During this pandemic, the pace of life has slowed down considerably for Terry and me. This is the first year out of the nine years since we've been retired that we've been home for the entire fall and winter season. At first I wondered how I would fill my time. Now I have too many projects. The most satisfying has been pursuing my dream of writing devotionals. For years I've kept a diary/journal. I would write down ordinary happenings that, to me had a spiritual significance. Sometimes the implications of an event didn't hit me till much later. I began writing with the idea of submitting stories with a monetary reward attached. That has had limited success.
Then I remembered that God had spoken to me:
"Publish his glorious deeds among the nations. Tell everyone about the amazing things he does." Psalm 96:3 (NLT)
So, now I write little stories for which I don't get paid. I'm surprised at how satisfying it is. I didn't used to be able to write a logical essay when I first went to university. It didn't help that I had to write my assignments in French, since I was taking a French major. Now I am mostly able to write a coherent sequence. I've been practising. Twenty-five years ago I learned a lot through a writing program with Long Ridge Writer's Group, which taught me how to write and submit articles to magazines.
A surprising side effect of writing to PresbyCan Daily Devotionals, a site which publishes daily inspirational messages, is belonging to what they call a "community of Spirit-filled believers". It's been fun receiving encouraging messages from those who have read what I've written.
The other day I had the biggest surprise! I got an email response via this site from a friend I've known all my life. She wondered if I was the same person she had gone to school and church with. I had tried to contact her four years ago when we were on a SOWER project on Vancouver Island for two months, but hit a dead end. Now I excitedly e-mailed back, and we had an hour-and-a-half Face Time visit, getting caught up on the events of the past.
Here we are as babies:
I'm on the left, and my friend, Edie McCaffery (as she was then) is on the right. My mum is rocking the barrel at my birthday party, probably when I was two.
Here we are when I was 21 and Edie was 22, in front of Edie's house in Port Alberni, B.C.
God is good!
Here's a link to an article about PresbyCan Daily Devotional's history. https://renewal-fellowship.ca/5027/ Its roots go back about 55 years, and this May is the official 25th Anniversary celebration of this website.
