Wavin' those Palms

Here's the March edition of the Chaplain's Corner

by Pastor Dave, SCYL Chaplain (who is enjoying learning to ski)

Palm Sunday and the Easter Season are all about joy. Although, Palm Sunday is the prelude to Good Friday, the blackest day in human history, it is also a step toward Easter Sunday, the happiest day in human history. On Palm Sunday, the people of Jerusalem joyously welcomed Jesus into their city with singing and waving palm branches. It is a day of joy, as we reflect on Christ’s entry into our lives and the liberation, love, and joy He brings to us all.

Wherever we find love, there we find Jesus. And wherever, whenever, we find Jesus, we welcome Him as joyously as those ancient Jews who threw palm branches in front of Him, singing songs. Anywhere. It doesn’t have to be in a church. Wherever we are touched by love, or where we touch others by love, we are in a holy place; we are on sacred ground; we are in a temple. And wherever that is, we welcome Jesus with joy.

I would like to share a short story with you about a Palm Sunday experience I recently had. Just last Friday I went to a jazz club to hear a blues musician. I was enjoying his smooth blues immensely. Then something miraculous happened. He sang a song about going down to the water to wash away his burden, wash away his sin. I was now in a church. The song went on, “Saw my shadow in the water looking back at me. He said come on in the water’s fine, you know the truth will set you free.” I was filled with the joy of his music and the spirituality of his lyrics. In another song he sang, “The days have come and gone, only love will live on.” The song went on, “In this life I have sown seeds of love—how they have grown.” This from a blues musician in a nightclub. We brought him out for an encore. And his last song went like this, “There is a light shining in me and the same light is in you, let it shine, let it shine, let it shine.” His music brought a triumphal entrance of Jesus into the club, and I wished I had a palm branch to throw onto the stage. I left the club that night with the feeling that I had had a profound spiritual experience in Lester’s music and his spiritual soul. Talk about soul music!

That is the meaning of Palm Sunday. That is the Joy of Easter. The risen and glorified Jesus Christ is with us everywhere. Let us welcome His coming into our lives with the joy He always brings.

SCYL Canada and Activities Officer

by Jake

Hi, I’m Jake
I’m the SCYL Canada / Activities Officer. I live in Waterloo, Ontario and I go to the Church of the Good Shepherd. I’m in grade 11 and I have a job at a local Zehrs in the produce department. I play rugby and run cross-country for my school. I also enjoy making films.

Favourite cereal? Cap'n Crunch.

Best reason to skip school this year? So that I didn't have to go to an assembly.

Crunchy, smooth or flaky? If I had to choose, I prefer smooth. Like me.

I look forward to seeing you all at convention, and meeting the people I missed this year at Almont!

SCYL Officer Bio

I have asked each SCYL Officer (as well as the League Chaplain and myself) to write a brief bio to post. I'll put one up each week. That way you'll know a bit more about the leaders of the SCYL.
I asked each person to answer three rather random questions as part of their bio.
1. Favorite breakfast cereal?
2. Best reason you skipped school in the last year?
3. If you must choose, do you prefer crunchy, smooth or flaky?

Stranded in Stratford!

