New Year's Eve thoughts

I deleted my last post, from a day or two ago. I was feeling a little down because I am beginning to feel the effects of what I've been doing. My "friends"...the unsaved ones, aren't too pleased with what I do and have been excluding me from invitations to things. It hurt at first and I was feeling sorry for myself. And then I was listening to a Last Words podcast and they talked briefly about the persecuted church. That puts it all entirely into perspective. We have it so easy here. We can evangelize with no threat of jail or death.

We persevere, knowing the cost...knowing that our cost is so much less than the cost for someone in say...Nepal, or China.

We just carry on because we love God and we love people.

Christmas Eve

After working a half day, the boss let us go early at 1:30PM. A foot of snow had fallen in the past 24 hours and it was still coming down. I was on foot as I like to enjoy walking in the snow when it's like this and I wasn't in any hurry. I had a couple of little errands to run on my way home. I stopped at the grocery store to buy a couple of things and when I was going through the check-out, the cashier rung up my order. I pulled out my unique fabric grocery bag for the bagger to use to put my groceries in and she thought that was a pretty cool thing. It folds up really small. This woman is in her early 40's and is not interested in the least in matters of faith. Her best friend is a Christian and has been "working on her" for many years. Anyways...she was examining this cool bag I have and knowing her sense of humour I asked her if she wanted to see a picture of my "Pride and Joy". Thinking I was going to show her a photo of our new rabbit she said sure! I opened up my wallet and pulled tbe Pride and Joy tract out. She laughed "Oh how cool is that". I started to put it back in my wallet and she said, "Can I see that again?". I said, "Actually, you can keep it. I have lots." I handed it to her and said "There's a gospel message on the back". She said, "Well, I'm not interested in that, but this is really cool". Anyways...I have faith that she will at least take a look at the back at some point and hopefully some seeds will be sown.

I continued on my way home and passed two teens busy shovelling out their parents' Chinese Food restaurant parking lot. I stopped and said "Hey guys...I just wanna wish you a Merry Christmas. Here's $50,000 in Santa bucks for each of you...don't spend it all in one place". They were a little suprised so I explained that the true meaning of Christmas is written on the back. They smiled and stopped what they were doing to take a look and as I was walking away, they were laughing back and forth to each other.

Happy Christmas! I wish you the peace and joy that Lord brings in the promise of salvation for all who repent and put their faith in Jesus Christ.

Tracting at the Book Dept.

Inspired by Mike Hatfield's post the other day about his tracting adventures, I decided to do the same. The plan was to travel into the city on Saturday and have lots of time to spend at the bookstore and the library. I loaded up on my assortment of tracts and we braved the weather for the 180KM return trip to the city. Well...it started to snow upon our arrival to the city and there was already a foot of snow on the ground to begin with. So...this hampered our plans a little as it meant we couldn't stay as long as originally planned.

So...instead of hitting the bookstore and library, I hit the book department in a large grocery store. My (unsaved) husband dropped me off to do the grocery shopping while he ran a few errands and I RACED through the store to get all the groceries so I'd have time to spend in the book aisle. In stealth mode, I placed appropriate tracts in assortments of books. MDB's in anything related to finances/economy, Celebrity IQ tests in books about famous people, Round Tuits in time management books, Athiest tests in the big Darwin coffee table books, All you ever needed to know about women tracts in finding the perfect mate, Smart cards in educational books, etc. Hubby and daughter arrived on the scene and fortunately, they love the book department so that bought me a bit more time. I made sure I got all the Dali Llama, Ekhart Tolle, Oprah Winfrey and Rick Warren books (I put Santa 50K bills in the Purpose Driven Christmas books. LOL) Actually, I think I tracted EVERY religious book they had on the shelves! Hubby asked what I was doing..."Tracting" I whispered. Shhhh. It was a blast. Of course, I was dodging clerks offering help which I find funny because when I do need assistance, no one is around of course!

Anyways...after I finished, we left and hubby says "What if someone buys a book and then comes back to the store to complain about the tract?". I assured him that it was very unlikely and even if it was, no one would know it was me...and it was not like I was committing a crime anyways. I wasn't stealing or vandalizing...I was giving God's message away for free. I explained that in the end, I'll have to answer to God for everything I do and I didn't think he'd be upset about following the Great Commission. :O) So, I got to witness a little to my hubby at the same time too, without being too blatant (He's sick of hearing about it...so I don't preach to him anymore...I just leave tracts and Ray Comfort's books lying around all over the place.)

