Strength for Today and Bright Hope for Tomorrow

Everyone knows that there's not much I enjoy more than planning a special occasion.

This is the one special occasion I never wanted to plan, the one invitation I never wanted to issue:

It is with a heavy heart that Nilgiris Tea House announces we will be closing weekend operations at the end of July. (We are still available for private functions and special events; email cleosriver@yahoo.ca.)

All our friends who care for and patronize the TH

are invited to a come-and-go farewell tea 

on Sunday, July 27, 3 - 6 pm

We thank you for your patronage, friendship and many kindnesses. We have loved serving the community that has developed in the TH over the past 11 years. We will miss you deeply.

The morning I finally came to the conclusion that this is the way God is leading me, I felt desolate. The sky was thundering, scowling at me as I peered out of my bedroom window overlooking the park.

I tearfully made my way down the 16 steps to the TH. After half an hour or so of busyness in the kitchen, I walked into the dining room. I opened the front door, and I was greeted with this:

  

A double rainbow - Mum's sign of God's promise and care - beamed over the park across from Nilgiris!

It was 6:15 in the morning.

God has plans for me, and He has plans for this little TH that we all have grown to love. We don't know what His plans are right now, but we do know that His wisdom is staggering in its depth, and His love has no limit.

Great is His faithfulness.

April 13, 2003

Eleven years ago on April 13, we opened the doors of Nilgiris Tea House.

Yesterday morning my Dad came over after church and cut up all my potatoes for the evening meal - the first time he's done that since October ...

Dad and Mum were with me when we first opened the doors at 7:00 a.m. on that fateful April 13, 2003. We were woefully unprepared and ludicrously naive as to how it would all work.

But by the grace of God and the kindness of Nilgiris' friends, the little TH perseveres still.

Yesterday evening Dad came  back with a box of cookies he had made that afternoon: sugar cookies, his mother's recipe.

Attached to the box was this note, summing up the last decade-plus-one as only Dad can:

My dearest Karyn,

[Eleven] years ago today the "Nilgiris Tea House Adventure" began.

There have been so many experiences and challenges. I want to congratulate you today, for under God, great blessing and life have proceeded from this mountain stream.

Congratulations for pressing on and touching many lives ... May [our Lord] continue to guide you as to the future, knowing His way is the best. There are no surprises or unexpected events with our Lord.

May our Heavenly Father bless and provide - as He will - for all the future holds.

My love and prayers,

Dad xxoo

Thanks to my artist sibling for infusing the present
with the past for the perfect cup of tea ...

Calling 9-1-1 ...

Josephine, bless her, has an incompetent for a driver on some nights. Last night was one of those nights. I managed to run right into my very own snow drift on my very own driveway. And I actually managed to grind my front tires into the multi-layered snow and ice until she was not budging.

I called BA, that genius sister of mine who can figure out the logistics of pretty much everything. She dug snow out from under Josephine, pushed, pulled, put down that gravel stuff around the tires ... one hour later, and Jo hadn't budged. I crawled out the passenger side of the car (the driver's side was firmly entrenched in the snow bank) and BA helped me lug the groceries from the bottom of my driveway into the Tea House.

The next day Don, the man who rescues me from all sorts of peril, came to take a look. He enlisted Mike, who had brought his snow blower to the TH and blew clear my parking lot before starting on his shift. Together they whittled away the snow on the driver's side of Josephine, and dug around the tires some more. 

Nope.

Rick, one of my kindly neighbours, joined the men with his shovel. The tires kept spinning. They needed another person to push, Don decreed. That would be me, I surmised.

While I put on my boots and coat, I asked the occupied tables in the TH if they would be patient with me as I was running outside to try to help push my car out of the icy rut it had ground itself into.

One table had four EMS professionals at it. They asked me what was going on; when I told them, they all jumped up as if they had just heard the first notes of the Hallelujah Chorus playing. "We'll push!" they volunteered and all trooped out of the back door at the TH.

Within 30 seconds or less - actually, JUST long enough for me to snap this picture - Josephine was free. No, no, they didn't want any thanks, they said; they were just happy they could be of service and that it all worked out.