In continuation of the story of our Kitchener Retreat, the three vehicles filled with teens and leaders from the States left Kitchener, Ontario Canada around 1 pm on Sunday afternoon. It sleeted and snowed the night before and the bitterly cold wind was whipping. We had some serious deicing to perform on the cars; however, the sky was clear and the roads were slick, but manageable. We merged on to the 401 (the only major highway across Southern Ontario) and began our journey home. A couple of miles on the 401, the traffic backed up and came to a stop. We faced a huge bottleneck, as far as the eye could see. A few miles later (30 minutes or so), all traffic was directed off of the 401. Highway closed! I had to catch my plane home to Maine in a couple of hours in Detroit and I soon realized that that wasn't going to happen. I called for alternate directions and discovered Route 8, a smaller 2 lane road running parallel to the 401. This road led for about 20 miles to the town of Stratford, Ontario. The wind was growing stronger and the temperature was dropping. Unexpected wind-blown snow hit us frequently causing visibility to drop to zero. Facing near whiteout conditions here in Stratford we tentatively pressed on. Then we hit an impasse. We discovered that all roads south and west out of Stratford were closed due to blinding and drifting snow. We learned that even the plow trucks were not allowed travel and clear the roads. We stopped at a Tim Horton's and met up with the other two cars. Our options were very limited. Make the difficult and risky drive back to Kitchener or stay in Stratford. We decided that we should stay in Stratford and wait to see if conditions improved. I figured that others stranded here would be quickly snatching up available rooms so I thought we should secure overnight accommodations. A wonderful lady at Tim Horton's recommended we consider staying across the street at the Queen's Inn. I went to the hotel to check on room availability. When I returned to Tim Horton's I found that Lisa's had lost her gloves and car keys and Rev Jenn had jumped her car over a snow-hidden parking block. We helped Lisa find her keys (we found the keys but I don't think the gloves were ever found) then we all pushed Jenn's car back over the parking block. What a sight to see more than a dozen people pushing the front of a car in the blinding wind and snow. Amazingly, we succeeded in freeing Jenn's stuck car. Then we 12 teens and 4 adults trekked across the street over to the Queen's Inn. The 16 of us safely arrived at the hotel with only a minor cut on Audrey's hand from the car pushing episode. A second lady (angel) at the Queen's Inn really helped by providing us a large private meeting room with Internet service, board games and a pool table. She also held 4 rooms for us at a discounted price (after I explained our circumstances), including a suite for the boys, with extra cots so everyone had a bed. Once we went online and read the Internet traffic and weather reports we realized that we truly were stranded for the night. We settled in and enjoyed the pool table, games and computer that the inn had provided for us. But we were all hungry and in need of a hot shower (we had been staying at the church for the weekend with no available shower). So we moved over to the hotel restaurant (Boar's Head Pub) for dinner. We took an entire section of the pub over and joined the other stranded travelers dining there. The food was quite good and I felt comfortable, warm and happy in the hotel. Despite our circumstances, I was blessed with excellent adult company. The three leaders, Jenn, Lisa and Lori were terrific and their upbeat conversation and remarkable flexibility inspired me. The teens also responded wonderfully to our situation and demonstrated great patience, attitude and understanding. I couldn't ask to be stuck with a better group! The temperature outside dropped below zero Fahrenheit and the wind howled, but we were safe and secure. We retired to our rooms for showers and a restful evening after the long day conducting the church worship service, traversing challenging roads and encountering unforeseeable excitement.

The following morning, we woke at dawn to much improved weather and road conditions. We said our goodbyes to our friends in the other cars and departed early in the morning. We traveled several miles of icy roads and encountered the occasional encroaching snow drift before we hit clear roads. Once we merged back onto the 401, the sky was blue and the roads were dry. I made it to Detroit Metro airport for my rescheduled flight home to Maine on Monday afternoon with plenty of time.

I'd like to thank leaders, Rev. Jenn, Lisa and Lori for their assistance, outstanding leadership, good judgment and positive spirit. I'd also like to thank all the teens for being so cooperative, patient and good natured throughout the whole ordeal. Most of all, I thank God for looking over us, sending angels when we needed them and making sure that everyone remained safe for the entire adventure.

The Great White North certainly lived up to it's name. I can't wait for my next trip to Kitchener!

Kitchener Church Retreat

Wow. What a weekend. The Church of the Good Shepherd February 8 - 10 weekend retreat was so much fun and so full of adventure and excitement. We began Friday night, with travelers from Indiana, Ohio, Michigan and me, from Maine, descending on Kitchener, Ontario, Canada. Three vehicles filled with Swedenborgian teens all coming together to create a worship experience with youth members from the Church of the Good Shepherd. All of the out of town travelers arrived late Friday night, weary from the long trip. After greeting our friends in Kitchener/Waterloo and taking a quick tour of the church, we blew up the mattresses and settled into our bags for the night. We woke Saturday morning to the wonderful smell of Lorraine's fresh coffee. After a quick breakfast we started in on the worship service planning. We had 24 hours to pull together a Sunday worship service for the Church of the Good Shepherd congregation pretty much starting from scratch. We did have a topic to work with. The stewardship month theme was "Becoming the gift you are". We spent the morning brainstorming ideas and decided our service would involve a series of contemporary skits about temptation adapted from associated Bible stories (The Forbidden Fruit, Satan's Temptation of Jesus, Satan's Test of Job, etc) . We also decided that we would perform the entire service in reverse order, from the Postlude to the Prelude, including a "welcome Benediction", "closing Invocation" along with opening the Word and lighting the candles at the end of the service. All of this "reverse order worship" done to reflect the concept that the real service (a useful charitable life) starts after Sunday worship has ended. We even got the congregation involved by having them color pictures to a reading from Revelation. After much planning, preparation and rehersing, we were finally ready to deliver the service. The teens did a great job and the entire worship experience was heartfelt, playful and inspiring. Everyone worked very hard on the service and I am very proud of all of the youth for their attention, care and understanding. I'm also glad we got a chance to play some games, including a round of Sardines late Saturday night. More about the Sardines games later. All of the people from the States (12 teens and 4 adults) left Kitchener early Sunday afternoon to return home. That's when the story really gets interesting...to be continued...