You just never know what one little tract might do! Praise the Lord!

Being a Christian will cost you

Being a Christian means I must be obedient to God's Word. This mean doing things that will make the unsaved squirm. Since returning home from the Ambassador's Academy, I am different than I was. This causes me to pause and think...WAS I REALLY SAVED? Whether or not I was...I AM NOW! How do I know that? Because I think of HIM. He consumes my heart, my soul, my mind. I have finally repented and walked away from the OLD me. I am letting God change me every day! I crave to be with other people who are followers of Jesus. I look at every encounter with every human being as being an opportunity to share my faith. I crave knowledge. I study my bible. I am wallowing in evangelism books, blogs, videos. I may need to take up a second job to finance my tract purchasing. :O)

Will I be ridiculed for standing on a downtown street, handing out tracks and talking to people? YES. Will my unsaved-friends think I have lost my mind? YES. In fact, the phone rarely rings for me any more. My Christian friends pat me on the back and say way to go. I wish I had the guts. I wish I had the gift. I wish they could understand that I force myself to get out there and witness and every time I do...I just want to vomit! I wish they could understand that I don't have the gift. I am just being obedient. I wish they would join me. (or at least...help finance my tracts :OP...ok, I'm trying to lighten things up a bit) There is just me and Jesus out there on the street in my village or in a neighbouring town. If there were more Christians doing this, then I might have more credibility. Instead, I look like a nutcase. I'm not...I'm just born again and live knowing that there are so many who will not make it through the narrow gate. Jesus commissioned us to take the gospel to the world. I cannot be selfish and hide the light of Jesus within me...I must show it to all who will see.

After listening to Paul Washer's video message tonight on YouTube...the almost an hour long one where he is preaching at a Youth Conference in 2002, I was looking at response videos and came across this one.

What an amazing, insightful young person!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=19lGmRvReBs

My heart breaks....

Some of you know that my husband is unsaved. We were married in 1996 and I was not saved. Shortly after I became pregnant things changed in our marriage and I felt scared. It was almost like he became a different person. I really don't think I changed. When we were dating, we had similar goals and interests. We lived in separate towns while we dated, about 3 hours apart. I was very social and he seemed to like going out with my friends. He seemed to be fairly social, although somewhat shy and reserved, but seemed to have friends in his community. I have always been an active volunteer in my community and he seemed to be too. We had similar tastes in music (music has always been a very important part of my life). So, I thought we were well-matched.

When we got married, I quit my job and moved into his home. My cat that he tolerated when we were dating, was not not permitted outside of the basement laundry room except she could hang out with me in my office, as long as I was there with her. He was no longer interested in socializing and my friends and family were no longer of interest to him. The music I loved to listened to suddenly "sucked" and he always made a point of mentioning that and would turned down the volume so it was pointless to even listen to it when he was present.

When I was three months pregnant I decided to join the Anglican Church down the road. I would walk by it regularly and felt drawn to it. (I was raised Roman-Catholic, so I had some church background). My daughter was born six months later. His behaviour continued to deteriorate. I had my daughter by C-section and spent five days in the hospital. I painfully recall the day we were leaving the hospital, which should have been one of the happiest days of my life. My feet were quite swollen which is quite normal post-surgery and I needed help with my sandals. My feet were HUGE. I had a huge incision from the c-section and was not supposed to bend over so I asked my husband, Nels, if he would please help do them up. They were sport sandals with velcro straps. He begrudgingly tried to fasten them and when I stood up, they came undone. I asked him if he could do them just a little bit tighter. At that time, he swore and reefed on the straps so they were VERY tight. I was scared to ask him to adjust them so they weren't so tight so I just sat back down on the bed and sobbed. I was so hurt and scared. Then again, out in the parking lot as we were getting ready to leave we were trying to figure out how to use the baby car seat. This was all new to both of us. He's trying to put the car seat in, and I'm trying to read the instructions to him and he just tells me to shut up, that he can figure it out himself. I was devastated. I got into the front seat and let him deal with the car seat. Again, going home with our new baby was supposed to be one of our happiest moments...RUINED.

For the first couple of years that I attended church, he mocked me and my church. I'd return home from the service and he'd say "How were things at the cult meeting today?" Initially I would ask him to please not speak that way about something that was important to me but after a while, I just gave up and would roll my eyes. It is interesting that when our daughter was 9 months old, we had her baptized at my church and he participated in the ceremony and recited the pledge. He had been baptized as a child and although his parents did not attend church, he went to Sunday school a bit. He says he's a Christian because he signed a card at Sunday school saying so...I think he was five. So, baptism for our daughter was more of a ritual.

