I recently read a news article about a 90 plus man who was accused of brutally assaulting his children in their younger years. The children have finally overcome their victimized hesitance and the trial is in process. It isn't my place to say one way or the other whether or not he is guilty. I want to address the process itself.

Should an aged abuser face prison time? After all, he or she is frail and the abuse took place so long ago. There are those who feel the answer should be no. The victims want to see justice done so they can move on with their lives so their obvious reply would be yes. What do I think?

It's deeper than just a simple yes or no. We need to analyze the whole picture. Here we have the abuser. He or she was in their right mind (for the most part) when they performed the abuse. And then there's the victim/victims. They are scarred and damaged--sometimes too damaged to stand up and address the abuse immediately. Sometimes it takes years to see clearly enough to even acknowledge that their abuse was wrong and not their fault. And then we have time. They say time is a leveller of all things. Not necessarily so. Time give the victim a longer space of victimization--unless they choose to forgive. That's not an easy task when the abuser is still walking free. And then the abuser is left feeling he/she is not accountable--no matter how old they are. And then there are the other possible victims that can fill that space of time. So should this old man be imprisoned?

In my view, if he is found guilty--yes. My mother, on her deathbed, said something so profound it has never left me. Through a wrinkled face yellowed with jaundice she whispered, "I still feel like I'm 20 inside." In that brief sentence, she reminded me that age doesn't change views--choice does. If the evidence points, without a shadow of a doubt, that this man abused his children, he should pay the penalty not because of law verses grace but because we all need to understand the consequences of our choices. And because the victims need to see that someone is championing their victimization.

Can they forgive him? Can society forgive him? Most certainly and Christ would tell us to do so. And in forgiving, the victim can find healing and freedom from the ongoing after effects of abuse. But to trust him is another story. To blindly release him from the consequences of his actions is opening a door to allow other abusers a chance to ignore the cruelty they have performed on another human being. In imprisoning this one man, if he is found guilty, the judicial system sends a message to all who abuse. The message is this: "We will not tolerate this. In any form. At any time." And the Christian can still try to reach him through the consequences of his actions.

Often when we think of worship, we think of music and I have pondered on many occasions about its significance.  What power does it hold over us? 

I have studied music all my life.  With a 97% in preliminary theory, a third place in the Canadian National Vocal Competitions, certificates in bronze level ballroom dance, eight grades of piano, four years of flute and three years of guitar under my belt, I am well aware of the effects music can have on a person and it is no wonder that it plays such a prominant role in worship.

What other venue engages all parts of the human species?  Does work encapture our souls?  Does academic study steal our attention?  Can a movie or book move our emotions quite the same?  Not really.  While we can pour our efforts into our work and we can study the scriptures--something I whole-heartedly encourage--while we listen to sermons and read literature that is designed to uplift, only music permeats all parts of us at once.

Have you been busy at a task when a favourite song came on the radio and immediately your attention was stolen?  Have you had scripture jump at you in its full meaning once its profound words were put to melody?  Even the best book or movie plot line can be side-railed by the right combination of words and tune.

Worship in itself is a focusing of all parts of body, soul and spirit on our creator and all He is and has done.  It is no wonder God chose music as a major form of worship.  Even the least musical among us can appreciate the beauty of a well-composed song. 

How often do we underplay this important function in our personal and corporate worship.  Perhaps, we may think, if we give it more importance we will pump up its leaders and workers to a state beyond humility.  Or perhaps we will spend too much time turning our focus away from other modes of worship.  And yet, time and time again, God calls us to pour ourselves out before him in music; drums, flute, lyre, tambourines and stringed instruments, trumpets and cymbals.  It is no co-incidence that the churches with the greatest growth are filled with amazing music.