However, Lisa, Mel-Mal, Ben and Erica - with Don tucked in between them! - you don't know what a re-charge you gave to my heart and to my day by your great kindness. 

  
Our paramedics are amazing. Three Hills is so blessed to have people of such calibre working and living among us.

But please, keep parking across the road when you come to the TH for your breaks ...

Hallelujah!

The Parents' 2013 Christmas Event

On the twelve days of Christmas your offspring gave to thee:

First we start with dinner,

Leonard Cohen's anthem,

Ineffectual stingers,

Bearing our sorrows,

Multitude of praisers,

Reassuring angel,

Little lights a-twinkling,

Wild honey pot!

Pretty shoes and dove,

That black sheep,

Crunchy bugle snacks, 

And their pictures on a gold tree


For the past six or seven years Elliot and Oliver have tried to do something to make their parents' Christmas sparkle. This year they decided on the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra's annual performance of Handel's Messiah.

But an Event has to have build-up, of course, and a lot of discussion including eating (also of course! The two boys and their Auntie K love to eat together!) ensued:

 Boston Pizza ...

Starbucks ...

Kinjo ...












We had to keep eating until we settled on the clues building up to December 6, and how it was all going to work. There was going to be one cryptic clue added to a tree each of the 11 days before the Messiah. Each clue would reference some song from the masterpiece.The last one - the one that invited The Parents to dinner - would be placed at the base of the tree on the morning of the 6th.

They were to tell their mother to take a picture of the tree each day and send it to Auntie K, who followed up on Facebook with the Twelve Days song you see above, as part of the clue.

They were not to give any other clues to The Parents until the last day.

Here are the solutions to the clues:



Day 12: Julia Child's confirmation trivet that we were on the right track, along with an invitation to Ruth's Chris Steakhouse

Day 11: The Hallelujah Chorus, of course!

Day 10: O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?

Day 9: He was despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief.

Day 8: And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying:

Glory to God in the highest!

Day 7: (There were shepherds abiding in the field keeping watch over their flocks by night. And lo! The angel of the Lord came upon them and the glory of the Lord shone round about them and they were sore afraid.)

And the angel said unto them, Fear not; for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour which is Christ the Lord.

Day 6: The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light: and they that dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them hath the light shined.

Day 5: The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God.

Day 4: How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace!

Day 3: All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way ...

Day 2: The trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible!

Day 1: For unto us a child is born; unto us a son is given!















After a mouth-watering experience at Ruth's Chris Steakhouse we ran through the Plus 15 walkways, very necessary to Calgary winters and gratefully received by our party this night, to the Jack Singer Concert Hall. We slipped into our seats - Row E Centre - just as Michael Hope, the CPO's second bassoonist and so much more, prepared to deliver his opening remarks and acknowledgments.

Here is the official review from the Calgary Herald:

http://www.calgaryherald.com/Guest+conductor+Ivars+Taurins+delivers+vivid+Messiah+performance/9260125/story.html

From our vantage point, five rows away from the stage, the soloists did full justice to Handel. Perhaps Daniel Taylor was more fragile than I have heard him in the past, but we wondered if he was battling a sore throat or the like as he seemed to sip more water than usual. As for baritone Peter Harvey, his delivery was consistently high and his "Trumpet Shall Sound" was fresh and triumphant. Tenor Colin Balzer launched the evening with "Comfort Ye" and we knew we were in for a treat. But the astonishing gift of the evening was soprano Sherezade Panthaki, whose voice soared to high D on one memorable run and who sang each of her solos with understanding, grace and deep sympathy. Her exquisite delivery made me want to weep, made me glad I was sitting next to Bronwyn, made me want to share the moment with my friends Jane and Mary.

Conductor Ivars Taurins has to be mentioned - what he drew out from the orchestra and chorus was nothing short of mesmerizing. It was a fresh, crisp, quick Messiah to be sure; but at the same time his profound knowledge of the work enabled him to let the soloists set their own pace, confident that he would rally the instruments and voices back into time. 

