Dreams Unlocked

(ninans circa april 2005 - adams first visit to the beach - 3rd beach stanley park vancouver) 2005 : i turned 35 (yikes!) adam turned 1 - yay! i finished my mdiv i started a new job - my dream job actually i did my first 2 weddings as a licensed minister i preached a lot i read a lot i learned a lot about genesis i saw u2 for the 5th time i grew closer to god i got more money - could be good or bad felicia and i both juggled raising adam with our jobs i appreciated all the good things god has given me god turned me inside out "And if the night runs over And if the day won't last And if our way should falter Along the stony pass It's just a moment, this time will pass."

its good to be home - back at 950 cambie - our little apt. i have to say the entire san diego trip was quite a whirlwind - there were many allusions to the reality show "the amazing race" - i think they are fairly accurate. we spent a lot of time whizzing around from place to place: disneyaland, the zoo, the beach, church, shopping. but it was really fantastic to be together with my immediate family and their families and my cousins and aunt and uncle. hopefully we can continue to do it every couple of years. still decompressing from the trip. sn

this is the ninan clan. from l-r: michael cappello santosh ninan adam ninan abraham ninan leela ninan dilip ninan jacob cappello (head bent back) felicia ninan mira cappello seated: asha cappello gillian sinnott

saw lots of animals. walked a lot. it was tough to navigate with 9 adults and 5 kids. this day was on dad - he bought out zoo tix, our lunch and our dinner! very generous of the kind fella. had a great evening laughing with the relatives. sad though - everyone except us fly out tomorrow. dilip - nyc for a conference gillian - dublin to visit parents asha/mike - regina mom/dad - regina sunder - san jose for work rachel - tahoe for snow boarding me and flea will probably just take it easy - we're going out for dinner tomorrow. i bought these really cool puma sneakers but wore them around the house today and they are really tight - will exchange them tomorrow. take it easy. sn

SHOPPING!!! went to the mall today to get all those tasty post-xmas sales. it was kinda like going to disneyland - lots of people, line-ups and a limited pay-off. wierdest thing - ran into hart, anita and natasha molthagen there! hart looked thrilled being in a mall. bought an edun t-shirt from saks 5th ave. and a pair of puma shoes - asha and felicia bought a lot of stuff. after that went to the beach and another scenic place. beach was nice but pretty cold. went to some big expensive hotel for hot chocolate - it was right on the beach. now we are watching "in good company" which is a pretty good movie. i'm totally bagged - me and felicia are both falling asleep. saw lion, witch and wardrobe last night - it was good but not great. tomorrow - the zoo! "you're the kind of person that it's good to be in a foxhole with."

christmas in san diego is; going for a walk in the park in a t-shirt shopping (!) in a grocery store for last minute groceries for the big christmas dinner opening gifts reading the christmas story playing a game laughing enjoying my family and extended family being together in 1 place at 1 time brunch an extra-hot almond steamer with whip from starbucks! taking a time-out w. felicia and adam in our bed-room thanking god for this rich blessed life of which i am totally unworthy the malls and shops don't have to win in the christmas season. wherever people gather to remember the miracle of the incarnation, the christmas Spirit lives on. i always love that verse that says that mary pondered all these things in her heart. take an hour or 2 just to ponder on god and His grace. its' christmas time: there's no need to be afraid. we let in light and banish shade. amen.

day 3 in southern california. my sister and brother and their spouses scored tickets to the tonight show. when they showed up they were escorted to seats that were in the front row and center! they were 4 feet from leno during the monologue! they are also clearly seen throughout the show when the camera scanned the audience! lucky for them. spent yesterday in disneyland - which is pretty much a concentration of a lot of very american things: rampant consumerism, pleasure seeking and an abundance of fatty food. still it was felicia's first time so it was fun. going to a mega-church for xmas eve service tonight - its wierd to be having christmas when it is bright and sunny and over 20 degrees celsius outside. will post some pics later today. merry christmas - i will post a christmas homily tomorrow. blessings, sn "glories stream from heaven afar"

ventured into the downtown to run a few errands. picked up a cheque at the office that i needed to mail before the end of 2005. did some banking - picked up american $ for the trip - mailed a special gift to warren and carla - they said 2 business days but i don't know - keep your eyes peeled w&c. then hit the mall and it hit back - purdys chocoaltes - then banana republic for a belt for felicia - i also got her a shirt that was discounted from 105 to 25 - 80 bucks off! when i got to the register i asked the girl if the belts were on sale - she said some of them are but not this one - merry xmas charlie brown. then i went into chapters but the line-up appeared to circle the store a few times. gave felicia a treat- she's gone to see the matinee of pride and prejudice while i watch the boy - how nice of me - actually she lets me go out every wed. afternoon and catch a flick so it was about time i returned the favour. after today in downtown vancouver i could almost feel the t

i forgot to mention that on sat. night we had a leadership team dinner and meeting - first@night covered dinner at the cactus club in yaletown (up to 20 bucks/person) - we're still on a budget. then we had a meeting at our place. then we played cranium which was pretty fun. today - prepared the jan-may overview for first@night. from jan-easter we are studying the character of jacob in genesis. then we have a palm sunday and easter services. then we study joseph until the end of may. it takes us 8 mths. to get through genesis! i also have a couple of guest speakers scheduled. also the last week of feb. and the first 2 weeks of march i am away. in feb. i am in calgary and in march i am in ireland and england! i've been invited by the baptist union to travel with a few other pastors to attend a conference in sheffield and then visit some emerging type churches in cork and dublin i think. i'm pretty psyched about it. got a couple of movies tonight - but felicia's pretty bag

my next door neigbour ron is having his annual xmas party. felicia, adam and i dropped by after dinner. felicia had to work so she left fairly quickly - me and adam stayed a bit longer. got to know some of ron's friends - they are all professionals - accountants, doctors and lawyers (ron is a lawyer). ron's a really nice guy but he always talks to me about the most mundane things like paint colour or a new faucet that he is buying from rona for 15 bucks less then canadian tire. finished my new years day sermon - epiphany sermon - eph. 3:1-12 - gentiles are now on the same footing as jews - a radical repositioning - really the ushering in of a whole new era in human history. also did the service outline. tomorrow last day of work and then holidays! can't wait. "don't you know, things will change, things will go your way if you HOLD ON for one more day." - wilson phillips.

