The Shepherd's Way

by Alice Valdal

      Redundancy is often considered in a negative light but when it comes to communication, redundancy can be a good thing.  Apparently humans aren't very good at taking in new information so they need to receive it in many forms, hence, redundancy.
   At SPPC, this blog is one form of communication, the weekly bulletin is another, as are announcements from the pulpit but this week I draw your attention to our church newsletter, "The Shepherd's Way."
  Blanche Richer, ably assisted by husband Bill, is our editor and I asked her a few questions about how she came to that position.  Here's what she had to say.

   We have been doing "The Shepherd's Way" for seven years, since Easter 2006.  I love to write and it seems to come naturally to me.  When we attended Trinity Presbyterian Church, I edited their magazine, "A Joyful Noise," for ten years and Bill did the cover pictures and all the illustrations.  Then we transferred to Saanich Peninsula Presbyterian Church and I really missed having a regular deadline, for I thought that all the work and effort of producing a worthwhile magazine really kept my mind active.  So, when Beulah asked me if I would do a magazine for SPPC, she said that I could think about it for a few days.
   "I'll give you my answer right now," I replied.  "Yes, I will do it."

  Q.How many issues per year?
   A.  There are four issues:  Easter, Summer, Thanksgiving and Christmas. 

    Q. What is your background re newsletters?
    A. When I was much younger, many years ago, I wrote short stories and articles for publication in English magazines.  I have always been a reader and I like to be surrounded by books.

    Q. What is the most difficult and the most satisfying aspect of putting together the newsletter.
    A.  "The Shepherd's Way" has developed into a certain pattern with regular features such as cover, back page, minister's pages, cartoons, etc. and when I gather all the stories, articles, items, news and ideas from the congregation, each new piece just seems to fall into place.  But I sometimes have to juggle quite a bit.
    Finally, I number the pages (by hand) and then take them to Staples to be printed.  But my most satisfying moment is when I hold the first new copy 'hot off the press.'  Then home for a cup of tea.
   
   Q. Bill creates wonderful illustrations for the magazine.  Has he illustrated other publications?
    A.Bill comes from Guernsey and has drawn since he was able to hold a pencil.  Before he came to Canada, he studied drawing, pen and ink and painting which included oils and water colour, landscapes and ships and seascapes.  He has illustrated several books, including Lanterns and Shadows, an anthology by a group of Oak Bay authors, and articles in newspapers and magazines.

  Q.  Do you mind if I mention you are both senior citizens?
   A.Neither of us minds being called a Senior. (On Jan. 22 next year, I'll be 90.)  I don't feel old.  

Thanks Blanche, for answering my questions and for your faithful service, along with Bill, to SPPC.  "The Shepherd's Way," is enjoyed by everyone in our congregation.  It gets taken home and read and reread, then handed on to friends and family, a tribute to your diligence and your talent.

O God Our Help

    
 

 The hymn, "O God Our Help in Ages Past,  recommended   by the Royal Canadian Legion among others, is so strongly associated with Remembrance Day it is difficult to think of it in any other context.   Yet as a paraphrase of Psalm 90, it has its roots in the time of Moses, (some commentators believe Moses wrote the words).  Whoever the author was, the fact remains that the psalm recalls a time when the Israelites were homeless, when their lives were uncertain and their future unknown.  No wonder they responded to the assurance that God is eternal, that he holds our lives in his hands, that He controls time.   
    Small wonder that those sentiments resonate still with people caught up in war and its aftermath, for those who sorrow and for those who fear.  God is eternal.  God is our home.

1. O God, our help in ages past,
   Our hope for years to come,
   Our shelter from the stormy blast,
   And our eternal home.
2. Under the shadow of Thy throne
   Thy saints have dwelt secure;
   Sufficient is Thine arm alone,
   And our defense is sure.
3. Before the hills in order stood,
   Or earth received her frame,
   From everlasting Thou art God,
   To endless years the same.
4. Thy Word commands our flesh to dust,
   “Return, ye sons of men”:
   All nations rose from earth at first,
   And turn to earth again.
5. A thousand ages in Thy sight
   Are like an evening gone;
   Short as the watch that ends the night
   Before the rising sun.
6. The busy tribes of flesh and blood,
   With all their lives and cares,
   Are carried downwards by the flood,
   And lost in foll’wing years.
7. Time, like an ever-rolling stream,
   Bears all its sons away;
   They fly, forgotten, as a dream
   Dies at the op’ning day.
8. Like flow’ry fields the nations stand
   Pleased with the morning light;
   The flow’rs beneath the mower’s hand
   Lie with’ring ere ’tis night.
9. O God, our help in ages past,
   Our hope for years to come,
   Be Thou our guard while troubles last,
   And our eternal home.

verses in italics are omitted in most hymnals

Here are Dr. Cecil Kirk's notes on this most beloved hymn.

