04 May - To Saskatoon & Visiting friends

We were alone at what iOverlander calls, "Portage Spillway wild camping" so we slept peacefully and enjoyed a slower morning doing our stretches and a bit of photography on the spillway. 

We found a group of Pelicans fishing and were fascinated by this group activity which included fly-bys.

We passed through the small town of Langenburg where they had a Rest Stop sandwiched between a Subway (which seemed to be the town coffee shop) and the train tracks. 

We stopped and enjoyed our breakfast. Mary Lou decided she needed another coffee so braved the trip to the Subway entering the space trying hard to ignore the owners of the 9 pickup trucks parked in front on the road.

Driving through the prairies is quite an experience. Visibility is forever over the very flat land. Every once in a while there are fascinating things to see and once in a while we stop and photograph that thing. It happened today. 

We noticed a line of old decrepit cars and other sundry junk which led to a row of equally decrepit buildings. That was all interesting but then we came to a sign at the corner of this property which proclaimed that "ONLY JESUS CAN SAVE." In front of this sign was another small sign which was an advertisement for Crime Stoppers. How does one put all of these messages together into something that makes sense??

We prepared our hot drinks today at a delightful Rest Stop with good washrooms and a peaceful setting.

Our destination today was Saskatoon and more precisely the home of Bruno and Lois Baerg. When we shared with them that we were passing through Saskatoon they invited us for supper and to spend the night.

Bruno is my "cousin uncle" (has mother and my grandfather are siblings) and his family spent many years living in DR Congo overlapping with my family so we've known each other forever. He is on the tail end of a contract with MCC so we did spend quite a bit of time discussing the struggles this organization has and is going through. I think I've basically decided that I'm not interested in talking about "it" anymore, yet it continues to rear its head. It is taxing for me emotionally. Yet at the same time I want to do my part to encourage accountability and change in the organization.

It was really good to catch up with them and to share about our respective families and their lives.

Audio Books on the Road

As a Sunday exercise, we listened to the book by Kate Bowler, Everything Happens for a Reason: And Other Lies I've Loved. The book recounts her journey through a diagnosis of colon cancer -- where for a period of time she thought she only had a brief time to live even though she was a recent professor and new mother of a much hoped-for little boy. Her PhD research chronicled the beliefs and experience of those informed by the prosperity gospel. It is those voices she interacts with when faced with this devastating news: for a while she believed she only had months or days to live.

Faced with the unreasonableness of cancer and confronted with all glittery positivity of prosperity gospel theology which is not that far different from a lot of Christian beliefs about suffering: ideas like "everything happens for a reason," we were both entertained and enriched by Bowler's writing. How often do we offer simplistic answers to people's harsh experiences? What does a robust theology that accounts for the true injustice of much of what happens in life look like/sound like/ feel like? Bowler doesn't offer answers as much as signposts that may help navigate the paradox of holding the idea of a loving God together with the devastation and loss some experience.