exegeted and studied eph. 3:1-12 today. did word studies on 3 greek words found in the text. ate japanese food for lunch. went to kiehls and put on some cream cuz my face was dry. got an extra hot almond steamed milk with whip. came home. played w. the boy and fell asleep on the couch. sat in the hot tub. updated this thing. will watch charile brown xmas and then empire strikes back. "i am a wretch saved by GRACE."

so i did my first "big" wedding. i had done a very very small wedding a couple of weeks ago - but this was the whole deal, wedding party 150 guests, everything. things went very well - my prayer and homily were fine but then!!!! when it came to the vows i could not find them in the little book i was holding - i had typed everything up onto small pieces of paper and placed them in a little black book so it would look a bit nicer, then me shuffling through loose sheets of paper, but all of a sudden the vows had disappeared. at one point i actually said i think we're going to have to wing it! the bride looked at me in horror and said, can't somebody go get them. at which point the best man went into the room that i had been in with the groomsmen to look for them. while he was gone, the vows suddenly reappeared in my little book! thank god. i had mentioned in my homily the importance of forgiveness so when i found them , i tapped the bride and said remember all that stuff

yesterday was quite interesting. i had a wedding rehearsal booked for 4:00. at 3:30 a homeless guy shows up in the office - no shoes, no shirt. so i ask him what's going on - he tells me that he is sick and got thrown out of st, paul's hospital. the hospital calls me and explains that the guy was treated but then refused to leave. security had to physiclaly remove him and he left without his shirt or shoes. at this point the guy is lying down on the floor of my office trying to sleep. he gets up and we go and i find him some socks and shoes and a sweater. then he demands to see another pastor - i tell him that pastor will not be here for 3 hours and he should come back then - he then gets belligerent and starts yelling at me - "i can't believe you people treat me like this!" he's now storming down the hall towards the exit - as he's leaving i tell him - "alex this is probably why you were kicked out of the hospital - you can't treat people like t

me and the boy this morning. he was yelling very loudly for no apparent reason. he also read his book: runaway bunny. went to regent to take out a few commentaries for my sermon on new years day - epiphany sunday - i am preaching on eph. 3:10-18 about how the gospel is now available to gentiles. bought the ephesians word biblical commentary by lincoln for 60 bucks! yikes. they have started the expansion of regent - digging up the whole front part. started reading the complete short stories of flannery o connor. also working out details for our san diego trip - looks like we may have a chance to see the last taping of the tonight show for 2005 through a family friend. cool. not much else. oh - went for a run yesterday - felt quite proud of myself. going to try to workout tomorrow morning. have a wedding rehearsal tomorrow as well - yipee. sn i know i got potential somewhere.

this was one of those rare weekends. we were together - all three of us for friday, saturday and sunday. we probably haven't had a week-end like this in months - at least since first@night was launched in the fall. friday we stuck around mainly at home. yesterday we went to canada place and got on this little train that takes you to santa's workshop and then adam met santa. we did a bit of shopping and then back home for pizza and a movie. finished "unstoppable force" by erwin mckmanus - superb book .highly recommended to all pastors out there. also finished "renovation of the heart" by dallas willard - also a good book but a bit of a challenge. reading sacred marriage by gary thomas - probably the best book on marriage i have ever come across - no fluff at all. today we went for a walk on the sea-wall - bright bright sunshine - reminding me of saskatchewan but minus the miserable cold. "I am up a sycamore Looking through the leaves A sinner of some pos

woke up this morning with a sore throat and a feeling of absolute exhaustion - i attribute it to a 14 hr. workday yesterday that tried to cram too many meetings into too short a time. so took the day off and just rested - read, burned some cds for friends, slept, drank san pellegrino with lime. the boy was quite affectionate - i think its because he doesn't usually see me during the day so he was showing his affection - very nice. going to watch fantastic 4 tonight - it has crappy reviews but it was produced by my friend ralph winter and a girl from first@night is in it. tomorrow - family day! yay. "i talk to you. walk away. see the worst. say you like it. you can't say it if you're running from yourself."

the anne rice review yesterday is by jamie-arpin ricci from winipeg - this is a link to his blog: www.emergentvoyageurs.blog.com he is a fine fellow.

today a review of anne rice's new novel by my friend and fellow blogger jamie: When I heard that novelist Anne Rice, author of the famous Vampire Chronicles, was writing a novel about the early years of Jesus Christ, I was skeptical. When I read that it was being written in first person from Jesus own perspective, I was intrigued. I had heard that Rice had returned to the Roman Catholic faith of her youth in the late 1990's, but had not followed her life or writing in several years. I picked up the hardcover "Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt" on my way out to YWAM Vancouver for a week of teaching, expecting an interesting, if not provocative read. As is my habit, I stayed away from interviews and reviews until I had read the book, wanting to experience the work with as few preconceived ideas as possible. However, with an author such as Rice, it was hard not to expect, well not the worst, as Rice is an excellent writer and a phenomenal historical researcher- I expected so

so today was a bit of a grind - very very difficult staff meeting - some very delicate issues bouncing around the church. in the middle of the meeting i was just overcome at how messy and complicated ministry can be. without the grace of god and his wisdom i am screwed - actually we are all screwed without him helping us out. and then this afternoon someone in the office just decided to put the office server in my office - i didn't really mind as i have a pretty large office but after it was installed i realized that it gives off a very low humming and buzzing sound - its just enough to get under my skin and put me on edge. i thought maybe i could wait until the end of the week and see how i'm doing but after 10 minutes i had a headache and was grinding my teeth and starting to feel homocidal. i went out and asked someone if we could move it into an office where someone else is there only half the time - they didn't seem too hyp;ed about moving it again. so i just gritted m

check out james blunt - he performed on saturday night live this past week. i watched each of his songs 3 times over and over. i have never been so moved by a performance before - those of you know me, know i am a media junky - lots of movies, music, books, magazines, newspapaers and web-sites passing before my eyes and through my ears everyday. so you know that it is significant if i tell you this guy is amazing! he sings with passion and pathos - if any of you are in vancouver i will gladly have you over to watch these 2 performances that i have on tape. last first@night of the year last night. i was quite surprised that we had only about 35 people! our lowest # yet and we were in the sanctuary. i'm not sure why that was especailly considering this was a regular evening advent service as well. had a real worship band! spencer led, mylene accompanied, michael was on congas and eric on piano - sounded very good, especially in the sanctuary. sermon went well - the prodigal son - one

