First I got real sad because of all the things that are wrong in this world.
Then I remembered how amazing God is, as demonstrated by His creation.
When I see pictures like this I remember that there is a lot more that is right with the world than is wrong with the world. God is holding all things together. And He asks us to help our neighbors.
Your thoughts?
World Changers
Our friends let us use their cabin for three days between Christmas and New Years. The power and water was disconnected. You had to walk around outside to get internet, and it was cold out there. It felt like camping.
The girls brought a book that was written in 1910. They read this in front of the fire in the evenings.
Roasting meat in the fireplace for supper.
Bella sketches while holding a candle.
Three generations of pastors all attending the same church.
Pastor Dave and Fran planted City Life Church in 1961, the year I (Rick Bergen) was born.
Pastor Dave and Fran retired about 20 years ago and passed the leadership of City Life Church over to Pastor Lorne and Linda. Pastor Lorne and Linda passed the baton on to Pastor Justin and Heidi. The two retired pastoral couples still attend City Life Church. Do you know of any other church like this? It’s very cool.
In 1986 Pastor Dave got invited to be the guest speaker at a camp meeting 2,000 miles North, in a small Yukon town called Haines Junction. He invited his usher Harold Hansen to come along.
I was plowing snow for the winter in a mountain camp by the Alaska border. I drove 65 miles over icy roads to attend the Easter Camp Meeting. I usually slept in the front of my 1/2 ton pickup truck when I travelled in those years, and this camp meeting was several days long. At one of these meetings Harold told me about Christ For the Nations Bible School in Texas.
Later that same year, 1986, I quit my road maintenance job with the government to study in Texas for two years.
In 1991 I married Harold and Joan’s daughter, Deanna.
In 1993 Pastor Dave and the team at City Life Church sent Deanna and I to be full-time missionaries in Brazil. Luke Huber, who invited us to Brazil, died in a tragic accident nine months after we arrived. This led to us starting the Vineyard in Brazil and the Xingu Mission.
“It’s a dangerous business, Frodo, going out your door. You step onto the road, and if you don’t keep your feet, there’s no knowing where you might be swept off to” (J.R.R. Tolkien).
Pastor’s Lorne and Pastor Justin (and many, many other pastors) have led teams to come and encourage us in the Amazon, and through the transitions and decades they remain a supportive and committed church family.
I am always grateful that Pastor Dave and Harold Hansen followed God’s leading to that camp meeting way up in the Yukon, back in 1986. We get where we are because other people obeyed God even when they have no idea about the outcomes of their obedience.
God is so awesome!
Does this Chilliwack sunset make you want to know God better?
Mount Cheam, in Chilliwack.
My cousin married our Grade 9 math teacher’s daughter. That girl, Jean, took the photos for this book that we gave Dad and Mom for Christmas.
Sunrise from our window in Abbotsford.
The Bergen Family Christmas party. What an awesome family!
Relaxing by painting together on Christmas evening.
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If you come to visit us, and if you like hot food, I will make a batch of these baked beans. Here is how I cook them, and how you can make them where you are too. Note: I use our pizza oven, but I think this recipe will work with a slow cooker too.
1. Wash a kilo of black beans, and pull out all the not-good ones, and check for little rocks and pull them out too.
2. Add a package of chili peppers, hot paprika, and half a package of pepper corns.
3. Look in the cupboard to see what else you have, and add a generous amount.
4. Add sausage or bacon.
5. Mix it all up and add water.
6. Let it bake by the fire all day, about eight hours or so. Add more water every couple of hours, when you add more firewood. Near the end of the day, do a taste check for salt. It is kind of hard to predict how much will come out of the bacon or sausage, so if it needs a bit more you can add it near the last hours of cooking.
7. For supper, you can have a bowl of the best baked beans you have ever tasted.
8. The next morning you can have refried beans, fried tomatos, and fried eggs. It’s a meal that will keep you going all the way till lunch time.
