The power of a phone call ...

A couple of years ago we launched an outreach campaign here called "Just callin' to say Hi". The intent was NOT to ask for money. It was NOT to encourage people to get more involved. It was NOT looking for anything. The intent was simply to call ALL of our members and say - "Hi," on behalf of the Church and see how they're doing ...

It was quite interesting. We learned alot about the people in our community, and we also generated alot of conversation and interest in what we're about as a Church ... It helped to open some dialogue that reminded us that the Church isn't just the folks who gather on a Sunday morning in the sanctuary. The church is a wide circle of people who look to the Institution for a variety of things ...

Recently in Minnedosa we've come to appreciate the importance of a phone call ... Calls from our sister Church in Brandon Hills who bear the same burden of losing their structure to arson (apparently by the same suspects) ... calls from our leadership in Toronto and Winnipeg ... calls from people for whom the building once held great meaning ... Every phone call was appreciated and valued. Each underscored the simple truth that we say so easily, but sometimes find it challenging to live - the truth that says boldly: "we are NOT alone."

Today I emailed our United Church leadership in Toronto and encouraged them to call the folks in Hartley Bay to send their support and prayers and encouragement after the sinking and rescue operations for the Queen of the North ... in a community of 200, such an undertaking affects everyone. And yet in finest form the people of Hartley Bay rose to the occasion and offered those in need the best they had ... They even risked their own lives to race through the dark and retrieve those who evacuated the Queen as she sank ...

This summer's trip to Port Hardy will be different for our family ... we won't be watching for the Queen of the North as she steams into Hardy Bay around 11pm ... her lights and her presence will be missed ... Tonight I'm mindful that my last night in Port Hardy as a student, we met to review my 16 week internship there, and a heavy fog settled in over the bay. As we sat and discussed the ups and downs and twists and turns of my time in Port Hardy out on the bay echoed the mournful cry of the Queen of the North's fog horn ...

The sound was sad, but the outcome wasn't ... a year later Mag and I were married in Port Hardy, and the rest as we say is history ... and for me it all started with a phone call one weekend saying - "you're student internship site is Port Hardy BC ..." I had to get an atlas out to find it ... but I have few regrets. A phone call can be a powerful thing ...

dayenu,