In 2002, I attended Cursillo (which is a three day emersion in Christian living and training aimed to eqip the saints). My marriage, at that time, was at it's all time low point in my opinion and I had given up hope. As a matter of fact, just prior to leaving for Cursillo, I had applied for a full-time job and was going to leave my husband if I was the successful candidate. Being at Cursillo was life-changing for me. This is where I realized that I was a wretched sinner and decided to put my faith in Jesus. On the drive home (5 hours), I really was struggling with how to deal with my marriage and I decided that I would relinquish any decision about my marriage to God. Well, I didn't get the full-time job that I wanted, but I was offered a part time casual job in that same position. I think that was God's way of saying "You're not done with your marriage yet".

Up until that point, I had been very involved in my church but once I became saved I was "on fire" for the Lord and became very passionate about my faith and my church. I believe that my faith was the only thing holding my marriage together. A non-Christian would have walked. My husband's attitude about my faith was still very negative after several years of enduring his verbal abuse, I finally told him that if it were not for my faith, I would have left him. I know it was harsh, but I was at my breaking point with him. He mellowed a bit and although he was not open to exploring faith, he didn't interfere too much in my activities. He would attend special events at my church, like Christmas Eve service or occasionally help with repairs and of course come to luncheons and suppers as long as he could leave right away.

Going to the Ambassador's Academy in California has changed me. I know that I have not given Nels the respect I should. I have justified that for the cruel behaviour he has shown me. It is not an excuse. I started to read "The Love Dare" and saw faults in myself immediately and am doing my best to change my attitude and behaviours. When I was at the Academy, there were a few married couples there...one couple was actually on their honeymoon! I saw so much love and respect between these couples. They were constantly being supportive and encouraging to each other. The way they spoke to each other makes me close to violating Commandment #10, Thou shall not covet. I want that for Nels and I and there is NO WAY that will happen unless we have a Christ-centred marriage. So when I returned from California I had a heart to heart with Nels. I told him what I experienced in California. I asked him if he was happy with our marriage the way it is RIGHT NOW and he said no, but he had given up on it being anything more. I told him that was how I felt too. I said that if we want our marriage to be more, then do you agree that we BOTH need to make changes? And he basically agreed. I told him that HE couldn't fix it and I couldn't fix it, but maybe the two of US could, if we really want it to work. I also told him that I could not imagine being in this marriage the way it is for the next 20-30 years and that I was dead serious about it. He laughed. He tends to laugh inappropriately when he's nervous. It is something that our marriage counsellor picked up when we were in counselling for a while in 2002. She pointed it out to him when she observed it and it was such a relief to have that explained to me because it helps me to understand him better. I don't have to believe that he is laughing at me, it's just that he's nervous and is not sure how to express that emotion. I can ask him, are you laughing at me, or is there something that you are concerned about. So by his reaction, I can only think that the conversation has made him nervous. He has agreed to do the "Fire Proof" marriage couples kit and hopefully we will start early in the new year.

Since that conversation, he's been making some comments about other religions and what makes Christianity so right? I just bought Ray Comfort's book "World Religions in a Nutshell" and he's been slowly reading it. He's thinking that Islam is the way to go. I think he's just trying to irritate me, but his uncle is a muslim so it's not completely impossible. I figure if he's reading Ray's book, only good can come out of it. Just the fact that he's reading the book gives me some hope for him.

Anyways, I digress. It's just a little background that brings me to last night's events at my church's Christmas event. My church has been having Advent services in the evening and last night it was combined with the annual Christmas Community Carol Sing, which we've all attended in the past. Since my daughter and I started going to this church a year ago, this was the first time my daughter was actually participating in the event. We sat together as a family during the Advent service, before my daughter had to go with her group for the entertainment part of the event. The Advent service started with responsive Psalm readings and during this portion, I could hear my husbands voice while we were responding as a congregation. My ears perked up because he doesn't usually follow along. Imagine my horror when I realized he was just reciting babble and my daughter is sitting next to him, listening to this. I leaned over to him and asked him to please not mock people here, in this place of worship. I could tell by the look on his face that he knew he was busted...but he just smirked and said, "I'm not". The Psalm finished and we went into a Christmas carol and I could hear him singing "jibberish" and this time I turned to him and asked him to "Stop it". He said "I'm not...I'm singing". My daughter was trying not to laugh. He stopped doing whatever he was doing. This is just so typical of his attitude. When he's attended Christmas eve services at my church, he often refuses to stand when the pastor asks people to rise and I've had to ask him to please follow along. I don't force him to come to the services, but when he's there he needs to be respectful to others there and at least show some respect to his Creator!

