Church #21 Strathcona Baptist Church. June 29, 2014.

Good morning sunshine’s! When I was muddling around last night trying to pick out a church I was finding that I am actually starting to get low( for my neighborhood at least) . In this experiment I have discovered that churches are like coins on the sidewalk. You don’t know how many you pass every day until you start looking for them. With my current estimates I anticipate that I will be able to fill one third of my quota on the Whyte Ave/Strathcona area alone. Enjoy them while they last, that is how I look at it. 

I was in the mood for some singing and hand clapping this morning so I went to the last remaining Baptist church in my local area that I have not already been to. 

The attendance did not surprise me. It was full family’s every one from 2months all the way up into their 90’s was in attendance. Baptist churches have been notably good for that I have found. The service was started with much song and dance, and after we were asked to meet and greet the people around us. Which was more than just a quick hand shake, it was a 10 min go around the room and seriously meet and talk with everyone kind of deal. 

The first speaker we had was a lady with an astounding story about how she was diagnosed with 4^th stage liver cancer and told that she had about one week to live, and the best thing she could do is go home and hug her family. The medical images showed that her liver was completely shot ad there was pretty much nothing left of it. 

What you are likely anticipating at this point is some harrowing tale about how  this woman’s un-dyeing faith in god, and praying 8 hours a day, heals her swiftly without any medication or treatment at all. Trust me, that’s not how it goes. It’s even more amazing. 

This woman was deathly ill, she was sure she was dying, she did live past one week, she decided to go on treatment, but at the same time she felt death was imminent. She re-wrote her Will and arranged everything in her world and her family to be ready to go on without her. She was reading her bible for comfort in this time and found that the passages that stood out to her the most were the ones that assured her that she was going to live. She found that confusing to say the least. And sure enough, many months latter, she stood before me in this church giving this speech in full body and spirit. She is still on oral kemo pills, and her battle is not over. She also mentioned a line in the bible that says that if believers drink anything poisonous it will not hurt them. That helps her find comfort in continuing her kemo treatment. So of the coolest things I have found in being a faithful person is that is that the most amazing stuff doesn’t always comes from believing in god. As one of my favorite quotes from an old movie go….

“There are some of you in this room today before me that don’t believe in God. But just remember, God believes in YOU!.”

Ps. Seriously funny move.  Go find it! 

We had a second speaker that came up who I also found very intriguing. Hers was less of a personal story but still covered a very important topic, and something I seriously need to learn. Forgiveness. Literally one of the hardest things to do on this earth. She gave information to the crowd that didn’t really make the job easier, but it did make it more understandable. Let me lay it out for ya. Imagine two giant fish hooks on the wall and on the hook hanging by their shirt is the person you have hard feeling towards.  You need to take that person and remove them from your fish hook and move them over to God’s hook and let him worry about it. Here is a list of quotes she gave out. 

-“forgiveness in not a feeling, it is an act, and there are many feeling that come with it”

-“Sometimes when you forgive you will not always have peace.”

-“Forgiveness is not minimizing the incident.”

-“ Forgiveness is a tool to help us live in a world with suffering”

-“ Forgiveness is an on-going process.”

-“ Forgiveness is not the same as reconciliation.”

At the end of all this we were all handed a piece of paper and this is what it said. I feel it spreads some light  and understanding on the topic. But more importantly how to go thru with practicing it.

Something to meditate on. 

Peace.