HELLO!

I expected an empty house, the core choir members who come every Sunday, June, the AV team, the ushers, and me. But God has surprises in store, when we open our eyes. When I looked out at the chairs and pews at 10 am there were more people than I could have imagined on a hot July Sunday, as many of our regular attenders are in Berwick. Many in the chairs today were guests. The highlight today was Hunter Dolomont, granddaughter of Bev Lynch. Hunter deeply touched us with her singing of, “How Great Thou Art”. If you were not with us in person, here is the livestream link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s_pinTuWbrE

Bethe has been sending me photos from Berwick since she arrived there. Berwick has a profound effect on Bethe, she took her children there when they were young, it is where she and Rick became engaged, and she has opportunity to walk her labyrinth, which she constructed herself many years ago when she led the programming at Berwick (A Christian labyrinth meditation is a form of active, walking prayer. A labyrinth has a single, winding path that leads directly to the centre and back out with no dead ends. Christians use it as a physical symbol of their spiritual journey toward God). And there are the people themselves, a second family for Bethe. Berwick campers are “kin” in the truest sense of the word.

Here is Berwick’s website: https://www.berwickcamp.org/

Bethe sent me this photo of her cabin. It gives you a sense of where people stay when they come together as a family. This camp illustrates the different ways Bethe and I personify the word “extrovert”. Bethe loves to be in a gathering. She feeds off the energy and the love of a group that comes together as kin. I too enjoy a gathering, I love to meet new people, strangers who become familiar, who share their stories. I enjoy the experience of the unscripted, unrehearsed, conversation that organically comes to life. I feel that constant meeting up with strangers would be life-giving to Bethe, but she would equally treasure the familiar, the return to friendships that have lasted decades. I too like to engage familiar faces, but without the strangers, the new stories, I would feel something was missing. I will walk into a room of 100 people, talk to everyone of them, and leave. Bethe will walk into the room, talk to those she can identify as new, and engage in more lengthy conversations with those she seeks out, who seek her out. And she will be the last person to leave the room. This explanation may account for why Bethe loves a gathering like Berwick and I would prefer the random engagements at foodbanks, church services, the local park, and weekend markets.

And then there are introverts like my wife Kim. She loves people, but prefers one on one, quieter spaces, more silences, and above all, the opportunity to refresh and restore with time to herself. How about you?

Peace, Kevin