Mostly Gooder

"Christmas has a way of making the good seem gooder and the bad seem badder." Pastor Rick Boyce, GTA, December 12, 2004.

Quite true, quite true.

So, how did everyone enjoy Christmas? Are you exhausted from shopping or putting in those extra holiday shifts at work? Did you get a chance to visit all of your family and to join friends in all of the expected holiday parties?

I was exhausted myself, to the point of being sick all week. I was coming off of those 6 performances for GTA's Christmas presentations. It went very well and God ministered through me in worship, which I find to be a fairly humbling experience for me these days. I'm just glad that I only had a cold before the performances started and then again once they were done, allowing me to remain healthy during those two weeks. The other guy in the bass section of the choir with me had laryngitis for two of the performances so I'm glad that I was able to hold up all right.

I've had a nice Christmas. The best part for me was that my parents were home this year on Christmas day. Last year they were flying home from Korea for Boxing Day and they got stuck in San Fransisco because of a flight layover. I was looking at my volunteer work log from last year and apparently I spent Christmas day in 2003 at work, doing some volunteer coding for the JAG Room Booking Software that I've been developing lo these many years. Spending Christmas day with my family is much better.

(As an aside, I finally finished Version 12 of that software this past week, complete with logos and splash screens. I've been working on it since 1999 for LGT and I think that it's just about ready for other churches to start using it. I figure that it's required two to three hundred hours of programming so far.)

So it was nice to have my parents home for good this year. We had the traditional Christmas breakfast with pemeal bacon and eggnog. We read the Christmas story from the Bible and opened our presents, and then later had a nice turkey dinner.

As far as the presents go, this family certainly appreciates DVDs. I bought CSI Season 4 for my parents, Friends Season 7 for my sister and the Return of the King Extended Edition for my brother. My sister bought my brother the new Star Wars DVD Collection (Episodes IV, V and VI) and bought me the series DVD of the animated Dilbert TV show. And finally, my grandparents (the english ones in Florida) bought me the series DVD of the original 1967 Spider-Man cartoon. Yep, DVDs to all and to all a good night!

I pray that your Christmas holidays are mostly gooder and that God shines brightly in your life.

Joyeux Noël!

Joyeux Noël, tout le monde!

Breath of Heaven

I'm in the Christmas presentation at my church this year. I have a small solo and I'm singing in the bass section of the choir. Actually, there's only one other guy, Neil, in the bass section and he had laryngitis this past weekend. It was fun trying to hold up that music section on my own, but at least Neil showed up and tried his squawking best.

We had our opening night on Saturday December 11th. We performed on Sunday evening and well be performing again tonight (Monday). We have three more presentations next weekend on Friday, Saturday and Sunday (December 17 - 19). Everyone's welcome to come, of course.

Directions: Glad Tidings Assembly is on the west side of Wonderland Road, north of Riverside and south of Oxford. It has a big sign out front so it should be easy to spot.

Visiting a MegaChurch

"The outcome of November 2 has piqued my curiosity. Experts tell us that “moral issues” proved to be the biggest factor for voters in one of the closest presidential races in U.S. history. And while some people may question the morality of the administration’s policies, others want to know why these voters are such an effective political force."

And with that, this article describes a woman's first impressions when she visited a "mega church" in the United States. I thought this paragraph in particular rung a similar tone to one of Mike's recent posts.

I picked up this article from a site that I have been visiting recently, Church Marketing Sucks. As that blog noted in this post, the author (or at least the editor) compares the visit with Alice in Wonderland, complete with illustrations. This blogger comments that the author of the article "closes with plenty of fair questions but no room for real answers." I would agree with that.

The author compares this megachurch with their past memories of church as a child, wondering what the hidden agenda is. As my own opinion, I thought it was funny that the article ends with a condemnation of conservative Christians for their stance on homosexuality and abortion. No one condemned her for thinking as she pleased, but apparently the author feels that condemnation is all right as long as you're right. As I said, it struck me as funny.

Mace or Pepper Spray?

My dad, my brother and I took four South Korean students to the Playdium in Mississauga two weeks ago. Richard and a few other friends came along with us as well. After a few hours in the Playdium, Richard and I went to the parking lot to take a break and to get a drink. We were sitting in my van when we heard shouting coming from a couple of parking spaces away.

Richard, being the man that he is, immediately opened the door with the intent of going over to help stop the fight. (Apparently that's not uncommon for him, whether it's at work or just randomly downtown.) We were both looking over and we saw two guys outside of a car and two guys inside the car, with much yelling between them. One of the guys outside was trying to open the driver's side door.

The driver rolled down his window a bit and reached out with a can of something, spraying the outsider directly in the face. The car then drove off, leaving the assailant (or victim?) clutching his face in pain and crying as he stumbled about for several minutes.

As soon as the can was sprayed, Richard quietly got back into the van and closed the door. We sat there until the two men in the parking lot eventually got into their own car and drove away.

So my question is, what do you think the can contained? Apparently mace is illegal but pepper spray is fair game. It may have been a can of something else entirely, though. Any guesses? The can was fairly large, like a hair spray can.