Gardening

   After an uncharacteristically rainy spring, summer is finally setting in. Some years we have planted as early as late May, but this year we were glad that the rain prevented such an early start. The morning of June 4th, we awoke to a very light frost. The young plants probably would have been alright outdoors, but we didn’t want to take any risks. From then on, the weather promised to get warmer and warmer, so that afternoon we went out to plant. Preparations done the previous day made the task an easy one.

talking while working

   Many things such as tomatoes, peppers, watermelons, pumpkins, okra (Jonathan’s unusual plant this year), onions, a few cucumbers, and even corn had been started indoors to give them enough time to grow to maturity.  These are Sarah’s cucumber plants awaiting planting outdoors.

cucumber plants

   When we first moved to this house, the “soil” in our garden was primarily clay and rock, however, with many years of patient working it, adding compost, manure, peat moss, and sand, it has become much more workable.  Though at times it is tempting to complain about the quality of the soil, I am grateful that we can at least have a garden. The rocks, clay, and persistent weeds (the manifestation in nature of the curse) are a good reminder of both God’s justice and His mercy.

planting planting

   And just a couple bonus pictures of the summer flowers…

 

lilacs an iris

The call to proclaim the Gospel

   This spring the Lord again opened up the opportunity for us to play some music and to do a Gospel chalk art presentation at Mont Saint-Dominique – a Catholic nursing home at which Daddy works. We were amazed at how many people came. The nuns all showed up for the presentation, and even the “curé” (the chaplain) was there. Through the chalk talk, the Gospel was clearly presented. We pray that the Lord would use His Word to convict hearts and draw them to Himself.

playing together the cellist principle first awaiting their turn

Everyone loved seeing Daddy, the beloved doctor, playing music with his children.

everyone together

A few pictures of the chalk talk…

working together drawing by moolight 1 drawing by moolight 2

The picture is emerging the blacklight

   We were invited to stay for supper, which we readily accepted. This proved to be an excellent opportunity to interact with both the nuns and the residents, and to begin to get to know a few of them.

    Something I have often wondered when we do Gospel chalk art presentations is why we rarely see much response to the Gospel message. Everyone loves the presentation, but though it often elicits conversation about God, I don’t believe I can say that I actually know anyone who has come to the Lord through it.

    As I pondered this, the Lord opened up two things to me. The first was that God calls us to be faithful, not to see results. “Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord.” (I Corinthians 15:58) Our toiling for the Lord is not in vain even though we may never see the results of our labour. God has promised that His Word will not return to Him void, however He has not promised that we, the bearers of that Word, will see Him accomplish that work. His withholding from us the visible encouragement of results necessitates a response of faith on our part. We must trust that He is at work, though we do not always perceive it.

   The other answer came to me through a book I read recently. I share a quote from it:

    “It [the knowledge of the sovereignty of God’s grace] should keep us from being daunted when we find that our evangelistic endeavours meet with no immediate response. God saves in His own time, and we ought not to suppose that He is in such a hurry as we are. We need to remember that we are all children of our age, and the spirit of our age is a spirit of tearing hurry. And it is a pragmatic spirit; it is a spirit that demands quick results. The modern ideal is to achieve more and more by doing less and less. This is the age of the labour-saving device, the efficiency chart, and automation. The attitude which all this breeds is one of impatience towards everything that takes time and demands sustained effort. ours tends to be a slapdash age; we resent spending time doing things thoroughly. This spirit tends to infect our evangelism (not to speak of other departments of our Christianity), and with disastrous results. We are tempted to be in a great hurry with those whom we would win to Christ, and then, when we see no immediate response in them, to become impatient and downcast, and then to lose interest in them, and feel that it is useless to spend more time on them; and so we abandon our efforts forthwith, and let them drop out of our ken. But this is utterly wrong. It is a failure both of love for man and of faith in God.

