Dreams Unlocked

Year of the Borat. I had submitted this list to Relevant, because I write movie reviews for them. They decided to use their movie editor's list instead of mine. I notice he ripped off one of my lines. When I submitted my list, I wrote: "Here is my completely subjective list." He used the exact same line. Well, here's my list. I welcome your thoughts on where you agree and disagree with me. 10. Tsotsi – This film won best foreign language Oscar in 2005, but was released in 2006 in North America. I’m guessing most readers have not seen it, as it only grossed 2.8 million at the box office. The story centers on a young thug in South Africa. He carjacks a rich white couple’s Mercedes. Later he discovers their infant child in the back. The child changes his life. This is a beautiful and brutal film. 9. An Inconvenient Truth – It’s amazing that this film succeeded in the way that it has. It is based on a lecture Al Gore has given hundreds of times around the world on the

The funniest picture of Adam ever taken. I went to see The Last King of Scotland yesterday afternoon. Amazing film. Forest Whitaker is riveting in the role of Idi Amin. The theater was packed - I took one of the seats that are supossed to be for wheelchairs. the movie had already started - I figured if someone in a wheelchair came, I would leave. In fact there was someone in a wheelchair next to me - the mayor of Vancouver, Sam Sullivan ! Sullivan is the first quadreplegic ever elected mayor of a large city in the world. Sullivan is more conservative then the other guy who ran against him - Jim Green. Green had more policies that would have helped the homeless and addicted. After the movie I ended up in the elevator with Sullivan and his partner who does just about everything for him. 2 other guys were in the elevator with me - one guy was a real piece of work. Some quotes: "So this is what the mayor does all day - goes to movies! HA HA HA" (He was the only one laughing) &qu

Adam contemplates snow in Regina. Wasted precious moments of my life in stupid Pacific Center yesterday and today. Why do I even bother? I roam around thinking I'm going to get a good deal on ..... what? I really have no need for anything. I have more clothes then I can wear at one time. I probably have several dozen books I have not read yet. I can buy music cheaper and faster on-line. I live my life combatting various spirits - the dominant one in our culture is the spirit of consumerism, and it exerts its influence on me from time to time. Like yesterday, I bought a sweater that had been marked down. Today, I looked at it and decided I didn't NEED it, so I'm going to return it tomorrow. Money saved, not spent. I started reading a new book by Vincent Lam . Lam is a doctor in Toronto. This is his first book and it went ahead and won the Giller Prize! Nice going Vinnie! (you can read more about it if you follow the link on his name, above.) I'm not a huge fiction fan,

MERRY CHRISTMAS FROM SANTOSH, FELICIA AND ADAM! ! !

Had a nice morning and afternoon, just reading the Peterson book. This evening Felicia and I drove to Moose Jaw and went to the Temple Gardens Mineral Spa . It's a fairly well known mineral pool and spa. We were booked for massages. The mineral pool was nice. My massage therapist was named Karma Klassen - I am not making this up. We had a fairly lengthy chat as she worked on my muscles. Her parents just decided on the name - she was karma. The Klassen came when she married a mennonite from Moose Jaw. Turns out Karma attends a small baptist church. Her husband also works with severaly handicapped adults in a care home. I recommended Nouwen to them to read. After our massages we had dinner at the hotel - it was good too. There is a casino attached to the spa. We walked around in it - I don't think I've ever been in a place so bereft of joy. It was the saddest thing I have seen in a long time. Sad people sitting zombie-like in front of these obnoxiously loud colourful machine

The guy from the fireplace came today and they have agreed to pay for all the cleaning and are not charging us for the initial cleaning, so that's good. Took Adam swimming - He loved it. Saw Blood Diamond tonight. It made me wonder if the diamond ring I bought Felicia had innocent blood on it. Also - where did we get this idea that an engagement ring should cost 2 months salary? I chose 2 weeks salary as the figure for the rock I bought Felicia. It just seems so odd to me that you would price anything out according to 2 months salary. When you buy a car, you don't calculate how much you're going to buy according to 10 , 12 or 14 months salary. 2 months salary - sheesh. This new book by Eugene Peterson is fantastic. This is some of the best he has ever written. I see Peterson as a guy who crosses a lot of borders - he is well respected by both emergents and more mainstream evangelical pastors. I had a class with him at Regent on "Soul-Craft". I was always amazed