i conducted my first wedding today. it was for an older iranian couple named ali and zahara (that's them above with their pastor) - they are very poor and don't have many friends in vancouver. in fact - they were'nt going to have any family and friends at their wedding! so i told my bible study group and some of the leaders at first@night. a couple of awesome girls - mylene and amy helped out. mylene is an esthetician, so she did zahara's make-up, hair and nails - she looked beautiful. mylene also played the wedding recessional and processional! amy decorated the small chapel at the church - it looked really nice. felicia and amy were the witnesses and signed the registry and the official license. i got a temporary license for december to do the wedding and then another wedding on the 15th - (you were right nick - i got the date wrong). i think the i did ok - i mean there were only 5 other people in the room - and that included the bride and groom! its actually pretty e

started off with brunch with the fam. at the templeton - then we went to see the christmas tree displays at the 4 seasons - they look cool. then i hung out in chapters with the boy while felicia returned some stuff at the gap. we had this card that gives us 30% off evertyhing in the store - including sale items. i got a shirt that was marked down from 65$ to 16$ - with the discount i paid like 12$! when stuff goes on sale at the gap it is quite cheap. did some reading - also saw an old dutch potato chip truck today - does anyone still eat those chips? i remember them from when i was a kid but now i would think that lays and pringles would have won the market. check out the king kong trailer -/www.kingkongmovie.com looks pretty good.

cuz one isn't enough

this is adam looking quite dignified in his monkey suit. this was just one of those regular grind type days that i'm sure everyone encounters from time to time - nothing too special or exciting. just pounding out a sermon and trying to do some long term planning and visioning. had a run-through for the wedding i am doing on saturday - i think it will go well. this is my first wedding! went to a prayer meeting at church tonight - it is themost important meeting in the whole church - it keeps the church running. after this sermon on sunday i am pretty much done for the year! i have a wedding on the 14th but no more sermons until jan 1st! cool. "all the angels in heaven did sing on christmas day in the morning. i saw THREE SHIPS come sailing in on christmas day in the morning."

yesterday we had our pastor's meeting at ubc - there was a city wide baptist pastor's meeting afterward. we discussed some difficult issues that different people in our church are dealing with. at the larger meeting we discussed "clergy care" - that is where do pastors go for help when they are feeling burned out or depressed - also care for their families. initially i did not want to go but it turned into quite a good meeting. it also dumped snow yesterday morning - looked beautiful at ubc. picked up some commentaries for my sermon on sunday - also made a really cool powerpoint presentation to play as people walk in on sunday night. will work on my sermon today - meet w. the couple i am marrying on ssaturday , this aft. - leading a prayer meeting at the church tonight. "Perhaps it's the color of the sun cut flat An' cov'rin' the crossroads I'm standing at, Or maybe it's the weather or something like that,"

this is a picture i took of pamela anderson in front of my building. she was the grand marshall of the grey cup parade. this picture is exactly like the one that was on the cover of the province newspaper today. i should be a professional photographer.

had an awesome grey cup party with about 10 people from first@night. edomonton won - thats ricky ray above. what an exciting game! went into overtime and it was totally close. the coach of edmonton looks like a little kid! he was hilarious. black eyed peas were pretty good at halftime. also got to see my buddy daryl which was pretty cool. he's helping record an album at a studio on saltspring island right now. tomorrow its back to the grind. i preach sunday night so i have to prep for that, as well as get the sermon going. peace.

ward gasque did a very good job on the davinci code last night - we drew about 100 people which was awesome. ward is such a great guy. today is our first full family day in a long time. the grey cup parade goes right in fron t of our house - pamela anderson lee is leading it which should be exciting. going to watch war of the worlds tonight. my buddy daryl is in town so hopefully i will be able to see him. not feeling too inspired - going to read my bible now.

felicia is doing a double shift which means i have to stay home with the boy during the day- it was really awesome except for the times when he wouldn't stop crying. tonight was especially fun as we played together for about an hour - we play this kind of slow person's hide and seek where he hides and then comes running out and laughs at me - then i scoop him up and tickle him. he was so good tonight - when i said "sleepy time adam?" - "can you go get lammy?" lammy is his stuffed lamb that he goes to bed with. he got lammy and his soother and then walked into his room and stood in front of his crib. i picked him - we prayed together and then he lay down - no crying! what a great kid! had a good meeting with a new guy at first@night - he's a very bright computer science student at ubc - he is on a journey of faith and it was quite exciting to hear the steps he is taking. busy weekend - davinci code lecture is tomorrow and then grey cup pot-luck party on s

working at home today. so the first major thing that god revealed to me while at the church planting congress was that i had become seduced by the culture i live in. i live in yaletown which is one of the most cosmetic places in north america. everything here is about appearances. as a result i felt that if i a church was going to reach people it also had to "look good" - flashy logo, posters, web-site etc. in reality what is important is the interior of the church - the heart and soul. a community that truly loves each other and serves each other. things like fasting and prayer and seeking god's face is more important then having a church filled with "cool" people wearing the right clothes. - i repented and asked god to continue to reveal to me his will and give me new priorities. too often we focus on the package - while the product sucks. i once bought a book because it had a good title and a cool cover - it wasn't a very good book. so that was the first

friday night - 7:54 pm, listening to dylan: "the land that i live in has GOD ON ITS SIDE" took part of the day off to re-connect with felicia and adam who i hadn't seen in 6 days! adam is looking bigger and is quite hyper running this way and that. we went to milestones for brunch which was very nice - got to meet the chef, ron - really nice guy. then poking around in different shops - adam got this really cool looking winter jacket - it looks like its leather but its not. i looked at a few hats - i'm thinking of buying a hat to spiff up my image. stoppe dinto the office to talk with tom our sr. pastor - just to tell him how toronto was. i then tried to clean up my office - i have so much freaking paper!!! i tossed a whole bunch today - i should say i recycled a whole bunch. then i went through a bunch of piled up phone messages and other office type stuff that piles up when you're away. also got the new ut dvd - live in chacago - kind of psyched about it. i have

walk the line is a fantastic film. even if you are not a johnny cash fan you will enjoy this film. i tell you best actor is now a toss-up between philip seymour hoffman in capote and phoenix as johnny. i think i am favoring phoenix because he actually sings and sounds just like cash. went into the office to have my quiet time and sort through my mail and organize myself. i also voted for the civic election. earlier today i bit the inside of my mouth and it hasn't stopped bleeding - and little pieces of my flesh get loose and i have to spit them out - its gross and a bit troubling to be spitting up blood. any suggestions on what i should do? do i need to see a doctor? "lay off that whiskey and let that cocaine be." - johnny cash

