Wacky BC Weather

Sherri and I have noticed the weather out here is almost unpredictable. We've had days which start out cold and rainy, then cool and sunny, then warm and cloudy, then warm and sunny, then cool and rainy again. And all that just in the morning. Okay, so I might be exaggerating a little, but there is truth behind this. On Sunday, for example, when we got up and when we went to church, it was pouring rain. When church was done, it was drizzling...hardly anything. When we got home, the clouds were breaking up. The afternoon it was cloudy when we went to church, and when we left, it was sunny and warm. When we got home again (a little later than usual, as we were in Langley for the afternoon service, and had tea at Francine's student house afterwards)it got cloudy and cool, and as I was making supper, it got dark and started to pour rain and hail. After about ten minutes it was all over, and it stopped raining.

Makes for an interesting day.

Yesterday I spent all day working on background for the book of Haggai, and translating the passage I will be preaching on this coming Sunday. I am beginning a short series on Haggai (3 sermons), and am looking forward to it. This is my first series, so I am not sure exactly how it all works out. I am going on the principle that each sermon should be able to stand on its own, but taken all together, the three sermons should aid someone in coming to grips with the whole book. I will try to refer as little as possible to earlier sermons in the series in the later ones, but I think that this will be unavoidable to an extent, because of the background information. This afternoon I will see what Rev. Van Vliet thinks of it all.

A Bigger Oops...

So far, I seem to make my bigger mistakes at Maranatha.

Yesterday afternoon, after the sermon, I went straight into prayer and then collection, completely forgetting that we had to sing Hymn 1A. An elder came up to the pulpit after I announced the collection and informed me, so we sang it then.

Other than that (and the fact that I said 'this morning' in the afternoon service again) things went well.

The text yesterday was 1 John 4:1-3. This week I get to work on Lord's Day 34 of the Heidelberg Catechism, the beginning of the Ten Commandments. Next week I do Lord's Day 35 as I am going to be in Langley in the afternoon service, and if I started my series on Haggai, Maranatha would miss out on the first sermon, which is not ideal.

On Saturday, Sherri and I went to the Vancouver Aquarium. It rained (quite hard) all day, especially when we were out, but that was no big deal. We spent most of our time inside, and then went outside for about 15-20 minutes (with no umbrella) to look at the otters, sea lions, dolphins, and beluga whales. Very neat. I am amazed at the size of the sea lion...I never figured them to be that big, but I've only ever seen them on TV, so I really have no frame of reference. Sherri will post pictures soon.

Now I am going to get to work on my sermon, and try think of any other mistakes that I could make, and then not make them next Sunday...

I was way off...

Here I thought that I would have time to do some side-reading as I was working with Rev. Van Vliet, so I brought an ethics book along to read. I think that I have read a grand total of 25 pages or so since we've been here, and most of that was during our first week when I wasn't working for my internship.

Oh well...perhaps I can do some more reading in August, unless I decide to work on the farm for a few weeks before the baby arrives.

It is also amazing how fast this week has gone by. It is already Thursday, the day in which I spend all my time writing my sermon. Which means that all my exegetical, canonical, and organizational work is done for the text (being done on Monday and also on Tuesday and Wednesday mornings). What I am trying to work on in this sermon is to use less academic, school-like language, and write in a way that I speak, a more natural way. So whenever I write something, I look it over and see if I could phrase is in a simpler way. This means that I am using the Office Thesaurus more often than usual, to find simpler words for some of those that I use.

We'll have to see how successful I am when I am finished. Perhaps I will get Sherri to read it over again, just to see if there is anything I can improve. That worked well for my last sermon.

Well, I guess I should get back to it.

Oh yeah, the text for this sermon is 1 John 4:1-3. 1 John 4:1 was the text chosen for me when I did profession of faith in Burlington Ebenezer, and I decided that I wanted to look into it. It's turning out to be an interesting study. And, as per Rev. Van Vliet's suggestions, I am making it less general and abstract, and more practical... I hope it works.

First Sunday

Well, I got through my very first worship service (and the second) behind the pulpit rather than in front. From my part, I think it went well. And from what I heard from people after both services, they seemed to think it went well too. So far so good.

It helps that my sermons are checked over (along a few steps in the process) by Rev. Van Vliet, which means that I have more confidence in my sermons when I get up behind the pulpit. Hopefully, at the end of this internship, I will have more confidence in them on my own, or else I'll never be comfortable on the pulpit.

There was one hiccup in the morning service. The elders and I walked out of the consistory room, into the auditorium, my hand got shaken, and I walked up to the pulpit (which in Maranatha is quite high) and stood there staring at the people who were staring at me, and they did not stand up, and I did not know what to say to get them to stand up. So an elder had to stage-whisper to me "Please rise," which I said and then everyone stood up. After all my time getting the liturgy right and getting the announcements right in the consistory room, I forgot to ask the little question. Oh well. It went well after that.

In the afternoon, the liturgy went well, but when I started my sermon, I was speaking way too fast. Sherri gave me the 'slow down' signal, and after that it was much better, apparently. And it was nice to have Aunt Grace, Aunt Marg, and Aunt Fran and Uncle Piet there.

The sermon was on 2 Peter 1:5-9, which is the first text that I have ever chosen for myself. And the more I looked into it, the more things there were to find. With Rev. Van Vliet's guidance and help, I think it turned out to be a good sermon.

Anyways, I have to start working on my next sermon today on 1 John 4:1-3. Today is exegesis day, so I have to read the letter over 3 times or so to be familiar with it, do the canonical work (author, date, theme(s), etc), and then translate and to word studies so that tomorrow morning I can work out a theme and points and a rough outline, and talk to Rev. Van Vliet about it tomorrow afternoon. It's less time than it usually takes at the College (we get two weeks to write a sermon), but I actually have more sustained time to work on a sermon now, with no classes in the way.

So far, I am enjoying this whole process.

First Day in B.C.

We can't get over the fact that when we drive places, we can see great big gorgeous mountains on the horizon. I can never seriously call Hamilton Mountain a mountain again. And we haven't even been out to the mountains yet. Some day, over the course of the next couple of months, we will go.

Our flight yesterday was long and uneventful. Other than the fact that it was delayed by 2 1/2 hours, and so we arrived in Abbotsford at 10:30 instead of 7:30 like originally planned, everything went swimmingly. Oh, and I couldn't hear properly all last night after we landed, and finally today, at supper time at the Van Vliet's I could finally hear without it sounding muffled.

We are getting settled into our new digs. The set-up is very nice. Dad, you should see the pond and pump system that Mr. Dykstra has...I'll try to remember to take pictures of it to show you. We have a bedroom (obviously), washroom, kitchen and sitting area to ourselves, although the bedroom and washroom are slightly separated through a (semi-)common area. Lots of windows in the kitchen-sitting area, nice and bright.

We also spent the evening with Jason and Janet Van Vliet and their kids. Jason and I talked about sermons and things, but not too much shop-talk, since I haven't technically started yet. But I am going to begin preparing for my first sermon (to be preached on June 3rd) on 2 Peter. Jason showed me how he goes about it, and since I want to work on my exegesis, I am going to try his approach. Hopefully I can adopt and adapt it to my situation.

Anyways, we are tired now, and should go to bed soon... by my internal time, it's 1:00 a.m., although the crazy B.C.ers think that it's only 10:00 p.m. Oh well. Sherri and I will just have to adjust.