Coffee Break in Goertzenville

I am enjoying Goertzenville very much. I have now (including my time at Roseau River Bible Camp) lived out of a bag for 2 1/2 months, with 1 1/2 to go, and I couldn't be happier. We are very well fed here, with breakfast at the house, morning coffee break, lunch, and afternoon coffee break at the build site (which, might I add, is also a house), and a hot supper back at the old house again. My beloved cousin Isabelle wrote a piece for school about our afternoon coffee breaks. It is a very accurate description. (Although she neglected to mention the copper jewelry that gets made frequently.)

Coffee Break in Goertzenville Isabelle Raine October 16, 2017 It is roughly 3:34 p.m., the day has been long, the crew's enthusiasm for work is waning and the general feeling is that Coffee Break ought to be arriving soon when—oh, joy!—a heart-warming aroma drifts past, borne on the arms of the children and womenfolk who have come to grant their valiant construction workers respite in the daily grind. Commonly bequeathed with varieties of fruit, loaves, nuts and hot drinks, it is little wonder that Coffee Break is such a highlight in these workers' lives. A shout arises; children rejoice! “Coh-feeee Break!” cries the multitudes. The signal being given, the crew shows itself to be consisting of almost entirely children as they leap from their ladders, swing down from the rafters, pop up from trenches and crawl through the wall frames. Unfastening their weighty toolbelts, they plunk themselves bodily into the nearest available picnic chair under the pretense of exhaustion and sigh. When they feel that they have charaded sufficiently, they turn to their neighbour and begin an animated and amusing dialogue. Opposite each cluster of conversationalists crowds another, and the air is thick with shared stories, teasing, and, as often as not, a heated debate or two. After a while another signal is given, reluctantly, and the crew rises from their chairs, ready to resume their individual tasks, in the rejuvenated and laughing state that Coffee Break tends to inflict on its victims.

Come visit us sometime - my Oma makes to-die-for loaves, and we always say if you work you eat!

Previous: The Quotes on My Bulletin Board

Next: Complete and Fully Equipped

#mylife #links #guestposts #current #Goertzenville #goodtimes

The Quotes on my Bulletin Board

I love quotes, and complex, concise, or witty use of English. Here are the ones I took the time to print - as they look on my wall.

Only dead fish go with the flow.

Peter's Thermometer of the Believer

Where are you in this progression?

Add to your

Faith

Virtue, to virtue

Knowledge, to knowledge

Self-control, to self-control

Perseverance, to perseverance

Godliness, to godliness

Brotherly Kindness, and to brotherly kindness

Love.

2 Peter 1:5b - 7

and Love means this

Love suffers long and is kind;

love does not envy;

love does not parade itself,

is not puffed up;

does not behave rudely,

does not seek its own,

is not provoked,

thinks no evil;

does not rejoice in iniquity,

but rejoices in the truth;

bears all things, believes all things,

hopes all things, endures all things.

Love never fails.

1 Corinthians 13:4-8a

So we've got a lot of work to do.

It's hard to explain puns to kleptomaniacs

because they're always taking things literally!

-heard on CBC's Q

Nothing seems really to matter,

that's the charm of it.

Whether you get away,

or whether you don't,

whether you arrive at your destination

or whether you reach somewhere else,

or whether you never get anywhere at all,

you're always busy,

and you never do anything in particular;

and when you've done it

there's always something else to do,

and you can do it if you'd like,

but you'd much better not.

-Kenneth Grahame, The Wind in the Willows

What of the hunting, hunter bold?

Brother, the watch was long and cold.

What of the quarry ye went to kill?

Brother, he crops in the jungle still.

Where is the power that made your pride?

Brother, it ebbs from my flank and side.

Where is the haste that ye hurry by?

Brother, I go to my lair to die.

"Catch on fire with enthusiasm and people

will come for miles to watch you burn."

-John Wesley

Do not let your adornment by merely outward--arranging the hair, wearing gold, or putting on fine apparel--rather let it be the hidden person of the heart, with the incorruptible beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is very precious in the sight of God.

