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On Friday my husband and I received some difficult news that a close family friend of 20 years, Jon Gustavsen, was given a short period of time to live as a result of cancer. The news completely horrified and took us by surprise, though we have seen a significant decline in his health since his diagnosis 3 months ago. Jon and his wife, April have been some of our very dearest friends. We have walked alongside each other as our children have grown up together. We have worked together (both at Chinook Winds Adventist Academy and Bearspaw Christian School) and we have attended the same church. Our families have spent portions of nearly every holiday together over the past 20 years and we have been present for each others' children‘s weddings. Our sons, Jonathan and Torren have grown into adults together. Hundreds and hundreds of hours have been spent at each others‘ homes over the years. The word cherished would not adequately describe the love and adoration we feel towards these precious friends. Two years ago in December April was also diagnosed with cancer. We have walked closely with her, Jon and their children as she has adjusted to life with her illness.  
And so, after receiving the news by text, Joel and I rushed down to the Foothills Hospital on Friday after school to be with Jon and April – to share in their new reality. As we wept together and talked about what was to come, both Jon & April made statements about maintaining hope and choosing life. After all, "man‘s impossibility is God‘s opportunity", as Jon said.
Deuteronomy 30:19 says, “I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life.”
Choosing to see life through an optimistic, happy lens in the face of suffering is difficult. And yet the alternative is to allow the thief to come and steal or destroy our joy and hope. Jesus desires that we not just merely survive in a hope-less state. He desires that we live life abundantly (John 10:10), regardless of our circumstances. And we can do this only if we choose life.
As we face the months to come with our dear friends, Jon & April - and their precious children, Lacey and Torren and Amy (Torren‘s wife), we will choose to hang onto songs and Scriptures which highlight life, joy and hope. God is close to the brokenhearted and reaches out to us when we are crushed in spirit. (Ps 34:18) In this world, we will have trouble – but Jesus has overcome the world. (John 16:33) This world is not our permanent home - something ’better‘ is coming. (Heb 13:14) We belong to God and when we pass through difficulties, He will be with us. (Isa 43:102) (A beautiful song of hope - “His Eye Is On The Sparrow” - www.youtube.com/watch?v=k7Pk5YMkEcg.)
May we all choose LIFE – as we enter God‘s vineyard with our kids and with one another this week.

Lara Melashenko

Dear Chinook Family,
     In I Corinthians 1:10 we read  “Now I plead with you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment.”
      As we read on in the following verse members of Chloe‘s family were so worried about how things were going for the church in Corinth that they went and found Paul to help with solving the divisions and issues.   Paul‘s reply as we just read was clear and to the point.   He began by pleading with the church in the name of the Lord.   Why?  Simple, he wanted to refocus, regroup and reunite the members on truly what was important and central to the church's life,  JESUS.
 
Chinook Family you know what the enemy loves to do most?  He loves to creep in and cause division, because he knows that by doing so he weakens the structure, and not just that of the church, but of the home, of marriage, of everything we are trying to build in Jesus name.   
 
Thankfully God has given His church remedies in dealing with division.  Here are 3 crucial points Paul shared with the Corinthian church, and for you and I today: 
To Glorify God – We need to take the focus off of ourselves and our agendas and back to glorifying God, for who He is, and not who we or others are, as sinful fallen beings.   In I Cor. 10:31 we read,  “…as it is written, “He who glories, let him glory in the Lord.”
Focus on the Cross – The other antidote to division is for us to all go back to the cross, and see afresh where the Saviour paid the penalty for our sins.   I Cor. 10:23 “…but we preach Christ crucified.”
Righteousness and Holiness – What do I mean?  Well let‘s first read in I Cor. 1:30,31 “But of Him you are in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God—and righteousness and sanctification and redemption."   

What does Righteousness mean?  First of all we are made righteous/justified, forgiven by the blood of Jesus Christ, and because of this, we are at peace with Jesus.  By living our lives in alignment with God, not of our own strength but of His, we will most likely be in alignment and by asking for God‘s wisdom find peace with our brother/sister.
What does Holiness mean?  It is understanding that since we have been bought with a high price, God is daily SEPARATING us (a HOLY people), to follow and to serve Him.   Serving is the best antibiotic against pride, because as we serve, self is blocked and others are placed in front of us and our agendas.   
When Jesus was here He made His Mission clear in Luke 19:10 “For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost.”  How lost we can truly be if we lose focus of Jesus and find ourselves in complicated situations.     
A.W. Tozer once said this: “One hundred religious persons knit into a unity by a careful organization does not constitute a church any more than eleven dead men make a football team.  The first requisite is life, always.”   
 
Dear friend, I don‘t know what you may be going through, but I do know this, that Jesus is the way the truth and the life, and if we connect to Him individually and as a church, the differences, struggles and issues we face will find solution in and through Him.   That isn‘t to say we won‘t have disagreements of opinion‘s but it will mean that we can still look at our brother and sister and love them, because we will see them as God‘s son and daughter.   
 
A very good friend of mine Pr. Bruce Boyd, once said.  “Let‘s keep the main thing the main thing.”   That main thing is Jesus.   Let‘s seek Him and His wisdom daily to live abundant lives.   

God Bless and Keep. 
Your Brother in Christ,
Paul Antunes