Gander, NL - Week 3 draws to a close

What a Wednesday!

Good day - good day of food as well... Have I mentioned that I *heart* food?

Lunch (I think it may be called dinner here actually)...

I answered a call in the morning with, I must admit, a voice on the other end that I didn't recognize at first. But I was thrilled when I realized it was my good buddies - and the newly commissioned lieutenants - Brent & Melissa. They were coming to Gander for some errands so were calling to see if I wanted to meet up for lunch. Though the buffet at Pizza Delight was quite tasty, it was the company that was "wunderbar"! So lovely to catch up, and it brought back many happy memories from my first year of training college, and particularly of our adventures when we went on an adventure / specialling weekend to Yorkton, SK.

Over lunch, we laughed so hard my cheeks were hurting (mostly at my expense of course). But it was also just exciting to see how quickly this talented couple are fully engaged in their ministry, in their community, with their corps people. It offers me much hope for the future and what is to come. In fact, if there were a soundtrack to this update, it would likely be, "God of this City" with the lyrics, "And greater things have yet to come and greater things are still to be done in this city" (or more likely replace the word city with town, village, or hamlet,... the planner in me will never die, lol;)!

Supper

The lovely Home League ladies of the Gander Corps hosted a 'Welcome to Cadet Joyce' potluck supper in the evening, which I must confess was my very first Home League meeting! The food - of course - was tasty, tasty and I enjoyed some classic Newfie grub (with leftovers that I got to take home as the honoured guest:). Though I love food, I love people more - and let me tell you, these women were lovely - they made me feel totally at ease, at home, and most welcome. I gave a short devotional about a wonderful memory with Nanny & Louise where we danced around the record player table to the song, "Don't worry be happy!" Still makes me smile to think about... We also played a couple of games, including a 'name that songbook song' that I completely bombed at in the most impressive way - 0 out of 20 I think was my score. If that was a cadet test, I decided to fail in real style.

Figuring out Fridays

Remember that '25' list that went around facebook a couple of years ago? You had to list 25 things that people may not know about you. In that list, I confessed that sometimes when living in Goderich, on rare occasions, I would hide out in my house - ignore the phone, dim the lights and pretend no one was home. I just needed to crash - to be quiet, to not talk, to have a break from people. Because of the nature of my work, I would just get tired being in constant communication and need to decompress for a couple of hours - to totally separate from the world. Well, reflecting back, I have discovered that as far as days of the week go, Friday evenings seem to be that for me - my hiding out time.

And my epiphany this past Friday night is that it is the "perfectionist, control-freak, unrealistic expectations yet procrastinator tendencies" in me that surface as I realize another week has passed and I have accomplished much less than what I had hoped for. I beat myself up a bit, give myself a serious pep talk about whatever I didn't get done that I should've, and make promises about doing better in the week to come. On the weeks where this happens, the feelings usually creep in mid-evening, and by the time I wake up in the morning, I am over it. Still, I wouldn't mind changing that particular pattern - perhaps I should get dragged out Friday night, change the norm, switch things up? Any takers?

Thankfully this Friday was a fleeting moment of being melancholy and it helps that the epiphany occurred at all, as that usually represents the beginning of a change within me. You see, earlier in the evening, I attended a wedding rehearsal - and anybody's wedding - even those of a perfect stranger, I find you can't help but feel the love (if we are honest, love is not typically the only emotion present during pre-wedding jitters time, but it is still the prevalent one)! I also was able to chat to one of my very good pals about her wedding later on this summer that I get to assist with officiating. And I realized it is "all good" - people are still falling in love, the world is still turning even if I didn't get more done on my paper. It is all about perspective, and remembering that if God our Creator is willing to show us grace upon grace, perhaps we need to show ourselves a little bit of the same thing?

Two Sidebars: 1. Once commissioned/ordained, I think I will enjoy (a lot) being able to perform weddings, and 2. Well, I am having second thoughts about sharing the second thought...

Please Note: much to say about the *actual* weekend - my Saturday adventures with the Pinksen's and my first Sunday morning preach, but that will have to wait - as right now, my bed is calling my name...