And there is still three weeks to go

600 people have given their lives to Jesus through the Franklin Graham Festival and there is still almost 3 weeks to go before it officially starts.

Quote

ABBA does not mean 'daddy' - Dr. Jeal

Think about it...

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"Violence is incompatible with the nature of God and the nature of the
soul," - Pope Benedict XVI

Just to cover bases....

Whereas Jesus is the Prince of Peace and whereas it is attributed to him a statement indicating that the peacemakers are to be blessed. Given the September 21st was recognised as the International Day of Peace and accepting that minority opinion on this subject states that this is not (at least also) a tangible terrestrial peace but instead a theoretical ideal, construct or allusion to a future era, it is my theological interpretation and present conviction that a temporal peace should be the objective ideal and indeed goal of every Christian. It is also my opinion - though I would not refer to myself as a Pacifist or align myself necessarily with the historic stance of the Contentious Objectors at this point in time - that as people inside the churches and outside the churches are grafted into the Church that we will indeed support and work towards 'peace on earth and goodwill toward (hu)man(kind).'

Having been cautioned directly that some may assume that by directing people to a particular petition to 'support our troops by bringing them home' so that, if they so wish, they may add their name to the petition that will be presented to the Canadian House of Commons, it may lead some to assume that I support 'gay marriage' or 'abortion', I would like to clarify that like the Federal Liberal Party and the Federal NDP's planks in the previous election, I have no comment on abortion to make here in this web log entry at this time. (The new Conservative Party stated in the most recent election contest that it is not politically opposed to the theoretical concept of abortion. I confess that I did not publicly support its candidate in my riding in the most recent election. I also, for the record, did not endorse or publicly support members of the other political parties represented in my riding either. I did vote for a candidate in my riding. -I apologize to any of those whom I inadvertently offended by declaring that I voted in the previously contested federal election-  As I would not want to create an appearance of bias here towards a particular political party and those who have had specific conversations with me about 'party politics' are probably well aware of my basic ABC policy as it pertained to the most recently contested Canadian federal election and my often spoken comments about the responsibilities of Christians within a democratic federation and a Constitutional Monarchy, as well as my theological understandings of the implications of both democracy and capitalism and those who are familiar with those previously commenced on-going conversations are further aware of my background and experiences relating to these extra/non-Biblical theoretical constructs - I am not intending to make any comment on macro-political or economic structures here at this time.) Seeing as others may assume that I have a particular stance on issues (which I do) of 'Gay marriage' and 'Abortion' that I am not intending to articulate here, I would like to refer any who may wish to read more on those topics to The Salvation Army Canada and Bermuda Territory. It has a detailed well vetted positional statement on those issues. They are available to view on its website: salvationarmy.ca.

Bearing the aforementioned in mind and declaring here that I have no official political affiliation and have never paid membership dues to any political party during my entire time serving in The Salvation Army, it is my personal theological understanding (I emphasize the word 'personal') that it is wrong to have Canadian troops serving oversees in what is now officially a war-making capacity. Recognizing that if the rhetoric surrounding the Canadian mission in Afghanistan changed so that our role was in essence, substance and referred to as that of peacemaking, peacekeeping or even a policing force, I would certainly considering endorsing it as theoretically it would be aimed at protecting the most vulnerable in society - as it stands at present, that is neither the explicitly stated case nor policy of either the Canadian government nor Her Majesty's Loyal Opposition. Given the above and the assumption that it is the duty of the Christian to be active in issues of conscience, social justice and peace so that they may know us by our love, I would like to make the option available for Canadian citizens of legal voting age, to consider the petition before the lower house of the Canadian government that pertains to the current war our government has declared on our behalf in Afghanistan. In order to avoid possible alienation of some of my more recent readers or those who may have 'stumbled across' this by accident, I will decline the opportunity to state whether or not I signed the here referred to petition. (Some long-term readers of mine may remember my heated debates on e-petitions -though this is not in the same category- that I engaged in while writing for the news service.)

Humbly,

Michael Ramsay

The petition:

Click HERE to read and prayerfully consider the petition.

 

Coming soon...

The blog is coming back. If it gets too stressful, I invite you to visit Dr Was by clicking HERE

I'll be back...

I have too much to say...I'll be back soon. Just a reminder that as I used
to sign my blog entries, The opinions expressed in this blog are at most -
but not always necessarily - the opinions of Michael Ramsay.

Contoversial Blogs

After discussion, I have removed my three most recent blogs. My apologies to those I offended or misrepresented, as the case may be.

I will be taking a break from blogging here for a while. Just a reminder for when or if I return, if you accessed this through my website there is a link to push for comments...

Pictures of Becca's first day

Rebecca's first day at school: http://sheepspeak.spaces.live.com

A few things...

Things are busy here. That is one reason why I have not been as consistent of a blogger as of late. Another is that I am trying to stay clear of controversy for a while. Hey, I let both that elected senate nonsense and Sept. 11 pass without a peep. Pretty good eh? Anyway we have met God's Fellow Workers and they seem to be fitting in just fine here. You can read about them all in past issues of the Salvationist, I'm sure. One fellow, Eddy, is from Angola. He speaks four languages - how many of us are still trying to master one?

Anyway, I have to go...busy, busy, busy,...but check out the imbedded hyperlinks

Quote: "The ultimate weakness of violence is that it is a descending spiral, begetting the very thing it seeks to destroy. Instead of diminishing evil, it multiplies it... Hate multiplies hate, violence multiplies violence, and toughness multiplies toughness in a descending spiral of destruction.... The chain reaction of evil - hate begetting hate, wars producing more wars - must be broken, or we shall be plunged into the dark abyss of annihilation." - Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. 

September 11

This was a very significant day, of course, one which forever changes our
lives here. One we should remember. September 11 is the day that Rebecca
started kindergarten.

Daily Rations with a Smile

Lamentations 3-5 and Revelations 15



view more at http://drwas.blogspot.com/

1 Thess 5:16-18, a verse for us cadets perhaps...

"Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for
this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus." TNIV

Daily Rations with in Smile

 

 

 

click the picture to see more

 

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"Do not tell me it is impossible. Nothing should be impossible to a soldier.
The word impossible should not be found in a soldier's dictionary." Col.
Brock ca. 1812

Now we're home...

We're back in Winnipeg! It was sure nice for the girls to wake up in their
own beds again and be reunited with friends and toys - but boy am I tired.
We started on our trip at 7:30 am Wednesday and went strait through from PA
to Winnipeg. We arrived at 12:30 last night / this morning.

We had fun but it is good to be home... :-)

We're home...

It is sure nice to be back relaxing on Vancouver Island and visit friends
and family for a while. It seems weird not having to work on a paper this
week...

Some picts in the 'vacation' folder: http://sheepspeak.spaces.live.com/
Don't forget your rations: http://www.havelock-viha.com/journal.htm

Maple Creek was great!

Maple Creek was great. We miss everyone there already.

When we returned to the Downtown Eastside of Vancouver, we were greeted by a
former cellmate of Susan's who didn't recognise us. Her first words for us
were "this isn't a place for kids." We then checked into our cockroach, lice
infested hotel room...it's good to be home (-:

We are now at our other homes on the Island - a little different.

Pictures are available at http://sheepspeak.spaces.live.com/ in the 'Summer
Assignment' and 'Vacation' folders - Next week, CFOT again for another
round....