All In One Pile: September 2006

Friday, September 29, 2006

On the road again

I am hitting the open road again, only I'll be on a beautiful set of two wheels. I am biking down to Spokane WA today with 15 other guys. We are going to a Promise Keepers conference.

I am excited about the trip but not so excited about the conference. These conferences are not my type of thing. I am really going for the ride and to hang out with our church men. As far as the conferences go, I don't want to be manipulated into any sort of response. I want it to be God moving me to worship or change or whatever but often with these big evangelical hype fests, the lines get blury, in my mind anyway. I'm really praying for the Spirit's leading while hearing a pile of speakers say I gotta do this and that to be a man of God.

I'll be sure to post photos and thoughts in retrospect when I get back.

Thanksgiving

Bing a pastor, I have to seasonaly submit letters for our church's newsletters. I wrote one for Thanksgiving but I am not sure if it is appropriate. I believe the expectation is some churchy feel good greeting but that is not me at all. Do you think I should submit this? I wrote it last night:

I have really been thinking about ‘thanks giving’ these days. Here is where I am in the thought process – hold on for the ride.

If we are led to give thanks, either by force of the holiday dedicated to this action, or because something inside us compels us to be thankful, for whatever reason, this must imply that we have received something, does it not? Let’s say that this is true. Could we say that a person who finds it hard to be thankful has received little? I don’t think so. Rather, I think the problem that ungrateful people possess is not that they have been given little, but that they really don’t know how to receive. Take my family for example. We find ourselves often at the receiving end of the SAC church family’s generosity. This is a hard thing for me personally. I feel that if I receive a gift from someone, I am acknowledging that I have a need, and my pride tells me that I should be able to provide for my needs myself. My pride tells me I don’t need anything and anybody. But when I am able to acknowledge that I do have needs, that I need other people, that I need Jesus, I am truly grateful when those needs are met. On the other hand, I fall into the trap of feeling I deserve everything I receive. That if I receive a gift from someone, I rationalize, for whatever reason, that I deserve that gift. I cannot be thankful with this attitude.

I had to hash through this idea because so often I am faced with the question: “what are you really thankful for” and I struggle to give an answer. This bugged me and I had to ask why. I think pride and the feeling that I am deserving never get in the way. How terrible to approach the gift of salvation this way, or the gift of breath, or the gift of beauty, or the gift of a wife and two children. I want to be grateful for all that and more. And when I am not, I have to ask why.

If you are feeling the pressure to be thankful, and are finding it hard, take a look around you. Look at your family, your friends, your house, your car, your food, your pay check and receive these gifts with humility. Receive gifts knowing you do have needs that people can meet. That it’s not because you earned it or deserved it but that it is exactly what we have been talking about – a gift.

“So, my very dear friends, don't get thrown off course. Every desirable and beneficial gift comes out of heaven. The gifts are rivers of light cascading down from the Father of Light.” James 1:16-17 MSG

Thursday, September 28, 2006

My boys

I can't sleep so I'm gunna write a bit. . .

Lukas rolled over for the first time today. It is not an official roll over cause the bed was tilted in his favor. I'll call it official when he rolls over on a level surface. It is progress none the less. Seems like these little kids grow up so fast, and he is only 3 and a half months old! Anyway, I am a proud dad.

Lukas is a source of happiness in such a different way than Mackenzie was at this age. I get a smile out of him almost every time I look at him. And this is just not your average mouth smile, it is a full body smile. Yeah, Lukas even smiles with his feet. You gotta see it. When he smiles a super happy smile, his toes curl and he brings his feet up as he bends his knees. It's sweet. This is a picture Angela took of him a few days ago. We really have been slack in shooting photos. I'll try to get one of the whole body smile. And I'll try to get some oh the brothers together.

Now Mackenzie is just a mini me. I am overwhelmed every day at his desire to be just like dad. And he copies everything. He copies the way I drum on the table with my hands and the way I lie on the floor when I play 'race cars' with him. He has to wear his helmet and gloves when I go for a bike ride. He copies the way I threw garbage on the garbage pile this morning. He repeats every word I say while on the phone. He has to drink from a cup like mine. It goes on and on. And really, all the imitation melts my heart cause I know it's love. He loves me and wants to be like me. It's scary too. His imitation reminds me of the not so good things I do and reminds me of my bad habbits. I'm not going into detail here. Come see what kind of person he has become in 16 years and just know that the not so positive things came from me. Ok, he has his own choices to make but really, we have such a huge influence on our kids at this young age, it's unbelieveable.

The pic here is of Mackenzie being found during a rousing game of 'hide and seek'.

Those are the boys. Again, we'll try to take more pictures cause we have so many good moments these days (with our fair share of bad ones too) and I want to remember the good times. I had to scrounge to find these two pics. I'll have the camera on my trip this weekend so it might be a bit before I upload some family pics to the flickr site. Stay tuned.

Tuesday, September 26, 2006

What Sunday brought

Ahhhh, Sunday. Seemed like a pretty good morning. I had my drummer friend Steve join the worship team on Sunday. Angela and I were in a band with him before Mackenzie was born. It is always a pleasure to have him play.

We did "I'll fly Away" bluegrass. Our church loved that. So when is it worship and just pure enjoyment? I think it can be both.

And I covered my first Steve Bell song. I did his version of Psalm 40. I originally planned to have the band do U2's "Forty" but opted for this on Saturday morning. I've never performed a Steve Bell song. I never felt good enough. It went fairly well. I really only chunked the ending but nobody really noticed. I just mention this cause I struggle with some insecurities as a musician. The main struggle being I feel I am not a performer, the desire is there to write and perform but I don't know if I should really pursue it. It's the fear of sucking (aka: failure). But, I think I was lead to do this song. A few people shared with me that they were blessed by it. Good stuff.

But the real reason I write about Sunday is in reference to a previous post. Check it here if you need to be brought up to speed.

So, Rick preached a pretty good sermon. He pointed out that "it's important to take the Sermon on the mount in its wholeness. You can not take it in pieces." That was key for me. No guilt trip here. The ultimate challenge was to take a step back from life and our world and perhaps when we see our world's sin-full state, we will mourn as God mourns. As we see sin of our country, we may mourn as God mourns. And finally as we see the sin-full state we live in, personally, we will mourn our depravity and turn to the sinless one for forgiveness, redemption, nay, salvation.

There is more too it than that but that was the jist.

Oh yeah, shameless plug. You can find Ricks sermons and other stuff related to our church at www.scmac.ca.

