News & Views

The deadline for our newsletter, THE SALTSHAKER, is this weekend. Submit your articles about your committee, upcoming activities, report on past events, summer vacations, news and views. Our publisher, Terry Repol and editor, Andrea Rowan are anxious to hear from you. Please copy both of them on your submissions.

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 Tickets are selling quickly. Buy your tickets soon for ANNE WALKER IN CONCERT at the church on  Saturday, September 18. Tickets only$20.00. All proceeds to West Hill United Church. The Curtain Call Café will be selling refreshments. Contact the church office to purchase your tickets. Bring your family, friends and neighbours, reserve a table ot two!

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There will be a bike ride on Sunday Sept. 5, 1:00 p.m. in memory of Colin Hanson, a West Hill member who died in a car accident on Sep 3, 2009. Colin was an avid outdoorsman and  cyclist.  All are invited for this memorial ride.

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The 2009 Annual Report is now available on line. Being conscious of our environment and making wise use of our resources there will not be a distribution of printed reports. There will be a limited number of printed versions available upon request from the office. So relax, read all the interesting reports highlighting the activities of the past year. Bring any comments or questions to the Congregational Meeting on Tuesday, June 22.

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" Seeking a healthy balance between self-care and care for others, we share time, energy, talents, wisdom, knowledge, skills, material goods, and our presence with one another in order that we may inspire, encourage, delight, comfort, and help one another."

In this section, we talk specifically of the balance between self-care and care for others. Where does that line get drawn for you and are you comfortable with where it is? Is there somewhere that it might be more healthy for you or helpful for others? If so, are there things you would consider doing in order to move the line closer to where you'd like it to be. 

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From Facebook...

Good Morning. Yes, it is still morning. Not something I see often these days. I got this invite and am overjoyed that WHUC has started this site. Being that there were no topics started yet, I thought I would start one. My story of how I found WHUC is actually a very profound one. It was way back in mid '90's. I had just split from my now ex-husband and found myself in a Bachelor in Housing at Kingston Rd and Lawrence Ave. Unfortunately, the divorce didn't favour me much and I ended up on Social Assistance to boot. Emotionally distraught, severely depressed I was unable to work. I tried to learn to live again. I was alone, in every way imaginable. I was mourning the loss of my Step Daughter whom I was not allowed to see. The "family" I was once apart of had disowned me. I was lost, in every way a person can be lost. Unfortunately for myself, I had grown up in a family that was unable to feel. Whenever feelings became to strong, they ran from them in any form of "using" they could. I learned this way of dealing with pain very young and by the time this divorce took place I could not feel at all. It was too difficult and far too painful. I drank myself into oblivion most days and used any drug that would help me escape from reality. I was dying. I didn't even care.
As many probably don't remember, the Welfare Office was at that time in the plaza at Manse Rd and Kingston Rd. I had to walk up there any time I had dealings with them. I had always believed in God, but was not raised with any form of religion or spirituality in my home. I would pass WHUC often.
It was on a particularly difficult day when I had been to the Welfare office and was walking home. I remember walking with my head down. Feeling worthless and alone. Something (and when I say "something", I mean something or someone) made me look up.
There, on the sign in front of me were six words. Six words that changed my life. Six words that jumped out at me like a huge neon sign on an abandoned back-road!...
"A WARM PLACE TO FIND YOURSELF"
Those words still bring a chill and a sense of peace to me to this day. If ever in my life I needed to find myself, it was then. It wasn't just a small sign on the front of a Church lawn. It was a SIGN! A SIGN FROM GOD!
Incidently, I went to WHUC that next Sunday at 10am. I've watched our old Minister, Bruce Sanguin, with his guitar and the children. He moved on years ago. I made friends there who I don't always see, but still "feel" in my heart. I was finally Baptised there a few years later. I got to know Peggy and found her to be such a beautiful person.
And it was Peggy who introduced me to the program which saved my life even more! As some know, WHUC allows a 12 Step Program known as Narcotics Anonymous to meet on Sunday evenings at 8pm in the big room downstairs. She told me about it and I began to take part. It saved my life from the using of drugs and alcohol that I had been drowning in. It was another "home" I had found. It was Gods Will.
I have seen Bruce come and go. I have watched Gretta from the beginning. Her personality and flair take off like a Butterfly at first flight. She fills me when she speaks. She touches deep in my soul and brings out things I never knew I was able to feel. I cry and I laugh with all the people of WHUC. I "feel" again, finally. Even if it hurts to feel, I can feel again. I know I am no longer alone. God is with me always and forever.
It is WHUC I have to thank for this. It is God in his infinite wisdom who brought me to WHUC because he knew I needed it.
I sometimes walk up to the labyrinth and just walk it. It is heaven there.
Thank you WHUC. You saved me. I may not be there every Sunday bright eyed and bushy tailed at 10 - 10:30am all the time, but you left footprints on my heart. They will never go away. You are home, you are life. To me you are Love.
In Christ's name, I Thank you. In peace.
Amen.

