Page 38 - PC Issue 14 Summer 2020

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PRESBYTERIAN
SUMMER 2020
presbyterian.ca
Connection
REFLECTIONS
Fear and Faith
My Garden
By Vivian Ketchum, originating
from Wauzhushk Onigum Nation of Northern Ontario and now a member of Place of Hope Presbyterian Church in Winnipeg, Man., and Life and Mission Agency Committee member.
I left the Life and Mission Agency Committee meetings in early March in good spirits. As I arrived at the To- ronto airport to head back to Winni- peg, I noticed a few people and staff were wearing masks. I was cautious of my personal safety and used the hand sanitizers wherever they were placed. I went to my boarding gate and saw another Indigenous woman waiting there. She was with her teen- age son, who was walking around exploring the airport. The woman told me she attended the mining conference in Toronto. We had a brief chat, then I moved to another boarding gate. My boarding gate was changed. I arrived home and went about my regular routine.
I went to work, but then read on the news about the mining conference. A man who attended the conference had tested positive for COVID-19. I was at my computer at home while I read the news. My heart stopped. I thought of the woman I met at the To- ronto airport who attended the con- ference. The news of the coronavirus and how it spread through physical contact had me very concerned. I phoned my work immediately be- cause of the memo that they had sent out regarding any contact or travel that any employees had recently. I was put on immediate leave for two
Celebrating communion at national office.
weeks. I had to self-monitor at home for that period. My regular routine had changed in a week. Drastically.
My first concern was about my health. I am over 50 years old, In- digenous and had a weakened im- mune system due to an autoimmune disease that I had recently. Scarred lungs from childhood TB and gener- ally poor health put me in the vulner- able group of people that were easily affected by the coronavirus. It was a nervous two weeks as I stayed at home. My other concern was my financial situation. I had no income and applied for the special Employ- ment Insurance benefit that the gov- ernment set up for people that were off work because of COVID-19. I had to wait for over a month before get- ting it.
I ran out of food after two weeks of being at home. I have a special soft-food diet and the emergency food hampers the community was
sending out to people shut in due to the pandemic wouldn’t help me. The stores were packed with shoppers. I couldn’t risk going out in the crowd- ed stores. One day, my hunger over- came my pride. I put out a post on Facebook about my situation. Within a day people sent me money online and others were dropping food at my door that suited my special diet. Friends and strangers helped me out. My cupboards and fridge were filled up in a couple of days. Enough to last me until I received my Canada Emer- gency Response Benefit payments from the government.
The pandemic has turned our world upside down and sideways. It won’t be the same after this is over. I have found out that faith does over- come fear. Faith reaches out and lifts you up when you are at your lowest peak. Faith fills up your cupboards and your fridge. Faith and prayers come alive during a pandemic.
By Patricia Schneider, Forbes Presbyterian Church in Grande Prairie, Alta.
Years back, I had a rather large garden, filled to the brim with flow- ers and food. My favourite time of the day was spent there. But things change and the only garden I see now is a small space that encircles some of the rooms in our seniors residence. It is a poor replica of what once took all my attention and love, and that is okay—I am a poor replica of the gardener whose fa- vourite hours of the day were spent summer-harvesting the flowers and veggies that I had tended so ear- nestly. This new small space holds some perennials, but also some sad pansies and snapdragons. I picked off a few dead-heads and actually tried to reach some dried-out species near the back but alas, I am as sad a specimen as they are. My body pro- tested and my mind finally acknowl- edged that, “been there, done that,” would have to be my motto for the future. Some things we have to leave behind.
But there are times of triumph along with times of trial. Recently, my five great-grandchildren visited. They played under the big fir tree in this tiny garden and listened to the baby birds chirping in the wooden nest high above their heads. They had no trouble scrambling up the garden en- closure and were careful not to step on the pansies that seemed to smile back at them. I looked at them and realized that they were my garden—a living example of what I had planted years earlier; for all those years of tending and raising, their parents had given me this fine crop of children to love and to cherish.
My daughter insists I am a much more mellow great-grandma than I was a mother, but time now is short
may snicker at the dance, tambourine shaking or clicking of castanets car- ried out in the spiritual rituals of the Taltos. But, think for a moment. The priest, minister, rabbi and Imam per- form the same rituals, just in different ways. During religious services, God is celebrated in prayer, sermon and song. Parishioners rise to pray and sing hymns, and sit to listen to God’s Word, delivered to the faithful by the chosen individuals mentioned.
Our personal spiritual rituals are exactly the same: a prayer is a physi- cal/spiritual thanks and request for guidance, repentance and answer to God’s call. An unseen but spiritual
and these little ones are meant for me to enjoy and, like an ice-cream cone, they too will disappear from my sight and I will have just a memory of their sweetness. They will return to their home many miles away, leaving me with remembrances of hugs and wet kisses.
Life is a garden and all our expe- riences will produce changes in our lives. We had looked forward to so many things and, now, in our senior years we look back and see what the final results of those struggles are.
I am so glad I have faith to fall back on. The challenges I met when I was younger were overcome because of the presence of the Lord. There were some very difficult times, as there are in all lives, but I was never alone. In my senior years, I feel God’s pres- ence as I struggle with things that were once oh so easy. The body is failing and sometimes the mind for- gets things too, but the love of the Lord fills me with the assurance that God will never leave me or forsake me.
I am a part of the Lord’s garden and God loves me.
connection is felt.
You might ask: What prompted me
to write this article? Well, a faded coin that was recently found among my mother’s papers, bearing a man’s head on one side with the word Tal- tos inscribed on it, and a falcon on the other side with a short grace to God and Man, is the reason. I believe that many people are Taltos or spirit guides—some aware of it, others not. My worship and work with the church has shown me some of these individuals. They work for all people, feeding and educating the poor, com- forting the hurt and spreading the gospel during worship.
Finding Spiritual Connection
By Ida Fedor-Baan, former congregational secretary at
Gateway Community Presbyterian Church in Toronto, Ont., for seven years and freelance typesetter/designer for the Presbyterian Record magazine for five years.
Most humans have a belief system of some sort—even if they call them- selves atheists. I believe that faith is a religious, spiritual connection to God, demonstrated through prayer, meditation and, above all, trust that there is a God who assigns prophets, guardian angels or “spirit guides” to protect and help all.
In my Hungarian culture, the Tal- tos (similar to a shaman) is a spirit guide in human form, still consulted by some people for guidance. Some