Rick and I are both away this weekend. He is going to continue walking through Matthew only take a Sunday to talk about "The Kingdom." Should be interesting. He is welcoming my input. I am still trying to track down a book I read that had some everyday examples of what the Kingdom should or can look like today. Anybody read something similar?

Anyway, that's what Sunday brought

Thursday, September 21, 2006

VW Dream

I was going to write the whole story but realized it could be a book - not that I would like to write a book about it, but that I think I would go into too much detail and bore the heck out of you. But why do I write this anyway? Cause this story was a big part of this yearned this dream lives on . . .VW Dream summary:
- We went camping along the Oregon coast last summer and loved it. Best holiday ever.
- We wanted to do more camping but with a growing family, we knew we couldn't get enough gear in our 90 Honda Accord. I mean we could but we knew there was a better way.
- A youth pastor friend of mine had a 75 VW Westy bus. He has had it for over 20 years. His kids almost grew up in it. The seed was planted.
- A co-worker of Angela's bought an 85 VW Westy bus. I had a really good look at how the newer fully campered bus worked. Water applied to seed.
- Read Through Painted Deserts by Donald Miller. A decent story that involves a VW van. Didn't do to much to the seed, but it was about a VW van, like I said.
- Started scouring the net for deals. Read lots of forums. Spent lots of time at www.thesamba.com. Fertilizer applied to seed.
- Shared the dream with a few friends and family. They knew I was serious when I said I would sell my bike for it. I didn't really have the money so this would be the only way.
- The coworker of Angela's decided to sell his 85 Westy. We checked it out. My heart yearned. He was asking $8800. Ouch! No chance. The end of a dream???
- Another friend with a little more coin in his pocket got this idea that together we could buy a few vans and rent them out as a business. I was not too excited cause he wanted me to do all the work - mechanical and maintenance. If you know anything about these beasts, they involve a lot of mechanical and maintenance, none of which I had time for. Not so excited. Dream starts to fizzle as reality sets in.
- Same friend calls me up. Can you give me a ride to pick up a 1980 VW Vanagon Westfalia that I bought? Sure. Oh yeah, I just got a new paint job on it. Cool! The inside is gutted. Well, that is not so good. Yeah, and I want you to do all the work. Uh, ok, how come? Well, I bought it, got the paint job, if you rebuild the inside, we'll share it, rent it out, and share the profit. Hmmm, this dream becoming reality.
- I begin to think about this deal. I become less and less excited about it. I have never rebuilt a vehicle, let alone the interior. I have no idea how to do it, I have no money to do it, and I have no time to do it.
- The van gets parked at my house. Not sure if I like my own dream at this point.
- I look at the van at my house. Well, maybe this could be good.
- I remember I don't know what to do with it, that I have no time and money. This can't be good.
- I look at the van again. This time with my dad. He has a tonne of ideas. On a whim, we start stripping what is left of the interior.
** This is where the pictures come in. Click here to see the progression that follows.
- Now the interior is in my basement in need of a major overhaul. I become overwhelmed at not seeing a vision for what this thing could look like, only seeing the work ahead of me. I begin the occasional bouts of bitterness at this friend who forced this situation on me. Then I remember I agreed to it.
- I spend more time online and begin dreaming of the coming summer. Ok, this could work.
- I get to work. I am now inspired. I find $100 in my account. That gets me going on some materials and paint. That gets me going, but not too far cause I needed more.
- We were given a Volvo in pretty sweet condition complete with a few months of paid insurance. We really didn't need it so I decided to sell it. A young couple started comming to our church and needed a second car. I gave it to them for $500. (If this matter makes you wonder, talk to me about it. It is not as bad as it sounds).
- More materials, lots of labour, and too much time later, the $500 was gone and the inside pretty much done. So close to living the dream. The seed has sprouted.
- Angela is happy to have her husband back. I am happy to test this thing out. We are making summer plans. We are soo looking forward to having fun with this thing!
- I pay the taxes to license the van. There goes $150. Where is that going to come from? $90 per month to insure the van cause I was honest at ICBC that I would use it for work. I couldn't lie to say that it would be for pleasure only cause I was planning to take youth camping with it. But, now I am $240 above my budget.
- I filled it with gas. Right to the top. I took it for a spin. Heaven! Well, heaven at a top speed of 80km/hour. And heaven with a strong smell of gasoline.
- Yeah, gasoline was leaking out like a fire hose. Found the problem. Fixed the problem. Started van. New problem. More fire hose type gas spilage. Fix that problem. Ok, now on 1/4 tank of gas, I take off. The bitterness of loosing a tank of gas fades as I drive . . . and drive . . .
- Friends Steve & Lisa were heading off for Singapore to do mission work with HCJB. We wanted to be at their commissioning service and see them off cause we wouldn't see them in 4 years or so. Our first Vdubbing opportunity.
- Can this thing really make it to Saskatchewan? We weren't sure. We really had no idea what shape the engine was in. It was leaking oil, but it started well with no smoke, so that was a good sign. I decided to get it checked over.
- $ 400 sees us on our way with no leaks, new gaskets, plugs, filters, new side window, and more. Klaus is the best VW mechanic around. He wishes us luck.
- We are super exited. We leave in early June on our first trip. The first day we drive in the rain. We are cold cause I assumed the heater wouldn't work. I noticed the heat exchanger was rusted out months before.
- We got to one of the passes (I can't remember the name of it and don't feel like looking) enjoying our slow ride - 60km uphill, a screaming 100km down. All is well with the world, except that the ipod fm transmitter quit working. We listened to Everything Glorious by Passion and another singer who's name I can't remember right now cause those were the only 2 CD's we brought. Oh yeah, I put in a CD player thanks to a couple guys who were cleaning out their garages.
- I decided to play with the heater. What? Heat! And lots of it! And the sweet smell of exhaust. Lots of it! The gas heater that I didn't realize we had actually worked. I was able to find the balance between heat and exhaust fumes.
- Spent the first night at Golden. The night was as the name of the town implies - golden (insert groan).
- Woke up and brewed coffee over the camp stove. Sausage & Eggs commons right up! Ahh this is the life . . .
- Spend hours looking for a campsite near Brooks AB and have a terrible night. Mackenzie is doing fairly well but having a tough time at night. He is too scared to sleep on top so Angela stays on the bottom with him. Not the way we were hoping but at least we get some sleep.
- Ok, I am getting into too much detail. See how this could be a book?
- From Medicine hat, we couldn't break 90km. A strong head wind.
- By Maple creek, the rain had stopped and the engine was really working and getting hot. It's an air cooled engine by the way.
- By Swift Current, some knocking noises when I let off the gas. I figure it is because the engine is hot. I keep on truckin.
- Make it to the farm at Pambrun. Hooray!
- Visit my Sister Kim's family on the farm at Shamrock. Great times but it rained all day which meant we had a messy ride home. At times, we didn't think we would make it. All the weight of the vehicle was in the back with the engine so every time I hit the gas, the back end would slide out. We were on muddy roads. Check out the photos. There is a link on the right side called "VWDream"
- We actually hit the ditch at one time and it took a few seconds to maneuver out. Angela held her head in her lap and her heart in her throat the rest of the trip home.
- We got cleaned up. We had good visits with family and friends and said goodbye to Steve and Lisa. Time to head home.
- We make it to Maple Creek and found one of the best campsites we have been to yet. That is where the majority of the camping photos are from. This was paradise. We were looking forward to a summer of weekend getaways like this.
- We head for Calgary the next day. We chug along, the knocking sound returning after hard pulls.
- We make it to Calgary and spend a few days camping in my sister Angela's back yard. Good times. Good shopping.
- Hey, did I mention that Lukas was only 3 - 4 weeks old? This wasn't really a problem cause the van is a perfect vehicle to stop in a do what mothers and fathers need to do for babies. He actually did very well through the whole trip.
- Driving around Calgary was ok. It was leaving that caused concern. We never hit 90km and struggled to keep the van at 80km. Now, VW Vans are not fast to begin with but even with the wind, I began to think we may have a problem. But we just wanted to get home.
- I had been watching oil and transmission levels. I think I added a full litre of oil every second fill. Another sign of a problem.
- We filled gas in Lake Louise. This time, the van wouldn't start very well. I got it going but stalled leaving the parking lot, right behind a parked tow truck. Could this be our fate? I finally got it going and headed for home, now with a great deal of anxiety.
- Comming into Golden, I had to put it in first gear just to get up the hills. Semis were passing us. Only 450 more Km to go. We can make it!
- 30 km on the west side of Golden, we start climbing the big hills. The knocking sound has been serenading us for a few hours now, only on these hills, it has turned to banging. Banging turns to chugging then to grinding. We are still moving but in 1st gear. I decide to pull over. I pull into an abandoned logging road on the left side of the highway which faces uphill. I go to turn around and the VW stalls. I am half turned facing uphill. We have got a situation.
- Angela and I wrestle the van around the curve and point it back down hill. We are out of the view of people driving past.
- A guy randomly drives up the logging road for some odd reason. He turns out to be a gentleman. He gives me a ride to Golden (he was going the other way to Revelstoke) so I could get cell coverage and make a call to CAA. We bought CAA insurance at the last minute just before we left on our trip.
- We were towed to Golden. The mechanic said he could look at the van . . . in a month and a half. He decided he had enough time to listen to the engine. I did get it going and the melodies that flowed from the engine told him right away the the bottom end was gone. Great! We are not getting home tonight.
- We checked into a motel. Yeah, I know, we could have camped in the van but we were working with a bit of anxiety by this point. What were we to do?
- I called my friend Terry, who I drive truck for sometimes, to see if my dad could borrow his pickup truck and trailer to drive out to us the next day so we could get the van home. He asked me if I wanted his big truck (semi). I had never even thought that was a possibility. He said his family was leaving for holidays in Saskatchewan the next morning and could drive it up there for me. Ubelievable. God, you have something to do with this? Thanks.
- Sure enough, he loaded his family and his pickup on the back of the semi and drove out to Golden to give it to me. We put the van on it (see pics), had supper with his family at DQ, then we headed home. We made it home by midnight. What an ordeal.
- So, now I have the sweetest lawn ornament than anyone I know. Yeah, that's right, the van's engine is toast and we haven't fixed it yet. This is why I call this my VW dream: We had a VW van, we drove it, camped in it, and made memories in it. The dream is still alive. In fact, Mackenzie and I camped in it one night out in the yard, just the two of us. And last night, we played in there together. I found some of Mackenzie's cars on the top bed and he had to check them out, so now he likes being up on top. Go figure.
- We lament the loss of the van. We comment so often that if the van were working, we'd be out camping. The dream lives on.
- Because we co-own the van, it is hard to decide what to do. I would love to fix it up and use it again next summer. I would put a Subaru engine in it. The biggest obstacle is money and the fact that we don't outright own it. If we did, even Angela would invest some money into its repair. And to buy it outright is not an option cause the other guy put $3000 into it already. I got just over $1000 and a huge pile of labour into it. It has more money into it than it's worth. If we could sell it, I could get some cash out of it, sell my bike, and buy those paragliding lessons I want to take some day (my other dream). We'll see.