Scripture Reading:  Psalm 90

            Isaac Watts is rightly regarded as the pioneer of English hymnody.  He perceived what was truly needed and provided it.  In more than six hundred hymns, Watts stressed the reality of faith and hope.  He emphasized the majesty and sovereignty of God and promoted the Church’s mission to the whole world.

            This hymn, considered to be one of the grandest in the English language, is really a paraphrase of Psalm 90.  The psalm itself has a recurring penitent note but Watts has cast the hymn as one of assurance and hope.  Of the nine original verses three have been dropped in most hymn books.

            Watts entitled the hymn “Man frail and God eternal”, a theme that runs through all the verses.  The psalm begins by focusing our gaze on the everlasting God who is the creator of the universe (Ps. 90. 1-2) and then on the transitory nature of human life (Ps. 90.3).  Human life is frail, mortal.  Human beings are born to die.  The psalmist likens his life to a passing dream and to the grass of the field which flourishes in the morning but by evening has withered away (Ps. 90. 5-6).  It is hardly surprising then that he admonishes us to “number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom” (Ps. 90. 12).

            By way of contrast with the brevity and uncertainty of human life, Watts writes of the eternity of God.  He is “from everlasting . . to endless years the same”.  Time is meaningless as far as God is concerned (Ps. 90. 4).  Not so with men and women whose allotted life span soon passes (Ps. 90. 10) and the years are gone.  This is the thought expressed in the fifth stanza of the hymn where the “sons” referred to are not our sons but the sons of time, the days and weeks and years of the past.  It is these that are forgotten and pass into history as new events and new tasks demand our attention.

            It was about 1714 that this hymn was written, a time when Britain was facing a political crisis over the question of the Protestant succession as Queen Anne approached death.  Watts wrote to allay the fears and forebodings of many people.  From the very beginning there is a strong affirmation of faith in the eternal God and his sufficiency in every time of need.  The words of the hymn point us away from ourselves to fix our confidence and attention on God who is able to take care of all our fears.  Just as he has provided help for us in the past, whether as individuals or as a nation, so we can depend on his unfailing goodness to enable us to face the perils of the future.  The help we have already received is a pledge that he will not fail us in the years to come.  He is faithful and dependable.

            And, finally, God is our home, our spiritual home.  Without him we are aimless wanderers with “no abiding place”.  In him, and in him alone, we rest secure. 

FUN EVENING

The Variety Show and dinner came off with flying colours on Saturday night.  Special thanks to organizers, Diane and Darlene, to the kitchen staff and the serving staff, and all the other helpers.  You did us proud.  Comments on the food were all positive, even somewhat surprised. :-)  Visitors hadn't expected such high quality.

     This was a new venture for our congregation, inviting community based acts to come and share their talent with us.  We are most grateful to Tricky Magic, the Craig Henderson Trio, Tristan Thompson and the Canadian College of the Performing Arts as well as surprise guest, Art Pruce for donating their time and talent.  Michael Denton was emcee extraordinaire!  Of course, it was all in a good cause and raised $2000.00 for the mission trip to the Dominican Republic.  Well done everyone, and thanks to our friends and neighbours for their support.



    If you missed the Variety Show, here is a list of other fund-raising events you might like to attend.  

Silent Auction

    On Nov. 22, at Friendship Community Church 7820 C. Saanich Rd.
    There is still time to donate something.  Use your imagination.  I know our own Bill Richer has donated a framed, original drawing.  There are golf lessons on offer and lots of "treasure" baskets.  If you've nothing to put in the auction, you can always be a buyer!  Come and enjoy what promises to be a fun evening, and you just might find that perfect gift.

Bake Sale

   On December 14, after service, the Sunday School is running a bake sale.  Proceeds go to the mission fund and goodies go into your larder.

Bottle Drive

  We will continue to have our bin in the Narthex for refundables to be dropped off. Thanks!
We will hold another community bottle drive on the first Saturday after the Christmas and New Year’s celebrations! We are thinking that people will be happy to unload their refundables after lots of company and celebrating!. We can use helpers for this in the areas of sorting, driving to collect, making coffee and hot chocolate for those working, and light lunch to keep us going.  Truly committed bottle drivers are out scouring the ditches too.