Laurie Cassar
Saturday June 5th at 9:58am

"What you are is Gods gift to you,
What you become, is your gift to God"

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Hi everyone.  While in Australia, Gretta has been valiantly trying to blog but her schedule is making it difficult.  However, Scott has sent a few trip logs and asked, as webmaster, that I post some of them.

They are very long (!!) so I thought I'd excerpt a few pieces.  They are written just as Scott talks . . . 

~*~*~*~*~~*

Ok now it's the evening of the day we went to the Great Barrier Reef. OH MY GOOOOOOOOOOOODNESS. I shall never forget it the rest of my life. The 45 minute drive to Port Douglas was one of the most beautiful rides I've ever taken, and I've taken some beautiful ones - riding on twisty, turny roads up hills, around big bends, with rainforest views then changing to expansive ocean shore views, sometimes from up high, sometimes on a level - amazing blues and greens and brilliant sunlight. Gretta had to describe some of it to me, because I was driving this twisty narrow road on THE WRONG SIDE OF THE CAR AND THE WRONG SIDE OF THE ROAD. Actually, it was lovely. The boaot tour company we chose (there are scores of choices) has won awards for being eco-friendly (at least as much as possible). Big big boat. The vastness of the pacific. Hills all around until we were out so far there was nothing in front or behind us. This tour went to the "outer reef" so it was a long ride. We docked at a huge multi-storied pontoon, no, that doesn't sound as big as it was - it was like a floating restaurant/diving deck/snorkeling area/helicopter pad/semi-submersible dock, etc. the staff were great and helpful. There were marine biologists and they gave talks on the reef biology. First we had a buffet lunch.

Then we went on the semi-submersible - a long glass bottomed boat - and took lots of pictures that barely turned out, but we saw lots of colourful fish and marvelous coral structures. I must have 25 books on coral reefs, many on the Great Barrier Reef, and I have read them all and studied the pictures closely and been amazed by the variety, the colour, the life-cycle, the individuality, the methods of survival, etc. For years and years. And here I find myself looking right at the Great Barrier Reef.

But it got better - gretta & I decided to try the Ocean Walker - you put on your swimsuit, then a ridiculous lycra body suit with a hoodie and feeties and it's very tight and oh my, but then you put on a wet suit, and then they strap a weighted belt on you and they guide you down a set of stairs into the ocean to where you are up to your neck in water and then they lower a big 24 kg helmet on you (I think they said it was 25) and snap it on and start pumping air in through a hole in the top and then they guide you step by step until you're completely under water and then the thing weighs only 5 kg. for a minute it feels weird and then you get used to it.

You walk on this stabilized platform and then a million fish of all sizes and colours swim all around and beside and on top of you and everywhere - absolutely terrific - you aren't in an aquarium that's filled with fish, you're in the ocean and they just come and visit you. We were under water for 20 minutes and then they slowly guide you up the stairs and depressurize the helmet and take it off you. What a total treat. And then you take the wet suit off but still wear the ridiculous lycra suit and go snorkeling and we saw such beautiful coral and a giant clam (I CAN'T BELIEVE I ACTUALLY SAW A GIANT CLAM - I'VE READ ABOUT THEM AND SEEN MANY MANY PICTURES, BUT THERE I WAS LOOKING DOWN ON ONE. FABULOUS. And blue star fish and sea squirts and many great white sharks - kidding.

Beautiful ride back as the sun was setting over the hills. And then a beautiful car ride back through the windy hills beside the ocean, with a few stops for pictures.

Am writing this down in the little gazebo with benches near the water - can't believe I'm really here (not in the gazebo, in Australia - I'm pretty accepting of the fact that I'm in the gazebo). So beautiful everywhere I look.

A very strange bird is chattering in a palm tree far above me, and I'm running out of battery. Better stop now.

 *~*~*~*~*~*

Stay tuned for more in the next few days.

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Over the past six weeks there has been a great deal of discussion about our Food Awareness Initiative. Earlier in the year you might have read several articles in the SaltShaker, perhaps you saw the brochure that was distributed at church last month, you may even have participated in the Q&A session following a Sunday morning service. All of these have prompted feedback. We wanted you to know that the board appreciates your input and takes it seriously. We've met several times to reflect on what we have heard. Time is a precious commodity. All of the board members are volunteers and finding time to engage in these types of discussions is never easy.  However we are committed to finding the direction that best reflects the values and the needs of this congregation. So, please stay engaged in this dialogue as we attempt to find this path.

Offered in love,

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