Catching Up

It has been a busy time in our house over the last few days.

My Mum and Dad were visiting with us from England for three weeks, during which time I took a week's holiday, and spent as much other time with them as work would allow. My Dad's health is not good; he has Parkinson's Disease and it is running its course, slowly but steadily. Still, we were able to get out and do a few things while they were here; we went to the Muttart Conservatory and Hawrelak Park, to Whitemud Ravine and the Royal Alberta Museum; we did a trip to Elk Island National Park, and a couple of days before they left we took in the opening weekend of Fort Edmonton Park. It seemed that while they were here our house was full of people; Mum and Dad were staying with us, of course, and then our young adult kids were always dropping in and out, and we were glad to have our son Matt and his wife Cynthia come down from Valleyview for a couple of days as well. Now the house seems empty and quiet!

Mum and Dad left Wednesday; the next day we had an early morning Bible Study, after which I spent the morning at my desk. In the afternoon I had a meeting of the group that advises the bishop at the synod office downtown, and then I drove straight out to one of the rural parishes in our diocese to help a group of parishioners come to grips with the end of Christendom and the issues it raises around mission and evangelism. The presenting problem, of course, was 'our church is small and we need new members so we can be financially viable', but as the evening went on it was great to see the feeling changing to 'We have a wonderful message of the love of Christ to share with the people in our community, if we could only find an effective way of doing it'. That won't be the end of that conversation.

I spent most of Friday at my desk preparing for Sunday services, and then in the evening shared a gig with my friend Jodi Penner at the Bogani Café, just round the corner from where Marci and I live. A good number of friends came out to hear us which was very encouraging. The next morning we got up to find it raining and later in the morning the rain turned to snow. Nonetheless my administrative assistant and I drove out to Leduc for an information morning we were running ('we' being our 'deanery', the local grouping of churches to which we belong) regarding the upcoming General Synod of the Anglican Church of Canada. Marci and I did a bit of running around in the afternoon, and in the evening stayed in, vegged out in front of the TV and watched an episode of 'Lark Rise to Candleford'.

Today, of course, we had services at St. Margaret's in the morning, and we skyped with our daughter Jacqui early in the afternoon, after which we went out for the first coffee date we've had with just the two of us since about May 4th! And tonight I got to go up to the YEGlive open stage and hear some good music, especially from my good friends Carrie Hryniw and Rob Heath.

So that's what I've been up to for the last few days!