The Cholera outbreak in Haiti is effecting a number of Compassion Child Development Centers. See the link below for details.
Pray for the Compassion workers, for the children and their families as they deal with yet another disaster in their country.
Well yesterday was municipal election day here in Ontario. Most municipalities held elections for mayor, city counsel, school boards, etc. Here in Toronto, it was no different. We had our election too.
I can’t say I’m surprised by the election results here in Toronto. Rob Ford, a very boisterous, cost-cutting candidate won for Mayor, beating out George Smitherman (who was the Liberal Health Minister during the eHealth scandal a few years back, and Deputy Premiere of Ontario), and George Pantalone (who was the current Deputy Mayor and represented “more of the same”). The results had Ford winning by far more than the pollers suggested he would. His winning didn’t surprise me as he was all for cutting out the “gravy train” at City Hall, which people really wanted, but there were definitely some surprises.
The first was that there were actually FORTY candidates for Mayor on the ballot!! Who the heck were all these people and what they heck were they doing shelling out good money to take a shot at a completely unrealistic goal. I guess that’s the beauty of our democratic process though. Anyone can run, and anyone can win or lose.
Second, over 5000 people voted for Rocco Rossi! He dropped out more than a few weeks ago. Were these protest votes, or were these just stupid people? In either event they were making a mockery of the election process for which our forefathers fought long and hard to ingrain in our way of life.
Third, only 53% of those who were eligible to vote actually took the time and effort to do so. Granted this is up from the abysmal 39% of four years ago, but still folks!! Nearly 1/2 the people of this city couldn’t care enough to vote!! Ask the people in Afghanistan if they want to vote. Ask the people of Iraq, or Iran, or North Korea, or anyone of a myriad of countries around the world where democracy doesn’t not rule the day. Wow!!
Well, no matter who you voted for last night, the point now is to make your city or town or village the best it can be. If you don’t like who won, then don’t just complain and gripe. Make sure you get out there and work to make the city better by working in YOUR neighbourhood, with YOUR neighbours and friends.
And remember… if you didn’t vote then you have no right to complain!!!
TTFN!!
Today we got a letter from one of our Compassion Kids. I love these letters as their honesty is wonderful. Here’s the letter as it was received from our child in Bangladesh – Khadiza (8 yrs old)…
Dear Sponsors, Murray and Nancy Lahn
Take my greetings. Thank you so much for your letters and sticker. I liked sticker so much. My father pulls rickshaw. My mother does hard work at home. My 2nd term exam are going on. My Bangla and English exams has finished nicely. I have memorized verse at the project. Psalms 1:1 –> “Blessed is the man, who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, or stand in the way of sinners or sit in the seat of mockers.” What is your favorite Bible verse? Please pray for my exam. I pray for you all everyday. May God bless you.
Yours,
Khadiza
Aren’t these letters wonderful!!!
TTFN
[First of all let me say that I know I’m going to get in trouble for a lot of what I say in here, but this topic has been on my mind for a long time and recent events have brought it to the forefront once again *sigh*. And sorry if this is a little long :)]
Trust is defined in the dictionary as “to rely upon or place confidence in someone or something: to trust in another’s honesty; –or– to have confidence; hope” (http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/trust). So where has it gone?
The municipal elections are coming up here in Ontario next Monday and I’ve heard so many people (including myself) saying “I don’t trust any of them!” It used to be we trusted our elected officials with the power and authority that we’ve given them to do the right thing. Now we’re suspicious of how they spend the tax-payers money and we don’t even trust their personal integrity anymore.
The newspapers, radio and television used to be expected (and taught) to be unbiased reporting of the news, but not so anymore. I know that I’m going to hate what’s written in the liberal media. And I’m not talking about the Editorial pages. I’m talking about the headlines and front page stories where it used to be “The facts. Just the facts, Maam.”
We used to trust our neighbours to watch our house. Now we’re watching them to make sure it’s not a grow-op going on next door or that they’re not encroaching on our property.
We used to trust out teachers and education system to educate our children in traditional values, but now we have to screen the text-books and lectures to make sure they’re teaching fact as fact and theory as theory and opinion as opinion.