Today my Mom got someone in to clean out their fireplaces, which is I guess something you are supossed to do every now and then. The guy fnished the job and left. We were sitting in the family room where one of the fireplaces is located. As we're sitting there 2 things happen: 1. I notice that my nephew Jacob has black stuff on my face. 2. Felicia notices that her fingers are getting blacker and blacker. We start to look around and run our fingers over various things in the room. Everything - EVERYTHING is covered in a fine black dust - soot? The walls, the furniture, the Christmas presents under the tree. On close inspection it looks like a room after a fire has taken place - smoke damage everywhere. So we call the furnace company - the guy doing the cleaning had a hole in the bag of his vacumm cleaner!!! After several phonecalls with the company they agreed to pay all the cleaning costs, which will certainly be way more then the bill that was paid to get the fireplaces cleaned. T

As you fly over Saskatchewan and look down it loooks like you are over the Northern Tundra. Everything is covered in white. Also, the streets and roads are all completely straight - perpendicular to one another. In the summer Saskatchewan looks like a quilt of perfectly shaped cubes. The weather is quite mild actually - a big diffeence from 2 years ago when we spent 4 days holed up at home while a blizzard raged outside. Another thing - Saskatchewan is white in another way - demographics. It's actually quite stunning, coming from Vancouver which has so many Asians. Good to be home - Was greeted at the airport by the parents, Asha, Mira and Jacob. Mira and Jacob hovered around Adam like he was the next big thing. They were quite impressed that the little fella could walk and talk. Adam was bemused by all the new attention. Hope to have a nice relaxing time, reading, movies, etc. Finished Grief Observed and am now onto Eugene Peterson's "Christ Plays in 1000 Places." Th

I have been turned on to concepts of the Kingdom and Kingdom language recently. I think it all started with a seminal book I read about 3 years ago for a class at Regent. I'm betting most of oyu have never heard of it - your loss. Mortimer Arias' book " Announcing the Reign of God " was a pivotal book in my journey. Arias spells out how we should be viewing the kingdom. The Kingdom is the good news of Jesus. Somehow we have reduced the gospel to individual redemption. The gospel includes individual redemption but is far greater then that. Having a kingdom mind-set means looking at the current social systems, and saying there is another way to live. Mercy trumps justice. I am saying this stuff because tonight 4 churches: the Pentecostals, Christian Reformed, Mennonites and Baptists came together for a special service to celebrate Christmas. The offering collected went to support Covenant House . It was an excellent time. Special thanks to Adam Wiggins of Pacific Chur

Last night we hosted a wine and cheese party for our floor. Out of the 11 other people that live on our floor, 5 came over. It was really fun. We had 3 kinds of cheese, crackers, red wnd white wine, baklava, fruit and other goodies. It was really great getting to know some of the folks on our floor. We have always talked about doing it so it was nice to finally pull it off. One of our neigbours is a concierge at the 4 seasons. She said one of the oddest guest requests was a guest from Texas who wanted 100 A&W ketchup packets. He said he really liked their ketchup - I guess. Finished " Joyful Exiles " so unfortunately no more excerts for you - buy the book. Have moved on to " A Grief Observed " by C.S. Lewis . This might seem like an odd choice - I'm not really grieving the death of anyone or anything like that. I just have a personal goal of reading everything Lewis wrote. In the past few weeks I've finished Miracles and Mere Christianity (sorry - I got

I forgot to put some James Houston in the last post, so here it is: "Our inner and outer selves become distended, leading to fragmentation, alienation, nonrecognition, inattention and loneliness. Loneliness is the result of ambiguous relationships, which in a technological society are bred by the double threat of meaninglesness and powerlesness. For the pursuit of power, which is the goal of technology, cannot provide meaningful relationships, but the omnipresence of technology produces only an illusion of power. As this illusion of power grows, legitimacy and shared meaning degenerate into superficiality. The conflict between power and meaning, along with the resulting loneliness and alienation, leads to other cultural disorders as well: fear, violence and the loss of selfhood. The disease of sociosis breeds neurosis - that is, social ills become individual ills. So we are all part of "the lonely crowd" as David Riesman desscribed our technological society. The blurring

