This Week at Trinity, Beamsville
Friday, July 9, 2021
Dear Friends,
This week’s rainy weather is just what the gardens were asking for around our house… but I confess it’s started to feel a little confining. The weeds are definitely enjoying the fact that I can’t get out there to keep them in check. That minor moment aside, the rain hasn’t put any sort of a damper on the joy we’ve experienced at this year’s Vacation Bible School. The fact that it’s all been planned and brought to life as a virtual gathering has been a huge help. No weather worries here. It may not be our first choice for being ‘together’, but we’re still full of reasons to praise God and celebrate what can happen, through it all. The fact that our Andrew Poaps has been at the leadership helm, with untiring spirit and laughter, has kept it all in perspective. Then again, that would have been the case if we were all together in person, too. Next year, my friends. Next year.
I hope you get the chance to ask Andrew all about the VBS week we’ve had this year, with some of the most wonderful, witty, and resilient young people you can hope to meet. I hope you take the time to ask him about the week’s theme of community, as designed by Andrew and Brynna, and brought to life in all kinds of fabulous ways (including some very cool sessions with Don-the-Science-Guy). I also hope you’ll ask Andrew what it is that keeps him going, after the better part of a year teaching online with his primary vocation…then showing up for a summer week in his other calling.
Here’s what I think he might tell you; and what I know for certain you’ll hear in this Sunday’s service: Andrew chooses to praise God, whenever and wherever possible. You may know this already from what you’ve witnessed in his time as our Music Director, but you will hear it again in the conversation we pre-recorded earlier this week. With honesty and joy, and characteristically good humour, Andrew answers some of the questions that have swirled around in my head over the years, particularly in relation to how he’s managed some of life’s storms. He may be younger than the rest of the staff, and he may point that out every now and again, but he’s also lived through moments that many of us have not yet known. There’s wisdom in his faith-filled choices, and there’s great gift for us all in listening to him speak more of his story.
What better place and person for us to have with us, for this second look at Psalm 95 and the practice of praise – because praise we will, in song and prayer, and words of thanks. Praise we will lift, for where we’ve been and where we’ve still to go, and who we can all become, in this gift called Christian community.
With love to you all,
Heather
“And I’ll praise you in this storm and I will lift my hands,
For you are who you are no matter where I am.”
(Casting Crowns, ‘Praise You In This Storm’)