Settling Down and In

Often, life seems like juggling, with the challenge of keeping all the different things in life going all at the same time. However, there are times when it seems like there are too many balls in the air. In the past year and a half (or so), the congregation here in Winnipeg sold its building, searched for a temporary location, looked at several possible short and long term sites, bought another building, moved into temporary office space, began using a school and community centre for Sunday mornings and evenings, sold much of the property it owned (and which had been its targeted location for a future building), went through the process of designing and remodeling the building it purchased. completing that work, moving out of all the temporary spaces and into its new home. While doing all of this, the normal life of the congregation has continued - which has meant worship assemblies, sermons, classes, bulletins, you-name-it. What a time it has been! Tiring - yes. But it has been great.

Most of us have had the experience of moving - whether personally or as a family. We've moved from apartment or rental home to a house, from one area of the city to another, or from one community to another. The distance or type of accommodation hardly matters. Sometimes, it's just a matter of distance and logistical arrangements that are a little more challenging. Whether it's across the street or the continent, it's still the upheaval of packing, moving and unpacking and organizing. Now, imagine that on the scale of moving a congregation from one place to another!

The whole process of moving the congregation has reinforced for me the idea of how special the people in the church are. There have been countless hours that have been spent doing the many thing needed to make this happen. There have been work days where 50 to 60 people showed up to help. There have been people of every age, from young children to people in their 80's! It has been wonderful.

Now, all that is close to fruition. We are now getting settled in our building. We've met here for two Sundays, already had our first baptism and our first wedding. I suspect that it will be a while before people come in without that "I can't believe this is really ours" look. (If you want to see what this reno- has been like, check out our blog - go to our church page: winnipegchurch.ca and click on the picture of our building.) Looking back, I am sure that almost everyone (there may be a few exceptions) helped out in some way. They can look at the completed results with the satisfaction of knowing that they helped this happen. They can know, that as far as I am concerned, every one of them is special - and appreciated deeply.

Losing It!

Have you ever "lost it?" That likely means many different things to people. For some, it may mean losing your temper, losing your cool, losing your marbles, losing your way - or any combination or all of the above.

I'm happy to say that none of the above apply to the title above (although losing marbles may come close). A long time ago, when I started this blog, it was with the intention of periodically (and hopefully regularly) posting some thoughts. That worked well for a while ... until I "lost it" and could not figure out how to log back in. Every attempt to get back here led back to a sign-up page to begin a new account/blog. I wanted my old one, thank you very much.

I am happy to say, at long last and with some determination and perseverance, I was able to make my way through and finally ended up back where I wanted to be. I am realizing, at the age of 58, that memory is not quite what it used to be - although I think, in this case, that I may have had some help in that the overall blog system changed with Google.

So, at any rate, I am back - hopefully not to wander any longer in cyberspace.