The Hallelujah Chorus left Bronwyn and me with tears rolling down our faces; and the Amen Chorus at the end sealed the evening, growing from a muted Amen to soar and swell in wave after wave until the rafters of the Jack Singer auditorium resounded with praise and confidence that "worthy [indeed] is the Lamb that was slain, and hath redeemed us to God by His blood, to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and blessing."

In my humble, untrained opinion, Handel's Messiah is like no other score ever written: its musicality and virtuosity is unquestioned, but it is more than that - it opens up the scriptures and sets the story of Jesus to music in a way never accomplished before or since. And this year's magnificent performance was one for the books.

The evening drew abruptly to a close as winter highway driving stared us in the face. Quick hugs and goodbyes and we went our separate ways, thanking God for Handel, thanking God for each other, thanking God for two young men who arrange a Christmas Event for their much-loved parents each December.

Hallelujah!

(Tafelmusik's recording of the Amen chorus; Ivars Taurins conducting)

Thanksgiving in the TH

Sixty-one people in the TH for Thanksgiving dinner, plus a take-out dinner for two.

The Tea House Staff was extraordinary: Thank you Mike Thibault, for efficient vegetable prep and extraordinary turkey carving and serving; Brenda, for working two days straight and in particular for making the wonderful TH dressing; BA, for doing the board and getting the tables cleaned off in between seatings, plus serving soups, clearing plates and getting the keeping the dining room under control; Gabrielle, our unbelievable dishwasher who kept up with it all while still serving rolls and pouring refills of water and punch; Deb, who came out from Calgary in the early afternoon and stayed till almost 1 a.m., laying the table for the first seating, getting food prepared and served, and cleaning up when it was all over; Dad, for turnips like only Dad can make; and Norma, who came in the next day to wash stemware and china.

All the guests - okay, almost all! - seemed happy to be there and thankful for the food and the effort. I was too busy to take any pictures - except one.

Here is Gerald, who came at the invitation of the Teahouse Sweetheart, who happens to be his mother and is one of the people we love the most for her encouragement, prayers, support and, well, because she is a sweetheart. One of the things we are most grateful for is that she is recovered from the fall and that she is still up and about, sharing her indefatigable spirit and her deep-seated, quiet kindness with all those fortunate enough to come into contact with her.

At her table with her were her four favourite people: her daughter and her husband, and Gerald and his wife.

After they all ordered pecan pie Gerald, joking, said, "Might as well bring us the whole pie!"

So we did.

Thank you all of you who joined us for such a wonderful evening!

Here's the ultimate Thanksgiving song for people right in the middle of Alberta farm country ... except for in this version it's sung by the choir and congregation of St George's Windsor. I chose this version because it wasn't just a choir singing; the faces of the congregation are joyful as they pour out their song in praise to God. You and I could be singing with them!

The Thanksgiving Menu

We are looking forward to welcoming our guests for dinner tomorrow! I am so very thankful for Mike and Brenda, who worked extremely hard to get vegetables peeled, pecans roasted, the ingredients for the dressing chopped and ready. 

Here's a Thanksgiving medley of songs, a couple of which I haven't heard since the days of Miss Hall at Hebron Girls School in Coonoor.

State of Emergency

In 1998 I found my dream house, built in 1920, the first house I had ever looked at with an eye to purchasing. 

Two years later I sold it to my sister, the artist who could - and did - take the charming old lady to new heights of beauty and comfort.

We celebrated her birthday earlier this year with an intimate soiree that blended family, friends, music, poetry, tears and laughter into a sublime evening.

Last Thursday at 4 pm my sister moved whatever she could in the very limited time she had left, water lapping at her sidewalk, and evacuated the little house as the rain came down and the floods went up.

Ducks near the water
(Mike Drew / Calgary Sun)

Deer stranded on the Deerfoot
(Marni McNaughton)

Vast swaths of Calgary were declared to be in a state of emergency, along with neighbouring towns Canmore and High River.

Within walking distance of the house, water roiled down Memorial Drive ...