Another storm is headed towards Vancouver. We ran some errands this afternoon. The rain actually looked fake - like in a movie - it was just coming down so hard and with the wind blowing it, it was bouncing off of the ground. We're getting ready for a wine and cheese party for our neigbours tomorrow night. We've wanted to host a party for our floor for a long time. So how do you choose wine and cheese for a wine and cheese party? Consult the internet of course, where every answer to every question can be answered. I got 3 wines: a beujolais, a savignon blanc and a yellow tail shiraz - this last one is probably my favourite wine - it is also the best selling wine in B.C. I bought another bottle to make mulled wine with, if folks want it later on. For cheese I picked a soft, a hard, a semi-soft and a semi-hard. I have no idea what kinds they are, the spunky gal at Urban Fare helped me pick them out. Spent most of the day thinking and praying about the changes waiting first@night

Today was one of those days when it was good to be a Dad. We took Adam to the top of Grouse Mountain It's like a Christmas wonderland up there - lots of snow, Santa's workshop (Santa was reading the Sun), a sleigh ride and a frozen pond that you can skate on. So we indulged in all the activities. The skating was the most fun as Felicia and I looked quite rusty out there. There are these things that look like walkers that new skaters use to help them - Adam was content just pushing those around on the ice. Went straight to a couple of meetings at the church after. There was a business meeting which was pretty much you would expect a church business meeting would be like. Anyways I'm pretty baked. More Houston: "Christianity has succumbed to the technologically surreal. Take for example, the recent film The Passion of the Christ. People wept over its celluloid presentation as they never would have reading the Gospel narrative because it was so much more vivid to the sen

So Julianne turned me on to this site called sitemeter , which acts as a counter for how many visitors this blog gets. But here's the scary part - It also tracks where people are accessing this blog, what time you access it, how much time you spend - and even what site you looked at BEFORE reading my blog. For example - earlier today - sometime this afternoon my time, someone in Quebec looked at my blog - but I also know that this particular person also did a google search for "santosh ninan yaletown christian" which led them here. Someone else in Vancouver also did a search for "santosh ninan blog" which led them here. (Is this freaking you out yet? - short brown brother is watching you) What has been really interesting is to see where in the world people are reading this thing. There are the obvious suspects: Vancouver, Saskatoon and Calgary, where I have communtites of friends. But what is interesting is that in the past 24 hours there have been readers in T

Well - Got a peek at my second child on the Ultrasound this morning. It was quite exciting. You could see the head, the mouth, the spine, arms and legs. How amazing that that child is so small but already has so many recongnizable features! We even saw the baby open its mouth and gulp something down. Adam was getting quite impatient while looking at the fuzzy images. I am really enjoying James Houston's book " Joyful Exiles ". Dr. Houston can be a bit esoteric when he speaks sometimes, but this book is not like that at all. This book is a sort of a summary of some of the important lessons he has learned in his rich life. I have met with Dr. Houston once in his home. We had tea and biscuits and I gleaned some wisdom from this amazing man. Worked out tonight - FINALLY!!!! Here's some Dr. Houston: "Hell is a journey into the loss of the self through contempt for others, a refusal to face the truth of oneself and a misunderstanding of freedom that leads to enslavemen

Adam assumes the holiday position - sacked out on the couch watching Little Bear . More tampering with fonts, colourrs and templates on my quest to the most beautiful blog EVER. Spoke at First Baptist Church's Community Christmas Carol Sing. This is basically THE religious thing that downtown Vancouver comes to during the Christmas season. It was a packed house - 600+. There was lots of singing, stuff for the kids and treats afterwards. I was the closing act. I spoke on homelesness, but with a twist - I spoke about how you can live IN a home but not feel AT home. Many people do not feel "at home" in their lives. But the good news of Christmas is that Jesus says that he will come into our lives and make a home there with us. I had a couple of good jokes in there and it was all over in a matter of 5-10 minutes. I'm going to repeat the whole thing again next Sunday at another service. I read the comments yesterday with interest. It's been fun to read Julie's&

