Cybersalt News

Today's edition of the Cybersalt Digest is a unique one, in recognition of the first National Day for Truth and Reconciliation in Canada.

Simply put, for 7 or 8 generations the government of Canada, with the assistance of a number of churches, attempted to erase First Nations culture by forcibly removing children from their families and homes and then placing them in residential schools around the country. All of these children suffered unimaginably because of being taken away from their homes. Many, many of them were brutalized and abused in all manner of ways.

While First Nations people have known for a long while that many of the children who never returned are buried in unmarked graves across Canada, non-native Canadians are just realizing that reality following the initial discovery of 215 unmarked graves in Kamloops, BC.

We are a country in the very early stages of coming to grips with and beginning to talk about the unspeakable truths of our longtime (which is also recent) genocidal history against the First Nations amongst whom we still live. We are doing this in order to find, and move along, a path to true reconciliation with them.

Shortly after the discovery of those 215 unmarked graves, I was humbled and honoured to take part in a conversation with two members of the Wiikwemkoong First Nation, and a member and a Chief of the Aundeck Omni Kaning First Nation. My purpose in contacting them was to learn how I could be a better participant in the process of reconciliation and how Canadians can extinguish the systematic racism that still exists in our homes, our churches, our denominations and our institutions.

That conversation was recorded and the videos are now live, today's video share.

Click here to watch the first video.

The Cybersalt Digest will return to it's regular programming on Sunday.

~ Pastor Tim

Sunday greetings everyone!

You know, I really do try to not have grammatical and/or spelling errors in the Cybersalt News. With that in mind, shout out to David. W. Jr. for noticing that last Sunday I used "loose" instead of "lose" in the newsletter.

Once again, nobody else caught that one - or at least no one else mentioned it. In fact, I was wondering if maybe a number of you had noticed it and decided to just say nothing and keep it a secret. After all, that is a very good practice which is best summed up in that familiar saying, "Lose lips sink ships!"

Today's video share is beautiful story of a community effort to be kind and love someone in their midst. My favorite part is when they send the smoke signal - so beautiful!

Click here to watch the video.

Enjoy the rest of today's mailing!

~ Pastor Tim

Oh look, Chicken Thursday!

As mentioned last week, Grandma Cybersalt and I helped greet a newcomer family at the airport last Thursday. They are now halfway through their mandatory 2 week COVID quarantine period. The home they are staying at is situated on a rural property with a garden and a number of fruit trees. The picture in today's news is of some of the bounty they discovered and arranged on the most famous leaf of their new home country - the maple leaf! 

Today's video share is an especially fitting one for Chicken Thursday. I once had an almost out of control fire while barbecuing some chicken, but even then I didn't manage to get it this black!

 Click here to watch the video.

~ Pastor Tim

Sunday greetings everyone!

"Shout out" to Cybersaltine, April H. who sent me an email after last week's digest.

She gave me a good laugh when she shared that it took a while for her to realize that Grandma Cybersalt is actually my wife and not my grandma. Of course, that means I am Grandpa Cybersalt, which I must admit has a very much less quaint ring to it in my head.

April also caught a mistake I made in the Cybersalt news last Sunday. I used "new" instead of "knew" in one of the sentences. She kindly wondered if I was making a play on words. All I can say is, "Kno, April, that was just a typo."

BTW, April was the only person to report that typo so either some of you regular grammarian Cybersalts are beginning to loose your edge, or else you've become so familiar with the frequent droning of my errors you've given up.

Speaking of droning, today's video share is of a singing, ringing tree. It's a piece of musical art which rightfully deserves to be in the middle of nowhere. In all the years I pastored local churches, I don't think I have felt more sorry for sheep having to listen to something!

Click here to watch the video.

Enjoy the rest of today's mailing!

~ Pastor Tim