Lead Us Lord (Dream Again)

For Christmas, Gord and Glenda Mosher gave me the CD ‘Today’ by Brian Doerksen. I already knew this was a wonderful CD, but it had a nostalgic element to it because it was always playing the church santuary when we first arrived in Lloydminster. (If you’re reading Tanys, here’s another album that has a memory attached to it!) It reminded me of the summer past – our first days in Lloyd and the visit of the team from England that came to Lloydminster and then having to say goodbye to them all. As such, although I loved the CD, I didn’t dare listen to it as I feared it might make me feel too nostalgic in a saddened sort of way – you may think me strange or soppy, but that’s just me! Finally, a few weeks ago, I dared to put it on and it was just what I needed with us seeking God about what happens next when we return to Morpeth. Do we return to Lloyd again or settle back in England? What do we do wherever we end up?

The following song from the album really stirred and inspired my heart and continues to do so as we seek to follow Him, even though the path ahead is still dark at the moment. Thanks Gord and Glenda.

If you are in or coming up to a place of decision at the moment, I hope the following is of as much encouragement to you as it is to me.

Lead Us Lord (Dream Again)
Brian Doerksen
(c) 2004 Integrity’s Hosanna! Music/ASCAP

Here we stand
At a crossroads again
Like You said
In time the seasons change

Looking back
We recall the blessing and the pain
But now we turn our hearts toward
What is still to come
We want to dream again

Lead us Lord
Into a life of fruitfulness
Prepare our hearts to risk again
As we trust
Taking simple steps of obedience
We know that you will lead us Lord

The final three lines are what I keep returning to most of all. “As we trust, taking simple steps of obedience, we know that you will lead us Lord.” We may not see where we are going, but as we simply obey the Lord step by step, trusting Him, we know that He will indeed lead us on.

Despite the temptations to do otherwise I am trying to not make any further decisions or predictions about what we are doing until we return to Morpeth which is when we believe God will truly start to make things clear.

Proverbs 3:5-6 says, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him and He will make you paths straight / He will direct your paths.” This is the truth that I am hanging onto, that He will direct our steps as we carry on in simple trust and obedience to Him.

Bless you,
Steve

My First Girlfriend

Still no blog entry for our Rockies holiday, but instead…

Wow, today I celebrate 17 years of dating my first girlfriend! I don’t just mean that it was seventeen years ago that I first had a date, although that is true, but that I have now been dating my first girlfriend for seventeen years!!
I seem to remember it came about as my friend Chris and I kidnapped Heather’s toy penguin, Alexander (usually known now as ‘Little A’) and sent a ransom note to her demanding ‘two custard creams, or the penguin gets it!’ I don’t remember what the penguin was going to get, but he was sure going to get it if those custard creams didn’t materialise. Now for my Canadian friends, I’m not sure you’ll know what custard creams are. A custard cream is two small rectangular cookies (biscuits to the British) sandwiched together with a yellow hardish cream that I suppose is meant to be custard flavour – I can’t say I’d ever really thought about it until now, but I don’t think they taste like custard at all! For more information, I found a web page describing them at http://www.kempwrights.co.uk/custardcream.htm.
Anyway, I can’t really remember how the next part of the day developed, only that our friends Chris and Beckie were probably getting fed up of us not really getting our act together. I had asked Heather if she would ‘go out’ with me about five weeks before and she had refused. I can only thank Chris and Beckie for interfering or I may still be a bachelor today. I was nineteen at the time and had never worked up the bravery to ask anyone to go out with me before and then when I finally did manage to ask that question I was turned down. Heather did have good reason – she’d never realised that she liked me in that kind of way despite being best friends for months! Anyway we moped around for the next five weeks not knowing what we were feeling for each other until Saturday 20th May 1989 when Chris and Beckie told us to go into Heather’s room and not come out until we had decided what we were going to do. Sometimes friends have to be cruel to be kind.
We decided we’d give it a try and our closest friends were delighted. Our less close friends were confused as they thought we’d already been going out for months anyway! It so happened that Don Francisco was holding a concert in Nottingham that night (oh, I forgot to say we were all students at Nottingham University at this time) and although I had a ticket for this, Heather didn’t. However, friends will be friends and one of our friends was unable to go and either gave or sold his ticket to Heather, but now we had tickets that were in separate parts of the concert hall. Another friend who had a ticket in the same area as me gallantly swapped tickets with Heather and so we were able to sit together and enjoy the concert sitting next to one another. The concert was great and the company was wonderful – my first date!
Heather and I did get a ticking off from Chris later that evening after walking back from the bus stop with our arms around each other – we had progressed from holding hands rather too quickly in his opinion. As I said, we’d already been best friends for months and had most people in the Christian Union thinking we were already dating, so I don’t think anyone else thought anything of it. As for me, I thought it was rather fabulous walking with my arm around Heather. The first kiss was some days later, but that’s another story – not a very long one – it was a quick peck on the cheek as Heather went away for the weekend to a friend’s wedding but I’m sure you’ve had enough of my reminiscing already!