it's 8:33 AM - my body probably thinks it's 11:33 due to that dang time change. so i barealy slept the three days i was in toronto. i thought i would crash when i got home - last night i went to bed at 11:00 - so i got like 9 hour of sleep right? but i still feel wasted and my headache that i got on the plane is still there. i'm in bad shape - also i'm hungry. i'm actually writing this post from my bed. i have sooooo much stuff i want to share about the congress but i think i am still going to wait until i sort it ou before i spill my guts online here. i'm looking at my calender and the coming week looks pretty packed with meetings - i'm taking today off to recuperate. me and my new buddy patrick are going for lunch and then seeing walk the line - johnny cash baby - the coolest cat ever. i got into johnny cash off the first rick rubin produced album called amercian recordings. i then proceded to buy every album rubin produced for cash after that. i also boug

these last couple of days represent some of the most intense spiritual times in my life in 18 years. not since the urbana 87 missions conference has god touched my life in such a powerful way. my room mate is sleeping right now - it's almost 2 in the morning! so i can't really write that much - will tell you all the unbelievable things god has done at a later time. i just want you to know that our Creator loves each one of us so dearly and wants only the best for us - He wants to give us so mcuh of Himself, if only we will humble oursleves and let Him. we need to drop our masks and allow God's touch to penetrate the deepest parts of our being.

am in toronto at the national church planting congress - great speakers and over 1000 eager beaver canadian church planters trying to figure out what we're doing. have to admit i'm quite tired - was up at 6:00 and have had a pretty much full schedule up to 9:00 tonight. my room-mate went out to do karaoke but i just needed some down time - might order a pizza and catch some tv before crashing. god spoke to me through a little girl playing in a school playground today - will tell you about it later when my eyes are open.

tonight was the best first@night we have ever had. greg and mylene led worship and it was unbelievable - they did this one song "breath of god, breathe on me" which i guess is an old hymn that greg reworked - there was a moment when they stopped singing and greg kept playing and the congregation just kept singing - it was like a u2 concert - how long? i preached on lot and sodom and gomorrah - i have to tell you this sermon was quite interesting in how it came together. yesterday at about 5:00 i finished it in my office - i looked it over and wasn't really happy with it - but i decided i was too tired to polish it off. then this afternoon i looked it over and added a few things. when i preached it was one of the few times when i felt it was really god speaking, not me - i just have to get out of god's way. i came down quite strong against homophobia in the church and challenged us to overcome the "sin of sodom" in our lives which is simply gross selfishness

today was one of those typical grey and rainy vancouver days. had lunch with mark. went over some questions from purpose drive life - had a nice chat about leadership/management typse stuff. then went to banana republic and bought felicia's b-day present. she liked it. this afternoon i did some work on the first@night web-site which is coming along quite nicely thanks to the generosity of my old high-school buddy - joel milne-epp. he is also a u2 fanatic and has been a member of their fan club for quite some time - how long joel? felicia just left for work - mark called - he sounds bored. he wants me and adam to come over there. i had to remind him that adam is 14 mths. old and goes to sleep at about 8:00. going to watch last nights csi and try to finish up my sermon so that tomorrow is a bit more free. adam is walking in and out of my office for no apparent reason. i'm reading orthodoxy by g.k. chesterton for like the third time - he is such an astute writer and has kind of a

today was another big slog. major research on the sermon - sodom and gomorrah - yikes! looks like another difficult sermon to write. had coffee with the pastor of another downtown baptist church - shawn bellevue - really nice guy with a real heart for the downtown. it was nice getting together with him and chatting about life as a pastor and how to reach the downtown core. tonight was date night! yay! actually it's felicia's birthday on tuesday so i bought her some flowers - we left adam with a lady from our church who lives in our building. we went to this amazing italian restaurant called circolo. it was so good. check out what we had: appetizer - oysters w. creme fraiche, caviar and pureed tomato main course - duck in a cherry reduction / duck pasta desert - dark chocolate truffle yum yum!!! i have to confess eating at nice restaurants is a real weakness - unfortunately on a pastor's salary its not one i can readily get used to, unless someone is footing the bill. so on

it's 10:00 - law and order is playing in the background. my cousin cyril came over - we ordered a pizza and watched house. just hung out - it was fun. had lunch with my buddy trevor - he owns a couple of companies that do marketting and branding for other companies. he is giving me some advice for first@night gratis which is very nice of him - i paid for lunch but that's not much payment. i met trevor and his partner michelle through mark - good saskatchewan people. the afternoon i did major work trying to put together some pre-marital counselling for two diferent couples. i'm using a book by dennis rainey as the basis of the counselling. i got this book called blue like jazz - i forget the author's name but i really like it. he writes about his faith in a very relaxed conversational style - it is inspiring me to get back into writing - i haven't written an article for relevant magazine in a long time. its amazing - i only have to preach 3 more sermons this year! th

rolled into the office later then usual today - about 10:00. i think its ok considering i preached last night - a lot of people tell me i should take monday's off but i think i would just get bored. good service last night - difficult sermon but i think it came off ok - that abraham , what a character!- this week we're doing lot. still struggling with how to create a sense of community with our group. not as discouraged last night or this morning as i usually am - sun is shining which makes me happier then if it was pouring rain. today - start sermon research - emails, phone calls - i'm meeting with a guy who came to fan last night - his first time in a church in a long time - wants to talk to me about christianity - please pray for him. i'll tel you how it goes tomorrow. amazing grace is still pretty amazing. sn

we won! we won! had a chance to go to my annual rider game - i have gone to this game every year for the last 4 years. this year i went with about 20 other rider fans - it was awesome! wore green and white paint and everything. the game was quite dull - no touchdowns until the last minute - but we squeaked by 13-12. yesterday also saw capote with patrick - very very good. hoffman will get a nomination for best actor for sure and may even scoop it up. i went to a new church called urban community baptist - they meet in a hotel a block form our apt. i appreciate their sincerity but it was very very conservative - hymns and suits. but i hope they do well in reaching out to this tough soil. i'm meeting the pastor on thursday to get to know each other. i think he was a bit taken aback when i told him i actually work at another church - he asked if i was a member there, i said yes. hope he'll still meet with me. i would like to start an urban pastors network - a monthly time just to

today was a real grind - this is one of those very unglamorous dull days that everyone probably endures a few times a month, no matter what profession they are in. rolled into the office at around 8:30 - the office is usually really quiet on fridays, today was especially so - i was the only pastor and there were 2 office staff and one receptionist. i did some reading and finished up my preliminary research for my sermon. at 12:45 i spoke to the seniors friendship hour - it went well. at 1:00 we had our first@night prayer meeting. only patrick and felicia showed up. we only prayed for about 10 minutes. but i was glad they both came. i'm going to see jarhead tomorrow with patrick and his room-mate. at about 2:00 i got back to the sermon - its on abraham sacrificing isaac - one of the strangest texts int he whole bible. i really struggled with it - wasn't sure which way to go. at about 4:30 i finally came to the conclusion and think it will be ok. i left the office and walked down