What does this all have to do with writing?  Imagine putting into song the words God has given a writer.  Imagine the potent combination of written inspiration with musical inspiration.  As God moves us to follow him--to worship him--let us pour all we have into whatever method he reveals in his word.  He doesn't ask for perfection.  None would meet the mark.  But he does ask us to put our all into it.  If that means learning then let us learn.  If that means participating then let us participate.  Let it never be said as we stand before our Lord that we didn't do all we could to "make a joyful noise" unto him.  Blessings.

Today I watched my daughter ride our horse in the midst of a mild snow blizzard.  She's an adult and a competent rider.  On a sunny day, the horse would trust her.  He would enjoy the warmth and the sunshine; the fresh air and the smell of growing things.  And he would amble along with ears perked and the occasional contented sigh.  But not this day. 

Today, he hunches his back.  He stares cautiously at every shadow.  He glares a frustrated eye up at her from her perch in the saddle.  He longs for the safety of the barn.  What has changed?  Certainly the horse hasn't changed.  He is still the individual animal content to live his life as he sees fit.  Content to trust we dominant members of the herd for his food and shelter.  And she hasn't changed.  Her hand still grips the reins with a firm control.  Her leg steadily guides the same today as it always has.  What has changed?

The surroundings are different.  Suddenly things aren't as they should be.  They aren't as safe as he would like.  The wind howls.  The snow sifts around him.  The cold bites.  A slate sky calls of more snow soon and he can smell it in the air.  And he's afraid.

How like this we are with our creator.  When things go well, we are content to blare out our beliefs and our confidence in Christ.  But when the winds of societal change stir and the bitter words of antichrist are thrown into our faces, we balk.  It's safer in the barn.  The cold of hard hearts can't hurt us there.  And yet our Master hasn't changed.  He is still willing to guide us with a strong and kind hand to the destination he has chosen for us.  All he asks for is our submission to the reins.  He hasn't changed.  We haven't changed.  Only the circumstances around us shift and alter.  Will we struggle against our master's command or will we submit?  Will we trust in his ability to see what we don't understand?

As you enter into the Christmas season, may our Lord hem you in like the fence of a strong pasture.  May he bless you with abundance under the shelter of his providence.  May he teach you the truth--the eternal truth.  That he is the same today as he was two thousand years ago and an eternity to come.  Many blessings and Merry Christmas.

While I may come and visit here from time to time, I'm finding that my writing ministry is leaving me with little time for multiple websites.  So...I'll be sending some of you invitations to my writing website and if you wish, you can join me there. 

On another note, two of my three daughters will be hometeaching:)  My third isn't married yet but intends to homeschool when the time comes.  What a great compliment to God's ministry within our home.  Blessings.

For the past few weeks I have been part of a judging panel for a book contest which will remain unnamed for obvious reasons.  It has been an experience to say the least.  I have read excellent and not so excellent work and have had to give an honest evaluation of it all.  That isn't easy because I know how difficult it is to write.  I know it's easy to miss a few spelling mistakes and grammar mistakes.  I know that the mind is a fickle and erratic thing that is prone to jumping from idea to idea.  I know that because I write too.  I have discovered that to judge a book is not necessarily to decide if I've liked that book or not.  That is an unfair evaluation because I am not broad in my genre preferences.  So in order to be fair I had to find a way to critique based on an unbiased preference. 

With each book I read I asked myself a number of questions.  Does this reader subject themselves to a competent editor?  In otherwords, are they so in love with their work that they aren't willing to have someone criticize it?  Writers are wonderful people--for the most part--but we all have this problem with putting our hearts and minds on paper and then saying "No!  Don't touch it!  I want to keep the flaws because they are MY flaws!"  That's what makes editing so painful.  We are relying on someone to point out the flaws and it's hard not to take that personally.  I give points to the writer who has the courage to let someone "murder their darlings" as my Long Ridge Writers Group teachers called it.  That should eliminate the manuscripts that have serious grammatical and structural errors. 

