Fred Redekop

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 ?

OUTLIERS

September 3, 2025

Good afternoon,

Book number 7 of my Top Ten: Malcolm Galdwell’s Outliers: The Story of Success . The book was written in 2011. It is the most recent book written in my top ten. I think I made the list in 2012, maybe ?

I appreciate Gladwell’s writing style. He is readable as he discusses complex concepts and problems. And I think he is a great storyteller. In Outliers, he tells stories, and then recaps his thesis, and then tells more stories, and then recaps his thesis once again. Here is his final recap near the end of the book:
” It is impossible for a hockey player or Bill Joy or Robert Oppenheimer or any other outlier for that matter, to look down from their lofty perch and say that with truthfulness, ‘ I did this all by myself.’ Superstar lawyers and math whizzes and software entrepreneurs appear at first blush to lie outside ordinary experience. But they don’t. They are products of history and community, of opportunity and legacy . Their success is not exceptional or mysterious . It is grounded in a web of advantages and inheritances, some deserve , some not, some earned , some just plain lucky — but all critical to making them who they are. The outlier, in the end, is not an outlier at all. ” ( page 285 )

Many successful ( and what is success ? ) people state with pride ‘ I am self-made ‘ . This is not true. For tomorrow’s blog, I will name some of the things that I believe have made me a success (?). But how do you measure success, and why does it matter ? Two examples in the book became most quoted by others. Gladwell says you must work 10,000 hours to master some skill. The second one is that most successful hockey players are born in the first three months of any year. I was born in November ,and so I did not have a chance. Ha ha ha !!!

How do you define success ? Is faith related to success at all ? In Christian theology, we are saved by grace, but how we act with all the advantages we have been given is important too.

Praying everyday for women and men of peace and non-violence, to rise up in the world for reconciliation all over the world. AMEN

Fred

black and white shadows

crush humanity’s freedom

am I complicit ? MPL 2025

black and white shadows

crush humanity’s freedom

Prayers

August 16/17, 2025

PRAYERS

FARMERS

UKRAINE

HEAT

EPIDEMICS

FAITH

POOLE

FLORADALE

ST.JACOBS

MCC

PEACEMAKING

MUSIC

BOOK OF GENESIS

RAIN

These are thirteen opportunities to pray. I am going to test it out. God knows everything orGod is not God. With issue/concept/idea, I will offer it to God. I often wake in the night, so I am going to use it to talk to God before I fall asleep again. I will report back to you.

Gaza. AMEN

Fred

black and white shadows

crush humanity’s freedom

am I complicit ? MPL 2025

a Banquet of the Willing

August 13, 2025

Good afternoon/evening/morning.

John 13-17

A few weeks ago I decided to have the footwashing scene from the Gospel of John be my scriptural focus for the next while. John records the intense conversation between Jesus and the disciples. The other Gospel writers have very little. There is some trouble at the table with Judas, Peter not wanting to get his feet washed, and the whole idea of the future of Jesus’ plan. James and John want the best seat in heaven.

The footwashing event seems to say we are to be humble in the middle of conflict. Jesus handpicked the disciples. There were other people around the group, and they came to Jerusalem at the end of the human story. Jesus chose real human men for this group of 12. He should have picked some women. What would have changed for the group. The women at the tomb were the first to announce the resurrection !

Whose feet shall I need to wash today, in a figurative sense ? Who must I honour with the humility of Christ ? What is Jesus trying to teach me about humility?

Fred

black and white shadows

crush humanity’s freedom

am I complicit ? MPL 2025

Angel in the form of a Man

August 4, 2025

Good afternoon,

I am not good with administration. We delayed receiving our CPP and OAS until this year. This is fine, but when I did get to it, it took a long time because forms stress me out. You could do it on-line, but that was a mess for me. So, I went to the office on Frederick Street, and I found out that they moved it to the south end of Kitchener, near the 401 highway. I went into the office, and they said I needed our marriage certificate. The form did not say I needed it for OAS or CPP. I went back three more times, and although the Service Canada employees were polite, they all said slightly different things. Finally, for the fourth time I went last week to bring the final documents. Now I will wait for the secondary persons to tell me what I did not give to them on the forms. Fortunately, we will get money back retroactive to when we applied, I think.

Last week, I sat down in the waiting area ( for the last time ? ) to wait for the Service Canada representative to call my name. A man sits down next to me, and says ” I am a miracle “. Last week I was in tremendous pain, and I could not do anything. It was going on for six months. The doc finally diagnosed me with polymyalgia (?) , and three days ago I started meds, and it is a miracle. Look at me . ” . He stood up, and raised his arms above his head, and he jumped up and down. He couldn’t do it three days ago. ” It is a miracle, ” he said over and over again. I asked him if there were any side effects. He began laughing and could hardly get the words out, ” The doctor said I will have, ‘ chronic happiness , no, no, manic happiness’. Can you believe it ? He kept laughing and smiling. ” Manic happiness “. Wow eh !! My number was called, and I gave the man a fist bump, and I left him smiling. When I came out, he was gone. I think I was visited by an angel.

As Jesus and his disciples were leaving Jericho, a large crowd followed him. Two blind men were sitting by the roadside, and when they heard that Jesus was going by, they shouted, “Lord, Son of David, have mercy on us!”

The crowd rebuked them and told them to be quiet, but they shouted all the louder, “Lord, Son of David, have mercy on us!”

