Wonder and Belief!

   

Ice sculpture at the Festival des Voyageurs 

"Your eyes are windows, into your body, If you open your eyes wide

 in wonder and belief,

Your body fills up with light." Matthew 6:22   MSG                                        

There is so much wonder around me that my eye does not see.  How often do I come to the end of a day and feel as if I have been walking in a dark cave? Today was actually one of those days... I have to admit that I often choose walking in a dark cave instead of letting my eyes focus on the light around me.

Living on the Manitoba prairies, it is impossible to ignore the light.  Winnipeg enjoys over 310 days of sun a year (about 2353 hours) . That is a lot of sun compared to the average of 1650 sun hours in Germany.

Snow-shoeing in the White Shell

Amanda standing in an ice fishing shack

 It’s cold up here, but the sun shining down on the billions of snow crystals glistening like diamonds gives the feel of a peaceful and powerful serenity that leaves me breathless and in awe….almost a feel of victory...(can you tell I have been watching the Olympics :-)

Standing on the lake...that's an ice-fishing hole!

So let’s open our eyes to “wonder and belief”. Let the windows of your heart choose to see the God given beauty around us everywhere.  The ugly is certainly there, but I can choose to put shutters on those windows.

So take more pictures, write a blog, have a "thankful list" diary, laugh more and open your eyes in Wonder and Belief"!

At the  Festival des Voyageurs in Winnipeg

Enjoying frozen maple taffy at "la Cabane au Sucre"

The French Canadian actors enjoying the festivities

Maple taffy, made by pouring maple syrup on the snow and wrapping it on a stick

Tomorrow I take off for the Democratic Republic of Congo. The sun shines brightly there, but it is a place of many dark corners. I appreciate your prayers as a team of Congolese colleagues and I prepare plans for a new school in the city of Kinshasa. I hope to blog from there next.

The Real Heroes

Feb 11, 2014

I’ve been surprised at my focus on THE COLD while living here on the prairies. Every morning since about November, I get up, open the blinds, check the thermometer outside, run upstairs, check my iPhone to confirm the minus temperatures that I already have seen, but somehow have a need to have it sink in even more and check the usually colder wind-chill factor which is also indicated on the phone.  Now I have herd that this is one of the coldest winters on record here in the Canadian prairies, but what shocks me is my “being stuck” on the COLD.  Why?  In my privileged, 1^st world life my outlook should be outward, giving, others-focused….not inward, in a self preoccupied and in my case silly survival mode.

How quick am I to judge others who do the same in focusing on their survival needs. 

Phil and I have been working more and more in developing nations.  How often have I thought. “ God helps those who help themselves”, or why do you expect us to give a helping hand when you don’t seem to be able to maintain it on your own or simply “Do something!”

My narrow focus on surviving the cold is nothing compared to real survival.  I could give you a heart wrenching list here.  Phil and I hear and see more and more of this real survival. Children who are trying to survive man’s wicked and sick desires, corruption, hunger, and economic injustice.

Who are the real heroes?   

 You read about them once in a while, usually not the ones who write autobiographies, because it is never about them, always about others. They are the people who can set aside their need for survival and can channel their love into a sacrificial making a difference for others.    

 We think of names like Mandela, Gandhi, Martin Luther King, but they are all around us.    

 You know them.  I know them.

Buingo, a Congolese brother on the school start-up committee in Kinshasa I work with. Educated in Brussels, but has chosen to return to his native country, lives on a salary well below the poverty line, couldn’t even afford a second-hand computer until my brother gave him one, works for the Congo Alliance of Churches, is helping us start a school, and oh “on the side” has opened a home for unwed mothers and has plans to open a summer camp for young Congolese juveniles.  

                                  
A woman Phil met in South Africa who has moved into a slum neighborhood to work with over 100 street kids, many who have aids and no parents. She provides for them a safe place to come to where they can learn to read and write and be shown God's love in practical ways

My 85 year old aunt Shirley, who is still taking care of my disabled 56 year old cousin Cindy without a single complaint, gives most of her money away to missions and who still sends me birthday cards.

So what am I saying to myself in this blog. 

Don’t judge, 

learn from Jesus and those people who are examples around us, 

 love and help others,

 be thankful,

 give when you can,

 ...and put on an extra layer of warm clothing if it helps to change your focus.

Winter Moments

Winter view of Lake Winnipeg

Whispers of winter....

There is something about a real winter.  I mean like the ones your grandparents told you about or the ones you read about in books that make your eyes twinkle, your hearts glad and bring a smile to your face.



Here some of my favorites:

Winter slows me down- It seems to help me make more time 
for the more important things- time God,
with family and with others.

A visit to with my godson Caleb!

Winter makes me stop and look,

 maybe take a second look 

at the little things I might have missed.

...or that go unnoticed to my hectic eye.

Winter makes me want to snuggle, enjoy the closeness and warmth of others.

Ev and Amanda

 The white gentle snow that falls

 reminds me of God's gentle and beautiful gift of grace.

 Grace that forgives,

 covers up

 and makes all things beautiful and right.

