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Not your typical Wednesday night “church”, but such a neat concept. Once a year, it’s a great night for the whole “church” of Abilene. It’s really cool to see churches coming together to minister and serve for the youth of the Big Country.

Last night was Echo Night Of Worship Arts. They presented “Marvelous Light” a community wide praise and worship service with special presentations by the ECHO class of 2010 students in dance, sign language, hip hop, sword, song, and our River Rising Drama team. Our drama class acted out The Forth Man In The Fire. I played Ashpnaz the head soldier and Levi was Jesus. there are three videos because there are three parts. Enjoy

Finally, after Levi bugging me for weeks, I told him I would measure him. I’ve always said he’d never be taller than me and up to this week, I was right. I refused to measure him after he reached 5’11″ because I didn’t want to eat my words and could always say the last time he was measured he was still shorter than me. Somehow he bribed me…I can’t remember what I got out of the deal, but we backed him up, held up the book, made sure his heels were against the wall and made the mark (2″ under the book ). He figured it out right away when he saw he hadn’t grown in months, so I had to do it right. Yes, my 13 year old son is 6 feet tall. So much for premies being small for their age. He’s got 1/4 inch on me. Caleb is gain at 5’5″… They can both be proud of their growth. What about me? I think I quit growing some where a bit after high school.

Then last Sunday I realized that I am still growing. This growth is much more interesting than pulling on your fav pair of jeans and finding that they are now, for sure, too short. Or finding out that you’re too tall for the kiddie rides at KDays. And knowing that the back seat of a compact car is only comfortable if you’re the only one in the back seat. The growth can’t be measured by rulers, jeans and cars. Let me tell you a story.

As a teen my fav singer was Canadian, Dan Hill. I remember making a deal with my friend Cindy to go see him at the Jube in Edmonton and, in return,  I would  go see The Bay City Rollers with her. In a song, McCarthy’s Day, he sings about his parents struggle in the U.S. because of being a mixed race marriage.

I couldn’t understand the problem. It was foreign to me. Now that we’ve lived a time in the “deep south” I understand a bit more. It’s real, the feeling of class between races. I’m not making a judgment call; it’s just a statement of fact, not unlike the feeling between First Nations and whites in Canada.

As a Christ follower, I loved the people, camp, youth group, activities of our church growing up. I remember dad saying once as we were driving passed Lacombe on our way home from Calgary that he almost bought some land in the area. I told him I was thankful he hadn’t cause then I wouldn’t have been involved in our life near Westlock, which I loved. As my adult years began, I continued on learning, growing, committing and experiencing a rich life with people I admired and respected and grew beside. Fast forward leaving Edmonton, to Lethbridge, where my denomination wasn’t represented and we attended a lovely local church which we worked along side, grew with and enjoyed the communion of souls for 3 years. Our first Sunday in Abilene we were priveledged to feast at the table of a pastor of a lively church and asked him what the challenges were for the church in Abilene. His comment was, because of the numbers, the struggle was to have them all work along side one another for the purpose of eternity.

Abilene is a small city of 120,000 with a huge church population. The churches range in the 100′s and we knew that coming here. ACU is a Church of Christ denomination that we had never heard of before learning about the University. The people have been the friendliest and most helpful to us as a family and individually and I love them dearly.  The Church of Christ is unique many ways, but two are important things for you to know. One, it celebrates communion every Sunday and two,  traditionally they have no instruments in their Sunday morning services. I’ve never heard such beautiful singing.

On our interview trip to Abilene, Dwayne’s boss took us out to dinner with a bunch of folks from ACU to facilitate a time of questions and concerned. One couple were new to ACU, moved from way up north 6 months previous and I think they tried to warn us and offered a newbie perspective on the city of Abilene. This same couple with their two young children, invited us over for Thanksgiving dinner. During the evening we heard their love story. The man’s father, an elder in the Church of Christ in Wisconsin,  had met the girl in some way and was so very impressed with her heart that he insisted she was the one for his son. He set up the date and a few years later, they were husband and wife.  Their two children are beautiful and fun and Levi and Caleb had a blast with them on Thanksgiving evening.  I had respect for the father in his part of the love story for the husband is white and the wife is black. He saw a beautiful heart of a woman and wanted it for his son.

