WE Are the Reason for the Season

Here is the video I made for this Christmas, 2011. I sent it out BEFORE Christmas but was having some trouble with my email so it didn't get to those of you I wanted to get it personally in time. I'm hoping I'll post it here and you'll get to see it. Better late than never, eh?
Hope you had a  Merry Christmas and a Wonderful "Fruit of the Spirit" New Year too.
Love Laura-Lee (VCSS 1985)

NOTE: Turn off the "Friends" Song at the right BEFORE you start up this video or the two songs will interfere with each other. L-L

How About News from You’se ?

For the longest time I’ve loved the idea of having an alumni newsletter for our school but life has gotten way out of control for me right now and it just doesn’t look like it will be coming from me any time soon. I’m currently homeless, stuck in a hotel with about 6 boxes of my belongings stuck in a storage locker and Christmas bearing down on me like a freight train. I don’t think a newsletter will be happening any time soon. But how about something from you guys?

I know it can be hard to talk about yourself but perhaps you would be willing to answer some basic questions if I send out an email to a bunch of you simultaneously. That way you don’t have to start cold. Some of us have been away from high school for a very long time and a lot has happened to us. Where or How do we begin to tell it all?

Perhaps you could start by telling me if you would be willing to answer some questions. Leave me a short answer to this post at the Facebook Wall or at the VCSS Alumni Blog. Make sure I have your correct email address and I’ll send out a list of questions. It might prove interesting.

And as always, remember not to say anything that you wouldn’t shout from a mountain top because on the internet … that’s just want you are doing.

I’ll be in touch.
Love Laura-Lee (class of 1985)

P.S. If one (or more) of you feel inspired to try a newsletter on your own I would think that’s great. Go for it. I suspect we have some Noel Coward’s, Samuel Clemens’s or Edgar R. Murrow’s out there.

Here is a video I made last year for my family. It ended up quite good and I thought I would spread it around to a wider group of people that I love this year: all my friends in cyberspace!  And if you think someone else might like it who hasn't seen it yet (I don't even have the email address for everyone who appears in the video) please forward it to anyone you wish.
Merry Christmas  and "Bless You All" my former classmates and extended family members.
"Friends are friends forever , if the Lord is the Lord of them."
Love Laura-Lee

Where’s the Alumni Newsletter, Laura-Lee?

As you can tell, the VCSS Newsletter I mentioned before is not finished. Nor is it going to be anytime soon. "LIFE" has invaded once again and what I used to consider tough situations deteriorated into "major crazy".


I had to leave my apartment on March 30, 2011. I had only a few days to get out and save a few things because of the waterfalls (literally) coming from my kitchen and bathroom ceilings (and I was in a basement suite). My landlady wouldn't fix it and I didn't have the money to move my belongings. I saved a few boxes of things (about 1/2 dozen) and my coffee table. Then on my way out of the building, I fell down a flight of stairs and awoke to discover myself surrounded by 5 , big, handsome firemen. That normally would have been a GOOD thing but they were trying to keep me from panicking because of my injuries and the fact that my purse strap had wrapped around my neck twice and was cutting off my circulation.


So here I sit, many months later, in a dingy hotel room, with winter nipping at my heels and Jack Frost at my nose. It was - 6 Celsius today and I am still no closer to finding a home. What makes it harder is that my mother is sleeping in the bed next to me. Almost 2 months ago , her kitchen sink became a water fountain (not to be confused with a water fall) and neither of us can walk , nor have a car and are a goodly amount in debt, while we watch our options dwindle. Yet it is a huge coincidence to find ourselves in the same boat. And, quite frankly I don't believe in coincidences. It probably looked pretty bleak to those Hebrews who had their backs to the Red Sea and Pharaoh's men ready to slice them to bits from the other direction. But what did Moses say to them? "Let the Lord fight for you. you need only to stand still"


So I think you may understand why the VCSS Newsletter has gone to the bottom of my list of priorities. (Maybe somebody else will take up the idea.) Yet, I received some mailed that was being "held" for me and discovered that Vancouver Christian School sent me something to "hit me up" for money. (Good luck with that guys) But once again, I wandered back, in my mind, to a gentler place and time. Where our greatest troubles was a test score or a new pimple.


Now we are all grown up and we must learn the lesson that "God has no grand-children". You either belong to Him or not. You follow or not. You must make a conscious decision to pick up your cross daily, deny yourself and follow wherever he leads.Christianity is no longer something you stumble into or "give it a try". It is a choice. The ultimate choice!


Two things come back to my memory again and again: When Alan Dunlop was forever practicing the hymn, "Freely we have received; now freely give" and what Mr. Van Oosten wrote in my last yearbook, "Blossom where planted". A hundred times a day those 2 thoughts run across my mind. It's my job to grab hold of them and invite them to stay a while. Just like I wish I could do with each of you. It is my desire and prayer that you each reach the "breakthrough" point when you surrender that last piece of yourself. You no longer keep that one last cookie in the cookie jar. I'm not saying I prefer not knowing where I will be from day to day or what will happen to me, BUT , Jesus reveals himself to me EVERY day. Sometimes to say deep, important things and reveal startling revelations or just to share a silly joke , because He knows I love them best. But when I realize that the Maker of the stars, knows me by name, I can understand the reaction of men like the prophet Isaiah (who told God he was of "unclean lips") or Peter (who said, "Get away from me Lord, for I am a sinful man!"). Somebody told me once that , when they were with me they never felt so guilty but so accepted at the same time. That is our Jesus. Correcting us constantly, yet loving us totally. He has filled my hands with blessings because they were not full of other things. And I find great strength in my weakness because it's at that point I must lean hardest on Him. He will gather me under his wings and I will rejoice. A deal where we certainly come out with the bigger end of the straw.





So now I head off to bed this early Sunday morning, knowing that NOTHING can separate us from the love of God found in Christ Jesus (Romans 8)



Oh No. Not Winter Again!

And my Love to you all, my extended & Christian family.

Forever and always, your Laura-Lee Rahn (VCSS grad 1985)



Beautiful Alberta Sky

P.S. DON'T FORGET TO CHANGE YOUR CLOCKS AN HOUR.

VCSS Alumni Newsletter Coming Soon

Soon I hope to start publishing our very own Vancouver Christian Secondary alumni newsletter.

It looks like we have been left to fend for ourselves when it comes to keeping in touch with each other. VCS as a High School no longer exists. (Carver has taken up that role). So I am hoping to start a newsletter for all of us who attended the Mons/Haida Campus when it was a High School (whether you graduated or merely attended).

Keep watching this blog for news about this coming newsletter.

NOTE: I will be contacting several of you personally about contributing to the first issue. For now, the best thing to do is to invite and inform as many people as possible who attended Vancouver Christian [Secondary] School.