Relay for Life 2008: Final Report

What a weekend!  We woke up to rain Friday morning and kinda groaned.  Not today!  By the time we picked up the tents and the helpers and got down to the lake the sun had come out.  We staked out our spot and then left to run some errands, etc.  I never did get a nap!  The sun shone most of the day; a little cloud, but no rain...until 15 minutes before it was time to get to the event.  Then it just poured.  The David Thompson Brigade which started their 50+ day canoe trip from Rocky Mountain House, Alberta arrived at 6:00 p.m.  That was pretty neat.  

The Relay for Life kicked off at 7:00 p.m. in the rain, thunder and lightning.  We got soaked the first half hour.  Thankfully we all had changes of clothes.  Our team plan to have some people walking the whole time was to split into three groups with each group walking a half hour then taking an hour break.  It worked pretty well.  We had at least a couple people on our team walking the whole time.  After that first hour of rain, it tapered off to a drizzle through the night and it wasn't bad at all.  

I managed to stay awake the whole night and walked 22.4 km or 14 miles so I felt good with that.  Our team of ten people walked 184 km and raised $2100.00!  Way to go team!

It might have been more "fun" if the weather was nicer, but it was a great experience for a good cause.  I challenge you to find an event near you and get your church involved.  It's a great way to get outside the four walls of the church and do something in and for the community.

Thanks again to everyone who contributed to my walk!

As if that wasn't enough excitement, we had our church picnic this afternoon.  After a whole day of rain yesterday, it turned out beautiful today.  We even got in a ball game with the kids.  So...I'm a little worn out, but I think one more early to bed night will get me back to normal.

The first picture is a shot of the David Thompson Brigade.  The second is our Relay team.

Further Reading

Since you obviously don't have a lot to do if you are a regular to this site, I thought I'd give you the links to a couple of other blogs that I check on regularly.  You can find them under "Blogs of Interest" in the right hand column.  

The first one belongs to my son, Jonathan.  It is brand new and his first post will tell you what you might expect there.

The second one belongs to my son's father-in-law, John K.  He has a special concern in what is going on in the Anglican church, among many other interests.

You don't have the same connection to them as I do, so perhaps you won't have the same loyalty, but you may find it interesting to check them out.  However if you think that going there will lessen your time spent here, please don't go!!!  

Dave

P.S.  I plan to write about my Relay For Life experience soon, but I need to let it sink in a little more and I'm way too tired to do that now.  Hopefully a whole night's sleep will do the trick.

 

 

Relay for Life: The Day Before

Just wanted to let you know that I've surpassed my Relay for Life goal, thanks to your help. My on-line pledges currently stand at $260 and my in-person pledges are $270 for a total of $530!!!

I went to the Team Captain's meeting on Tuesday night and learned a little more of what to expect. About 25 teams involved here and all kinds of crazy events and competitions going on. I have no idea how they expect you to have time to actually walk. The not-so-good news is that it is supposed to rain tomorrow and Saturday. Thunderstorms tomorrow! They say it will go rain or shine, but I don't know about lightning.

So tomorrow at 9:00 a.m. I plan to be down at the lake where we walk to put up a couple tents. I still need to gather my gear and grab some snacks and hope to have time to sleep for a couple hours.

I probably won't do a "Day After" report. I expect to be pretty wiped out. Then Sunday afternoon is our church picnic. But I will update you and hopefully have some pictures, weather permitting.

Thanks again for your help.

Dave

Thank God for Canada

I saw something in our small town this morning that I've never seen before.  It was the windup for our Sunday School class at Tim Horton's.  As we were sitting there drinking coffee, visiting and watching the traffic go by, we suddenly saw three guys walking down the street with a dog.  "So what?" you say.  These guys were in flak jackets carrying automatic weapons accompanied by a police dog!  Apparently there had been a stabbing and they were tracking someone.  I haven't heard yet how it turned out.  

After wondering why they were leaving us sitting behind a mere pane of glass while they were just across the street with protective gear and  their guns out, another thought struck me.  I'm 50+ years old and I've never seen anything like this before in our country.  Thank God!  It's a regular scene in many countries in our world.  People in Israel, Afghanistan and many other places live like this everyday.  I am thankful that this is such a strange sight to us.  It's not that we deserve peace and safety more than others; it's simply God's grace.  I hope this serves to make me even more thankful for the peace and freedom we so easily take for granted.

Dave

Only $30 to Go!

The Cancer Society's Relay for Life is just over a week away- Friday June 27.  The weather has warmed up and supposed to be getting warmer still as the day/night approaches.  Valerie and I have been out every day this week for a half hour walk to try to get in a little better shape.

I am very near my goal of $500.00 in pledges thanks to some generous donations.  If you haven't taken the opportunity to pledge me yet I still need $30.00 to reach my goal.  Will you help me over the top?  You can pledge me online here with a credit card.  Check "Pledge a participant."  Click "Next" and follow the prompts.  Enter my name as David Groff.

