Walking down memory lane....

Once upon a time, i lived in Canada...

There were so many things i loved about where i lived... in the foothills of the eastern slopes of the Rocky Mountains. Kind of hard to believe that a kid born in mid-town Manhattan, raised in Queens and the south suburbs of Chicago could end up in in one of if not the most gorgeous part of North America!

i learned all about curling and hockey (which is by far the biggest sport in all of Canada far and away!). i learned to love the world's largest outdoor rodeo...The Calgary Stampede! The chuckwagon races were the best as far as i was concerned. Stampede week was always a great week in town because everywhere all over town you could get a free all you can eat pancake breakfast with all the fixin's! And let me tell ya' the Chinese food in Calgary blows away the Chinese food we eat here in the States.... i also learned the hard way that although we speak english here in the US that the english of your average Canadian is a tad different... for example at one of my very first public events (a dinner to say "Welcome to the staff!"), i referred to a serviette as a napkin a rather funny but serious faux paux. Amidst all the giggling, snickering and laughing i learned that in Canada, no one in their right state of mind would use a napkin at the dinner table. When i wondered aloud "Why not?". i was informed that in Canada only women use napkins. If ever a black man could turn red from embarrassment, i am sure i did that night!

One of the things i treasured about my time in Canada was all of the people that came into our lives! It is kind of amazing that these people took a chance and let me have an influence on the lives of their kids as Pastor of Student ministries. It was great experiment and i will always be grateful to my first Sr. Pastor... who decided to think "outside of the box" and bring a black guy onto his all white staff! The thing about it is, our time in Canada probably changed us more than it did all the students and parents we came to know and love.

These days i am finding out about many of the students that we left all those years ago back in Alberta... many of them no more than eight or nine years old when we left have turned into incredible young parents, beautiful young ladies (inside and outside), handsome young men, and dedicated Christ-followers. At least one of them has been blessed to become one of the biggest country music stars in all of Canada!

Others have had to deal with bad health, tough and difficult marriages that didn't turn out so well, friendships that faltered over time, some of them have for various reasons have "wandered away from the faith..."

The bottom line is that at some level they will always be "our kids"... no matter what! i keep track of them even if from a distance. They are an incredible group of young people who are making an impact on the world and i love to hear about what they are doing. i can't help but feel a bit responsible for the difference they are making right where they are!