HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 2012-02-16, Page 16PAGE 16. THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 2012.
Students adjust to new courses
By Madelaine Higgins
This week at St. Anne’s Catholic
Secondary School in Clinton,
students adjusted to their new
teachers and course loads of second
semester. Many of the sports teams
at the school were back in action,
attending games and tournaments
throughout the week.
On Monday, Feb. 6, both the
junior and senior boys basketball
teams played at Central Huron
Secondary School, the boys hockey
team played in Clinton. The
swimming and curling teams had
practice at Vanastra on Monday and
Wednesday, as the swimmers
prepare themselves for their
upcoming WOSSAA meet.
On Feb. 7, the Nordic ski team
attended the Huron Perth meet in
Duntroon, bringing home the
pennant. The junior and senior girls
volleyball teams had games at St.
Anne’s and on Wednesday, the
senior boys basketball team had a
game in the afternoon.
On Thursday, Feb. 9, St. Anne’s
participated in annual sweater day,
promoted by Students for Social
Justice, where the heat in the school
is turned down by a few degrees and
staff and students were encouraged
to wear their favourite warm sweater
for the day. Also on Thursday the
girls hockey team played in Clinton.
The St. Anne’s Me to We group is
preparing a Mardi Gras dance for
Grade 6, 7 and 8 students in the area.
All proceeds from the dance help
build a school in Kenya.
The St. Anne’s student cabinet is
in the midst of preparing a very
special movie night for Thursday,
Feb. 16 featuring the 2011 release of
Footloose.
By Pastor Brent Kipfer
Brussels Mennonite Fellowship
Glenn Chambers, a young man
from New York, was eager to begin
his career as a missionary
broadcaster in Ecuador. En route to
his assignment, waiting for his flight
at the Miami airport on Feb. 15,
1947, Glenn wanted to write a quick
note to his mother. There was no
time to buy a card, so he picked up a
scrap of paper lying on the terminal
floor. It turned out to be an
advertisement with the word
“Why?” spread across it. He
scribbled his note around that large
“Why?” – and mailed it to his
mother.
That night, travelling over a
14,000-foot mountain in Colombia,
his airplane exploded. There were no
survivors. His mother received news
of his death – and then his note
arrived. The question burned up at
her from the page: Why?
Whenever tragedy strikes, we
naturally search for answers, but
they are rarely satisfying.
We can usually describe the
mechanics of a situation – “human
error leading to a van crash” or
“shifting tectonic plates creating an
earthquake” – but this does not begin
to answer the deeper why? For those
of us who believe that God is both
loving and powerful, the question is
more personal than that. It is about
God’s purpose, about our
relationship with him and our ability
to trust God through thick and
thin.
Why does God allow suffering?
Christians usually point to five
different pieces of reality when
trying to understand this:
• The first is human freedom.
Much suffering in the world can be
traced to the decisions that we make.
Some of it is personal: I burn my
hand on our woodstove because I am
careless or cause pain to my children
because I am selfish. Some of it is
shared broadly: lifestyles creating
pollution or warfare between
nations.
• The second consideration is that
we live in a broken world.
Tornadoes, earthquakes and disease
point to the reality that our planet is
“groaning” and is not functioning as
God designed it (Romans 8:22).
• Sometimes we are able to see
good come out of disaster:
neighbours helping neighbours,
people turning to God for help or
communities emerging stronger as a
result - signs of God at work in the
midst of suffering.
• Depending on our response to it,
suffering has the potential to shape
our character for the better, enabling
us to be more loving and empathetic
toward others, to gain wisdom, to
grow deeper in our faith.
• With faith in God, we can be sure
that our suffering is temporary.
Nicky Gumbel tells the story of a
boy whose back was shattered when
he fell down a flight of stairs at the
age of one. For years he was in and
out of the hospital. His pastor
interviewed him in church when he
was 17 years old. When the boy
remarked that “God is fair,” his
pastor stopped him and asked, “How
many years have you spent in the
hospital?” The boy answered, “13
years.”
“Do you think that is fair?” his
pastor asked. The boy replied,
“God’s got all eternity to make it up
to me.”
The apostle Paul, who also had
plenty of first-hand experience with
hardship, said, “I consider that our
present sufferings are not worth
comparing with the glory that will
be revealed in us.”
None of these considerations,
however, fully answers the question
of why? God’s response to our
questions is more personal than that.