Last night we had home group at our apt. We are studying "Renovation of the Heart" by Dallas willard. It is really good but a bit of a tough read. Someone in our group had asked that we pray for her last night for a potentially serious medical condition. Another girl in our group shared how she had suffered from very heavy bleeding for about 6 mths. It was getting so bad that she was advised to have her uterus taken out. She had never prayed for it, but a month ago when she was in our group she asked us to pray for her, without disclosing her ailment. We prayed. She did not bleed that night. She did not bleed the next day. The next week she still had not bled - she didn't want to call her doctor for fear of "jinxing" it! A month later she still has not bled. Just as Jesus healed the bleeding woman 2000 years ago, he healed my friend. So we laid hands on this other girl who had requested prayer. I annointed her with oil and we prayed. Then I asked for prayer. Las

forget what you're doing - sell your kids - GO RENT THIS MOVIE. saw this tonight - FANTASTIC. really really enjoyed it. grey rainy day in vancouver means my productivity hits the skids. sermon still needs to be written.

some days i am too lazy to work out.

getting on an elevator with other people is wierd. i do it several times a day because i live in an apt. i live on one of the top floors so there is more chances that i will be riding with other people. its wierd because you are in this enclosed space very close to each other but you pretend like you're alone. you stare at the numbers moving up or down. you stare at the ground. you stare straight ahead. making conersation is wierd too. what are you supossed to say? "Hi" "Hi" going out? yeah, you? yeah ok and then nothing. tomorrow i'm going to stand really close to people on the elvator and see what happens. saw an awesome movie today - "good night, and good luck" - its about the journalist ed murrow who took on joe mccarthy during the "red scare" of the 1950's in america. amazing acting and cinematography. highly recommended.

i don't think i can have too many days like today. here's a run-through: 8:00 roll into the office - do devotions and finish a book on worship -make some calls fill out paperwork 10:00 Adam and Felicia come by for Felicia's moms group - i play with adam for a little bit 10:15 - Dan Watt, the head of church planting for my denomination comes by -we head out - he wants to videotape around the church so we walk up to robson while he tapes different people and buildings -we have coffee at the busiest starbucks in vancouver -he sets up his video camera and tapes an interview with me on first@night - i don't actually know what the video is for -he asks me to speak in december to some church planting trainers from various denominations in bc on the gospel and post-modernism 11:00 - back to the office, work on job descriptions for the various positions associated with first@night 12:00 - dim sum with felicia and adam 1:30 (back at the office now)- bruce kuhn drops by - bruce is

4:00 - wed. afternoon - i take wednesday afternoons off because i usually lead homegroup or have a meeting. adam is cralwing all around me and over me as i type this. felicia is still napping - she worked last night. here it comes - yesterday felicia lost her wedding band - she either lost it at home or at superstore. needless to say she is quite upset. if you believe in prayer please pray that we find it - it may seem like a little thing but it means a lot to her. tonight i'm going to mark's place - we're going to go over the first 3 chapters of purpose driven life together. it will also be good to get his take on first@night so far. did a lot of admin. type stuff this morning which is good. looks like i'm finally getting somewhere on the web-site. joel - a long lost high-school friend has offered to help us put one up basically for free - which is a real blessing - it was going to cost several hundreds of dollars otherwise. i still have some other costs related to fir

wow - i actually got an e-mail request to update! wellll - let's see - church went very well on sunday - that is i was quite happy with my sermon. (it was on the call of abraham in gen 12. - how we are inbetween people living between the promise and the reality) today i am trying something new - lifestyle change - i used to work out after work but i find that that is my prime time to play with adam before he goes to sleep so today was my first attempt at working out in the morning. every other time i tried to work out in the morning i would try running, then i would get sick and then quit in discouragement. so for the next month instead i am going to walk uphill on the treadmill for 20-30 minutes every morning from 6:30 - 7:00. today was not bad but i probably have to eat a better breakfast - the alpha bits don't seem to cut it. adam has a cold and is now dripping from both ends - this morning when i picked him up out of his crib he had dried snot all over his face - poor guy!

this irritating cold virus keeps threatening to take me down. so far i've been able to keep it at bay with lots of water. today we had a leaders meeting of first@night. it was at greg and laura's who treated us to some delicious belgian waffles - mmmmm i love me some waffles! we got quite a bit done. after, i went into my office to finish off my sermon - church was totally empty. it took me from 2-5 to flesh out the body of the sermon. i'm going to try something new tomorrow. i'm going to preach from off of my laptop - i can see the text quite clearly on this bright screen. i just hope i can scroll down ok - i think i'll use the mouse. then tonight i had a about an hour with everyone before felicia went to work. had a really fun time playing with adam - he just radiates joy. i had thought of taking him to stanley park tomorrow but there are no buses that can fit the stroller on that go there - do we need a car?!?!?!? peace and love from up above y'all.

today i was supossed to go to regent with someone but he never showed up so i went alone. i renewed some library books and bought some other books: a bible for mike, 2 manuals - one for weddings and one for funerals and the canadian book of common prayer. came back and had dim sum with the family. as we were walking back to the office i thought i should buy starbucks for a couple of the people in the office but thought it was too much bother. felicia grabbed onto this idea and told me she would buy. so i called the office and told them all to give us their orders. in actual fact, felicia only wanted to buy coffees for a couple of the really hard working office staff - not every single person in the office. but i hadn't made that clear. so we got an order for 5 lattes, 1 short mocha, 1 vanilla latte with whip, 1 almond latte, 1 soy mocha w. no whip and 1 extra hot mocha w. whip. i walked out of starbucks with 2 trays piled on top of each other with 5 drinks on each - it would have m

today i was supossed to focus entirely on my sermon but the best laid plans of mice and men gang oft astay. in the morning the director of campus ministries for bc for ivcf stopped by the office to chat with our sr. pastor. so i invited him in for a chat as well. and then i just have the regular administrative things to catch up with, had lunch w. fle and the boy and DENNY'S SUCKS !!!! we waited for 10 minutes after being seated and no waiter.waitress approached our table. finally i got up and asked if anyone has our table - i ws told someone will be right with you. after 5 minutes we marched out of there - had to settle for paninis at iga. then back to the office - got some reading and preliminary note taking but still feel woefully under prepared for sunday - pray for me!!! i've calculated that i will need between 1000-1500 for a web-site and some printing stuff and a sandwich board for the church. i don't have that kind of money in our budget. whad do i do?

