Pithy Sayings Dept.

On a blackboard in Bayshores Master Feeds, a farm supply store in Owen Sound, Ontario:
"Never mistake knowledge for wisdom; one helps you make a living, the other helps you make a life".

Manipulation or Relationship?

No one likes to be manipulated.
Not even God.
I should say, especially not God.
But, much of our religious activity tends to fall into that category; do the ceremonies, say the prayers, get what you want.
Or, not? If God isn't answering our prayers, what is wrong?
I think prayer is not to get God to see our point of view, but the other way around. As we pray, He guides us to see things from His point of view. And, as He has a better view of things from His position, that is the same as saying,"to see things as they really are."
If we get that straight, we can go on to see our interpersonal relationships as He does. He is the impartial and just Judge, who plays no favorites, and doesn't allow us to insist on our own way all the time. If we pray with hearts and minds open to His promptings, He will guide our responses to others. This generally means needing to face up to our own shortcomings in relationships, and learning to forgive, and be forgiven.
Nobody said it was going to be easy. But, God's way is definitely better.

Friends of My Father

No photo this time, sorry, I'm in Canada and connectionally challenged (I'm doing this on a borrowed computer). But as it's been awhile, I want to post a comment on a verse from Proverbs (in the Bible).
"Do not forsake your friend and the friend of your father..." (Proverbs 27:10)
I am currently chasing around Southern Ontario, visiting -friends. Keeping up friendships intercontinentally is difficult. But, it is well worthwhile. For instance,there are the friends who live 15 minutes from Pearson International Airport in Toronto- how handy is that? They are in their 80's. Too old, even for me? Nope. One is a "cousin" (by Elliot-McAllister standards, anything up to about 64th cousin is close). We met at a family reunion several years ago, one organized by people who know the importance of friends- same age, years apart, related or otherwise. I am also meeting with friends of my father (and mother). They really do care about me, their friend's son- and my children, too.
This time, I returned to find a number of them have passed on. I have been reminiscing with my parents about these friends, and what they meant to us. As I grow older, my hope and prayer is that I may be a friend for my friend's children in my turn. A small investment in time and concern can mean so much. I have been blessed, and want to be a blessing in my turn.

In a tractor now?

Iseki 55HP half-track tractor


Yeah, well, "You can take the boy out of the farm, but you can't take the farm out of the boy". Sports cars, luxury cars... whatever. But a TRACTOR like this one - well, that's different! Hans got a picture of me as close to driving this baby as I'll ever get. As in, US$55,000 out of the box. Not to mention I have no place to use it.
There are lots of people who COULD use it who will never get to drive it, either. They could use a lot of our technology to help feed themselves, but it's too big a step from a hoe to a 55 HP bomb like this (A/C, tape deck, sound proof cab, etc.). And, they lack the infrasructure and economic /marketing strucures to utilize it's potential.
Most of them lack food as well.
This is another symptom of the widening gap between haves and have-nots in our world. The question is not only how long this unfair distribution of resources can go on, but how long our labor-saving, techno-dependant food supply system can continue to meet our nutritional needs. Food prices have risen in the last 60 years, but the prices farmers get for their produce have risen hardly at all. Some are even lower. Increases have gone to suppliers of agricultural technology, and the processors and distributors of food. Farmers have survived by radically increasing output-per-person. The system requires a lot of petroleum.
So, will this technology prove to be sustainable, or will the vexing problems it has spawned (soil depletion, antibiotic-resistant microbes, pollution, etc.) make radical changes necessary? Either way, I would feel better if the large portion of the population which neither knows nor cares where their food comes from, as long as prices don't increase, would take a more active interest, and help address these issues before a serious collapse of production occurs.

What Does a Missionary Look Like?

Surely not like this.


Well, actually- sometimes, yes.
But why?


To make this...



look like this.


But, why?
These scenes are all from Takayama, the summer missionary community I mentioned in an earlier post. Our water lines are 40 years old, and need to be replaced. In those 40 years, trees grew up over the lines, then died (the pine bark beetle disaster) and toppled in a heap- 5 deep in places.
So, since paying plumber's wages to get trees cleared is a poor deal, we decided to do that part of the job for them. We already have the chainsaws, etc. - clearing up dead trees has been a big part of the business manager's (ie MY) job for a decade now. I just had to go into the woods this time, and tackle a long-neglected mess.
But, why?
My core values statement is " To pass on the Kingdom of God, intact, to the next generation." And, I am sure the next generation will need Tak for rest and renewal as much as previous generations did.
So, THAT'S why. That's why a missionary sometimes looks like that.

Let This One Live?

A good week at our cabin in Takayama. I finally got the tin on the new veranda roof, with help from Hans, our Swiss short-termer. Then ,on the way home, a commitment I wasn't looking forward to- a visit with the son of the woman who helped Laurie with housework when we were in language school in Sapporo, 25 years ago. He was 7 at the time, and handicapped with cereberal palsy.
We were distressed at the time to learn that his mother planned to abort her second pregnancy, as she and her husband feared having another handicapped child. But, being handicapped ourselves (almost non-existant Japanese language ability), we could only stand by and watch it happen.
Now, 25 years later, what would we find life to be for her first child? She told us only that he wanted us to visit him on our way home. He said he would meet us at the interchange in Morioka, halfway home. His speech was slurred, and hard to understand. Who was taking him to meet us? Did he live in a home? How easy would it be to communicate?
Groundless fears. Kouji met us in his own car, guided us to his apartment (owned by his employers, the power company for northern Honshu), and proceeded to tell us about his younger sister and brother (both normal), his skiing, and especially his new hobby: scuba diving with his friends.
There are various levels of handicaps, but it is hard to guess how a person will turn out. Trying to predict and forestall potential problems through abortion is beyond our powers.
And, behind this attitude is problem of perception; what, exactly, is a handicap? We are all handicapped, but most handicaps don't show on the outside. Selfishness, materialism, greed, envy, sloth- the things that make us unwilling to "bother" with the physically handicapped; the things that made me reluctant to meet Kouji- are crippling defects. God has put the visibly handicapped here on earth to remind us of our own unseen handicaps, to test our reactions, and to teach us things we need to know but could not otherwise learn; things like compassion, patience, trust and humility. Their existence is not a flawed event or a mistake. It is planned by God, and it is important to all of us.
In the wake of the Schiavo case, we all need to rethink our value system. Who's life is "worth living"? And, who decides?
Terry Schiavo's family faced tremendous pressures, emotional and financial. I cannot guess how I would react were I in their shoes. I certainly don't mean to imply I have confidence that I would behave "nobly" in the same circumstances. Still, having seen results of some of the polls taken, there is another I would like to see- beneath a picture of Mr. Schiavo, a question: Would you want this man as your legal guardian? Yes or no?
I doubt there would be many yeses.