Famous Friends

 The link for this week's live-streamed service is here

Pursuing my love of hymnody, I learned recently that one of our newer congregants has a famous, hymn-writing relative. 

Anna Louisa Walker is the author of that old gospel hymn, "Work for the Night is Coming." She is also the great, great aunt of Grace, fellow-worshipper at SPPC. 

Walker was born on 23 June 1836 in Staffordshire, England. Around 1853 the family moved to Pointe-Lévy, (Quebec) in what was then Lower Canada. In 1858, the family relocated to Sarnia, Canada West, (present day Ontario.) Soon after their arrival in Sarnia, Anna Louisa founded a private girl's school with her sisters Frances and Isabella. Sadly, the school only operated for a few years before it closed upon the deaths of Frances

and Isabella. 

When she was still a teenager, Anna Louisa wrote poetry, published in local newspapers and then as a collection, "Leaves from the Backwoods" printed in Montreal by John Lovel in 1861. She returned to England with her parents in 1864. 

Shortly afterward, her parents died and she joined the household of her cousin, Margaret Oliphant, as a housekeeper-companion. Oliphant was a writer and recommended Anna Louisa's work to her own publishers. 

In 1873, Walker's debut novel, A Canadian Heroine, was published, followed by four more novels and a collection of Plays for Children. 

In 1884, Walker married Harry Coghill and settled in Staffordshire. She continued to write adding another novel to her opus, and a volume of poetry titled Oak and Maple: English and Canadian verses, published under her married name, Mrs. H. Coghill.

"The Night Cometh," was taken from "Leaves from the Backwoods" and set to music by Ira D. Sankey, and published as the hymn, "Work for the Night is Coming." As the poems had been published anonymously, Anna Louisa received no accreditation, the lyrics being wrongly attributed to Sidney Dyer. Upon hearing the hymn sung at a Temperance meeting, she recognized it as her own work and tracked down the source. Thereafter, printings of the hymn rightly recognized her as the author.

By happy coincidence I learned of Grace's connection to the author of "Work for the Night is Coming," in the same season as Dr. Cecil Kirk recommended this hymn. To be precise, in his unpublished  work on hymns he chose Aug. 8 as the appropriate day for this song.

As a farm kid I am very familiar with the urgency to bring in a crop before a storm hits, so work for the night is coming just seems like regular life, but the poem is actually a long metaphor. As Dr. Kirk explained, "the Christian is a workman who must be engaged in the heavenly Father's business. We are sent out like labourers into the harvest field and we are required to work for Him, rather we are given the privilege of working for Him. . . .Our life is compared to a day's work as we toil on the Master's service.

". . . The time will come when we are no longer able to work. . .  Darkness comes on and the time for labour is ended.  There is always the temptation, as we grow older, to believe that that time has come much earlier than it really has. No matter how old we may be, there is still some service we can render the Lord. Anna Louisa knew personally a lady over one hundred years old, who still carried on a valuable telephone ministry . . . in her congregation."

We often learn things at funerals that we wish we'd known while the deceased still walked among us. I'm really glad to learn about Grace's connection of "Work for the Night is Coming," while she can still answer questions about her famous relative.

An Abundance of Grace

 The link for this week's streamed service is here.

This week we had an interment of a former member of SPPC in the Garden of Remembrance. The weather was grey and wet, the grass soggy but the stories and memories of Grace Dodds were undampened. Her family and friends were fond of calling her "Amazing Grace." Her husband used to whistle around the house and his favourite tune was Amazing Grace. They were married for 72 years.

Grace loved to sing. As an air force wife she lived in many communities across Canada, and joining a church or community choir brought her many friends and made her feel at home wherever they lived. When they resided in Summerside, PEI, she sang with the Don Messer Jubilee singers on occasion. A highlight of her musical life was singing a duet with Marg Osburne at a wedding. 