Bridge Luncheon

   In February we'll host a Bridge Luncheon.  This popular card game never goes out of favour so buy your tickets early to ensure your place at the table.  Or get together some friends and make up a foursome.

   Lots of opportunity to support youth initiative and to have fun at the same time. 

CONTEXT

        Every time I walk into SPPC these days, I'm surprised by bags of pop cans and a few cases of empty wine bottles.

 Of course, I know the empties are part of our fund-raising efforts for the mission to Dominican Republic, but what would a stranger think?  SPPC knows how to party?  SPPC needs better janitorial services?
   I've also chuckled this week at my middle-class friend scouring the ditches for empty bottles.  Again, I know what she's up to but would her other acquaintances think she'd fallen on desperate times?  Should someone buy her a bag of groceries?

       For the past several weeks I've listened as the men of the Victoria Choral Society practiced a piece of music, out of context.
     "The Piper," composed by Tobin Stokes of Victoria,commemorates a tragic story from World War I.   A young piper, Jimmy Richardson, of the Canadian Scottish Regiment, played his pipes in full view of the enemy when his battalion's advance was stalled by a dense, barbed wire entanglement at the Battle of Ancre Heights in France. Encouraged by his example, the Battalion forced its way through the wire and made it to the their objective. 

Piper James Cleland Richardson

       Richardson also acted as a stretcher bearer.  After saving a wounded comrade, he returned to the field to recover his pipes. It was the last anyone saw of him.  Jimmy Richardson  disappeared into the mists of battle.  He was awarded the Victoria Cross, posthumously for "conspicuous bravery."
     It was believed his bagpipes had been lost in the mud but in 2002 they were found in Scotland. A British Army chaplain had found them and brought them home where they remained on display in a school where he taught.  The pipes were then returned to the Canadian Scottish Regiment (Princess Mary's).

     When I heard the men's chorus practice their part of Stokes' composition, the music was pleasant enough, but it had no meaning.  Now, I've been to the concert, and realized their part is wonderful, beautiful and  critical to the entire composition.  The men's chorus, the bagpiper, the timpanist -- they all played their individual parts but only the composer knew the whole.  Each musician had to play his part and trust the one who wrote it.

    Last week our nation witnessed tragic and senseless deaths in Ottawa and Quebec.  The news from Syria and N. Iraq tells of terrible persecution of Christians and others.  Ebola ravishes populations in West Africa.  We cry out our anguish and our sorrow.  We ask why?
     We can only trust  the Great Composer.  He alone knows the whole, he alone can weave our disparate parts into something beautiful and worthy and holy.

1 Cor. 13-12 For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.

  

It is the dream of some of the young people in our church to go on a mission trip before they finish high school. The teens have selected to go to the Dominican Republic to help build housing and to meet and spend some time with the children in the community. We will also have a nurse travelling with us who will be practicing her gift of nursing in the mission hospital.

As an organizing committee for this event, we see "The Variety Show" as an opportunity for members of our community to support these young people. Equally important to us, we see it as a great opportunity for people to come into our building, enjoy some fresh local talent and have a great time.

Details:

Saturday, November 1, Dinner at 5pm, Show at 7pm

Saanich Peninsula Presbyterian Church
9296 East Saanich Road • North Saanich BC • V8L 1H8

(On the road to the Victoria International Airport, South-East of the traffic circle)

Dinner: Beef dip/pulled pork sandwiches with salads and an ice cream sundae bar.

Tickets: $25.00 for dinner and show. $15.00 for show only

 

    We have some exciting acts lined up for the Variety Show, including Tristan Thompson, a 16 year old Victoria boy who is already making a name for himself.  Even as a toddler, he admired Michael Jackson and ended up becoming a Michael Jackson impersonator, busking in downtown Victoria.  He drew such a crowd, the police had to move them along for blocking the street.  

   After a live performance at a family friend’s wedding and a few performances at various local charity events such as "The Autism Walk" and the "Lac-Megantic" fundraiser, Tristan was featured on the local “Go Island” TV show.

   Soon after, Tristan released a YouTube video for his Swedish House Mafia cover “Don’tYou Worry Child” and thousands of views started pouring in. Chatter Records released Tristan’s debut L.P. album “Here For You” in 2014. His first single “Tidal Wave” has taken radio by storm, with over 100 radio stations playing it in Canada, New Zealand and the Philippines. Tristan is currently on tour with TeenFest Canada in British Columbia.