As you can see I've been fooling around with different templates, fonts, colours, etc. I like this one - Carla was using it, so I've followed her lead. The font appears small - I've enlarged it on this post. By the way - I've lost my site counter!!! When I made the template shift, it disappeared. I have had a difficult time adding a new one. this is a bit frustrating as I like to see how many people are reading this thing. Any techies out there able to help me out? Anyways - had another does of Christmas in Vancouver. Went on the bright lights train in Stanley Park. This was actually pretty good. The train goes for about 15 minutes through a well decorated part of the Park. There were a few odd images - along with Santa, snowmen and a nativity scene, there were also native americans and a leprechaun. The train took a turn into Bizarro world, when a dancing cowgirl on stilts came out and did a little jig. This was a real live person on stilts dancing around. I was wonde

"Country Lane with Two Figures" Vincent Van Gogh We all have wounds. We all live in pain and disappointment. We all have feelings of loneliness that lurk beneath all our successes, feelings of uselessness that hide under all the praise, feelings of meaninglesness even when people say we are fantastic - and that is what sometimes makes us grab onto people and expect from them affection, affirmation and love that they cannot give. If we want other people to give us something that only God can give, we are guilty of idolatry. We say, "Love me!" and before long we become demanding and manipulative. Its so important that we forgive one another - not once in awhile but every moment of life. This is what makes community possible, when we can come together in a forgiving and undemanding way. -119 - "Spiritual Direction"

Here's the scenario: An Englishman marries a South Asian English Woman in London. They move to Sri Lanka - he to teach, she to work with an NGO. Said Englishman finds himself eating Nigiri Sushi and drinking Sake in a Sushi Restaurant in Colombo. Strikes up a conversation with a Canadian woman married to a Sri Lankan national. Conversation turns to Canada and Canadians. Both the Englishman and Canadian woman know of a Indian born man who grew up in Saskatchewan and now lives in Vancouver Canada. His name is Santosh Ninan. Friends, we no longer live in a global village - it is a global cul de sac. These kinds of things would not have happened 50 years ago, maybe not even 30 years ago. The world is small enough to fit into a Sushi resturant in Sri Lanka. This is stupid: Duct tape Bible. Just take your own Bible, wrap it in duct tape and you can save some $$$.

In response to the 2 posts from yesterday - yes Adam looks quite cute. Although when he is in his "grown up" clothes he does tend to push his weight around and give us condescending looks. Often he is better dressed then the rest of us. One time in Holt Renfrew I put this $300 Ralph Lauren blazer on him and let him run free. This blazer was pink/pastel plaid and looked more like what an elderly Miami retiree should be wearing while lawn bowling over Mojito's. Adam ran around Holt Renfrew much to the delight of the upper crust people shopping and working there. I hope it injected a little joy into their otherwise sterile lives. Had lunch with a new guy from first@night. I wanted to take him to this El Salvadorian restaurant on Commercial, but it was closed - so we went to a Caribbean place. I had the jerk chicken which was downright tasty. The owner sort of roamed around and made little snide comments at us - like "coke - we don't have coke!" They are shootin

Had our staff Christmas perty tonight. It was pretty good until part of the table where the food wa being served caught on fire! One of the flames that was keeping part of the food warm fell and burned up the paper tablecloth!!! It was fun to chat with the different folks. I got to know our sound technician: George Lowen, who turns out to be quite a witty chap. We were discussing what I had posted a couple days ago - about movies that are being used as evangelistic tools (Passion, Nativity, etc.). George came up with this word that is soooo good: REPENTERTAINMENT. How cool is that word!!!! I love that - repentertainment. Kudo's to George for that one. Finished Nowen's Spiritual Direction today. Highly recommend this book - especially if you are exploring getting a spiritual director. I have recently gotten a spiritual director and I highly recommend that you start to pray if this is what God may want you to do.