1 Peter 3:3-4

A young man cannot be miserable. An old emperor envies the first youth he meets, poor though he may be, for he has health and strength, a nimble step, warmly circulating blood, white teeth, red lips, fresh cheeks, and pure breath. He may have to work for his daily bread, but while his hands earn it, his backbone stiffens with pride and his brain reels in ideas. His tasks over, he returns to ineffable ecstasy, joy, and contemplation. He lives with his feet in affliction, on the stones, among obstacles, amid briers, sometimes in mud; but his head is in the light. He is firm, serene, gentle, peaceful, attentive, serious, benevolent, and contented with little. He blesses God for having bestowed on him the riches denied many of the wealthy - the labor which makes him free and the thoughts which make him worthy. -Victor Hugo, Les Miserables

My heart is overflowing with a good theme;

I recite my composition concerning the King;

My tongue is the pen of a ready writer.

Psalm 45:1

A hero is no braver

than an ordinary man,

but he is braver

five minutes longer.

-Ralph Waldo Emerson

Organizing

is what you do

before you do something

so that when you do it

it's not all mixed up.

-A. A. Milne

"As your days,

Your strength

Shall be in

Measure."

...having ascertained that I was myself in my usual Quaker trim, where there was nothing to retouch - all being to close and plain, braided locks included, to admit of disarrangement... Charlotte Bronte, Jane Eyre

Lost, between sunrise and sunset,

One golden hour, set with sixty diamond minutes,

No reward is offered, for it is gone forever.

Imagination

It must be the gift of good fairies at birth

and the years can never deface it of take it away.

It is better to posses it, living in a garret,

Than to be the inhabitant of palaces without it.

--L. M. Montgomery, Anne of Avonlea

"I have heard the commandments read a great many times, and I never noticed that any of them said "Thou shalt be rich"; and there are a good many curious things said in the New Testament about rich men that I think would make me feel rather queer if I was one of them." -Anna Sewell, Black Beauty

"Do all the good you can,

By all the means you can,

In all the places you can,

At all the times you can,

To all the people you can,

As long as ever you can."

-John Wesley

David's Favorability Rating: 100 %

"Now all the people took note of it,

and it pleased them, since whatever

the king did pleased all the people."

-2 Samuel 3:3b

So What Went Wrong Now? David writes:

"I am a reproach among all my enemies,

But especially among my neighbors,

And am repulsive to my acquaintances,

Those who see me outside flee from me."

Rule for Social Media:

"...having your conduct honorable among the Gentiles,

that when they speak against you as evildoers,

they may, by your good works which they observe,

glorify God..." 1 Peter 2:12

"Wouldn't he know without being asked?" said Polly.

"I've no doubt that he would," said the horse, (still with his mouth full).

"But I've a sort of idea he likes to be asked."

If you sent me your favorite quote in an email it would make my day!

Previous: I Don't Want to Make the World a Better Place

Next: Coffee Break in Goertzenville

#quotes #English #mylife

I Don't Want to Make the World a Better Place

Making the world a better place is widely regarded as a noble pursuit, even for Christians. And I have thought in the past, “I hope that when I die I will have made the world a better place,” as if that were the most important thing to do in life. I now realize it is not.

Let me just make one thing quite clear: this world is an awful place. Simply terrible. There are terrible people in it, terrible things happen, and our experience here is pretty terrible. And no matter how much energy one spends on improving it, it’s only going to get worse. Read Revelation.

The thing is, it doesn’t matter what our experience is like here on earth. Our time here is so miniscule when compared with forever, that all that matters during this short time is making sure of where we and the people around us will go when we die. Spending our time making this world a “better place” is like giving our friend an Iced Capp when they are hanging on the edge of a cliff by one finger.

I would prefer for someone to have the worst this life can offer, and spend eternity in heaven with me and my Saviour, than live a luxurious life made better by my presence, and spend eternity in hell, wishing I had loved them enough to make them uncomfortable while they were alive.

Now I am not advocating that we ignore the unbelievers’ non-spiritual needs. I am merely pointing out that if we care for people without the end goal in mind (seeing them in heaven one day), we may actually hinder their chances of salvation.

This idea applies to the church as well. In India, where the world is somewhat of a worse place than here in Canada, the church is actually much stronger for the hardship. Please let’s not try to make Canada an even better, more comfortable place, further weakening the church.

So let me encourage you - don’t make this world a better place. That’s God’s job, at the end when He makes a new heavens and a new earth. Your job is to make sure the people in this terrible world get to see that new earth, which truly will be a better place.

I really enjoy Adam Ford’s work.

This illustrates where our priorities should be:

http://adam4d.com/eternity/

Previous: What I do When I go on My Computer

Next: The Quotes on My Bulletin Board

#rants #heaven #betterplaces