Show Your Eagerness to Help!

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Last Tuesday, my eldest and I sorted and sifted through all the loose change Granddad had given her. The peanut container had become quite full and happily needed to be emptied. Usually we allow the girls to take the coins out for a visit to the bouncy castles, but this time there was a different purpose for emptying out the container. Instead of being spent on something the girls wanted, the coins would be placed into an egg bank- given to us by our church. The money collected is donated to missionaries all around the world and different organizations that will help support those in need. A cause that is important to us since both Jeremy and Renee have travelled to different places around the world to spread the gospel.

As the coins clanged together and the tin emptied out, Rachel asked about each one;

“Mommy, what is this one called?”

“That’s a penny, it’s a tiny coin and worth 1 cent.”

“What about this one?”

“That is a nickel, it’s worth 5 cents.”

“Whoa! That’s a lot and it’s shiny!”

“Honey, let’s take some of the pennies, nickels and dimes and put them into your egg bank for church to give to the boys and girls who don’t have food and warm blankets and sometimes they have no toys.”

Her eyes widened, “The boys and girls don’t have any toys, how come they don’t have any?” Her little voiced quivered as the thought of having no toys was obviously stressing her out.

“Because, sweetie, their Mommies and Daddies work very hard but there is no money for toys. Only money for food.”

I tried to explain using language a 4 year old would understand, how extremely blessed we are to have such things as warm blankets, and beds, food to eat, water to drink and of course toys to play with. As the coins were dropped into the slot of the egg, Rachel’s eye caught a new coin in the pile on the table.

“Mommy, look…what’s this one?” as she held it up with excitement

“That one is called a toonie and it is worth $2.00. Much more than a penny and a nickel.”

“Wow! $2.00! that’s way more. It’s a special coin!”

“Yes, it is”, I replied with a little laugh.

“Mommy, this coin is SO special. We need to put it in the egg. We need to give it so that the boys and girls can have food to eat.”

My heart swelled with pride but I wanted to be sure of her commitment; that she wouldn’t get upset about the coin after it was inside the egg. “Rachel, you have already put plenty of coins into your egg. It’s almost full. Are you sure you want to give that special coin away?”

“Yes, it’s special. I want to put it in the egg.”

In that very moment I was not only proud to be a mommy, but I was also humbled. Here I was trying to teach Rachel the value of giving. I had focused on giving away the coins that were of little value. The coins that were considered “loose change” and were taking up room in her coin container. And here Rachel was giving away the “most special” coin from her tin – the coin that actually possessed the most value and was worth something to her. It represented the admission cost of going to the bouncy castles. In this one teachable moment, my little girl taught me that you don’t just give- you give the VERY BEST!

Condolences

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Our sympathies go out to Anne Boyle, whose mother Renee Byrne passed away in England on April 9th 2012.

Our sympathies also go out to the family of Caroline “Carrie” Spencer (sister to Wally Mills) – Carrie passed away on Sunday.Visiting will be at McIntosh-Anderson-Kellam (MAK) on Tuesday and Wednesday 2-4pm and 7-9 p.m. The funeral will be Thursday at 11am at Emmanuel Baptist Church.

Please also pray for the family of Neil Verbeek, who also lost his sister Alice on Tuesday April 3, 2012.  Alice was in her 49th year.  Cremation has taken place and a private family service was held on April 7th 2012.

Peace Through Understanding by George Schnaider

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Background: George Schnaider endured a traumatic head injury from being hit by a car as a pedestrian that resulted in a three-week coma followed by life support for four weeks. The Lord has helped George battle back to health over these years in Oshawa at Calvary. George had a life transforming experience with the living Christ. While this is not a record of any official position of Calvary, George shares his story as a tribute to the glory of the living God.

One day when I was in church I felt a great force around me.  I was completely mesmerized by what I was feeling.  Incredible power; incredible love; amazingly strong and deep compassion; and a very strong gentleness.  I could not understand what I was feeling at first, but after several minutes I came to realize that I must be feeling the presence of God entering my body, and I was completely overwhelmed.

