The office is two doors north from where the Church building once stood ... worship services are happening weekly at St Alphonsus Roman Catholic Church ... Bible Study is meeting in the town Library ... Choir is practising at the Covenant Church ... Confirmation classes will happen at the bowling alley ... UCW and AOTS will meet wherever they chose month to month ... and Sunday School will hold special gatherings periodically ...
We're rolling with the challenges of being temporarily homeless ...
The Board has sent out the survey forms and they are trickling back, but with them come conversations about what COULD be ... geo-thermal heat ... pews or chairs ... community groups sharing our space ... good accoustics (this is one item on which we seem to agree) ...
Donations are coming in. From the five dollars sent by a young person in Winnipeg to the sizable memorial donations for a parent or grand parent who called our congregation home - each one is recieved with gratitude and appreciation.
The journey will not be easy ... it will not be short ... it will be a challenge. But it is a challenge that the good folks of Minnedosa (both in the Church and outside) will undertake and accomplish.
Highlights of the last couple of days include an email from former Moderator of the UCC Walter Farquharson, a phone call from current Moderator Peter Short, a concert by Tom Jackson and others in Brandon in support of Samaritan House Ministries (Mag and I were given free tickets to attend as a way of Samaritan House saying thank you for the support we in Minnedosa offer them in their work - it's thank you that goes both ways ...) and the ongoing conversations about what it means to be a Church without a building.
There aren't any major announcements to be made, and there are no significant accomplishments to note ... we're settling into the mundane, and right now that's okay. The big steps will come, but right now is a time to pause, to catch our breath, to take stock of our losses and our gains, and to get ready for the work of raising spirits, money and enthusiasm to build the building we will call home.
In the coming weeks we will eat and eat and eat ... tomorrow the Anglican Parishes in and around Minnedosa are holding a potluck supper in support of us as a church ... and in the coming weeks we will hold the AOTS Spring Pancake Supper and the Spring Smorg, then the following weekend (as April begins) we will hold the Minnedosa Grain Growers Annual Banquet in support of the Canadian Food Grains Bank ... Even without a building our meals and our fellowship and our support of causes beyond our town continues ... AND that is Good, because that is the proof of the resurrection.
In the face of tragedy, we continue to put on foot in front of the other and we continue to live and dream and offer our ministry ... We may not have a building - but we are still a Church, and for today, that is more then enough ...
L'chaim,
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