Dreams Unlocked

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...

so i heard a few of you have missed these regular posts. all apologies things have been quite hectic. the weekend looks like its going to be just as busy - i have 5 meetings and i speak at 2 of them including both morning services at first baptist. i'm taking tomorrow off to ready myself for the storm. i'll also lay low on sunday night as it will be my last free sunday for the next 4 months. i have feelings of both excitement and fear as we start this new venture. i went to regent today - it was kinda wierd seeing all those students milling around and i'm not a part of it. i went in to see darrel johnson. darrel is a mentor to me - he is the best preacher i have ever heard and i consider him a close friend. i asked him for his blessing. in the old testament there are a lot of recorded instances of younger men seeking the blessing of older men. so as i start this new venture in ministry i felt that i needed the blessing of an older man that i greatly respect. it felt really ...

today was supossed to be family day - started off well - went for a walk in a park by the water. then went hunting for cinnamon buns - as we are driving adam starts crying - like screaming crying. as he cries i get more and more tense until i am just a bundle of nerves. so we just went home to take care of him. i needed some alone time so i went to see the movie red-eye. its like a thriller suspense movie which is a total renter - wasted 12 bucks. oh well - end of the long weekend. feel like i'm coming down with a cold - will get to bed early as preventitive medicine. "I could be just like you and pretend that we never have met."

weather was crappy all day - grey and rainy like freaking winter. summer is gone out the window and with it all my dreams. no videos i want to see - might go see war of the worlds on monday. big football game tomorrow - labour day classic - sk vs. winnipeg. - starts at 4. me and the boy again tonight - he had the giggles tongiht and couldn't stop laughing. it was hilarious. i think i need a hobby - all i do with my time off is read and watch tv. what do other people do to occupy their spare time? i looked up hobbies on the internet and went to a site about model airplanes. somehow i don't see myself building a model airplane and then joining some club of other guus that build model airplanes - meeting in come community center or school basement talking about - how the heck should i know what? hmmmm - hobby - maybe photography - i like taking photos. maybe i'll take a class on digital photography and learn some stuff. oh - a lot of blogs ago i talked about how i was going to...

its's 7:40 pm i just put adam to bed. felicia is at work. i'm going to watch the movie keeping the faith. so today i felt like a real pastor. in the morning a young woman whose wallet was stolen came in because she wanted to talk to a pastor. she told me her story. we made some arrangements for her for meals until she could access her bank account on tuesday. i read a psalm with her and then prayed with her. then after lunch i went to a visit one of our key lay leaders who suffered a cerebral hemmoraghe (sp?) and was in the neuro-intensive care unit at vgh - strangely enough this is felicia's floor and felicia had taken care of him yesterday and i imagine is taking care of him right now. this is the first time our professional lives have crossed - pretty cool. after that visit i came back and started doing some preliminary exegesis on the sermon series that i start in a couple of weeks. as i was leaving another leader in the church was dropping something off at the office. ...

i can not believe how new orleans has degenerated into such a state of chaotic anarchy. people are stealing, shooting, killing and raping other people. its messed up. me and the boy today - morning was pretty routine. had lunch w. flea and then went to drop off my last 2 papers at regent! man that felt good. then i picked up the new bob dylan cd which is pretty good. came back gave the boy some food and then we went for a run - it was pretty cold today. then bathe the boy, feed the boy and pick up felicia. its a long weekend this weekend - watch football and drink beer. everything i do dies in battle or in vain. will you come see me?