On Monday evening, we will be boarding a plane to Edmonton. We are excited for more reasons than one. I’ve never been to Alberta before, so I can cross one more province off the list (that leaves only Newfoundland). Also, we are going on behalf of our congregation, who have graciously provided this trip through individual, out-of-budget givings.
There isn’t really room for much else besides attending the conference. I preach the Sunday before, and Ana plays organ the Sunday after, so it worked best for us to spend as little time there as possible. Those times also happened to be the cheapest flights, which helped. Even when I’m spending other people’s money, I can’t stand to over spend, which is also why we opted out of the supper portion of the conference meal plan. There is some time set aside for site-seeing, which we will do, and I’m still trying to convince Ana to accompany me to the Eskimos-Lions CFL game (which we’d pay for ourselves). Otherwise we will be enjoying the hotel pool, meeting other Mennonite Church Canada folk, and trying to use some of the time to work on our musical (a few scenes to go on the rough draft).
So if anyone else will be in the area around the same time, July 3-8, or if you have suggestions on dining or entertaining while we’re there, let us know.
Wow!
Will and I went for a hot air balloon ride a few days ago. It was a wedding gift, and we had tried 3 times to go, but everytime it was cancelled. The weather has to be JUST right. We finally were able to go last Thursday, and it was quite the experience.
Update: Ballon Ride pictures viewable in the Photo Gallery
We watched as they unloaded the huge basket, tipped it on its side, then unravelled the deflated balloon and spread it out, then filled it with air blown into it by 2 9.0 horsepower fans. We all watched in amazement as the balloons spread open (I just wanted to go run inside there, as it was like some balloon funhouse), then they had to tip the basket up and quickly fill the rest of it with hot air. We all (there was 10 of us) had to quickly climb in to the basket (before it took off, I suppose), we were untethered, and up we went. We were almost unsure of whether or not we would take off. The other 2 balloons already took off, and we were still filling up with air. But sure enough, we lifted.
It didn’t take long to get high up, and it was a little spooky to be so high, and not be behind glass. All we had to do was look over the edge of the basket. Sometimes we flew low enough to wave to people, and other times we were over 1000 ft above the ground. Whenever he filled the balloon with more hot air, I felt like my hair was going to burst into flames, it was so hot. We floated over Doon Heritage Crossroads (and I spotted the Martin house, where I used to work), Conestoga college, Fairview mall, and eventually ended up in farm country. All the textures of land were so fascinating; I just wanted to reach down and touch it all.
Soon it was time for landing, and I think we were all apprehensive about that. Due to the nature of hot air balloons (being blown by the wind), our driver (hot air dispenser guy?) had no control over where we would land. He could only somewhat control how high we floated and for how long, but even that was finicky. It looked like we were heading for this factory parking lot, and at the rate we were descending, I thought we were going to land on a huge pile of cement cylinders. No, we just missed those, and we were headed dead on for a tree and some heavy duty barbed wire fence. We brushed against the tree and got stuck in the barbed wire. I had visions of us getting tossed over onto the other side. No, the basket just broke through the barbed wire (after a little fight) and after sliding a bit on an angle, we landed right side up! Phew!
Only then did we hear other landing horror stories. One balloon landed sideways on a farmers field, and got dragged by the wind, through soil that had just been freshly covered with liquid maneour. Fun! Our driver (hot air dispenser guy) told us stories of landing on mountain tops in other parts of the world. I then realized our landing was PRETTY good.
As a pastor, I hear all kinds of ideas about how to make church and/or the Christian faith more appealling. Some of the more frustrating ideas usually involve copying what another organization or business is doing and apply it to church, as though the transition would be seemless and the application obvious.
