The Dilema

Here is the dilema facing me right now:
I currently have a very steady job in construction. It pays well, is fairly local and allows for a fair amount of personal freedom in terms of time off. For instance I could go on one of the Wellness Trips with FVCH, I could go to Calgary for Easter with my family to visit the Grandparents, I could canoe the Bowron Lake Chain with Chapman (sidenote* and Adam) etc. I quite like this carpentry business, it is fantastic work. It is very much a project: you are constantly learning, always feeling like you got something done, and have that extraordinary feeling of exhaustion at the end of the day.
On the other hand, I successfully pulled the wool over the eyes of Parks and Rec in Burnaby so that they want to hire me as a canoe instructor (no, I didn't lie... but I did straight up tell them that I'd never instructed canoeing before). I believe that this will be a fantastic job and would probably lead to an even better job in the summer. I am confident that I would enjoy it just as much as being a carpenter's helper if not more. The thing is, it wouldn't be a gaurantee of full time hours. It would pay more hourly than what I'm doing now but because I might not get 40 hours a week my pay cheque would be smaller. Money is important in some respects... However, I then toy with the idea of attempting to fill in my "missing hours" by flying out to the construction site when I'm off of work... but I don't know how my foreman will react to that proposition. Working as a canoeing instructor would also give me some return on my education investment... something that I dearly would love to have. I would just make it seem that much more worthwhile. I think it would also require living with a little more faith... trusting that God will provide for my financial needs despite not being able to see how that is going to happen. It would also be a fair amount of sacrifice on my part.
So I guess I've sort of made up my mind to do the Canoe Instructor thing. All I can say is that my life is very much in God's hands and I think he can and will use my decision for His glory cause He likes to do things like that. In the mean time if anyone out there would like to spend the time to pray for me I would love it.

I love you all. Enjoy your Saturday afternoon... I hope it's sunny where you are cause it sure isn't here.

My Cactus

During my stay in the Learning Assistance room at FVC, I received a splendid gift. You see I have loved cacti for as long as I can remember (my mom too, cause she has adorned our house with them for a long time), but I have never had a blooming cactus! That is until I was talking to Shannon Friesen one day and she gave me one of her moms. So I entrusted it to the care of my mother to be watered with her other cacti and guess what!

It's pretty much BEAUTIFUL!

I Dub Thee: Princess Precidia

So over the last couple of weeks I've been more and more realizing a need to get myself a vehicle. I was taking the bus to and from work, adding a rather draining hour and a half to my day. Awesomely enough God saw fit to bless me with a sweet little car and loving parents to spot me the cash to buy it. One of the doctor's that my mom works with on Labour and Delivery at BGH heard that her son was looking for a nice cheap car to buy. She jumps in and offers to sell me her 1994 Mazda MX-3 Precidia. Well a couple of weeks and a couple grand later, I bought and insured her car and now it is sitting on my driveway looking pretty. I took some pictures for you all to see it. If you want maybe you could stop by and I can take you for a spin and we can talk cars for a bit... Adam this means you :) Oh and while you're here buddy, I was out the other day and I felt my dual triaxle overhead receptor device starting to loosen up again so I was thinkin we could throw on the grease suits and dive under the hood on Monday. Oh and maybe while we're under there we could replace the stock zx54 drive converter with a new supercharged reverse injected thermoregulater that I picked up... but you know, only if you're up for it.

shalom my friends.

It was raining... because that is what it does here in the Vancouver... I apologize for the drab feeling that gives off.

Rated "F" for Frank Sexual Monologue

James, one of my fellow co-workers, offered me last week to come to his bbq this saturday where he assured me that he could get one of his lady friends to "jump my bone".
This comment arose from what I found to be a very interesting discussion surrounding the discovery that Stewart Reimer was still a virgin *gasp*. To rewind even further, the discovery of Stewart Reimer's still intact virginity was led to by a slow piecing together that he was in fact a Christian.
The rest of the day James spent exploring all of the things that I haven't done, that obviously everyone else in the world does. It was interesting to note his comment of disbelief was that, "Dude, the times are changing!", and how true that is. Though from James' perspective I need to "get with the times", I know that God has told me how I should live and in this day and age it is the very epitome of counter-culture. At work I stick out like a sore thumb by what I don't do and say... and often that can be a little bit intimidating.
But oh the times are changing. Remaining a sexually pure male Christian has become a truly daunting task. Struggling to control a healthy God-given drive for sex, we can't help but notice the plethora of means by which lust can infiltrate both body and mind. Jesus is clear that thinking lustfully about a woman is equated to committing adultery with her in your heart. Obviously something that no Christian should want any part of, married or not. The thing is, we men are visually stimulated sexual beings living in a culture where the highly erotic female body is being abused by public media with seemingly no restraint. From puberty, the male population of this society has become supercharged with testosterone and enough sensual images to make a boy's head spin. In a lot of cases, what comes of that little recipe is lust-filled masturbation, something that I can assure you Jesus would equate to fornication or adultery. Do we equate it with that? Because we live in a society that largely has no idea what fornication is.
Further still, the curiosity of a sex-saturated mind can very easily and very quickly lead down the road of pornography. From a removed perspective we see this distant evil as a brutal maligning of the beauty of sex, a dispicable thing to partake in. Telling that to a young Christian boy who, from his first encounter with a naked woman only a couple mouse clicks away, has slowly become addicted, will do very little. It's like telling a crack addict that crack is bad for them. We may even realize that the future of our sexual lives is very much at stake, but the possibility of quiting such an addiction on our own is almost futile.
Gentlemen, don't live life thinking you're alone, use your resources (accountability, eachother, books, the Holy Spirit, thirsting after God not lust etc.). Ladies, don't be ignorant of the plight that your brothers face on a day to day basis.
Watching our culture going into an out of control sexual spin, I'm finding many reminders that I am a flag-bearer of "right living". We are the body of Christ and I think it is imparitive that we pay close attention to our members who are perticularly vulnerable in certain areas.