We used to trust our scientists to tell us what was good for us and what was bad, but now we seem to get study after study contradicting each other and then proposals for more studies to prove that the latest contradiction was in fact a contradiction. These studies are more about proving a point now, than finding out what is true.
We used to trust our police and military personnel as trust-worthy and defending our honour and way of life, but now we read of corruption and just simply weird behaviour going on behind closed doors.
We used to trust people enough to allow our church buildings to be opened during the day to allow people to come in at lunch hour or during the day and pray, but now we have to lock up the buildings so tight that even our members can’t function anymore in the volunteer duties they’ve been asked to do. How can we be a light into the community when they can’t even enter our doors to look for help?
We used to trust that when people said they’d do something that their word was good and they’d actually do it, or at least call you ahead of time to say why they wouldn’t be able to do it.
We used to be able to take pictures of interesting people and places without people getting all hyper that we’re stalkers or pedophiles. We used to be able to trust people who took pictures of our kids but now with the number of pedophiles and stalkers out there we can’t trust anyone anymore.
We used to be able to comment on someone’s looks without it being interpreted as a sexual advance. We used to be able to pat someone on the back, or give them a hug, to express some form of physical affection for one another. We used to be able to accidentally bump into someone without people suing us for assault.
We used to be able to have an opinion. Now our opinions have to be politically correct and non-offensive to everyone (which quite frankly, offends me!).
We used to be able to read from the Bible and quote from it freely.
We used to be able to have political or religious discussions with our co-workers, but they don’t trust us anymore.
But you know what? With all this “I don’t trust ______” stuff, there is still three people that I can always, and will always trust. And that is God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit.
God is the ONLY one we can truly trust. God loves us when we goof up. He loves us when we aren’t all that good. He loves us unconditionally and just like we would do anything for our kids, God will do anything for us (as long as it’s in line with His plan and will and that it won’t harm us in the long run).
There’s other people I can trust too (my wife, my kids, my friends, etc). I could probably be accused of being over-trusting, but my Dad was a great judge of character, and I think he passed that on to me, and so I’m going to give people the benefit of the doubt and trust them. That’s just who I am.
It would be nice if we could trust other people as much as we trust God, but I’m afraid that won’t happen soon. What I do wish however is that we trust people more than we do and stop the paranoid hysteria that seems to pervade our society.
When someone smiles at you, smile back. I really doubt they are out to get you. When they hold open the door for you, they probably are just being friendly, not just condescending. When they offer to help you, assume their not expecting something in return and thank them.
Well, that’s enough of today’s rant. If you’ve got a comment, go ahead and make it. I may disagree with it, but trust me, I will let you have your say, and I will read it.
I’ll be back. Trust me.
TTFN
Some of you have asked about the sponsored kids we have, so I thought I’d publish this gallery of their pictures. You can see the pictures of them by looking under the Photos Page from the menu above, or by clicking here…
Our seven children are (or at least, were)…
– Abe – Ethiopia – May 21, 1998
– Audrey – Nicaragua – Oct 12, 2003
– Khadiza – Bangladesh – November 19, 2002
– Lukas – Tanzania – Feb 10, 2003
– Paola – Bogata, Columbia – June 17, 2003
– Rebecca – Uganda – Dec 7, 1996
– Ricardo – El Salvador – November 2, 2004
Getting letters from these kids is definitely the highlight of looking into the mail box. And with seven kids it sure seems that there’s at least one every week and sometimes two or three in a day!! I promise, I’m going to start posting the letters here. It’s such a blessing to read them update by update and see how these kids are developing through the work that Compassion is doing in their villages.
If you’re not doing it yet, I would really encourage you to consider sponsoring a child through Compassion!! See the links on the right side to direct you to either the Compassion Canada, or Compassion International sites.
I was flipping around the Internet today at lunch and came across this article on MSNBC (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/39718046/ns/world_news-mideastn_africa/) entitled… “Islamic court: OK to beat wife if no marks left”. All I can say is “Oh… My… Gosh!!”
