ahh...miss teen america

the other day i was at matt's house and miss teen america came on. we watched them annouced who made the final 15. then we changed the channel. a few minutes later, we turned back to see the first 'item', it was each miss prancing around in a bikin...how has the competition changed?
i am still quite bemused that competitions like this exist. i know they make all those claims about how they are different now...whatever.
two things that don't change my opinion
1) the prancing around in bikini's
2) this. you've probably all see it now anyway.

seriously. i am pretty sure there are better ways these girls, and all of us for that matter, could be spending our time, money and talent(?).

thanks tim hortons

all canadians know what tim hortons is. it's a coffee shop. according to some, THE coffee shop. as a non coffee drinker, i don't care about the coffe, but i love their donuts, bagels, choc milk and hot chocolate. so i visit there a bit. usually with matt (or in the old days, heather, also known as miss horton.
anyway, get this for service. last week i was in timmy's with kim and some of the girls from the korean corps. we had a big-ish order, as we were getting some drinks for others too. anyway, it was quite busy, and it took quite a while for us to get to order. we ordered and paid and began our wait for our order to be ready. i had ordered my favourite, a cinnamon raisin bagel toasted with butter, and usually these take the longest (compared to drinks). anyway, we got some of the drinks, got my bagel and we were waiting for the girl to get just two more drinks, when i happened to notice that the girl who was serving us was walking out the store with her bag on her shoulder. she'd left. it was time for her to leave and though, in the middle of our order, she went. now i assume she just accidently forgot two of our drinks. but whatever it was hilarious. there was one guy left serving, with at least 8 or 10 customers in the line.

ahh....service these days...

good one timmy's.

the surprises of life

sometimes life brings us surprises. sometimes these are pleasant. sometimes these are not. sometimes they cause things to change forever. sometimes they don't. sometimes they are even expected (can you suspect a surprise?), usually they are not (this is what makes it a surprise).

i had have a few pleasant surprises this week. i was expecting one, some of my friends got engaged. another one i wasn't. one of my friends told me that she had found out the sex of her twins due later in the year. and then a cousin of mine told me he can come to my wedding.

i've been told before that life is about action, not reaction. however, there are some circumstances, these surprises, that are all about your reaction. it's quite easy to get excited when the surprises are pleasant, but when they are not it's all about how you react.

do we react with grace? compassion? mercy? rational thought and word? do we react in a way that is helpful? to others, to ourselves?

the way you act in life can speak volumes, the way you react speaks even louder.

God is bigger than a language

i am sitting up at jackson's point. it's a lovely day. the sun is shining, and i really should be outside. i will as soon as i finish this. matt and i the guest speakers at the korean corps retreat - well for the youth anyway, the adults have their services in korean. we have been attending the korean corps nearly every second week for a while now. we have made some good friends here. kim, who has just finished up her youth pastor responsibilities is now a good friend of ours. she actually gets married in 4 weeks (2 weeks before us), then is sadly (for us and the corps) is heading down to california to live for a while.

anyway, this morning before the session started, kim's dad David (one of the elders o the corps) came down to pray with us. He told us before he started that he was going to pray in korean, this didn't phase us at all, some of them in the EM (english ministries, youth service) still pray in korean. but then he started praying. i had absolutely no idea what he was saying, but i have not felt God so strongly in a long time as i did when he was praying. i was blown away.

God is so much bigger than we often give Him credit for. this was no exception. i thank God for David's faithfulness and his prayers. and i praise and thank God that is bigger than any language.

Leeland

While we were in Newfoundland, Daniel, Matt's brother, introduced us to a new band. They are called Leeland, you can listen to samples of all their music online.

They are Christian. They are phenomenal. Seriously. My favourite song is called 'Tears of the Saints'. The first time i heard it i almost cried, no, actually, i think i did cry. My other favourite song is 'Carried to the table'. I haven't bought the cd yet, but i most certainly will get my hands on it asap.

Their music is awesome, and the lyrics are amazing.

You need to check them out. Seriously. Phenomenal.

forgive me

forgive me.

how many times do we hear that? how many times do we say we forgive? how manyitmes do we actually mean it?

i haven't blogged recently due my newfoundland holiday which you will know about if you read my blog. but near the end of my holiday i found myself saying 'forgive me'. i was in church. i suddenly became acutely aware of how desparate God is to be our friend and for us to be in relationship with Him. i claim that i am a christian, which means to me, that i have a growing, dynamic relationship with God. that's the most important part of it all. everything else that needs to follow, will.

yet on my vacation, i didn't forget about God, but i certainly did not give Him the attention that you would give a friend with who you went on holiday with. i felt sad. i felt like i'd let a friend down. and i felt like i had missed out on sharing special times with a friend.

forgive me.

why do we, who call ourselves christians, at times, act like God doesn't exist?

the biggest detriment to God being seen by all for who He really is, is christians. i am sure of it.

yet, He forgives us. time and time again. He never turns away. He never stops loving. He is always there with mercy and grace. sure, the sun and the rain still fall on us all.

I thank God for His consistency, His faithfulness and His forgiveness.

badger's quay - newfoundland

i'm in newfoundland. home of the newfies. some are confused. newfoundland is an island off the east coast of canada. it's a province (state), and is the home of my beloved. it's a beautiful place and the whole island is like a small country town. in the part we are in, there's 2800 people, spread out along the bay. everyone knows everyone.
the thing i like about here is that everyone is treated the same. you are introduced once, then you are family.
while at times, i have thought that some of the lifestyle here is a bit old school, really, in some ways, it's a model society. if you need something, someone else will give it to you. you don't need to lock your doors. you get eh idea. sure, it's a bit colder than i'd prefer, but that's just my preference.
anyway, we are on the internet in the public library (really it's the high schools library), so i have to be quick.

here's my question to think about today...what would an ideal society look like these days?

newfies, lululemon and pimps

tomorrow matt and i are off to newfoundland. the crazy island/province where matt origniates. yes, it is officially part of canada, but they are their own breed. some of you will know what i am talking about. they call everyone 'by's' and shorten everything (in a different way to australians), example, 'like that' becomes 'l'dat' and 'what' becomes 'wha'. but they will be my people. i will be half newfie. or as the newfies say, i'll be 'arf an 'arf!!!

another canadian thing i am thankful for is lululemon. it's a sportswear (running/yoga, etc, etc) store that is the greatest ever. their stuff, while expensive, is made so well and are the most comfortable pieces of clothing i have ever worn. now, i just got a gift ceritficate for my birthday and just purchased my first pair of lululemon pants. i am so excited. unfortunately, the needed shortening, as do most of my pants, so i haven't got them yet, but the best thing is they do it for free!!!! woo hoo.

as for the serious part of my blog. i've been really challenged of recently on my idea about who's 'worthy' of being shown God's love and grace. now, we know, head knowledge, that everyone is. and that we should treat all as equals. but really, that's not how we do it in reality. we are so quick to judge who needs what, and who we should and do help and who we won't. this being said, to cross from our current state of thinking into changing our action is an extremely hard thing to do. if you disagree with this, you are either surrounding yourself with people who don't really need Jesus/who Jesus wouldn't hang out with, or, you are lying. the other week i mentioned about one of encounters with one of the pimps in the area. this is what has sparked my thinking. it would require a huge shift, and coming from a completely different angle, with a totally different mindset, for me to show God's love and grace to him. what do you think?