Tracy's Blog

Some of you might be wondering if I gave up blogging for Lent.  I didn't!  I just couldn't decide what themes or Scripture passages to discuss.  So, I put off writing.  But here I am today. Lent is one of my favourite seasons in the Church Year.  I find setting time aside to confess and repent of my sin draws me close to God and increases my gratitude for the cross.  It prepares me for Easter. But Lent is hard.  It can be hard to make time to pray.  It can be hard to face our sin.  Sometimes we don't want to.  Other times we don't know how.  One image keeps coming to mind when I think of Lent.  It is something I saw one Saturday morning in my dining room.  The sun was streaming in (after many, many weeks of cloudy weather) and I was delighted with this.  But when I looked down at my floor, I was shocked.  I saw a thin film of dust that I didn't know was there.  We had swept the floor the nigh...

The Gospel reading for the last Sunday of the season of Epiphany was Mark 9:2-9. The Transfiguration 2  After six days Jesus took Peter, James and John with him and led them up a high mountain, where they were all alone. There he was transfigured before them. 3  His clothes became dazzling white, whiter than anyone in the world could bleach them. 4  And there appeared before them Elijah and Moses, who were talking with Jesus. 5  Peter said to Jesus, “Rabbi, it is good for us to be here. Let us put up three shelters—one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah.” 6  (He did not know what to say, they were so frightened.) 7  Then a cloud appeared and covered them, and a voice came from the cloud: “This is my Son, whom I love. Listen to him!” 8  Suddenly, when they looked around, they no longer saw anyone with them except Jesus. 9  As they were coming down the mountain, Jesus gave them orders not to tell anyone what they had seen until ...

One of the things I have responsibility for in my job at Nova House is overseeing an apartment for women who are transitioning from the shelter to their own housing.  Normally we only have one woman (and her children) staying in the 3 bedroom apartment but a few weeks ago we needed to move a second woman in.  Now a 3 bedroom place would seem sufficient - except that one of the bedrooms didn't have a bed.  Yes, there was a mattress, but the bed frame was broken so in the fall when I took on this job, I had it hauled to the dump.  So there I was on a Friday afternoon wondering how we were going to get a bed for this woman before she moved in the next week. What did I do? Two things: 1) prayed - I asked God for a single bed to be donated by the next Friday (I thought she could handle a few nights on the mattress or on the couch) 2) emailed 2 groups of ladies (an old small group of mine and a group from a church in Selkirk that have been very supportive of Nova ...