We Thought We Could, we thought we could, we thought....

Posted on: 04/08/2009 01:13

How many of you have heard of Lumby, British Columbia. Few, I am sure. We are a small village of about 1800 people on highway 6, just south of Vernon in the North Okanagan. Close you Cherryville? Whitevale? Does that help?

Not likely, but many of you may have run across me, LumbyLad, and my friend Arminius, in the Religion & Spirituality section of the discussion lounge. We met on the web, and now both attend the little United Church in Lumby with a less-than-part-time minister and about 23 in the congregation on a good worship day. But the spirit runs deep in our little group and often we are a small church that thinks like a Big Church. So LumbyLad and Arminius envisioned a REAL wonder Cafe, wrote it up for the congregation to approve and opened it as wonderCafe.live! on September 5th, 2008. We transformed our old church hall into a charming cafe atmosphere, 2 evenings a month to feature a volunteer guest speaker to speak his/her mind on any of the topics similar to those offered in wondercafe.ca. Our goal was to have the Community learn to listen with respect to various points of view on politics, local issues, psychology & religion, health & aging, etc. or to enjoy some singing or a band of local players. We wanted to create a core Community of people with diverse interests who were able to discuss any topic without becoming rude, argumentative and disrespectful. WonderCafe.live! in Lumby is such a place. The church has, indeed "Emerged" into the Community to form a small sub-group of people who are interested in discussing larger issues of the times. Instead of focusing of how many of these people might fill our pews, we look to how our Church can offer something good for the community. It's called Outreach, but we didn't really understand what this was all about before. Outreach to us was giving money to charities, piggy-backing other outreach programs; now we are proud to do it ourselves.

For a small church in a small Village to be featured in an article, however small, in The Observer is a BiG deal. We are proud and thankful for the acknowledgement that we have value. We hope, when the funding for the virtual wondercafe.ca runs out, that the UCC may advise each of our Churches to set up a REAL wondercafe.live! for their Communities. This is our contribution to the ongoing dream.

We are now working on WonderSpirit. This will be a Leadership group of individuals from the Church and Community who facilitate events that capture the spirituality of everyday practices. We hope to sponsor programs on meditation, Tai-chi, book discussions, and many presentations from people who are in the "business" of healing, spirituality, integration or transformation. The focus of this program will be working on personal growth and change, using the exisiting "experts" in the Community to assist us. Sometimes the experts are those everyday people who have experienced something very special that they want to share with others. From the initial seed has come this Tree that we hope we can enjoy for years to come.

So congratulations to us! Lumby United church just ROCKS. At 64 years of age, I never thought I would be a part of such an incredible visionary project.

LumbyLad's blog

Comments

RussP

Posted on: 04/08/2009 08:36

LumbyLad

All I can say is, well done! I read the artcle and immediately thought of you and Arminius.

We are not a small church, numbering perhaps 200 on an average Sunday, and have started a WonderCafe as well. It is well attended, BUT, and always the but, we are almost too involved in Outreach. We have groups going to New Orleans, Africa, El Salvador, with the result that there just aren't enough bodies to go around and organize things like WC.

Hats off to the people of Lumby.

Russ

WaterBuoy

Posted on: 04/08/2009 10:13

Sounds great folks! I hope this catches on in other communities ... it seems to be what is needed for a hungry people wanting to question a great deal of blind authority.

Arminius

Posted on: 04/09/2009 03:51

Hello WaterBuoy and everyone:

Finest bread I will provide, till their hearts be satsified.

I will give my life to them. Whom shall I send?

Her I am, Lord. Is it I, Lord?

I have heard you calling in the night.

I will go, Lord, if you lead me.

I will keep your people in my heart.

-VU 509: I, the Lord of Sea and Sky

RussP

Posted on: 04/09/2009 08:49

Arminius

Now unless you have paid for the licence, and even if you had, posting the words on WC is copyright infringment.

Blessed are the Greek.

Russ

Arminius

Posted on: 04/09/2009 11:00

Arminius wrote:

Hello WaterBuoy and everyone:

Finest bread I will provide, till their hearts be satsified.

I will give my life to them. Whom shall I send?

Here I am, Lord. Is it I, Lord?

I have heard you calling in the night.

I will go, Lord, if you lead me.

I will keep your people in my heart.

-VU 509: I, the Lord of Sea and Sky

Well, Russ, I just had to do it again. I've quoted UV and MV hymns here on wondercafe before. Who would sue me for infringement of copyright? The publishers? The orginal authors or composers? This is ridiculous! We here on WC are a virtual UC congregation. Why shouldn't we be able to quote parts of a UC hymn on our UC congregational website?

RussP

Posted on: 04/09/2009 11:15

RussP

I promise to put a file in your cheesecake.

Russ

WaterBuoy

Posted on: 04/09/2009 13:44

Now who's cutting teeth on ironic humours?

Dogfac3

Posted on: 04/09/2009 23:19

Oh man, I grew up in Lumby, I went to J.W.Ingles elementary school, not Charles bloom though moved to Vernon, then Richmond, then Alberta. I cannot believe this, wow Lumbylad, maybe you know my jaded self. How long you been in paradise?

Dogfac3

Posted on: 04/09/2009 23:27

Oh you moved there from Armstrong, you a Cheesemaker. Just kidding Cheesemaker. Congrates on your churches success!

Arminius

Posted on: 04/10/2009 02:34

Hi Dogfac3: Welcome to wondercafe!

I've lived in the Lumby area since 1973; I may know you or your parents. My real name is Hermann Harlos.

Dogfac3

Posted on: 04/10/2009 05:29

My step fathers name was Ian Macaskill, ring any bells Hermann?

LumbyLad

Posted on: 04/11/2009 23:33

Hey Dogfac3:

Yes, you have that Lumby look. I have only been here about 11 years, moving here from Vancouver, where I spent most of my adult and family life. Armstrong is my "home" however, where my 95 year old Mom still lives. You likely know my "soulmate" Sharon Hoffman, who ran Frontier Video for years and is still here. Sharon and I go back to Armstrong at 4 years old!!

So I hear Wondercafe.ca now allows us to post pictures and other stuff so I should post a picture of Hermann (Arminius) and I on opening day for wondercafe.live! Somehow it doesn't work for me. I really sympathize Russ. Although we have opposite problems, it ends up the same - a few people to do all the work whenever something new comes up. In our little church it seems the same people do everything, but boy do we have the "spirit"! We just love how much we have grown in the last 5 years. It's like any family- we have highs and lows, but we are very "bonded" in what we do. It was a real boost to have Lumby mentioned in The Observer. Almost everyone has lived in Lumby at some point in their lives, it seems, but all we seem to be remembered for is our marijuana. Now when the name comes up, some people might say wondercafe.live! Yah!

Arminius

Posted on: 04/12/2009 11:21

Dogfac3 wrote:

My step fathers name was Ian Macaskill, ring any bells Hermann?

Hi Dogfac3: No, that name does not sound familiar to me. But I'll ask around in church today; someone is bound to know it.

Have a Happy Easter!

Hermann

katy

Posted on: 05/02/2009 19:20

Thank you for the poem (Hymn?) Arminius-it expresses very much how I feel every day and it's very encouraging to hear(read?) it from someone else...thank you again.