Winning . . . no, not the lottery!

Last week was Mental Health and Addictions Awareness Week. On Tuesday and Thursday, two people from the local Mental Health office were set up at a table in the concourse of the college, giving out information about the myths and facts of mental health and addictions.

I took my class of ESL students out to the table and we asked questions about the myths and facts sheets that we had already done in class. To encourage them to talk to real live Canadians (instead of just their teacher), I told them to check out whether they had guessed correctly which of the ten statements were myths and which were facts. With a little prodding, my students chatted back and forth with the two people from Northern Health. Before we went back to class, we entered our names into a draw. Anyone who stopped by the table to talk could enter.

Today, I received a phone call saying that four of us had won something and we could go down to the office and pick it up. After school today, we piled into my car and paid a visit to the Mental Health office. We came away with three Roots t-shirts, a hoodie, and a ball cap, all embroidered with the Northern Health logo.

What's special about that? Winning! Everyone loves to win. It doesn't really matter what the prize it. It's the specialness of being chosen. Of having your name drawn out of a basket of many names. Of being singled out, in a good way!

Those who are saved have been chosen! God has "blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him" (Eph. 1:3-4).