Thanks to all who have given so generously and to those who will help me top my goal!  God bless you for your gift.

Dave 

A Late Father's Day Gift

My wife says this is about how I end up doing it!

Dave

A Prayer for Father's Day

Our Father in Heaven, on this Father’s Day we come to You on behalf of fathers.  We acknowledge You as the perfect Father.  You are the One who shows us what it means to be a father, challenges us to a higher level, and helps us get there.

Today we thank You for our fathers who were there for us and who are there for us still.  We thank You for their love and their sacrifices.  We thank You for those who led us to You and taught us how to live for You.  We pray for fathers who do not yet know You personally.  We pray that You will open their understanding and draw them to Christ.  Help us to be godly examples to them.

We remember our Dads who are no longer with us and we ask that You will help us to honor their memory by the way we live each day.

We pray also for everyone for whom this day is a hard one.  For those whose experience with their fathers is or was not a great one.  Lord, we pray that You will be a Father to them and help them forgive.  We pray for fathers who have lost a child.  Lord, give them Your comfort and peace.  We pray for husbands who are unable to have children.  Lord, bless them with the role of a dad in other ways.  Bring children into their lives who need a father figure.  We pray for fathers whose hearts are broken by children who are estranged from them and from You.  We pray for healing in those relationships.  We pray that You will intervene in those situations and give hope and Your Almighty help.  We pray for our fathers who are sick or elderly and in the last years of their lives.  We pray that they will feel our love and appreciation.  Help us to be there for them in every way we can.  Make these relationships sweet in the remaining time we have with them.

For each father here, whether we have children at home or grown, we thank You for these special gifts You have given us.   We confess that we have not been all we should have been for them.  We made mistakes.  We've fallen short of Your ideals.  At times we have been too busy, short-tempered, unkind.  But we thank You for Your patience with us and Your forgiveness.  We thank You for second chances and third; however many we need.  May we not live in the guilt of the past, but press on to be what You want us to be today and tomorrow.  Help us to grow in wisdom, love, patience.  Help us to grow to be more like You to our families.    Help us to raise them to know and love You.  Lord, make us a blessing to those You have blessed us with.  We ask these requests in the name of Jesus our Saviour, to the glory of our God and eternal Father.  Amen.

Dave 

Living Dangerously in the Hands of God

I came across a couple different things in the last few days that seem to connect as God's words to me. The first came from the daily Bible reading journal I've been using from the Bible League of Canada. The verse and thought of the day for yesterday was this:

2Timothy 1:7 "God did not give us a spirit of timidity."
"Go out on a limb for God today. 'But," you ask, 'what if the wind blows and the branch I am counting on breaks?' Yes, that could happen. You could just stay at the trunk of the tree. It is safe there. Still, go out on a limb today. Why? That's where the fruit is."

I am not a risk taker by nature. I have taken a chance when I've heard God's strong call in an area-for example- going off to Bible college with a wife and three small children. I have even found some of that fruit that comes from going out on the limb. But those instances are few and far between.

A couple days before I read that verse and comment I found a great story on precisely this thing of risking for the Lord. Two months after his conversion, Charles Wesley and another man asked to be locked up for the night in a prison cell of condemned criminals. Everyone in that cell was sentenced to die by hanging the next morning. These men had nothing more to lose by murdering a couple of evangelists! By God's grace, not only were the two evangelists spared, but everyone in that cell was converted to Christ! The article was titled Charles Wesley's Radical, Fruitful Risk. It's worth the read.

I can't help but think that that article and the devotional reading a couple days later are not coincidence. So I have to ask, what is God saying to me? What is He preparing me for? Where does He want me to risk for Him? As I was writing these thoughts down, another memory was resurrected. My Bible college grad theme came from a song by Steve Camp: Living Dangerously in the Hands of God. Very similar message. Check it out.

A couple ways you can respond to this post: Pray for me, that I will be a risk-taker for God and be willing to go out on the limb where the fruit is. And pray for yourself. What is God asking you to risk for His sake and His kingdom?

Dave

God's Power in Creation

God's power and creative ability are awesome! My weakness in photography certainly doesn't do Him justice, but I enjoy taking some pictures and playing around with them on my Mac. I'm not sure I even qualify as an amateur, but the learning is in the doing, right? Right?? And I just love God's great creation.


Feel free to offer any comments/suggestions. I think if you click on them they'll open in a new window.



This first one is a shot of a flock of seagulls at Rainy Lake this Spring.




Last Fall on the causeway at Rainy Lake.






The last three were taken this Spring in North Bay, ON at a place on Trout Lake locally known as "The Cove." I like the border effect on the last one.

African Children's Choir

The African Children's Choir was at our church on Friday night.  What an amazing group of kids!  What an amazing organization!  Twenty-six of the cutest, best-behaved, energized kids you'll ever find.  The concert was excellent, but I was much more impressed with the children themselves.  

