rolling rolling rolling

well we are off another Lakin family roadtrip and I wanted to let you guys in on what we are up to and whats happenning in our neck of the woods. life is busy and i know its busy for everyone so i thought i would send out a quick hey guys to keep you updated.

we are heading out to calgary this thursday for a conference that andrew will be working at. This conference invites people from all over canada to come and take the leadership training course to then help do the program at their local churches. it is a fairly good sized group this year and andrew will be doing some teaching and acting, pretty much doing what is needed really. anyways us guys are going with him YAY!! it is a retreat centre about an hour outside of calgary where the nearest tv and icecream i am told is 30 min away. it is a lovely place where yours truly won't have to make or clean up a meal!! i tell ya this is thrilling!!! yet we all have to sleep in one room which i am not as thrilled about but the boys are beyond excited about it...... my oh my the fun they are going to have.. anyways we are taking 2 days to get there... its a GLORIOUS drive thru the rocky mountains. we are staying in banff the one night checking out lake louise etc. we are pretty excited about that. on the way home we are stopping in edmonton to say hello and spend the night with mike  peng and kate holt- do they know what they are getting themselves into? next we are off to jasper to see the glaciers yahoo!!! we are then heading home via the okanagan valley to stay a few days with my friend barbara and her hubby al ( you may remember them from the wedding... not dating yet) anyhoo they live in kelowna near the vineyards so we are going to relax cause we will need it after andrew's busy busy week. if you could remember to pray for us that would be so appreciated. sleep will be a tad sassy for us and with the conference schedule it will be mommy big time.. also the mosquitos are terrible and our atticus reacts so horribly. other than that safety driving and safety hiking with little ones.... well that makes me nervous sometimes... with climby magoo beatrice.. good grief!!
life is busy and time goes sooo fast we are missing being a part of your physical lives.  we will post photos when we can. we would love to hear from you guys & with whats going on with you. we love you and pray God's riches blessings on your lives.

much peace much joy and many coffee breaks along the way

joanne

BANFF

Jasper

Messy Church

We've been going to a church called The Tapestry.  The pastor is Albert Chu, and I had lunch with him a couple of weeks ago and I think he's a great guy.  I look forward to getting to know him better.  As we finished our lunch he ended up inviting me to speak on a Sunday morning.  I took him up on the offer and spoke at our church two weeks ago.

I spoke on “acknowledging our needs” and it went very well.  The idea of coming forward for prayer after the service is new here.  When I spoke to the pastors and asked why they do not do it, they said that they had never experienced, or even seen it.  So I am trying to introduce the idea.  “Let’s get messy,” I said.

An older Asian lady came up to me and asked for prayer.  She was crying, and said, “I’m just realizing how long it’s been since anyone prayed for me.  And I don’t think I’m doing too well trying to fix everything myself.”  One of the elders came along side us and we were able to pray with her as she invited Jesus to deal with her problems she was trying to fix.  Another guy came up and asked for prayer about some addictive behavior he’s struggling with.

Praise God!  Let the messiness continue!

-A.

Teachable moments... or maybe not

We have an action figure Jesus.  Joanne's had it since before we got married.  I think it started as a joke.  He came with a blue cardboard cutout of water and he has wheels on the bottom so you can roll him across the blue cardboard and watch him "walk on water."  We kept him because it was kitchy and fun.   Now as the boys play with him and all the other action figures, I make sure they know this is not the Jesus we pray to.

Tonight, the Joker, (Batman's nemesis from a Happymeal) and Swiper, (the swiping fox from Dora the Explorer - and I can't believe I'm writing about this...) were wreaking more havoc than usual.  Usually I try to make sure these trouble makers get put in jail - such is much of the adventure of playtime.  But tonight Joker and Swiper had succeeded in putting all the other toys in the jail, and there was no one left to set them free... then I spied the Jesus on the shelf.

I said that I knew someone who could set them free, because that's his favourite thing to do, and I brought out the Jesus, and I tried to make it a teachable moment as I was using the Jesus toy to set all the other toys free and explain that Jesus, the real one, does this for all of us... and I was hoping some of this was actually getting through as I "rescued" the last of the toys.

Then the boys used their Swiper and Joker toys, grabbed Jesus, and gleefully crammed him in the jail, and victoriously looked at me as if to say, "Now what?"  And all I can think is... maybe I should have just left Jesus on the shelf.

-A.



Truth hurts.

I love this cartoon.  It's so sad that it seems to be true.  And I just now caught the detail of the landscape.  Notice the barrenness of the terrain surrounding the people lining up, and the other path, while vacant, is surrounded by life.