Adam holds court at 950 Cambie with Lammy and the christmas tree. CHRISTMAS IN THE CITY!!!! First Baptist Church broke through the church walls and spilled out into the streets of downtown Vancouver - actually under the streets. We had a Christmas party at Robson Square - an underground open area under Vancouver's famous Robson street - between Hornby and Howe. There was music, activities for the kids, free hot chocoalte and popcorn. I was surprised at how much fun it was. Spencer did a set - reworked some old Christmas classics - did an amazing job. I was also pleased at another level - we took over a piece of the public square and proclaimed the Kingdom - and not in some crass offensive way. We did it by offering hot chocolate and good music. We blessed the community. Change is afoot. I also got to connect with an awesome new family that are a part of first@night - the Delgado's from Portland Oregan. Juan is from Chile and Katie from Portland. They have a cute daughter name

I got an e-mail today inviting me to a special screening of the new Rocky film: Rocky Balboa . It has been sent out to pastors and other Christian leaders. Unfortunately, none of the cities that it is being screened at are remotely close to Vancouver. Apparently Sylvester Stallone has converted to Christianity and wants Christians to use this film to do Bible studies and sermons. there is a whole bunch of resources, similar to past campaigns with The Passion, Narnia, Da Vinci and The Nativity Story. There are Bible studies, sermon outlines and even a tract. There is a big box of stuff available for free to promote the film. Stallone's conversion has influenced the next Rambo film - Rambo rescues a bunch of Christian relief workers held hostage in Burma!!! I am not making this stuff up. If Stallone's conversion is genuine and real, that is pretty cool. I remember years ago seeing an interview with him, where he talked about how he could not believe in God because one of his son

Entered into the Christmas madness with some shopping in the mall. I bought Felicia a pair of Pumas for her b-day (Nov. 15). Better late then never. I also got 3 Christmas movies: Charlie Brown Christmas Christmas Vacation and my all time favourite Christmas movie " It's a Wonderful Life" I try to watch it every year. I also like the very first Christmas Carol with Alistair Sims. I also have a soft spot for Christmas Vacation, back when Chevy Chase still had a career. Had an excellent meeting with some fellow church planters. Very encouraging.Had lunch with Spencer. Cyril came over. We ordered pizza and watched "Crimes and Misdemeanors." I've probably seen it at least a dozen times. Still a good flick. It's interesting - Christmas is supossed to be the busiest time of the year for pastors. But I find my calender actually slows down. This is because a lot of first@night's services get sucked into FBC's.

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Check out Brian Collins. Brian is a freshman at Ball State, who got pulled in at the last minute to give sports high-lights on Ball State's local tv station. This is the worst sports commentary in all of history. He stumbles, mumbles, sighs loudly and at one point says "I'm so sorry" to someone off camera. I can not stop watching it - its like watching a car wreck. Props to Dilip for e-mailing it to me.

The water advisory was lifted. I celebrated by drinking a glass of tap water. Had all the pastors from FBC over for our monthly extended pastoral meeting. It was fun. I have been reading big chunks of the gospel of Luke. If you have never read large portions of the gospels in one sitting, I highly recommend it. Read it and see if you are not struck by the striking personality of Jesus - it is hard to say neutral about someone who causes such a reaction wherever he went. Was a little out of it this afternoon - don't know why. Spent most of the aft. doing some reading for various commitments I have coming up.

I have never seen weather like this in Vancouver before. It has been snowing like crazy and it is actually staying on the ground, instead of melting away. With the wind-chill we are seriously approaching Saskatchewan temps. We took Adam out to see snow for the first time. He walked around a bit and threw some snow in the air. But didn't seem too impressed. Saw Casino Royale tonight. It was the best Bond movie I have ever seen - but suffered by being too long - about 2 and a half hours. Some better editing is needed. Crank up your prayers for me again - I seem to be asking for it a lot lately. I guess that's ok, we all need prayer.