Apparently the United Arab Emirates’ highest court has ruled that it’s okay for a man to beat his wife and kids if he leaves no physical marks. From the article…
According to Shariah law, a man can beat his wife and children as long as he has first tries unsuccessfully to discipline them by admonishing and then abstaining from sexual relations with his wife.
Islamic scholars don’t agree on the definition of “beating” but they do agree that it should not be too severe.
Oh, well that’s okay then. Slap ’em up a little. Just don’t leave a mark.
And of course, we need to be tolerant of these people and their “peace loving” faith. Wow!
Oh well. I can’t wait to get home tonight and give my wife and kids a hug. Better be careful though that I don’t leave a mark 😉
TTFN!
Murray Lahn
It’s so wonderful when God works out a Sunday service in the background and you just are able to sit back and watch how his Spirit moves. Today was one of those services at church.
It actually started months ago when our Pastoral Team chose the themes for this week’s sermon. They have been going through a series of messages on Obstacles to our Faith and today’s message had been chosen to be “Overcoming the Obstacles”. The next step came up when my team was scheduled to lead worship that morning and the schedule was published.
Next… on September 28th, Lincoln Brewster released his new CD entitled “Real Life”. I’d been waiting for the CD to come out and the day it was released, Tim brought home a copy from Faith Family Books and Gifts, and I immediately started listening to it. I had put a copy on my MP3 for in the car, and throughout the week listened to various tracks from the CD mixed in with other music. However, I could not get the last song on the CD, “Shout For Joy” out of my head, and it invariably popped up three or four times that week going back and forth to work (out of about 1300 songs). “Okay, God,” I thought. “You’ve got my attention. This is a song we need to do the next time we’re up for leading worship in church.” [God has mysteriously used this a number times before in ‘helping’ me choose songs for a service, but this time, I didn’t even know what the topic was as I hadn’t thought that far ahead!]
So, I’d decided to use the song, but couldn’t find all the words, or the chords, so I kind of put it out of my mind for a while. Also the song is keyed a little high, but it’s nearly impossible to lower the key as the guitar solo part is dependent on open E strings to get the same effects. Maybe I wasn’t supposed to do it and I’d been hearing wrong.
Then Tuesday night after Alpha we came home to find that the first of the Chilean Miners were about to be rescued from the copper mine they had been trapped in since August. We watched anxiously as the Phoenix shuttle made it’s way up from the depths of the earth and carried the first of the miners back to the safety of his family. I will never forget the tears of joy on the little boys face as he saw his father for the first time in months. And then to watch the next miner — Super Mario, as he was dubbed — come out of the ground jumping and hugging and shouting for joy! Hey…. “shouting for joy”. Hmmm….
Over the course of the next day as the miners were all returned to safety I blogged about how many of the men came up praising God for protecting them and for helping them overcome the obstacles that they had faced — trapped with very low rations in a dark and hot place, but then guiding the rescuers to find them extricating them from their potential grave. [As I look back I see the wonderful metaphor that was played out both of Christ’s decent into hell (a dark, hot place) and then his triumphant return from the grave, but also of our life of being saved by Christ.]
By Thursday, I had decided that Shout For Joy needed to be in the set (God had engrained it into my brain, but I had not yet made a connection to the miners!), but it wasn’t until Friday morning that I knew how we were going to shape the service and whether it would fit in or not. I wasn’t even sure we could play or sing it yet, so I had some backup songs just in case.
Sunday morning, however (and I shared this with the congregation), I was sitting eating my Raisin Bran and just happened to be flipping channels when I stopped at the BBC. Now I never watch the BBC, but this time I watched as they did a recap of the ordeal the miners had been through. There played out before me was the whole story, and there I was reminded once again of Super Mario’s “shout for joy” and his exuberance in being set free, immediately followed by others kneeling and praying and thanking God for rescuing them from the pit.
Okay God. I get it. Shout For Joy!
I probably looked like a fool this morning as we sang. I could not get the smile off my face as I sang the words of the song and realized how closely they tied back the events of the previous week.
