Unbeknownst to most, the Word of the Week club has not been inactive over the summer months. Here are several words that are being nominated by Randy Klassen as particularly evocative of select portions of his aestival peregrinations (a.k.a. “summer travels”):
myriad (ME-ree-ad, adj, from the Greek murias, muriados “ten thousand,” as in Rev 5.11: “I heard the voice of many angels, numbering…ten thousand times ten thousand”):
1. any large, almost incomprehensible number, “gazillion.”
2. the number of kilometres the Klassen family drove in a three week span, visiting both Dallas, Texas, and Abbotsford, BC.
Titan (TIGHT-un, noun):
1. member of (ancient Greek) race of giants or gods (such as Prometheus).
2. Something of superhuman size or strength.
3. Tallest, fastest, longest roller coaster in Texas (250 feet tall, reaching speeds of 135 km/h), located at Six Flags Dallas, upon which Randy rode, to placate his son. (Once was enough.)
conference (KONF-runts, noun, from the Latin conferentia, from verb confero [co-, con ‘together, with’ + fero ‘bear, bring, carry’ =] to bring together, contribute, unite, connect, engage, interchange, discuss, join oneself to):
1. a consultation
2. (esp. annual) meeting of any organization
3. the inspiring gathering of Mennonite Brethren held in the Fraser Valley in July, representing some 430 MB congregations (= 72,000 members) in Canada and the US, plus a number of delegates from some of the other 19 countries with MB churches, to mark the sesquicentennial (150th) anniversary of this small but lively branch of God’s global family. Combine the following in liberal amounts, and you’ve got Conference at its best: reunions with friends far and near, sessions that offer food for thought, food for the body, food for the soul, all served up with spectacular surroundings and a cooperative climate. Some surprising glimpses of God at work: in reconciliation (did you know that 15 years ago, a dance at an MB youth event at Banff set off a wave of concern across the country? we heard words of reconciliation!; but another, and more significant, moment of peace-making was noted with the Lutheran World Federation making a formal apology to Anabaptist/Mennonite churches for their persecutions in the Reformation), in mission (it’s no longer just N. Americans going out to the “other countries”—for example, the Congolese have a mission among the Pygmy peoples of the African rainforests), in service (prison ministry among the African-American MB churches in N. Carolina), in proclamation (evangelist Samir Youssef, based in BC, is widely known as the Billy Graham of the Arab world because of his media ministry). Gil, Howie, Rob and myself attended the Conference to represent Bethany among the several hundred delegates (click here for a glimpse of Gil’s workshop session). The week spent at the Conference was exciting, and it reassured me to see that Bethany is part of this large and well-supported network of Jesus-scented service and scholarship.
—Randy Klassen
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