So that is the story that took a good chunk of our lives this year, and may continue to do the same in the future. Sorry it was sooo long. I also apologize for spelling errors and bad grammer but honestly, at this hour, I don't feel like reading through it to make corrections.

I am curious to know if anybody made it to the end of the story. If so, let me know.

"The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams."
- - - - Eleanor Roosevelt

I gotta get this out

I have the luxury of reading through my senior pastor's sermons before he preaches them. I do this cause I put his PowerPoint presentations together for Sunday. As I sit down to work on it right now, my mind floods with thoughts and questions. At this point, I don't know what he is going to preach so this is not a reaction to his sermon that I am about to read. I guess I am just getting myself ready for it. Sometimes I work on his sermons and go: "what the . . . ?" and I wonder how it's going to work for Sunday. But then it does. God speaks with Rick (as opposed to 'through' Rick. That thought is another blog) and people hear from God, are challenged/encouraged/changed and then I wonder why I was so skeptical. But anyway, I write now to process thoughts:

First you need to know that my senior pastor is preaching through the book of Matthew. Right now we are on the "beatitudes". The particular verse or topic is from Matt 5:4 - "Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted."

My thoughts and questions are these: is this sermon really complicated - the sermon on the mount I mean? Like, how long did Jesus take to say all that? 5 minutes? Did Matthew just record the jist of it or word for word? I ask this cause I am curious why we pastors like to preach a whole sermon on one verse. A whole 40 minute sermon on a phrase that took Jesus maybe 5 seconds to say (oh, to know Greek). We'll see what Sunday brings.

