Monday, 17 November 2014

Christmas Penguins


I came across this cute project idea, and it immediately got bumped to the front of my projects list!  It's pretty simple, and once again uses normal household items that are otherwise useless - this time, burned out light bulbs!


We happened to have a few lying around.  To start, you paint one side white.  I found that I had to do two coats.


Next, you paint the black, making them look like little penguins.


Then paint the faces.


The winter accessories were a little harder, because I didn't have a pattern.  I just used some yarn scraps, and through trial and error was able to crochet three little toques and scarves.




I used some wire to make it possible to hang these little guys on a Christmas tree.


Then it was just putting the pieces together with a bit of glue.  Meet papa penguin, mama penguin, and baby penguin!




What a cute little family!


Saturday, 15 November 2014

Meditation on John 4:1-42

Continuing my series of meditations on John, these are three prayers from reflecting on the story of Jesus and the woman at the well.

“Through Samaria” (v.4)

God, in this life there are many choices to be made.
Some of those choices can be very hard,
Especially when they are between two seemingly good options
Or between two options that both have pros and cons.
But there is one kind of choice that I find very easy to make:
When one option is easy and logical 
And the other is uncomfortable and challenging.
I confess that when I am faced with choices like that,
I rarely even pause to ask your will.

Remind me that there may be times
When the best road is the harder road.
When you are calling me to take the path
Through the land of the people who despise me
Or that I despise.
Where I may not be welcomed,
But have a divine appointment.


“My food” (v. 34)

Buttered bread fresh from the oven
Warm, comforting noodle soup
Strawberries with ice cream
Chocolate chip cookies
Cheesy pizza
Apple pie
God, thank you for food
And give me wisdom
To understand
What truly sustains.
Your word
Your will
Your presence.


“Look on the fields” (v.35)

Busy with their errand,
The disciples missed it -
That the fields were ripe,
That they had an amazing opportunity.
God, give me the eyes to see
When the fields are ripe.
Break through the blindness of my prejudice
My own selfish agenda
My tunnel-visioned hurry
And help me see with your eyes.

Amen.

Wednesday, 12 November 2014

Plastic Bag Doormat (part 1)

This is a project I have been wanting to do for a while now, ever since I found this pattern for a doormat that is made of plastic bags: http://www.myrecycledbags.com/2007/12/26/plastic-bag-doormat-rug/

We generally use plastic bags in our garbage cans, but half the time they have holes in them that would make a messy leak.  So I thought this would be a great way to use those otherwise useless bags!  Here's how it works:

You start by taking the plastic bags and making them into a kind of plastic yarn, otherwise known as "plarn". (Get it? Pl-arn, plastic yarn)


Flatten the bags and fold them in half a couple of times.


Then cut the bag into one inch strips, discarding the handles and the very bottom of the bag.


When you unfold the strips of bag, they make large loops.


Then you link all of the loops together to make a long chain.



Roll it up into balls, and your "plarn" is ready to use!  I decided to keep the different colours of plastic in separate balls.


The pattern I found online was a fairly simple crochet pattern, but you could probably knit it too.  I found the "plarn" to be surprisingly easy to work with, although it takes a bit more wrestling than normal yarn does.


Having different colours of plastic makes it possible to make a bit of a design.


Finding this recycling symbol made me smile.  Yes, yes I am recycling this bag, but perhaps not quite in the way you were expecting me to!


Here is the mat in its current state.  It is about half of the finished size I would like, and has taken 14 bags so far.  But sadly I have run out of bags!  Our door may have to remain mat-less for a little longer.


I find that the crocheted "plarn" has a very interesting feel, and looks much better than I expected!  I will post a picture of the completed mat once I have the materials to finish it.



Brownie points to anyone who can guess the 5 stores that are represented by the bags I have used so far!

Tuesday, 11 November 2014

Remembering

Last week I had the opportunity to teach a class at my college as a part of my internship as a teacher’s assistant.  I am a TA for a class called Spiritual Formation and Discipleship, which focuses on the spiritual disciplines.  Each week a different spiritual discipline is the focus.  I was given the opportunity to prepare a full 75-minute lesson on a topic of my choice, provided it fit into the context of spiritual disciplines.  I chose the topic “Remembering”.  It seemed appropriate, considering that it was shortly before Remembrance Day weekend, but I also wanted to expand on the idea of remembering and its importance to our spiritual lives as Christians.  The following is an abbreviated form of my lesson. (Sorry that it's still kind of long...)

