Tracy's Blog

Hi Everyone, I think of you every Monday - whether I post a blog or not - and wanted to let you know that I'm on vacation right now and am not sure when I will get back to regular posts.  We've been having a great summer.  We just visited the Black Hills of South Dakota and now have visitors staying with us.   While we were in South Dakota, we went to Wind Cave National Park .  When we got there, we hurried to the ticket booth to purchase our tickets for a cave tour.  In line, I heard a park ranger say that the temperature in the caves was 52 degrees.  What was that in celsius?  I soon found out: 11 degrees.  "Oh no!" I thought as I realized that we didn't have sweatshirts or hoodies to wear on our tour.  The weather outside had been hot day after day and we hadn't even thought about needing jackets.  Well, that wasn't quite true - I did have a fleeting thought about it when we were hurrying to get into the car but it seemed like...

I had a memory the other day of Grade 5 or 6 that got me thinking about God's redemptive work in us.  My friends and I had been reading Judy Blume books and in one of them (maybe it was "Tale of a Fourth Grade Nothing"?), the characters wrote lists of things they liked and disliked about their friends.  So, my group of friends decided to try this.  What do I remember of this experience?  Surprisingly, not the list of things others wrote about me but rather the comment that someone made, "You wrote lots of negative things for each of us but only one positive thing."  It was true!  I found it easy to list specific negative things about my friends but when it came to the positives I wrote something generic like, "You are nice."  It seems that my critical skills were sharper than my affirming or encouraging skills. Fast forward to today.... and here is where I want to give thanks to God for His redemption in my life.  When I think of the ways t...

Two years ago today, our family packed ourselves, our dog, and a few of our belongings into our blue Suzuki Esteem and left Ottawa for Manitoba. When we took possession of our new house later that week, we were aware that the well water had been contaminated with bacteria in the past. So, we got it tested. It came out having both coliforms and e-coli. We had the well "shocked" and tested the water again. This time the water only showed coliforms. Needless to say, we didn`t use it for drinking or washing vegetables. Beside our bathroom sinks were bottles of water to brush our teeth with. Other than the water that passed through my lips accidentally in the shower, I refused to ingest this water unless it was boiled first. A year passed. In the summer of 2011, we got out water tested again. This time the result surprised me. It had nothing – no menacing micro-organisms – in it. . Could it be true? I couldn`t believe it! Even though I would tell other people, “Ou...

One day, Timmy's room was a disaster. There were clothes and toys scattered all over the floor. I said, “It's a mess,” indicating that we needed to spend some time cleaning it up. His response was interesting. He said “It's a maze”. His focus was on the challenge ahead – how to get to his bed through the maze – and not the mess. He had a very different perspective than me on the same situation. I started to wonder: is that how life is sometimes? Can our perspective make that much of a difference? I think so. Life can be a mess. Many things go wrong, situations are not what we hope them to be, and we have difficult challenges before us. We are overwhelmed by the mess and don't know what to do. But what if we alter our perspective? What if we were able to view the “mess” as a “maze”? And what if we switch our focus from the mess onto how to get through the maze with God's direction and help? So, here are some verses that have been very significa...

Yesterday in church I was struck by the "comfortable words" that are part of Holy Eucharist (1962) in the Book of Alternative Services of the Anglican Church of Canada (pages 238-239).  As the deacon said "Hear what comfortable words our Saviour Christ saith unto all that truly turn to him", my ears perked up.  And as I listened, I was struck with why these are comfortable words... because we have great needs that God meets - to have a place of rest, to know we are loved, and to be forgiven for our sins. It is when we acknowledge our need that we can then receive the amazing gifts of God. So, hear these words and may they be your comfort. Hear what Jesus says: "Come to me all that labour and are heavy laden, and I will refresh you."  Matthew 11:28 "God so loved the world, that he gave his only-begotten Son, to the end that all that believe in him should not perish, but have eternal life." John 3:16 Hear also what Saint Paul says: ...

Yes, I did remember that it was Pentecost this week. I had been preparing for it by reflecting on the work of the Holy Spirit as our Advocate/Counselor/Helper/Comforter ( John 15:26 ) throughout the week. I hope you were able to celebrate the Church's birthday with others. I enjoyed singing “Happy Birthday to the Church” with the children (age 4 and under) in St. Margaret's nursery. That was fun! My reflection for today is brief. It comes from Acts 2:1-4 “ When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.” Two points: “ ...tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them .” The Holy Spirit comes upon indi...

It was my teenage son, Noah, who made me aware of the fact that I had completely missing Ascension Day last Thursday (May 17). He came out of his youth group on Friday evening and told me about the passage they had studied – Acts 1:1-11. “Yikes!” I thought, “I missed celebrating the Ascension!” Now is this really a big deal? On a personal note, it showed me that all the calendars I've been using this year are completely secular. They have no religious holidays on them. So, I need to depend on my church community to track with religious events. This is normally fine except that 1) I had been in the nursery at St. Margaret's for the whole service the week before and hadn't read the bulletin and 2) we decided to go to St. Clement's church in Selkirk on Sunday which had already had a special service for Ascension on Thursday and instead was having a Rogation Sunday (a day to ask for God's mercy and blessing on the seeds that were soon to be planted). Less...