The Day Your Destiny Changed

Disney has a new, must-see movie coming to our local Cinema Centre and to theaters everywhere starting April 17. And guess what? It was filmed right here in Manitoba, some scenes on Portage la Prairie’s own Crescent Lake, in the spring of 2018. It features some well-known actors like Chrissy Metz from This is Us, Josh Lucas, whom you’ll recognize from numerous movies, and Topher Grace, best known as Eric on That 70’s Show.

The movie is called Breakthrough. I love movies based on true stories, don’t you? Apparently, we’re not alone. When the trailer for Breakthrough released last December, it broke records by receiving thirty million views in two days. You can check it out yourself online (watch for familiar sights on the shore of Crescent Lake!) as well as interviews with the real-life Smiths.

When Joyce Smith’s fourteen-year-old son John fell through an icy Missouri lake one winter morning in 2015, she and her family had seemingly lost their precious son. At the hospital, John lay lifeless for more than sixty minutes. But Joyce was not ready to give up on her son. She mustered all her faith and strength into one force and cried out to God in a loud voice to save him.

Miraculously, her son’s heart immediately started beating again.

In the coming days, John would defy every expert, every case history, and every scientific prediction. Sixteen days after falling through the ice and being clinically dead for an hour, he walked out of the hospital under his own power, completely healed.

It’s the kind of movie you want to see even though you already know how it ends.

Joyce, in cooperation with author Ginger Kolbaba, told the story in a book originally titled The Impossible. Based on the book, the movie is about a profound truth: prayer really does work. God uses it to show us he is always with us, and with him, the impossible is nothing.

John Smith is now nineteen years old and is devoting his life to telling his miraculous story everywhere he goes. You could say the day he fell through the ice was the day his destiny changed.

The producers timed the release of the movie to coincide with Easter, the day destiny changed for us all. While John Smith’s resurrection story is inspiring, the resurrection of Jesus Christ is the one event in history that truly changed everything for you and me. It’s what sets Christianity apart from every other faith. It’s what fills our hearts with hope each day. It’s what makes us sing, “if you left the grave behind you, so will I.”

I plan to experience this faith-lifting movie as part of my Easter preparations. I hope you will, too.

You're invited!

Good thing I’m not superstitious. Last week’s farewell-to-city-hall piece was my thirteenth post of the year, and I began my “new” full-time writing-from-home job on April Fool’s Day. What could possibly go wrong?

To prove I’m keeping busy, I’d like to invite you to three upcoming events I’m participating in and would love to have you join me.

Faith and Humor Night

For all St. Claude and area readers, you’re invited to join me at the Club Age D’or in St. Claude for an evening they are calling “Faith and Humor.” Part writing workshop, part sharing about my journey, part hanging out together and signing books. I hope your English is better than my French. I had to use Google Translate just to know that Club Age D’or means “Golden Age Club.” 

This event isn’t only for seniors, however. It’s open to the public and it’s free. You can register or get more details by calling Jackie at 204-379-2281. The venue is at 64 1st Street in St. Claude. Thursday, April 11, 7:00 – 9:00 pm. I’d love to meet you there!

Toastmasters

Are you one of those folks who’d rather die than speak in public? What if you could learn how in a supportive, fun environment? Last fall, the Portage Chamber formed a new lunch hour Toastmasters club. If you are employed by, retired from, or volunteer for an organization which is a Chamber member, you’re eligible to join us. We have a blast together every Monday from 11:45 – 12:45 in the board room of the Community Futures Heartland office (under the same roof as the Glesby Centre).

It’s one fast-paced hour of practicing rehearsed and impromptu public speaking and meeting management. We share lots of laughs, learning, and encouragement. (Face it, how many times in an average month does anyone applaud you? Join us and experience it every week!) There is a cost to join, but you can check us out for free and then decide. Contact Cindy at the Chamber office, 204-857-7778 or info@portagechamber.com

Peace We Often Forfeit

Imagine a road trip with four women. But not just any women. Four women from four different generations of the same family. Ages sixteen, forty, sixty-five, and ninety. Harassment, hilarity, and hysterics. That’s what you’ll see when you come out for Peace We Often Forfeit, a little play I wrote and am directing for our own Prairie Players. It features the brilliantly talented cast of Haley L’Heureux, Rita Carignan, Vicki Hooke, and Nita Wiebe.

Five bucks gets you in to our performance on Friday, April 26 at 7:00. The short play (seriously – maybe fifteen minutes) will follow opening ceremonies, kicking off the 2019 ACT Festival— a province-wide, weekend-long theater festival hosted in Portage’s William Glesby Centre by the Prairie Players April 26 through 28.

All the plays throughout the weekend are open to the public:

Friday night: $5

Saturday pass: $10

Sunday pass: $5

Weekend pass: $15

Watch the website for a full schedule: http://prairieplayers.ca/actfest-2019/

If I were superstitious, I’d call myself lucky to be part of all these engaging opportunities. But I don’t believe in luck. I prefer to call it blessed.

Farewell to City Hall (Or, How to be an utterly UNdelightful citizen...)

I began my role as Administrative Assistant for the City of Portage la Prairie on March 30, 2009. To make it an exact decade, I picked March 29, 2019 for my last day. I’ve held the same position and worked at the same desk all this time, something that might cause younger people to ask, “What’s wrong with you?”

Though I came in with the required administrative skills, I knew little about municipal government in 2009. I’m forever grateful to have had the privilege of completing the Manitoba Municipal Administrators certificate program—a big deal for someone who skipped university in her youth. I deeply appreciate those who took a chance on me and patiently taught me what I needed to know—especially Sharon Williams, Dale Lyle, and Nettie Neudorf. I’ve worked with three different mayors, three City Managers, and two Managers of Administration. (Sorry if I frightened you all off.)

Ten years is long enough to see a lot of staff come and go, long enough to see the transition from paper to paperless council agendas, and long enough to learn a bazillion acronyms. It’s more than enough time to gain an appreciation for the work that goes into keeping a city running.

It’s also long enough to form a few opinions about what makes a less-than-helpful citizen.

If your deepest desire is to be a horrible citizen, consider these tips.

1.     Don’t Vote. Since most Canadians vote at every opportunity, be different and take this so-called privilege for granted. The 40.6 percent voter turnout in our last civic election was way too high. I think Portage could bring that down to 25 percent with little effort. The biggest advantage to not voting is that it earns you the right to grumble about every pot hole, parking ticket, and crime in your neighborhood. See how that works?

2.     Complain as often, as loudly, and as disrespectfully as you can. They’ll try to tell you the person who voices their concerns sparingly and with genuine respect will be heard above the chronic complainers; that a wheel’s squeak can become so constant it’s merely white noise. Don’t you believe it. You’ll need to ramp up that squeak to get the grease.

3.     Whatever you do, under no circumstances should you talk to God about your elected officials or city employees. Regardless of what they claim, they are not regular human beings who need encouragement, appreciation, wise advice, or respect. The guys fixing our sewer pipes in frigid temperatures or in the blazing sun love every minute. The clerks on the receiving end of your verbal abuse about issues over which they have no control eat that up like candy. So save your prayers for those who matter. Like the Jets.

As for the rest of you? Just do the above, except the opposite.

Imagine what our community could look like if we all considered ourselves “public servants” in the simplest and purest form of the phrase. A song we sing at my church says, “Greater things have yet to come, and greater things are yet to be done in this city.” As I transition into my new life as a full-time writer working from home, I hope to remain part of those greater things with my votes, my words, and my prayers.

Thank you, Portage, for these past ten years at your service. It’s been an honor.