Anger Recovery

It's amazing that when a city shows its worse side, often it can follow up with showing its best side.  This has happened in Vancouver since the riot.  I have been surprised by my own emotional journey, which I guess you could call one of recovery.

Since the riot, downtown has been flooded with volunteers cleaning up.  The windows that were smashed out in the historic Hudson's Bay Company have been boarded up and people have been writing apologies on it.  People have been calling it the "Wall of Sorrow" or the "Apology Wall."

The girl in this picture is wearing a Canuck's jersey.  I thought she was holding a hockey stick, but that's actually a broom.  She must have been cleaning up.  Many fans have written messages on the wall like, "REAL men don't riot," "Never Again," and "Our team came in a respectable second, the rioters came in last."

The wall has since this picture become absolutely filled with apologies, outrage, condolences, and inspiration.  The mayor and the premier even visited and wrote something.


Another interesting thing has been happening.  People have been leaving sticky notes on police cars, saying thank you, we're sorry, and we love you Vancouver Police.

It reminds me that this city, like most cities, no, I'll say all cities, is full of good people, and a few idiots.  There are idiots in Paradise City, and there are good people in the scary back alleys of Detroit.  I need to look for the good, and not be overwhelmed with the idiots.

Riot rant continued...

Let me add to this tirade that the next day, after the riot, Joanne went to her women's Bible study at church and when she dropped the boys off at the kid's care area, she learned that the lady who works there had volunteered to go downtown that morning to help with the clean up... in her wheelchair.

This just fuels my personal fires of injustice.  That drunken young hoodlum men can wreak havoc, and trash our lovely down town, and then a sweet wheelchair bound lady goes down with her help-dog to clean up their mess.

I know that I am self-centred and always cry out for mercy for myself and justice for others, but for right now, that's going to continue.

Vancouver... Vancouver...

How disappointing.  Yes, it was disappointing to lose the Stanley Cup, but to finish it off with rioting and looting and setting cars on fire, well... that takes my disappointment to outrage.

To my family in the States, let me describe how big this was.  Imagine it's the NBA Championship, and the Charlotte Hornets are playing, and the final game is in Charlotte, where you live.  Or imagine the Carolina Panthers are playing in the Superbowl... in your town.  Add to this the home-town feel of college sports where people feel like, and talk as if, they know the athletes personally.  This is what it's been like in Vancouver for the last three weeks of playoff craziness.  Canucks flags on every other car, people wearing Canucks shirts, hats, and hockey jerseys everywhere.

I was getting caught up into the excitement myself, which surprised me since I am not a hockey person.  But I'd been watching the playoff games with the boys, who always cheered for "the blue team."  I'd even considered buying a t-shirt for myself or for the boys.  It was like watching the Olympics and wanting one of those pairs of red mittens.  You want to feel a part of the fun.  And when I found out that no Canadian hockey team had won the NHL in 18 years, that made me root for the home team even more.

But now with all the rioting that took place after we lost, I do not want to wear anything that associates me with these fans.  I don't have a problem with the team; they did their best. I have a problem with the fans.

I can't believe this is the same Vancouver that captured the world's attention with their hospitality during the Olympic games... it feels like all that has gone down the toilet.

More frightening than the burning cars is the fact that these hoodlums are the adult men of tomorrow.  Also frightening are the young girls, there were lots of girls there too, girls who want attention from angry young men.

Another thing that bothers me, and I'm just rambling here, or ranting, or blogging, I really don't know the difference... but what bothers me is this:  how everyone is taking pictures of everything.  Like you smash a guy in the face with your iphone and then take a picture of his bleeding face with your iphone.  Also, lots of posing with flaming cars.  It's almost like, if i cannot get my picture taken with a celebrity (like a victorious hockey player,) then I will BE the celebrity in the name of anarchy, and my facebook account can almost guarantee it.

Camp Day

I do not care for Tim Horton's coffee.  I call it "the cup of disappointment."  I have heard others refer to it as "brown water."  And being a former Starbuckaneer, I've been known to say o so snooty things like "I no longer drink from the cup of disappointment." And I now only drink French pressed Indonesian fair traded mud.

But today is Tim Horton's Camp Day, and they send a lot of kids to camp.  So I went down to the local Tim Horton's to do my part.  And I have a confession:  I liked the way it tasted.  It tasted like Ontario, and it made me miss all my friends and family there.

So there on the corner of Marine and Fraser in Vancouver, I raised my Medium Regular into the air.  (I'm no longer a Double Double guy.)  And I sent my salute across the miles, sorry, kilometers to Ontario and said, "Send a kid to camp."