The one that I hear the most often is comparing church/youth group/Sunday School participation with participation in sports. Initially the comparison looks pretty appealing. Parents can’t drag their kids to church and don’t push them into various church programming, but they’ll take their kids to the hockey arena at 6am twice a week. I agree that if we could bottle up the enthusiasm that makes kids involve themselves at that level and makes parents support their children without question and apply it to church programming, our numbers would be a lot higher. There are also a number of apt church-team analogies that could be used.
There are however a number of sports realities that are quite unhealthy if applied to a church environment.
In a number of ways, sports is a very exclusive atmosphere. Equipment and registration costs don’t allow for many families to involve their children and individuals who aren’t fit enough, co-ordinated enough, or just plain aren’t interested enough have no place on the sports team, and they often suffer the social consequences for it.
The rewards (ie. extra playing time, positions of prominence, or leniency in practices) for athletes are dependant upon attendance at practise, success in games/competitions, and sometimes extra assistance or financial contribution by parents.
Initiation (where permitted by law[yers]) involves public humiliation for newcomers.
Fans (often parents) become verbally abusive to other players, coaches, the officials, and often other fans over the events of the competition.
Which of those aspects of sports am I supposed to apply to my youth group/church programming? Does any of them even come close to having a scriptural basis?
Everyone is welcome at church. There is no punishment for lack of involvement and there are no special rewards given for extra participation. Newcomers are accepted with open arms in celebration. The community builds up, rather than tears down.
Okay, so I got a bit optimistic there. Sure there are lots of those problems in today’s churches. Some people fit in a lot better because of their personality, bloodlines or pocketbooks. Certain people are invited to participate more fully because of their other “achievements”. Newcomers have difficult times being noticed, let alone feeling welcomed. Communities also thrive on gossip and judgmental behaviour. That model of church is maybe what a lot of people are familiar with. And that model is already pretty close to the sports model, but that model is flawed.
I love sports, don’t get me wrong. I love watching and playing sports, so I understand the draw. I just don’t want my church running like that. Some teams enjoy every game equally, win or lose, and every member is welcomed and uplifted. However, that is model is generally found in women’s recreational sports. As an athlete or a spectator, I wouldn’t be interested in watching that kind of sports either. As a Christian, I’m also not interested in participating in a community where anything other than grace dictates whether or not I fit in.
Will and I had a fantastic weekend.
We started it off waking up at 3:00am on Saturday, as we were on the first shift for donut rolling for the MCC Relief Sale. We met up with others from our church, and some from another Mennonite church in a tent, and while the other church members made the dough, we were rolling it, and forming the donuts. This was quite fun once I got the hang of it, but quite uneventful, until the power went out unexpectidly! So, we finished off our rolling in complete darkness until our shift was done at 5:00. Apparently, we were such good rollers, we had run out of trays to put our donuts on! I only mention this fact, because apparently donut rolling is quite a competitive sport among some church members, so I only proudly mention this here, in the hopes that they might read this some day…..or something like that.
We then (after a “wake up” break at Timmy’s) commenced the tradition of “Making-like-a-turkey-and-stuffing-ourselves”, and ate to our hearts content; strawberry pie, rollgucken (sp?) and watermelon (Will was speaking Low German with the vendors, and with that they were so pleased, they almost gave us free extras), meat thingies, cream buns, pork on a bun, apple cider and papusas. We gawked at the quilts, ran into and mingled with friends and family (as is expected), and thought about eating some more. I even dropped my watermelon on the arena floor, picked it up, wiped off the dirt and ate the remains, that’s how much of a trooper I am…..maybe I shouldn’t have said that….
We then made our get-away from the hussle and bussle, and drove straight to my cottage, 30 minutes from Bancroft. We spent the afternoon enjoying the heat on the dock, chatting with other cottagers, canoeing, catching frogs (actually, just me), kayaking, and getting eaten alive. I think mosquitos are evolving and becoming smarter. I have more bites than I remember being bitten!
