Pandora's Music Box....

I am once again working out of a home office. During my time as a HR consultant I maintained a home office - it made the most sense because any training/focus groups/etc I did were done on the clients property and then I would do the write-ups and reports on my own time. In the new shift of governance we are going through at SouthGate I no longer need to be at our downtown offices as much and so I spend most of my workday at home. Its been good but I have to admit it is harder than I thought it would be. In the first go round at the home office I held office hours between 11pm-2:30am - it was the best because no one else was awake (which reduced the number of interuptions phone calls etc.) and we had one child who didn't have to be anywhere. This time around I have to keep normal hours because I actually need to connect with real people and we have three children - two of whom are in school and have schedules.

A big part of my writing/working centers around finding the right music to act as a soundtrack to my thoughts. I need to find the connected-yet-disparate blend of music to go along with my nigh-unto-ADHD thinking process. Unfortunately my music buying days ended the same time my diaper buying days started and so I have an extensive but rather dated collection of CDs (and cassettes). But this week I stumbled across a literal answer to prayer in the form of www.pandora.com where you can set up your own stations that will begin to learn exactly what you like to listen to. Best of all it starts to introduce you to other artists that it thinks you will like based on your listening (and rating) patterns. You have to check it out!!

Migwec

Old ain't so old new ain't so new

I can often feel like a bit of an innovator - and as such I can be called on to break ice. More so than myself, I look at my wife as someone who has had to push through barriers throughout her career - whether in the local church or in denominational work. Don't get me wrong most of the barriers were not set up in a malicious or exclusionary fashion. Mostly our shared call has been one of getting people to think of things in a new way - women can do that? global missions can be done in our backyard?Somedays it feels a little tiring to crank up the ice-breaker and head out of the harbour...but you know that if you clear a path there is a chance that the bigger boats will be able to enter these missions.

But then this Christmas we re-connected with a special person in our lives. Mavis is the sister of a lady (Ione) that mentored Juli in the way to make a Children's Ministry have maximum impact. She also had a tremendous impact on me. We got to know Mavis through Ione. Ione has since passed away but we still try to stay in touch with Mavis.

Mavis and Ione were truly remarkable people. They were so committed to the cause of Christ that they dedicated themselves to plow through all of the misconceptions of what women could or couldn't do in the church (I can only guess they faced barriers because I have never heard either of them complain about the church or the barriers placed in front of them). Mavis was up in Canada over Christmas so we met in Langdon, Alberta for lunch and a chance to talk.

Mavis is the type of woman that not only maintains the archives, she also fills it. She has recently been interviewed as a part of the history of women in church. It was so encouraging to talk to her and have her tell us about what she is still up to in her local church and denomination. She is not really slowing down. It was also encouraging to see the interest she had in the work we were doing. She kept asking us what we were doing for the community and in the community, she wanted to make sure we weren't overlooking anything. All the while she kept reminding us that God called us and equipped us to do this work.

I left feeling that God has a special provision for innovators and he would look after us just like he looked after Mavis, Ione and thousands of ice-breakers before us.

Migwec