So how are we going to celebrate seventeen years? Well, friends from Newfoundland who are living in Lloyd have invited us over for supper, so we’re going to have REAL chips! Not French fries, not potato crisps which is what other Canadians think of when we say chips, but REAL chips – good fat deep fried chips - the Newfies call the chips as well as us British - hooray. I’ve no idea what else we’ll be eating but I’m sure it will be good.

God bless you,

Steve

Where's your focus?

Hopefully I'll have a chance to write about my recent trip to the Rockies with Heather and her parents, but I don't have much time right now and I wanted to share what God's been impressing on my heart these last few days since we came back.

In chatting with my sister Rae and reading recent e-mails from Jenny, I have been reminded that I need to keep my focus on Jesus, not on my future! It is so easy to allow my gaze to shift to other things, especially the good old, "What happens next?" question. What do I think of when I wake in the night, what is it that my mind drifts to when I have free time to think on things?

Rae made the simple comment that "Jesus IS the journey." It's all to easy to get caught up in serving him, obeying him and end up not spending time simply enjoying being with him.

Jenny pointed out that her time at Capernwray has been more about God working on her heart than helping her sort out her future, allowing her to look at what God has been doing and wants to do in her life more than worrying about the next steps ahead.

I think it's time to visit my heavenly optician to help me get my focus sorted out again - to get things back in perpsective in relation to knowing Jesus, to remove the distortion that comes from allowing my gaze to be elsewhere.

Time to revisit and really get into one of my favourite verses,
"Therefore ... let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith" - Hebrews 12:1

I hope this helps you too if you've lost sight of what's most important.

Thanks Rae, thanks Jenny, and thank you Jesus.

Steve

Snow in May?!!

So, it's May 2nd and it's snowy with about two inches settled on the truck this morning! Last Friday Heather and I were outside all day in temperatures up to about 25C and got slightly sunburned, and today it's snowing again! This Canadian weather is crazy!! :-)
I figured there are already enough photos of the truck with snow on it, so here isn't a picture of the truck with snow on it...

Watoto
After our trip to Edmonton we came back to Lloyd on the Saturday night, but a little to late for the Watoto concert. Happily they took both morning services on the Sunday and so we were treated to a double dose of them as we stayed in both meetings. It was truly delightful to see these kids who had been orphaned in Uganda singing of their love for Jesus with such joy in their eyes and smiles on their faces and dancing with contagious enthusiasm. Jesus has certainly rescued them from a desolate life.

Baptisms
This Sunday we had 7 baptisms during the second morning service. We had known that there were going to be baptisms but didn't know who was going to be baptised. It was awesome to see a bunch of people we knew who had decided to make this decision and publicy declare their faith in Christ and determination to faithfully follow him. Three people in the same family were baptised which was such a joy to see!

Another holiday
We are really looking forward to a holiday with Heather's parents who arrive on Thursday. After a few days in Lloyd, we shall set off for the mountains after I have preached on Sunday morning. It will be great to see Heather's Mum and Dad again, after nearly a year. We are looking forward to catching up with them and enjoying some good time with them.

Steve