We woke up earrrly and made the 2 and a half hour trip to Ottawa, for the famous Ottawa Marathon, as we had friends running in it. Was that ever a sight to see! I realized it’s worth a seein’ even if you don’t know anybody in it! There were many races going on that day, but our friends were running in the marathon, which was 42kms (I learned that a marathon is ONLY 42 km’s, and anything less is just a race). In the marathon, there were 7,000 runners, from all over the world. I couldn’t even comprehend seeing 7,000 people go by! Using a map we had of the route, we went to where we thought they would be, based on how fast we thought they were running and how soon we’d get there. We parked at the 10km check point, and clapped for every handful of runners that went by (as did other on-lookers). After watching hundreds of runners go by, we eventually saw our friends. We then parked downtown, and eventually saw our friends go by again. To think we saw them twice amongst 7,000 runners! The next part of the route went over the river and into Hull, so we knew we had some time to kill.
We went to Darcy McGee’s pub for breakfast and watched the stream of runners go through town, a stream which seemed endless. Then we explored the “backyard” of Parliament Hill and enjoyed the view. We then walked alongside the canal to where the finish line was. This is where it became intense (both in events AND heat!)
It was mesmerizing (like watching a fire place) watching thousands of people running by, each with their own style; Some running stiffly, some running loosely, some with their wrists limp, bobbing here and there, some holding torches, one dressed like a rabbit with a tutu holding a magic wand (okay, she was the pace bunny, but still!), some wearing kilts (complete with Scottish hats and wool socks to the knees), some waving to the crowd like they were celebrities, and some with other awkward ways of running. As I sat on the bleachers, it occured to me what these people were doing. They were completing a task that they had spent the last few monthes and years preparing for, a task that is not “normal” for a human to do. In fact, marathoners only train for 32 km’s or so, and no more, because beyond that it’s all mental. After 32km’s, the body begins to tell you to stop, but you have to keep going despite that. So, it is in fact “abnormal” to run a marathon, as you cannot train your body any better than to go 32 kms. Just knowing this fact made it all the more incredible to witness.
We saw a man whose body had literally turned to jello, as he had pushed himself too much. We saw a first aid person run by, motioning for a wheelchair, then they slid his jelly body into it. Some over-zealous people in the crowd were yelling, “Take him to the finish line! Take him to the finish line!!” Of course they did. But he couldn’t even hold his head up or keep his mouth closed. His body had shut down long ago. What determination! My eyes watered at the sight of him. Imagine training so hard for this moment, only to fail that close to the finish line. Although, he DID technically finish.
We saw couples holding hands as they neared the end, and we heard over the speakers that one man was proposing to his wife, just at the finish line. We saw first aid people holding runners up, just to get them to the end. We saw men running with bloody nipples, from their shirts chaffing so much. Wow. One could come up with some metaphors for life from all this. We eventually saw our friends finish, and they told us some crazy stories from the marathon (such as people puking in all directions, running into the bushes because of intense diarrhea–again, this isn’t natural for the body, and the body tells you so in it’s own quirky little ways).
Afterwards, we met up with our friends and their parents, and went on our way for a picnic. But first, we had some more adventures. On our way to the picnic, we got into a car accident! It was the first actual accident I had ever been in, but it was so minor, that it didn’t even merit stopping (but that was because the people who hit us drove off right away). I have NEVER seen such STUPID driving in my LIFE! We were heading through an intersection, with a GREEN light, and some idiot in a black car decided he would turn left, even though we were CLEARLY coming. Will had to slam on the breaks to avoid hitting him, and honked. Then, we sped up again to continue through the intersection, when a white car, having slowed down for the black car in front of him, decided it was a good time to turn left as well. We had to swerve immediately to the left to avoid T-boning them, and our front bumper nicked their back bumper, with them speeding away. We were both so in shock, we just laughed with incredulity. How STUPID was that?!? Were they even LOOKING? Will and I were just thankful it wasn’t worse, and admired the new white paint on our bumper.
All in all, it was a marathon of a weekend.