A Little Meal.. a Little Oil…

450 grams of dry rice or some other grain. 50 grams of beans/lentils of some sort. 50 grams of oil. 5 grams of iodized salt. That is a day’s worth of emergency food aid. And this is what it looks like as one of three meals a day. As most of you know, I was…

Who Are You?

The ocean has always been a powerful symbol or metaphor for God for me. It’s the place that I connect with God most easily. Which is a bit surprising, because I didn’t grow up anywhere near the ocean… but the ocean means home. Whether it’s a warm summer day and the waves gently kiss the…

Trickery and Truth

Trickery, bribery, lies… the Bible has it all! You probably expected me to say that the movie had it all! 😉 And it does! One of the questions that rolled around in my head and heart this week was: Does the ends justify the means? Normally my answer would be no… but after I watched…

The Long Journey

As I said at the beginning of worship, the next few weeks are going to be focused on how small changes, changes that we don’t think even matter, can build up over time to make a big difference. James Clear, in his book Atomic Habits, writes, “It’s so easy to overestimate the importance of one…

Love’s Bright Star

Epiphany is one of my favourite celebrations in the church year. I’m not sure why, I don’t remember any emphasis on it when I was growing up… although I overheard references to ‘Old Christmas’ when we lived close to my mother’s family in southern Manitoba in a community that was primarily German/Ukrainian and Mennonite. Maybe…

Bravely Following the Star…

What would we do if we were brave? That question, raised by Rev Deborah Blood, the Executive Minister for the United Church of Christ in Maine, at the Annual Regional Meeting last year, has echoed in my head for months. Many of our churches live in fear: fear of the future, fear of not having…