Reformation Sunday

Today is not only Hallowe'en but also Reformation Sunday. Now, some people may be surprised and others may simply roll their eyes when I say that I'm a big church history nut (emphasis on nut sometimes). On a day like today though it's pretty cool to look back at our church history and get a tiny glimpse as to how we ended up here today.

On October 31, 1517 Martin Luther nailed his 95 Theses to the door of his church - how would you like that sermon on Sunday morning? This event is considered the trigger to the move towards reformation and eventually the rise of the Protestant church. Of course there were many, many factors and people that led to this momentous movement but it never hurts to give out applause to the bold statement of Martin Luther almost 500 years ago.

As I walk along a path that will include a lot of preaching (including today for that matter) I ask myself - what am I saying? Am I bold enough to preach what needs to be preached? Am I listening to God's desires for my sermons? Is what I'm saying, what people need to hear? I hope the answer to all of these questions is yes and I hope that for every congregation not just where I am.

My we all be richly blessed through what we see, hear and do - not only - but especially this Reformation Sunday.

Exciting Times

What a crazy little while it has been in my life. This past weekend I went to Beaver Creek, Saskatchewan for the Youth Together weekend in the prairies. We drove out as a group from Winnipeg and headed west (although not as far west as home unfortunately) to Saskatchewan. Over the weekend we had a great time as we spent time in worship, attended seminars and hung out with each other. I saw people do crazy things in a game called the Dare Affair and was very impressed by how willing everyone was. My worship was called "Dare 2 Dance" and we discussed worshiping God and the many ways we can do that today. The other workshops sounded excellent and I wish I had an opportunity to attend them. Major Denise Walker from Toronto was our guest speaker and did an excellent job telling us about God's love in our lives. It was a great weekend and even the 8 hour bus rides ended up being fun.

In other news....I have been appointed to Markham, Ontario for my winter placement here at the college and I am so excited to be heading out for the 10 days there. I haven't been to Ontario in a little while and the area that I will be in is very near Richmond Hill where my mom grew up and it's always nice to see stuff like that.

Also, every day I get a little closer to a series of BIG days this year - the clock she is a tickin' and it's hard to believe that June is coming up and I'll be heading out.

Pictures

Well, I've decided to keep blogging for now, and we'll see how it goes!

I was scrolling through some of my pictures from my summer in Calgary before I left which led me to some other photos of old band trips and then into some of my pictures while here at CFOT. I absolutely LOVE looking at pictures and using them as aids to walk down memory lane. I prefer to take pictures of people - candids and posed, but over the summer I did take quite a few scenery shots because it was just so gorgeous there, and while a picture isn't as good as the real thing it will serve as a reminder for me.

We were asked in class the other day something about memories making up yourself...I can't remember the exact phrasing. The discussion that came up in class though was about the fact that our memories and experiences in our past make us who we are. In movies about amnesia they always talk about a fresh start, or rebuilding their lives (keeping in mind it's a movie and I've no doubt real life is different), and that builds on this idea of needing our memories.

My memories are not always happy, and some of them make me cringe with embarrassment,

some of them make me wonder how a situation ever got to that point. However, all of them made me who I am today, and for the most part, I'm okay with that.