Shout For Joy – Lincoln Brewster, Paul Baloche, Jason Ingram
Pour out your fervent praise, There’s a song to raise like a banner high
Lift up your grateful heart to the Morning Star. He’s alive and here with us
Shout for joy for the Son of God is the Saving One, He’s the Saving One
Shout for joy see what love has done. He has come for us. He’s the Saving One
We stood on sinking sand, He reached out His hand, pulled us to His side
We turned our hearts away, He was strong to save, Now our Saviour reigns in us
There is no other god like You. We’ll sing the praises that You’re due.
Jesus, You have saved us
There is no other god who reigns, You are the name above all names
Jesus, You have saved us
Shout for joy for the Son of God is the Saving One, He’s the Saving One
Shout for joy see what love has done. He has come for us. He’s the Saving One
The miners were on everyone’s mind this morning. It was part of the opening welcome, it was part of my opening to Praise, and it was an integral part in our Pastor’s sermon, as she showed us the obstacles to our faith and how we need to overcome them.
I don’t know what the others in the congregation thought of the service, or thought of the song, but for me it was one of the best services we’ve had in a long time. God was there. God had been working to shape that service for days and weeks and months before and it was all played out in our sanctuary this morning.
Thank you God for letting me see you in action this morning and for allowing me to play even a small role in your grand design for your children whom you love in Scarborough, in Chile, and around the world.
TTFN…. and PTL!!
Murray Lahn
This morning my wife, Nancy, and I went to a Pregnancy Care Centre Donor Appreciation Brunch. What a wonderful morning, not just because of the food (which in my case always makes an event a winner!), but because of the wonderful testimonies that were given by the volunteers and former clients.
The Pregnancy Care Centre operates in two locations here in Toronto and provides emotional, spiritual and material support to women who find themselves with an unplanned pregnancy. From pre-natal care and counselling to adoption referrals to post-abortion counselling the PCC operates to help these women in a non-judgemental, compassionate way.
This morning was a time for the donors and sponsoring churches to get together and celebrate the over 25 years of serving. We heard from some of the volunteers and staff about the great work that’s being done, but the most wonderful times were listening to the former and current clients talk about what it was like to have an unplanned pregnancy and what the PCC did for them and what that act of kindness meant to them.
The director of the PCC spoke about HOPE, and how this is probably the main thing that they can provide to their clients. The clients talked about how when they found out they were pregnant that they lost all hope, but the PCC came along beside them and supported them through their pregnancy, their delivery and even beyond. One couple (who now volunteer with the PCC) even talked about their abortion experience and how the PCC came along beside them afterwards and supported them through their guilt and anger.
God is a great god, and I have to thank him daily for the many things he’s blessed our family with. I know that He has his hand in every one of the lives of the women that come as clients and wants to show them His love. It’s through the Volunteers and Staff of the Pregnancy Care Centre (of which my wife is one of the volunteers teaching prenatal and nursing care to the women) that these women, sometimes for the first time, experience that love.
There’s lots of good causes out there to support, but I, for one, think this truly deserves support. I’ve seen the work they do, and I’ve seen the results in the women who spoke this morning. If you want to help out, I know they’d appreciate it and be forever grateful. And IF you find yourself, or someone you know and love, in the situation of an unplanned pregnancy, know that God (and the PCC) are there for you. Don’t hesitate to call them.
Thanks for “listening”.
TTFN.
Murray Lahn
PS. For the Pregnancy Care Centre’s website click here, and if you wish to donate online, you can do so through this page.
By popular request, Murray’s Musings is now compatible with mobile devices like smart phones, Blackberry’s or iPhones. The site should automatically detect if you’re browsing from a mobile device and change the theme accordingly.
Now, I can’t verify that ALL functions and features will work, but hey, you’re not paying me anything anyway, so what do you want 🙂 (If something does break, then I’d love to know about it though for future reference and to see if we can fix it up!)
TTFN!
I really liked this article by Shaun Groves and wanted you guys to see it too.
Read With Discernment… Especially Donald Miller.
Kind of makes you think, eh? (Hint…. it’s supposed to!!)
TTFN!