Category Archive: Family

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Praising Your Kids

This is a fascinating article about how and especially how not to praise your children.  Lots of important stuff here!  [HT: Mark Horne].

Dirt & Anchovies

At our Wednesday night Bible studies, I often start with a short story or a brief essay, partly because I like reading to people (well, maybe that’s the main reason, but let’s keep that a secret) but also because I want the members of my congregation to have a sense that what we’re studying in the Bible is tied to the rest of life and because my calling here is not simply to “plant a church” but to build a culture.

I’ve recently been enjoying Brian Doyle’s collection of essays entitled Leaping: Revelations and Epiphanies and so, last night, I read to the group this essay, “Eating Dirt,” which begins like this:

I have a small daughter and two smaller sons, twins. They are all three in our minuscule garden at the moment, my sons eating dirt as fast as they can get it off the planet and down their gullets. They are two years old, they were seized with dirt-fever an instant ago, and as admirably direct and forceful young men, quick to act, true sons of the West, they are going to eat some dirt, boy, and you’d better step aside.

Alas, this version of the essay is shorter than the one in the book.  Only traces of these paragraphs appear in that earlier version:

It occurs to me that we all eat dirt.  Fruits and vegetables are dirt transformed by light and water.  Animals are vigorous dirt, having dined on fruit or vegetables or other animals who dine on flora.  Our houses and schools and offices are cupped by dirt and made of wood and stone and brick — former dirt.  Glass is largely melted sand, a kind of clean dirt.  Our clothing used to be dirt.  Paper was trees was dirt.  We shape dirt into pots, plates, mugs, vases.  We breathe dirt suspended in the air, we crunch it between our teeth, on spinach leaves and fresh carrots, we wear it in the lines of our hands and the folds of our faces, we catch it in the linings of our noses and eyes and ears.  Some people are driven by private fires to eat dirt, often during pregnancy — the condition is called pica, from the Latin word for magpie.

In short we swim in an ocean of dirt, yet we hardly ever consider it closely, except to plump it for its treasures, or furrow it for seed, or banish it from our persons, clothes, houses.  We’re suckers for dramatic former dirt — cougars, lilies, bears, redwoods — but don’t often reflect on the basic stuff itself: good old simple regular normal orthodox there-it-sits-under-everthing dirt (p. 92).

And, speaking of Brian Doyle, who knew anchovies were so interesting?

Creativity

… as I age I become ever more alert to the creativity of those who do not produce a commodity, a product, a tangible document of their urge — a play, an essay, a film, a song, a painting, a dance, a meal, a house, a carving, a tapestry.  Mothers shape love and macaroni and sleeplessness and soap into young men and women over the course of many years; is there a greater art, or a more powerful patient creativity than that? — Brian Doyle, Leaping: Revelations and Epiphanies, p. xxi.

Yesterday

C. S. Lewis writes:

There is no good trying to be more spiritual than God.  God never meant man to be a purely spiritual creature.  That is why He uses material things like bread and wine to put the new life into us.  We may think this rather crude and unspiritual.  God does not: He invented eating.  He likes matter.  He invented it….  I know some muddle-headed Christians have talked as if Christianity thought that sex, or the body, or pleasure, were bad in themselves.  But they were wrong.  Christianity is almost the only one of the great religions which thoroughly approves of the body — which believes that matter is God, that God Himself once took on a human body, and that some kind of body is going to be given to us even in Heaven and is going to be an essential part of our happiness, our beauty, and our energy (Mere Christianity, pp. 65, 92).

Yesterday’s sermon was on Genesis 1:1.  As I introduced the liturgy, I borrowed from these quotations from Lewis and spoke about God’s delight in matter.  The Lord’s Supper is a great “No” to gnosticism.  Contrary to some theologians who seem to think that the Supper is just an aid to our memories and that the real benefits of the Supper come through the ideas in our minds, Jesus tells us simply to do this ritual as His memorial.  And when we do it together, when we eat this physical bread and drink this physical wine together with our physical brothers and sisters, God uses that meal to nourish us on Christ’s real body and blood so that we share together in His life.

So enjoy it, I told the congregation.  Don’t shut your eyes and concentrate on trying to generate the right ideas in your minds.  Taste the bread.  Feel the burn of the wine on your tongue.  Look at the people around you.  Enjoy this meal.  And in this physical way, God will give you the life of Christ.

I gave thanks for the bread, broke it, and was just getting ready to distribute it, when a voice came from the back of the church — the voice of my daughter, in fact, — and it said: “Mmm… yummy!”

