a good weekend

Calgary turned out to be a great experience this past weekend. Wesla and I had the opportunity to catch up with many old friends, and it was great to be a part of the worship service at Oak Park. It has been a while since I have preached two services in one morning, one at nine and the other at eleven, I was totally bagged by the time the morning was done, but it was a good kind of tired. The first service is a bit more traditional in worship style, whereas the second one tends to be more upbeat. There were also more people at the second service, which made it much easier to connect with the congregation from the pulpit. My message in the first service was a little over twenty minutes long, which is on the short side for their standards, and so I was able to flush thing out a little more in the second service where I spoke for about thirty minutes or so.

Wesla and I stayed with John and Karen Nicholson, and they were such an encouragement to us. We also had a chance to catch up with Shannon Wall, Steve and Miranda Wolfram, and Chris and Esther Thompson. Seeing all these old friends again made me realize how much I really have missed all these folks over the past five years or so.

Monday was also an eventful day for us. For 'Family Day' we went to Turtle Mountain, which is about 150 km or so straight west of Lethbridge. Later that evening we also had an opportunity to visit with Gary and Alice Hatt. Gary used to be a professor at Alberta Bible College, and now he is pastoring a small church in Montana. We have not seem them since our days in Bible College, it was great to "touch base" as Gary would say.

calgary this weekend

Wesla and I are in Calgary this weekend, and let me tell you it is great to have a little bit of a change of pace. About a month ago I was asked to share a message at Oak Park Church of Christ, and so here we are. About five years ago I interned here under John Nicholson. It was a great experience, although I must confess a little on the sheltered side. However that is difficult to avoid when you are taking part in a part-time internship. I am a little nervous about speaking at Oak Park; first of all, because it has been so long since I have been to a worship service there and I am not completely sure what to expect; and second, I can't help but wonder how much I have really grown in my ability to deliver a message from the last time I spoke at this congregation. Well, that is enough of my insecure ramblings...

Last night Wesla and I stayed with John and Karen and we had a great time catching up. Wesla and I are also hoping to catch up with a few old friends this afternoon, if we have the chance.

reading week

Heavenly bliss! I am sitting in my writing class about five minutes before it starts, and my heart is filled with joy because I know I will be free from the anxiety of school, for a whole week, as soon as this class is done.

bowling on wednesday night

Lisa was taking this group shot

Crazy disco bowling madness!


Yes, for those of us who are students we are smack in the middle of midterms, however we were able to take a little break to do a little bowling tonight. Good times were had by all. We certainly missed all those keeners who spent the night doing responsible stuff (ie. studying), we will have to catch you next time!

new look

I have been wanting to get away from the generic appearance that comes with the standardized blogspot templates for some time. This new look is still based upon one of the templates, but I have managed to thrown in a bit of a unique touch with the title graphic. When I have more time perhaps I will be able to take it a step further.

kickin' it with the kids

This week was my second opportunity to help out with the Sunday School program at Central Church of Christ. The regular teachers have been in great need of some relief from the many hours they have poured into this program, so I am filling in on a regular basis (about every four weeks or so). I must say that I genuinely enjoyed myself. Not only did I have a chance to act like a kid, as if I really need an excuse, the children really seemed to be learning the material we were presenting to them. Our theme was the Parable of the Sower, and by the end of our time together all the children were explaining the significance of the different kinds of soil, and some of them also seemed to express a genuine desire to be "good" receptive soil. It is a great feeling to know I have done something lately that has made tangible difference, no matter how small it might be.

Our Devil's Tower adventure

Wesla and I traveled more than 3100 kms when we made our big move from St. Thomas (Ontario) to Lethbridge (Alberta), late this last August. During three of our five days on the road we clocked more than twelve hours of drive time. Getting to our new home - ahead of our furniture - was our main priority. Yet, at the same time, we also had the opportunity to check out some cool sights. The "Devil's Tower", in Wyoming, was by far one of our most interesting stops along the way.

As you can see in the first photo, the Devil's Tower is an enormous spire of stone protruding out of the rocky terrain. The Tower immediately catches your eye from miles away, because nothing else in the surrounding area is so geographically distinctive. At one time it was a volcano, that's what gives the Tower its unique shape consisting of tall, parallel columns of stone, stretching up to the sky.

Upon entering the park, visitors are permitted to hike around the Tower. It takes about thirty minutes or so, and guides are available for those who are interested. Part of the way around we came across some viewing stations. In our second picture you can see Wesla looking up, and the third picture was taken through the looking glass. The size of the man on the Tower gives a much better perspective of the size of this natural phenomena, it was truly awe inspiring! (Each one of those spires was about the size of a tractor trailer.)

The final photo is of an original painting, by an aboriginal artist, in the visitor's center. For centuries this has been a "holy place" for the indigenous people, and painting depicts the legend of how this tower came to be. One day a group of warriors engaged a great bear in battle. The warriors fled to the peak of a tall mountain, and the surface of the stone became gouged with great crevices as the bear tried to climb up to the warriors.

I would highly recommend checking out the Devil's Tower if you get the chance!

moving beyond the inconsequential

Yesterday was one of those difficult but good days. Difficult for me personally, but good for me in terms of re-centering myself upon Christ. My sense of brokenness stems from an experience I had while writing an exam unlike any other I have ever had before. I was working my way through my German mid term, there were no shocking surprises with any of the material that was covered on the test, but there was simply not enough time for me to finish all the material on the test. The clock became my nemesis. Each passing second brought the fifty minute class nearer to its end, and when the moment of reckoning came I had only completed about 70-75% of the test. This experience became a dark shadow consuming my every thought.

Wallowing in self pity, I spent my lunch break checking my email and to browsing a few blogs. It was then that I encounter Jayson's post on Ash Wednesday and Lent: Ash Wednesday: Lent. It was not so much the content of the post that struck me so hard, but a sense of how far I had allowed my focus to drift into inconsequential waters. Yesterday was Ash Wednesday, a day set apart for followers of Christ to engage in repentance and complete surrender.

Later that evening, along with a group of friends, we were discussing the implications of Romans 12:1, "Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God–this is your spiritual act of worship."

Following this time of study, worship and prayer I was left asking question, "What does it mean for me to be a living sacrifice?" It is my desire to explore the answers to this question as we journey together through the contemplative season of Lent.

Not Unlike A Roller Coaster

The trajectory of a semester is not unlike a roller coaster. The first few weeks are marked by a sense of anticipation. The syllabi reveal your professors' expectations, and the opportunity arises to meet a few new people. Yet, before long the peak of the track lies just before your horizon, the buzzer sounds, and the race is on. Exams and papers pull your life in different directions like the gravitational forces from dips and turns, and there is always one assignment that inevitably throws you for a loop. In my mind, the closest connection between the university semester and a roller coaster adventure is the brevity of the ride. It might seem frightening at the moment, but before you know it you find yourself getting up from your seat.

This past weekend was the first real dip or turn of my semester, and thankfully I have not derailed, at least not yet. I had a paper due and a test to write yesterday (Monday), and I have another test tomorrow. With that being said I better get cracking with my "Deutschlernen".

Tschüss!

Paper topic determined

I have finally decided on a general topic for my History 2222 course. It will have to be narrowed down further after I have done more research, but here are some of my initial thoughts. I will focus on the effects of the industrial revolution in Victorian England during the middle part of the 19th century. I was thinking I might look at the development of labour laws, which protected the rights of the burgeoning working class or perhaps the role state funded education played in pumping out component persons who would become a part of the machinery of society.