Birthdays & Camping

Tara's twenty-third birthday is next week on Wednesday May 3rd. (And it's Candace's birthday too, natch.) My twenty-eighth birthday is coming up on May 16th. To celebrate, Mrs. Terry has invited a bunch of us to the Terry house in Fingal on Saturday May 13th at 6:00 pm. All of the former FCCC youth are invited, plus anyone from Open Door that reads this, plus my own family. If you're reading this and you fall into one of those categories, please e-mail me to confirm if you're coming. I'll give a ride to anyone that needs it.

Per the comments in my previous post, I am now planning on going camping with the former FCCC youth on Friday-Sunday July 7-9 at the place we went to last time, that Mennonite camp. I'm going regardless of how many people we have but you do need to send me an e-mail sometime soon if you're planning on coming so that I can book the site.

And in case you missed it, I'm out of town from Saturday April 29th until late on Sunday May 7th. So long, suckers!

Speaking Of...

I'll be away next week to help my grandparents move from Florida to their new home in B.C. I'm flying down to Florida very early this coming Saturday (April 29) with my dad. We'll be packing all of my grandparents' belongings into a U-Haul truck and then we're leaving early Sunday to drive to B.C. The trip will take us about five days to complete whilst my grandparents fly there. My dad and I will unpack everything once we get there, take a day to visit family and then I fly home alone late on Sunday May 7. (My dad's staying in B.C. for an extended visit.) I'm using up five vacation days for this trip and then I'm back to work to the next morning. This will the the longest road trip that I've ever done and I'm really looking forward to it.

Speaking of family, congratulations to my brother. He's taking over the basement in our house and he moved in this past weekend. That apartment is ginormous, I tells ya. My brother has his own porch overlooking the Thames river and a private entrance so he's off on his own again. I'm going to miss the little guy 'cause we've been living closely together for several years now.

Speaking of congratulations, and to follow up on what I said here, congratulations to Terrance Arsenault and Gina. They became engaged a couple of weeks ago. Terry recreated their first date, which started at GTA (my church) just over a year ago. He asked her while I was there practicing with the band for the Easter performance and I got to celebrate with them just afterwards. God bless you both!

Speaking of Easter, the musical play that we did at church this year was great. I played percussion with the band, as I mentioned here. There were three performances but it wasn't quite a packed house in two of them so there were a little over 1000 people that saw it, I think. More importantly, some of my friends got to see it and a lot of people that don't usually get to visit a church came out as well. My favourite part was actually at the end when we cut loose with a celebration song and I didn't have to be so reserved while I was playing anymore.

Speaking of the Easter thing, I had one extra practice every week for the preceeding month and a half in preparation. I also play percussion on Fridays at young adults at Open Door and I play percussion regularly for Saturday and Sunday services at my church. That comes to a total of three or four times per week that I was playing congas. Unfortunately, I think that took a toll on my right hand because I had a fair amount of shooting pain in it this past week, never mind the worse-than-normal swelling in my fingers. I think I've been abusing my hand a little too much lately. Heh. I s'pose I'll get to rest my hand during this upcoming trip, even if I'll be physically spent otherwise.

Speaking of being physically spent, I had a jam-packed schedule this past weekend. There was also a heavy metal (screamo?) concert at my church on Sunday afternoon with ten bands playing, headlined by Exodus in Peril. I took several kids along that have become fans in recent months and we had a great time. We arrived there at 3:00 pm, waited for an hour for the doors to open and we were there until about 9:30 pm. My ears were pretty much fried by the end but it was so cool. The second last band, Asher, had a female as the lead vocalist and they had a powerful performance. (Where's their band site?) It was a tough act to follow but then Exodus came on and blew the doors off. Nothing like having two mosh pits jumping around, with an encore song demanded by the crowd.

Speaking of this weekend, I also managed to find time to hang out Richard on Friday night after YA and then I watched Inside Man with Joel Timmerman on Saturday night. (It was the second time I had seen that movie. It has a lot of swearing but the plot is genius and the actors are captivating.) It was good to spend time with my buddies again and catch up on things.

Speaking of old FCCC people, I'm planning to go camping again this summer in the Bruce Peninsula at the same camp site that we went to last time. I'm looking at going for three days and two nights (Friday through Sunday) on the third weekend in July. I'm going for my own sake with my Little but y'all are welcome to join us. Get back to me if you're interested.

Speaking of...speaking of, I'm all done!

Tribute to Puffy

Puffy Grant

Spring 1986 to April 17, 2006

This afternoon, my family put my cherished Puffy cat to sleep. She was nineteen years old, as near as we can figure. She had some health issues and she had severe problems with normal walking. Her senses of smell, hearing and sight had all faded and she was having difficulty with normal daily activities. My family knew that her time was coming soon and today was the day. She is now buried in our backyard.

