Reading one of the Bible Readings for today and it talks about Faith and says "Faith that doesn't lead us to do good deeds is all alone and dead!" How do we do good deeds? Is it by being a monthly contributor to the Ottawa Mission; that sounds like a good deed and I have done that for quite a few years. There isn't any involvement on my part except providing the monthly contribution. Is that a good deed? I think it is; not everyone can do "hands on" type of work to help people. I am not one of those people for sure. I have done things that help a lot of people but I am not really seen; treasurer for Camp Bitobi was one of those good deeds. I did that for a few years and a lot of people benefited from that Camp being available and I liked it that I did that. I was a Brownie Leader and served on the Guide Council in this area for all the time my children were involved in Brownies or Guides. Again that was a good contribution but was it a good deed; my own child benefited from my being involved so it wasn't selfless at all. But then a lot of children benefited so perhaps that too is a good deed. I also helped one day a week in schools particularly after computers were put into the schools because I have an expertise in computers having worked with them since the mid 1960s and my children were in school in the late 70s and 80s when I was helping. That was selfless for sure and required a lot of patience but it was an asset for the future watching the children learn to use this new method of learning/communication. So that was a good deed as well. I was volunteer secretary at Edward's United Church for a number of years and was there every Sunday handing out bulletins and providing answers if asked to various questions that new people coming had. That was surely a good deed because I never really felt comfortable there, I am after all an Anglican - I think like an Anglican, worship like an Anglican but I did try to be hidden so as not to interfere in the Worship style (it was not too difficult as I had attended the United Church with my maternal uncle and grandmother); Edward loved it singing in the choir being Church Treasurer and for me that was part of the good deed helping with something that my husband enjoyed doing. So I guess I have done good deeds when I think about it. But now what good deeds do I do? I guess my surname research does result in a lot of emails coming my way with queries about the various families that I study so I do help in as much as I am able without using up my research time but do provide suggestions on how one could do their own research if asked. I support PWRDF with a monthly contribution but that doesn't really involve my doing anything but providing money. I support the mother Church here in the diocese as well on a monthly basis but again I do not actually do anything. I have gone to Church online now since the beginning of COVID so not even there in person.
But do my good deeds stem from faith; are my good deeds of value? I think when one is coming towards 80s years on this planet you think of good deeds differently as you age. Perhaps it was growing up in the shadow of World War II and seeing the news reels about the war and hearing the stories of savage genocide against the Jewish peoples and other death and destruction. So many children in Germany died during the war. There was no escape for those children really although some may have escaped. The children in Germany during the 30s and 40s had spent their school years worshiping Hitler as a hero and saviour of their nation. They grew to adulthood believing all of that and became part of the military that attacked Europe on all sides. It was sad that the only way to stop Hitler was to keep bombing Germany. I learned that as a child so when I see that another "country" attacks a peace loving country like Ukraine or Israel I relate back to that time when the only way to stop it was to keep bombing until the arms were laid down; the guilty Nazis surrendered and we could once again try to create a peaceful world. Now we have the Nazi Russians, we have Nazi Iran and their supplicants Hamas, Hezbollah and the Houthis forcing war on us once again. Is there another answer? I wish there was. But so long as you educate children to believe lies then the threat of war is always with us because they grow up believing those lies and create war against the peaceful peoples of the world. In this case though the children of Gaza could have come to North America if the Muslim community had organized that and many would have been saved; there has been lots of time to do that. I really do not understand why the effort wasn't made. It is unusual to be able to save the children of an aggressor "country."
So what are good deeds that I could be doing now other than what I am doing? I shall think about that today whilst I am at Church which will be on You Tube from Christ Church Flackwell Heath which is near High Wycombe in Buckinghamshire. This is another area of England that we did not really notice in our travels between London and Oxford although we traveled through this area a number of times. I do not have any ancestors from this area of whom I am aware but likely Edward did back in the early 1600s when his Dissenter ancestors were still living in England.
I think faith is something you have within you and perhaps that is what leads one to do things they do through life. God is and always has been my best friend as long as I can remember and yet I have never spoken to this best friend except through prayer and thanksgiving. God does not speak to us in a way that we can hear; He no longer walks and talks with man. It was reading the old wills that revealed to me the deep faith of my ancestors (and other people's ancestors) and I understood my own faith better.
Now on to Latin, breakfast is completed. The day begins.
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