BIG HOLE, BIG GOD

Last week I was working on a water lease. Regular leases have one or more wells drilled on them to retrieve oil from under the ground but the purpose of this lease was to pump water into the oil pool under the ground to produce more pressure to more easily pump the oil out from the surrounding oil lease wells.

Water lease

 The water to pump into the oil cavity is brought in through an underground pipeline connected to the riser on the left side of this picture. The wellhead is the red piping on the right side. Below is a picture of the water pipeline coming into the lease.

Underground water line to water lease through farmer's field

Now here is the point of this entry. At the base of the water line picture as the underground water line entered the lease, the ground was very soft and my job as a packer was to make it hard enough for a service rig to drive on it without sinking. As I worked away at this area I realized I would need more dirt to fill the soft spots. With the small blade at the front of my packer I pushed dirt into the soft area and only ended up creating more ruts and soft spots. I worked this area for quite awhile. A dozer operator who was having his equipment serviced by a mechanic was watching me. He came over and said he would get the other dozer operator to push some dirt into the soft area for me to pack. In less than five minutes I had a huge volume of dirt in this soft area and within a couple of hours was able to pack this area solid.

Tandem Dozers

Above are the same two dozer operators working in tandem. They are driving side by side in unity with their blades touching together to form one blade pushing a huge volume of dirt forward. I was impressed!

God has made provision for all we need in His Son Jesus Christ. Those big holes we try to fill with our small blades only cause greater emptiness and alienation from God. When we trust God and hand over our lives to the Lordship of Christ, he fills all those deep holes through the forgiveness of sins and the fullness of the Holy Spirit. We still have a part to play in submission to Christ and obedience to His will but only God can bring us into Christ through the new birth. We find that in Christ, God gives us all the fullness of Christ and the hope of eternal life. What a Savior, what a God, what a hope. May God fill your days with joy as you see Him all around you and working in you.

FARMING WESTERN STYLE

I have been in Lloydminster Alberta for just over a week and I am starting to get into a routine. Tonight I want to show you what it is like to farm out West at least in this neck of the fields.

Farmers here have huge farms and hugomongous equipment. Fertilizing and seeding is underway. Today I saw a large and powerful John Deere tractor with 8 goliath size tires, pulling a piece of equipment about 50 feet wide which tilled, seeded, fertilized and covered the seed, all in one process. Wow

I want you to notice something in the picture below.

Typical farm in these parts

Here are beautiful fields of rich dirt ready to bring forth an abundant crop, but there is oil under that dirt and most farms in these parts have multiple oil wells on their property. Each of these self contained oil wells is called a lease. Around here many of these leases are run by Husky Oil. The farmer owns the land and the government of Alberta has most rights to the oil and leases those rights to an oil producer such as Husky Oil. In turn Husky Oil needs to rent the lease area where they will drill and any land to build an access road to the lease from the farmer. So the farmer gets paid for the leases on his land by Husky and also earns money from the crops he grows. My present work is building and refreshing leases. I am driving an 815 packer to compact the lease area for oil tanker access to retrieve the oil from the black tanks (in the picture above) and for proper drainage on the lease.

815 Packer- Never a flat tire

Both believers and unbelievers are created in the image of God and have various skills and gifts they can use for fruitfulness in their life. But the Christian has something special, which is hidden from the world but can be evident through peace, joy, patience, love, fruitfulness, and the sense of God's presence when they are near others. That something special is the indwelling Holy Spirit received at the new birth and renewed through submission and obedience to God. Like the oil hidden under the farmer's field, the Holy Spirit within is the source of the fullness of God to the believer. I think we believers need to be wowed a lot more by God's great gift to us. We need to learn to live more and minister more by the power of the Holy Spirit which works actively within us. Wow. Have a blessed time of worship on Sunday.

West (Finally)

When I returned to Welland just before Christmas (December 23rd) I fully believed I would be returning out West by the middle of January. That did not happen. Since arriving here I have spoken to a number of people and I have verified what I was hearing all along, this has been a very slow winter for work because of cut-backs. Now it looks like work is again beginning to pick up.

Tuesday morning in Welland, I was opening up a wall to remove an ant infestation at my mother-in-law's apartment. While sitting on the floor peeling out Styrofoam insulation with a screw driver my cell phone rang with an invitation to return to work with the company I was working for last year. That was unexpected good news. One problem did come up. I would not be able to hire out the truck I purchased from the company in December because of a change in company policy. All trucks on construction sites are now required to be 4x4 and mine is only a two wheel drive. The company did offer to buy my fuel tank and pump for a good price to compensate me for this change in policy and so I now have a truck here in Alberta for personal travel and am using a company 4x4 for work use.

I left Welland Tuesday evening to catch a flight out of Hamilton at 7 pm to Calgary and then Edmonton arriving at 11:30 pm Alberta time. I stayed overnight at the airport to catch a bus into Edmonton at 4:30 Wednesday morning. I was wondering if staying overnight at the Edmonton airport would be a problem. Some airports close down at night so this was an unknown factor to me before I left. I need not have worried. Instead I should have worried about finding seats to sleep on. After picking up my luggage and coming into the main terminal I saw a fellow sleeping across some leather seats with a mask over his eyes and a blanket. On the seating next to him a woman stretched out with a blanket over her. Not exactly covert sleeping. About 200 feet away a security guard was reading his book. As I walked around I was wondering if I would be able to find a place to sleep because they were all occupied but finally managed to find one empty leather seat to sleep on. I guess in such a transient city like Edmonton which leads to the oilfields sleeping in the airport is quite acceptable. At about 3 am I was asked to vacate my "bed" because workers were stripping and polishing the floor and they had to move the seats I was using. Three of us had to vacate the seats we were using and find other accommodations. Time to have a coffee at Tim's and no more sleep for me. Some people were sleeping on the floor for lack of "Edmonton airport beds".

No Vacancy at Hotel Edmonton Airport

At 4:30 am I took the bus link into Edmonton. I had made this connection to downtown Edmonton before but not this early in the morning. The link bus from the Edmonton airport stops at the first LRT terminal at the edge of Edmonton. This left me at the subway at 5:15 in the morning. When I got dropped off there were no people around. I walked into the LRT building, bought my ticket and then waited on the outdoor platform for the first train. Finally others began to show up. At my downtown subway stop I was the only person to exit the train. When I walked out I saw an abandoned newer BMX bike (remember this is two floors underground) and just about 10 feet away a nice grey purse but no one around. It was a long and lonely walk to the stairways and up those two flights of stairs to ground level at 5:45 am. I was glad that the sun had just come up. I was grateful that a few others were walking downtown in the two blocks to the Greyhound station. The Greyhound station is not an inviting place with needy street people hanging around. Got the 6:45 to Lloydminster and was able to report to the office by 10:00 am for orientation and to pick up my work truck.Yesterday I worked on an oil lease site driving a packer and today I am off as the packer is moved to a new location for work tomorrow.

 My rest during this trip back to the West and during my time at home has been in Christ. Time at home was spiritually stimulating. God dealt with a couple of important issues in my life regarding motives and trust. I was glad to have regular Sunday worship, privileged to read some encouraging books, and had my vision for the Gospel refreshed through a seminary course I was able to take through Southern Seminary. What an amazing and wonderful God we serve and what a powerful Gospel we have been given to live and share, along with the joy and power of the indwelling Holy Spirit. Friends a great hope lies before all of us. Let us persevere unto the end bringing Glory to God.

I want to thank you all for praying for Gloria and I and ask that you continue to pray for us. I hope to tell you about some plans for the Fall in my next blog entry.