Jesus stopped and called them. “What do you want me to do for you?” he asked.

“Lord,” they answered, “we want our sight.”

Jesus had compassion on them and touched their eyes. Immediately they received their sight and followed him.

Matthew 20:29-34

Praying for peace for the children of Gaza. AMEN.

Fred

Even More prayers

August 4, 2025

Good morning,

PRAYERS

God of all heavens and the earth,

and the entire universe.

Who Am I ? After 30 kms on a bike yesterday,

I am old.

or at least older.

Sometimes, I think I am still in my early 20’s

and I think, in my mind,

I might still be, invincible.

Am I a husband, father, Bible teacher, friend, male,… ?

what is most important God ?

and what should the order of my being be,

in my small world of history.

What am I missing about myself

that you want to bless my with

for the rest of my life ?

Lord of the starfields, ancient of days, universe maker.. Who am I ?

Really, I want to know,

No rush, O God. AMEN

Fred

black and white shadows

crush humanity’s freedom

am I complicit ? MPL 2025

Today I met my history

August 5, 2025

Good afternoon,

Wow, another God story. I had my first shift at The Mennonite Story at the St. Jacobs market this morning. It was not very busy for the first two hours. Then, the coordinator asked me to come out to the lobby. There was a man from Switzerland who had been the minister at the Grossmunster Church( 2003-2024) in Zurich. There are pictures on the wall in the museum of the church where he was pastor. He wanted to show me. He knew the history, the Mennonite story. He wanted to tell me about the reconciliation service held in 2004, where thousands of Mennonites showed up, and the Reformed Church leadership asked for forgiveness for the violence done to the Anabaptists in the 16th and 17the century. He was in tears. The church where he was pastor had condemned many early Anabaptists to death.
I told him I had been to Zurich in April.

I told him that we had been to the church where he had been pastor ( see picture above ), and the many other places of importance for Mennonites. His name is Christoph Sigrist, and he teaches religion at the University of Zurich. After showing the short video on the Old Order community, he asked me, ” Do you have hope for the church ? ” Well, I said, ” I have to live with hope, but I am not optimistic. Many churches are closing, and the church is getting smaller and older all the time.” He said it is the same in Switzerland.

Do you have hope for the church? On a scale of 1 to 10, with 1 being ‘ we are done ‘ , where would you put a number for the church surviving well ? There has been lots of study on what has happened , and what to do going forward, but it seems the church has lost its way. I do not think that God has given up on us. I believe that the focus on love and non-violence is a strength we have in our community. Is it enough ? What do you think ?

To the church of God in Corinth,

to those sanctified in Christ Jesus

and called to be his holy people,

together with all those everywhere

who call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ—their Lord and ours:

Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. I Corinthians 1:2-3
Fred

black and white shadows

crush humanity’s freedom

am I complicit ?

MPL 2025

August 6= Hiroshima

August 6, 2025
Good afternoon
Today is the 80th anniversary of the nuclear bombing of Hiroshima. Nagasaki was bombed three days later. In all 210,000 people were immediately incinerated. More people died days later, and many people were disabled and died many years later. These were civilians, both adults and children. According to international law, killing civilians is a war crime. No one has been prosecuted for these deaths. The two nuclear bombs dropped ended the war with Japan in 1945.

The International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons or ICAN has been working for decades to ban countries from having nuclear weapons. The number of weapons is down from the height of the Cold War in the 1960s and 70s, but more states have them including Israel, Pakistan, India and North Korea. The group works all the time to find ways to lessen the danger of the use of these kinds of armaments. ICAN won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2017. This group includes Project Ploughshare, a peace group in Waterloo.

Some of the volunteers are survivors of the actual blasts in August of 1945. They are, of course, all over the age of 80. They are known as ‘ hibakusha. ‘, and they continue to witness to the destruction, and call for the ending of nuclear weapons. Some people say that the system has worked with all nuclear countries saying that they will never shoot first. And no other bombs have been dropped since 1945. But, the billions of dollars spent every year on security, maintenance and soldiers could be used in more constructive ways. Reduce illness, Reduce poverty. Grow more food.

He will judge between the nations and will settle disputes for many peoples. They will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not take up sword against nation, nor will they train for war anymore.

Isaiah 2:4

Isaiah’s prophecy has yet be be realized, we hope today for Gaza, Congo, Sudan and Myanmar. AMEN.

Fred

black and white shadows

crush humanity’s freedom

am I complicit ? MPL 2025

Some more prayers

August 10, 2025

Good evening.

Prayers(s)

Dear God

Corn

Bees

Heat

Shirley

Our children

The CHURCH

Those who are sick

Those who are well

Mr. Trump

Prime Minister Carney

Gaza

Nuclear weapons

Peacemakers

These are my prayers for today. Thirteen lifted up to God of all creation.

Amen.

Fred

black and white shadows

crush humanity’s freedom

am I complicit ? MPL 2025

Praying

July 28, 2025

Good morning

Prayers

Thanks, O God for disturbing me

with poems, music

books, scripture

creation and people.

Just when I have more answers than questions

you put in front of me

things, events, ideas,

that blow my mind.

Thank you for Scripture

that gives me faith

makes me think better

that calls for justice everywhere

and at all times.

Help me with my unbelief

today

and especially tomorrow

Fred