Memorial Drive
(Photo credit Gavin Young / Calgary Herald)

  ... and surfaced in Sunnyside ...

Sunnyside
(Gavin Young / Calgary Herald)

Sunnyside
(Kyle Hagen)

Power was out and the neighbourhood sealed off.





Down town Calgary was in worse shape:

(Virgin Radio)

The Calgary Sun has put together an overview showing the incredible scope of the flood - please click on this link, then scroll down a bit and start the slide show:

http://www.calgarysun.com/2013/06/21/nenshi-said-worst-was-yet-to-come-as-the-bow-river-continued-to-rise-early-friday-morning

She was finally allowed back to inspect her house: the basement floor and the drywall have had to be removed and will be replaced. But her prescience led her to move most of her valuables upstairs and so she was spared some of the devastation that many others are experiencing.

The newscast last evening still led with pictures of destruction and detritus. Mud is everywhere. Water fills up the smallest crack.

This is also becoming the story of people who care, who want to help out. When the call for 600 volunteers went out, almost 4000 people showed up.

Calgary's mayor, Naheed Nenshi, is everywhere at once, it seems. He has a way of rallying people to come together and help each other. There has even been a t-shirt created in his honour:

A man and his siblings drove in from Saskatchewan because they have a vacuum truck and they wanted to help - free of charge.

Volunteers have arrived from Ontario.

Our family in Calgary and many of our sister's numerous friends have turned out to help her drain water and rip out drywall and restore what order they can.

People for the most part are setting aside their own needs and are working to help their neighbours, friends, communities. They are reaching out their hands to help people they don't even know.

Yesterday morning at the Manor Dad spoke about the prophet Jeremiah. The context is this: the city of Jerusalem has been taken into captivity. When Jeremiah warned his people that this would come, he was viewed as a traitor and thrown into a dank, dark well. 

The book of Lamentations has five chapters: chapters 1 and 2, and 4 and 5, deal with the city and the people and the sufferings that they were undergoing.

Chapter 3 is very personal. Here Jeremiah identifies himself with his people; in many ways, he is a picture of what God can do with His people. Jeremiah was rescued from that pit into which he had been cast (the story is told in the book of Jeremiah chapter 38 and verses 7 - 13). His personal deliverance is an encouragement to the people of Jerusalem's ultimate deliverance.

The king's servant Ebedmelech was the answer to Jeremiah's prayer. He is the one who heard of Jeremiah's imprisonment and it was he who went and informed the king of the same and received permission to go in and rescue Jeremiah. 

Dad said: You may well be the answer to somebody's prayer. Jeremiah, of course, was crying out to God for help while he was in the pit. Ebedmelech did not know that; as far as he was concerned, he just knew that injustice had been done and he sought to right the situation. 

In the same way, Dad went on, in the grace and providence of God, a word you say, a deed you render, may be an answer to someone's desperate prayer - even though you might never know it!

In these awful times of flooding in southern Alberta, and in various places around the world (I am very mindful of the current tragic situation in northern India), while I feel like wringing my hands and retreating because I don't know what to do, I am challenged by Ebedmelech, a slave, doing what he could.

Faint but unmistakable: God's
promise arches over our
Alberta sky last Friday evening

Surely no less is required of me?

Read the simple, profound words written by my beautiful sister, who is a true standard-bearer for grace amidst shock and ongoing difficulty, as she saw the river coursing down the street near her home: 

Gratitude and Love.
Flow.

Ten Years Ago Today ...

... we were basking in the well wishers of friends old and new who gathered at the about-to-be-opened Nilgiris Tea House for a little tea party.

 So it struck me as particularly fitting that ten years later to the day we celebrated our friend Gaylene's milestone birthday with a little tea party.

But what a difference a decade makes! In 2003 we were exuberant, nervous, excited, hopeful, full of anticipation for what the next day would bring. 

We didn't have a clue what we were doing, what we were in for.

As we opened the doors for today's tea party we certainly had a clue. Ten years perforce provides a lot of opportunity for learning - and our learning curve was steep! - and many windows of grace when the lessons seemed almost too difficult to see through to the end.