Over the years Grace worked in many jobs, taught music, worked as a nanny, started a preschool in her home and later, at the request of the commanding officer, on the base in Cold Lake, Alberta. For fun, she and Viv bowled and went square dancing. 

By the time I knew her at SPPC, her singing days were waning, but she was a stalwart supporter of the senior choir and of the Living Flame Choir. She also baked for the Blue Bus. Even at 94 she made oatmeal, coconut, chocolate chip cookies because the kids in the program really liked them.

Perhaps that was the key to her long and happy life--Grace was 100 years and 8 months old when she passed away--doing for others. My own mom used to say, "if you're feeling low, do something for someone else." Maybe that's why Grace always had a smile on her face and a song in her heart. She was doing for someone else.

Grace was a great one for memorizing scripture, including the whole of the Book of John. And so, dear Grace, "Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also." John 14: 1-3

GRACE, UNEXPECTED

My Life After a Serious Brain Injury;
February 4, 1999
by Carla Vanderspek

As I went out the door, my husband yelled, 'see you Carla.  Have a really good day!"  He was doing paperwork for his construction company.  The radio was on in the background.  An accident is reported on Glenmore Trail.  A while later the phone rings.  It was Mary, one of my four employees at Mount Royal College.  I had not arrived yet.  He realizes the accident he just heard about was me!!  He then rushes off to see.

I wrote a story in the hope and prayer that other people, learning about my near fatal brain injury in early 1999 and the various challenges I have faced since then, will gain some inspiration and strength for the challenges they encounter.

Sometimes, my story is one of sadness and frustration.  But it is also a story of joy and humour.  And most often, it's a story of love.  The love God had for me, and I for Him, and the love that my dear family and friends have for me and I for them.

Without the love of God, I would never have survived the horrific car accident that so dramatically changed my life in early 1999.  And without the love of God, family and friends, I would never have overcome my brain injury to the extent that I have.

Within hours after the accident, the doctors predicted I would be a mental vegetable.  I was rated as only a number 3 on the Glasgow coma scale that measures brain injury severity.  Thirteen to fifteen is considered mild, nine to twelve is considered moderate, and eight or less is severe.

Despite such grim prognosis, I slowly regained consciousness after two weeks, and then recovered my memory and mobility to the best it can be.  Today, 13 years after, I have some disabilities, but I am certainly not the mental vegetable they said I was going to be!  That is thanks to the power of prayer and having God as the leader in my life.  If you would like, I can talk to you more about it all.


Ed. Note:  I asked Carla to write her story for this blog because I've been struck by her faithful witness over the time I have known her.  What surprises me most, is that complete strangers will stop her in the store and ask "What's wrong with you?"  I'd be tempted to return a rude answer to such a rude question, but Carla takes those opportunities to witness for God.  From this terrible event in her life, she has found an avenue to tell others about her faith and about God's love and about prayer and about her walk with Jesus.   Thank you, Carla, for sharing.

In all things...

by Alice Valdal

This year, wherever two or three gardeners are gathered together the talk inevitable turns to the disappointing yields this year.  The litany of complaint is loud and long.  Miserable spring, cold July, no bees, marauding deer, slugs, no sun.  I complain with the best of them, often leading the chorus.  Here it is, the end of summer and my tomatoes are still green.

In previous years, my plum tree has yielded bushels of fruit.  This year, I've got a niggardly offering that won't full one ice cream bucket.  I was ready to write off the garden as a complete failure, and then I found the blackberries. 

The bushes are laden, the berries sweet and juicy and huge!  Best of all they require little effort to grow and maintain.  I can't help considering the blackberry bushes along the roadsides as an example of God's grace.  We label them "noxious weed."  We cut them down, plough them under, trample them over.  We strip them of fruit and hack at the vines, then turn our backs and ignore them.  Yet, year after year, the blackberries shower the ungrateful with abundance, fruit fit for kings, there for the taking, no questions asked, no one excluded.


When I look at the failures and successes in my garden, I am reminded of Paul's message to the Thessalonians, In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.