Dreams Unlocked

Sophia makes a move. Got in today at 3:00. Did some errands. Had Japanese tonight. Felicia and I watched "Once" tonight. This film has a wopping 98% on Rotten Tomatoes . It's a modern day musical - but unlike any musical you've seen before. I liked it quite a bit. It was unlike any other movie I have ever seen before (and this is someone who saw over 100 films this past year). I've been working on my Top 10 movies of 2007, and so far only have 7! But the last 2 films I saw will probably sneak in there. Will post my list on here, and Facebook when it is done. It's nice to be back in Vancouver, my home.

Had a really great Christmas day yesterday. Gifts, food and Adam's first time tobogganing! I got what I wanted: the 20 yr. anniversery deluxe version of the Joshua Tree. It contains a re-mastered edition of the JT, a cd of rare and unreleased songs, a dvd of a Paris concert from '87 and a really cool book about the album. The Joshua Tree is my favourite U2 album. Achtung Baby is better produced and is many fan's favourite album. But, Joshua Tree changed my life. The first U2 album I ever had was War. I have bought almost every U2 album since, on the day it was released. But Joshua Tree is one of those albums that keeps re-surfacing at different times in my life. I have listened to it all the way through several times. Today we took it easy. Tonight Felicia and I went to see "I am Legend." It was about average.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!!

There are some people that you click with instantly - there is a chemistry that is there that is inexplicable. There are other people where it takes a little time to build up that sort of instant familiarity. And then there are still others with whom you can never ever ever break through to - its not animosity, it's more like ambivalence. You have conversations that are punctuated with extended awkward silences. Well, this evening I had the warm pleasure of hanging out with some friends that fit firmly in the first category of friends. The Brotens have been long time family friends. I have many happy memories of Pioneer Camp, and just hanging out at their house with other Camp people. The Pierces are other long time family friends - today I only got to see Daryl and Valencie. Daryl was in my wedding party and is currently an up and coming musician. Check him out here. We drove to Saskatoon to see Felicia's family. It was fun showing off the kids. Back to good friends: The Brote...

Well, we certainly felt the cold bite of a Saskatchewan winter today. Standing on a street corner in downtown Regina feeling the wind rip my flesh off - I was reminded of why I live somewhere with a much much warmer clime. Went to this amazing spa for massages with Flea today. We had a duo massage with heated massage beds! Talk about luxury. Except for the fact that my therapist didn't turn mine on! We were scheduled to have a photographer come in and do some professional photographs today, but she got the days mixed up and didn't show up. We took some pics ourselves because we were all dressed up. Then my siblings and their spouses and me and my spouse headed out for dinner together. Went to this cool restaurant called Zest - the quality was as good as anything in Vancouver (including Vancouver prices). The decor could do with a bit sprucing up. I had duck, and was reminded of why I love duck so much - its rich and fatty! By the way - it's almost 2 AM and I still can't...

Took Adam to a pediatrician today. He's going to be ok. Then picked up some A&W - man those are tasty burgers! We went to a Starbucks at Chapters to pick up some coffee beans. The beans at my parents were in their house since Chretian was first elected. A big part of any vacation for me is reading. Consequently, I usually pack and over-pack a lot of books. On this trip I deliberately did not pack any books on the missional church, church leadership or leadership in general. This is because in Vancouver, I usually start my day by reading a passage of scripture, praying and then reading one of these types of books. I believe part of my job is to self-educate myself on current ecclesial trends, societal trends and as much as possible on leadership and management. Therefore, I view the reading of these books as "work". Since I am on vacation, I don't want to read those books and get back into "work mode". So, I brought a couple of...

Got into Regina at 3:30. Asha (my sister) picked us up. My Dad also showed up -so we had an entourage of 2 minivans to whisk us off. I was amazed at how well both the kids traveled. Adam didn't complain at all. Sophia would cry for a bit and then would go straight to sleep. We are here until the 28th. Dilip and Gillian fly in tomorrow - then it's just one big Ninan Christmas spectacle!

The Ninan kids. Felicia and I went for dinner tonight. We try to go for dinner every month - we actually end up going out only every 4 months or so. I'm a bit of a foodie, so we try to go to some of the more interesting restaurants in town: indian, vietnamese, etc. Tonight we went to a sort of frenchie restaurant. I tried Arctic Char for the first time. It's sort of like Salmon. It was amazing. I asked the waiter what Arctic Char was. He launched into his explanation, which concluded with the fact that they were a fresh water fish. When he said that. I wanted to ask my budding Jaques Cousteau what there mating habits were. When he brought the deserts, he went to major effort to position one of the deserts just right - he kept turning and turning it. Felicia had to restrain herself from simultaneously grabbing his hand and bursting out laughing. This morning I went to the library and mapped out January to May for our church. I also made 5 goals for the church - now I have to ma...

The Ninans and the Clause. This looks like he is actually skating! Yesterday Adam sang with a choir of little kids at First Baptist Church. Adam was placed in the back because he has the loudest voice. Unfortunately a girl with a big head was blocking him and another little boy, so I didn't get very good video of him. After Adam finished, I went down to the nursery to check on the kids. My friend Josh caught me and we chatted a bit. Josh is the youth pastor at First Baptist. We also went to Regent together. It was good catching up, discussing the joys and challenges of ministry. I had a 2 hr. window to tighten up some of the stuff for our Urban Sanctuary Christmas party. Then at 3 I rushed over to catch up with Dennis. Dennis goes to a local Bible school. He is interested in interning with us at some point. Then we had a leadership meeting. Today, we didn't have much planning to do. As a leadership team we are reading "Shaping of Things To Come" by Alan Hirsch and Mic...