And what does this particular verse mean? Blessed are people who mourn the death of loved ones, the loss of a job, their spiritual depravity? How can we be sure? We'll see what Sunday brings.

And what does 'blessed' mean? In this case - that the mourner will receive comfort? I guess that is good. I would like comfort when I mourn. We'll see what Sunday brings.

And if this mourning will refer to mourning our spiritual depravity (I pretty much know this is the direction he is going) then you cannot surely say that "Christians must morn their spiritual depravity to be followers of Christ." Right? Cause my thinking is that Jesus isn't exhorting Christians to be poor, mournful, hunger and thirst for righteousness etc. But that those who do these things will be blessed accordingly. Like, when Jesus says, "blessed are the poor", he is not saying, "you must go and be poor." If we read the text that way, then surely we must know that Jesus isn't saying "you must mourn." Rather, those that do mourn will receive the blessing of comfort. And if you ask me to explain that, I cannot. God's peace and comfort is beyond explanation although it is not beyond my experience.

I am really hoping that I do not receive a guilt trip along these lines: "we are spiritually depraved. We are sinful. We need to wallow in our sin. Waaa waa waa." There is truth in there, absolutely, but I would rather respond more like this: God, I love you and I love what your son did for me. In spending all this time with you, I realize how holy you are and how unholy I am. In fact, the more time I spend with you, the greater the contrast becomes. I'm soooo sorry for ______ (insert sin here). I am in such need of cleansing. I am in such need of your forgiveness. I want to turn from my sin and know your healing touch. Yeah, I do struggle with sin and thatis what I mourn. In fact I hate this sin and the fact that I do it. I want to be rid of it but I don't think I can. God I need you. I would love right now your comfort. That is more my heart cry.

We'll see what Sunday brings.

VW Dream

Stay tuned. I'll try to get the story of our VW dream up here today. In the meantime, check out these pictures and try to figure out the story for yourself!

Wednesday, September 20, 2006

Out of the gates and running!

We had our youth kick-off tonight. I am pleased with our plans and direction. Angela has been the visionary this year with youth stuff. I am so thankful for her.

This year we are having an "Amazing Race meets Treasure Hunters meets Survivor meets geocacheing" theme running throughout. I made up passports that reflect Canadian passports, complete with students photos and info. Throughout the year we will have games and activities and the idea is to earn stamps in the passport. At the end of the year, the student with the most stamps will win big - an Xbox or an ipod or something. I haven't decided yet. We'll usually do out Small Group night that includes worship, teaching, discussion and games. Once a month or so, we will do a big game that takes the whole evening. Like tonight.

Tonight we had the students go on a treasure hunt. They had a few things to find around town, and a few tasks to complete. The last thing was a treasure of prizes. It went fast and worked out well. They seemed to like it. After that, I did some announcements and did a brief talk on 1 Corinthians 9 - running the race but I kept out the cliches.

So, it seems like a good direction to me. Thanks God! Often, we don't receive this kinda direction till the 11th hour.

If you wanna pray, pray for help. I have two sponsors that can't always make it. One may be moving. That leaves Angela and I. Angela is great with behind the scenes, setup, ideas, errands and stuff, but it is harder to hang out with two kids. She likes hanging out with Students so this is tough for her, although, she was able to be quite involved tonight.
Pray also that somehow, through what I can do and our students can do, that we grow in influence and effectiveness for God's Kingdom benefit.

So yeah, that's what's going on in ministry.

Happy Article

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Sunday, September 17, 2006

A song of ascents

I lift up my eyes to you,
to you whose throne is in heaven.

As the eyes of slaves look to the hand of their master,
as the eyes of a maid look to the hand of her mistress,
so our eyes look to the LORD our God,
till he shows us his mercy.

Have mercy on us, O LORD, have mercy on us,
for we have endured much contempt.

We have endured much ridicule from the proud,
much contempt from the arrogant.

Psalm 123

Saturday, September 16, 2006

MAWPH (mold, awe & wonder, prayer, help)

We are alive. We are not sick. Now I am feeling like I overactive with my concern over the seriousness of the mold. I am reassured by people that my worry was/is justified. After Sunday, we'll get to cleaning things up.

About that "In Awe and Wonder" post: I was alluding to 'thoughts'. I was thinking that day that I like the fact that there are things that scientists will never be able to explain or prove. I like the idea that there are some things in this world in which no evidence exists to explain it's existence. Some of you added "memories, beauty, truth, love." I totally agree that these fall into the same pool of whatever you want to call it. I have, at times, thought a lot about these things. I could write now about truth, or love, but that is a journey I'm too tired to start on.

Right now my thoughts are on prayer for two reasons: 1 - I am reading a book about prayer and 2 - today's devotional by Oswald is about prayer. Here is a thought I really had to chew on: "Do not have as your motive the desire to be known as a praying man." Ooops. Already failed that one. Seriously, have you ever, like me, wanted to be know as a "prayer warrior" or a "deep prayer"? I shared recently with some of our C&C adults that in church I struggle with my motives for praying in services. I want to be real and authentic, which in itself is fine, but therein lies the problem - I care more about being known as a guy that has real and authentic prayers than the actual content of my prayers. Thanks Oswald for that kick in the groin. Oh yeah, the scripture he basis this on is Matthew 6:6 - you know- the scripture about praying in secret versus praying out in the street corner for all to hear/see. So I guess I deserved that kick.

Oswald touches on the whole "praying in earnest" thing. You know what I mean? The kind of prayers that, well, let's say you go to a Christian group meeting of some kind, you schedule in some prayer time, and then that person begins to pray. First it's soft tones about this and that, but then the momentum, volume, and feeling begin to pick up. Before you know it, there is intense pleading for deliverance of some kind, like the world is going to end. Now I don't intend to knock praying intensely for a legitimate concern, but I think sometimes people start praying like this cause they think it's the only way to get God's attention and dare I say other people's attention. I get uncomfortable in these situations. Oswald reminds us that God doesn't hear us because we are in earnest, "but only on the ground of Redemption." Amen. His son, having atoned for our sin, has allowed God to hear our prayers.

He said more stuff on prayer. There is so much more to think through about prayer. It is really the thrust of my thinking these days just because I am reading about it and because it has something to do with knowing God. Ok, maybe a lot to do with knowing God. One of the most valuable books I have read about life and prayer is Henri Nouwen's Practicing the Presence of God. I think that is what it is called. Or something very close. A good read.

I'm going to bed. Sunday's are early mornings are early for me.

