Brought out - Nesdoly

With vivid description the writer of Psalm 105 details the things God did to bring the Israelites out of Egypt:

"Their land (Egypt, where the Israelites were slaves) swarmed with frogs even in the chambers of their kings .... He gave them hail for rain and fiery lightning bolts through their land ... He shattered the trees of their country .... He opened the rock and water gushed out; it flowed through the desert like rain ....So He brought His people out with joy, His chosen ones with singing" (excerpts from Psalm 105).

There is in many of our histories the story of going from oppression to freedom, dotted similarly with signposts of God at work. I come from Mennonite stock. For this ethnic mix of original German, Swiss and Dutch peoples there is the story of an exodus from Europe to Russia and then to the U.S. and Canada in a quest for religious freedom.

My husband's Russian great-grandfather converted from the Orthodox faith to simple faith in Christ as taught by the Russian Baptists. As punishment for converting he was imprisoned for eight years in Siberia before he could bring his family to Canada.

The Secret Holocaust Diaries by Nonna Bannister is the fascinating true story of a young Russian girl who, from ages nine to about 20, kept detailed journals of her life. She describes her happy experiences as part of a large wealthy Russian family. She relates how the Bolsheviks expropriated her family's property. She tells of the dreadful winter of the German occupation of Russia when she was a teenager. She does eventually get to America. Hers is a story full of the evidences of God bringing someone out with joy and singing (though she shed many tears along the way).

In addition, many of us have a personal story of being in bondage to our old life and finding new life in Jesus.

And so it might be an interesting exercise to write a Psalm 105 of our own. It could be the story of our people. Or it could be our personal story where we recall the details of God taking us out of a life of slavery to sin. (If you write such a psalm, don't hesitate to use your imagination for the details, making it come alive like the psalmist does with the rain of hail, the fiery lightning, the shattered trees, and the miraculous gushing water!)

PRAYER: Dear God, thank You for the way you have worked in the history of my forefathers by bringing them to Canada, and for my own personal story of coming to freedom as your child. Amen.

(Adapted from "God Brings Us Out" first published on Other Food: daily devos August 8, 2011.)


- by Violet Nesdoly
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Website: www.violetnesdoly.com 

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The "Figures" Take Precedence — Lynda Schultz

History books tend to emphasize facts and figures. Although I am a history buff, particularly if it has to do with submarines, warships and airplanes, my next history book is going to focus more on the "figures" of the story than on the cold, hard facts.

Several years ago I was challenged to take on a writing project for the mission with which I have worked for the better part of thirty years. Fellowship International will celebrate its 50th anniversary next year and the senior staff thought it would be good idea to tell our story.

Rose and Mario Bruno, Italy

It's not that the story hasn't been told before—in bits and pieces. Our beginnings have been documented in This Dominion His Dominion, by Leslie K. Tarr (1968), in The Fellowship Story: Our First 25 Years, by Dr. J. H. Watt (1978) and most recently in A Glorious Fellowship of Churches, edited by Michael A.G. Haykin and Robert B. Lockey (2003). But this will be the first time that our story as a mission will stand on its own.

By next spring, the writing of the book needs to be finished so that it will be ready for release in time for our national convention, Fellowship 48, in November 2012. It wouldn't be such a daunting task if the facts and figures of history were all I needed to record. But my vision for this book is a much more personal one. I want people to experience the joys, sense the pain, work through the challenges, acknowledge the losses, and feel the heartbeat of the people who have been part of Fellowship International for the last fifty years. To do that depends, not so much on my writing skills, but on the willingness of our missionaries and alumni to be transparent and willing to share their journeys in print.

Kathryn and Rob Fleming, Japan

I've contacted every missionary and alumnus that I can find. Slowly the stories are coming in. My Thursdays and Fridays, days regularly dedicated to the work of the Communications Department of The Fellowship, will be heavily bent toward the book over these next months. There will be midnight oil to be burned I am sure.

My biggest fear? I do not want to fail my colleagues or the Lord by telling the story poorly so I pray that God will be my skill, be my words.

My greatest joy? I praise God for the opportunity to tell the story behind the movement, the story of the men, women, and children used by God to give Fellowship International faces behind the those cold, hard facts.

InScribers Review: The Best of Wilfred Grenfell - Review by Violet Nesdoly

Title: The Best of Wilfred Grenfell
Author: Wilfred Grenfell, edited by William Pope
Publisher: Nimbus Publishing, May 2006, Paperback, 179 pages 
ISBN-10: 1551095815 
ISBN-13: 978-1551095813

“’To believe is to do,’ Wilfred Grenfell said, and his 40 years as a medical missionary along the rugged Labrador coast amply illustrated his words. He was a prolific writer, fundraiser and traveler but it was his faith that empowered his life and gave it meaning; it enabled him to accomplish great tasks to the amazement of others and made him a legend even during his lifetime.”

This is how editor William Pope sums up the life of Sir Wilfred Grenfell. It opens the introduction to The Best of Wilfred Grenfell, a collection of eleven short pieces by this British medical doctor and missionary to Labrador and Newfoundland from 1892 to 1934.

Grenfell was born in Parkgate England in 1865. Though his father was a clergyman, Grenfell had no religious leanings until one evening when he was 20. Returning from a sick call (he was already training to be a doctor) he happened upon a large tent where Dwight Moody was holding meetings. He sat down to listen and as a result of the message that night he decided to commit himself to Christ. That decision changed the course of his life. He eventually became involved in the North Sea Mission to Fishermen but when he heard of the need for medical services along the Labrador coast, he volunteered to work there.