We had two nine-year-old girls stay overnight at our house.  They are well taught, well mannered.  Having been on tour for nearly nine months now, they seem very well adjusted to it all.  The one little girl's bedtime prayer was more mature than many adults I've heard, including myself.  Not one speck of personal request except for confession of sin.  Of course they are still kids and have their kid moments.  We had to smile when they didn't want to put their books aside long enough to have a snack.

The organization is equally impressive.  Their pledge is "Helping Africa's most vulnerable children today so they can help Africa tomorrow."  They've been doing it for over twenty years and are now seeing the fruit of their work with former choir kids coming back to serve as well as being productive in other areas of life in Africa.

If you ever get a chance to see them, do it.  Because they're famous(performing for the queen; American Idol, etc.), because it's great entertainment and great ministry.  But more than anything, because God loves the the vulnerable, the the poor, the orphaned, and we can have a part in changing their lives with our gifts to them.

Find out more about them  here and check the itinerary to see when they'll be in your area.  They are heading through northern Ontario to southern Ontario and then to eastern Canada.

Dave

Storing Up Treasure in Heaven

For starters, here's an indication of how little I know about blogging.  There's comic strip I tried to put here that I wanted to share with you, but I can't seem to make it work.  Please take a moment to see it  here.

I want to take this opportunity to comment on a couple things pertaining to the comic.  The comic is on John Piper's Desiring God website.  The home page is here: Desiring God.

It's a site I frequent.  I have great respect for John Piper and his teachings.  I have jokingly commented that my sermons aren't complete without a comment from Piper.  So I encourage you to visit the site and browse around.  Lots of great stuff!

The comic grabbed my attention because God has been and continues to work in my life in this area.  In Matthew 6:20-21, after telling His followers where not to store their treasure, Jesus said,

"But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in or steal; for where your treasure is, there will your heart be also."

I could go on for hours( I did for six weeks in adult SS) on this because of what God has been teaching me and all the questions I still have about actually implementing it.  For now, I'll just say that we are no wiser than that dragon when we do what he's doing.  When we quit hoarding and start giving it away, we do far greater good for God, for others, and for ourselves.  I'd much rather have that pile in Heaven where God is looking after it and where I can enjoy it forever one day!   

Tell Them While You Can

I started this post a few days ago, but deleted it.  I'm torn between saying something I feel strongly about and using someone else's tragedy to do it.  But perhaps a lesson learned from one tragedy can lessen the grief of another.

I was watching a bit of the coverage of Luc Bourdon's memorial service the other day.  Luc was the 21 year old who played for the Vancouver Canucks and was killed in a motorcycle accident.  The tributes to this young guy were beautifully moving.  I just hope Luc heard all of these wonderful words of love and praise while he was still alive.

Memorials and funerals are times to remember and give tribute.  We sometimes even go overboard and make people out to be better than they really were.  But what bothers me most is our willingness to say things after someone dies that we never said to them in life!

Ephesians 4:29 tells us to use our words to build people up and give grace according to the need of the moment.  Kind words at a funeral may serve the purpose of giving grace to the surviving family, but they do nothing to build up the person.  

We never know when an accident or illness will take away a family member or friend or brother or sister in our church.  It can happen in an instant.  Let's not wait until the funeral to speak kindly about someone.  Let's make a point of doing it now, today, often!  Let people know how special they are to you, what you appreciate about them, how much you love them, while they can hear you and be built up by it.  

Tell them while you can!

And ask God to bring comfort to Luc's family.

Dave  

Sponsor me for Cancer Society's Relay for Life

I've signed up for the Relay for Life. Actually I've agreed to be team captain for our church's team. We have ten other great people signed up to raise money and do their share of walking. We have called our team Bethel KOs. The name has a bit of a double meaning for us. We want to do our part to help Knock Out cancer. And KO also stands for Kindness Outreach at our church. This is one of the kindness events we are planning for our church to be involved in the community through the summer.

I haven't done much of this kind of thing. I did walk with my daughter several years ago in a Walk-a-thon. I'm looking forward to this one and my daughter will once again be involved. The Relay for Life is a 12 hour event that goes from 7:00 p.m Friday night, June 27 to 7:00 a.m. Saturday morning. Thankfully, I won't have to walk for 12 hours straight. That's why we have a team! As captain I just have to sit in the tent and give orders. Just kidding. I will do my share of the walking. As team captain I guess I should set the pace and the example, eh?

I'm a little concerned about not getting much, if any sleep. It might be a challenge to be well rested and alert to preach on Sunday! But all the more opportunity for God to show His supreme strength in my weakness.

This isn't a "Christian" cause, but it is a good one--one that hits quite close to home. I have a brother-in-law and a brother who have gone through cancer in the last while. A woman in our church is in the midst of treatment right now. I count it a privilege to do a little to help.

You can help too! Will you sponsor me for this walk? You can do it right online with a credit card at this link to the Canadian Cancer Society website. Check "Pledge a participant." Click "Next" and follow the prompts. Enter my name as David Groff. And thank you so much!

I'll let you know how it goes!

Dave