i lead a home group on wed. nights so i take wed. afternoons off - i have found the perfect wed. afternoon activity. first i grab lunch at some nice resturant near the church and then i catch the top rated "rotten tomatoes" movie - today was "history of violence" directed by cronenburg. it was a decent enough popcorn movie - good action and drama. the ending wa skinda wierd - no one talked for like 5 minutes. pouring rain today - typical fall day in van. way behind on sermon - have to pound it out tomorrow - abraham baby!

so today was my day off but i was still at the church at 8:00 to hand in the offering which was quite large thanks to some heavy hitters. i went in and talked with tom cowan, our sr. pastor about last night. i usually check in with him at least once a week to tell him what's going on at first@night. then i walked over to the starbucks across form the church - i was there for 90 minutes! a new record - read my bible and 2 chapters from worship evangelism by sally morgenthaler - fantastic book. then i wandered through hmv and sears. i bought some incense because i thought it would be cool to have incense on sunday nights. within 2 minutes of lighting it i had a blinding headache and had to kill the smoke before i died - so no on the incense. then the family went to metrotown - this big mall in burnaby. i bought some cool timberland shoes. we also did our grcocery shopping at superstore there. now i'm going to return "unleashed" - very cool jet li movie - i recommend it

had our 5th service tonight. it was good - good worship. the speaker jonathan bird spoke on urban mission. i think it resonated with some people but may have been a bit too academic for others. jonathan is a good guy and is doing good work in studying the city. had a crazy busy day though 9 - attend first service with mark and mike (m and m) 10:30 - man the first@night booth after the service 10:45 - walk in the pouring rain to a restuarant in yaletown to have brunch with m and m. - had a good chat about faith. i really like mark - he is really honest about where he is at. actually both m and m are quite sincere as they venture into this whole "faith" thing 12:00 - return dvd, head back to man the booth again 1:30 - pick up groceries for flea 2:00 - eat soup and then read 4:30 - pick up new dvd for later tonight, i don't have any money so craig (the owner) tells me to pay when i return it - haha sucker! i'm going to sell it (no i'm not) 5:00 - in my office, read m

i am alone with the boy - flea is at work. he is talking VERY VERY Loudly as he moves stuff around in my office. beautiful weather today - went to the office with felicia and the boy to make a display board which describes first@night. felicia did a very good job - she's good at that kind of stuff. then i went looking for a blazer - i want one i can wear iwth jeans. there is a lot of corduroy and velvet (!) out there. i settled on a nice grey zip up sweater from the gap. i'm still saving up for my bono jeans in san diego. i had a great feeling of contenment today. i have my dream job, an awesome wife , a little boy who gives me more joy then anything else. it reminds me of the psalm that bono used to read before streets on th elevation tour: "what can i give back to god for all the blessings he's poured out on me? i will offer an offering, a toast to god. i will do it with his people" (or something like that)

yesterday - worked at the office saw a korean movie at the film festival - which i fell asleep in cuz it was so boring -back at the office -home for 1 hr. -ivcf reunion at ubc- nice to see everyone again, the ministry reports were pretty dull thought -milestones in kitsalano - supper at 10:00 today - back to the office for some more work -shopping - sweater or blazer reading - tale of 2 cities -worship evangelism -worship, community and the triune god of grace -renovation of the heart music - no direction home - bob dylan arcade fire not a cloud in the sky today.

Yesterday was one of my greatest days in ministry. A new guy came to first@night on sunday. I chatted with him briefly and we agreed to meet on Wednesday. So we sat down in the bright sterile environment of a nearby Tim Horton's. My new friend relayed his story - he has moved form believing in a higher power, to believing in a God, to believing in a personal God. There is a gospel presentation at the front of the Bible i had bought for him. i went over it with him and he said he was ready to follow jesus. We prayed together and my new friend was now my new brother in Christ! Amazing Grace! Pray for him. Amen.

last night i slept for 10 and a half hours! i guess thats what happnes when you go strong for a whole weekend. am still feeling quite tired and fatigued. i'm not preaching this sunday which is a nice break. but there are still many other things that grab at my time. this morning at the pastor's meeting i was just overwhlemed by the needs in our congregation - so many hurting people. i am currently reading bonhoeffer's life together which is an excellent resource when exploring this whole concept of community. peace.

tonight first@night was awesome. there were a lot of people including a lot of first time visitors. i met a couple of people who wanted to get together after to talk about Christianity. As i preached i also felt a really strong annointing of the Holy spirit. i can never tell when this is going to happen but i felt really impassioned as I preached. but again i feel exhausted - will sleep in tomorrow and am going to another film festival movie on monday and another on tuesday too. happy thanksgiving. sn

this is arcade fire on the cover of time magazine. i saw them in concert last night. it was unreal. it was part rock conert and part performance art. they have about 7 people in the band that play the french horn, double bass, drums, keyboards, guitar and bass. and they all switch off instruments. they played an eerie version os state trooper by bruce springsteen and then they destroyed a guitar. i went alone which was kinda wierd - but it was still worth it. got my sermon done - i came up with an interesting observation about noah's ark. i made an analogy of the ark and our faith. everytime we read our bible or pray or do something that moves us closer to god we hel build our ark. and then when the winds and waters of life come, we can step into the ark (our faith) and god will guide us until we reach dry land again. feel like i am coming down w. something - got a sore throat - hope it doesn't last - i have church tomorrow and then we have our big thanksgiving dinner w. some f

typical winter day in van - rain and wind. at the office i started to get an allergic reaction to something - it devolved into a full blown, congested cold. so i bailed form work early and slept for an hour. still feeling sick but will be ok tomorrow. sermon prep today - meeting w. a guy from city in focus who will be speaking at first@night next sunday. he's got an excellent presenation on urban issues - he will present an edited form of it to us. i have a confession to make - don't tell my wife (she never reads this thing). i bought 2 boston cream donuts from tim hortons - one for me and one for her - thought it would be a nice surprise for her. i came home and she was sleep. and well, one thing led to another and let's just say there is no evidence of any donuts being in our apt. today. pray for me.