Rather than answering from afar in
the safety of heavenly glory, Jesus
Christ enters our broken, messy,
sinful world to suffer with us. On the
cross he reveals the heart of God to
us. John Stott wrote: “I could never
myself believe in God, if it were not
for the cross…In the real world of
pain, how could one worship a God
who was immune to it? I [turn] to
that lonely, twisted, tortured figure
on the cross, nails through hands and
feet, back lacerated, limbs
wrenched, brow bleeding from
thorn-pricks, mouth dry and
intolerably thirsty, plunged in God-
forsaken darkness. That is the God
for me! He laid aside his immunity
to pain. He entered our world of
flesh and blood, tears and death.”
Rather than answering our whys
Jesus Christ comes in person and
weeps with us – so that one day we
may laugh with him. It is more than
an answer. It is love.
THE CATHOLIC PARISHES OF NORTH HURON AND NORTH PERTH
CORDIALLY INVITE YOU TO ATTEND HOLY MASS.
OUR SUNDAY LITURGIES ARE AS FOLLOWS:
Brussels:
St. Ambrose
Saturday
6:00 p.m.
17 Flora Street
Wingham:
Sacred Heart
Sunday
9:00 a.m.
220 Carling Terrace
Listowel:
St. Joseph
Sunday
11:00 a.m.
1025 Wallace Avenue N.
Youre Invited
to come worship
with us
Sunday, February 19
Brussels Public School
at 10:30 a.m. and 6:30 p.m.
Sunday School for children
4 to 11 years of age at 9:30 a.m.
Childcare provided for infants and
preschoolers during the sermon.
Coffee & cookies after the morning service
For additional details please contact Pastor Andrew Versteeg 519.887.8621
Steve Klumpenhower 519.887.8651 Rick Packer 519.527.0173
Chris McMichael 519.482.1644
Worship Service & Sunday School at 11 a.m.
CORNER OF DINSLEY & MILL STREETS
MINISTER
Rev. Gary Clark, BA, M. Div.
All Welcome
MUSIC DIRECTOR
Floyd Herman, BA, M. Ed.OFFICE: 519-523-4224
FEBRUARY 19 ~ I’ll Be There For You
FEBRUARY 26 ~ Love is a Battlefield
THE ANGLICAN CHURCH OF CANADA
Welcomes you to come and worship with us
Trinity, Blyth
9:15 a.m.
Church Office: 519-357-4883
St. John's, Brussels
11:15 a.m.
519-887-6862
Sunday, February 19
Rev. Perry Chuipka
www.nabcom.ca/church
BRUSSELS - ETHEL PASTORAL CHARGE
UNITED CHURCH OF CANADA
Sandra Cable, Worship Leader
Church Office 519-887-6259 E-mail - bepc@wightman.ca
Sunday, February 19
Ethel United Church
Worship Service and Sunday School - 9:30 a.m.
Brussels United Church
Worship Service and Sunday School - 11:00 a.m.
Celebrating our Christian Faith together in worship
MELVILLE
PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH
BRUSSELS
Rev. Elwin Garland
SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 19
Wheelchair accessible ~ Nursery care available
519-887-2664
10:00 am - Sunday Morning Worship
- Sunday School
You’re Invited To Join Us In Worship
Hwy. 4, Blyth 519-523-4743
www.blythcrc.ca
SUNDAYS
Morning Service 10:00 am
Evening Service 7:30 pm
BLYTH CHRISTIAN
REFORMED CHURCH
getlivingwater.org
Pastor: Ernest Dow ~ 519-523-4848
Living Water
Christian Fellowship
February 19: Mk. 2:18-22
10:30 a.m. ~ Worship & Sunday School
at Blyth Public School,
corner of King & Mill
Tuesdays 7:30 pm - Wingham Bible Study
1st & 3rd Wednesdays 7:30 pm - Women At The Well
Evangelical Missionary Church
“Stretching &
Shrinkage: How
Adaptable are You to
God’s Initiatives?”
Coming to Memorial Hall
March 2: COURAGEOUS!
Friday, February 17 at CRC 8 pm:
“Faith-In-Song” Concert!
Adults $10, children $5, ph 519-523-4299
119 John’s Ave., Auburn
519-526-1131
www.huronchapel.org
Rev. Mark Royall, Sr. Pastor
9:25 a.m.
Sunday School for all ages
10:30 a.m
Morning Worship Service
What To
Do When
Life Hurts
Sermon Series
continues this Sunday!
From the Minister’s StudyJesus doesn’t answer, He brings his love