So, I'm having this dilemma. Should I continue to invite him to join us at church services/events?...or do I just encourage him to stay home.

Another Wednesday afternoon of fishing in Courtenay

Thursday, December 11th 2008, 1:07 AM 23 3
Last week's tracting and 1-2-1's went well in Courtenay so I decided to do the same thing again...on the sidewalk outside the Christian book store downtown. My new tract order arrived just in time and I distributed 200 of the Santa 50K bills in 90 mins. It was a little colder this week and people were in more of a hurry so I didn't have any 1-2-1's. Several times people questioned what I was handing out and I would explain that the true meaning of Christmas was on the back and most seemed happy about that. I think some feared that I was a JW! LOL.

I started out by saying "Did you get your Santa bucks yet" and people were hesitating so I just changed to saying "Merry Christmas" and handed them a tract. That was much easier...maybe they thought I was handing out coupons. A few people from my village passed by and were surprised to see me there and what I was doing and I gave them tracts too. I'm sure they believe I have lost my mind. I don't care.

Also...while travelling today, I managed to tract every washroom I was in as well (four of them...hehe). Not just my stall, but the empty stalls as well and around the paper dispensers and mirrors, etc. And I tracted the pet food department at Safeway as well.

Tonight I included about 60 tracts in the Christmas cards that will be mailed tomorrow. I'm sure I'll be crossed off a few people's Christmas card list next year. Again...I don't care. LOL.

On the drive home (2 hours) my daughter and I had listened to all the WOTMR podcasts that I had left on my iPod so I had a good conversation with her about her salvation (she's 11) without any distractions. I hope I'm saying the right things to her to help her understand. I've got the Ray Comfort book "How to bring your children to Christ and keep them there" but haven't had time to read it yet. I need to get to that soon!

All in all, a great day. Praise the Lord!

Fishing in Courtenay, BC

Thursday, December 4th 2008, 12:51 AM 35 3
Every Wed, I take my daughter to an appointment in Courtenay, BC. It is a much larger centre than my village of 1500 ppl and I've been wanting to "fish" there as there are actually people on the street, especially this time of year. I dropped my daughter off had 1.5 hours on my own.

I know it's not wise to "fish" alone so I haven't considered it but today I felt urged to get out there. I grabbed whatever I had left of my tracts and headed out the door, bent on doing a little fishing in the downtown area. I couldn't find my pocket Evidence bible so I bought a pocket bible at the Christian Bookstore downtown and then I stood on the street near the same store in view of the store owner so he could see me and hopefully help if I needed any assistance.

I started handing out MDBs saying "Did you get your Christmas million yet?". Most took them and I explained once their hand was on it that there was a gospel message on the back. I met a few Christians who questioned what church I was representing. I merely responded that I am doing this alone as an ambassador for Christ and that seemed to satisfy their curiosity. Some gave the tracts back and suggested that I save them for people who need to hear the gospel as they were already saved.

I gave a tract to an older gentleman named David. He gave it back to me and said he doesn't believe in all that "religious stuff". Then he proceeded to tell me all about the Ark of the Covenant and some history around it. I let him go on for a while about it as he was obviously excited to have someone to talk to about it. So...when he was done I said to him, "David, you are obviously very passionate about the history and it is fascinating, but I am more concerned about the future, your future in particular". I asked if he considered himself to be a good person and he says he is for the most part by his standards so after he agreed to the Good Person Test, I went through the law with him, making sure that he knew that I was guilty of breaking all these laws as well and I was not judging him. I asked him if he would be found guilty or innocent by God on Judgement Day and he admitted guilty but he believes in Jesus so he'd be ok. (He kept going back to the Ark and I gently would bring him back to the present here and now) And then he went on to say that he didn't really believe there is a hell. I told him that the bible confirms hell exists and even if he doesn't believe there is a hell, doesn't mean it doesn't exist. I explained about the two things he needed to do to receive Salvation. Repent (turn from his sin) and put his FAITH in Jesus like he would a parachute (went through the analogy). He listened, but I don't know if it was sinking in. I gave him back the MDB and asked him if he would read this again tonight and think about our conversation and reminded him that 10/10 ppl die and we are never guaranteed our next breath. I suggested he read his bible every day as he said he has one "kicking around somewhere"

I thanked him for his time and he went into the CHristian bookstore to buy some greeting cards. When he came out, he saw that I was still there and came over to show me the cards he had bought. We laughed and I said..."Oh...you gotta check THIS out" and pulled out the curved illusion tracts to show him. He thought they were awesome so I gave them to him and showed him how to hold them. (He was holding them with the colour towards himself) He walked away quite delighted and turned back to say goodbye so I told him "David...I'm going to pray for you tonight...please consider what we've talked about." He smiled and waved.