We got Puffy and her sibling PawPaws when I was in grade four back in Jordan Station, Ontario. A friend from my school lived on a farm and had a litter of kittens to give away. We gave Puffy her name for the obvious reason. We named her brother PawPaws because he had eight claws on each of his front paws. PawPaws died after only four or five years due to some health issues. Puffy had been a hardy soul, surviving numerous moves and new locations and plenty of pet dogs invading her territory. She has been smart and cautious enough to remain with us these many years. The picture below shows me and my brother with the sibling kittens.

Puffy and I had developed a nice ritual in recent times. Every day when I came home from work, I would turn on the light in my bedroom, just around the corner from her favourite spot by the space heater. She would rouse herself from her constant slumber and walk into my bedroom after me, jumping onto my bed. I would then feed her a couple of kitty treats, as she well expected me to do.

I remember teaching her how to open closed doors in the house in Jordan Station when she was still a kitten. I showed her how to claw at the bottom or side of a door to pull it open, or press against a door to push it open. It only took me a couple of minutes when we were both quite young but she never forgot how to do that from then on.

Back in Peterborough, the first city we moved to after Jordan, I had an aquarium full of small lizards. Chameleons and geckos, that kind of thing. Puffy was always trying to figure out a way to get in at those tasty little creatures through the cage on top. One day, I returned from church and I was walking into my bedroom when I noticed that the sliding door on the cage was moved. I immediately figured that the lizards had escaped so I raced into my bedroom and...SQUISH! I jumped several feet into the air and landed on my bed. I put the details together afterwards and I discovered that Puffy had managed to get on top of my dresser, had opened the cage and had eaten most of the lizards. She had apparently toyed with the last of the lizards on the floor and that's what I had stumbled upon accidentally. Ah, good times.

Puffy was great during our years in Wawa. She would chase down some cute bird or catch a small mice and she would leave it on our front porch for us in the morning. If that isn't devotion, I don't know what is. She lived through a series of large and small dogs. In some cases she was bigger than our dogs (like Mitzy) and in other cases she was dwarfed by our springer spaniels or black labrador dogs. In any case, she always made sure that they knew who was in charge of our house. Nothing like a claw in your muzzle to figure out who's the boss.

When my parents and my siblings were all living in other places or countries several years ago, I kept Puffy as our only pet. Fortunately, she never required much caretaking. You could leave her with food and water for a week and she would be fine. I've had a lot of fun with our little kitty and I have many fond memories that I will hold onto forever.

Et bonjour, ma chere Puffy! Merci pour tout!

The Buck Stops Here

I've said it before and I'll say it again: If you want to mature as a Christian, you need to step into leadership. There's only so much that you can gain as a follower, like a plant that can only grow so large if it's stuck in a small pot. It doesn't mean that you have to become a visible leader, it can be as simple as mentoring a friend privately. It just means that you have to be responsible for helping someone else grow and in this way you can grow yourself.

While I see this as a necessity, that doesn't mean it's easy. What if we do something wrong in our leadership role? What if we make a bad decision? We make mistakes quite often as young followers so it shouldn't be surprising if we're not perfect leaders either. It's not called learning because we know what we're doing, right?

So what if we do manage to lead properly, with only unselfish motivations, and it doesn't work out? What if the person we're working with gets frustrated and leaves, or gossips about us, or makes a bad decision? What if the results don't match our expectations?

Moses had similar questions and problems as he gradually become the advocate and then leader of the Israelites, leading them out of slavery in Egypt towards the Promised Land. He deemed himself inadequate as leadership material to begin with (Exodus 4:10). He had been away from Egypt for years and had become a lowly shephard. He was a terrible speaker, as he said to God. Wouldn't someone else be a better choice? (I think it's funny that Moses was shocked that God was speaking to him from a burning bush but he got over that and started arguing with God anyway.)

So Moses certainly had a ways to go before becoming one of the greatest leaders of Israel. And yet, despite a constant stream of miracles, messages from God and daily reminders of God's presence, the Israelites rebelled and disobeyed Moses and God repeatedly. It was sort of an Israelite trademark (and ours as well).

At one point, the Israelites were moaning about having no water while they trudged through the desert for forty years (Numbers 20). Sure, it was a legitimate problem but the Israelites grumbled and complained about it as usual, rather than seeking God's help. This was just one more event in a long line of rebellions and Moses was fed up with it. God instructed Moses to speak to a rock and then God would release a new spring of water. In his frustration, Moses hit the rock with his staff instead.

The problem was that Moses disobeyed God's direct command in this situation, even though God still opened the spring for them. Because of this act, Moses was not allowed to enter the Promised Land (Canaan) when the Isrealites finally finished their desert wandering. Moses was only allowed to go to the top of a mountain to oversee the land from a distance before he died.

So here's the point: The Israelites were the ones that constantly grumbled and rebelled against both Moses and God. Moses was faithful, a friend of God. He listened to God's word and there was only one time that he really messed up. While the ungrateful nation walks into the new land, Moses, the one who was more faithful than all of them, was the odd man out. So what does Moses do? He blames the Israelites for his actions. Repeatedly. Check out Deuteronomy 1:37 and Deuteronomy 4:21.