“Yes, Aletheia,” I said.  “You’re right.  “It is yummy.”  And then I passed the bread and we ate together. 

Happy Birthday, Moriah!

On the third day, after God separated the seas and the dry land, the earth was bare.  But God spoke and caused green grain plants and fruit trees to grow to glorify the earth.  On the sixth day, God formed out of the ground a man.  But it was not good that the man should be alone.  So God put him to sleep, removed a rib, and built it into a woman.  The man was the ground and the woman was the glorious fruit tree that grew out of him to be his glory.

For two and a half years, you have been my glory, a fruitful vine in my house, and you are growing more glorious every year.  Happy 26th birthday, Moriah, my wife.

Oh, and Dr. de Blegny has some healthful suggestions for celebrating your birthday, found in this 17th century tome.  Eat, drink, enjoy, and be preserved from all des maladies:

   

Moving In

When Moriah and I moved here to Medford, we had to put all of our stuff in storage while we waited for renovations to be done on our home.

Our garage gradually became a study for me and we moved my office furniture and books over there a couple weeks ago. And now, this week, we’re finally moving in. We might be able to sleep there tonight.

Our house was built in 1910 and is located in an older part of town. There are several beautiful old homes near us, but mixed in with them are a number of seedier places. It’s quite a bit different from our neighbourhood in Grande Prairie, where most of the houses were less than five years old.

Moriah’s parents graciously opened their home to us during these past several weeks, but we’re very much looking forward to living in our new home.

Medford

At long last, I’m here in Medford, Oregon, where I will be planting a church under the supervision of Reformation Covenant Church in Oregon City.

Ever since I accepted this call, Moriah and I have been packing (and Aletheia has been trying to unpack!), but if you’ve ever packed up a house, you know that it always seems to take longer than you thought it would. Last Tuesday, we stayed up until 5:00 AM and got the job almost finished. On Wednesday morning, we got up at 7:00 and I took Moriah and Aletheia to the airport. They spent the day on the plane or in various airports, finally arriving here in Medford in the evening.

Meanwhile, I stayed in Grande Prairie. The movers arrived around 8:00 and began an inventory prior to loading the truck. My guess is that the loading itself started around 9:00. I had the cats in a kennel and took them down to Air Canada’s live animal cargo, where they flew out of Grande Prairie around 12:30. They stayed in Vancouver overnight and then travelled to Portland, where Moriah picked them up.

The movers finished loading the truck around 6:00 PM on Wednesday. I had supper with our neighbour across the street, where I was staying that night, and then went back to the house and cleaned it from top to bottom, which took me until 12:50 in the morning.

I left Grande Prairie Thursday, just after noon, and drove to Kamloops, BC, where I spent the night. Along the way, I spotted deer three times, passed a herd of mountain goats, and saw three large herds of elk. I also noted with some puzzlement that there’s a town near Jasper called Pocahontas, even though the historical Pocahontas lived nowhere near Alberta. (Interestingly enough, shortly before I passed that town, I had been listening to Neil Young’s song “Pocahontas.” Life is full of these little coincidences!)

On Thursday night, I stayed at the Riverland Hotel and had a wonderful supper of cashew pecan chicken with rice and vegetables at Storm’s Restaurant, next door to the hotel. Thanks to the chef who kept his kitchen open for me, even though I arrived late.

I crossed the border on Friday afternoon and had the easiest and smoothest crossing of my life. In Bellingham, I met Chip Lind and had a good visit with him before leaving for Medford on Saturday morning. Well, I would have left in the morning except that the weld on the bridge of my glasses broke. The optometrist couldn’t weld the bridge and so I had to get a new set of frames and have him trim the lenses to fit.

After an uneventful day of driving through Seattle and Portland, past Salem, and on to the south, I arrived at about 9:30 in the evening at my in-laws’ place near Medford. We’ll be staying with them for a little while until the renovations on our house are complete.

The Lord blessed all of us with safe trips and we’re glad to be here. Now we’re looking for a building in which the church can meet.

Slow Blogging Ahead

As you’ve no doubt noticed, I haven’t been blogging much lately. Too many other things have been happening and I just haven’t had the time to sit down and work on any entries. What other things? you ask. Well….

At the end of January, I accepted a call from Reformation Covenant Church in Oregon City, Oregon, to serve as a pastor commissioned to plant a church in Medford in southern Oregon. We’re looking forward to the work there, but in the meantime there’s a lot to be done here.

