Ian & Lucy Fisher

A few weeks ago I arrived home from a trip to the USA and Canada, and even though I didn't feel anything like destiny or God like inspiration about going, God really took control and many lives were encouraged and blessed. Often outside our structured meetings where God has 'so' gotta show up, we find God ministering in the homes or hotels, or on a frozen lake in a small shed with 5 guys 'ice fishing'. These are the sort of places we have got to get used to God being Himself, being a God amongst the people, where the masks are taken off and people feel they can be themselves - God loves that sort of honesty.

On a frozen lake with the ice 5 feet thick, 5 guys began to fish through 5 holes in the ice. As we began to settle in with a few beers and a couple of hits of Schnapps to keep warm, life began to unwind in this frozen wasteland. It was minus 15 degrees outside, but our little gas heater and a grill with some 'kranskies' cooking away, made this a cozy 6 hours of fun and some deep unraveling conversations about life, drugs, relationships, and how God in the midst of it all still cares for us, even though we are constantly on the brink of loosing it totally, and going back to the hippie lifestyle not long after Woodstock and the headtrip of the 70's.

A preacher, a worship leader/Pearl Jam fan, a young business guy and 2 construction guys who are twins are sitting together with a couple of fishing lines through the ice, slowly unwinding from all the hustle bustle, with the wind blowing outside and God talking to us inside - it was really cool. Sometimes we were joking around, sometimes silent, sometimes excited as the fish were biting, but in the midst of it all there was a stillness you could not deny, a stillness where truth was free to speak, where honesty seemed to be the only thing excepted in this piece of heaven on a frozen lake.

Could life always be like this? Where honesty and truth are the normal practice with people, and revealing who we are out in the open is not something to be afraid of, but something to be praised. A world of interesting people who are interested in each other, especially because we haven't met yet, or we don't really know each other - another opportunity for a coffee or a beer, an opportunity to love one another, and through that love experience how much God loves us.

This is what I experienced on a frozen lake in Saskatoon Canada, where we pulled up one fish, said Hi, took a photo and let him go until next time. It's all part of the pleasure of living together on planet earth, enjoying our leisure and making it our pleasure to connect with other human beings, and through that connection we give God a chance to connect to us as well, and after enjoying Him together we take the photo's and put Him back in the lake until next time - Selah.

Until next time - love someone

The Fish