The Newlywed Game

Okay, this is my last post about Winter Retreat. I've got lots of good stories from the Kitchener retreat. But first, one more Winter Retreat story.

After 14 hours driving home at the end of the van ride home from the Almont Winter Retreat, I can get a bit tired. We had just dropped Bill off at the train station and I was on the way up to Maine with the remaining teens from New England. I came up with the idea that we play a verbal version of "The Newlywed Game" with Nina and Holly (no they aren't getting married, but are close friends who have known each other for most of their lives). I would ask one of them a question and when that person thought of the answer they would say, "Okay, I'm ready" (you could also write the answer down). Then the other person would say their answer out loud.
If the two answers matched, they got a point for being correct. If not, no point. Questions ranged from which direction Nina's bedroom window faced, to would you rather legally shoot a deer or illegally steal a car.

Nina and Holly, if I remember correctly got 7 out of 10 correct. But the funniest part of the game and best question was this. There are two identical guys that you are thinking about marrying. They are perfect for you in every way, with one small issue. One guy always wears a headband. Everywhere he goes, all the time (although the headband can change in color, style etc.). The other guy always wears one glove. Never two. Everywhere he goes, all the time (although the glove can change in color, style etc.). Nina got so excited over this question that she blurted out, "I want one glove guy!", even though she was supposed to keep her answer to herself until Holly chose. Immediately, all the other girls in the van said, "No way. Headband guy is the one". It was quite funny. And just so you know Nina, other women who we have posed this question to that we deeply respect also selected one glove guy with the same comment that I think you made. He can always put one hand in his pocket.

Okay, all you ladies. Which guy would you choose?

Finding God

Here's the February edition of the Chaplain's Corner

by Pastor Dave, SCYL Chaplain

For so many of us, belief in God is a given. We have been coming to church so long, and have come to terms with belief in God so long ago that it isn’t even something we think about. We may be more interested in theologies about other matters of faith and life.

But for some people, God is still a question. There are people who will ask us, “Do you believe in God?” It may be hard for us to remember what it is like to wonder about God’s existence. It may be hard for us to understand the place others are in when they ask us, “Do you believe in God?”

Jesus says, “If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear.” That line strikes me as exactly what believing in God is like. The very fact that people can question whether there is a God or not, indicates that God isn’t obvious to everyone. We can’t perceive God with any of our five senses. We can’t see God; we can’t hear God; we can’t smell God; we can’t taste God; and we can’t touch God. A friend of mine who is an atheist once even used an earthy metaphor to deny God’s existence. And I think that his choice of metaphors reflects not only disbelief but contempt. He told me that if there were a God he’d leave some evidence behind like this guy’s father did after using the toilet. For Ken, if there were a God, we’d smell Him.

“If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear.” It was impossible for me to convince Ken just how often I have seen God’s workings, how much the world is full of evidence for God. For those who believe in God, for those who have ears to hear, we find God everywhere we look. Countless little things appear before us that show us God’s existence and His loving presence. But in order for one to see evidence for God, one has to start with the assumption that God is there. We need to begin with the belief that there is a God, then as we look around us and reflect on events in our lives, God appears to us in countless ways. The evidence mounts. More and more evidence for God appears to us. So much so that we find it hard to imagine that everyone can’t see God.

But such a vision of God is only available to those who have ears to hear. Such a vision of God is not available to a person who begins by saying, “I don’t believe that there is a God—let Him convince me otherwise.” Beginning with a conviction of disbelief, everything can be explained in other terms than God. .

“Whatever is hidden is meant to be disclosed, and whatever is concealed is meant to be brought out into the open.” That hidden God which some people seem never to find, is disclosed to those who begin with the assumption that He exists. Then, from being hidden, God discloses Himself more and more to the seeker. What was concealed is brought into the open. And we come to the point where disbelief is unimaginable.