Craigslist Finally Gets It

It would seem that Craigslist is giving out Christmas gifts early this year - to all the women and children who would have been exploited and trafficked via its website - by finally pulling the erotic services ads in Canada:

www.winnipegfreepress.com/breakingnews/craigslist-pulls-erotic-services-prostitution-ads-from-canadian-sites--112124584.html

God is with the Vulnerable & Poor

"God is in the slums,

in the cardboard boxes where the poor play house.

God is in the silence of a mother

who has infected her child with a virus that will end both their lives.

God is in the cries

heard under the rubble of war.

God is in the debris

of wasted opportunity and lives,

and God is with us if we are with them."

Bono, speaking at the National Prayer Breakfast 2006

Within the Reach

"'In judging our progress as individuals, ' he [Nelson Mandela] would write to Winnie, 'we tend to concentrate on external factors such as one's social position, influence and popularity, wealth and standard of education. . .but internal factors may be even more crucial in assessing one's development as a human being:  honesty, sincerity, simplicity, humility, purity, generosity, absence of vanity, readiness to serve your fellow men - qualities within the reach of every soul. . .'"

Mandela:  The Authorized Portrait, p. 166

A Year Ago Today

A year ago today I finally landed back on Canadian soil after trekking the globe since April 2, 2009.  It took 6 grueling days (well, actually 7 if you consider that I went back in time crossing the International Dateline and experienced 2 December 12th's last year!) to go from Cape Town - Johannesburg - Sydney - Auckland - Honolulu - Kona - LA - Chicago - Winnipeg.  Yep, I NEVER want to do that again!!  And some days it feels like it was all yesterday and other days I feel like it was ages ago.  Of course, the most popular question these days is, "So where are you going next?"  I have absolutely no idea, but wherever it is, whenever it happens, I'm excited about it already!

Family Update

It has certainly been an eventful year for some of my family on my mom's side.  My grandma had some health set-backs this year and she is very slowly getting 'used' to life at a personal care home.  Today she also had cataract surgery on her 2nd eye (the other was done earlier this year).  As for my uncle Levi, there has certainly been a lot of progress since March, but there have also been some disappointments along the way.  Things were looking so hopeful that he would be able to get off the ventilator entirely, but now that does not seem possible.  Even if he's only on it for the night, it restricts the type of places he is able to live because of the care he needs.  Definitely not great Christmas news for him.

Lemon Grass Tea

Do you ever have those moments where you're able to step back in time and just enjoy a specific moment again?  Maybe it was a recent memory, maybe one stored for a long, long time.  I stumbled upon some lemon grass tea a few weeks and I just couldn't stop thinking about it.  "Why?" you ask.  Well, I remember having real lemon grass tea while in Panama during the summer of '09.  I knew it had made an impact back then because, when I went back to my journal, there is was:  "and great lemon grass tea for breakfast" (that and "What in the world does God want with me way out here, visiting a tribe in Panama?").

Lemon grass tea is not the only thing that brings me back to Panama these days.  I had heard about the mudslides and wanted to be sure that my friends were all ok.  As I turned my computer on to write this blog, my friend Tulio had responded to my email [my edits in brackets - his English gets better every time]:

"hello friend, God bless you for reminding [remembering] us, errebache [the tribe referred to before] was flooded up to the bigger house and get the water there was a landslide that covered the bathroom and a house. we are all good - material damage only. now errebache'll be in [Gamboa, the town we were stationed or at the YWAM base is my guess] until January. I prayer [pray] for errebache to [go] the right direction for our village."

Please keep Tulio and all his friends and family at Errebache, as well as all those in Panama affected by the floods and mudslides in your thoughts and prayers over the coming weeks.  Many won't celebrate Christmas in their homes, so pray that they would have others to surround them in this time.

You Know It's Really Cold When. . .

Winter is settling in - more so this week.  Temperatures have started to drop, but this week we've also added the windchill.  For those of my friends who have no idea what I'm talking about, let me briefly explain.  Let's say it's -20 (Celsius that is - we're in Canada!), which is cold - not crazy cold, not pleasant cold, just cold.  But if the wind starts to pick up, then it becomes a factor and then we hear things like, "it's -20 but feels like -36 with the windchill".  Ok, now that's COLD because the wind just bites!  And you know it's really cold when the sun dogs come out (I didn't get to take a picture, so you'll have to Google them for now) - little rainbows of light seen on either side of the sun created by the ice crystals in the air.  Brrrrrrrrr!