My last Sunday at Covenant Reformed Church was February 26, and my time as the pastor of that congregation finished at the end of February. And now Moriah and I are focusing almost completely on getting ready for the move. In particular, we’re getting rid of things we don’t want and packing the things we do, not least our basement full of books.

Today was my last Bible study at the Grande Prairie Regional College. Tomorrow, I’ll be speaking for the Varsity Christian Fellowship worship time. And that will mark the end of my two-and-a-half years as the VCF Chaplain. I’ve greatly enjoyed working with the students — and some of the faculty — and I’ll miss them. Maybe I can do something similar when I get to Medford.

Our house finally sold last week for a little less than we were asking but a lot more than I bought it for three years ago. We’ve also purchased a house in Medford. Later this week, I hope to be able to apply for my visa. Your prayers are appreciated.

Blogging will likely be sporadic until we get settled in at our new place. But then, as regular readers of this blog will know, that’s pretty much par for the course anyway.

Oregon Bound

A little over a week ago, I received a call from Reformation Covenant Church to serve as a minister charged with planting a church in the region of Medford (southern Oregon). Reformation Covenant Church is a member of the Confederation of Reformed Evangelical Churches (CREC).

On Friday, I accepted that call. My last Sunday as the pastor here in Grande Prairie will be February 26, after which Moriah and I will be moving to Medford. The official start date in Oregon is March 1, but we will likely move mid-March.

We’re very excited about the new work, but leaving here will be hard in many ways and there are a lot of challenges ahead, not least the big move. Please do pray for us during this time of transition.

Thanksgiving Vacation

On Thursday, Moriah and I returned home from our vacation. We had left home on November 22 and flew to Portland, where Moriah’s mom picked us up and drove us to their home in Central Point. It was a bit of a challenge to fly with a baby, but Aletheia really travelled quite well.

We spent several days with Moriah’s family and had a wonderful time visiting. We had a big Thanksgiving dinner on Friday (a day late because of other family commitments) and then Moriah’s brother Lindsay, Charles Chambers, and I set up the Christmas tree.

That weekend, we all drove up to Trinity Reformation Church in Salem where I taught on Judges 13 and 14 (the beginning of the Samson narrative) for their Bible study and then preached during their service (Mark 6:30-44: the feeding of the 5000). We spent Saturday night with Chori and Catherine Seraiah. I had stayed with them briefly back in June 2003 (right after meeting Moriah, in fact) and it was good to visit with them again. During the Sunday service, Moriah discovered that Aletheia’s first tooth has emerged!

After the service, we drove back to Central Point. Monday night, we had a Christmas gift exchange with the family. On Tuesday, Moriah’s folks hosted an open-house for several friends and family members, many of whom had never met me and all of whom were excited to meet Aletheia.

We left for Portland again on Wednesday afternoon. In the evening, I spent some time with the elders of Reformation Covenant Church in Oregon City, whom I hadn’t seen since I taught at their family camp back in 2003. We flew home again on Thursday, arriving late in the evening.

Unfortunately, one of our bags didn’t arrive: the one we had packed all of our important stuff in on Wednesday so that we wouldn’t have to take all of our bags into the place we were staying. The Lord had mercy on us, however, and the bag was returned the next morning. It was in somewhat rough shape and one item in it appears to have been damaged, but it was good to get our things back.

It was a good vacation and quite restful, though I continued to battle my up-and-down fever (and still do!). Now I’m getting back into the work routine again, which may mean that my blogging will become less frequent.

Fever

It’s Sunday evening, and for the first time in months (maybe years) I spent the whole day at home.

Yesterday, I woke up feeling achy. I figured it was just because I hadn’t slept that well during the night, but I finally checked my temperature in the late afternoon and discovered that I had a bit of a fever. We had a family from the church over for supper, though, and during the meal I felt tired but fine.

Last night, however, I had chills and my fever passed 100 degrees. I felt a bit better toward morning, but decided to stay in bed. Moriah stayed home, too, because Aletheia also has a fever.

Staying home, of course, meant that I wasn’t preaching. (It also meant, alas, that the congregation couldn’t have the Lord’s Supper.) But in God’s strange providence, we had already agreed to have Tim Gallant preach in the morning service (he’s here on vacation), and he had another sermon with him which we used in the afternoon service. Thanks, Tim!

Pray for us. I’m feeling a bit better, but Moriah isn’t and Aletheia’s temperature is still up.

Well-Dressed Pastor

What the well-dressed pastor is wearing these days:

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