Just for fun
Auld Lang Syne
Back in 2011 we visited Ayrshire, a county in Scotland where a line of my family came from many years ago. Ayrshire is the birthplace of the “Bard of Ayrshire”, the famous poet Robert Burns.
Burns is the author of a song that many people will be singing or listening to tonight – Auld Lang Syne. It’s sing not only New Year’s Eve, but at funerals and graduations. It’s sung in Inuktitut in Canada’s north, in Chinese, in Thai, and yes, there are versions in Spanish!
One of the people who popularized the song as a New Year’s Song on this side of the pond was Canadian band leader Guy Lombardo. Here’s Lombardo’s band with one rendition.
Burns wrote the song in 1788, when my great great great great grandfather and great great great great grandmother (Andrew and Janet Armour) were living in Ayrshire with their growing family.
While in Ayrshire we visited the Robert Burns Birthplace Museum. We have a picture of a painting based on his poem, A Cotter’s Saturday Night (a Cotter or Cottrill is someone who lives in or rents a small cottage) (see the painting here).
The Scots title Auld Lang Syne literally means old long since, and so for auld lang syne has been paraphrased for the sake of old times. The song pictures a couple of friends enjoying time together after a long time apart.
Here’s the first verse and chorus in his own handwriting from the museum:
Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
And never brought to mind?
Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
And days o’ lang syne?
Chorus:
For auld lang syne, my jo, [my dear]
For auld lang syne,
We’ll tak a cup o’ kindness yet,
For auld lang syne.
It’s a wonderful time to spend with friends and family. A wonderful time to value the old as we look ahead to the new.
The Bible talks a lot about remembering and forgetting. Remember the days of old; consider the years of many generations; ask your father, and he will show you, your elders, and they will tell you. (Deuteronomy 32:7)
We remember that God freed us from our sin – something that humbles us and gives us hope and joy. We know that God won’t remember our sin if we belong to Christ – For I will be merciful toward their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more. (Hebrews 8:12)
As the old year ends and the new one begins, let’s remember to value our friends and family. Let’s take the time to be with them. And let’s remember the great things that God has done – in the past and in our past.
I will remember the deeds of the LORD;
Yes, I will remember your wonders of old.
I will ponder all your work,
And meditate on your mighty deeds.
Your way, O God, is holy.
What god is great like our God?
You are the God who works wonders;
You have made known your might among the peoples.
(Psalm 77:11-14)
Ayr, South Ayrshire KA7, UK
The End of a Journey
We had a good idea back in April 2010. We ordered some hockey supplies for the community centre, and since we were going to be in Dallas we could simply take them back with us in our van and trailer to Ixtapaluca.
Among the supplies were two goalie sticks. They were supposed to arrive, at the latest, the day we were leaving.
 Goalie sticks – Finally at the Community Centre |
You guessed it. They arrived the day after we left.
Well, we haven’t been in Dallas since. No one has had room to bring them down since (I think someone actually took the blades off to try to take them on the plane, but it was a no-go).
But finally, this past summer, someone brought them from the office in Dallas to our Convocation in Denver.
Then a friend brought them from there back to Mexico (thanks, Brock, for finding room in your kayak), passing them on to another friend.
Then, late last month, we went up to San Juan del RÃo (north of Mexico City) and picked them up.
Finally, tonight, somewhere around 950 days since we first ordered them, and after they travelled who knows how many thousands of kilometres, the arrived at our community centre!
So if there’s no NHL season this year, never fear. You can come down to Mexico and play street hockey with us. And the goalies will have two very nice sticks.
10 Years – What Happened?
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Tomorrow this blog celebrates 10 years! (Ok, we are going to celebrate. The blog just kinda sits here.) So let’s take a look at a few of the things that have happened in the past decade. How many of these things do you remember? What would you add to the list?
2002
2002 of course marked the start of Finding direction, although at that time it was called The Cottrill Family Journal. We originally used software known as Greymatter, but eventually switched to WordPress (which didn’t exist when we started the blog). It was 9:46pm on the 5th of October.