I'm a manager at my computer software company. I'm the one responsible for due dates of all of our software releases. What happens if our programmers miss a release date? What happens if poor code is submitted or the final design is wrong? Sure, I need to make a frank assessment of everyone's skills and the causes for any delays and I need to address them accordingly. In the end, though, the buck stops here. I'm the one that's responsible for missed deadlines and I can't act like Moses and blame everyone else because I missed something.

In the same way, we need to properly accept responsibility when we mess up as leaders, whether that's in church or elsewhere. Maybe everyone else failed in their roles, maybe everyone else left us, maybe everyone else did something wrong. We're still responsible for our own actions as leaders and what's more, we're also responsible for their actions since we are their leaders.

Now aren't you glad that I said we all need to become leaders?

Easter Invite

My church is having a special musical play for Easter this year. We do something similar every Christmas and I've been involved with that as a choir member and soloist for the past two years. This is the first time that my church has done it for Easter, though.

I'm playing percussion with the band for this musical play, which is called "This Is My Story." I've been practicing with the band for the past month and a half but I saw the entire play as a whole for the first time this past weekend. It's powerful and emotional. Rather than one main plot line, there are four characters from the Bible that have monologues. They talk about what it was like to see what happened to Jesus when he was crucified. They look back on the impact that Jesus had on their own lives and they reflect on who they were without him. And at the end...oops, I guess I shouldn't spoil the ending. Suffice it to say that Good Friday is not the end of the story. :)

As far as the music goes, we don't have a choir and we're not using hymns or carols, like we do at Christmas. In fact, one of the songs that we're doing is "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For" by U2. So musically we've been having a lot of fun with it. And did I mention that we have some cool stage effects as well?

You all are invited to come for one of the three performances this coming weekend. Take a look at the church's calendar. There's a performance on Saturday April 15th at 7:00 pm. There are two more on Easter Sunday at 9:30 am and 11:30 am. If you're coming, we recommend arriving about a half hour early since we expect it to be a packed house.

On a completely different note, Elyse has her new blog up here. How many different blogs and websites has she created over the past few years? I remember five different sites. Does anyone remember if she had any more than that? :)

Congrats Terry

Congratulations, Terry!

(I'll update this later with more details...)

Jung Typology Test

As a response to Lori's blog post, I followed up and completed this quick version of the Jung Myers-Briggs typology test. I've linked to such tests before on this blog but I thought that I would re-evaluate myself. For the record, I came out as ISTJ. My stats were calculated as follows: 78 Introverted, 1 Sensing (Ha!), 50 Thinking and 67 Judging.

The test results provided these two links explaining this personality type. This link provides a pretty detailed explanation. While I agree with some of the elements described here, I think that I've learned how to temper the more extreme aspects of this personality type. In particular, I've consciously changed my habits when it comes to showing concern and appreciation for others and in showing my emotions. In that I do both more often and more openly now.

Anyone else?

Friends & Family

Blog Links
I have updated my blog links with a couple of recent additions. Jennifer MacDonald is a friend of Andrea and Lori Worthington is one of co-workers who recently started a blog. I've also added a link to a daily Sodoku puzzle, which I have started doing just for fun.

Personal News
Richard was back in town yesterday for the first time in over a month. We hung out last night and hit the new mini-putt at Fleetway. That little course is pretty impressive. I scored quite badly, coming in nine strokes behind Richard. I had three balls fall into the bottom of the cup only to pop out again. I tell ya, it wasn't my dad for that game. I did manage to get a hole-in-one on the last hole, at least. After that, Richard and I hung out at the mall for a while before we finally "popped in" on the Timmermans for a quick visit. Good times.

Recent News
There was an article this week that Ontario is considering a change to the adoption laws. Previously, children in foster care that could still be contacted by their families were not permitted to be adopted. This rule ensured that birth families did not interfere with newly adopted families and that extended family could still contact the children. The problem was that something like 3/4 of the kids in foster care fell into this category and were thus denied adoption by families that wanted them. Ontario is considering dropping this rule by creating a special conditional adoption.

I applaud this move heartily. My family has had many foster kids over the years and I remember those times quite fondly for the most part. It's frustrating if you are a foster parent and you want to adopt the child but you cannot. There are plenty of good reasons to deny that request sometimes but other times common sense shows that this denial hurts more than helps. That's why this rule is being changed and I think the kids in Ontario will be the better for it.

Update: How About That Weather?
We had late winter flurries yesterday. I was driving home after 10:00 pm last night and I hit a complete white-out on the Commissioners and Airport Road. It had snowed just enough to put an inch or so of snow down on everything. Combine that with the suddenly heavy snowfall and I wasn't able to see more than five feet away from my vehicle in any direction. I couldn't tell where the sides of the road were, nor could I tell what was coming on the road. Trained Wawa driver that I am, I led the way for several cars behind me, though I did veer from right to left quite a bit on Airport Road. And then, just as suddenly as it started, the snowfall stopped. Now that's some fun March weather!