Michele Gyselinck

 Good training.  It is true that men are prone to give advice when they should just shut up and listen.  A woman who used to be a member of the church I attend, but who moved away some years ago went through a depression about 30 years ago, and at a party both of us attended her husband mused that when she told him how she felt his first response was to give advice, but that wasn't what she needed or wanted.  Keep up the discipline, even if it goes against the grain.

 I think we're becoming a bit TOO casual.  There was a time--pobably when there were more members of the older generation from Holland in our congregation who have since moved either westward or heavenward in our midst--when people dressed up more to go to church.  I still do, but then I'm not the grunge type anyway.  But I see more and more blue jeans and I don't like it.  Can't people make the effort to at least wear a nice pair of pants to honor God?

 For decades I wanted to marry and have kids, but I reached menopause and still there were no husband, let alone kids in the picture.  Now I'm 59, and I'm no longer anxious about that.  I also hoped to have a career of my own and be financially independent, but at 28 I started having symptoms of schizophrenia that were diagnosed ten years later, so after I graduated with my second B.A., I had to go on Welfare because I couldn't find an employer who would hire me.  I have sort of come to terms about my singleness, but right now, I CAN'T say that I feel successful, if success is longing for marriage all your life, not getting it, but still dying more convinced than ever that God is good.  

Maybe because I'm having a hard time feeling that God is good right now.  I'm pissed off with him.  For months I prayed that he would help me with a financial problem, a debt, and nothing happened.  So much so that I ended up thinking the institution I owed the money to had decided to write the debt off as a loss.  And now after months of silence, out of the blue,  here they come again demanding payment of $7,000. by the end of April as though I'm going to get that out of thin air.  In the meantime my situation hasn't changed significantly in that I'm living on disability income instead of welfare, but I'm not getting nearly enough money to come up with $7,000 by the end of the month.  I don't know where to look for it.  I tried lottery tickets, but nothing came off that.  So now I don't know what to do anymore.  

 First of all, youth is overrated.  When I was young, in my twenties, I developed schizophrenia and was miserable because lack of sleep and auditory hallucinations and depression made me want to kill myself.  Now, at 59, my symptoms are under control thanks to medications I take religiously about the same time every day, and I feel much better.  

Also, as Regional Advocate for Disability Concerns, I put the members of my congregation last fall that they should consider themselves as Temporarily Able-Bodied, or TAB for short because if accidents or disease don't  get them, old age will.

And Third, I have read about a fourth age, which is old age beyond 80 years of age.  My mom is 91 now, and she is still active and still drives her car.  Yesterday she told me that she had gone to the PQ head office to volunteer her help for the coming election.  She is the only separatist in the family and has been since the 1970s, so this is no surprise to us even if we don't share her opinion on the matter.  She also attends mass whenever she can and helps a friend of hers who has a multitude of age-related health problems.  And I think it's wonderful that she can still do all those things at her age.

 Thanks to Rachael Denhollander's courageous and gracious testimony as well as that of the other survivors, this evil man has been taken off the streets for good.  The judge--and I listened to the whole verdict as well as the statements she made before that--did not believe he would be safe to release in society.  Because he DID NOT GET IT.  So at last these women and their family got justice.  I pray that the Lord will heal their hearts and souls and help that wicked man come to repentance before he dies.

 Our church serves both coffee and juice AFTER the service.  I never get there early enough to see if there is anything BEFORE the service.  Nobody pours the coffee.  Somebody prepares a percolator ahead of time so it will be ready after the service, and it's put on a table in the Fellowship hall and people help themselves to that and cream or milk and cookies, although adults probably pour juice for the little kids.  Sometimes, there will be tomato pizza, or even samoosas for special occasions,  or cake when there is a birthday .  But usually that's after the service.

 Sorry, I'm Canadian, so I can't tell you that.  But up here, north of the border, we have taken in a lot of Haitian people last year who were afraid of being sent back to Haiti.  They have applied to be admitted either as refugees or immigrants, not sure which, and are awaiting a decision about their status that could take awhile to come.  Hopefully not years though.