Dreams Unlocked

Sophia - mad, Adam - glad, Dad - also glad After class, we loaded up the kids and hit the beach. Adam collected his shells. There was a nice playground where Adam could go down the slide and occasionally ask me if I'm ok. At noon today I was on the roof of my building! A friend from church is a window washer, and he happened to be working today and let me up there - it was pretty crazy. My brain is pretty fried from school. The dilemma - Our apt. faces South West - so we get tons of sun every night because our walls are floor to ceiling windows. So it gets really hot in the summer, consequently we often keep our windows wide open. The people living in the apt. below us smoke and burn incense - and the smoke comes into our apt. - and it stinks. So, do I wheeze my way through life, or sweat? Right now, I choose to sweat.

Somebody on Craigslist is offering the following items for free: grocery bag of corks 500ml(half size yogurt container) of rubber bands garbage bag full of wire hangers. I think the container for the wire hangers should be a clue as to where all of this stuff should go. Caffeine - If I do not have caffeine in the morning, strange thing happen - my body starts to rebel, neurons in my brain start to mis-fire. And thats what happened this morning - I also had a dull headache all day.

Somehow managed to survive the day. Spoke at both morning services - well gave a 2 m. announcement actually about the future of Urban Sanctuary. It was well recieved, with a few people expressing interest after. Came home and prepped for the leadership meeting. Leadership meeting - went well. Had some good ideas for the summer. Sophia's party was really fun - with lots of people. I love my church!!!

My day tomorrow: Give brief announcement about Urban Sanctuary at both morning services. Meet with interested people after both services. Leadership meeting in afternoon. Worship gathering at night. In between all that, finish notes and hand-out for a talk I am giving some students from TWU on church planting and also finish a 3 pg. essay for my class due tomorrow!!! Crazy life.

This is my second posting on Arcade Fire. Saw them in Deer Lake tonight. They rocked. It's midnight and I am doing an ESL assignment. Today I had 10 new canadians singing "take me out to the ball-game". It reminded me of the opening of Stripes when Harold Ramis teaches his ESL class to sing "a do run run run, a do run run."

Chris Giroux - 1965-2007 I read this story today in the Vancouver Sun. For those of you who don't follow the link - Chris Giroux was a drug addicted homeless binner who died when he took what may have been an accidental dose of heroin mixed in with his crystal meth. He fell face first into a dumpster and suffocated in a plastic bag. Chris and I sometimes volunteered at the same time at First Baptist's Shelter program. He was a bit rough, but you could see kindness under the tough exterior. He died 5 days after Sophia was born. Every life is precious - the life of a newborn baby girl is precious. And the life of a drug addicted homeless binner is precious. Not because of any intrinsic worth in the individual. It is because every human being is created by God, and is the object of His love. EVERY HUMAN BEING.

I got another room last night and it was SOOO nice. This morning we were privileged to have Ray Aldred come and speak to us. Ray is an old old friend from the early 90's at First nations Alliance Church in Regina. I helped facilitate the meeting. At the time I knew Ray was really smart, but I had no idea his stature would grow as much as it has. He now speaks internationally at large conferences. I think it is because he has almost divine insight into the way our society has gotten to where it is now. He knows philosophy, theology and the suffering of his own people. Even though he knows intimately the oppression and injustices perpetuated on his people in Canada, he has such a gentle and kind spirit. After our time with him, one pastor remarked, "I'm glad he's so nice!" That comment displays the fact that everyone in that room knew that he had a right to be angry. And also the simple fact that most non-native people feel uncomfortable around native people, mainl...

Matches, an ashtray and a wheezy Santosh w. a headache. I am in Winnipeg for some church planting meetings related to my denomination. I had requested a non-smoking room, due to allergies I have to cigarette smoke. And guess - what - I have a splitting head-ache and a cough because I am sleeping in a padded ashtray!!! I opened the hotel door, and I'm pretty sure some smoke came out. I walked in and called the front desk. Conversation: Me: "I had requested a non-smoking room, due to my allergies. This is brutal. Front Desk: Silence...." uh... There are no other rooms available...." Me: "But I had BOOKED a non-smoking room, and I was ASSURED I would have a non-smoking room." FD: "I guess they couldn't get you one." Me (thinking) - no kidding sherlock. "How about tomorrow night" FD: "Just a second (muffled - why won't it do this?) Nope - nothing" Note - When I checked in, this guy did not say a word to me, and didn't k...

My mother's day gift to Felicia: lunch with her mother and daughter WITHOUT Adam. I'm sure she was able to eat all her food before it got cold. I had hoped to relax a bit today - I volunteered at the Roundhouse yesterday and that ate up most of my day. But... I had to finish a report for Church Health and Planting and start on my lesson planning for my first lesson on Tuesday. Still managed to catch the Survivor finale - Yau Man denied!!! What a tragedy - he is one of the best contestants in the history of the show. I finished reading "Living the Sabbath" by Norman Wirzba today. Wirzba is the chair of the philosophy department at Georgetown University. The book is published by Brazos Press , which is quickly becoming one of my favourite publishers due to the high level of content in their books. They published a great book on technology called "Power Failure" a few years ago. The Sabbath book is split into two parts. Part 1 deals with the concept of Sabbat...

