Typo

There was the most awesome typo in the bulletin yesterday - they've made gluten-free wafers available at communion now, but the bulletin said that now glutton-free wafers are available! Haha!

In four and half days, we're heading into Ultimate Survivors VII! I'm excited - it's going to be great! We had our "dress rehearsal" yesterday, and Prince of Peace is really a great facility for this kind of thing. There's a group coming all the way from the Okanagan, so hopefully the roads improve - I would not want to drive through the mountains, with a van load of youth, with the roads the way they are right now!

We took our youth to Operation Christmas Child on Saturday - every year we go to the warehouse and help prepare the shoeboxes for shipping - it's great fun, and this year PAUL BRANDT was there! He's the celebrity spokesperson for OCC, and he was there playing some Christmas music - just him and his guitar. It was very exciting for me... ;)

Life continues to be interesting - a few things have happened in the last week that have really hit close to home, and kind of re-awoken my passion to do something to help victims of abuse. I still don't know what, but I'm keeping an eye out to see what God brings along. It just makes me soooo cross that there's people out there putting up with crap that is totally inhumane because they're ashamed and/or they don't think anyone will believe their story. I guess I've started to do something, with sharing my testimony for Survivor this weekend, but I want to do more! So it will be interesting to see where God is planning to take me on this part of my journey.

Stay tuned for crazy pics from Survivor - coming soon!

Oooh la la!

http://blog.scifi.com/tech/archives/2006/11/09/luxury_lcdequip.html

I'd love to find this under the tree on Christmas morning! All it's missing are cup holders!

A great debate...

In Remembrance

This coming Saturday is Remembrance Day, and it's something I've been thinking a lot about in the last few weeks.

Every year for as long as I can remember, I've gone to a Remembrance Day service. I'm an airforce brat, so it was a really big deal for us. I don't think I've ever actually missed one, except for the year I was 9 or so and sick, and I was really upset that Mom wouldn't let me go. I've read so much about the wars, and how much pain and suffering they caused, and it's really made an impact on me - I can't imagine living through that.

I really feel that taking a couple hours out of a day, once a year, to pay tribute to the sacrifices that so many people made so that we could live in our nice free country, is really a small thing to do. But it seems to me that not a lot of people nowadays feel like that. I could be wrong, so I'd really like to hear some reader input on this one.

I have noticed an increase in the number of people at the service since 9/11, but what really just makes me HOPPING mad is the companies that don't close down on Remembrance Day, and instead give people an extra day off at Christmas. HELLO! That totally defeats the purpose! It's not about having a day off, it's about REMEMBERING. It makes me really cross.

A Remembrance Day service is pretty simple, but so moving, and somehow so Canadian to me. The trumpet playing the Last Post, the flags snapping in the wind, the poppies, the Scouts, cadets and vets on parade, the prayers and the singing, the time of silence, the wreath-laying - it's all so important to me, I can't even explain it. So many people have died in war, and with them the dreams of their families for their lives. So much pain and heartbreak!

Anyway, on Saturday we'll be at the Museum of the Regiments on Crowchild Trail at about 10 or 10:15. The service starts at 10:40, and lasts about an hour. It would be great if you could come! But dress warm - it's Canadian winter, eh!


This is the page from the Book of Remembrance in Ottawa that shows my great-uncle, Thomas Bennetts, who died in 1944.