I find it Irksome...

I admit it. I listen to the CBC in the mornings when I'm at work. They can have very interesting topics of discussion, interviews, etc. Sometimes it's as boring as all get out, but other times I find it informative and interesting.

One thing about the morning show, The Current, drives me bonkers. Ok, it's a little thing but none the less it's something I've picked up and has annoyed me ever since. When it comes to giving the various means of contacting the show, they will give a toll-free phone number you can call to leave your message on a machine, they give their email address, and they give a mailing address in case anyone wants to send a comment or whatnot via snail mail.

Canada's postal code system has an order to it. It goes: letter number letter (a space) number letter number. In other words it would look like this: M5W 1E6. This is the actual postal code they CBC has. Now, when they give it, they also say a little sentence to help listeners know what the letters are and not mistake them for similar sounding ones. The sentence used by the announcers of The Curent use this sentence: Mangle five words, I'll enunciate six.

It took me awhile to figure just what the heck they were talking about with that sentence because I wasn't paying close enough attention. Then, one day a little over a month ago, it dawned on me what they were using the sentence for: the postal code. Here's what bugs me...the "I'll" is wrong. Why you ask? Well, remember a few minutes ago I stated that the postal code order is letter number letter, number letter number? Well, the word "I'll" starts with the letter "I" and not a number 1. Their sentence is inaccurate! You can not associate the number 1 with a word beginning with "i"...it's impossible.

In my opinion, the CBC - or at least the program The Current needs to come up with a different sentence. They need one that accurately reflects what they are trying to accomplish. If not, and people not knowing the order of the postal code just might use a letter "i" instead of the number "1"...and then that would affect the machines at the post offices used to sort the mail according to postal code. That causes problems for the post office (ok maybe not really, but it might) and we all know not to cause problems for post office employees...otherwise they'll go postal...

Ok...bad joke at the end. I apologize to all postal employees, and members of their families if they are offended (heck, my own father used to sort mail at the post office). But, I will not apologize for stating that the CBC is wrong with their word association for the postal code and the fact they need to fix it to accurately reflect their postal code.

'Nuff said.

Missions Or Not?

As you may recall, in my last post I somewhat complained about people assuming that my trip to Korea is missions oriented. I don't know why this "bothers" me, but it does a little.

I've been praying to God, telling Him about my concerns and thoughts. I've told Him that should He want me to do some kind of missions work while I'm there, then I would - even if I'm not overly keen on it. Does that make me a bad Christian? Jesus tells us to go into the world and make disciples of all men, yet I don't want to do that. I'm 100% certain that is because of a little 4-letter word that starts with "f" -- fear.

Now, keep in mind that Christianity is very popular over in Korea, and I think the top two religions are Christianity and Buddhism. It's not like the Korean people have never heard of Jesus, but still there are those who need to know Jesus and see His love in action, and receive His love. It's just the same in North America. Missions is not limited to the jungles of Africa or other third-world countries. Missions can be done in our own backyards!

So, to get to my point, this past Sunday the pastor was preaching about doing missions because a group of youth and young adults is going to Toronto for a week on a missions trip. It was a very good sermon, and at the end he said that if we felt the Lord nudging us about doing mission work (he strongly believes that all Christians should go on at least one mission trip in their lifetime), to stand so he could pray for us. Well, guess who felt the nudge. Yeah, me.

I have no clue what kind of mission work I'd even do over in Korea, but I suppose any little bit is fine. I will, as I have mentioned before, do my knitting over there to donate to charities or underprivledged kids who might need a hat or socks or mittens or something, and I'll likely help out at the church I end up attending in Korea - providing they have areas of ministry that are done in English so communication would be easy. Whatever it is, I'm praying that the Lord will direct my steps and let me know what it is He wants me to do.

But first, I need to get myself into His Word more often and pray better than I've been doing. I need to be able to hear Him when He speaks to me and tells me in what direction I need to go. I will be honest and say that I've fallen behind in these areas (though the praying is getting better) and definately need improvement. I need the power of God to keep Satan from preventing me from doing the Lord's work, because I can't stop him (Satan) with my own power.

So, it just may be that one reason the door has been opened for me to go to Korea is to do some missionary work. To me that is scary. It shouldn't be, but in all honesty it is. It's something I'll have to work out with God.