The church in a park. I volunteered at the Roundhouse's 10th Anniversary Celebrations. The Roundhouse is the community center - it was built by the CP Rail Company as an actual working Roundhouse as the terminus for the Canadian rail line I think it is one of the most important buildings in Vancouver - in a historical sense - whole other blog about that some other day. As a volunteer I decided I would just do anything I was asked to do. I walked into the volunteer's room - it was all teenagers, esl students, an elderly women and a couple of old guys who helped with the train exhibit. Me and a Korean ESL student were assigned to help block paint/print these silk hangings, that are going to go on display in the grand hall of the center. When there was no one around, it was stunningly boring. When kids came over, it was kinda fun, helping them do it. I reflected that Christian servanthood means doing things you would not want to do - hidden things that others may never see. I made...

I have been requested to blog about my schools so here goes: My classmates: Fion - Born and raised in Vancouver. Is leaving for Hong Kong immediately to teach, after our class ends in June. She is so honest, it's hilarious. Yuki - born in Hong Kong, raised in Surrey. Completed her B.Ed at UBC. Might also go to Hong Kong to teach. Jeff - Undergrad student in Classics at UBC. Very nice guy. Me Peter - Taught English in Korea for the past 3 years. Also has a B.Ed - but his is from the University of Winnipeg. Another prairie boy!!! Has excellent taste in music. Stephen - our instructor. Non stop energy. From England and carries some idioms from that land. Excellent teacher. I met some of the students I will be teaching next week. This guy named Carlos (from Mexico) stood up and said: "I am Carlos, this is Maria." Then he sat down - I am pretty sure he had exhausted his English skills. Our students next week are from Mexico, Guatemala, Korea and Sri Lanka. I can't wait ...

Atheism vs. Theism is back in the news. This is probably prompted by the recent books "God Delusion" by Richard Dawkins and "Letters to a Christian Nation" by Sam Harris. Christianity today has a series of articles here . It is a conversation between Christopher Hitchens and Douglas Wilson. I have heard of Hitchens before - he's kinda cranky - a libertarian who would be good as Bill Maher's best friend. I have never heard of Wilson before but he seems to do a good job of responding to Hitchens. The second entry of "the great debate" was last night on Nightline. Child actor Kirk Cameron from Growing Pains is now an evangelist, with a guy named Roy Comfort. They debated the founders of the blasphemy challenge . This is a challenge for atheists to publicly deny the existence of the Holy Spirit - spurred on by the Bible's admonition that whoever blasphemes the Holy Spirit will not be saved. The atheists looked like Wiccans, and descended into mocke...

2nd day of school. I am starting to realize how complex language and communication really is. Especially the english language. So many little nuances, intonations, etc. Yesterday we had this exercise that was completely in Polish! the instructor was teaching us in Polish, and never spoke English once. I felt so helpless - an emotion I don't like so much! But it helped us be more empathetic with what the students might be going through. Thanks to Asha, Jeff and Kate for the props yesterday. Also - I am very impressed with the teacher and my fellow students. They are all really bright. Sophia is asleep in my lap right now and I feel.... peaceful.

Today was my first day of school! I have enrolled in a 5 week course to become a certified ESL teacher. As our funding winds down for our ministry, I have had to look for another was to supplement our income. I talked with the director of the school - she said with a Masters degree and their certification, I should have no problem getting jobs when I am finished. The class is quite intense - 9-5, M-F, with homework everyday. The teacher is really nice, as our my class-mates. All of them have undergraduate degrees, but could not find jobs in their fields. Should be an interesting ride.

If you buy enough books from Amazon, they start e-mailing you recommendations based on books you have previously bought. They've got their work cut out for them when it comes to me. I'm a pretty big sucker for their recommendations. A recent book I bought this way is Living the Sabbath by Norman Wirzba. Here's a sample of the riches within: Creation in Christ inaugurates a fundamentally different ordering of reality from the one we might choose for ourselves. Our ways of ordering, premised as they are on self-promotion and the tools of exploitation and control, inevitably lead to violence and death. The way of Christ, which is the way creation is supossed to be, inaugurates a new kind of reality, no longer dependent or paristic upon violence. It is not as though creation were a different act, something which happened alongside salvation. God's nearness to creation presents salvation as the restoration of creaturely equilibrium and subordinates human reality within the ...

Watched the Canucks/Ducks game tonight - what a drag. After all the hyped up run to the Cup, we are out. On Tuesday Mark invited me to the game - my first playoff game!!! I know Ravi Zacharias has a book called "Recapture the Wonder", where he talks about having a child like wonder and excitement for the world. Well - I certainly had that on Tuesday - it was just so exciting. Mark has amazing seats, and I totally saw the 2nd Canucks goal, right in front of me. Then, Mark somehow got us into a private box suite! Man - that was amazing. It was like a little living room, w. 8 stadium seats in front. There was a full bar and all kinds of food. I kept thinking "I don't belong here". Anyways Vancouver blew a 2-0 lead to lose that game, and are now out of the series. What a drag. When does football start?