August 28th -

The morning at Osoyoos Lake was clouded over, with the haze and smell from the forest fires. We started on our way east, listening to the CBC news about escorts through areas of the highway where the smoke is making the road unsafe. Cranbrook is right on my route. It's time to pray for guidance!

Around 1pm - feeling sleepy and decide to stop early. Grand Forks is the next city and we camp by the Kettle River. Stopping by the Library to read my email, we then boost the local economy at Radio Shack and Home Hardware! At the Tourist Bureau I take part in a survey about First Nations Tourism and collect a copy of the Guide to First Nations Tourism in British Columbia

How does one help build healing and bridges between people and cultures? We North Americans seem to wallow in arrogance...believing with all our hearts that no one is as "good" as we are! Ft Langley is advertised as "The Birthplace of BC", as if this wondrous place didn't exist until we came and displaced the First Nations. Instead of living in harmony with the earth, we abuse it and then wonder why we suffer the consequences. We build societies based on competition and greed instead of cooperation and compassion; and so we go to war to protect what we think we have or to grab what we think we deserve.

Nolan writes about the Kingdom of God as a new way of living; as a gift that is received rather than something we can achieve through our efforts. This way of living seems the utopian dream of simpletons. Political power, no matter how benign and gentle, can not establish the type of society Jesus had in mind when he spoke about the Kingdom of God. No one can force us to live with compassion and graciousness. Only we can release the power within us that would allow this miracle to take place....for a gift must be given, and received.