hugs

I love hugs. Phil Togwell - friend from England found this video on You Tube - must admit I was crying too.

Makes me feel like the opening from Love Actually which is one of my favorite movies of all time.

Interesting isn't it - we are created with a need for community, created with a need to belong, and yet the culture does everything it can to keep us apart and seperate. In fact our life in many ways is this hacking away at our ability to trust people enough to let them into community. I wonder if it helps to know that people will let you down as you enter community. Then your expectation moves to hope which seems healthier. I don't know that I want to expect things from people in my community, other than my family - but I might hope for a hug.

24-7

Well...cate and I have been talking and praying....as the lord hears our talking I think that is fair, and we've certainly been waiting on Him so I think that counts! At any rate we are pondering planting a 24-7 community here in Hamilton. We have so many people and communities that we love here, HCF and the FRWY most importantly, but there still seems to be something that is unsettled in us and certainly in me. I feel like the 24-7 community that I dream of is just lingering in the shadows of reality waiting for us to call it out. I hope so anyway!
So...I guess our prayer that we are really focussing on right now is praying that the Lord would bring the team. We aren't going to build without a team and so we are praying for the right team to come along. Bring them Lord! Please Lord would you bring people into our path that have the same heart.
Righto - on a more sublime level, I love farms! We went to the royal winter fair yesterday as we do every year - I'll post some pictures later - but I love animals, the farm....
For a while the year before last, I was riding every night after work and learning how to treat, train and take care of my mother in law's horse. I miss that...a lot.

shmere

So...great link on Dan's blog regarding youth ministry and entertainment - I wish some of the parents that I spent hours arguing with when I was working in youth work would look at this!

Here's a blurb and check Dan's blog for the link (interesting side note - I know some html, and am very familiar with web apps etc...running Parabola for so long. I'm also an early adopter - I have a Blackberry, Tungsten W I love all the gadgets, however for some reason I just can't get motivated to change my blog - insert html tags etc..in my blog!) Sorry guys!)

"But in recent years churches have begun offering their young people a style of religious instruction grounded in Bible study and teachings about the doctrines of their denomination. Their conversion has been sparked by the recognition that sugarcoated Christianity, popular in the 1980s and early '90s, has caused growing numbers of kids to turn away not just from attending youth-fellowship activities but also from practicing their faith at all"

I would say not so much doctrine...not sure how that floats, but definitely authentic representation of what we are about. Reality man. It is where it is at.

Other things....Pernell said something to me last night that I have been really pondering...I feel like I am always griping about work, not feeling like I know what I am doing. I know it is because I haven't really comitted to anything in my heart and so comitting to something in vocation is hard. I want desperately to get past that...but how does one do that? At the same time, perhaps even more importantly I want to be full od joy whatever circumstance I find myself in, not optimisim..but realy joy. At any rate - Pernell made the observation that I am all about helping people and leading people and the jobs that I do right now don't really get me doing either. I think I'v ealwasy known that, but the clarity of the statement has me floored. So...now what the hell do I do?! I guess look for work in a segment of society that allows me to do those things? But then the reality of the number of mouths in my family comes back to haunt my decision making....

I can't sort it out.

By the way - I love taking my son Josiah to hockey practice - i feel like a Canadian Dad - although I am a crappy hockey player. If we were going to rugby practice, that would be something else.

Hmmm....which reminds me..September of next year - I would like to be in Wales watching Wales play Austrailia in a World cup match....that would be nice...!