Then there are the writers who don't understand genre.  It is so important to know what categories your book falls into.  If I am judging an inspirational romance and someone submits something with erotic material into it, I'm going to immediately deduct points because any inspirational work has modesty at its core.  If I am judging mystery and someone submits something with a heavy romance theme than I know they haven't read the categories listed in the contest guidelines and haven't seen that the contest has a mystery/romance category.  This is one of the quickest ways to get dropped to a lower score.

And finally, I look for flow.  Flow in plot.  Flow in words without being too wordy.  Flow in energy.  Consistency through out the book.  I want to get sucked into a book no matter what the genre and jarring stops and starts are a quick way to lose me.  When it is set in Hollywood and then suddenly jumps to Detroit without a chapter change or the extra space or * * * that let's me know one train of thought is ended and another is beginning, I get a bit frustrated and the points drop.

I have enjoyed my stint at judging.  It's been fun to read the creative new ideas out there but I have also learned alot about what to do and what not to do before submitting work to a contest.  Don't just write it and send it in.  Set it aside for a week or two and then read it again out loud.  Have an editor read it.  So what if it costs a bit of money.  Better to have one critique your work than many.  Ask for honest feedback from readers.  "Did you see mistakes?  Were there areas of the writing that left you confused?"  It may not help you this time around but it will certainly help your next book or article.

Writing isn't just an idea slapped down on paper.  It should be an expression of one's thoughts in a way that shows the writer is constantly growing, learning and improving.  It's fine to put our hearts out there but before we do, we should make certain that we offer the best we can give and if that means having a judge or editor or critiquer or publisher tell us that it needs improvement in certain areas--so be it.  It will make for better reading in the end.  And isn't that the goal?

It has been a packed summer for me with book signings (which I keep forgetting to post here) and just summery type stuff.  One thing I've begun to observe is the break in the chain of publishing in Canada.  I am beginning to see a sense of inferiority in the Canadian writing industry and it filters all through the chain of command stopping just shy of the reader. 

We have the publishers.  For some reason we think that if we are published in Canada we really aren't legitimate writers.  And this is sometime reinforced by book stores that have been convinced that New York publishers are the end all and be all.  Then there are the distributors.  Again, it is assumed that we need a US distributor to get our books into the States.  Then we get to the book stores.  No Canadian section.  No Canadian books.  No Canadian authors featured.  Having said that, I do realize that there are some who have dived in and are rightfully proud of the Canadian content of their stores and to those store owners--thank you, thank you, thank you!  But far too many people in the publishing process still believe that Canadians can't write, edit, publish, distribute or promote.  Nonesense!

I am proud to say that I have done my books in Canada because I'm Canadian.  Funny thing is:  the American readers understand this concept completely!  They couldn't imagine using another nation's publishing company, promotion company, distribution company to get their books out there.  And what do the readers of Canada think?  As I have continued to chug my way from book signing to book signing, I have discovered that Canadians want to read what Canadians write.  I've had people buy my books just because I'm Canadian.  They didn't even care what they were about!  Now how crazy is that?  And yet, they are frustrated because they have to beg for Canadian books to be brought into stores.  Isn't it time Canadians embraced all things Canadian?  Just a thought.

More and more I am discovering that home taught and Christian School taught students have a love of writing.  I see this as I travel teaching writing workshops in those venues.  As my books are getting out there the demand is rising for the fifty minute workshops and it is so refreshing to see the enthusiasm in the next generation.  No, we don't need video games or fancy lures to get our children reading books.  They simply need to understand that it can be fun.  At one time I thought reading was going to go the way of the dinosaur but now I don't believe so.  There is nothing better than diving into a plot while curled up in a big cushy arm chair with a cup of cocoa.  Our children are discovering that and it brings a song to my heart.  Well done you home teachers!

It has been far too long since I've visited my home teaching friends.  I hope summer has been good to you.  I have been really busy.  It appears God is expanding my ministry from writing novels to speaking in home teaching conferences to teaching writing workshops at Christian schools nation wide.  It leaves me little time to actually write for extended periods but He knows what it is best for me.  Drop by and let me know how you're doing.  Blessings.

