Well, after a week away, a 6:00 shift sure seems early. It's 'RRRoll Up the Rim to Lose' time at Tim Horton's. That helps.
Also, Mesfin our Night Watchman made French toast, so it's a special breakfast (not just continental!) Actually, what is particularly special about it is that I don't have to get it ready. And now we've added syrup to the regularly purchased items so that pancakes and French toast get eaten with glee. I don't understand how we can go through ONE GALLON of syrup in a week?! Ick.
Well, a week at Hope Mission in Edmonton has come and gone. Ken and I went on a "working holiday" and had a fabulous time, meeting old and new friends, touring facilities and operations, attending MissionsFest, picking staffer's brains, and, of course, one day at WEST EDMONTON MALL. Ug. 6 hours of mall walking and all I got was some Purdy's chocolates.
What CEO Bruce Reith has done is 20 years is fantastic. Growing Hope Mission from 4 staff to over 100... imagine, a whole DEPARTMENT for laundry!! Their key staff players, many of them there for more than 10 years, are quality men and women who love the Lord. We got to be a part of their monthly staff luncheon, where everyone comes together from the various departments and buildings. It was there that several awards for long term service (10 years plus!) were handed out.
Ken was able to share with them that people who stick with Mission work for that long either truly love the Lord or no one told them they could quit! He also encouraged them to press on, "enduring hardship as a good soldier of Jesus Christ." (2 Timothy 2:3) As further encouragement, I briefly told them our story of faith, how Ken and Michelle left everything they owned and everyone they knew to found Regina RESCUE Mission. Okay, so I told that story in the TWO MINUTES that Bruce alloted me. I may have glazed over some key points, there!
The longer we're in the Lord's service, the more difficult it becomes. That honeymoon phase has passed, and the enemy tempts us with discouragement and depression, urging us to give up. We need Missions that are 75 years old, and we need to celebrate men and women who commit their lives to being missionaries! Ten years is a long time!! When I see what God has done at Hope Mission I get excited and my vision becomes renewed.
What are you struggling with today? What is making you want to give up? Do you need a ride on someone's coattails of Hope?
1 comments:
The ride of encouragement certainly helps, thanx for the stories!
As for the syrup.. I figure that a gallon of syrup has 266 tablespoons in it, and assuming an average use of 2 tablespoons of syrup per pancake (whether or not thats correct is debatable) that would mean only 133 pancakes or french toasts need to be eaten for one jug to go. Now, let's assuming that the average person eats 2.5 pieces, that would mean about 54 people would need to eat. Since we've got about 20 people eating at each meal, that only takes 2.67 meals to go through a jug. :)
PS: the deleted comment was done in order to correct some typos that Michelle didn't like.. :)
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