13 Hours of Rain

We attend a typical mainstream evangelical church in a politically conservative part of our province. While our church celebrates women in positions of leadership such as elders, deacons, ministry team leaders, worship leaders, Sunday School teachers, and Bible readers, we rarely open the pulpit to allow women to offer a sermon. It does occur on occasion, when a female missionary is visiting or the moderator of our church leadership team is a woman. However, when it comes to systematically selecting speakers to teach Biblical truths during a thirty minute, one-way exhortation, it is almost always a man. And the probability of our lead pastor being a woman is practically nil. Now I am not writing this to criticize my church. However, I am writing this to open our eyes to this extremely common practice in our province, especially in churches who are similar to us in denomination.  Women have come a long way since Biblical times, in their access to education and equal opportun...

A cup of tea. Honestly, if I had to give up tea for Lent, it would be a challenge. I cherish the moments with I can curl up on the couch with a hot cup of tea between my chilly hands and gaze through our front window. Life slows down in that moment. It is so, so good. Flock of birds taking flight. There is something magical about a flock of birds lifting off and joining the blue expanse. Birds are a marvel of creation. They have inspired air travel and formation flying. Snowflakes. Its unique, one-of-a-kind crystalline structure is awe-inspiring. Its ability to cover a dull landscape and brighten the world during short winter days is refreshing. Real conversations with a friend. I can only take shallow conversations with people for so long. Therefore, real conversations with a friend (or a family member for that matter) where we both can share our hearts is truly a gift from God. Balancing our cheque book. Weird, I know. But I find beautiful satisfaction in crunching numbers...