It has been a long time since I have posted anything here. Not sure what has happened to my archives. I guess things may eventually disappear from the internet!

Well, we are getting there. I am beginning to blog on my new site. You will find me from now on at linealanoie.com Over the next little while I guess everything will get moved over and set up so please excuse the mess while I'm in the process of moving.

Yesterday my sisters, who live in Cochrane, and I spent a day together. We headed up to the Banff and Canmore areas. We did some things none of our husbands would much appreciate doing - like visiting the show homes just east of Canmore. What magnificent homes! What expensive homes! Of course the one we liked the most was only 1.2 million.

Then in to Canmore for lunch and a visit to a fudge store. Up to Johnson Lake where we watched the helicopters coming in to fill up there buckets for firefighting. A constant turnaround as the fire was just east of there - quite close to the highway. Got some interesting pictures which I will post later. Then in towards Banff for a short hike. Thought we would visit Banff too for some ice cream but as we drove into the town we realized that they were having a power outage - due to the fire not the big black out in the east of Canada. So we revisited Canmore for the ice cream.

The smoke lies heavily over the city of Calgary this morning. The downtown area completely invisible from Sarcee trail where it rises overlooking the city.

Tomorrow we return home. It will be good to get back to my own computer.

Watch for a change over the next couple of weeks as I switch over to hosting by Prairie Fusion.

A Cloud Of Witnesses
One of the books I picked up recently is a little book by Esther De Waal called The Celtic Way Of Prayer. She speaks of our pilgrimage as we travel through life and of our connectedness to the world we live in and see as well as the mysterious unseen world around us. At the end of her introduction she states:
"...I am reminded that I travel in company with those who have made this peregrinatio (pilgrimage) before me, by the whole company of heaven, the saints and the angels, a 'cloud of witnesses', who surround me and who hold me up as I go."

This reminds me of my own experience when my mother died. We were in the Congo and had just arrived at the place we were to work about five days earlier. Our passports had been sent down to the capital to have permanent residence visas a couple of days before. When we got the radio message we were not able to travel - no documents. The news was so totally unexpected as was her sudden death. Within the shock of the news came the sense of her presence with me. Not a ghostly presence but as one now forever alive. I knew that although she was no longer living and able to give me the motherly advice I would have liked from her I had the closeness of her spirit still living and caring for me.

It became a little more clear to me why Catholics would pray to the saints - or rather to God via the saints. We protestants of the evangelical genre tend to avoid discussing these things - they are somehow looked on as irrational and not theologically sound. But we are told that we are surrounded by the saints who have gone before us. They do uphold us on the way - by example to be sure, but also in some mysterious way that is beyond our comprehension. Maybe it is somehow that their world is closely linked with ours since we too live with one foot in eternity when we acknowledge God in our lives.

Somehow, I have grown up with a sense of the supernatural being a real part of my life. It has helped me accept what I cannot understand. It gives me a sense of awe as I look at the wonders of the God's world around me from the most intricate details of a cell to the majesty of the mountains. It gives me hope for my future as I travel homeward, not alone but with all those who have gone before as well as those living in this time with me travelling the same path.

Here I am in Cochrane, Alberta, home of the world famous Cochrane ice cream. I haven't had any yet but will before I leave. I think you can only get it here and in Calgary(today I saw a place in Calgary selling it) and it is all made here in this pretty growing town.

I used to think that Cochrane was a strange place - all new houses in their neat little rows. No slums. No place that could be considered the bad part of town. Some places that could definitely be called the rich part of town though. (We're not there!) It actually lacks a lot of the character that a place like Prince Albert has. We have excitement and police action - check out Randall's blog. Saskatoon seems to have the same.

Yesterday, I traveled from Prince Albert to Pigeon Lake via Edmonton, then on down to Cochrane. Left at 8 am. And got here around 8 pm. Only a slight detour in Edmonton trying to find the #2 South. Last night I was exhausted. It felt so good to lie down. Then the alarm went off! I got two very sleepy dancers out of bed and off we went again. Rush hour traffic wasn't half bad. We got downtown in way under an hour - even had time to take them for breakfast before getting them registered.

Then as any good bibliophile does, I found a bookstore and passed a very quick hour there. I came away with a heavy bag and a lighter purse. I got some great books and a couple new CD's.

Calgary has done some very nice things as far as preserving green spaces in their city. I spent about three hours in a park down by the Eau Claire Centre. It was a beautiful day to spend in the park with some books.

I decided to try blogging from my sister's. I didn't remember how slow a dial-up connection was. It challenges my patience and takes so long that it makes it difficult to follow links and find some of my favorite blogs. I might try this again one more time before I leave.

I probably won't be blogging much over the next week. I'm off to Calgary via Edmonton and Pigeon Lake where Covenant Bay Bible Camp is located. Drop Sara off there and then go down to Calgary where Grace and her friend Nathalie will attend a dance workshop. I get to stay with my sisters and drive in to the downtown centre of Calgary every day for a week at rush hour and back out to Cochrane every day at rush hour too. When my kids are rich and famous they had better put me in a really nice nursing home! They owe me.

Now I just have to see if I can get onto my sister and brother-in-law's computer to check up on all of you while I am away. I'm hoping to convince my niece, who is entering the school of journalism at the U of Regina to start up a blog of her own.

I have just finished reading Brian McLaren’s book The Story We Find Ourselves In. I don’t think I have been so profoundly affected by a book in a long time. Let’s see if I can come close to explaining why.

First of all – it tells a story that describes my faith. It tells the story of God as I have gradually been coming to understand it over the years. What he says isn’t new to me but it confirms and validates a lot of what I have come to understand about my faith over the years.

