200 Years
Two hundred years is a really long time. In the grand scheme of human history, I suppose it really is not that long. Yet I would imagine the world was a radically different place 200 years ago. All the changes to the world and technological development of even the last 20 years has impacted so much of what we consider to be normal every day life.
For fun, I checked some blogs of people who search patent archives.
100 Years ago…
Water skis were first used - wooden boards and a clothes line!
More pertinent to my day to day life… the electric blender was first invented for the purpose of making malts and milkshakes. 🥤
Photo by Content Pixie on Unsplash
The Australians invented Vegemite. I’ll let you decide if you thank them for that or not.
And significantly more importantly… insulin was first used in a person to treat diabetes. 🇨🇦
150 years ago…
The first commercial refrigeration system was installed - at a brewery!
The little copper rivet in the pocket of your jeans… it’s there to strengthen your pocket and you can thank Mr Levi Strauss for that one.
And finally, 200 years ago… some key inventions from the 1820s..
Modern-day matches, a Scottish raincoat - the Mac, a precursor to the typewriter and even raised printing to be read by the blind - braille.
Why all this talk about 200 years ago anyway?
It won’t show up on any invention lists, but records somewhere will show that 200 years ago a community of Jesus-loving people decided to band together to form the community which now goes by the name First Baptist Church Kingsville.
It’s pretty wild to think this church community’s story begins even before the Confederation of Canada.
Like I said, 200 years is a really long time. It could be hard to imagine how the beginning of this church in the relatively small town of Kingsville, Ontario has much impact on my story. Yet, 27 years ago, my family moved to Kingsville and we began attending First Baptist Church Kingsville (FBK).
Twenty seven years ago, my story met the story of FBK. I won’t try to sugar coat anything here. Fifteen year old Jud was not a happy Jud. I was not very friendly to most and I most certainly was not excited to be a part of the life of this church my dad just became the pastor of.
Yet, even in spite of a lot of anger, six or seven years later, after a lot of growing up, I moved away from Kingsville a very very different person.
I had met Jesus. I had become deeply convinced that living for this Jesus Christ was the only thing that truly mattered in life.
I had also met a girl, a cute girl! Jesus used her to change my life forever!
Enjoy these circa 1996 photos!
Again, what’s the point of all of this?
Well, we’re back in Ontario now and I’m leaning into seeking to connect with churches and journey with them as they endeavour to disciple and mobilize young people. Care’s family still attends FBK and, of course, I have history there, so I’ve been connecting with them explore ways I can serve. It’s been really fun to reconnect with some of my roots.
Earlier this fall, the pastors at FBK told me they were celebrating their 200 year anniversary and asked if I’d be willing to speak at the 200 Year Anniversary Gala event.
I told them I wasn’t sure what a Gala is, much less what it means to speak at one, especially one commemorating a 200 year history - of which I really only share about six or seven. I also told them that it seems like an extreme privilege to be invited into something like that and it seemed like the sort of things you should say yes to! So.. I said yes!
Which brings me to the point of all of this.
Earlier this month, it happened. I had the opportunity to speak at First Baptist Church Kingsville’s 200 Year Anniversary Gala event.
And, as I imagined, what a privilege.
Of course I enjoyed the event itself, I even wore a suit! The food was great, the stories were cool and sharing space with so many people who share different parts of my story was a real honour.
Perhaps the best part for me though was thinking back to that season and recalling the amount of people who had invested in me, or perhaps even put up with me! As much as it can seem like another life ago, those years were critical in my journey of becoming who I am today. It truly was a gift to have the opportunity to see those people and thank them for their love and patience and investment in that angry teenager!
If you’re at all interested in hearing what I spoke on, the audio of my message is linked below. Let me know what you think.
I was going to write more here about what I actually got to speak on… Jesus being the cornerstone of our lives… but I got carried away talking about old inventions! lol
I’ll circle back around to that one soon. It was a fun talk to do some study on and then personal reflecting on. And I think there is a lot of invitation for others too!