It was one of those days that reminds you this is holiday season. Had a coffee w. the fam. at our favourite Starbucks. Then headed down to Robson for some Christmas shopping and exchanges. All the usual suspects: Gap, Banana Republic, Lululemon, etc. etc. Then I got a haircut - the salon I go to was having an "open house". There was tons of food and a tasty punch to enjoy. After that I checked in with the gift wrappers from our church. Sad, but Saturday was totally dead for the gift wrapping. It was pretty disappointing. Then Felicia and some girlfriends were going out for someone's birthday. I had the kids all to myself - it was.... eventful. One thing I learned is my daughter is pretty tough - she fell over and hit her head twice and never cried!

There is a Costco 2 blocks from our apartment. It is the first urban Coscto in the world - the second is in Manhattan. But when you walk inside it, it feels like every other suburban costco in the world. I was there on Saturday and there were several gay couples. I thought it was such an anomaly! Most gay couples are pretty hip, well dressed and cosmopolitan. Somehow seeing them walking with big tubs of Kirkland Signature Cashews just didn't fit. Oh well, I guess they like to get good deals, just like me. Urban Sanctuary is working in conjunction with the Yaletown Business Improvement Association to offer free gift wrapping in Yaletown. Donations are given to the Empty Stocking Fund. The YBIA is a great organization and I hope to work with them again soon.

Derek has written a good response to my post from yesterday - please check it out. By now, you will have heard about the tragic shootings at the YWAM base and New Life Church in Colorado. Does anyone else think it is wierd that there was an armed security guard at the New Life Church? The guard is a hero, as the killer had lots of ammo. and could have killed many more, before he was stopped. But, I just find it disturbing that a church would have armed security guards. But, I guess as our culture grows more violent, we need to protect all public spaces. Saw the film "For the Bible tells me so", which is a documentary on how Christian families deal with having a homosexual child. It ended up swinging pretty hard at James Dobson and Focus on the Family. 3 observations of the film: 1. Had some well known Christian homosexual apologists who presented the best defenses for the compatibility of their faith and homosexual behaviour. All the usual liberal defenses are used. 2. Post-...

I am quite fascinated with the mega-church phenomena, especially the United States version of them. Canadian mega-churches are kind of the poorer cousins of the American mega-churches. We generally don't have the population and resources to build up the huge sanctuaries and sprawling campuses of our sisters and brothers to the south. The title of this post is intentionally provocative. I have attended a few churches in the states that would qualify in the "mega" category. I have been to many that are at least 1000, and a handful that were over 10 000. I have been to Saddle Back which is pretty big. The reason I say the mega churches are anti-community is because it is impossible to be a community as described in the New Testament when you do not know the majority of the people you are worshipping with. I suspect it is impossible to know the majority of people in a church in the thousands. The fact that we create "small" groups within our churches attests to th...

All bandaged up. I hit the 600th entry yesterday. Cool. One of my biggest nightmares came true today - I cut my finger on a table saw!!!! I'm not missing a digit - so I'm not going to be like that wierd uncle at reunions who the kids are scared of. But I did lop quite a bit of skin off. I took some pics, but they are honestly too gory to post - it looked like someone shot part of my finger off. After waiting an hour in emergency, the doctor just said they were going to bandage it up - no stitches. I felt like such a baby. The girl next to me in emerg. had 3rd degree burns on her right hand. We were sitting right across from each other awaiting medical attention so we started chatting. Turns out she is the pastry chef at Joe Fortes . Felicia and I have eaten there before. I had a beer on their patio just recently. She placed her hand down on some recently torched creme brulee. It was pretty bad. They bandaged me up. I got home and got right back on the saw! I'm so bra...

That last post may have been the most boring blog entry ever. Until this one.

Out apartment resembles a bombed out home in Kosovo. We are putting hard-wood floors in... and we're doing it ourselves. Our friend Juan has all the tools. Today we ripped out all the carpet - it only took a couple of hours. Tomorrow we put the hard-wood and insultation down. I hope to put some before and after pic tomorrow. Reading some Brueggemann these days - I really like him. He's sort of like a liberal Eugene Peterson. Some Christmas things are coming together. Can't wait to see the fam. in a couple of weeks.

S&S looking very serious against the darkness. It dumped snow today in Vancouver. And apparently all across Canada. This led us to cancel Urban Sanctuary for the first time! It was just too dangerous to drive tonight. So... my carefully orchestrated Advent service has to be shelved for another time. I did post a brief video devotional on our church's facebook site. This is also left us with a free evening. We decided to order pizza and watch ratatouille. This is an animated film, but I'm not sure if many kids really liked it. It seemed it was written more at an adult level. It had it's moments but did not live up to the raving reviews it recieved. Earlier we went out and played in the snow with a family from another building. It was really fun as we threw snowballs and made a snowman together. Today was quite a grey day -I felt like I was living in an Eastern European country still under Communist rule. As I walked in the snow and slush, amidst the greyness, I felt ...