When I felt God’s presence that day in church, God allowed me to feel four aspects of His nature.  God allowed me to feel His love for me, His compassion, His gentleness and his power.  It took me years to find the words to describe the feeling of God’s presence.  Four of the aspects of God’s presence that I was feeling were very strong, but it really took me a very long time to understand the measure and the design of the things that God was allowing me to feel.  Then one day the words to describe the sensation of the power I was feeling came to me.  I could sense the power I was feeling could wipe out the universe in a second effortlessly.  Eventually I came to understand that I was not really feeling the strength of God’s power.  What I was feeling was the undeniability of God’s power to eliminate the universe just as easily as blinking an eye, and I know that this is the most unreal feeling that I will ever experience in my life.  God did not allow me to feel how powerful he is.  God let me know what His power can do, unquestionably and absolutely.  God did not let me feel his power at all.  God let me feel that His power is real and absolute.  God gave me knowledge and an understanding of His power.  To know without a doubt that God has the power to eliminate the universe with nothing more than a single thought, but to also understand how much and how deep God’s love is for me, and for everybody, and to also be allowed to feel how gentle God really is.

When God touched me with His gentleness I felt just like a baby being cradled in the hands of its mother, and that was the most incredible feeling that I have ever experienced.  It was like I was absolutely safe and completely at peace with everything.  I don’t know if I will ever get to experience that feeling again, but I thank God often for that experience.  It was a few moments I my life when I felt totally safe, and at peace with the world.  The feeling was extremely pleasant and I shall never forget that miraculous blessing given to me by God, to give me that assurance of His power and his love.

God helped me to understand that He really looks upon us as His babies.  God cradles and nourishes us as His babies.  God protects us like we are babies, and God loves us all like a mother loves her babies.  For God to reveal this to me, to open His heart to me on such a personal level has touched my heart very deeply and sometimes it makes me cry.  For years I could not find the words to give the experience of feeling God’s Spirit coming in to my heart the credit that it deserved.  But then one day when I was at work the words just came to me in my thoughts, out of nowhere.

I believe that God gave me the understanding that I needed so that I would finally be able to articulate my feelings and my understanding of that experience, because God knows that I have been trying to find the words for a long time, but I couldn’t.  I also believe that God chose that moment to give me that understanding because God knows that that was the right moment, the right time for me to receive it.  I am very happy and grateful to God for His decision to help me express the experience of the time that I felt God’s presence in such a real way that truly and accurately conveys the way I was feeling.

God also let me understand that there is a very deep maternal bond between us and Him, and that God will protect us like a mother would protect her children.  Not like a father, like a mother.  There is a difference.  A mother feels a stronger bond to her children than a father does, and a mother would protect her children more vigorously, and with more conviction than a father.

God also allowed me to understand that He will never allow the human race, His children, to be destroyed.  God will permit us to benefit from, or to suffer the consequences of our actions, our decisions, our comments and our thoughts, but the human race will continue to exist and flourish because that is what God wants.  God wants us to be happy, to be healthy, and to co-exist peacefully, but God also wants us to learn and to progress, and many times that must come through pain, suffering, sacrifice and commitment.  God has no desire to eliminate the universe.  God’s desire is to bring us all into His fold.  But if you reject God, if you deny God’s existence, then He cannot do this for you.  He will not do this for you and your soul will become the prisoner of death.

God has put my whole life in perspective.  I understand why things have happened to me in the past.  I understand why things are happening to me now.  I understand what to expect in the future.  I understand this world, and I understand my role in this world.  God has given me clarity and understanding, and God has removed a tremendous weight from my shoulders.

February 28, 2012 is the day that I experienced God in a way more real than I had before because that is the day that God gave me the understanding that I needed to properly deal with the evil and the wickedness in this world, and in my life.  God has given me peace and freedom through clarity and understanding – and evil no longer has power over me.

Bob Hooper

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Please be in prayer for Muriel Hooper and her children Rhonda and Scott in the passing of their dearly loved husband and father, Bob.  Bob passed away this morning, Wednesday March 28th.  There will be visitation Sunday, April 1st from 2-4 and 7-9 at McIntosh-Anderson-Kellam funeral home.  The funeral will be Monday, April 2nd at 1:00 p.m. here at Calvary with visitation from 12 noon until 1:00 p.m.

If you are able to help with sandwiches for the reception, please call me at the church office, 905.433.2960.