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.