Secondly – I learned a lot of new things. Some of the doctrines of the church are extremely hard to comprehend. So, usually, what I do with stuff I don’t understand is to place it in it’s own little closet and shut the door. I know what I should be believing, or what someone has told me I should be believing, but since it doesn’t make much sense to me, I just store it. Now I think I see and it is starting to make sense.

Thirdly – I have been frustrated by the lack of relevance of the church in my children’s lives. I see I am not alone. And this book has given me some hope that I might learn better how to communicate this story of God to them so that they see where they fit in too.

Fourthly – and this is sort of sad, I can see where some of those of you involved in church ministries can be so frustrated. We in the congregation have been sidetracked into following a path where no one else is going anymore except ourselves. Jesus is out there walking with the people in the world and we’re oblivious that we took the wrong turn back at the fork in the road. Put our songlasses on so the light wouldn't hurt our eyes so much or something! Now we hardly need them any more because the light is not so bright!

Fifthly - and this part is scary. The ending of the book is all too likely a possibility and I don’t want it to happen. But for it not to happen we – the congregations of churches - have got to make a major shift. And are we ready? I feel like I have very little control over the ending but maybe that is part of my role as a church leader – to make the ending for us turn out differently. At least I will be alert.

Somehow my archives have vanished from my home page - just become invisible.. They are still there on my posting site but they are sure not there on my home page. And I don't have a clue what I did to bring about this disappearance.

It may be all Randall's fault since he was here tonight helping me put a site meter on my page. And that is when the mysterious disappearance occurred - or shortly thereafter. But if I blame him then he might get insulted and not help me with maybe getting my stuff moved over to a different server so I can't do that. At least I don't have comments yet so he can't leave me a nasty reply!

While Randall was here we were talking about the book The Story We Find Ourselves In by Brian McLaren. I am not done yet but the way the author relates the story of the Good News is so simple yet so profound. It just makes so much sense to me since I do see things through scientific eyes to some extent.
As I'm reading it, there is the rather startling realization that he is telling the story that I am in and that I believe, and he is telling it as I have always wanted to tell it.

If you are of a similar (ie: scientific mindset) then you may want to visit the site of The Canadian Scientific And Christian Affiliation and read more about this organization.

Jordon Cooper talks about the use of Labyrinth as a tool in prayer and worship. He has gotten a lot of reaction - of course. I wasn't aware that only pagans owned the use of the word. We all have labyrinths in our heads you know - in our inner ears. In the dictionary a labyrinth is a complicated or confusing structure - a puzzle, a maze.

Anyway, I realize that is simplifying things - but reaction to the use of such a tool because of it being called a labyrinth seems like over reaction to me.

In my post from Wednesday, Aug. 6 I use a blessing which is called a rune in Madeleine L'Engle's book An Acceptable Time. Now if anything conjures up the image of pagan, it is probably the use of the term rune. Yet the word itself comes from the characters used in the ancient Germanic languages. Yes runes were words or incantations which had magical or mysterious meaning. A rune to a pagan would be a magic spell. To me, a Christian, the term as used by M. L'Engle, also a Christian, evokes images of inscriptions and words that have mysterious and sacred meanings. I think that I would place some of our blessings, Christian symbols, and benedictions into this category of language. And I believe we attach a certain Holy power to these. What we receive from these words goes way beyond the mere meaning of the words. Sometimes God's presence comes to us in very intense and special ways through them.

I hope that as Christians we don't try and eliminate everything from our lives that is mysterious beyond our understanding - that doesn't fit into some neat little theological box. Mystery is a big part of how I deal with the big concepts like creation, the incarnation, redemption and resurrection. My God is way too big for my finite little mind to understand and explain all of these. And the biggest mystery of all is his love for me - so intense that he died as a substitute for me long before I was even conceived of. So I use poetry, songs and music, liturgy(which is to me the repetition of a sacred act) and other means- like maybe a labyrinth or candles or whatever- to assist me in worshipping this mysteriously wonderful God. It is not how I worship but who that makes my worship true worship.

I believe that God created our sense of mystery, our sense of wonder and delight at all his creation for our and his enjoyment. I refuse to somehow hand over this part of who I am to the domain of the "occult", "new age" or any other label the evil one would like to use to frighten me away from experiencing this part of who God created me to be.

Thursday was kind of a blur.

It started off with a wonderful breakfast with a few friends at Lauralea's table. Wonderful scones and jam. I haven't had gooseberry jam for ages! And Lauralea's cherry jelly was - well it did make one want to eat too many scones! Thank you so much Lauralea. It was a treat.

Then I was off and running - quite literally driving - for the rest of the day. I had to be in Saskatoon before 12:30, pick up my son and his wife who were leaving for Washington D.C. for a wedding, drop them at the airport and then pick up the returning CHICers who were coming in at 1:00 on the same plane my other kids were leaving on. I was told later that not much sleeping was done by these three the night before. In fact maybe none - Don't they look alert! And here's another one that didn't get much sleep either along with the fatigued looking fearless leader.

We went directly back up to Prince Albert after a short stop (I had three guys in my car) at Mc D"s. Got home in time to rest my eyes for 30 minutes then headed off for Saskatoon again to get there in time for a soccer game - by 6:00. The Celtics recorded their first loss of the season. They were outplayed - I hate to admit it - by Saskatoon Hollandia and lost 2-1. Hopefully a loss will make them sharpen up their game. Not too good for one to go through life never losing!

Needless to say, when I got home at 11:00, I was exhausted and hit the hay!