    “The truth is that the work of evangelizing demands more patience and sheer ‘stickability’, more reserves of persevering love and care, than most of us twentieth-century Christians have at command. It is a work in which quick results are not promised; it is a work, therefore, in which the non-appearance of quick results is no sign of failure; but it is a work in which we cannot hope for success unless we are prepared to persevere with people.”  Evangelism & the Sovereignty of God by J.I. Packer

    We are called to patient labour. “Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting. And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.” Galatians 6:7-9

A comment on comments not commenting

Good evening,

We have recently received some comments regarding an issue about the comments on the blog posts.  In certain circumstances, it is impossible to place a comment, and the blog just “hangs”.

I have reduced the issue down to an issue in the theme.  I am currently working on this issue, and will update this post as soon as everything is working again.  Thank you for your patience.

For those people who would still like to make a comment, there is a work-around currently available.  Click the name of the blog post (at the top of the post), and then add “?theme=Indigo” without quotes to the URL.  Example: to comment on this post, go to this URL: http://www.createdinchrist.com/Blog/post/A-comment-on-comments-not-commenting.aspx?theme=Indigo  The blog will look different, but it is the same blog.

Please note that the blog may have temporary outages or peculiar quircks as we attempt to resolve the issue.  I appologise for any inconvenience this has caused.

Bicycling

Last Saturday we had the privilege of taking a 95-kilometre (60-mile) bicycle trip to an ice-cream shop with some friends.  I know, that sounds like a long trip just to get ice cream, but you must realize that this is Coaticook ice cream, directly from the factory.  Actually, Coaticook ice cream was not our only reason for bicycling, otherwise we would probably have driven there.

At 8:00 it was raining lightly, but we started nevertheless around 9:00 in the fog and humidity.  Several of us were taking pictures: Elizabeth with her Kodak, Nathanael with his iPhone, and I with my Blackberry, so we ended up with a well documented bicycle trip.  

Starting in the fog They didn’t consult each other to dress the same.

Around 10:00 we stopped for a short time to look at a river and dam.

The dam Taking pictures The river was quite high, but not flooding.

In spite of the cloudiness of the day, There was much very beautiful scenery to be seen – streams, farms, woods, panoramas, and tree-covered roads to name a few.

The view Through the woods A picturesque farm

We decided to stop to take a group photo at the top of the last hill before lunch.  There was very little traffic on this road.

Stopping for the shot Setting up the camera Group picture

Meanwhile, at home, William was having a great time with Daddy building a Piper Cherokee 140, and Amy was greasing the pizza pans for Mommy.  Stephen was practising his sermon for Sunday at the Grace Christian Home.  (I will try to make time to post on that, too.)

Aeroplane building Sermon practise

Finally, we arrived at the ice cream shop.  We then had lunch at the Coaticook gorge.  Yes, we had our dessert before our lunch, but we were good and ate our lunch anyhow!

Coaticook Icecream Shop Lunch time!

After lunch we were blessed with more beautiful scenery.

A rail-road crossing A farm with black-and-white cows A scenic drive, to be sure A path through the woods A farm with brown and black cows

Later in the day, the sun came out.  We never got rained on at all, in spite of all the ominous clouds we saw.

Reflection on the river

Finally, shortly before 6:00 PM, we arrived home, where Mommy had prepared pizza for supper. (With Amy’s help, remember?)  Thank-you Mommy for that delicious meal!  Oh, and a special cookie-cake made by Elizabeth…

Back home Bicycle wheel cookie cake

Finally, after all those kilometres of hills, we were persuaded (by the ones who hadn’t gone) to play badminton.  It was really interesting – the number of birds started at one, but there must have been at least half a dozen when we got near the end.

Badminton

And we wound it all up with a game of hide-and-seek.

Matthew 7:7-9 “Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you: For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened.”

 

Job 34:21 “For His eyes are upon the ways of man, and He seeth all his goings.”

 

On the posting of a post (aka “Anyone looking for a nice duplex?”)