We might not be as exuberant or as nervous as we were back then; but we're still excited and hopeful, and full of anticipation for what God might bring to us next.

Thank you all of you who were with us that day ten years ago. Thank you for your enormous patience with us as we found our feet. Many of you have become trusted friends and we are so grateful to you for your love and support.

Thank you Gaylene and Debbie for the opportunity to celebrate with you today.

And thank you, God, for the gift of our little TH.

Day 5 - Faithful is He That Called You ...

Before we came back home to Bangalore I had mused to myself, Wouldn't it be wonderful if we could have a small reception to honour Dad for the 54th anniversary of his joining Berean? We could have the faculty and staff to lunch ...

Sarah and Mera, wives to my brothers Ed and Joh, graciously switched their menu plans up and encouraged me to go for it. "Maybe you could make small invitation cards?" Mera suggested.

When I conceived this plan, it was my intention to sneak out of the conference morning sessions in order to work on the party.

It turned out that I played the piano for every service; the heavy lifting went by default to Deborah, BA and Raj, with able assists from Aren, Mera and all the Ladybugs.

We left the college campus at 6 a.m. on the 5th, chasing across the city to the flower market for one brief hour of unparalleled beauty. Deb knew what we needed: Dad used to buy Mum flowers almost every weekend - roses, glads, tuberoses with their stocky stalks upon which balance delicate flowers that emit indescribably heady perfume not quite jasmine or queen of the night but a flower whose scent weaves tendrils into your subconscious and wraps itself delicately around your heart. And while tuberoses pervade your heart, your capacity for whimsical beauty grows exponentially.

Tuberoses had pervaded Mum's heart, and Mum had pervaded Dad's heart; Mum got her tuberoses almost every Saturday when they lived in India! She would arrange great vases for Church on Sunday with whatever flowers he brought her; and then on Sunday night, when the last person had left the auditorium, she would take the blooms back up to our home and the perfume would reside there through the week, a silent bene dictum to the beauty God provides in even the most trying circumstance.

More pictures from the market another day -
but Raj started our day by bringing us tea
from a chai wallah as we prepared to go home
after a whirlwind hour with flowers.

The story of the happy time we all had that afternoon together is best told in pictures. But as we crowded into the little lobby that had been promoted to an atrium for the day, the presence of God was in the place and the faithfulness of God, to Dad and to all of us, was attested to in word and in deed.

Gathering up vases for the flowers

"I did it how Mum taught me,"
she said when complimented
on her arrangements

Mountains of egg salad sandwiches!

Aren, Raj's wife and true partner,
getting it all arranged on the tables

Becca helping Auntie Deb
pour fruit punch

Faithess (combination of Faith and Princess!)
 volunteering to serve

Ready to start!

My brother Ed opened the afternoon with a
prayer for God's blessing

Jeremiah, a student of both Mum and Dad and
now the Academic Dean, gave tribute to the
ways Dad was and remains faithful
to his call

I said a few words on behalf of the family

We sang one of Dad's favourite
choruses,  'Faithful One,'
then Rev McIlveen thanked God for
Dad, for the time we were sharing,
for the food we were about to enjoy 

Ladies first ...

(Who says that can't be done in India?!)

Jello in orange, white, green -
the colours of the Indian flag ...

The cake - from Fatima Bakery, of course!

Another giant of a man, faithful
in the little things as well as
the large. Thank you, Derek.

"Ladies who lunch" -
Mera, Beneth, Sarah

Dad and Dr Bob

With two of his men, who are now
teaching at the College - Babu and Jeremiah

BA has already done so much in looking
out for Dad on this trip ...

Thank you, Divakar, for getting a Conference
theme banner done for me, with the
changes I requested. A keepsake of this week.

Faithful One, so unchanging

Ageless One, You're my rock of peace

Lord of all, I depend on You

I cry out to You again and again.

You are my rock in time of trouble

You lift me up when I fall down

All through the storm Your love is the anchor -

My hope is in You alone.