What can we do?

Wow, it's been an extremely busy week for me. I haven't even had much time to do anything, let alone blog. I have held a workshop at the shelter that I ran on crime and victimization this weekend. I co-facilitated it and my wife, Jen, cooked the meals for it (they were really good). So, between preparing for the workshop sessions, watching my kids while my wife cooked, and actually facilitating the workshop, I have not had time to think about anything else.

I was at a forum on poverty yesterday. I was not very surprised about what I heard, but it made me very angry at the greed in this world. Did you know that the people in the lowest 20% of incomes in Canada don't even register 1% of the total wealth in Canada. In fact, they are negative, if we want to be specific. The next 20% have 3% of the wealth. 40-60% have 5% of the wealth. The next 20% have 19% and the top 20% have 73% of the wealth!! This is insane. And then, those who have top paying jobs get a lot for free. For example, if a lower paid labourer gets a job, he/she is expected to provide their own safety equipment, but if you are a higher paid worker, you get everything provided for you. This doesn't make much sense to me. If the wealthier people have the money to actually afford this stuff, make them buy it and the lower paid get it for free. This world is all backward. I learned in this forum that if the top 20% of wealthy Canadians took a 3% pay cut and that money was funnelled properly to take care of poverty, it has the potential of eliminating poverty altogether!! 3% is nothing to them. They would still make 70% of the money in Canada. How greedy is this? It's all about status. I hate how this works. I wish there was something more we could do. There are people in our own backyards who are lucky to get a sandwich and a place to sleep at night. Then there are those who are cruising down the Canal on one of their three yachts! Give up one yacht, and give that money to those who need it.

Then there is the government! There used to be this law in Canada called the Canadian Assistance plan. In this law, the feds offered the provincial governments 50% of their welfare costs so that people could afford to live in actual homes. Back in 1996, they cancelled the CAP and guess what? The provincial govenments had to decrease welfare because they were not receiving the money from the feds anymore. Also, they made it harder to get welfare when you actually need it because the feds were no longer telling them what the criteria is for welfare. Guess who was in charge of cancelling the CAP? PAUL MARTIN! The man who currently runs our country! Great! He's part of the rich get richer and the poor get poorer problem that has swept our nation. This can't happen anymore but I don't know what we can do about it except pray. Prayer can and will make a difference!!

I know not everyone will agree with me on this topic. Some people think that everyone abuses welfare or that homeless people should just go and get jobs because jobs are out there. For those people I ask, have you ever tried to get a job when you have no phone number to be reached at, or have no address to put on a resume. Employers just throw your resume in the trash. What about those people who have illiteracy problems? Should we not help them get on their feet? Everyone has a different story and they all break my heart. Drug and alcohol addiction is a big one people think is a cause of homelessness. For some stories it is, but not all. Probably not even half. We still need to help these people, and we need the rich to understand that they hold the power to help them in a way that most of us can't.

Anyway, sorry that this is more of a rant than anything. I just feel really passionate about this and when I heard the statistics, I was floored. Thanks for taking the time to listen and if you have any suggestions on what we can do to turn this situation around so that it seems more fair, please post a comment so that I can gain ideas and share them with my coworkers.

Neil

Fork in the road

Part of our new church plant is a 24/7 prayer room called the "Boiler Room". It's called the boiler room because we believe that if we can get people praying in Vernon 24/7, things will start happening in the community for God, just like it is the boiler room which makes big boats and steam trains move. Anyway, I am going to share about my experience in the boiler room yesterday.

I am reading through a book, 'Enjoy the Silence', that teaches me how to do 'lectio divina' exercises. For those who don't know what lectio divina is, it is an exercise in which you read a portion of scripture through a few times and after every time you stop and reflect on what God is trying to say to you. It is truly amazing. I have only tried it twice and I find that for the first few minutes I'm really tuned in, but after I sit for 5 - 10 minutes (you're supposed to try for approx. 20 minutes to sit in silence) my mind starts wandering. It's definately a difficult excercise when you think of how busy we all are in this busy world today.