In Christian news, this is the year that The Purpose Driven Life by Rick Warren was published. Christians watched in amazement as it became one of the best selling books of all time. But critics became concerned that it lacked a clear Gospel message, and used Scripture a little too creatively.
2003
Perhaps the most important event of 2003 was the birth of our nephew, Jevon!
2003 also marked the beginning of the Iraq War. Unlike the USA, Canada never declared war on Iraq, but did support the UK and the USA, and Canadian soldiers did go to Iraq.
In other news, The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown was published. It rehashed old myths about history, and eventually gained a special place in my 8 week series Where did the Bible Come From?
The Darfur Conflict in Sudan began in 2003.
2004
In 2004 – Nathanael happened! Right in the middle of a move.
In 2004, The Passion of the Christ also made big news. Although initially many evangelical organizations promoted it, many criticised the extreme violence and traditionalist Catholic teachings of the movie.
Perhaps the biggest news story of the year hit in late December – the Boxing Day Tsunami was one of the biggest natural disasters in recorded history.
2005
In 2005 we welcomed our niece Ashlyn into the world. Right on!
This blog also gained it’s new name – Finding direction.
In world news, the USA decided to build a wall on the US/Mexico border.
2006
In 2006 – we moved to Mexico! We left Canada in October 2006. The weather had been nice, but a snowstorm hit the day we left. We arrived in Mexico in November. I still thank God on the anniversary of that day that we arrived here!
2007
In 2007 Canadian MK William Paul Young gave the world The Shack. Fellow Canadian blogger, who celebrated his 10 years last month, wrote a review here. Of course, Tim has a few more readers than we do – but we’re not bitter about that. 😉
In other news that rocked the Christian world, a short term mission team from South Korea was taken hostage by the Taliban in Afghanistan. Two members of the team would be executed before the team’s final release. At least one who died was killed because he refused to convert to Islam. However, much of the news focused on criticizing the churches in South Korea and the team itself, as well as mission efforts in general.
In Mexico, massive flooding hit affecting about a million people. As much as 80% of the State of Tabasco was under water.
2008
In Canada, a Christian charity was fined $23,000 for hiring only people with Christian convictions. How long would any religious organization be able to exist in Canada?
In 2008 the “Global Recession” began, impacting many many lives especially in the western world. The recession also impacted (and continues to impact) funding for Christian mission efforts around the world.
Another of the world’s most terrible natural disasters hit in 2008 – Cyclone Nargis. At least 138,000 died.
In 2008 we also moved to Ixtapaluca. In an auspicious beginning, I walked into our new house, went into the bathroom, and locked myself in. I had no way to contact anyone, but eventually I found a way to get the door open again!
At the end of this year and the beginning of the next, Shari’s parents came down for a visit!
2009
Ah, the memories! In 2009 we were hoping to be around to welcome our niece Karina into the world. But after waiting as long as we could, we had to get back on the road.
2009 was also the year of the swine flu! When an earthquake hit in the middle of the flu scare, Mexicans were wondering how much worse things were going to get.
But it wasn’t all bad – in 2009 we officially recognized the Mexican leadership of the church in Santa Barbara, Ixtapaluca!
Also in 2009, my Dad had his book published – Discovering the Songs of Christmas! What, you don’t have your copy yet? It’s a great time of year to order! 🙂
2010
More problems in central Mexico when the sewage system burst, sending floods of filthy water across one of Mexico’s busiest highways into the valley of Chalco. The flood waters continued to pour in for several days. The flood was only 5 minutes from our house, and with the believers in our church we were able to offer relief in the form of hot breakfasts, supplies, and clothes.
Serious as it was, the flooding hardly made a footnote in the news, and there was little or no other relief going on while we were there. I took a lot of video (here’s the video we presented at the service we had after the waters went down), and some of my footage eventually ended up on the Canadian History Channel as a part of their Trashopolis series. (I still haven’t seen the show – anyone have a copy?)