Donna Dawson

Revelation 13:16 - 17 (NIV)
"He also forced everyone, small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on his right hand or on his forehead, so that no one could buy or sell unless he had the mark, which is the name of the beast or the number of his name."

 Often, I receive, in my email, those electronic missives that smack of government conspiracy and, for the most part, I file them under the little red X. But on rare occasion, the subject matter tweaks my interest and begs me to qualify.  Such was the case with the email entitled "Bill C-51?the loss of freedom". 
 My first course of action was to download and print the actual bill from the government website?all 37 pages?and to spend the needed time to go through it with a fine toothed comb.  Was I ever glad I did.
 I didn't need to read too far before the first bomb dropped.  On page two in the Preamble of the Food and Drug Act the bill declares, according to my understanding that the Ministry does not need to supply scientific certainty but that scientific evidence is enough.  The problem with this subtle difference is that our Ministry, again according to my interpretation, no longer has to compile all the evidence and show the majority results.  They can simply find one piece of evidence supporting their view and tout it as their proof.
 Nothing of great significance jumped out at me from pages four and five but page 6 caught and held me.  The word "drug" is being replaced by the term "therapeutic product". And the definition of "therapeutic product" in Definitions 6 is: (a) a drug (b) a device (c) cells, tissues or organs that are distributed or represented for use in  (i) the diagnosis, treatment, mitigation or prevention of a disease, disorder or abnormal physical state, or its symptoms, in human beings or animals, or (ii) restoring, correcting or modifying the body structure of human beings or animals or the functioning of parts of the bodies of human beings or animals, or (d) a combination of two or more of the things referred to in paragraphs (a) to (c);
 Did you get that?  It's a small one stuck in the middle "restoring, correcting or modifying the body structure of human beings or animals?"  Isn't that what food does?  And water?  And herbs?  And clothing?  So let's go back to the scientific proof.  If I tried really hard, I could probably find evidence that garlic is harmful because of its risk for salmonella.  So, if I was a part of the ministry and didn't want the public to benefit from the antibiotic properties of garlic, according to this bill, I could simply slap down the salmonella card and suddenly garlic is an illegal product for purchase, sale or distribution unless I have a license to do so.  Scary thought. 
 As I continued on I was a bit annoyed at the fact that Definitions 7 didn't supply an English translation to the French change.  So Anglophones suddenly are not privy to portions of this bill.  The aforesaid license is outlined on pages 6 and 7 and, in a nutshell, is issued and can be revoked only by the Ministry of Health.  The bill then goes on to give the Minister the right to decide what is classified as a prescription product and what isn't.  Garlic?  By prescription? Or even worse.  Food by prescription.
 I then moved on and found the little gold nugget that states we can't participate in any controlled activity without a license issued by the Ministry.  According to the definitions a controlled activity is stated as follows:  "(a) in relation to a therapeutic product?manufacturing, collecting, processing, preserving, labeling, packaging, importing for sale, distributing, wholesaling or testing, and (b) in relation to a designated therapeutic product?manufacturing, collecting, processing, preserving, labeling, packaging, importing, distributing or testing;"  In a nutshell, I can't grow, collect, can or give away the said garlic unless I am licensed to do so.  Those cute little jars of pickled garlic?  Why that's illegal according to this bill.  And pages 13 to 17 point out that that controlled activity of mine can be spewed to the public without my consent.  And if I make it a public business to sell garlic, my business information can also be publicized.  But it gets better yet.  An "inspector" can enter my house, confiscate my computer, use my photocopier to copy my files, take my files, then proceed to confiscate any of my "therapeutic products" for an indefinite amount of time, fine me up to $5,000,000.00 and put me in jail for two years.  
 As though that weren't enough, page 18 Analysis section 30(1) declares the Governor of the Council can decide what is therapeutic, can decide on the course of action and can do all of the above without intervention from voters or MP's.  (5) page 22 confirms it by stating; "Without limiting or restricting the authority conferred by any other provisions of this Act for carrying into effect the purposes and provisions of this Act, the governor in Council may make the regulations that the governor in council considers necessary for the purpose of implementing the General Council Decision." 
 Again the French language takes over and pages 28 to 30 and again 31 to 32 are all in French then a new definition is slipped in under Hazardous Products Act 53 on page which suddenly defines drugs as "food, therapeutic product or cosmetic within the meaning of the FDA".  The bill continues on to page 35 in French only again and then sums it up by defining tobacco products as anything containing nicotine accept food and therapeutic products. 
 It's a scary piece of paper work that Canadians are saying little about?a bill that steals our freedom through convoluted words and fancy phrasings.  What will you do?  I have every intention of hand writing a letter to scrap the bill entirely and that whichever party does so will gain my vote.

