Pastor's Corner

Fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with My righteous right hand.
Isaiah 41:10

As near as I can tell, most of us are afraid of something. Those who work with fear say that over 40 percent of people have glossophobia. Glossophobia, that's fear of speaking in public. Don't have that one? Well, maybe you have acrophobia, fear of heights, or entomophobia, fear of insects. Is it possible you have atephobia? That's fear of financial problems. How I doing? Have I hit your fear yet?

Still, it is quite possible I haven't named your fear yet. Don’t breathe a sigh of relief yet. You might hide your fear even from those nearest and dearest to you, but you can't hide that fear from yourself. Your fear, my fear is there. Whatever your fear, there are a number of ways you can cope with it. You can let that fear paralyze you, stop you in mid-stride, afraid to move forward or back, or to the side. I've noticed people who deal with their fear in this way do manage to avoid most accidents. But they also don't make much progress.

Perhaps you deal with fear by pretending it's not there. If that's the case it's easy for your life to become an unending charade where you are constantly wary that your suppressed fear might, somehow, someway, at some time come bubbling to the surface.

Years ago, a circus featured a Bengal tiger act. One night, the trainer went into the cage for his performance. All went well, until the middle of the act, there was a power failure! For two minutes, that trainer was locked in darkness with a cage full of tigers. They could see him, but he couldn't see them. He managed to survive. Afterwards, in an interview, when he was asked how he felt, he said, "I just kept cracking my whip and talking to them until the lights came on. They never knew I couldn't see them."

Is that how you deal with fear or darkness? Do you keep barking orders and cracking your whip? We know the truth and how vulnerable we are. So, what I am trying to say is this: for each of us, fear is real, it is no illusion.

This is just one of the reasons we need the Lord Jesus in our lives in times like these. His Son came into this world and dedicated His life to the purpose of removing the power of fear. This He did by offering up himself as our Substitute. When his life, death and resurrection were completed, their stranglehold on lost humanity had been broken. In short, because of Jesus, we no longer had to fear them.

Faith always leaves us looking at God and away from dread. It does to anxiety, and fear what the morning sun does to valley mist. It burns it up. "Fear not, for I am with you. ... I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand."

Best wishes from your friend and Pastor.

Be Blessed,
Pastor Samuel King-Kabu

Report on the Annual Spring Luncheon

Annual Spring Luncheon 2015 –

Thanks to everyone who attended the Annual Spring Luncheon and all those who participated in various ways. It was a wonderful success. We had an unprecedented 104 people served at the lunch. Rosa had made a huge number of sandwiches with her capable assistant, Lone, so many in fact, that they could not all fit in her car, so a second car was used to transport the rest. A huge THANK YOU to Rosa ! Many thanks, also to the women of the church who brought cakes and desserts for afterwards. Also a big thank you to Victoria who brought a lovely huge cake from her bakery, Duc de Lorraine. It had a photo of Rosa on the top. Although it was not edible, it looked like it was, and Rosa was able to take it home.

After everyone had come up for their first plate of sandwiches and Rosa was seated, our MC of the day, Krista, took over. We think we managed to surprise Rosa, despite so many people being involved, and we hope it was a pleasant surprise for her. We enjoyed hearing Thomas and Maren sing again, we are so blessed to be able to call upon them for special occasions. It was good to see Maren again, as well as her husband, Stephen, and one of their daughters, Laurie Ann. Meagan, unfortunately, had to stay home in Rhode Island to study. It was nice to hear the many tributes to Rosa and good wishes for her in her new life when she moves to Burlington, ON, to be near her family. We will miss her dearly when the time comes.

Many tributes were read to Rosa at the lunch: Pr. Sid Nelson and Marian Holobow, Signe Inglev and Inge Nielsen (who almost could have made it to the lunch. Inge was travelling from Denmark and due to arrive only a few days after the lunch). Inge also sent some historic photos for the album. Knud Petersen sent a tribute for the album, but also spoke at the lunch to Rosa. Victoria had a tribute for the album and a beautiful photo with it. Kren Clausen spoke on behalf of the DDK. Peter Bateman spoke on behalf of the former St. Columbans. There were tributes from Amy Mason, The Montessori school, David Franklin, Rosa’s daughter, Jette, Karen Abaziou and Pr. Samuel. Ellen Dahl sang a Danish song. We had four tribute songs specially written for the occasion by four different people: Svend Berg, Karen Hall Moon, Jette Blair, and Hanne Armstrong. Maren, accompanied by Loren, led the singing of these songs. At the end of the afternoon, Rosa was presented with a beautiful bouquet of red Roses, a card with the names of everyone who participated in the special gift (which was not quite ready to present) and the album with the speeches, songs and photos (assembled by Anne J. and Jette B.) that everyone had provided over the past many weeks.

Web Page prepared by:

Roger Kenner & Jette Blair.
Content-New Topics Last Updated: 2015/06/25
St. Ansgar's Lutheran Church - Montreal