Through the generosity of a good friend I was given a free ticket to the Rolling Stones concert last night. I guess I could be considered a fan. I own the following Stones CD's: Let it Bleed Exile on Main Street 40 Licks (2 cd best of) Flashpoint - live CD from Japan Sticky Fingers I think Exile is the best Stones album and one of the greatest rock and blues album of all time. I am a fan of the 70's Stones. The albums in the 90's and 00's have been mainly disappointing. I've been to a few really big rock shows, but I have to say the sheer spectacle of this show was pretty staggering. The show opened with an animated video of a big screen of a plane going around the 7 wonders off the world, the faces of the 4 Stones morphed on to the screen in various places. The video ended with a huge explosion and a single spot-light shone down on Keith Richards at the front center of the massive stage as he tore into the opening riff of Jumping Jack Flash. BC Place exploded after

I'm listening to a terrible song by Dylan and The Band called "Long Distance Operator" off The Basement Tapes . Good - its over. I usually listen to a random mix of music off of itunes. Since I've sat down at the computer tonight, I've heard Dido, Dylan, Massive Attack, Radiohead and U2. Went to Regent this morning for a chat with Jeremy Bell - the executive director of our denomination. He wanted to know how I was doing and what the denomination could do to help. He made a fw suggestions and said he could resource us by sending me and a few key leaders to some other places in western canada to see what's happening among missional churches. Then tonight I was somewhere near SFU for my Missional Traning Center meetings. I can not tell you how valuable these sessions have been - Cam Roxborough is a gift to the Canadian church - I wish I had done this before going on this church planting journey. Oh well - I'm just over a year into it, so I am still near the

I downloaded Thom Yorke doing a version of the Neil Young classic "AFter the Gold Rush" - it is sweet. Rolled out of bed. Went to staff prayer. Lots of people have cancer in the church community. I hate cancer. Had our lengthier pastor's meeting where we shared what was going on and did some planning. Had lunch with Josh the youth pastor - discussed our plan to conquer the world - things seem to be on schedule. Headed out to Kits to meet with Greg Laing of Point Grey Community Church . Greg is a fine fellow and good encourager in these tough times - the bottom line is that church planting and ministry in Vancouver is tough!!! As we talked I made the point that most traditional church plants are a 3 yr. process which includes a large # of people from a mother church to form the core of the new church. I think this model has to be seriously re-thought when we tackle church planting in secular urban settings like Vancouver, Toronto and Montreal. In these urban centers you a

Last night I did my first ever baby dedication of Olivia Marie Welch. It was really nice with lots of the Welch's family and freinds present. I also preached on the importance of family, using the reconciliation of Joseph and his brothers as the biblical example. A nice surprise was 5 people from Saskatchewan who all now live in downtown Vancouver. They were all connected with the Connection . The connection is a church that Felicia and I were both attending when we lived in Saskatoon. It was started by my friend Sam Chaise. It was started 10 years ago, and has recently exploded in size and ministry. first@night is in a lot of ways in the same position that the connection was 10 years ago - small, finding its way. I am currently reading the biography of johnny Cash, written by Steve Turner. It's really good. It's interesting - there's a story of Cash meeting Don Freed - a singer/songwriter from Saskatoon. He was a long time boyfriend of Joni Mitchells. Freed played a so

First off - apologies to Asha for the pic. i thought it was quite a nice pic, with the sweep of the beach extending behind her. She thought it was awful, but everyone here thinks its nice. Today we had Norm and Jeanette over. They are dear friends. I got to know them through their daughter Erin who was in InterVarsity when I worked at the UBC campus back in 96. Wow - 10 years ago!!!! Sheesh, time flies when you're living. Norm is on the psychology faculty at UBC. He is sort of an expert in career counselling and is now a global consultant for governments, companies and universities. He still carries with him a lot of humility and humour, despite the impressive accomplishments. Jeanette has been a mentor to me in many ways. She is a very kind, wise woman who I have felt has been a big support to me - kind of a second mom in many ways. Jeanette read scripture at our wedding. She is the pastor of a cool church in Richmond. Had a nice brunch with them and got caught up in our respectiv

Due to the recent storm, a bunch of our water reservoirs got dirty. Now, we have brown water and are under a boiled water advisory. We are supossed to bring our water to a boil for a minute and then we can drink it. Or, buy bottled water. We have chosen the latter route as Felicia is pregnant, Adam is small and I thought I was getting sick. We bought some bottled water last night. This morning bottled water was sold out throughout most of Vancouver. There were fights at Costco over water. This afternoon our local yuppie retailer Urban Fare was selling 24 bottles for $50!!!! Talk about extorting the masses!!! Since this was the closest place for us and we don't have a car, we had to buy some there. At first I was going to buy 4 cases of 24 and then I saw the outrageous price and just bought one. When you shower, the water just stinks of dirt. On another note, I am not a gamer so I cannot understand the frenzy surrounding Playstation 3. I saw some clips on the net of people getting