Wow! Has it really been this long since I have been blogging? Yes, yes it has. Sad, I know. Life has just kept me busy. (That was my feeble attempt for an excuse). I was looking at my profile and realized that my photo is almost 2 years old. I think I've changes a little (i hope). Back to the events of the last months.

Some may remember that I was in university for a year and a half, well that was a year and a half ago. After some roommate issues and the realization that God had other plans for me, I dropped out.  I began working for Dad almost right away and was relegated to a job at the very bottom of the tottem pole. Noone could ever assume Dad treated his daughters with extra priviledge when it cam eto the jobs we had to do. He believes that working your way up is the best way to learn. He's right. I've learned alot in these last few months. The winter was exceptionally hard for me as I had daily confrontations with people who wanted to look down upon for having to audacity to be of the same gene pool as the boss. Believe it or not I am a person of low self-esteem and guts when it comes to getting in people's face and telling them to leave me alone. That is just one of the skills I have learned since working for Dad. I got over it, I told people off (in the most respectful way my temper would allow), and I have no problems with that issue anymore. However, it did make for a long winter. Spring came (2008) and I decided I needed to try something away from home. My family encouraged me to as I have always wanted to travel but have always been a home-body. I decided to apply to be an RCMP officer. Great ideas sometimes don't turn out great. I went to the presentation, I came home excited. I passed the apptitude test, I recieved my package of info in the mail. That's when things got rough. I went through the process of filling out forms and so on. I went to the eye doctor and was informed that not only would my visit cost $400.00 (new glasses too) but that I didn't meet the qualifications. My eyesight is too bad for the RCMP. Laser surgery? I filled out all the forms anyway and went to do the physical testing. I fell and smashed my knee up pretty bad and have been having problems ever since. I had to reschedule another test. That's ok. I prayed if God wanted me to do it, he would provide. I got a phone call just a few weeks ago, they need my highschool transcripts. Well, being homeschooled and all, that's a problem. So, I told them they would find the annual government testing results and my university transcripts enclosed. They callled back, that wasn't good enough. I needed a highschool equivalency. University transcripts people! Obviously I passed highschool. Anyhoo (deep breath), I took it as a sign that God didn't want me to go down that road. Now I'm on a new path that isn't a rough but still has stones (sometimes boulders). I am re-enrolled at Redeemer university. I am a mature student so that gives my specialized housing for cheaper that the regular students living in res. I move to Ancaster in September! I'm not looking forward to leaving somethings behind (my horse) but I will survive. My parents have been very generous in allowing me to crash at their place whenever I want to come home.  Oh, I forgot to mention I moved into an apartment a year and a bit ago, so I don't live at Mom and Dad's. Oh the woe's of dealing with landlords (a whole other story).  So life is taking it's twists and turns regularly for me but I'm still on track and working hard to be the woman God intended me to be.

There ye have it, my story......of the last year:)