Oh yeah, do any of you remember reading a book that contained a bunch of metaphors for the Kingdom of Heaven? We are dealing with this subject in a sermon series and I need to find it. It may be Velvet Elvisby Rob Bell but I have lent that book out. Or it may be a Donald Miller book. Help! Goodnight.

Friday, September 15, 2006

Mold

I'm not really in the mindspace to write and in a minute you'll probably figure out why.

Angela suggested I talk about mold and relate it or compare it or use it as a metaphor for the Christian life. I know she is only joking but I wonder indeed how I can talk about mold and relate it to life in any way.

How is this for starters: we have a mold problem in our basement. Really. We do.

Angela was cleaning up some toys downstairs the other day and she reached without thinking for what she thought was a toy and to her it felt moist and mushy. Quickly she withdrew and looked closer to discover something growing along the floor and the wall. The best I can say is that it looked like white fuzzy noodles with green and brown spots along it. It was about 2 to 3 inches high. Ok, so we know we have a problem. How serious we wonder. . .

I brought it up at the board meeting on Tuesday cause the house we live in belongs to the church and really, the board members and the church are my landlords. Two board members decide to come check it out the next day.

They came Thursday morning. Angela had planned to go shopping with a friend for a day - the first trip since Lukas came by, and I was to have Mackenzie for the day. Turns out that it was good timing cause after looking at the mushroom thing, and the black mush along the floor line, we decided to start pulling off wall paneling. What fun. The first panel had green mold on the side where it faces the brick wall. Time for Mackenzie and I to take a hike cause by this time we found out exposure to mold is not a good thing.

They finished pulling out most of the panels by lunch. When Mackenzie and I came home to check things out, we were welcomed with a nice earthy smell. The carpet was peeled back to expose wet carpet. I had a sneaking suspicion we were not done with our problem.

So, Mackenzie, his grandma and I went for lunch to get out of the house. Not too too worried at this point.

Came home for naps that afternoon and I had dreams of dying by mold.

Angela came home later. We do more research online. Anxiety builds. We talk to people. Some people suggest we shouldn't stay there cause now there are dangerous spores in the air that can make us all sick. See, earlier we had set up fans to dry out the wet floor and then I began to read that you need to do what you can not to have the mold go airborne and spread. Oops.

So, should we find a place to stay or tough it out. We choose to be tough. But now we go to bed wondering if we are gunna wake up sick. How serious is this anyway? My eyes are burning a bit but is it just psychological? Mackenzie seems to be sniffling more. Am I imagining this?

Time to sleep, only we can't because every breath could be the last. Well, not really, but honestly, I have a lot of anxiety that my family is going to get sick. So many unknowns.

Somewhere in my restless sleep, I wake up to the cold. I had shut the furnace off so the badness wouldn't spread that way. It is at this early hour that I decide that I'd rather be warm and sick than cold and sick. I turn the furnace on. Back to bed. This time I sleep sound.

I wake up with a sort throat. Must be all in my mind. Lukas was breathing hard all night. But maybe that is normal. I can't remember. Angela is feeling fluish. Perhaps that is par for the motherhood course. Mackenzie was coughing. Or was he?

I kinda push the idea to the board that we get this all checked out. They agree to the $200 consulting charge. The guy comes. So do those two board members. He inspects. Indeed we have a mold problem. That is only part of the problem. The other part is finding out where the water is coming from and how to fix it.

We look around. We have a flower bed in the front of the house. It is irrigated. We have shut the irrigation off for the last month cause of watering restrictions in Summerland. Only, it is not really off. The water is still dripping out of the drip holes. Uh oh. This looks like the problem. "Shut off the valves!" "They are shut off already!" "Shut them off more!" "Whatever!" We finally get the water stopped, we think.

We feel a bit better cause we learn that mold does not grow on concrete, which is where I thought all the mold might be. It is still in our carpets and in other places but not as bad as we thought.

Solutions? I covered the outside basement doors with plastic and cut a hole in it for a big fan to blow out for negative pressure. That will hopefully suck the spores in the air outside. We hope by having the irrigation off, that the water will stop flowing into the basement. We will dig out the whole flower garden and fill it with crushed decorative rock. Angela will have to have a few pots that she waters by hand if she wants to keep her thumb green. We have to pull out the carpets, take apart the staircase. We have to clean out the crawlspace of church junk. We have to get rid of a book shelf that has mold. We have to find a place for all the crap. It's a good thing a friend of mine just purchased a garbage company! That'll help. We have to clean all the walls and floors with a special solution.

I am still a little stressed. Mackenzie developed a rash on his cheek and there is no denying that it is real. Whether it is mold related, we don't know. We'll keep an eye on it. Lukas has more boogers in his nose but we'll just teach him to pick earlier than we were hoping. Angela is up and down but she does have allergies to molds and stuff, so she is trying to tough it out.

How does all this relate to life? Well, I know what it is now like to really worry for the well being of my family. I feel protective and that is good, but at the same time, I spent the morning at the office and I fell I abandoned them to die of toxic mold poisoning while breathed the fresh clean air at the office. Seriously, I wonder if I am a good protector when I leave them at home to this. And, I really struggle with being angry through this. First, I am a bit angry at the inconvenience of all this. It's bad timing, but things like this are always bad timing. And second, I get angry that our church can't do a better job of taking care of their property. Along with that comes the frustration that we live in their house to begin with, that they don't pay us enough to find a place elsewhere. But, I know that those thoughts aren't right. I know they have a responsibility to us owning the house we live in, but I can't really get angry at them for this, can I?

Then there is the trust factor. How can you trust God in these situations? It's not that I don't trust him, but what do I even trust him for? I think I trust him that he has our best interests in mind but that can very well include Lukas developing respitory problems and all the difficulties associated with that. And even though I wouldn't know why, I would still assume that God wants the best for us and that somehow, this is the best.

I'll bring an update as to how this all pans out . . . unless we die of toxic mold poisoning . . .

Wednesday, September 13, 2006

In Awe and Wonder

Angela and I read together at breakfast time. I know this wasn't totally the point of what we read this mornig but I was reminded how awesome God is. How his creation is "awe-full" - full of awe. How the mysteries of God leave me standing in awe and wonder.

We were reading about something in particular. I'll describe it. We totally know that these are real. They are more real to us than the earth we walk on, yet, we can't touch them, taste them, hear them, smell them nor see them. We all know they exist but we can't prove it. No scientist can show you them, say that they are there, but they are. They are very real to us. You wanna know what they are? Do you already know? How about we make this a guessing game. You let me know what you think they are and I'll tell you in a couple of days. Maybe I'll find that there are more 'things like these' and this game was a waste of time, but I would learn something!