Please pray for David and the 100 or so souls that received tracts today.

Tracting at the Festival of Lights

Friday, November 28th 2008, 12:15 AM 31 0
My daughter and I attended the Ladysmith Festival of Lights tonight which is about 30 minutes south of my parents' home where we are visiting for a couple of days. I hadn't been in probably 17 years and the last time I attended, there were probably 5,000 people there. The festival has grown considerably and I was astounded to find out that there were over 20,000 people in attendance.

I was basically on my own as my 11 year old daughter is painfully shy and refused to help, but I did manage to pass out several hundred tracts tonight. I had the Santa 50,000 bills. I'd just walk up to people and ask if they had their Santa Bucks yet and of course they'd say no and I'd hand each of them one. I think most thought it was a coupon for free stuff and if they asked I'd tell there the true meaning of Christmas is on that back and that it often gets overlooked this time of year. I'm kicking myself for not buying more...but I had no idea I'd be attending the festival until it was too late to order more. I handed out some IQ test cards too, but those were harder to distribute at this event.

There are huge opportunities there and I'm hoping by next year we'll have an E-team in place to travel down there next year. Tonight I'm going to pray that some seeds will be planted when people find them in their pockets over the next few days and actually begin reading them. I praise God for such a wonderful opportunity and NO RAIN! (In my part of the world...THAT is HUGE!)

Update on the Remembrance Day Tracting

I was at bible study this morning and someone mentioned that they heard there was a meeting of the legion members last week and the subject of me tracting after the Remembrance Day ceremony came up. A number of people were annoyed and wanted it stopped. Apparently, a member stood up and said something to the effect that "our whole purpose is based on the fact that we have fought for freedom...freedom of expression and freedom of religion" and apparently that closed the mouths of people who had been vocal about the activity. I don't know who that person was...but may God bless him or her for standing up for God. Praise the Lord...a tiny breakthrough in my little village!

Another update: Tuesday, December 9th 2008, 6:51 PM

Further to last week's post about the legion meeting, I just found out that one of the persons complaining about me tracting at the Legion actually stood up at the meeting and read the back of the MDBout loud for all present to hear! Isn't it great when God uses a non-believer to "proclaim" the gospel? LOL.

My response to the newspaper

Tuesday, November 25th 2008, 1:44 AM
Ok...after much prayer and reflecting, this is the response I have come up with. I sent a draft to my pastor as I wanted his input before I sent in. He has come back and suggested that I also insert a line to the effect that I apologize if I have offended anyone. Initially I agreed with him and then I went to work at adding it in but I don't feel that I should apologize because I'm not going to stop doing what I do. The tracts ARE OFFENSIVE to those who are perishing and I knowingly pass them out being fully aware that people are going to be offended. Would it be hypocritical for me to say I'm sorry...but I'm still going to do it. I am perplexed. I want to respect my pastor's wishes, but I don't know how to approach this. I'm hoping to meet with him quickly in the morning to talk about it, but thought I'd post here too and see what others might think about this?

Dear Sirs/Madames:

I am the one who passed out the gospel tracts at the Legion after the Remembrance Day service in Gold River. I would like to firstly point out that I did this of my own volition and was not representing the legion, or any church group. At least one person has taken offense to the message on the back of the million dollar bills that I handed out. I also took offense to the message when I first heard it but upon examining my own life and soul and comparing it to God’s standard I saw the need to be made right with Him in order to not receive the punishment I so justly deserved.

Because I care about people in this community and their future, I choose to distribute gospel tracts and invite conversation and will continue to do so with the hope that others will see their need to make some changes in their own lives and learn that they can start anew.

My intention is not to offend people, but to merely share what is near and dear to my heart. My motives are simple and there is nothing “in it” for me except knowing that I am being faithful and obedient to the Word of God.

Sincerely,

Reaction to Tracting at the Remembrance Day assembly.