jamie made a good point - read his comment to my last post - very insightful. i was probably too simplistic in my assessment of the troubled man's condition. well, after 2 days of excitement the only excitement today was of a road crew drilling into the alley right outside the window in my office. at 9:00 i felt i was going to get homicidal if i stayed there any longer so i packed up some books and headed to starbucks to finish research for my sermon. then it was home for lunch. jeanette came over - she's this awesome woman who is like a mentor to me. she came for lunch and prayed for us. then i did some more work and rolled around with adam. it was nice to spend some longer time with him. tomorrow - write the sermon.

i thought yesterday was exciting! today a lunatic comes in to the office and threatens to hurt and kill everyone unless we help him. i get pulled from my interesting commentary on genesis and am face to face with a guy who is yelling at me that he is about to hurt someone. i tell him to sit down and that he can't talk like that. finally i convince him to walk to the hospital next door with me. we get there and i tell him to sit down. i go over and talk to the nurse and explain the situation. she talks to him and looks up his chart. he has attempted suicide in the past and been prescribed atavan. she agrees to get him some atavan. he gets admitted but its going to be about an hour. so we go for a walk and i try to calm him down some more. finally we go back to the hospital. i explain to him that we want to help him at the church but he can't talk to people the way he was before. he agrees. i pray with him and then tell him i have to go back to work. i return to my commentary at

i'm blogging earlier because i have a class tonight and will probably be too tired to post later. you can say a lot of things about the life of a pastor but one thing you can not say is that it is boring. take this morning for example. at about 11:00 i am doing my regular office type stuff, returning e-mails, preparing my next sermon when the phone rings. this call plunged me into an intersting tale that involves the Ontario Provincial Police and the US border patrol. Ic an't say too much but it looks like my week just got way more interesting. So in between sermon prep. and meeting with congregants you get the usual dose of excitement. Last night's service was the best one so far. Spencer's worship was just unreal - he is probably the most gifted worship leader I have ever seen. There was just a really good vibe in the room. PTL!

didn't go to the morning service today and it felt awesome. nice to have some lazy time before i have to preach and lead in the evening. i think i'll go to sunday morning every other week. RIDERS WON RIDERS WON!!!!! i am so happy - wish i had been at the game. i am going for sure to the one in nov. and i want to go to the grey cup too. nothing profound today.

i got my sermon finished this morning which freed up the rest of the day - i went to starbucks and read a little, then rented curb your enthusiasm, then i got a massage from amy who said my lower back and hips were really screwed up. she said i might be sore tomorrow. adam is really getting into walking - he walks everywhere now and is quite proud of his progress. i don't really have any catchy stories or illustrations for this week's sermon - oh well.

in the last 24 hours - 60 people have visited this site! a new record! thanks!

they opened up a 24 hrs. tim hortons across from the church. so i pass it everyday on my way to and from work. i have had 2 donuts, 2 coffees and some timbits in 2 days. why don't they just poison me now, instead of killing me slowly with sugar, fat and caffeine? life is unfair. had the boy this morning - he was very good. he's sleeping now. worked on my sermon in the aft. still not done. i wanted to take tomorrow off but it looks like its going to be a working day. the sermon is on the fall of adam and eve - they ruined it for all of us - sheesh.

this picture says it all - i am a major bollywood movie star - now you know my secret.

thank you to the two people who posted comments yesterday. especially warren's verse from isaiah which was really encouraging. yesterday i talked with a couple of pastors about what i went through sunday night - they both said its a normal part of ministry which comes from time to time. it is hard to explain to people what happens when you preach. preaching is more then public speaking. it is a complete expenditure of who you are. you are sharing your heart and soul with people. it wears you down emotionally, mentally and spiritually. sometimes after preaching - especially if i have felt the spirit's special empowering or i have been particularly passionate about a topic i will feel as if i have completed a marathon and i just want to lie down. sometimes it is very difficult to talk with people after. you have expended so much and need to get "refueled". i think this is part of what happened on sunday. today we had a staff retreat - this was all the staff, not just pa

had our second service last night. again it went quite well. but after the service i was plagued with total discouragement and depression. i actually felt like quitting. still sort of feel bummed today. oh well just got to keep on going. its 8 am - i'm going to head into the office a little later as i'm still "recovering" ffrom last night. love you all, sn

this pic is for the benefit of some friends who haven't seen us in a while. had a date tonight with my wife! we headed out to this ultra cool wine bar/restaurant called cru. i had a ceasers salad, beef tenderloin and a basil lemon torte which was actually quite delicious. then we came home and watched "born into brothels" which is quite a sad but inspiring film. it is about the children born to sex workers in the red light district of calcutta. a photographer sort of takes them under her wing and starts to teach them how to photograph. tomorrow is another full day - breakfast and lunch meetings with church sandwiched inbetween - and then of course first@night - i am speaking on adam and eve - the creation of the first human community. i figured out today what i want on my tombstone - "I'll see some of you later." day 8 w.out a car - we took a bus to the restaurant and a cab back.

It's 10:30 in themorning. I'm sitting in my office at the church. I went to Regent to pick up a couple of books. I am sitting here and all of a sudden I lost focus of what i needed to be doing. So I am taking advantage of this temporary loss of focus to so my first ever blog from the office. It was nice to see Jamie post a comment about when they sold their car. Warren called me last night on his way to choir! He and Carla have joined the choir in their church. I am so encouraging - the first thing I said was "But, you can't sing!" But I guess their choir is big enough it doesn't matter. Not only was he going to choir but he was going alone because Carla was at work! He is a better man then I am. Going to finish up my sermon - its actually finished just needs to be polished a bit. Having lunch with Felicia and the boy and then a meeting with a graphic designer at 1:00. Then tonight a new couple from first baptist are coming over for dinner - should be fun - th

today was a typical split - take care of adam while felicia sleeps and then head to the office form 1-5. today we officially sold our car - we are now carless!!! go green! i predict it will last 2 weeks before felicia demands we buy a car. it's sort of sad - it was our first car and we were quite close. oh well, such is life. had our first home group study of the book "renovation of the heart" - it is a good book but quite a step beyound our last 2 books - but the discussion was awesome - i think it will be a very good book to discuss. "please remember me fondly"

pastors meeting this morning - updated them all about first@nite. afternoon - mainly admin. stuff - no sermon prep. today - maybe tomorrow. dinner with the church planting guy for baptist union in bc. full day = good day. "The ghost of electricity howls in the bones of my face."

