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I am a Sixties Scoop Survivor and someone who was adopted and then met my biological family later in life. Then there are a number of other pieces of the pie of my life-issues of addiction, rebellion, and the issues of having two sets of families. Then add issues related to health and the health of family members and all the other experiences good and bad that have happened in my life and in most of our lives. Then there are issues that may not happen to us directly, but...
My life changed that day. I had prepared a visual feast for my Sunday school class. I loaded books on mountains and waterfalls, colorful birds and fish, animals from every continent, galaxies and snowflakes into boxes in readiness for the next morning. Just as a funny thought, I asked the Lord if He had anything to add. I did not really expect an answer; I thought I had covered His creation well and I was just doing a lesson. But He did answer me. I heard, "All things were...
Have you ever bumped into someone and asked them, "What's new?" Maybe they replied, "Same old, same old." Maybe you have felt bored with life to the point where you were tired of waking up every morning, doing the same routine and looking at the same face in the mirror every day. If this is your experience, I would love to remind you of some amazing facts. You are living at this moment among seven billion people. Every day, 155000 people young and old die from various causes;...
Una was a beautiful Cherokee girl. Her name meant "Remember," and she did remember the smallest details of not only her own life, but the details of those who lived in the green valley that had been the home of the Cherokee since the beginning of time. Una remembered all the battles and births and deaths. She remembered the best and the worst of times. She remembered everything. Una was smaller than the other girls her age, and she had beautiful hair that hung to her waist....
I love the English language. But if you're trying to learn it, it will confuse the life out of you. A good twist of phrase. A play on words. Here are a few alternative definitions to common English words. See if these make you smile: Selfish: What the owner of a seafood store does. Rubberneck: What you do to relax your wife. Subdued: A dude who works on a submarine. Benign: What you be after you be eight. Primate: Removing your spouse from the front of the TV. Paralyze: Two...
We don't know about you, but we feel like 2021 has been a tad of a whirlwind. We accepted our roles with Indian Life Ministries just over a year ago! And COVID-19 has certainly kept us on our toes almost every day. But, we have been so blessed and are so thankful. Now that we have been with Indian Life for a full year, it doesn't feel like our learning curve is so very straight up. Instead of straight up, perhaps the angle of the line is more at a 45 degree, not 90. We've...
I sometimes think about the first time I ever flew in a plane, where we were totally dependent on instruments. We were coming into Anchorage Alaska in a Navajo Chieftain and the airport was all "socked in" with fog. The pilot kept checking with the tower as to how much visibility we had & finally got the okay to land when we were about 10 miles out. I remember the helpless feeling I had as we descended into that last fog bank and everything disappeared! I was watching the...
When I take a look at my life and everything I've gone through-all the good and the bad-I see various reasons why I went through bad times. The reasons were usually a result of at least one of four things: 1-Temptation and sin; 2-The pressures of the world and bad influence of friends; 3-The attacks of Satan and his demons; 4-Things beyond my control that I didn't ask to happen, want to happen or invite to happen, but nonetheless happened. 1-Temptation and Sin: During my late...
I watched the jet streaming across the sky and wondered at how many people were inside; I wondered where they were going and if they were nervous about speeding along at such heights. How can that plane fly through the same air that we breathe into our lungs? It seems too airy to carry anything. How does that cruise ship carrying 3,000 people, their vacation stuff and enough food to feed them all, float along on water that I can dip my hand into? I would never have believed...
He set His face as a flint, while I flipped. A little while ago I got caught in a blizzard while travelling on the highway with my RV. The snow was blinding! I couldn't see anything-not the hydro polls to my left or right or even a few feet in front of me. The wind was coming straight at me and the snow was blowing in ferocious lines along the side of me on the highway. I had been driving in these hazardous conditions for about an hour. I knew I would be going down a steep...
I am an extremely young grandpa, still able to outrun and outjump thirteen grandkids. It helps that they are seven and under. When they're worn out from trying to catch me, they say, "Read to me." Sweeter words were seldom spoken. My second grandchild, Eowyn, snuggles up on my lap and listens, wide-eyed as three little oinkers set out to seek their fortune. She loves pigs. Loves it when the first little porker buys a load of straw. Loves it when the sweet little swine builds...
It was pitch dark. The heat radiating from the walls of the cell wouldn't leave me alone. Sweat dripped off my hairy body. The night moved slowly-as slowly as the walls cooled. Being in the Administrative Segregation Unit (The Hole), life moves at a snail's pace. There is little to do physically and even less when it's burning hot. Time seems to slow to a stop. A 24-hour day feels like a week; a week is a month and a month is eternity. During the day the noise from steel...
There is an old saying: "It's better to wear moccasins than to try to carpet the world." In other words, take care of yourself and your own life before you try to change the world. When my friends are unhappy, I want to fly in like superman and "fix" things and make them happy. Sadly, in my efforts to "help," I sometimes made things worse by interfering. I didn't realize this until a friend of mine decided I would be much better off living close to her. She contacted realtors,...
