All my bags are packed - and I'm ready to go!

I can't quite believe that I have reached my last day in Canada - tomorrow I will be leaving on a jet plane, as the song goes.  I am so glad that I have had a couple of weeks to prepare my heart and soul to simply be on sabbatical.  It is not an easy thing to let go of the working world - and it has taken me this long to get into the rhythm of a sabbatical life.  I woke up after 9 this morning - that is most definitely a new experience for me!  Yesterday I had the grand privilege of leading in worship with my friend Deborah Vitt at Selkirk United Church.  Deb and I were classmates at the Centre of Christian Studies and it is rare we get to actually worship together anymore.  We speak on the phone quite a bit, to put it mildly, so we both know a fair bit about each other's communities - it was great to actually be immersed in her world for a morning.

The United Church of Canada is actually a very small world - there are all kinds of ways that we are connected to one another.  At Selkirk, one of the young women stood to speak about the Manitoba Youth Retreats that she is on the leadership teams for - the two retreats are called Alf, and Zeebu.  My oldest son, Brian, was on the leadership for those very same two retreats - but about 10 years ago!  It is wonderful to think of a new generation of youth who continue to carry on those traditions.  The anthem which the choir sang at Selkirk yesterday was "River of Judea", which is clearly one of the favorites of our congregation back in Regina - it was lovely to feel the connection to our Sunset choir as this choir sang their hearts out in Selkirk.  This past summer I was able to lead in worship at Minnedosa United Church, which is one of the congregations where I worked in Manitoba ten years ago.  I spoke about Sauti Moja in Minnedosa, and in Selkirk, and in Regina - it is quite lovely to think of all 3 of those congregations following me along on this journey. And I am ever so grateful to each of the three congregations who have graciously let me share the story of this sojourn to Kenya and Tanzania that I am about to set out on.  The more that I can articulate it out loud with others, the more clear it becomes in my heart and soul that this is the path I want and need to embark upon at this stage of my faith journey.  I know that there is concern out there about the current situation of unrest in Kenya and Somalia.  No matter where we are in this world, there are great risks involved.  Tim Wright has assured me that we will not travel to areas of high risk, and that there are many police checks in place.  I will do my best to be safe, and I know that I am held in prayer by many, many people.  Remember that song from Iona?  "Don't be afraid - my love is stronger - and I have promised to be always near."  That is the song that I will carry with me.  I have a rock from Scott, a toonie from Jeremy, a prayer bracelet from Karen, a necklace from Sunset, a prayer shawl from Selkirk - all will be well!!

This afternoon Deb, our friend Donna, and I went to Gimli just for a relaxing outing.  It was freezing cold - helpful way to get me ready to actually get on that plane and head for warmer weather!  

And my next post will be from a whole new country - yippee!!

Where do I come from?

It is an intriguing thing to think about what we name as our "culture" - what is it that defines who we are and where we come from?  For the last couple of weeks I have been spending time in Erickson, Manitoba. There is a definite culture to small town living that is separate and apart from city living. I was out walking one morning and I stopped to talk with a young woman so that her two children could pat my dog.  She asked me if I was new in town.  I told her: "no, I am married to the lawyer here."  And she replied:  "oh yeah, you're the minister who lives in another town somewhere."  It still makes me laugh to think of that conversation!  I knew nothing about her, but just knowing who I am married to meant she knew a whole lot about me.  And therein lies both the beauty and the difficulty about small town life - hard to be anonymous here, but when there is a death in your family you can bet that the fridge will be overflowing with food from the neighbours.  Here are some pictures that I took on my afternoon walk down the Trans Canada Trail that goes right alongside the field by our apartment...

This is the Apartment Block we live in:

And across the road, this is the Trans Canada Walking Trail:

A view from the trail:

I think it is helpful to think about culture as I prepare myself to fly across to another world - another culture.  This is a picture of my father at the local market in the small town where he lives in B.C....

Over the last ten years my father has travelled to many places.  In our last conversation his words of wisdom to me were that the best way to really learn about another culture is to not make comparisons to "home" - or at least don't make them out loud!  He said that you are changed a little bit with each trip that you make, but the best learning comes when you really listen to the people you are with and appreciate the world through their eyes.  I agree.  It changes it from thinking about what is better or worse, to recognizing the beauty in diversity - to recognizing that there are wide varieties of approaches to life and it is good to step outside my own comfort zone and experience life from a new perspective.

