and the beat goes on...

life continues pretty much as normal these days. jenn's already counting down to our time off this christmas. we leave december 16th and we'll try to come back around the 30th. trying to figure out the timing and keeping everyone happy is a struggle. the reality of us not being with 2 out of 3 families when everyone wants the first christmas with grayson is difficult. everyone (almost) will see him, and us, and perhaps the time spent together is more important than the day we spend it on...

grayson's still growing. i am ever so thankful to God for him. jenn made the comment the other day (to grayson) "you make daddy smile so much, i don't think he's ever smiled so much before in his whole life". i think she's right. i never knew being a dad could be so... there are no words.

ministry is tough right now. a very key person in our group is taking a medical leave of absence and there are lots of questions that are being asked. all we can do is wait and pray that God leads like only He can. so for now the workload is more. but God is good, and christmas is coming. oh, and the flames are playing a lot better these days. they're going for their 5th straight win. they're looking more like a team these days.

something to ponder...

as i continue to struggle with the questions that come along with serving God and the Church, there are moments when you read something and go, "okay, it's time for me to shut up and just let God be God, working in the way only God can."

this article (ht to stacey) really hit that point home for me today. often times - whether i want to admit it or not - i'm too concerned with how i look or how my message is communicated and i overlook the very real and very powerful things that can happen in my interactions with people.

i pray that God will continue to transform me into someone who gives a rip about others before considering how something benefits me.

2 days off...

this never happens. 2 days off in the same week. i took monday off because i worked last thursday to get ready for DtP, and now it's thursday - my regular day off - and i think i'm more rested now than i have been in quite a while. i actually don't think i'll know what to do with myself tomorrow. it might not be as hard getting up for friday morning prayer with the rest of the staff (yes, 7am is too early for me).

now it might sound a little funny that i'm rejoicing over this normally taken-for-granted luxury, but there's something you need to understand. i work a different schedule than a lot of people. because of the nature of my job (youth and young adult minister) i'm asked by my local church to be available (work) 6 days a week. i'm expected to put in a certain number of hours and how that all works out is mostly up to me, with a few exceptions. but that means that i generally get 1 day a week where i am unavailable to the world. my wife (the lifesaver that she is) screens my phone calls on that day, i don't even check email on that day, and unless there's something really important i need to grab because i left it in the office - the church building is like a giant radio-active swamp to me on that day.

i've been doing this ministry thing for 6 years now. it might sound odd to treat a day off like this, but i am convinced that it's the only way i've been able to 'stay in the game'. i love my church and the people, but no one better come in between me and my day off. that being said, i get about 2 weeks off over the christmas break (the last of holiday time and banked days from working stats), hawaii is sounding real good right now.

you gotta be kiddin me...

just because things are way too hectic right now, and i need a laugh. it looks like this a REAL commercial from Hong Kong as they're experiencing a shortage of qualified accountants. this an actual recruitment video... (ht to Relevant)

i'm linkable...

i've just discovered that i'm linkable. let me explain. i know my wife linked to this blog from hers, and i'm good with that, in fact, she's the one person that i'll link to from my blog because that i won't offend somebody because i met them once and they thought that our encounter warranted me linking my blog with their's. but, i've discovered a number of people outside of my normal social circles that have linked to my blog, and i'm kind of impressed with that. they like me, they really like me...

on another note, we're down to the last week of preparation before DtP. you probably won't hear a whole lot from me until that's finished, but i'll try and come back with focus and intensity (ht to joe) and a few pics of the whole event.

please continue to pray for this conference, the kids and leaders attending, the speaker, the bands, and the details. also continue to pray for my church as we head towards the decisions about building and direction and stuff, and for the staff of our church - they're all great people who just want to serve God and the Church.

what a weekend...

this weekend started off great, moved to horrible, but made its way back to great. i need to start off by saying though that i've got my mac back, and it's great to finally be working on something that never crashes and just simply does what i need it to do.

friday evening jenn and i watched the movie Click with adam sandler. great movie, good story line, decent moral (family matters - more than you realize). then saturday i was at work trying to find out why people hadn't been emailing me back, and why i was still waiting for a whole whack of information from people that i needed to move forward in a few projects. to set this up for you, our church's web hosting service changed their email system a while back. i never got word that they had done this, so the result was that i never recieved almost 70 emails, all of which were expecting fairly immediate responses. i normally handle my emails all through gmail, because i can handle all my accounts through there with no problems. but with the changeover, any possibility of forwarding my messages to gmail was taken away.

to top this all off, i got my butt kicked at board games with a small group of friends, calgary lost, and edmonton won. a horrible night just kept on getting worse.

but to finish it all off, we had a great night at youth group on sunday evening. there weren't many of us there, but we went out to our church's camp and walked and played some games by lantern light, and then enjoyed s'mores by a raging bonfire thanks to joe. it was great. we had a chance to really connect with a few of the kids, and the chance to really be honest and let them know they are cared for. i really hope beyond hope that these guys see the things that Jesus has in store for them. if what they see is anything close to the potential i see when i look at them, they are in for the rides of their lives.

thoughts from today...

well, what can i say? today was great, and God is amazing. our worship time today was definitely touching. jason (a great brother in the faith) led an impacting time of worship in song, and our congregation took part in a very multi-sensory experiment. using psalm 107 and a few verses from isaiah we were led through an experience of desert, darkness, affliction, and redemption. and shown that there is thankfulness in all of them.

it's amazing to be part of a church community where people are passionate about connecting with the God that loves them. don't get me wrong, there's still a long way to go, but i think God is doing something amazing amongst our faith community. it's just too bad that hindsight is clearer for me than being in the midst of something, because it always means that i have to wait until i'm through to get a clear picture of what it is.

i'm thankful for my church, for my family, and for the work that God is doing. hopefully the thankfulness lasts a little longer than the day we call thanksgiving. at least the ancient jews put a whole week around it. we give it a day... dare we afford it (and our God) more than that?

the flames win...

a convincing 2-1 victory in the battle of Alberta for the good guys. that's right...the good guys. we'll have to wait to see though if they follow it up with a little better performance than last year's 4 win 7 loss start. so far though, they look good.

i feel like i lost a huge chunk of this week, and well, i did. moving my office and getting set-up in the basement has just been a giant hassle. hopefully i can get things back to normal now though. it's time now to begin really turning our youth ministry into more of a spiritual training time than a come and have fun time. i'm not saying youth group isn't a place to have fun. i think one of the most spiritual things we can do is play. however, i think if we're going to really impact people for the Kingdom of Christ, we need to teach them how to be spiritual people, and show them how to connect with the side of themselves that they never knew they had.

the building decision is still forefront in alot of people's minds. please continue to pray as we go through this process - it has major implications for the future of our faith community.