We each occupy the same space/time Matter, antimatter, tangled like vines And the awful tolling, and the cold rain outside And I cannot scrape this dream off my eyes

see this kid? this kid almost gave me a breakdown. he would not eat food and was crying a lot. man today was a tough day. sold our car to one of my former professors. now we are carless - should be interesting. sn

well we did it! we had the very first service of first@night. i feel it went quite well. we started about 15 minutes late due to some technical stuff - our coffee was a bit late as well. but when we did get under way it went off without a hitch. spencer was excellent as our worship leader. greg's audio-visual slides were absolutely fantastic. our sr. pastor tom cowan gave a very motivating message. my message - i was quite happy with how it went. i taped it so i will listen to it tomorrow to see how it went. there were 33 people and quite a few filled out feedback cards which i can't wait to look through tomorrow. a few of us went out to earls after to go over the service. also some of my friends showed up - dwight, mark h., mark l., mike, and amy - it was nice for them to come out to support us. all in all i was quite satisfied this is our theme verse: "Do not remember the former things, or consider the things of old. I am about to do a new thing; now it springs for

I was knocked out and loaded in the naked night. When my last dream exploded, I noticed your light. and that's how it continues to play out in my rambling gambling life. went into the office this morning (on a saturday)! worked from 8-12. have mixed feelings about sunday night - most of it is out of my control. give it up to god and pray for his blessing. had a nice meeting with the core group tonight - laid and hands and prayed for each other - we lost claudia though - she's over loaded w. shcool work and also works part time - how sad! she is so nice. well hopefully god will send others our way. will let you know how it goes tomorrow if not too tired.

so my cousin from san diego is in town. her company is shooting a commercial in vancouver so she came here to represent the company. she is a high flying marketing chick and every once in awhile she manages to come to good old van. i picked her up at her hotel and then we all went for lunch and then did some shopping. it was a bit of a grey rainy day so we bought some lattes and came home. then we all had naps and then went swimming. rachel is also adam's walking coach and he is doing quite well taking 4-5 steps at a time now. she also has the honor of being the first person adam ever smiled at. carla has a blog called carlaloveswarren and she has a couple of pics of yours truly. i am honoured and humbled that i was the inspiration for her blog - (i think i was). so 2 more days until first@night! i'm probably going to go into the office tomorrow as i didn't get as much work done today as i wanted. "Sometimes I feel so low-down and disgusted Can't help but wonder wh

So today is my day off and man did i need it. Today is also family day! We started off by seeing our pediatrician to see why Adam is not putting on weight - he ordered some blood work and other tests to see wha tis going on. Then some thai food for lunch. Then shopping! I got a sweater and Adam got a monkey costume for halloween. It looks awesome. then return the movie crash and pick up my new book "planting churches in a postmodern age" lokks very good. then coffee and cinammon buns. then a nap. right now i'm listening to a cd from this year's regent pastor's conference. its very good. then we're going swimming then i meet mark for a late dinner at the quay - gotta straighten that boy out! "The Christian journey is a pilgrimage toward home. The promised land is before us." - Hestenes.

this is one great guy. the colonel knows the secret. i dined on his fine delicacy yesterday at the infamous toonie tuesday special. i have to confess it is the tastiest food in the world. i have been working steady since last friday and about to collapse so i am taking tomorrow off because the weekend is going to be one hard stretch - lots of meetings and prep before the launch of first@night. i'm glad i got so many responses to my picture of carla - i posted that pic due to overwhelming requests to do so. will probably see war of the worlds tomorrow - a summer blockbuster which i am seeing in the fall. "The hillsides ring with free the people Or can I hear the echo from the days of ’39? With trenches full of poets The ragged army, fixin’ bayonets to fight the other line Spanish bombs rock the province"

This is a photo of Carla. "I was a sailor. I was lost at sea. I was under the waves before LOVE RESCUEd me."

so i'm in line at nestor's market buying some dinner rolls. there's a long line-up. the lady in front of me LEAVES the line - she goes to another counter but it closes as soon as she gets there so what does she do? she gets back in line IN FRONT OF ME!!! i'm too much of a chicken to say or do anything so i stand there fuming. and as i wait i notice the counter that she went to now has a checkout girl - i look at her and she looks at me - i ask her are you open? she smiles yes. so i move over and buy my buns and leave BEFORE the lady who budded back in line. that my friends is supermarket justice.

friday night - meet w. some emergent type folk at the irish heather pub and discuss church planting efforts in vancouver - meet up w. some good out of town friends and some locals (warren, carla, amy et al) first at cactus club and then earls which look exactly the same - actually i think that earls, milestones and cactus club are all the same thing saturday morning - prayer and planning brunch ofr first@night - FANTASTIC FANTASTIC meeting - i was so pumped afterward noon - pick up flea go to babies r us to buy the boy a car seat and a stroller afternoon - beer w. warren evening - small group leaders meeting at church sunday morning - speak in both services at first right now (sunday afternoon) trying to keep my eyes open i have the boy tonight - going to rent a good movie and just chill crazy week coming up - it could all fall apart if i'm not careful. well i have been quite encouraged with this blog writing - seems quite a few people read this thing daily and i

can't sleep. These are the infomercials that are on at 2:30 AM on Friday morning: -chirchat telephone chat service - "Wow, carol is such a breath of fresh air. I'm so glad I took a chance and called chitchat. Thanks to chitchat the future looks good." -a 900 phone # with a girl in lingere wearing a cowboy hat - "these girls are waiting for a man like you. discover your deepest and wildest fantasies." - a man like me - a 30something evangelical who can't sleep -teeter hang ups - this is a contraption that hangs you upside down and fixes your back - "I am 69 yrs. of age but feel 30 because of the new flexibility I feel!" -time life country music cd collection featuring willie nelson, waylon jennings, kenny rogers, dolly parton and conway twitty -"I want to call my daughter." (lyric from some song) -investools - how to make money selling stuff on ebay -free and clear real estate system - "This is absolutely amazing! someo