Thursday, November 20th 2008, 10:46 PM 55 5
I received a phone call this morning from a Christian friend asking if I had read the local newspaper last night. She emailed me a copy of the letter to the editor so I could read it and I've included the link to that. This is a large PDF file. Please go to page 5 and scroll down to the bottom right. The letter is titled "Truly Offended". http://home.cablerocket.com/~zorq/current/ci.pdf

I've been praying for an opportunity to reach a larger group of people here and I think this may be exactly what I've been hoping for.

I remember approaching this woman at the legion and giving MDB tracts to her, her husband (who is dealing with life-threatening health issues) and their two friends. I am well aware that this woman is anti-God and quite outspoken and I did hesitate approaching their table, but I really felt God nudging me to do it anyways. Yes, the Gospel is offensive to those who are perishing! No wonder she was offended!

I find her complaint to be interesting in view of the fact that we had just left a Remembrance Day service in a Christian Church, organized by the legion executive with my pastor who preached from the gospel (albeit briefly)and paraded to the Cenotaph where there was another service, also led by my pastor. Once inside the legion, I passed out tracts for approximately fifteen minutes and not one of the legion executive present asked what I was doing or asked me to stop. Had they asked me to stop, I would have obliged them immediately.

When my friend broke the news of the letter to me this morning, initially I had this sick feeling which quickly passed when I realized that this would be a huge opportunity for me to witness via the local newspaper for all here to read. The more it sank in, the more excited I became. I can respond, or not respond and that is what I am pondering. The local newspaper owner (whom I used to work for prior to me being saved) loves contention! It sells newspapers! I'm quite certain he would allow me equal opportunity to respond, but I doubt he would let me preach (since he deleted the "religious sales pitch" from her letter) so I would have to word my response very carefully in order to see it go to print. (You all know what I would LIKE to say...the gospel message in 90 seconds or less, but THAT'S not an option.)

Another thought is that this letter may also bring forth additional opportunities to discuss with people I run into who might ask how I feel about that letter in the paper. It would be an easy transition into the Law and Gospel. I couldn't ask for a better conversation starter! We all know each other here and anyone who reads that letter will know that it was a complaint about what I was doing. I pray that God will provide many opportunities to witness to individuals or small groups of people. The only reason I do this is because I love God and I love people and the eternal life of the lost weighs heavily on my heart.

I pray that God is glorified throughout this...however I decide to handle it.

Remembrance Day in my little Village

Tuesday, November 11th 2008, 4:26 PM 51 2
Here in Canada, we have Remembrance Day (in the U.S. you call it Armistace Day). In our village of 1,500 people we gather at the local church (my former church) for a community service which is given by my pastor at my new church. It is the one time per year that extra chairs are needed from the church basement as it is always well-attended. The colour party and military members (all retired here) enter the church and take their place in the front pews. None of them are "church people" and unless there is a funeral, they do not darken the door of a church except for this day.

The legion executive put strict time constraints on the church service and my pastor has very little time for a "sermon", but he always manages to squeeze a little message in to hopefully make people think about their future. Today's message was about following instruction manuals and he gave the examples of him trying to re-wire his home and if he didn't follow his instruction book, he is quite sure his house would have burned to the ground by now. He also mentioned the fact that if a student was to bring home a text book, but never open it and read it, they probably wouldn't do so well on a test. He closed with the message that one day we will be standing in judgement of God's Holy Law and if we don't crack open our bibles and know what God wants or expects from us, how likely are we to pass through on that day of judgement. He also stressed that tomorrow is never guaranteed so it is not something that we can put off.

After that message, I felt that he had softened some of the stone and I was ready to sow some seeds. Armed with a pocket full of Canadian MDBs I approached people waiting around after the service before the colour parade started and began handing them out. I continued over at the cenotaph until the service began. There was a children's presentation in the legion tavern after the service so I waited around for the tavern to fill up and then I went table to table, giving people MDBs. "Did you get one of these? There's a million dollar question on the back". I ran out Canadian MDBs so started with what I had left of my US supply and before long, people were approaching me for those too. (Well, they are worth considerably more than the Canadian ones. ;oP )

Most of the people I handed out MDBs to know me, or at least know who I am and although it wasn't a suitable place for me to 1-2-1 (noise and distraction), I am confident that there will be follow up conversations in the near future. This is one of the benefits of living in a tiny place. I know who I gave tracks to and can follow up with them as opportunities arise. There may not be much in the way of opportunity to OA here, but the 1-2-1 possibilities are huge.I'm praying that my Canadian Christmas MDBs arrive in time for this weekend's school Christmas Mall fundraiser. We so seldom have events going on here so I need to grab EVERY opportunity I can.