Yesterday I was doing an exercise and it was a scripture from Jeremiah that was talking about signs in our lives. This book has questions that you are to reflect on after you've read the passage a couple of times. One question was to close your eyes and imagine that you are driving down the road of life. What signs do you see? So I sat there for a few minutes pondering this questions. Finally a sign popped into my mind. It was a 'fork in the road' sign. One way pointed to God's way in life and the other pointed to my way in life. As I was approaching this fork in the road, there was another sign that said, 'God's way leads to eternal life; your way leads to nothingness'. I viewed these signs as a reminder that I am to constantly be living my life for Christ. To trust Him in every decision that I make. I'm at a stage in life when I'm always wondering 'what will God have me do with my life? for a career? where will my family and I end up? I really got the strong sense that God was reminding me to just trust Him daily. Don't worry about what I'll be doing in the future. God has a plan for each day of mine, and I need to trust Him to get me through each day.

Stormy Waters

I was reading in the book, "Every Man's Challenge: How far are you willing to go for God?" about the story when Jesus is asleep in the boat and the big storm comes. His disciples were so scared because He was sleeping so they woke Him up and He calmed the storm and asked the disciples where their faith was. As I was reading this book and this story in particular, I kept on thinking about my own life and the storms that are in it. There are many things in life right now that feel like they are weighing me down and stressing me out. I just have to have faith that God will bring me out safely on the other side of the storm. He's trying to teach me something through every challenging thing, and He will calm the storm when it is the right time, after I have learned my lesson. If we don't have the faith that God will see us through our troubled times, we are putting limits on God and we all know that He is not bound by limits and He can do anything!! Praise God!!

Just my thoughts for today,

Neil

Everyday Life

Ever since I have come to Vernon to help with this church plant called "Pathways" I have been really challenged by people to live the love of Christ instead of just talking about it. Not that I wasn't living the life of a Christian before, but it's just that much more on my mind since we are trying to reach people that we meet in our everyday lives. Sometimes it's hard to 'always be good'. Sometimes I catch myself wanting to do or say something that I would say in my life before I met Christ. Jesus teaches us to include Him in everything we do, from the time we get up in the morning to the time we go to bed and all the time in between.

Paul writes to the Romans (Romans 12), "Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to the Lord - this is your spiritual act of worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world but but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will."

I think it is so important to live God's love to the world, not just talk about how to live for God, or how God can save you. This generation isn't willing to listen to us, they want to see it.

These are my thoughts for today. Hope you enjoyed them.

Neil

Generation gap

For the few people who will view this blog let me just say that I am very new at this so don't expect a perfect blog right away. I have never been really good at writing down my thoughts, so I thougt I'd try this for a change.

I have recently moved up to Vernon, BC with my wife and two kids. I have taken on the job of running a homeless shelter. It has been a very rewarding position full of challenges and rewards. My wife and I are also part of the "Launch Team" of a new church plant called "Pathways". The whole basis of our vision is bringing the word "church" back to what the Bible teaches that it means. We are really focusing on the people BEING the church as opposed to GOING to church. We meet in each others homes, live life together, share things with each other. It is truly an amazing experience to be a part of. We are targeting 13 - 30 year olds as our main focus group. I feel that this generation has a huge gap that can only be filled by God. This generation (my generation) has grown up in a very consumer driven world where they need to be entertained in everything they do. We can all see it in everyday life. All the video game systems, the huge movie experiences, the rush of jumping out of a plane or jumping off a 200 ft high bridge (which is a lot of fun by the way) just prove that this generation is about experiences. As Christians trying to reach this generation for God, we need to go to their world, as it has proven in recent years that they are no longer coming to us. We need to get off our butts and do something about this generation gap in the body of Christ. If they want experiences, we need to somehow show them that God will give them the ultimate experience. I think the only way that we can successfully reach this generation is through quiet time with God. We need to stop listening to what the world wants us to hear and start being still and listening to the gentle whisper in which God speaks to us.

Until next time...

Neil