Oh the beautiful sunset reflections on the majestic white snow.
 What gentle winter beauty.

A prairie grain elevator

Well, some day I will be that grandma, who, with a twinkle in her eye and a smile on her face will tell of the real winter of 2014 on the Manitoba prairies and my heart will be full of glad memories.

A Change in Perspective

I have been challenged recently to look at the obstacles in my life from a different perspective.  This is an old lesson that I need to re-learn: “embracing a challenge as an opportunity”.  Phil used to be involved in experiential learning programs. He would take students into the mountains or wilderness, let them experience natural challenges,and guide and encourage them through it... 

…the result was growth, maturity and change.  Mentally I know that challenge develops perseverance which leads to growth and maturity. However when, from my point of view, the challenges are situations that are flawed, wrong, or don’t appear to have a long term purpose in them, such as a sickness, injustice, or…a 7-year bill for German back taxes... I seem to see myself as a “victim of the circumstance”.   I then tend to take it on as a battle (which in reality looks like a lot of complaining, bitterness and whining) instead of  seeing God as the sovereign Lord of my life who does not let anything escape His grip.  Do I believe that?  Yes I do!  So if I do, why don’t I live as if I do?  What keeps me stuck in this ”victim” perspective?

I’ve been studying the books of Acts and Romans with a wonderful group of women here in Steinbach.  This has been one of the highlights of my week. There are about 15 of us, ages 21-80, who just want to study God’s book.  It is sooo cool!!
To be honest Romans is not the book I would have chosen.  I had to take it in my grade 12 Bible class and I don’t remember it being all that exciting.  Lots of hard words like sanctification, law, faith, sovereignty... doctrines, lots of foundational principals…this a challenge for a “doer” like me. But it is exactly the right book for me right now. Last week in our teaching we were discussing the situation in which Paul wrote Romans.  It was on his 3^rd missionary journey and he had this huge longing to get to Rome, even though he knew something “bad” was going to happen there.  He knew it, people warned him, but he knew he had to go.  Not for one moment did he think that this particular “bad” (like going to prison and eventually getting killed) was not part of God’s plan. Wow! That is submission.  That is single-minded living to the fullest, not letting any scary circumstance get in the way of the course set ahead.
 

So I can look at the challenge of a 7-year German back tax bill, or Phil’s new responsibilities of providing education for the most marginalized children of our world with minimal funding, chronic back pain, even a winter of living through the second coldest winter in Manitoba in 100 years (couldn’t help but put that in there) as being circumstances that are not out of God’s control, and that he will use it all to bring about growth in us, others and His kingdom.

So what am I afraid of? I'll put on those new perspective glasses and go for the goal!

Winter trivia:

Various uses for a blow dryer here in Manitoba:

1. Freeing up frozen water pipes ( yes, my dear friend Ev was doing this last week)
2. Un-thawing frozen door knobs to get into your house
3. See video clip: 
4. Blow-drying your hair

Connections of one heart on the prairies….

Sitting in my cozy little apartment here in the Manitoba prairies, my thoughts have been jumping to children and schools all over the globe today. Phil and I woke up feeling overwhelmed, talking about his new job with Open Schools working with the marginalized street children in parts of southern Africa.  

During breakfast had a motivating Skype call with my brother Tim, who was in France visiting my parents. We discussed thoughts on how learning really takes place. Does knowledge alone make a difference? How is learning in the 21st century different?.... and how does any of this apply to kids who don’t have enough to eat, a pillow to lay their head on at night or someone who is there to care about them? Can it make a difference?  

Later in the day I was on another Skype call with TeachBeyond’s regional director to Eurasia, discussing an exciting opportunity in a very closed country to start one of the first Christian value based schools there. How exciting! So many open doors of opportunities! 

One of our school projects in Congo

Just a couple of minutes ago I was looking into the logistics of my next flight to Kinshasa in the Congo to help in the planning of a school there.  

Why take on these challenges?  Why invest in projects that most days seems to me like an uphill battle; fighting against the lack of finances, governments that don’t support the values we believe to be central for true transformation, our own feelings of inadequacy?

Well Phil reminded me why the other day. He said: Because if teaching the 10 year old girl who lives on a garbage dump, to read and do some basic math can perhaps keep her from having to sell her body several times a day to buy a little bit of food to survive, or if helping start a school in Congo can be one step closer to helping influence a healthy  change in that country which has been exploited so many times by other countries, then it is worth our trying"……Example of God using the “underdog” flood my mind and lead me to persevere and in faith keep saying: " Yes Lord, I am willing."

…We passed this sign the other day on our way to Winnipeg.

 At first it made me chuckle. What? Way up here?  In the cold? The heart of the North American continent? Yes it is true. Geographically it is and I can also say: a beautiful, open, generous, gracious, warm and welcoming heart it is indeed.

 My thoughts took it one step further. I thought about my day and the connections I made, just “little me”, with the globe around me. I want the Jesus in my heart to connect with the world around me. Maybe a little bit like the heart of Winnipeg.

... Amazing that God uses us to connect His heart to others.