Fred Redekop

Dementia is awful

September 24, 2025

Good afternoon,

My friend has dementia. It is not rare, and probably all of you know someone, or have a family member who has the disease. My father-in-law suffered from it for seven years. We lost a part of him every day. Every time we saw him he was always a little worse. I am not the only person who is asking the unanswerable questions about disease, life and death.

But, of course, it is personal this time, as well at other times too. My friend is in the hospital now. I sat with him for a few hours last evening. There is nothing to say, or I cannot find anything meaningful to say. Maybe if I could sing 1970’s rock and roll music that would be good. But my friend is not in the room anymore. He is there physically, but where has his mind gone ? He looked into my eyes, I think, and nothing came out of his mouth. When the words came they were mumbled and so quiet. How should I pray ? I had hours to think about it.
With disease, we can pray, ” Dear Lord, please take my loved one, or heal them now .” I know prayer does not work this way, but I would like this to come about. With disease, we are often at a loss of what to do. We do not like to see someone who is hurting and/or in pain. I do not like to see my friend, and his family, suffering. Vietnamese culture says that ‘ life is hard, there will be suffering ‘ . Our culture, I think, believes that suffering should not happen to us. and if it does, there should be some treatment to fix it today or at least tomorrow. Two very different cultural attitudes towards life and suffering. So, how do you react to the role of suffering in the human condition ? Is there an answer at all ?

My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

Why are you so far from saving me,

so far from my cries of anguish? Psalm 22:1 ( Jesus said these words on the crosss as well. )

Praying for the peace of Gaza. AMEN

Fred

black and white shadows

crush humanity’s freedom

am I complicit ?

MPL

PRAYERS

September 28. 2025

PRAYERS

Dear God.

Why

Where

When

Who

How,

Netanyahu

Putin

Hamas

MCC

Prices

Illness

Guns

Life

Death

Memoir

I can only name things for you God today,

You can fill in the blanks,

You are a God of :

Love Justice Peace Compassion.

but, our world, my world ,

is mostly opposite.

I hope.

that the worlds beyond are better.

AMEN.

Fred

black and white shadows

crush humanity

am I compicit ?

My Hero

September 29, 2025

Good afternoon,

In the beginning God created the world out of nothing. Genesis 1:1

My brother John had another art show in Toronto the past two weeks. Shirley and Caleb and I went yesterday on the final day of the show. John writes about his work:
” In one Body of work, Redekop surgically shreds newspapers and magazines, and reconstitutes them into layered, sedimentary formations.”
ÈA second current in his practice arises from geometry and repetition. Here Redekop builds compositions from small ’tile-like’ elements assembling them into larger structures through simple mathematics and additive process.”

I have seen his work using old newspapers but the second type of art he is doing I have not seen. He explained it to me in terms of going back to the quilts of his Mennonite heritage. My mom was a quilter, so it might have been in memory/homage to her. He starts with a small piece of wood block and puts it into a spiral motion, and the various parts form a complete mathematical formation. It is cool. Often he uses recycled wood material. He is very creative and thoughtful. I admire his imagination and skill using simple material. One of my heroes.

Shirley, Caleb , the piece, John and Fred.
Fred

black and white shadows

crush humanity’s freedom

am I complicit ? MPL 2025

what’s happening ???

September 8, 2025

Good afternoon,

( Thank you for your prayers. I think yesterday went well )

There will be great earthquakes,

famines

and pestilences

in various places,

and fearful events

and great signs from heaven. Luke 21:11

I do not know what this verse means for us. It was for the early church waiting for Jesus’ return, but he has not left for the first time yet in the Gospel. Confusing.

I am worried about what is taking place in the United States. You might have noticed in some of my recent blogs. Am I thinking about the children’s story Chicken Little ? Am I yelling that ” the sky is falling ” too much? Are the two terms of President Trump just part of the regular election cycle that happens ? I do not think so. The present government is carrying out a plan called Project 2025. I have not read it all, but many of the executive orders signed by Mr, Trump are part of what is described in the plan. It is about authoritarianism .

When Mr. Trump threatens to declare the whole country an ‘ emergency ‘, and then declare emergency powers and finally call for martial law, all bets are off. He has ended the US Agency for International Development putting millions of people all over the world at risk for disease, malnutrition and death. Why ? He has occupied Los Angeles and Washington D.C. with the military, and is now threatening other cities. I worry about what effects this will have on Canada and the rest of the world. He has named the Department of Defence, the Department of War. There is something new everyday.

I am worried about the violence. I worry about the most vulnerable. I hope the ‘ sky is not falling ‘, but there are dangerous signs and activities. The Mennonite church in the United States is preparing for things to get worse, especially for the immigrants. Many people voted for Mr. Trump thinking his stated policies would never affect them, but now they are being affected negatively. He still has enormous support in the country.

Lord have mercy and love on us all. AMEN
Fred

black and white shadows

crush humanity’s freedom

am I complicit ?

MPL 2025

praying

September 7. 2025

Good morning,

PRAYERS

God,

Thank you.For friends, family, food,

readers, books,walking,

biking,silence, words,

Animals,women and men of peace,

my history

billions of stars and galaxies

music,( what are you thankful for today )

This morning. I listened to a instrumental album by Bruce Cockburn.

No words.

My mind was able to reach out to the almighty and Everlasting One.

Thank you.

AMEN.

Fred

black and white shadows

crush humanity’s freedom

am I complicit ? MPL 2025

My Outlier Advantages

September 4, 2025

Good morning,

As I mentioned yesterday I have benefitted from many opportunities in my life.

When I was pastor of the three churches in my career, I was given instant community. I knew we had people who carried for me and my family immediately.

I grew up in the small town of Niagara-on-the-Lake. It was safe and I had a public library that I could walk to.

