Christmas generosity (4) and dreaming

More Christmas gifts
I heard today that a lady has given us $200 toward our Christmas dinner. She is the sister of a Dominican Sister, I don't know her but she knows of us. The local Dominican Sisters have always been very supportive of our work.  Today we talked with the couple who will provide some singing entertainment, and it is so good they are bright, friendly and enthusiastic. The wave of generosity continues.


Dreaming

• I am out of sorts with my denomination and do not feel I belong. I have read of the United Church of Christ in USA and wish they had a presence in NZ. Maybe my congregation could join them then? If not the congregation it would be an option for me?
• I am out of sorts with Habitat for Humanity NZ and locally I find they are doing things that somehow deny the spirit of Habitat for Humanity. I get emails from the Fuller Centre For Housing which is a continuation of the ministry of Millard Fuller the founder of Habitat for Humanity. I wish they had a presence in NZ so I could get involved. When I was involved in Habitat locally we were building houses and I loved that sense of accomplishment, the sharing between rich and poor and the love enjoyed on site. They are doing things differently locally now. I think that community building was an important part of the total work. The way things are done now it feels like they have cut the guts out of H4H. I am deeply disappointed. I had hoped that Habitat for Humanity could have been my retirement occupation. 
• I still find myself annoyed every time I have to submit statistics in Chaplaincy. I hear too that the on site chaplaincy is becoming less of their work and consultancy/supervision is expanding. I feel we have embarked on a business model of operation and neglected the mission model. So I am a little out of sorts with chaplaincy.

One has to ask, am I just hard to get along with? I am a bit of a dreamer.  Walking down the mountain the other day I dreamed of these possibilities....

1. Maybe with others in retirement I could explore another type of "Spiritual/service" base? (Church)
2. There is more and more a need for families to receive a hand up and for communities to share resources across the rich/poor divide.  There used to be another housing group in Dunedin called "Just Housing".  Maybe there is room for another group to operate?
3. I am enjoying the freedom of my voluntary St John chaplaincy. It feels like valid people ministry and mission. Maybe voluntary chaplaincy is my future?

I don't think I am hard to get along with. In spite of my differences I have hung in with all the above groups a lot longer than many others have.  One man wrote;

There are two things

The ACTUAL and the IDEAL.

To be mature is to see the ideal

and live with the actual.

To fail is to accept the actual

and reject the ideal

and to accept only that which is ideal

and refuse the actual

is to be immature.

Do not reject the ideal

because you see the actual.

Maturity is to live with the ACTUAL

But hold on to the IDEAL. 

.... Derek Prince.

But sometimes "living in tension" is tiring.