Jim
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It is worse than pain?
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My finger really is getting better (the original story is here). I think I may even get most of the feeling back. There’s still some weird pain in there but nothing too bad. It’s amazing how the body can heal itself.
I found it interesting dealing with two kinds of problems in one finger – first, pain (some of it was pretty painful), and then – no feeling at all. The odd thing was that I think I would rather have the pain than the numbness. Some of you have had far worse numbness and pain than me, but I’ve haven’t lost feeling anywhere in my body for such a length of time. It’s very disorienting. Something could be sawing into your finger, and you’d never know it. When I tried playing the guitar, either the finger hurt and I didn’t feel anything – and it was hard to tell what the guitar strings were doing to my skin. I never knew that the lack of feeling could be so troublesome!
It got me thinking about sin. There are really two problems when it comes to sin. First, over emphasizing it, in comparison to the forgiveness of Jesus. There comes a time when we have to stand at the foot of the cross and realize that our sin has fallen away, and it’s time to continue our journey. Guilt after we’ve repented and been forgiven is false guilt. Punishing ourselves is ignoring the fact that Someone was already punished for us.
But perhaps even more frightening than false guilt is a complete lack of guilt, even before we come to the Lord. Every one of us at times gets so callous that we don’t even recognize the horrible darkness that we’re in. These are the blind spots – but not just annoying blind spots – deadly ones.
May God give us the grace to be tender – to see and recognize the terrible things we’ve done. And then may He give us the grace to repent and seek forgiveness, and know that our sin is forever gone thanks to Jesus’ sacrifice.
Alberta floods
Many of you have heard about the flooding in Southern Alberta. Of course, being on the 3rd floor we didn’t actually get flooded, but many many people had a lot of damage done to their homes. There was millions of dollars of damage, although it will be a while before the damage will be fully known. It’s looking like around $200 million. We can be thankful, however, that we’ve escaped the type of flooding other parts of the world have seen over the last few weeks.
In some areas, evacuees are just returning home today, and closed schools will likely reopen tomorrow. Flood warnings are still in effect in some areas.
Here the problem is water. With so much silt stirred up, the water treatment plants are having trouble keeping up. Right now we’re supposed to use as little water as possible. It’s a bit of a challenge – my thermometer says 33.5C (92.3F) and rising, with only 2% humidity. The good news is, it doesn’t look like rain!
Meximize training weekend
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I’m back from my weekend with the Meximize Team from Sudbury! I travelled to Sudbury on Wednesday, and spent a couple of days with Tim and Val Cressman preparing for the weekend. Then we drove out to Galilean Bible Camp (in Blind River, Ontario Canada) on Friday evening.
From Friday evening until Sunday afternoon we trained, trained, trained! How do I greet a Mexican? What if someone comes to me and asks how to become a Christian? What drama get explain the concept of sin? How do you pronounce the Spanish words in this song? How can I stay healthy in Mexico? How should I exchange my money? How can we resolve conflicts on our team? What activities will help us teach English?
That’s only a hint of the things that we worked through. The team was committed, enthusiastic and hard working. It was a pleasure to spend the weekend with them all, and I’m looking forward to joining them in Mexico in only 3 weeks’ time!
There’s still lots to do before the team leaves. From here I’ll still be helping them with testimonies, songs, and various aspects of the paperwork and preparation. Most of the team has exams to get through this week. So keep us all in your prayers, that the Lord would continue to guide and give strength! And pray that we’ll all recover from a very busy weekend. Praise the Lord for a group that really wants to serve Him and dedicate their lives to His service!
Nathanael update
I’m just heading out the door to catch my flight to Sudbury, but I wanted to leave a quick update on Nathanael. He had a good sleep this morning, and now he’s up. He’s still obviously sick, but he’s feeling a lot better and able to drink fluids, and seems interested in eating too. So thanks for your prayers! Check out the last 2 blog entries and keep praying. Thanks so much! 😎
Pray for Nathanael (and all)
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Two days ago, Nathanael started getting sick. Yesterday he could hardly even keep any fluids down, so after some lengthy discussions on the phone with the nurse, Shari took him to the Alberta Children’s Hospital. I stayed home with Hannah.
Nathanael was eventually hooked up to IV. He wasn’t dehydrated (thought getting close), though his blood sugar was getting pretty low. The IV was a big help, but he had little sleep because every hour the IV would BEEP and some strange person would come in and change it and poke him and prod him. Of course, Mom got very little sleep either. Hannah slept well.
The doctor checked him out this morning, and they decided that they’d take out the IV and send him home. So they got home around 7:30am. He was quite a bit better having had the nourishment at the hospital, although he still hasn’t drank much. It’s likely that he’s just too tired!
The doctor told Shari that he could just have a sleep when he got home, so Lord willing he’ll be feeling a lot better after that. But we’d certainly appreciate your prayers – for Mom, for Nathanael, and the rest of us. We’ll try to update you when we can and let you know how things are going.
This picture of Nathanael was taken yesterday. It was a typical pose for him. Hannah was a big help taking care of him, although she still needs a few nursing lessons (maybe her Aunt Amy could stop by?). 😉