I went to university/seminary in the late 1970’s and early 1980’s. When I left seminary after 6 years of higher education, I had only $1600 in student debt.

We raised our family in Ontario where we had universal health care, a church pension, Family allowance, our kids could play hockey , and we always had food on the table.

I was gifted three sabbaticals from the Floradale Mennonite Church.

For my skill that took 10,000 hours would be preparing and delivering over 1500 sermons/presentations. I did a lot of visitation that added up to 10,000 hours at least.

The subtitle of Gladwell’s book is A Story of Success. I am not sure I have been successful because of what metrics I would look at. The churches where I was the pastor did not grow. Did I invite people to a deeper walk with God ? Did my 10,000 hours of sermons change the world ? How do you rate success ?

I am happy. I have enough money to retire. I have a great family. I had three great churches. If I am a success, I didn’t do it on my own. Thank you everyone for all the help and opportunities you have given me.’

Fred

black and white shadows

crush humanity’s freedom

am I complicit ? MPL 2025

PRAYERS

August 30, 2025

PRAYERS

I do not know what to do,

exactly.

I hope trust and want to do what is right,

but.

I have to have faith that bit is indeed, going in the right direction.

Faith, by grace not earned not in words ,

but with.

passion

understanding

compassion

and mostly love.

Gaza

Corn

harvest

new life

Opa Jiddo

photos of flowers

Grace

Faith

words of Jesus of Nazareth

AMEN

Fred

black and white shadows

crush humanity’s freedom

am I complicit ? MPL 2025

Convocation Unscripted

August 29, 2025

Good evening,

Since the recent election of Donald Trump, I have been listening to ” Convocation Unscripted “. It is a podcast hosted by Robbie Jones, Diana Butler Bass, Jemar Tisby and Kristin Du Mez. They are all still hopeful for their country, the USA, and its future. They are also realistic. Robbie said a few days ago that Washington D.C. is under military occupation. The soldiers are now carrying guns. He has young children and they have to walk past the occupying force to get to school. It is so unreal.

They are all Christians, and are teachers, writers and scholars. They are trying to tell as many people as possible about the dangers that their country is presently in. They take interviews, book launches, sermons to tell their stories of the inhumanity of their present government.The country seems to be at war with the most vulnerable, the poor, the disabled, the gender-diverse and the immigrant. In Jesus’ parable of the sheep and the goats in Matthew 25, Jesus calls us to stand up for all of these people. This parable was the last one Jesus told in Matthew’s gospel, so it might have been these words that finally got him arrested by the authorities. And he was executed.

Please pray for these four courageous people as they continue to proclaim the good news to their world that has turned upside-down in a bad way. They are out front and honest. Please pray for the Church, as it finds its way to be faithful here in Canada as well.
Pray that we never forget Gaza. AMEN

Fred

black and white shadows

crush humanity’s freedom

am I complicit ? MPL 2025

Up and Down in the Psalms

September 1, 2025

Good afternoon,

Wendell Berry is a farmer, activist, writer and poet. I have quoted him before. I have not seen anything by him since the recent changes in the US government. I think he sounds like a Psalmist here. He begins with the challenges with life, and then he moves to grace, and a more positive attitude.

Many of the Psalms have this kind of structure. The writer of many psalms writes about how the community is doing. Sometimes the community of God is not doing well. Sometimes they have sinned, and life is a struggle. Other times, bad things just happen. Unfortunately, the writer of these great biblical poems does not center them by telling us what exactly happened.

Psalm 5

Listen to my words, Lord,
    consider my lament.
Hear my cry for help,
    my King and my God,
    for to you I pray. Psalm 5:1-2

But let all who take refuge in you be glad;
let them ever sing for joy.
Spread your protection over them,
that those who love your name may rejoice in you.

Surely, Lord, you bless the righteous;
you surround them with your favor as with a shield. psalm 5:11-12

I think we live our lives in the middle of the most of the Psalms. We have highs and lows, but we also experience immense grief and loss, and Gloria Hallelujah. How would you describe your in terms of the Psalms today.

Fred

See Berry’s poem below.

Singing our Faith

September 2, 2025

Good afternoon,

For worship on Sunday, we were at Bloomingdale Mennonite with the K-W Perimeter cluster of churches. Mostly we sang. As mentioned in an earlier blog, singing was what I missed most about my self-initiated sabbatical from Sunday morning worship. We sang mostly familiar songs. During Poole Mennonite Church’s 150th anniversary celebration in 2024, we selected number 6 in the Voices Together hymnal as one of our theme songs for the year .We sang it on Sunday. I love it.

Let’s walk together Laurie Zelman 2002

Let’s walk together for awhile,

and ask where we begin

to build a world where love can grow

and hope can enter in

to be the hands of healing

and to plant the seeds of peace

Refrain

singing welcome, welcome to this place

you’re invited to come and know God’s grace

All are welcome, the love of God to share

cause all of us are welcome here

all are welcome in this place.

All Mennonite hymnals have been described , by some, as our prayer book. Mennonite love to sing, and we now write worship material, but I still think that we use our hymn singing to pray to God. At Poole, we said in a survey that we think that God loves that we sing to God. It is what we like to do in worship. We do not have to sing well, just sing to the God in whom we trust.

Another song we sang on Sunday was ” How many times we start again “( number 553 ). It was the first time for me to sing this hymn. Check out the other three verses if you have the hymnal

Verse 3

But greater than the cost we find is our expanded view

of what it means, with heart and mind, to trust and follow you

we hear a music never heard, a different light descends

and meeting strangers , we are stirred to welcome as friends. Thomas Troeger 2009

May we all sing for Gaza to have peace be brought there forever. AMEN.

Fred

black and white shadows

crush humanity’s freedom

am I complicit ?