   This comes from a proud sister…

   Not long ago, David planted his first real estate sign!  The duplex has actually been listed for a little while now, however, for various reasons, he was not able to put up the sign until recently.  I was intrigued by the way these signs are actually put up. (Odd, isn’t it…  Why have I never noticed the methods of installation for the “For sale” signs in front of houses previously? Smile)  In the first picture, David is hammering in the metal base for the sign.  Then he tied up the sign using plastic screws and nuts.  The reason for this, I learned, is that the plastic will not rust and leave stains on the sign the way metal ones would.

hammering in the stake putting up the sign

the duplex

   So, if anyone is looking for a nice, well-maintained duplex in Magog, you now know who to ask!

Birds and flowers

Some members of our family have enjoyed bird watching for quite a few years, but it was only last year that we started keeping track of which birds we have seen.  Since then, and since we have had a bird feeder within sight of the windows, we have all enjoyed watching the many birds that have appeared around our house and trying to identify them.  It reminds me a little of the work Adam had to do in the garden of Eden – naming the animals.

Genesis 2:19-20  “And out of the ground the LORD God formed every beast of the field, and every fowl of the air; and brought them unto Adam to see what he would call them: and whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof.  And Adam gave names to all cattle, and to the fowl of the air, and to every beast of the field; …”

Here are the common names for the birds we have identified and recorded so far this year.  The crows, chickadees, blue jays, mourning doves, woodpeckers and nuthatches stay here all year round.  The redpolls are the only ones that have gone north for the summer, some time around the beginning of May.  The bald eagle, the northern cardinal, the ring-billed gull and the common merganser were the only ones not seen at our house.

 

January 1 American crow
January 1 Black-capped Chickadee
January 1 Blue jay
January 1 Mourning dove
January 5 Common redpoll
February 16 Downy woodpecker
February 16 Sharp-shinned Hawk
February 16 White-breasted Nuthatch
March 30 American Robin
April 2 Common Merganser
April 2 Ring-billed gull
April 5 Canada Goose
April 10 Dark-eyed Junco
April 10 Mallard
April 11 American Goldfinch
April 11 Song sparrow
April 13 Chipping Sparrow
April 13 European Starling
April 15 Rock Pigeon
April 16 Fox sparrow
April 22 White-throated sparrow
April 24 Red-winged blackbird
April 25 Northern cardinal
April 26 Purple Finch
April 30 Bald eagle
May 3 Northern Flicker
May 5 Rose-breasted Grosbeak
May 9 Yellow-bellied flycatcher
May 10 Ruby-throated hummingbird
May 10 Savannah Sparrow

Here are a few pictures of some of the birds our family has seen in southern Quebec.

a female common merganser ruby-throated hummingbird Could you open this window, please? a male purple finch a male redpoll a pair of rose-breasted grossbeaks a female white-throated sparrow

I also enjoy taking pictures of flowers.  They don’t move as fast as birds.  I can’t tell you how often I have tried to take bird pictures where the result was just an out-of-focus background.  That doesn’t normally happen with flowers.Laughing

Red trilliumgreat white trilliumyellow trout lily

Here are some flowers we sometimes forget to enjoy – flowers that grow on trees, such as maples or larches.

larch cone flowers larch cones maple tree flowers

Genesis 1:20-22 “And God said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven.  And God created great whales, and every living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly, after their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind: and God saw that it was good.  And God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful, and multiply…”

Pandemonium in the kitchen

   Have you ever had a really busy day in the kitchen?  Our family has had many such days, but most of the time, the busyness doesn’t constitute pandemonium.  April 28th, however, was an exception when one particular person created quite a “pandamonium” in the kitchen.  I believe the pictures tell the story…

creating pandamonium cute panda the birthday panda

   Other busy projects have taken place in the kitchen, too.  A recent one was the trying of a new doughnut recipe.  My opinion is that this is the best one we have tried yet.  Thank you, Matthew, for sharing the recipe with us!  Perhaps I will one day succeed in making doughnuts as good as Tim Hortons’.  Maybe…

  doughnuts1 doughnuts2 doughnuts3

   It has been some time since we did an update on the Frazer doings and this post certainly doesn’t get us “caught up”.  Our days have been full (primarily of the day-to-day activities that one forgets the moment they are done), but I lack the time to recount it all, and as there is no crime in brevity, I dare to venture a very short, non-reflective post.

