What a whirlwind.

Last Saturday we got a call that my grandfather had two strokes in quick succession and was now in intensive care at the University of Alberta Hospital.  We quickly made the decision to travel to Edmonton in our minivan, risking wintery conditions in the mountains and spending money we don’t really have to be with my family and my grandfather in a time of crisis.

He’s an 84 year old World War II veteran, and proudly independent.  I knew he would take this hard.  But I also had some concern because while I know he grew up Catholic, and I know his second wife was a devout 7th Day Adventist, I don’t know if he ever truly made faith in Christ his own.  I also knew that I wanted to see him again, if these were his final hours.  I haven’t seen him since he moved to Alberta 2 years ago after Grace died.

God truly opened a number of doors for us to enable this trip, from providing financially for the expenses, to providing help to cover for us in our many responsibilites, to providing friends to take care of our two cats.  He cleared our path in front of us - we didn’t meet with any storms on the Coquihalla, and made it all the way to Revelstoke the first day, and even found a pet-friendly room for us all to bunk down in.

By Monday we were in the Hospital, and he was all hooked up to tubes and things.  He was unable to speak, the stroke having damaged the speech areas of his brain.

We spent a couple of days with Cheryl’s family in Red Deer, and then brought the boys the rest of the way to Fort Saskatchewan, to see my parents and brother and sister.  Friday I went back to the Hospital and saw Grandpa again.  He had improved again, but was groggy initially, and in considerable pain in his abdomen.  I prayed with my mother and him, and then we left him to sleep for a bit.  When we returned an hour or so later, he was much more alert than he had been and the pain was gone.  He wanted to go for a ride in the wheelchair, and we were excited to see him demonstrate his strength and mobility.  His coordination seemed very good in both hands, despite his still not being able to talk.

God definitely wanted to use us on this trip.  In Red Deer, we had a long talk with Cheryl’s grandmother and mother about churches and about why we do the things we do.  We had a great talk about honesty and transparency and community.  I think thay are typical in that most Canadians view church as something to do on Sunday, a quaint custom from a more superstitious time.  If they still even believe in God as a concept, they have never truly understood the kind of life that Jesus calls his followers to - a whole life of love and fellowship and support.

Then with my family, my grandfather, though he was limited in what he could understand, I believe he did get what I wanted to say to him, to just invite him to talk with Jesus as he recovered.  To remind him he doesn’t need to speak to speak with God and begin or renew that relationship once more.  At my parents’ house, we had several opportunities to talk with Steve, my sister’s husband, who claims a staunch atheism.  His inquisitiveness was enjoyable and revealed a desire to understand more about the faith we have.  I was very excited at the non-confrontational conversation and to learn that he had recently tried reading the Bible (to little success - he made the same mistake I did, starting in Genesis!)  I wish we lived closer so we could spend more time helping him to understand the message of the Bible and of the Word.  But it is a beginning.

Of course, I would be lax to not praise God once more for his watch over our travels home which we pushed through in one day - 14 hours of driving.  Strangely the cold weather followed us all the way to the coast - blowing snow and sub-freezing temperatures looked bizarre and prairie-like was we pulled in our driveway here on the coast.  It’s supposed to stay this cold for at least a week too!

I just started reading Essential Church by Rainer and Rainer.  20 pages in I am already seeing this book connect with my life.  The book purports to be about reaching the 18-22 year olds who are abandoning the church at a rate of 70% by the time they hit 22.  These are saved kids, kids who know their faith, but see no connection between it and the church they attend.

Already I am realizing, this is exactly what happened to my Dad.  I’ve hread his reasons for leaving church before, to do with hypocrites and serious sin by leaders in the church.  But I think when it comes down to it, if it was really about hypocrites, why didn’t he ever try another church, give anyone else a chance?  Because it simply wasn’t important to him.  He didn’t see why church was essential.

This book may be more useful than I thought.  Download the eBook version for free here.

Hospitality. What a big word that is. I’m not talking about the number of letters but rather all that it means at least for me. I have been thinking lately about how I need to open up my home a lot more to others but I find it overwhelming. I like people, however, I do like my privacy and my space. My home is where I go to recharge when I am not picking up after my kids and doing what seems to always need done; from the dishes to the laundry. At the moment I have three sick boys. I did have all four sick at one point but one got better.

Already we’ve been opening up our home on Friday nights to our community group (aka small group/care group) but we could do more, right? I look at my schedule for this Fall and I know I am very busy teaching students and marking their papers, my studies, kids schooling, Awana team meetings, community group meetings, leadership meetings and church events. Somewhere in there I have to fit in mentoring, couple meetings with community group members and connecting with Awana leaders plus time with my family and God. How does one make it work?

Shane keeps bringing up having people over and instantly I think of all the preparation I have to do to have someone over for dinner and more preparation if they have kids (especially if they are young and will want to put our kids’ smaller toys in their mouths). A negative attitude creeps in as I list off all the ways having people over is going to impact me. Honestly, I start to panic.

When I get stressed I slow down. It feels like I never get ahead and so I feel like I shouldn’t even bother trying which is of course a bad attitude to have. But how can I change that? How do I make myself want to have people over and on short notice? If we are going to plant a church my home will have to be pretty open to company. I’ll have to make it visitor ready at all times. It isn’t a disaster it’s just lived in. I have a certain standards regarding how I want my home to look like when I have people over but it is difficult to maintain that standard when I have 4 little boys to take care of. I really need to work through this so I guess I will have to create a game plan as an attempt to eliminate some of the excuses I make for not wanting people over.

My “Simple” Game Plan:
1. Keep the kitchen clean at all times.
2. Entrance way must always be clean.
3. Living room always neat and tidy.

Three rules for myself. I’m not taking on all the rooms of my house, just the ones most frequently visited by company so I have one less panic attack when Shane tells me he invited someone to our house after church and they’ll be here in an hour.

Some quick bullets for ya.

• Today’s our 10th Anniversary!  Happy anniversary to my wife, who has staggered my imagination by her dedication to me and our life together for ten whole years.  Thank you for everything you have done and ever will do - I love you.
• Good news on the graduating essay front.  My faculty advisor (who also happens to be the program director, so I didn’t really have anyone to complain to) has finally started returning my emails.  I have been granted an extension on my project.  Now, to get it done!
• Check out Rodney Olsen’s thought-provoking piece on Christians who ignore their families.  I think some of the commenters thought he was talking about their spouse and children, but I think he was talking about extended family - aunts, uncles, cousins, grandparents, grandchildren.  It’s easy to keep connected with them when they share your faith, but harder when they don’t.  Where’s the balance? 

  The irony is this exact issue is staring me in the face on Labour Day weekend.  Which to choose: sticking around and helping three church families move, or travelling up to Vernon to visit my grandparents, who aren’t getting any younger, and whom I haven’t seen in a year?

• We’ve got the big Awana Basic Training coming up this weekend.  I need to rustle up my leaders and make sure as many as possible are going.  I think phone calls are in order tonight.  Pray for our leaders that they would make this a priority.
• I’ve got a couple of ideas about how to more effectively share my faith.  I’ll let you know how they work out.
• Hey God, could use some blessing at work.  Anytime now.  Thanks in advance!