Dinner for Twenty

Last night was an occasion like no other.
A couple of weeks ago at College and Career, one of the student leaders who is our church's chef, Andrew Ere, proposed a small culinary festivus for the first twenty people to sign up. Being a rather avid pursuant of good food, I was the second person on the list. That brings me to last night where I was gathered with 19 other people to watch Andrew and his chef-buddy Markus prepare the most marvelous spread of Spanish cuisine and ambience that I have ever had the pleasure of taking part in.
Sitting at a large, long, candlelit table with Spanish classical music providing a lovely backdrop, very similar to how an extended Spanish family might sit for lunch (minus the candle light... and probably the spanish music as well), we waited for the first course of appetizers to be served to us. Pastor Ezra prayed, and Andrew and Markus brought out some of the freshest tossed salad I have ever tasted sprinkled in a light balsamic vinegar dressing. That was closely followed by fetta cheese stuffed green olives and flatbread topped with a "salad" of tomato, onion and peppers. It was eight o'clock by the time we saw the first of this food, and the last time that I had eaten was 1:00. After a long day on the old construction site, it's needless to say that I had to restrain myself from eating till I was full on appetizers (and believe me, there was enough of every course for me to have eaten till I was full at each setting).
The next course of appetizers were fried slices of spicy Chorizo sausage in red wine oil, complemented very well with a cold Andalusian Gazpacho, which is a thick, cold, tangy, vegetable soup assumably originating in Andalusia... but don't ask me where that is.
After a small wait, our chefs (who were fully decked out in chef hats, and white chef suit jackets... pretty spiffin... kinda like spacemen) brought out dishes filled with mussels in a spicy tomato sauce. This was served with foccia bread to make sure none of your tomato sauce went to waste, Delicious! It was the first time I'd ever eaten mussels and they didn't dissapoint. The next course was a Seafood Paella with Saffron which was phenomenal. I can't really describe it because I don't know exactly what was in it but I'm pretty sure that it was something similar to this http://www.post-gazette.com/food/20011220paella5ap9.asp. It was something I could have very easily lost restraint and filled right up on... but I persevered and saved room for what was to come.
There was then a slight pause in the onslaught of entres and we took some time to sample Andalusian Asparagus, which essentially meant steamed chilled asparagus arranged in a very fancy manner and drizzled with an orange sauce whose ingredients shall remain a mystery.
Next they brought out a Chicken Pepitoria which hands down was the most delicious piece of chicken/chicken dish that I have ever eaten in my life. It was like eating chunks of heaven off of my fork. The final dish was Roast Leg of Lamb drizzled in the most fabulously complementing sauce they could have possilby found. It was the first time that I have ever had lamb, and it was an excellent first impression.
With all of the entres brought forward, nothing was preventing the most heavenly of chocolate mousse topped with a tower of whipped cream and rasperries, from making its way to my place setting. What a way to finish a meal of that magnitude. If only I would have had my camera because not only did it taste magnificent, but it was presented in a way one might experience at a four or five star restaurant. It was imaculate... I'll make sure I bring my camera to the next one :)
To underscore the awesome spread of food, the real point of the evening was to get to know others from our College and Careers group. Arriving at 7:30 and not starting the meal till 8:30 and then eating around a table with these people until 11:30 at night! I definitely was encouraged and gave encouragement and got to know some of them a lot better. I think that is part of the point of "fellowship" between believers... what I would give to share a meal with all my friends again. I love you all, and if anyone is reading this and wants to come meet some awesome people and share in some awesome worship and hear the awesome Word of God on Wednesday night... call me or something because if you start coming you'll have a very legitimate reason to take part in the next "Dinner for Twenty". Have a great week.

S-double-rubble

Affirmation

I love this song. It's like clear cool refreshment running through my head as I endure a withering assault from the mouths of others in my workplace.

In Christ alone my hope is found
He is my light, my strength, my song
This Cornerstone, this solid ground
Firm through the fiercest drought and storm
What heights of love, what depths of peace
When fears are stilled, when strivings cease
My Comforter, my All in All
Here in the love of Christ I stand

In Christ alone, who took on flesh
Fullness of God in helpless babe
This gift of love and righteousness
Scorned by the ones He came to save
‘Til on that cross as Jesus died
The wrath of God was satisfied
For every sin on Him was laid
Here in the death of Christ I live

There in the ground His body lay
Light of the world by darkness slain
Then bursting forth in glorious Day
Up from the grave He rose again
And as He stands in victory
Sin’s curse has lost its grip on me
For I am His and He is mine
Bought with the precious blood of Christ

No guilt in life, no fear in death
This is the power of Christ in me
From life’s first cry to final breath
Jesus commands my destiny
No power of hell, no scheme of man
Can ever pluck me from His hand
‘til He returns or calls me home
Here in the power of Christ I’ll stand