2010 was also a time for major celebration in Mexico – 200 years of independence, and 100 years since the Revolution.
2010 was also the year of the Winter Olympics. In the most watched television broadcast in Canadian history, we watched Canada’s men’s hockey team defeat the US team. There hadn’t been anything like it since we beat the Soviet Union in ’72.
This is the year we also welcomed our new director at CAM Canada – Charlene de Haan.
2011
In religious news, Harold Camping claimed that the world would end in 2011. He had already condemned local churches, saying they were ruled by Satan.
In the world of missions, Christians were shocked when a missionary was shot and killed in northern Mexico.
An earthquake and tsunami in Japan, and the problems that they caused, resulted in what was said to be the most expensive natural disaster in history.
South Sudan gained its independence in 2011, sadly not ending the violence.
2012
In 2012 we had the pleasure as a group of believers to recognize the Mexican leaders of the new church plant in Jesús MarÃa, Ixtapaluca.
And – how can we forget? After all, it was only a few days ago! The birth of our nephew, Ethan!
And – in 2012 Finding direction celebrated 10 years!
| To celebrate, for a little while we’ll have some pictures here (top right) of the past 10 years – especially focused on the four of us and Mexico (hey, it’s our blog after all!).
The picture will change each time you visit a different page on the blog, or reload the page. Some of the pictures are clickable – click to read a post about the picture! |
Tomorrow – it’s about time to look forward . . .
Back in October 2002…
What’s special about this week? Well, this Friday is actually the day.
Friday is the 5th of October. And 10 years earlier – this blog was started!
The website itself was launched back in 1999, but the blog began as The Cottrill Family Journal in October 2002.
So we’re going to celebrate 10 years! First, I thought I’d look back at how different the world was back in October 2002. It’s funny . . . in some ways it doesn’t seem like that long ago. But in a way, it was a whole different world. For example…
- Michael Jackson was still alive, and was inducted into the Songwriter’s Hall of Fame
- On TV, people were still watching The Sopranos, Friends, Frasier, Enterprise, The Red Green Show, and Everybody Loves Raymond
- Queen Elizabeth II was touring Canada as a part of her Golden Jubilee
- The always entertaining and controversial Jean Chrétien was Prime Minister in Canada. In the USA, George W. Bush was President. And in Mexico, former Coca-Cola Mexico President Vincente Fox was President. In 2000 his election ended the 71 year reign of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI)
- In 2002, hitting the charts 25 years after his death, Elvis Presley had another hit – a remix of A Little Less Conversation with Junkie XL. Also hitting the charts in 2002 was A Moment Like This from Kelly Clarkson, and A New Day Has Come from Celine Dion.
- The world was still in the middle of the Harry Potter series
Things that hadn’t happened yet…
- The Iraq War
- The iPhone and iPod Touch. The first iPod came out in 2001.
- Facebook (launched 2004)
- YouTube (launched 2005)
- The Amazon Kindle (first one – 2007)
- Some of the biggest movie hits of all time, such as The Departed (2006), The Dark Knight (2008), the last two Lord of the Rings movies (2002, 2003), and Inception (2010)
- Books that hadn’t been written: The Secret, The Girl with the Dragon Tatoo, The Hunger Games
…Actually, as you know, a LOT of things hadn’t happened yet! So tomorrow I’m going to do a whirlwind tour of a few of the things that have happened right here and around the world in the last 10 years. Reminding us all once again – 10 years is longer than it used to be!
And look out for another surprise or two as we look back and look forward . . .
Coca-Cola Gold
I bought this Coke at the store today. It’s in honour of the best soccer players in the world – Mexico’s gold medal Olympic team. 🙂
It features the logo of the country’s soccer (football) association. Then it says – Gold Medal – Thank You, Mexico – 11-08-12 and then it reminds us that Coca-Cola was an official sponsor of the London 2012 Olympic Games.
Way to go, Mexico!