Remembering may seem like an unusual topic in a class on the spiritual disciplines.  It’s not something that you usually find in lists next to things like fasting and service.  However, I would like to challenge you today that remembering is in fact an important part of our spirituality.   

To begin, it is important to clarify what we mean by remembering.  According to the dictionary, to remember is “To bring to one’s mind an awareness of…”.  However, the Hebrew word for remember expands on this definition: “To remember, recall, call to mind, usually as affecting present feeling, thought, or action”.  So the biblical concept of remembrance does not just involve the mind; it also involves feelings and action.

When remembering is mentioned in the Bible, it is generally in connection with some kind of response or action.  One example is Genesis 30:22, when God remembers Rachel and allows her to conceive.  Another example is in Deuteronomy 5:12-15, when the Israelites are commanded to keep the Sabbath.  They were to remember that they used to be slaves in Egypt and that God saved them, so they should no longer work like slaves but instead should take time to rest.

So today our working definition of remembering is: “Knowledge accompanied by appropriate action”.  We have not actually remembered something unless it affects us in some way.  Remembering is very practical.

Today we will be focusing in on three different areas in which it is very important for us to remember.  The first is remembering the heroes of faith.  This weekend our country will be remembering and honouring the heroes who fought and died for our country.  As Christians, we have our own set of heroes – people who have gone before us in our faith, who worked, struggled, and often died, to pass their faith on to us.  These heroes of faith include people we read about in the Bible as well as people throughout history, and include the great and powerful as well as the simple people who were faithful in small, day-to-day-ways.

Remembering the heroes of faith can inspire us to live lives of faith ourselves.  An example of this is found in the book of Hebrews.  Hebrews 11 lists many heroes of our faith in what could be called the “Faith Hall of Fame”.  Reading this passage, you get the feeling that the list could continue, through the Old Testament, into the New, and then right through church history, up to this present day.  In class we took the time to make our own “Faith Hall of Fame”, writing down the names of people that we find inspiring and that have encouraged us in our faith.

The writer of Hebrews carries on to say:  “Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us” (12:1).  Our heroes of faith can inspire us and encourage us.  As we remember their stories, we can be encouraged in our own story, and challenged to press on in our own walk of faith.  It is so important to remember them.

Secondly, it is important to remember history.  As we remember history, we can learn from it.  One of the interesting things about history is that it often seems to repeat itself.  And in a way, this makes sense.  Even though technology advances, and the context changes, people are not all that different.  We still have the same motivations and needs – for security, love, food and shelter, meaning in life.  It can be possible, through learning about the past, to gain insight into the way our world is today, and we can gain wisdom for how to respond to the events of our time.  When we don’t remember, we can make the same mistakes that others have made in the past.  The philosopher George Santayana once said: “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”  Another way that someone articulated this same message is that “History repeats itself because no one was listening the first time”.

A vivid example of this in the Bible is the story of the Judges.  It becomes almost predictable – the people start worshiping other gods, they become oppressed by the nations around them, they cry out to God, God sends a judge to deliver them, they serve God for a while, but soon turn to other gods and the cycle repeats again and again.  It makes you wonder – would the Israelites ever learn from history?!

Perhaps repetition that is that obvious is not generally evident throughout history.  But while events may not repeat in an exact way, there are remarkable similarities and patterns throughout time.  Mark Twain said, “History doesn’t repeat itself, but it does rhyme”.  It is these rhymes, these echoes of the past, that allow us to learn from history in order to live more wisely today.

I gave a couple of examples of this in class, but here I will focus on just one example: War.  On Remembrance Day, we remember those who have been willing to give their lives for their country.  And I think that it is a good thing to honour them.  But have you ever wondered why there keeps on being war after war?  For example, do you know why World War 2 took place?  Yes, Hitler was a significant threat, but why was there a Hitler?  You have to go back a few more years to an event we know of as World War 1; a war that began in 1914 – 100 years ago.  But at that time, that war was not known as World War 1, it was called “The War to End All Wars”.  When it was finally over, many people truly believed that there would never again be a need for war.  However, the result of that war for the countries that lost, particularly Germany, was economic disaster.  Things got so bad in Germany that the German people became desperate, and when someone stood up and claimed that he could change their lives for the better, they followed him willingly – his name was Adolf Hitler.  The “War to End All Wars” simply bred another war; a war that had even more devastating effects, with over 60 million people losing their lives.

