Stephanie Kauffman
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4/23/2023 1 Comment

Wk 17 - Icy thought!

Picture
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Really bad photos. Small ice floes, then the force hitting the bottom makes them smaller, and able to float, and not jam up. But the spectacular icebergs, I never got. Use your imagination! I'm sitting on the bridge and this stuff is flowing just a few inches below me.
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​ Ps 65:5 - By terrible things in righteousness wilt thou answer us, O God of our salvation; who art the confidence of all the ends of the earth, and of them that are afar off upon the sea:
As I typed these verses into random weeks in January, I remember thinking, “what can I say about this one?!”  Yet the very week this one comes up, I had a visual image of ‘terrible things in righteousness’. Spring is coming, and when there’s a high ice/river flow, flooding becomes a concern. My principal mentioned that I should take the back road and check the diversion. They are pushing the ice along the river in the hopes that the city won’t get flooded as Winnipeg has two major rivers running through it. (I won’t get into the politics of wanting to save a city from flooding verses flooding the farming communities that provide food for cities – it’s a huge issue that won’t be easily resolved!)
I took the gravel road after school and stopped at the diversion for a while. With the window down, you could hear the roar of the water and ice dropping over the wall. I took a few photos of the ice floes. Naturally, as soon as I’d put the phone away, three mini-icebergs came up. Grinding, crushing, pushing each other, they jammed together at the precipice before one gave way and came crashing over. The sound of those massive pieces of ice smashing apart as they hit each other, the concrete and then were able to float swiftly downstream will stay in my mind for a long time. There was a ‘terrible rightness’ to seeing that happen. It’s necessary – but you sure wouldn’t want to be in the way.
So when I saw this verse, I immediately saw the cross connection to the ice display – the power of God tends to be given a back seat as we focus on the love of God. But some day His mercy will end. The terrible righteousness of His power will be displayed and the entire world will acknowledge He IS God.
But His love is still manifested in this verse – He allows everyone who accepts the salvation offered through Jesus’ death and resurrection to have confidence – even to the ends of the earth and the far off seas. I was privileged to experience the power of the river in a way that will remind me of what a mighty God we serve!
(PS – we’re having a slow spring, which helps keep the flooding at bay. If it gets too hot too fast, that’s when problems multiply.)
1 Comment
Crystal Beachy
4/25/2023 05:37:31 pm

Powerful message!!

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    February 26, 2021
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    For a time in life when we supposedly have nothing to do because of Covid restrictions, it's amazing that I have trouble finding time to write here!
    Life in the classroom is exceedingly busy as the students are pushing to make up the beginning days we couldn't be in school. So there are no extra moments there. I still work/volunteer at the local thrift shop regularly and deliver the newspapers. Then any spare time I have, I have been working on book #2. The Girl with Nine Lives has sold well; I still need to get some more sold, but do hope to see book #2 hit the printers sometime this year, if possible. To that extent I have a poll to take. Titles are hard for me. This book starts where the first one left off. Tales of my adventures in teaching in at least six places. So with that in the back of your mind, what would be your favorite title out of the following:
    1. The Teacher with Nine Lives
    2. Lessons Learned Along the Road
    3. What is Going on Here?
    4. Around the World in Many Schools 
    Send me your vote on the best title in your opinion!

    February 12, 2021
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    Where does the time go? It feels like I should be frozen in time. After an extra mild winter, we were nailed with minus 47 wind-chill and -33+ temperatures for a week now! Makes it hard to do anything except get to work, and come home and wrap in a cozy blanket. 
    The blog definitely took 2nd place.
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    January 24, 2021
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    Well, I have managed to get my books! It is an exciting moment when you have a physical visual of fifteen boxes waiting to be loaded into your vehicle full of your books with your name on them! It is also a huge blessing to immediately need to divest yourself of half of them because they have sold to various people and two bookstores. Thanks, Lord! Another blessing is that I'm receiving comments from various buyers that they had trouble putting the book down until they had it finished! I pray the lessons I learned the hard way will be of help and comfort to others who read this.

    January 16, 2021
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    For those of you who have read my book "The Girl with Nine Lives", or are reading it, or are waiting to read it and have wondered what that crazy little kid looked like, I have put two photos here for you. The little girl in the red dress on the horse is 'Stacy', shortly after she was adopted. That is the horse they gave her to help work her leg muscles. The black and white photo is almost two years later. It was taken for the immigration application to get Stacy into Canada. You notice she is smiling here. The doctors hadn't started sticking her with all those horrid needles yet! 
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    January 12, 2021
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    What a week! As a teacher on a Hutterite colony for grade 5-12, life is non-stop from 9:00-3:30. This coming Friday is the end of quarter, so report cards will be due. So that always makes one extra busy.
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    January 5, 2021

    How many of you make New Year's Resolutions? How many of you don't because you know you won't keep them?
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    A poet once said, "It is better to have loved and lost, than never to have loved at all." I feel that can be applied to resolutions too. As I start this year as a new author, I'm scrambling to figure out what I'm doing! This has definitely pulled me out of my comfort zone. I've asked the Lord, "What have I done? Am I stepping off this cliff to float or fly?"

    So my New Year's Resolution is to have a website and put a blog on it. Will this last? It will be interesting to look back in December 2021 to see what has happened here! Tech stuff is NOT my thing. But as a teacher, I always tell my students, "Just try. You never know what might happen." So how can I do less than I preach? I will try this. No guarantees, but I've made a start!  Happy New Year to you all!
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