisible servants who do this week after week.  Thank you for your faithfulness and your love for children … most of all for your love for God demonstrated in your investment in these young lives.  (Rosalie … thanks for filling in yesterday as well.  If I missed anyone I am so sorry.)

Glenn … thanks for shooting the video and running sound … really.

Jon … thanks for leading us in worship … your own style … your own way … your own heart.  The Christmas carols were appreciated by all those waiting for the season to break into high gear.  You chose those songs because you knew that someone could be helped to worship by hearing them and singing along.  You likely wouldn’t have chosen them except to try to minister.  I appreciate that desire to serve.

I was at the Shoebox Service last night, accidentally on time.  A confession … I posted the wrong time for the service.  My mother and I entered a couple minutes past six o’clock and things had just started.  Heather B came 20 minutes early and was 10 minutes late.  I prayed, “Lord please don’t let any other Lifers come and find themselves late.”  I really did pray that.  And then 5 minutes early and 25 minutes late, along came Glenn and Margaret.  I tried my best to apologize later.

I finished the day with a soul glow.  I am not totally sure why.  Just the belief that in some way, God was pleased yesterday.  I want it to be like that every day in the magnificent or the mundane.