Friday, May 26, 2017

One Warm Line -
Crossing Canada’s Northwest Passage on Hwy 16 

John and I are traveling across Canada from Seattle, WA to Halifax, NS. We decided to take the “high road” this time from British Columbia to Alberta along Hwy 16 and through Jasper National Park. (for more pictures, check my Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10155067469637489&set=pcb.10155067550457489&type=3&theater)

While leaving BC, we had introduced a couple of people to Stan Rogers, a Cape Bretoner, who wrote a song about going through the Northwest Passage (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FIjFpwsXhuI). It is a powerful song. Once it gets started in my head, it does NOT go away easily (not that I’m complaining ☺️).

All of that to say, I was very aware of the trek we were taking along Hwy 16 on beautifully maintained 2 and 4 lane paved highways. Any of the vistas at any given point would take your breath away. I couldn’t help thinking about the prisoners who came through for the first time. The imposing mountains, the vastness of the rugged terrain, the brutal forces of nature, all through land that had never before been seen let alone mapped. How did they survive the severity of it all?

And the backdrop to it all, running over and over again in my mind, was Stan Roger’s “One Warm Line”.

I truly felt like we were travelling the “one warm line on land”. Franklin and his men did it by sea, but we were following in the footsteps of those who had conquered that quest by land. And what a privilege it is to be able to follow where they plowed through.

Canada is a big empty country in so many ways, but it is not because there is nothing there. There are parts of this nation that may never be seen by human eyes, but the Creator of it all looks down with delight, I am convinced, because He knows all the little animals and plants and rivers and lakes that are hidden away and are there just for Him to enjoy. I am thankful though, that He has put it in the hearts of men and women to seek out these treasures, and then gives them the fortitude, the strength of character and conviction to follow their dreams.

It has been my pleasure and delight to be able to cross the North American Continent 6 times now. Sometimes through the US and sometimes through Canada. It shows me parts of God that I would never have seen. His extravagant use of color and hue, multitudes of texture, the unending variety of birds and plants and flowers, His love of open spaces and peace.

I love Canada and the US and am grateful that God has planted me here. I see myself as Bi-Coastal (Eastern Canada and West Coast BC and Washington), and Bi-polar - of the north and south persuasion :) allowing me to embrace two of my native countries - Canada and the United States.

As I trek back and forth across this awesome land, my prayer is that I can encourage those I meet, as I have been encouraged and inspired by those who have opened the way for me. If I could show the way for those coming behind me and leave a warm line for them to travel, my hope is that it would lead to the Maker of all this beauty and majesty, for He is more impressive than all of it put together.




Northwest Passage
By Stan Rogers

Ah, for just one time I would take the Northwest Passage
   
To find the hand of Franklin reaching for the Beaufort Sea;
   
Tracing one warm line through a land so wide and savage
   
And make a Northwest Passage to the sea.

Westward from the Davis Strait 'tis there 'twas said to lie

The sea route to the Orient for which so many died;

Seeking gold and glory, leaving weathered, broken bones

And a long-forgotten lonely cairn of stones.

Ah, for just one time I would take the Northwest Passage
   
To find the hand of Franklin reaching for the Beaufort Sea;
   
Tracing one warm line through a land so wide and savage
   
And make a Northwest Passage to the sea.

Three centuries thereafter, I take passage overland

In the footsteps of brave Kelso, where his "sea of flowers" began

Watching cities rise before me, then behind me sink again

This tardiest explorer, driving hard across the plain.

Ah, for just one time I would take the Northwest Passage
   
To find the hand of Franklin reaching for the Beaufort Sea;
   
Tracing one warm line through a land so wide and savage
   
And make a Northwest Passage to the sea.

And through the night, behind the wheel, the mileage clicking west

I think upon Mackenzie, David Thompson and the rest

Who cracked the mountain ramparts and did show a path for me

To race the roaring Fraser to the sea.

Ah, for just one time I would take the Northwest Passage
   
To find the hand of Franklin reaching for the Beaufort Sea;
   
Tracing one warm line through a land so wide and savage
   
And make a Northwest Passage to the sea.

How then am I so different from the first men through this way?
Like them, I left a settled life, I threw it all away.

To seek a Northwest Passage at the call of many men

To find there but the road back home again.

Ah, for just one time I would take the Northwest Passage
   
To find the hand of Franklin reaching for the Beaufort Sea;
   
Tracing one warm line through a land so wide and savage
   

And make a Northwest Passage to the sea.

Wednesday, May 24, 2017

A Slave or Not A Slave? That is the question!

A Slave or Not A Slave? That is the question!
By Holly M. Roddam

The story of the first American missionaries to Burma* got me thinking about how slavery has been part of man’s history since the beginning. Time magazine reported in January 2010 that despite more than a dozen international bans on slavery in the past 150 years, there are more slaves today than any other time in human history.

Being only three generations out of slavery myself, I can’t comprehend people thinking they can own others, and treat them with such brutality. And yet, I don't always treat people the way I should. Maybe it shouldn't be so hard to understand!

It was with curiosity and interest that I read Pulitzer Prize winner, Alex Tizon's final story for The Atlantic magazine, “My Family’s Slave” **, a moving story about how Alex’s family came to America in 1964 from the Philippines, and brought Lola, a Filipino slave, with them. She served the family for 56 years until she died.

I was struck by the power of Lola’s love and ability to put a family who often mistreated her, before herself. Obviously, I don't believe in slavery, but I admire how Lola demonstrated what St Paul said, "I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do all this through him who gives me strength." Phil 4:12-13 NIV

I wonder if Lola knew Jesus. She certainly lived like Jesus! There was nothing to say that she even knew Him, but I wonder too, that there aren’t many who meet Jesus in a way that our Evangelical model would never consider or believe! Scripture says that creation witnesses to the love of God, and Jesus is a friend to the outcast and sinner. There is no excuse for not knowing Him.

My hope is that I too will know the secret of being content in my situation. I have been privileged in so many ways, and yet, mostly I have seen what I haven't had, or what the Lord hasn't done for me. But I am learning. You can be free on the outside but a slave inside, and you can be a slave on the outside, but truly free on the inside.

I don't understand suffering, especially when people are pouring their lives out for God. Adoniram Judson and all the first American Overseas missionaries, willingly, and painfully, gave up their lives for the sake of the gospel. Today hundreds of thousands of Christians are tortured and martyred for their faith. But I do know that God's ways are higher. I trust that He is good and what He does is good, whether I understand it or not. I am thankful for the lives of those who have lived this truth for the rest of us to see.

Please, Jesus, may my life encourage those coming behind me.

 *http://christianaudio.com/adoniram-judson-janet-benge-geoff-benge-audiobook-download
** https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2017/06/lolas-story/524490/

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