So, don't forget to stand back in awe and wonder of our magnificent God. Be overwhelmed. Be immersed in him. He created you and loves you! You, like I, am his beloved.

Monday, September 11, 2006

Treasure Hunters

We found it!. Last week I wrote about geocaching. Read that post to know what I'm gunna tell you about our quest.

We finally made it out of the house by 10:15am. So much for an early start. Give us a break, we have two little kids.

We parked where suggested and got set up: Lukas on me, and Mackenzie running away from Angela. Normally, geocaching is done with a GPS unit but we don't have one. What I did was type the co-ordinates into Google Earth and found enough detail in the image to try to find the treasure. We hit the trail and headed straight up the hill. Mackenzie wasn't too co-operative, but when Angela gave him the little car we were going to trade, he was willing to trudge up the hill.

I found the trees that I figured the treasure was hidden and looked around - nothing. I spread out my search. By this time, Angela and Mackenzie caught up and helped in the search. Nothing. The search got wider. Nothing. I came back to the original bunch of trees that I thought it should be - nothing. Over to some other trees that I had already checked - nothing. Take a break to look at the view. A bit smokey in the valley but still a nice day. Take some pictures. Back to the original bunch of trees - wait, what's this? It looks like loose pine needles and twigs. No way! Underneath was a little red Rubbermaid container. Let the fun begin.

We explored the treasure - little cars & trucks, lottery tickets, pens and pencils. I filled out the log book. We traded our little black Jeep Grand Cherokee for an orange Land Rover. Definitely an upgrade in vehicle but really the same value as a toy. Mackenzie wanted to bring the whole box home, but he still has to learn the technical aspects of Geocaching.

We had a nice hike down. We took a few pictures. We drank some water. And then we went to DeDutch to reward ourselves with some pannekoek with three berry sauce and whip cream.

So yeah, we had great fun! Angela and I both admit that we were expecting to see a box at a foot of a tree. It never occurred to us that it may actually be buried. We'll get the hang of it. We'll definitely do it again. A GPS would have helped find it quicker though. I had no idea how accurate Google Earth would be. It was pretty darn close. But if we go anywhere near Summerland, or where Google Earth has little or no detail, we won't have a chance. We won't buy one soon but I have chosen the unit I would like: the Garmin Vista. It's about $290. It would be great for geocaching, traveling, and for paragliding, which I hope to start next summer.

Check out the photos by clicking on the picture above, or click "geocache1" in our photo section.

It's your turn. Go find some treasure!

Christian Signs

I had actually thought of starting a blog over a year ago. What planted the seed was all these 'Christian Signs' I was seeing all over the place. I wanted to start a blog where I would post pictures of these cheesy signs and have people comment on them. It was going to be humorous - a place where you could come for a good laugh. But alas, that had already been done. I just forgot about it.

But I didn't forget about the signs though. As a matter of fact, there is a church two blocks down the street from us that has one of those signs that can say anything they want it to, and they sure go to great lengths to come up with crazy things. We walk by there every time we need a good laugh. Sometimes I wonder if they are trying to be cheesy on purpose. I do wonder if their signs actually bring people in.

The reason I brought this up is cause they have done it again with a new slogan. Get a load of this:What does a sign like this do for you? You wanna laugh? You wanna cry? Does it make you sick? Do you want to run into the church and repent? Is this a sign that a revival is comming?

Technically, they have got it wrong. Download means that you are taking something in, you are bringing something in. Really, what this sign is saying is: bring on your worries, take them in. If you are with God, he will give you worries. Instead, the correct term they should use is, 'upload', right? Doesn't upload mean that you are giving away something you have, that you are taking data on your machine and sending it to someone else's? Shouldn't it read:

Upload your worries
Get online with God

I feel I should write them a note and leave it on their door, see what they do. Anybody want me to let them know what they are really saying? Let me know!

I am so glad our church didn't get one of these signs. I really think it hinders churches more than it helps. What do you think?

Saturday, September 09, 2006

Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day

When I was a kid, and I read that book, I thought that a day couldn't get any worse than that terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day. That was until yesterday. . .

Me and the truck I drive - last summer

My story actually started on Thursday. I was to take a load of small square hay bales to Surrey Friday morning. For those that don't know, I occasionally drive truck to help pay the bills. My friend Erik and I were going to leave at 5:00am Friday and just go for the day, to be back by supper. That was the plan anyway. Terry, the guy I drive for, called in the afternoon and said that I had to leave Thursday night cause the load of bales was leaning forward and he didn't want me to drive through the morning traffic. In traffic, I would only have to slam on the brakes once and the bales on the front of the trailer would be on the road. That was the first sign that the trip wasn't going to go as planned.

After I put Mackenzie to bed, I left for the coast - alone. Erik couldn't come that evening. Oh well. I loaded up my ipod with podcasts to keep me company. The drive down there was fine. I took the Coquihalla because the forest fires were dumping smoke along the Hope/Princeton highway and visibility was low.

I got to the yard at about 1:45 am Friday morning. I had called earlier to ask if I could back up into the yard and stay there for the night. I was told that I could. All I had to do was back up off the road into the driveway, only the road had no shoulders and the driveway was as narrow as a toothpick.

There was no way I was getting in there. What was I to do? I didn't know the area and had no idea where to park, so I turned on the flashers and every other light on the truck I could, and went to sleep in the right lane of the road. Reference this first picture.

I set my head on the pillow, knowing I was in for a restless night. Parking and sleeping in the middle of a road is not my idea of a restful sleep, but I didn't know what else to do. I left a message on Terry's voicemal, hoping he would turn his phone on early in the morning.

At 6:45am, he called me. I told him I wasn't getting into the yard. He said Trevor, another one of our drivers, was a couple of blocks away and could come help me out. Trevor doesn't turn his phone on untill 8:00am so, I tried sleeping again. I watched the morning news for a bit, and finally dozed off for half an hour.

At 8:00am, I walked to the house on the yard to see if I was really in the write place. I was. They offered me coffee, toast, poached eggs, and bacon. A nice start to a no good day. It was during this breakfast that the dad proceeded to comment on my inablility to not be able to get a 71 foot long truck and trailer into his yard. By his 'kind' comments, I knew he had no idea what trucks are and are not capable of.