Along the rugged coastlines of Newfoundland and Labrador he traveled by boat, kayak, canoe or dog sled to wherever he was needed. He loved Labrador’s majestic beauty and considered the cold, primitive conditions, and rugged landscape a challenge and adventure. During his 40+ years of work he attended to the medical needs the people by traveling to them and building village hospitals. His efforts soon branched into other areas such as establishing schools, orphanages, and doing whatever he could to improve the life of the people.  

From the hundreds of articles and 33 books he wrote, the eleven pieces collected here give us a taste of his range. The stories, authored from 1909 to 1932, are not in date order. The collection begins with adventure stories like Grenfell’s horrendous experience of drifting out to sea with his dogs on an ice pan. Other incidents involving Grenfell and local characters include tales of storms at sea, a starving trapper and a fisherman guilty of insurance fraud. Reflective essays on marriage, the importance of stewarding one’s body and his manifesto of faith “What Christ Means To Me” conclude the book.

Grenfell is a wonderful storyteller. He writes with a natural sense of timing and incredible detail and specificity, speaking of oilskins, komatiks, pan, sish and slob ice with the ease and familiarity we talk of jackets, cars, and road conditions. In many places he writes conversations in dialect, giving the tales extra color and realism. Though his English in some pieces may seem complex, his archaic style reminds us that these writings are up to 100 years old. Even the bits of clay prose are worth the slog, however, for Grenfell was a remarkable man with important things to say. 

He downplays his own role in many of these incidents but the way the people respond to him show that he was loved and trusted as a leader and example in the community. Grenfell comes across as an idealist, but one who believed in working, not just dreaming. He articulates his moral and spiritual ideals especially clearly in the essays about marriage, the human body and what Christ means to him. Note these quotables from that last selection:

“Christ has become to me to mean more and more doing something, anything well.” p. 156

“God’s challenge to us is only to do whatever we can. Christ’s religion is as natural as the flowers in spring, and relates to the everyday things around us.” p. 156

“A lesson much needed and one which true loved calls for, is always to be optimistic. Never again will I be pessimistic because I cannot see the Christ bringing in His Kingdom in my way. If my boy promises me that he will not smoke, and I find a used pipe in his coat pocket, I do not say anything, I just trust him.” p. 158

Black and white photo reproductions showing Grenfell in his various roles are sprinkled throughout the text. There is a map of the area where he worked and a list of his publications at the back of the book.

This collection is a treasure for many reasons. It accounts rare early 1900s stories of life on the Labrador and Newfoundland coasts.  It provides history from one of Canada’s little-known mission fields. But most of all, it introduces us to a pioneer hero whose example in character and lived-out faith are needed as much today as ever.

The book is for sale from the Wilfred Grenfell Centre's online store here.


© 2009 by Violet Nesdoly. This review was first published at promptings in October of 2009.

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Famous Journals - Bonnie Way

Many people, writers and non-writers alike, keep journals or diaries. My mom likes journaling so she can look back on what she was doing a few months or years ago. During a time when I was very lonely, the pages of my journal became a listening ear to my thoughts and feelings. Like Anne Frank, I found that "When I write, I can shake off all my cares."

Many of us feel like British author Frances Burney (1752–1840), that “To Nobody, then, will I write my journal! since to Nobody can I be wholly unreserved—to Nobody can I reveal every thought, every wish of my heart, with the most unlimited confidence, the most unremitting sincerity to the end of my life! For what chance, what accident can end my connections with Nobody? No secret can I conceal from No-body, and to No-body can I be ever unreserved. Disagreement cannot stop our affection, Time itself has no power to end our friendship. The love, the esteem I entertain for Nobody, No-body’s self has not power to destroy. From Nobody I have nothing to fear, the secrets sacred to friendship, Nobody will not reveal, when the affair is doubtful, Nobody will not look towards the side least favourable.”

And yet others journal in a more public way, sharing what they write with Everybody. In our modern era, journaling has gone electronic—it’s now blogging. As I’ve surfed through the blogosphere, many blogs that I’ve seen are one person’s ramblings on their own life—and more or less interesting, depending on their life and their writing skill. Yet with the millions of blogs now being published, there is something there that keeps us not only writing such blogs, but also reading them.

Martha Brockenbrough suggests that journals are a way to “learn about yourself and your fellow humans.” We are all curious about those around us, whether they think and feel and see what we do. And not only those in our own era, but those in past eras as well. Historically, journals are important documents about times past. Think of famous journals you’ve read or heard of—Anne Frank’s is probably the first that pops into your head, but other people such as Lewis and Clark, Sir Ernest Shackleton, David Thompson and Charles Darwin also kept journals that are now publicly published.

Recently, my mom and I were touring Dundurn Castle in Hamilton, Ontario. Our guide kept referring to the journal written by the thirteen-year-old daughter, Sophia McNab. It was easy to imagine a bored and creative young girl, confined by the manners of the time to the nursery upstairs, recording the daily happenings in the pages of her journal. It is interesting to consider that her journal would become the most important source about a time when children were to be seen and not heard and women belonged in the drawing room. As one blogger says, “Doesn’t it make you just want to keep a diary, something to ensure that the record is accurate, a reference book for the tour guides in the unlikely event that your house is still standing 180 years from now?

So whether you blog or journal in a more traditional sense, don’t think it useless or silly. You never know who may read what you write and learn from it!