And World War 2 – did that bring the final solution?  Was that the “War to End All Wars”?  No – since then there has continued to be war after war: The Cold War, The Korean War, The Vietnam War, The Gulf War, war in Afganistan, war in Iraq… we see history repeating and repeating and we have to wonder – does war actually help?  Can war stop war from continuing?  History seems to say no.  Martin Luther King Jr. once said that “Returning violence for violence multiplies violence, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars… Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that.”  But we can only learn that lesson if we remember.  And may our remembering also be practical, as we seek for ways to break the cycle of war and violence that is in our world.  In the words of the MCC Remembrance Day pin: To remember is to work for peace.

Finally, it is also important to remember what God has done in our lives.  While remembering the heroes of our faith can encourage us, and remembering history can be insightful, this is remembering at a very personal level.

This concept can be found throughout the Bible.  The Old Testament is full of passages where God’s people are urged to remember what he has done.  Remember that you used to be slaves in Egypt.  Remember that God saved you.  Often the Israelites were told to set up visible reminders so that they wouldn’t forget what God had done.  One example of that is in Joshua 3:14 - 4:7.  After the people of Israel crossed the Jordan, God told them to take rocks from the riverbed and make a monument so that they would remember.  The New Testament also contains the instruction to remember.  One famous instance is at the Lord’s Supper: “Do this in remembrance of me” (Luke 22:19). 

While it is vitally important to remember what Jesus did for us 2,000 years ago, he is also active in our lives now, and it is important to remember that.  We all experience ups and downs; times where everything seems great, and times that are really hard.  When we are in those harder times, one thing that can help us get through is remembering what God has done in our lives.  It can remind us of how God does care for us and how he is present with us, even if it doesn’t feel like it.  It can also give us hope that the future will be better.

Now I want to give a little disclaimer.  When we reflect back over our lives, it can be easy to feel a lot of regret.  We see all of the things that we did that we shouldn’t have done, or that we should have done and didn’t do.  It can be very tempting to beat ourselves up and try to punish ourselves over and over again for those failings.  But that is not healthy remembering.  It is true that just as we can learn from world history, we can also learn from our own personal histories.  It is good to learn from the mistakes that we have made.  But God does not want us to live in shame and regret.  When we dwell on the past, he is inviting us to dwell on what he has done - on his faithfulness to us.

In class we brainstormed different ways to help ourselves remember what God has done in our lives.  Ideas included journaling, talking with close friends, going through old facebook posts, and setting up a pile of rocks like the Israelites.  What ideas do you have?

Remembering is important.

Remembering the Heroes of Faith leads to encouragement in our own faith as we step out to do what God is calling us to.

Remembering History leads to wisdom, and we can engage what is happening in our world in an effort to change things for the better.

Remembering what God has done in our lives leads to hope when we’re going through hard times.

So this Remembrance Day… remember!

Thursday, 6 November 2014

Harvest Box (aka "What do I get to try cooking with this week?")

Living in Abbotsford, we get to take advantage of a program that is offered here called the Harvest Box.  Basically, the Harvest Box is a 10 pound box of fruits and veggies that costs $8 and that is available bi-weekly.  There are several things that I have enjoyed about this.  First, it helps stretch the grocery budget a little father.  Second, it mostly contains local produce.  And third, you never know what is going to be in the box!  So it's a little like Christmas... kind of.

But my favourite part about getting a box of random produce is that I am getting a chance to try different vegetables that I haven't cooked with before, and would never think of buying at the store!  Here are a few examples from the past couple of months, and what I tried making with them.

Leeks.  This leek went into a "Cock-a-Leeky Soup" - basically, chicken soup with veggies.

Fennel.  I had no clue what this one was - I had to look it up online!

The fennel chopped up a lot like an onion.  I sauteed it and put it in spaghetti sauce.

Baby bok choy.  This went into a stir fry.

Eggplant.  Along with the zucchini and some other veggies, this was grilled, diced, and served on pasta.

And I'm sure there are more interesting things that are going to show up in future boxes!

For anyone who is interested in more information on the Harvest Box, here is a link to their website: http://www.vibrantabbotsford.ca/projects/food-security/harvest-box/


Saturday, 1 November 2014

Meditation on John 3:1-12

“Born again”
Said so tritely
Religious jargon
What do we mean by it?
What did he mean?
Does our theology
of “praying the prayer”
affect our idea
of rebirth
rather than the other way around?

Perhaps
being “born again”
is more like 
birth
than our simple
feel-good religiousness
is comfortable with.

Messy
Painful
A time-consuming process
Hard
Life-altering
Beautiful

Why do we reduce it
to a tidy sinner’s prayer?
mental assent to an ideology?

When a child is born
their life changes forever.
Their world expands.
New adventures and experiences become possible
in a world of deep suffering
and even deeper love.