Found amongst the ashes and debris ...

Yesterday, we spent the day doing some yard clean up ... it's been so warm and moist around here, the trees and shrubs have had a good season to grow, and so, after a long afternoon of hacking and cutting and sawing, there was quite a pile of stuff to go to the dump. Thanks to the loan of a friend's pick up, the kids and I managed to gather all the branches and sticks and twigs and take them out to the compost site on the north end of town.

While we unloaded them, my 12 yr old son S--, asked: "Where did they put the church after they dug out the foundation?"

I answered, "At the Old Dump."

"Weren't you going to go and look through it?" he asked.

"Yeah ..." I answered hesitantly, "but I never went ..."

We then finished unloading the pick up and headed back down the short gravel road. At the pavement we had a choice - left to go back home, or right to go to the old dump ...

We turned right ...

S-- and I climbed under the gate of the now closed and defunct dump and walked back in to where the debris has lain since it was dumped there in February ... It was startling to see how big and area is covered with what was once the Church and its contents ...

We walked over the debris field, we poked around a bit and identified a variety of things ... We found a dozen or more little shoes from the pre-school who had called the basement home for many years ... I recalled the article in the Winnipeg Sun, and the comments made by the little kids about where their shoes had gone ... I found some of them in amongst the ash and the broken brick and shattered wood ...

Then on top of the pile I found it ... my pulpit New Jerusalem Bible ... I bought it the summer of my ordination at a used book store in Stratford ... it cost me less then 30 dollars ... I had used it in Bella Coola BC, Port Hardy BC, Langley BC, and of late here in Minnedosa ...

There it sat at my feet ... it was charred, dirty, and more then a little water damaged ... it's cover and the first 460+ pages were missing - but much of it is still intact and readable.

I laughed ... tears welled up in my eyes ... and I tucked it under my arm ...

After six months of sitting here through the snow, the rain, the sun and the wind ... it had survived ...

It will never be used in worship again, but it survived the fire, the excavation and now the withering heat of a prairie summer ... I carried it out of the dump ...

I'm not sure what I'll do with it, but for now I'm just delighted to have found an old "friend" who has travelled along way with me ... I'll honour that journey somehow ...

For now I'll just cherish the gift ... and I'll hope I don't get in trouble for admitting to trespassing ...