My review can be found on Relevant magazine. Use the link on the left. feels good to get something published by them again. I was writing quite regularly for Relevant - about once every couple of months. But since Adam was born and I have started working at first@night, I just haven't had the time to pop out some good srticles. Now, it's just the rare film review. I am trying to read through 8 C.S. Lewis books. I finished Mere Christianity - which I think is the 5th time I have read it. Now I am reading Miracles , which I have never read before. Man, this guy's reasoning is so tight. No wonder his books keep being rediscovered by new generations. The first chapter differentiates between 2 types of people: Naturalists and Super-naturalists. The first group believe that matter is all there is. The second group believe that there is more then just matter - there is another world - a spiritual world. A Miracle thus occurs when the supernatural world intersects with the natural

Asha at Lake Napashee (or something like that) in Saskatchewan - August 2006. Check out Andy Lambkin. Andy is one cool cat. We have known of each other for years and met a couple of times. Today we finally had a sit-down at the Starbucks at the Lonsdale Quay in North Van. Andy was the young adults pastor and had a ministry that most young pastors would kill for. He had several hundred young adults coming out every week for a worship and teaching time. This past year they have transitioned to something called " SImple Church ." This is a concept that seems to be catching on across North America. Sick of consumer driven church services, simple churches seek to simplify into home groups which have all the elements of church but on a smaller scale. This is an idea we have toyed with at first@night for some time. But meeting Andy today may have re-booted the whole idea for us (well, for me anyway). We'll see how the leadership team reacts. Maybe being in a setting like Bar Non

Adam saw his first movie today - Deep Sea 3D. It's an Imax film with stunning cinematography of life at the bottom of the ocean. Adam was a bit scared when all the lights went off and didn't put his 3D glasses until the end. The movie was only an hour long, so he managed to sit through the whole thing without flipping out. The movie was really cool. After, I headed to another theatre to see Stranger Then Fiction , starring Will Ferrell. I highly recommend it. Ferrell leaves behind his frat boy antics from previous roles for a subdued everyman whose life is actually the creation of an author. If I have time this week I might try pounding out a review for Relevant Magazine (see links at side). Read the comment on yesterday's post by Joel. "There's always next year" , is sort of a mantra for Rider fans. As we walked out of the stadium we heard it half a dozen fans from other beleagured fans. I think this puts the nail in Danny Barret's coffin as coach of the

Losers - The Riders got kicked bad bad bad. I went to the game with Courtney who had his face painted green. It was brutal - the Riders never really had it together - The Lion's QB was hot - great arm and some decent runs himself as well. So anyways, I am still smarting from this humiliation. A few "lurkers" have left comments or have e-mailed me - so hiya lurkers - nice to hear from ya. Especially from Julianne - although my sources tell me that mama Broten and Nancy are also faitful readers - so hiya Brotens, haven't seen you in awhile. Also - Warren reminded me that you need a membership to enter costco, so that solves the homeless coming in for freebies.

A Costco opened up 2 blocks from our apt. It is the first Costco to open up in a downtown core in Vancouver. This no doubt helps us to hold on to the image of having a livable downtown. I wonder if this costco will have to deal with all the poor and homeless who will drift in for the free samples. I mean if the middle class will stand in line for a meatball on a toothpick - don't you think the poor will to? Costco is always such a wierd experience. After lving in India I occaisonaly get shocked by the choice and abundance of products we have here. Places like Costco or Walmart magnify it. Just rows and rows of every imaginable consumer products. They have a 72" tv in there - that is the biggest tv I have ever seen. Been reading the E-Myth by Michael Gerber. This is quite a helpful book for anyone starting a small business or planting a church. Gerber puts forward the franchise model as the ideal model for small business. Everything you do should be easily transferable in orde