They decided to take out some fence posts. Great, but the ones they wanted to take out were not going to help matters. But what do I know? He had me try again and finally he could see that it wasn't going to work. More fence posts had to come out. The only way it was going to work now was if I turned around and came straight in. So around the block I went. I came to a stop just before pulling in, giving the guys time to get rid of more fence posts. This is when a neighbor lady shows up to 'kindly' let us know that my truck pulled down her power lines and she was without power. Trevor was there by this and he explained that we run legal heights. If the power lines came down, it was because they were lower than 15 feet high. Not our problem. But now I am thinking the power company is going to come after me.

Trevor guided me in. If it wasn't for him, I would have had a real hard time making it in without clipping a culvert. I pulled through two gates, around a corner, then jacknifed back, yanking out two mudflaps cause I was spinning through sand. All this to put the trailer near a 40' shipping container that they wanted to fill.

Hmm, 40 foot long, 9 feet high shipping container - 53 foot long, 13 feet high hay load - it aint gunna fit.

We finally get unloading. I am tossing bales down, it goes ok. I think the guys only took 3 smoke brakes. Tempers weren't too hot, yet.

When they finally realized that the hay wasn't going to fit into the container, they decided they would clean out their barn, take out another fence, chop down some trees, and clear old wood - just so I could pull near the barn to unload the rest. The container only took 1/4 of my load. It took them an hour to get it setup again. I had them watch closely as I pulled in cause there was a lot of potential to catch a bumper on think brush and junk lying around. I nosed right up to a fence. The son thought he had enough of moving bales by this time and went into the house.

When we were ready to go, I started throwing bales off the front. Now remember that my load was leaning forward. I had to pick bales carefully so they wouldn't fall on the truck. I was gracefully lifting the third bale off the front when the whole front gave way. I went swimming in an avalanche of bales, all the way to the ground. No worries though, the bales broke my 13 foot fall. I was suddenly scared though that a bale would land on my head. Thankfully this did not happen. These bales weighed up to 50 pounds. The bales missed the truck, only hitting the headache rack - whew!

Back to work, only, tempers are rising along with the heat from the sun. Early on in the day, the father decided that everything that went wrong was my fault. At one point, I thought he was going to deck me - all because "these stupid drivers don't know how to get into a yard."

Now I am throwing bales off the truck, up into a loft, and these guys want them far back into the barn so everytime one falls short or lands in a different spot, I hear more kind words.

Bale 760 gets thrown into the barn at about 2:30pm. I clean off the trailer, start loading my tarps and corner boards on the deck, put the hay hooks away, and what, there is only one hay hook? Where did the other one go? The mom borrowed it to move bales and one got lost some where. Under a stack of bales no doubt. I didn't really want to tell Terry that we lost one of his hay hooks. The mom started looking around while the "kind" words the dad had for her flew more feriously than ever. I felt so sad for that lady cause she seemed very nice and all, but she had to put up with this jerk. She must have been a strong woman.

Anyhow, I go to getting the truck cleaned up and backed out and I'll be darned, the mom finds the hay hook in a pile of hay. I guess it wasn't as small as a needle so it could be found.

I'm almost out of the yard so I go to put the mudflaps back on. Would you know it, I broke Terry's rachet. But this is where the dad decided to have a heart. He gave me one of his. The sun shows up with a bunch of beers and suddenly everyone is happy again. I can tell you that I was shure happy to pull off that yard at 3:30pm. I fueled up in Abbotsford and grabbed some food. I headed home empty cause I ran out of time to load anything anyway. I caught up to Trevor at Sunday Summit, on the Hope/Princeton highway and we chatted in the 2-way all the way home which was great.

I was going to title this story: Chris and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day but in the end, it turned out ok cause I made it home to Angela safe and sound.

It may sound like a crazy story but my heart really ached for that family. I rarely meet such angry people. It takes a special woman to live with such an angry man. I think I will think about them for some time, and pray for them too. I don't know what their day to day lives are like, but at least yesterday, they had a brush with a Jesus lover. Maybe they needed that more than I needed the money. I'll never know.

Thursday, September 07, 2006

Geocaching

Geocaching. Ever heard of it? I hadn't either until my sister Kim told me today that a friend of hers is into it.

Check the link for a good description but here is a excerpt from wikipedia:

Geocaching is an outdoor treasure-hunting game in which the participants use a Global Positioning System receiver or other navigational techniques to hide and seek containers (called "geocaches" or "caches") anywhere in the world. A typical cache is a small waterproof container containing a logbook and "treasure", usually toys or trinkets of little monetary value.

I think this is the coolest thing cause Angela and I like to explore new places around Summerland and the Okanagan but are at a loss for where to go and what to see. What better way than look for hidden treasure. . .

What these geocachers do is log into various websites, one of which is www.geocaching.com, find a treasure in their area they want to look for or a place they want to explore, get the co-ordinates and then use their GPS's to find it!

And that's what I did, only I used Google Earth to check these places out because I don't have a GPS unit. There are piles of these little treasures around Summerland!

We found one in particular that Angela and I decided we would hunt for on my day off this coming Monday. It's on Mine Hill in Kelowna. The details are here. The coordinates are: N 49° 52.873 W 119° 21.653 if you want to search for it in Google Earth. What we hope to find there is a little cache of hotwheels cars and trucks - a great find for Mackenzie! Once you find these caches, you then exchange an item in the treasure with something of similar value. We'll take one of Mackenzie's cars along in case we find it. This is where we are going:

So check back Monday or Tuesday to hear about our treasure hunt.

And these treasures are all over the world. You could go to Florida and find hidden treasures. You can even hide them yourselves. Angela and I are talking about hiding something on the farm when we go to Saskatchewan in October. Even if nobody ever goes looking for it, we can visit it from time to time and add stuff. It can be a time capsule for our family that our boys can check out whenever they visit Grandpa, Grandma and Uncle Richard.

So this may be a new hobby for us, we'll see. We might have to get our hands on a GPS unit - that would be sweet!

Right now, I am off to check out ebay . . . ARR ARR ARR . . .

Ooh La La

Know the song? I think you do. It's that song by Ronnie Wood & Ronnie Lane. I think the version you would know is the one covered by Rod Stewart in 2001. Still not sure? Try these lyrics: "I wish that I knew what I know now/when I was younger/ I wish that I knew what I know now/ when I was stronger. Ahhh yes. That's the one.

That is the tune that came to mind when I was laying in bed last night after I discovered this life changing formula I am about to tell you about.

