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Hopeful Story, May 22, 2016

  Giving thanks and choosing joy IN and even FOR difficult challenges that feel like chains? That was last week’s “hard to swallow” sermon.
  Ellen, however, left church thinking about two blessings that have come into her life as a direct result of the cancer for which she is undergoing treatment. As one of the four persons in our church battling this disease right now, she speaks from a very real place.
  The first blessing involves her job. She loves her workplace, but it is undergoing some major re-organization. She thanks God that her illness has allowed her to be absent during this upheaval and she hopes that things will have settled down by the time that she is able, Lord willing and health permitting, to return to work.
  Freddy is an even bigger blessing from God.
  For many years Ellen has longed for a dog, but the timing was never right. This time she thought, “Why not now?” So her daughter began searching the Internet for a five year old dog who doesn’t bark much, loves to walk and is calm. Someone told her about a rescue dog named Freddy that had been used and abused as a breeder in a puppy mill. When he first arrived from the U.S., he was very timid. Today he loves to snuggle up to Ellen on the couch. “I got exactly what I asked for, and I’m not sure who rescued who,” Ellen tells everyone.
  They were out for a walk in Courtice when I met them on my mid-week run. Ellen was scheduled for another chemo-treatment at Sunnybrook Hospital that morning and had every reason to frown at the world. But all she exuded was joy as she introduced me to her beautiful beagle who watched me anxiously. “I can’t get over how perfect he is for me,” she said. I can imagine Ellen paraphrasing the apostle Paul and saying, “I want you to know that what has happened to me has really served to open the door for a very special new friend in my life.”
- Pastor Peter

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