For reasons too long to explain in this already lengthy post, I will say that we are not attending a Church of Christ, but a Baptist church. This Baptist church has communion available every Sunday, but the huge comparison is the music. It’s rock concert loud. I’m not saying I enjoy that part totally, but it’s speaks to what I am about to share.

So with all that background I bring you to a simple sight I saw last Sunday.  The communion elements are located along the sides of the church for people to partake at will. Dwayne nudged me and pointed out the family who had us over for Thanksgiving. With rock concert loud music dancing all around them, this family wrapped in each others arms were praying and celebrating the death and resurrection of our Jesus. The awesome thing was that the visiting white grandfather and grandmother from the Church of Christ where part of the huddle. Here is what it’s all about. The love of our God breaks through barriers of race and denomination and tradition and taste of music. It wraps us in arms of peace and acceptance and authenticity. The little girl peeks out between the hugs and waves shyly at Dwayne. To me, this picture will always be a sign of the truth of the gospel and the truth of the church.

“There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you all are one in Christ Jesus.” Galatians 3:28

I know I’ve always known this, at least as far back as I remember. I had just seen the truth portrayed in a picture, an action, an experience.  May I always live it.

It was a Sunday afternoon, 3:30, just as the sun was going down on December 20, 1992, almost 17 years ago, Dwayne and I were married. It feels like yesterday; it feels like we’ve never not known each other. Our day’s plans had changed many times, but you don’t need to hear the back story, it was just the beginning.

To celebrate this year, we went to book a restaurant for dinner on Dec. 20th and lo, the ones we want to try aren’t open on Sunday eve Only in Abilene during the Christmas season. We will trip on down to Buffalo Gap and try out Perini Steakhouse (apparently American known for the stuff). It’ll be a cultural experience.

I enjoying sharing Christmas and our anniversary. Both are love stories very real and important to me. I know few people who have taken the plunge at Christmas: Christina and Ryan, Tanya and Tom, another Marilyn and Dave. but please celebrate with us this time of year a personal and eternal love story:

Like a stone on the surface of a still river

Driving the ripples on forever,

Redemption rips through the surface of time in the cry of a tiny babe

There are others who know about this miracle birth

The humblest of people catch a glimpse of their worth

For it isn’t to the palace that the Christ child comes

But to shepards and street people, hookers and bums

The message is clear if you have ears to hear

That forgiveness is given for your guilt and your fears

It’s a Christmas gift that you don’t have to buy

There’s a future shining in a baby’s eye.

-Bruce Cockburn-

We all have love stories that hold us in our space and time, whether friendships, family, children. May you celebrate the ones God has given you and His greatest love gift of all, Emmanuel, God with us.

Dwayne and I went to a Sunday school class today where, for an icebreaker/getting to know time, we partnered up with someone we didn’t know, introduce ourselves, answer a question assigned to everyone, chat for a bit and then went around the room introducing our partner and give their answer to the question. Last Sunday’s question was, what are you thankful for? This Sunday it was, If you couldn’t have turkey or ham for the Thanksgiving meal, what would you replace them with? My answer was, if it was my boys it would be pizza, but I would choose lasagna. When the rounds made it back to Dwayne, his partner introduced him and said he would choose perogies. Everyone turned around and many said, “what, what are those?” Whewww, we are far from Alberta. Someone suggested they were Polish dumplings, like ravioli, “oh, dumplings”. Enough said. Dwayne told the boys and I later that he should have said it in Ukrainian and add all the other Ukrainian dishes.

No surprise that some of the other answers included beef, but most were Mexican. Guess it’s just another cultural thing. I had chicken and dumplings once here (never again) and trust me, they are totally different than perogies. The dumplings I grew up with were more like biscuits baked on top of a meat dish, so I was not prepared for soggy lumps of dough swimming in a sauce. Maybe I need some homemade sometime and give them another try.

Oh, one more thing. When the service was over, I saw a young man pick up a big ole white cowboy hat and put it back on his head as he made his way to his pickup. Sometimes Alberta is not so far away.