Back story: I work with young people in various capacities as a pastor. I meet kids and strike up conversations. There are two things (among a lot of other things) that I like to find out about them: grade and age. I usually end up asking only one of the questions cause I don't want to come off that I am prying for information. When I see them again, I like to show that I was interested in them enough to remember their grade or age, but because I only asked one of the questions, I usually guess at the other and screw it up, or completely forget altogether. Ultimately, I look like a tool. Similarly, when I am talking to other people about youth events or what have you, they may say something like: "well, this conference is only for 13 and 14 year olds" in which I respond: "What grades would they be in then?" Thank-you mastercraft. . .

So, I was thinking about all this in bed last night when it hit me: All you gotta do when figuring out the ages of kids is take their grade and add 5 or 6 years! All you gotta do to figure out a kids grade is take their age and subtract 5 or 6 years! It looks like this:

age = grade + 5 or 6
or
grade = age - 5 or 6

You don't know how life changing this is for me! No more: "who's the idiot who has no idea how old I am" or "yeah, thanks for the card but I graduate next year."

I used to wonder when I would ever use algebra. Well, now I know!

Aspiring youth pastors: take note and never forget! It will save you years of grief.
Kids: stay in school!

And the song plays on . . . I wish that I knew what I know now, when I was younger . . .

Monday, September 04, 2006

Oswald

I am a couple of days into using Oswald Chamber's My Utmost For His Highest as a daily reading and devotional guide. I switched to this book cause my friend Steve uses it and we wanted something we could kinda do in parallel so we could talk about it from time to time, kinda challenge each other.

You gotta know that I approach most things as a cynic but I try to be an optimistic cynic. An example of this is the book in question. It seems to me that Oswald fits a phrase of a verse of scripture to fit his devotional thought, kinda like when authors start every chapter of their book with quotes. Now, I want to be optimistic about this cause even the little of what I have read of his thoughts show intimate knowledge of and an intimate relationship with God. I respect people with that, especially the intimate relationship part. So, I won't let this "make scripture fit your thoughts" idea get to me. Instead, I'll follow Steve's advice and read the phrase or verse in context. It proved helpful for yesterdays devotional - Sept 3 for those of you who are using the same book.

One other thing that I have noticed is that Oswald packs a whole wack of thoughts in one devotional - some that don't seem to support or highlight others in the devotional. I have read some and thought "now what did that have to do with what he is really trying to say?" But, I think this will be good for me cause I'll have more to chew on and wrestle with, even if it doesn't have to do with the big idea of his devotional.

Now after saying all that, today's devotional is intense.

If anyone come to me and hate not . . . , he cannot be My disciple," not, he cannot be good and upright, but, he cannot be one over whom Jesus writes the word "Mine." Any one of the relationships Our Lord mentions may be a competitive relationship. I may prefer to belong to my mother, or to my wife or to myself; then, says Jesus, you cannot be My disciple. This does not mean I will not be saved, but it does mean that I cannot be "His."

Here Oswald is quoting from Luke 26:14. Now I try to put myself in the shoes of the people hearing this at the time Jesus spoke. Many of them would want to be called by Jesus himself to be his disciple but becoming one's disciple in that day was not easy. You had to know the books of the Law of Moses by heart, be able to wrestle with the text, and possess great knowledge of Israel's history among a pile of other things. And even if you met those requirements you couldn't be a disciple of a rabbi unless he choose you. And once chosen, you literally followed the rabbi wherever he went and learned from him. It was a huge honor to be called by a rabbi to be his disciple. So, I think many of Jesus listeners that day were perhaps secretly hoping that Jesus would say "hey, you, come follow me and be my disciple." Perhaps foreseeing this desire, Jesus cut to the heart of it to say yeah, you can follow me, but you gotta leave your father, mother, wife and children, to be my disciple. Literally. You gotta drop it all, cause I am not going to stay in one place and teach, I'm gunna travel and do God things and you might miss something if you have to run back home. You gotta be like these 12 guys here, they left it all to follow me, literally.

I want to be called 'His'. I want to be God's. I do know that often my relationships keep me from being 'present' and following hard after God. Often, I am more Angela and my kids than God. I don't blame them. I am not saying it is their fault, but sometimes they take my time. According to Oswald, Jesus would not call me 'His'. Well, that sucks.

A verse that comes to mind is John 10:14 in which Jesus says: "I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me." Here is what I think: I think the point of all this is that I need to know Jesus. I need to know his voice. I need to be following him. I need to be with him. If I am hearing his voice and am following him, "the good shepherd" would say "I know him. He belongs to me."

So, like I said, my relationships, and really, I, myself, get in the way of being a disciple of Jesus, but I don't want it to. I want to have both my wife and kids, and still be called 'His' and I think I can if I still know Jesus. I don't think that if I take my family to the waterpark, having fun with them, that I am not His. Yeah, I put them between God and I sometimes, but I forget that I can have them and be God's. So, I don't know if I entirely agree with Oswald here, but agree that I, myself, can be a 'competitive relationship' and is usually the one that would keep Jesus from saying I belong to him. But through God's Spirit, I wrestle through this cause in the end, I do wanna be His. I want Jesus to point to me and say: "Yeah, that guy Chris, he's with me. He's mine."

Thanks Oswald for the thoughts. I won't always agree but I will learn.

Sunday, September 03, 2006

The Futurist

I finished reading The Futurist by James P. Othmer. I am not much of a book reviewer so this will simply be a gut reaction to the book.

Basically, the book is about a guy named Yates who is a Futurist - tells people what they want to hear about the future. He is a fake and a fraud. He gets tired of being a fake and telling lies so he plans to end his career by insulting everybody. It only makes him more famous. He wants to tell the truth now but get's shafted into carrying on as the lying futurist. Bad stuff happens. He gives up on the lies for good, and becomes a good guy. That's about it.

It was a wierd book. I hadn't read a novel in a while so I didn't know what to expect. I can't say I particularly liked it. It was like renting a movie that isn't very good, not particularly bad, but since you put down the money, you decided to watch to the end. Thankfully, all I had to put down in this case was a library card.

So, go read it if you want to. Don't read it. I don't really care with this one.

I am going to finish a few other books I am working on before I start something new.

Saturday, September 02, 2006

Photos

Mackenzie on a hike on Cartwright Mt.

This blog is in it's infancy. Today we add a new feature: photos hosted by flickr. Click on the picture to see a slide show of our first family photos. You can click on the Photo link on the right as well. As time passes, I'll add more photos.

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