Extreme Weather Shelter

Last Thursday morning, as I was arriving at the church, our hard-working Extreme Weather Shelter Coordinator was just leaving after our building had been open as a shelter for 10 nights in a row. "April, you missed all the fun," she said. "This is church!"

As one of three churches involved in Abbotsford's Extreme Weather Shelter, Emmanuel's turn to be open was the month of February. In this ministry, when the temperature dips below freezing, people who are homeless go first to the Salvation Army for some basic assessment—those with the most needs can stay at the Sally Ann, and others are driven to stay overnight at one of the three churches.

February began with a few warmer days, but beginning Feb. 9 there was a spell of colder weather, so Emmanuel was open as a shelter for 10 nights in a row, starting at 8 in the evening until about 8 in the morning. Kathy tried to organize our volunteers so we had 3 adults who would stay overnight, with 2 out of the 3 being men. Two or more additional volunteers would come in the morning to make breakfast. For the 10 nights we were open, we were able to provide shelter for between 4 and 12 people including 2 women. 

Taking part in the Extreme Weather Shelter has been a very significant new ministry for us as a church. Our volunteers included both young and older adults. It included long-time members of the church, others who have joined just in the last year, and one couple who just happened to be visiting Emmanuel one Sunday morning when our volunteers were meeting and who wanted to be a part of it too. It’s taken us out of our comfort zone in many ways—groups within the church who normally use the fireside room and banquet room in the evenings have had to adjust; volunteers have sat and talked with people who are homeless that they might not otherwise talk to; we’ve been asking new questions: like why are shelters open only when it’s freezing outside—what about when it’s 1 degree and pouring rain? With over 230 people who are homeless in Abbotsford, why do so few come in from the cold even when the shelters are open? What kind of follow up will there be with the people that we’ve been meeting? Can we continue to build on these relationships? Where will God lead us next in this?

Feb 23, 2009 at 6:42 AM

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Downsizing but not really

Gary and I did something else very special for Valentines Day—we bought a townhouse!

Okay, it actually took longer than the one day, and we’re still really in the midst of all of the arrangements and paperwork, but yes it’s true, we’re planning to “downsize”—no more yardwork (which is just one of the many advantages of what will become our new home!), but then again not really downsizing since ironically we’ll actually have more square feet inside the townhouse than we have in our present house!

It all started last summer when we had days and days of hot weather, and Gary was longing for a basement where he could cool off. But we quickly dismissed any thoughts of moving as too much trouble, and besides there is so much that we enjoy about our house—including the garden-fresh rhubarb in the spring and our blueberry bushes that Gary carefully nets each summer and provide us with enough blueberries for the whole year. I’m already starting to miss these and many other things! (Although, I’m wondering, maybe I could still grow rhubarb at the townhouse in a pot on the outside deck. . . . )

But as I flipped through the real estate paper the other day, I saw a townhouse in our area with a basement, so we decided to call our realtor (who helped us buy our present house and our townhouse before that, and who has faithfully sent us a calendar every year for the last 17 years), and everything has gone so fast since then!  Fortunately though we're going for a long closing date, so we won't be moving until May.

Feb 20, 2009 at 9:50 AM

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Rest In Peace, George Schmidt

When we first moved to Clearbrook, George and Karen Schmidt were among the first people to welcome us to the area and to Columbia Bible College where Gary and I were both teaching. At his funeral on Saturday (Valentines Day!), it was very evident how welcoming and encouraging he had been to many others over the years.

He will be greatly missed by his family and many friends, by all those who looked to him as a mentor, by the Level Ground Mennonite Church that was his church home, by the wider church and community where he was very active in his support for evangelism and church development, leadership training, and addiction recovery.

I still have an email from George on my computer that wishes us God’s blessing and guidance in our Vietnamese ministry and thanks us for our leadership and support in forming this new group. Thank you, George, for your encouraging spirit. Rest in peace.

Feb 19, 2009 at 6:31 AM

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More on identity and vision

I read in the January 6, 2009 issue of The Mennonite: "Our identity as Mennonites begins with Menno Simons . . . . " I was so struck by that beginning that I could hardly read the rest of the sentence!

I suppose that's true historically--that prior to the time of Menno Simons, there weren't any Mennonites--but theologically speaking, our identity as Mennonites surely begins with Jesus Christ.

In the same way, our identity as a church needs to begin with Jesus--not with Menno Simons, not with the Mennonite church tradition that has developed since then, not with the denominational vision, but with Christ Jesus, the divine Word of God made flesh, who lived and died, who was raised from the dead and ascended into heaven, who now reigns and is present with us through the Holy Spirit.  That's where our identity begins as Mennonites and Christians.  Amen!

Feb 13, 2009 at 8:38 PM

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Church and Technology

The Spring 2009 issue of Leader is out, and I see that my words have come back to haunt me! In the “Leader Tip: starting a pastor’s blog,” I list as one of the do’s:

“Do post a new entry at least once a week”—which if you check the dates on my postings, you’ll see that I haven’t quite followed my own advice. Mea culpa—I’m guilty! So let me add another “do” to the list that underlies all of the others: Do be flexible so that time at the computer enhances life and ministry and doesn’t become some kind of (less than adequate) replacement!  (p.s. to read the whole issue of Leader, please check out the church library)

Feb 7, 2009 at 8:44 AM

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More on driving a hybrid

Now that the new-car smell is beginning to fade, and we’ve had our first fender bender (totally not our fault I hasten to add, since someone else backed into us in a parking lot!), I thought I’d share some of the things we’ve learned:

- it takes time to get used to driving a new car – at least, I’ve found that after almost exclusively driving a Saturn for the last 15 years, I still have to think about how to turn the Prius on and off, but since Gary drives it more, he says it’s already second nature to him :-) 

- whenever we drive with my mom, she has to sit in the back, since whenever she sits in the front passenger seat, she’s so small that the Prius registers the seat as empty!

- Gary has been diligently figuring out the mileage for every tank of gas, and he says it’s quite consistently between 50 and 55 mpg (which confirms what I read in a recent edition of Consumer Reports). That compares to 37 mpg for our 2000 Saturn. (sorry, for those of you more familiar with litres/100km, you’ll have to make that conversion yourself!)

- Gary says the gauge showing fuel consumption has helped him drive more slowly—since by avoiding jack rabbit starts and going more slowly, the gauge shows how the Prius uses the battery instead of the gas engine

- We really enjoy our Prius, but even with such a great product and a long history of financial success, Toyota is predicting its first loss in 70 years, yet another indication of the world-wide economic distress.
 

Feb 7, 2009 at 7:48 AM

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