Q: Right now it seems like every time we turn around someone has died or is seriously ill. As Christians, we know heaven is a reality for believers who've gone before. But how do we deal with the very human emotions of loss and keep our grief healthy? How do we keep from dropping into depression? People tell us to look to God and trust Jesus, but what does that look like in our lives? A: At the onset, I must state that I am not a therapist and my response to this question is b...
I love old guitars. What can I say? I just love old guitars! A bunch of years back, we were singing in a really remote, fly-in community and I couldn't believe what I saw hanging on a friend's back wall. It was a 1956 Gibson ES125-a collector's classic that was a few years older than me! I'd never played one before, and I was just wowed by this half-century-old guitar!! I was even more speechless when my friend gifted it to me! Two weeks later, I was getting the Old Gibson...
I've been thinking a lot about my home lately. Home should be a place of safety, comfort, rest, and acceptance. Sadly, many homes do not reflect these endearing qualities. Home life can be messy, painful, lonely and loud. Sometimes people don't get along at home, and there is no rest in our homes. Even if we were to stay in the solitude of our bedroom, we know what exists outside our four walls isn't always pleasant. Home life is extra difficult when addictions and abuse are...
Many times, when the world, non-believers in Jesus, talk about the issue of power, they refer to using your inner power to obtain success. The world says you just need to focus on the positive and tap into your inner child and focus on yourself. They say spoil yourself, look after yourself, and treat yourself. These are common catch phrases associated with personal accomplishment and reaching your dreams. In North America we saw the abuse of power with the way some early settl...
Imagine how you would feel if you and your loved one had a harsh disagreement; painful words flew back and forth until you separated into different parts of the house or maybe even different parts of town. The next day you received a beautiful bouquet of flowers; you hurried to open the card, hoping to see words of comfort and unending love. As you tore open the card, unfamiliar handwriting assaulted your hopes; a friendly neighbor just thought you might need some cheer for yo...
OK, Scrooge didn't save the world but it is hard to think of Christmas without thinking about Scrooge. In 1843, Charles Dickens didn't realize when he wrote "A Christmas Carol" that 175 years later people would still love the story. We can sympathize with Scrooge, he had a horrible childhood, he was orphaned, his sister died, he lost the woman he loved . . . we can understand why he turned into a bitter, miser who only loved money. Then comes redemption. He changes, he has a...
When my aging parents lived in our granny suite, they bought a new stereo because they could no longer hear the old one. The old one was an attractive little unit, complete with record player and 8-track. I think Noah used it on the Ark for weather reports. I was showing Mom and Dad how to set the digital clock on their new unit when my son Jeffrey, who had been admiring the 100-watt speakers said, "Um, Grandpa, you should put this thing in your will. I'd like it." My father...
I've been thinking about transitions. We don't think much about the more mundane ones-like halftime in football, lunch time at work, period break at a hockey game (I used to ref hockey 'cuz I got more ice time that way . . . ), or even a simple thing like a semi-colon; we pay more attention to the more significant transitions like graduations, weddings, birthdays and the like. Transitions all have two things in common; they mark an end to one thing and start another. The old...
I've been thinking a lot about forgiveness lately. The kind of forgiveness that feels like, if I extend it, and choose to consider actually forgiving, that I am the one who is losing. You know the kind of forgiveness I'm talking about, right? The kind where you've been hurt so deeply, on such a core level, that you can't possibly consider forgiving the other person? The kind that causes a physical ache in your heart and is accompanied by anger when the ache subsides. The kind...
Recently I was very encouraged by a single line of scripture that was expounded in a devotional calendar I read from every day. The verse was from Revelation 1:9: "I, John . . . was in the isle that is called Patmos, for the Word of God, and the testimony of Jesus Christ." This sounds pretty dismal! Can you imagine being exiled to die on a lonely island in complete isolation with no friends or family and only a big body of water surrounding you? This sounds unbearable, it...
Una was a beautiful Cherokee girl. Her name meant "Remember," and she did remember the smallest details of not only her own life, but the details of those who lived in the green valley that had been the home of the Cherokee since the beginning of time. Una remembered all the battles and births and deaths; she remembered the best and the worst of times. She remembered everything. Una was smaller than the other girls her age and she had beautiful hair that hung to her waist....
The late Ed Wood, a former Indian Life Board Member, was one who believed in realizing potential. I'll tell the story as it was told to me, some details may be a little murky but most of it's intact and unstretched! Yup . . . read on! Ed had a teenage daughter who had just graduated from high school and wanted to go to college in Phoenix, Arizona-a long ways from their Winnipeg home. Ed believed in encouraging people to stretch their wings to reach their potential, so he gave...
