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.

Church #20. McDougall United Church. June 22, 2014.

So if you’re like me and  ride the #9 bus thru down town.  You know this Church, and you have probably seen it more times than you can count. Well today I decided to walk into it. Ps. I went with the bill-board and decided to “like” them. 

Truth is that I have been here a few times; it was just my casual go-to church for a while.  And still is in some ways.

 

I walked in to discover that one of things I was hoping for most was gone. Someone drank all the tea. * darnit! The crowd was slightly bigger here, about 70 people, but like most churches, a lot of seniors. The service was started in song then immediately after fallowed by greeting the people around you. There was a senior fellow that went up to the front to make some church announcements. He mentioned that the next Sunday service would be outside and he also informed us that there was large qualities of rhubarb sitting on the “sharing table” note* this is one of the few churches I have ever seen with a sharing table. I got a good chuckle out of the tall and slim 75 year old man that stood at the front of the church giving these announcements while waving one of the giant rhubarb leaves he brought with him. It made my day. Remember stewed rhubarb is the breakfast of champions :P 

Today was a special day. Father’s Day to be exact. I am not going to lie, but my family like most is guilty of highly under celebrating Father’s day, so it was kind of a cool thing to watch. A prayer was said for all the fathers in the room, past, present, and future. Then a few of children were given baskets full of small gifts that they took around the church that the fathers in the room were allowed to pick from.  From what I could see the packets had many items like packs of nails, hammers, flashlights and BBQ scrappers. 

Some good points were made that day. A few quotes I grabbed included “Masculinity is valuable and Important”, And “it is not unmanly to come to church.” Near the end of the service there was also a moment where people were invited to come up and light candles in memory of past father and father type figures that have passed away. I did so for my 2 grandfathers that have fallen asleep in the lord.

One thing I have never actually seen happen in Sunday service was a baptism.  And that happened today. I myself am baptized, but I am sure that was not part of a regular Sunday service, and I can’t be sure but I think it was done at night??? All I know is that the background of the pictures is supper dark. But I digress.

There was a aprox 45 year old lady who walked to the front of the church ( her husband came too for moral support).  The pastor leading the service explained that this woman has never been baptized and wished to do that today. So the pastor went ahead with the ceremony and used the “baptismal font” and the holly water in it. 

With her land she took the water and touched it to the ladies forehead. I know there are different forms that will be used to put the water on a person being baptized. The first baptisms were done by, ya, you guessed it. John the Baptist. Our crazy half-dressed nature boy that lived out in the wilderness, and dunked people in the Jordan river to cleanse them from sin and to let them start anew.

 I have heard of a verity of method to achieve this, with babies and adults.  With some it involves dunking the whole person in the river, or the baby in the font, or just simply have some of it drizzled over their forehead. (I think that was mostly likely done with me…)  and then some will take it too some pretty crazy extents.This one makes me laugh every time. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=89wRDIIuSw0

But after it was all said and done there was a roaring applause and the crowd all raised their hands to do a group prayer for the newly baptized church member. She was also given an official baptism certificate and a large candle. 

The scripture reading form the day was all the way back at the beginning of the bible in Genesis talking about creation. I know very well That there is quite a few people out there that can’t stand the idea of creation and that everything in the universe just magically came about in 6 days. Well thankfully this church leader didn’t think so either. I picker he brain on this concept after the service. She explained to me that her perspective on this was that all of the days should be looked at al long era’s of time that each more specifically focused on  each part of the development of the world as we know it. 

If you have read my previous articles on united churches you would know that many of them have now become “affirming churches” meaning they fully accept and welcome the gay community and even allow them to be leaders in the church. 

I bring up this point because the pastor attempted to tackle a heard question. What is Gods gender? Is god a man?  This was the result. The ancient Israelites of the time needed to view god as a man to help lead them into war because the opponents they were going up against were pagans who viewed their god as being female. That’s what I got told. However I was also told that in the bible it says that God made humanity in god’s likeness. God made both men and women equally. So therefore in my mind, and the mind of this church leader, God’s being likely holds a balance of both genders. Male and Female. 

She also spoke to the idea that since god carries aspects of both, so do we and we all just live on a spectrum of different degrees of each gender. Hence why some men can be attracted to other men, and how some women can be attracted to other women. 

There was one thing I heard today that I didn’t quite understand was the phrase “ set people free at the Pentecost”. So apparently the Pentecost was a time exactly 50 days after Jesus ascended and the holly spirit comes down over the people. Cool stuff. 

HAPPY FATHERS DAY EVERYONE!