The Craig Henderson Trio is a Victoria, BC, based band that has been playing together for the past 5 years at various locations, including the popular Sidney Summer Market. The band consists of 20 year-old Craig Henderson on the piano and vocals, along with his Tony father Gordon Henderson on guitar and Bill Kent on the bass.

Heavily inspired by the likes of Dean Martin, Frank Sinatra, Tony Bennett, and many other vocalists of this genre. They are best described as a throwback to the popular music of the 1940′s and 50′s interpreted in their unique style, which is suitable for both listening and dancing.

Other entertainers on the bill include:
Tricky Magic,

Canadian College of Performing Arts

Michael Denton, former organist at SPPC will be the emcee for the evening.  

  

     The Variety Show is something new for SPPC and organizers hope it's a sell-out.  After all, it's for a worthy cause and features great talent.  What's to stop us?

     For more information on the mission trip, fund-raising opportunities, or to buy tickets, contact Darlene, 250 516-0563, or Diane, 250 886-0989.

    

The Case for Christ

  For the last two weeks, the Wednesday morning Bible Study group has done inductive studies of The Sheep and the Goats, Matt.25:31-46, and The Gift of Love, 1 Cor. 13.  Both are very familiar passages and it's easy to think they've nothing new to tell us, yet by applying the inductive method, we discovered surprising insights, especially the echoes of Revelation, which we studied last term.
Coming up we will follow a study based on the book by Lee Strobel, The Case for Christ.  This is an interactive study using video clips followed by small group discussion and large group discussion sessions.
 
    Lee Strobel is an unlikely Biblical scholar, considering that he was an atheist who set out to disprove the "myth" of Jesus Christ.  Along the way, he became convinced that Jesus was no myth.  His book documents his own journey from disbelief to belief, from doubt to conviction.
    Strobel approached his subject like the newspaper man that he is, asking hard-nosed questions are insisting on verifiable answers.  He found them, both in Biblical references and from other ancient writings and artifacts.  If you've every been challenged to defend Jesus as a real person and the miracle of His resurrection as a real event, this course is for you.
    There are six sessions covering, "Looking for Evidence, "Eyewitness Evidence," "Corroborative Evidence," "Fingerprint Evidence," Evidence for the Resurrection," "Reaching your Verdict."  The study is open to all, and takes place at SPPC, Wednesdays at 9:30 am.
    Mr. Strobel's book, The Case for Christ, will be available for sale, but it is not necessary to the course.

Purpose

 

by Alice Valdal



 For the past several weeks I've devoted all my energies to hosting a family reunion.  I prepared breakfasts and dinners ahead of time, loading my refrigerator and my freezer.   I filled the cookie jars.  I vacuumed in forgotten corners.  Made up beds that hadn't been used in a long time.  Laid in extra supplies. Planned outings.  Made reservations.  Arranged airport pick-ups and drop-offs.  There were lists on every flat surface, and then lists of the lists.  There were hours of lying awake at night, reviewing my plans.
    Once everyone had arrived, I fussed about the weather -- as though my fussing would change anything :-) -- confirmed arrangements, added another leaf to the table, laid out all my dishes and cutlery, even borrowed a few, all to ensure my family had four days of good times in each other's company.
     Now, everyone has gone home and I'm wandering about wondering what to do with myself.  I've lost my purpose.  I pick up a book and set it back on the shelf.  I stare at the garden and don't know whether to weed it or pull it out.  I look at my desk and turn away from the work awaiting me there.  For the moment, I have no focus, no direction. Although the visit was a mountain top experience, I live my life on the plains of day-to-day.
    
    Thankfully, I have touchstones for my days, a calendar with events and deadlines and projects written down, a path to lead me back to the routine of life, a compass to put me back on course. Choir practice beckons.  Bible study begins.  My gratitude journal lies open, reminding me to give thanks in all things.  Did you see the lovely pink clouds in Friday's sunrise?  

    At church, too, we can get so caught up in our projects, our passions, our busyness -- all good things -- that we are distracted from the purpose behind it all, the heart of our faith.  
   On Sunday, SPPC celebrated world-wide communion, our touchstone, a reminder of why we devote time, talent and treasure to the church, the bride of Christ.        
   Because Christ loved us first, because He gave His life for us, because our chief end is to "glorify God and enjoy Him forever," we spend time at His table, we share communion with each other and with the great company of saints who have gone before.         Grounded in faith, in the love of Christ and fellowship with each other, we are strengthened and renewed, ready once more to pick up the everyday tasks of Christian living.