   “And whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men; knowing that of the Lord ye shall receive the reward of the inheritance: for ye serve the Lord Christ.” Colossians 3:23-24

Spring, Roofing

Winter has finally made its departure!  The snow is almost all melted, the flowers are appearing and the birds have started to return.  

A pair of mallards A Common Merganser on Lac des Nations

purple crocus A pair of goldfinches and purple finches Hey!  That's MY seed!

With the return of spring, we have had a lot of rain, but there was one day that was notably nice weather.  This was the day that we went down to our grandparents’ house to change their roof, which had begun to leak.  I am sure the Lord had a say as to which day of the week didn’t rain.  It took us all day, but we had a great time, and got it done just as the sun was setting.  We then had supper and a wonderful time talking, as always happens when we visit our grandparents.  It is good to hear from the wisdom of those who went before us.

removing the old shingles nearing completion Grandpa and Sarah Grandpa and William

“Consider the lilies how they grow: they toil not, they spin not; and yet I say unto you, that Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.” – Luke 12:27

Long overdue

   It has been quite some time since we posted an update on the happenings around here. Though much has occurred, perhaps it is best simply to give a quick overview…

   We are yet in the season called “Still Winter” as can easily be seen in these pictures taken on the second of April. Though it is normal still to have snow this time of year, it is a little unusual to have this much. Yesterday, it was snowing on and off all day. This morning, Daddy received a birthday surprise of another dusting!

snowy driveway chickadee the house

   The beautiful fresh snow was just perfect for sugaring off and the sap was flowing too. For our readers who have never experienced such an event, this is how it takes place. The sap is gathered from the trees and boiled past the syrup consistency, to “soft ball” on a candy thermometer. While it is getting to that temperature, pans (we use various bread pans and cake pans) are filled with packed, clean snow. When the syrup reaches the desired temperature, the rush commences. It must be poured onto the snow before it solidifies in the pot. As soon as it touches the cold snow, it begins to harden, so those who have been only onlookers up until now get to work rolling the “tire” onto popsickle sticks. Mmm… Here are just a couple pictures:

pouring the syrup rolling the Mmm...

   The snow hasn’t been the only cause of excitement here.  Some sewing has been underway – making matching shirts and skirts for all our family! The last ones were finished last Friday. We are looking forward to wearing them together soon. A family photo would be a good idea too.

sewing sewing

   Possibly one of the busiest locations in the house of late is the kitchen. Thursday, last week, we had a meal and time of fellowship with several wonderful families, bringing our “family size” up to 43! It was a wonderful time of getting together with like-minded followers of Christ. Of course, with a big crowd, there needs to be a lot of food and consequentially a lot of cooking – a favourite pasttime of our family. There is nothing like having all of us working together on a big project!

Mmm...

Evelyn did a fantastic job of arranging and decorating the tables.

the tables decorations

It was a wonderful time of fellowship.

the group talking afterwards

   Cooking isn’t the only thing that has happened in the kitchen either. Stephen has been studying chemistry and thought it would be interesting to try out some of the things he was learning. Electrolysis seemed a good place to start. And capturing the hydrogen produced proved even more interesting. The next step was inevitable… Someone suggested igniting the hydrogen. No, it didn’t blow up the kitchen! In fact, as those of you who know much about this will know, it made little more than a small “pop” and caused water droplets to condense on the inside of the “test tube” (aka flower stem keepers).

chemistry experiment chemistry experiment

   That was a very brief update, touching only on the highlights, but perhaps it is better than nothing! It has been a busy few weeks – ones in which we have been pratising diligence. I am reminded of a verse that speaks of the most important area in which to manifest this quality. “Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure: for if ye do these things, ye shall never fall: for so an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.” II Peter 1: 10-11

   Oh, just one more thing… When working in the kitchen, it is very important to cover all dishes of food, particularly cakes. I didn’t once and when I brought the cake out later in the day, it was covered in bugs! They weren’t just on the outside either – I counted 22 caterpillars between the layers! Smile

cake bugs