And so...as I prepare to experience a whole new culture I pray that my mind and heart might be open to a new way of seeing - a new way of being.  I pray that I might have the grace to appreciate the diversity and not critically or cynically judge a "different" way of living life.  And I pray that I might have the wisdom to be able to share the story in a way that invites all of us into becoming connected to our global community.

Just what will you do???

When I first began to think about taking a sabbatical, the words of a hymn came to my mind..."clear the chaos and the clutter, clear my eyes that I may see - all those things that really matter, be at peace and simply be".  Working in the church, like working anywhere else, can begin to feel a bit like life in the fast lane - filled with many, many activities and not nearly enough time to just step back and sift through everything to discover what it is that really matters.  Sometimes the best way to get perspective is to actually be immersed in a completely different world for awhile.  Shortly after I moved to Regina, Candace and Helge By introduced me to Tim Wright - Tim and Helge are cousins.  Tim has lived in Africa for many years, and is the director of a charity he helped to found called Sauti Moja.  To find out more about the work that they do, check out their website: www.sautimoja.org.  When Tim came to our church and made a presentation, I think what touched me the most was how Tim would show us pictures of individual people, he would name them, and then tell us their stories.  It wasn't about "Africans" - it was about the people that Tim names as his friends - as his community.  He didn't describe the "project", he described the daily life of individual people.  As Tim has told me often, Sauti Moja is not some kind of "project" - it is about building relationship with the people in these remote villages that very rarely get visited by any other aid agencies. It is about learning to work in partnership with them to improve the quality of life for them and for their village. I am incredibly thankful that Tim has agreed to have me come and walk alongside him and the rest of the Sauti Moja community for a few weeks.  This is not the kind of trip that has a fixed agenda, or a detailed itinerary.  What Tim and I have spoken about is how this is a trip that will simply evolve - we don't know exactly what we will be doing until I get there and we see what will emerge.  It is truly an adventure - and I am doing my best to prepare my heart and my mind for a new reality.  Here are a few of the things that I have been doing to get myself ready...

Karen went for a walk with me to help me learn to use my brand new camera - so hopefully I will get some great photos of a very different world - thanks to Karen and her willingness to teach me!

Two very good friends from Manitoba helped to launch me on my sabbatical by spending the first weekend with me - they wanted to make sure I didn't miss preaching too much, so they let me talk and talk and talk!  And we celebrated with a tea ceremony just like Daniel taught me to do - tea and good conversation!  That is what is in those tiny little cups - tea.

                                           

When I do arrive in Africa, my hope is to look for those holy moments that will remind me that we do indeed live in God's world.  I will look into the eyes of those I meet and trust that I will come to know more about life and about strength.  And I will do my best to get pictures of camels and monkeys and giraffes, just as the cards from the children at Sunset asked me to do!

Carried by the community

When I began to share with people my plans to travel to Kenya and to Tanzania as part of my sabbatical this fall, the two questions I got asked the most often were, "are you scared?"  and "what is it that you will be doing over there?".  Let me start with the first one.  I am not scared about travelling to such a different world.  There are times I feel nervous or a little anxious about the details of it all, but I am not scared.  I will be spending the majority of time with Tim Wright, who is the director of the Canadian Charity, Sauti Moja.  Tim has lived in Africa for about 30 years - he knows the people, he knows both the Canadian and the African ways of life very well - he will be a very good companion on this journey.  I also am most definitely carried by the community of Sunset United Church, as well as a wide variety of friends and family who will be holding me in their hearts as I travel the world.  In those times when I feel nervous or when I feel lonesome for the familiar, I will close my eyes and picture our "camel-lot" and I will be strengthened.  These are pictures that show the camels around the walls of our sanctuary at Sunset - the aim was to color 200 camels ($5 per camel), representing raising $1000 for the purchase of 2 camels.  In reality, we raised twice that much - a gift that was far beyond our expectations.  Although these girls and others colored MANY camels, we did stop at the 200th camel!  I will answer the 2nd question in my next post....