We were at the Banff Pastors Conference at the incredible Banff Springs Hotel. This is whithout a doubt the nicest hotel I have ever stayed in in the world. The conference was good. Rod Wilson and Reg Bibby were featured speakers. This is the best I have ever heard Rod speak. Rod is the president of Regent College and a truly fantastic guy. He opened up about the heartbreak in raising his adopted problem who has been difficult to raise. Bibby said that the tide was changing - Canadians are now more open then ever to good ministry. This does not seem to ring true in secular Yaletown. This Ted haggard thing still boggles my mind. But I guess it is a good warning to all of us. We all have the capability to fall. I may not be tempted by male escorts, but there is enough temptation all around me, that I could fall in a million different ways everyday. Along with Ted Haggard, there has been a lot of talk about a Seattle pastor's comments on the Haggard scandal. Mark Driscoll is the pasto

Ted haggard was the pastor of a 14 000 member church. He was the president of the National association of Evangelicals - representing 50 000 churches and 30 million Americans. He chatted with George Bush once a week. I am using the past tense, because Haggard has admitted to buying meth-amphetmaine from a male prostitute who gave him a massage. As a result, Haggard has been let go from his church and has stepped down from all other of his public duties. I felt sick to my stomach as the sordid tale unfolded in the media. I felt so bad for Haggard and his family and his church. For some reason, Haggard sought out solace from the most unlikely places. I hope and pray for the next days and weeks for Haggard - I am sure they are going to be tough as he begins to unravel the factors that led to such risky behaviour. I suspect it will be a long long time before Haggard ever assumes a public role again, and when he does it will be in a much more diminshed role then what he had before. And I th

That is one busy frog. the article in the Globe and Mail got into Workopolis : I am under the marketting section. Yep - that's me pedaling the gospel to the marketplace! so here are the much awaited pictures of adam in his haloween costume. He was pretty much miserable the whole time he was wearing it.

The song "Gimme Shelter" has been used by Martin Scorsese in all 3 of his "gangster" films: Goodfellas, Casino and the most recent, The Departed. In anticipation for the Stones concert this Friday (which has now been postponed until the 25th because Mick's doctor told him to rest his throat) I have been listening to a lot of Stones. As I was walking down Nelson this afternoon, the familiar Gimme Shelter was in my ears. There was some construction ahead of me, with smoke pouring out of a machine - it seemed to fit the ominious tones of this song. This was one of those days where I packed a lot in and came home fairly wasted. Still found the energy to take Adam trick or treating in his Frog outfit (which he hates). IN Yaletown, since there are no real houses you can trick or treat at - just apts., all the local businesses give out candy - it was so cool to see all these kids trick or treating in all the stores which were all decorated up. Adam was cold, and might

GO RIDERS. Went for lunch with Felicia and Adam at the Salty Tongue Deli in Gastown. Pretty decent grub, plus they have my favourite tea of all time - Bewley's Irish Breakfast tea. I got turned on to it in Dublin, and now I have a local supplier. The lady, Erin who owns the place is super nice. We got into a long chat about Ireland. She has a 9 mth. old and a 3 yr. old - I said that's where we're going to be in a year! After that, I had a Black Velvet at the Irish Heather next door. It was nice. Then caught an afternoon showing of The Queen with Helen Mirren. She should definitely get a best actress nomination for this role. It was a pretty amazing film. You all have plenty of links to keep you happy for awhile.

Unused photo from the Globe and Mail shoot. So, last night and all day today I was on the top floor of the Hyatt Regency Hotel in downtown Vancouver. Quite auspicious surroundings for church council/pastors meetings! there were stunning views of the North Shore mountains, Stanley Park and the downtown buildings. The meetings were lengthy, exhausting and a lot of work. Basically, FBC has been on a year long journey of crafting its vision statement and core values - we did it with the assistance of a coach from Outreach Canada. We are coming down the home stretch and needed to hammer out everything for presentation to the congregation. Today was the first day that I have begun to feel lighter and ready to resume the work. Although still feeling wounded from this whole mess, I'm ready to limp on. It's true: Sunday,Monday - elation at finally reaching a goal of holding a first@night service in a trendy nightclub - excitement at getting press coverage - even thoug