Many of you know that Art and I took a trip recently to the Canadian Rockies. One of the places we stopped along the way was Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. We lived there from 1995-1999 (4 ½ years, 5 winters). I served a church there. It is pictured above.
I was called there in 1995 to be their pastor because I was young, cheap, and had some training in redeveloping congregations. The church at the time was located ¼ mile outside the Edmonton city limits, and it was about 4 miles away from the closest housing development. Mostly we were surrounded by farmland and the occasional acreage. The belief was that more and more housing developments would continue to creep out until the church was in the middle of neighborhoods. My main purpose there was to help prepare them for when that time came, so that they would be ready to welcome people to the neighborhood. However, they could no longer afford to pay my salary after a few years, so we moved back to the States.
This was the first time in 25 years that we had been back, and we drove to the church so that we could walk out to the cemetery. That drive was OVERWHELMING! The city is next door now. The farm that was literally next door is now being developed for housing. However, it is not just housing on the way out to the church. It is CITY. It is businesses and warehouses and restaurants and hotels and paved roads and traffic. There is even a Tim Hortons just a block away!
This is not how anyone imagined it would develop. When I served there, I went to meetings about where the ring road was going to be built. I met with housing developers. I talked with local politicians. Everyone thought that it was only going to be housing built out to the church. However, those plans changed as the developments were built. Because the church is located between the city limits and the international airport, people demanded hotels and restaurants and shopping centers be put in the area, too.
This experience reminds me of the Yiddish proverb which says, “We make plans, and God laughs.” Even with the best-laid plans, life doesn’t always happen as we plan it. There are so many variables that come up. We think we are in control of our lives, but ultimately only God is in control. If we look back at our own lives, what we had planned, and what we believed, I suspect that we would laugh at some of those plans and beliefs, too.
Things may not have turned out as the people of that church had planned, but as we were reminded, they are still there. They are still worshiping God, and they are continuing to reach out into the community. Thanks be to God!
Pastor Beth