Jolica in the News

Check out this article written in Edmonton (a hot-spot for Jolica) with more details regarding what Jolica is all about:

www.edmontonexaminer.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?archive=true&e=2720515

Advent Conspiracy

Looking to do Christmas a little different this year?  Check out www.adventconspiracy.org

Video from www.youtube.com/watch?v=eVqqj1v-ZBU

We Remember

Today Canada marks the National Day of Mourning and a National Day to End Violence Against Women in memory of the 14 women killed 21 years ago in the Montreal Massacre by enraged gunman Marc Lépine at the engineering school, École Polytechnique.  For video: archives.cbc.ca/society/crime_justice/topics/398

We remember:

  Sonia Pelletier                    Maryse Laganiere

 

  Nathalie Croteau                     Maud Haviernick

 Helene Colgan                     Michelle Richard

 Maryse Leclair                  Genevieve Bergeron

 Barbara Klueznick                 Barbara Daigneault

 Annie Turcotte                   Annie St Arneault

 Ann Marie Lemay                 Ann Marie Edward

Long-Lost Relations

It was just over a year ago that I met a long-lost brother, well, that's at least what it felt like!  We were born on opposites sides of the world, in opposite colors, but I swear that he's my brother.  It was like we had known each other all our lives in spirit and now we were able to finally meet in the flesh.

I don't know if it's just the time of year or what, but it seems to be happening to me again.  I have met a few women within the last week who are totally in sync with me (which is not an easy task!).  You start to wonder how you ever got along without them before.  And the best part is that circumstances were such that I could have totally missed meeting them - but I didn't!  I knew last year that my life would never be the same. . .and I have a sneaky suspicion that I might saying that once again!

Kids

Christmas is just not Christmas unless you're able to share, enjoy and celebrate it with kids.  It's easy to catch on to their contagious excitement, and experience the wonder of Christmas all over again.  For our family, this also means getting involved in various ministries that work with children, especially at this time of year.  And no, it's not just about the gifts but rather extending love to these little ones - the ones most vulnerable in our society.

That's why we participate in Operation Christmas Child (through Samaritan's Purse) and send a shoebox of gifts out to a child in need.  For many children, this is the only Christmas gift they will ever receive.  If you forgot to, or you just didn't have time to this year, there's still time to donate at www.samaritanspurse.ca/occ.

Another organization we get involved with is Angel Tree (through Prison Ministries).  Inmates request gifts for their children and these gifts are bought by people like my family and then given to these kids at Christmas.  Many of these children are looked after by extended family, including grandparents or aunts and uncles, who don't have the extra money to buy Christmas gifts.  Maybe your church or community group would like to get involved - there's still time!  Check out www.angeltree.org/deliverlove for more information.

give empowerment

I was looking around one of my favorite stores yesterday (Ten Thousand Villages) and a display of bars of soap caught my eye.  Normally, soap would not be that interesting to me, but these were a little different.  Each of them had a piece of wax, with a fingerprint impressed into it.  So I came a little closer and saw that they were called "Sacred Mark".  I don't make a habit of crying in public, especially not standing in a store, but tears were sitting at the corners of my eyes as I read the story of these bars of soap:

"Known as 'survivors,' the women in MCC's Pobitra program receive much more than handicraft training.  They are offered an environment of respect and support where they are able to begin new lives.  Victims of Bangladesh's sex trade, the women take part in an eight-month vocational training program that also educates about health and hygiene, mental health, human rights, peace and literacy.  The program's name, Pobitra, means 'holiness, sanctity, the fresh cleanliness of a newborn.'  To join the program, women make a public commitment to embrace new opportunities and on completion, are given a blue sari to symbolize their rebirth.  Many of the program's graduates produce handmade natural soaps at Sacred Mark, an enterprise developed by MCC in Bangladesh."

Are there tears in the corners of your eyes?  If so, please go to MCC/Ten Thousand Villages and support this program either by buying bars of soap (guess what all my friends and family are getting next year?!?) or by buying a Living Gift - "Give Empowerment" - which, for $25, is the gift of literacy materials for a woman who is beginning a new life (online it's at www.tenthousandvillages.ca/cgi-bin/category.cgi?type=store&item=pageZAAAF39&template=fullpage-en&category=search)

"Your gift of empowerment gives women in Bangladesh the capacity to start over, learn vocational skills and find new sources of employment."

"O let me wear secretly. . .the sacred mark impressed by Your own hand."

~Rabindranath Tagore

More information about the program at mcc.org/stories/news/mcc-teaches-new-job-skills-former-sex-workers-bangladesh

31 Questions

How can it possibly be December already?  This year has once again flown by!  I thought I would use this last month of 2010 to ask God a few questions.  I have set up a new page, aptly titled '31 Questions', and I will post 1 new question a day, until the end of the year.  Enjoy!