Month: June 2012

Jane is a university student--that's another way to spell "poor." She has very little left over at the end of a week, perhaps enough for a modest night out with friends. Food, textbooks, and laundry are the extent of her budget. On Sunday night Jane regularly heads home to mooch off Mom's table-it's better than paying for bland residence food. And besides, Dad always slips her a "loan," a small gift of money to ease the tension of higher learning. On one of her weekend pilgrimages to that Sabbath celebration, Jane had stopped to fill up her thirsty car at a local gas station that was holding a promotion: buy thirty litres and get your name entered automatically in a drawing for a shopping spree in the mall across the…

At the conclusion of the Red River floods, an elderly couple returned to their home once the waters had receded, as the sun was sinking over the horizon. Their farm had been inundated with water to the eaves troughs. Machinery was hopelessly corroded; seed grains were soggy and useless; livestock was lost; household goods were mildewed beyond recognition; the insurance policy was swamped. No coverage could replace what thev had lost. Though they had grown up in Christian homes, neither was particularly religious. They weren't angry dissenters or well-versed atheists. Church life had drifted away over the years like the little puffs of topsoil from their fields. No excuse, no great avalanche of animosity, just a steady decline. There was neither need nor reason to take it seriously. God had…