Good intentions crumble... just like Christmas cookies

We decided to do something Christmasy with the kids last night.  The boys always get excited about seeing Christmas lights.  So we decided to drive to a little village nearby that we'd heard was all lit up.  We drove for a bit, and walked for a bit.  We heard "I'm bored," and they started acting up, and then two time-outs and a spilled hot chocolate later, Atticus says in the car, "Raise your hand if this was the worst day ever."

I felt like crying; and thankfully, later, we had a good laugh about it.

Batman and Elmo at the Nativity?

We have an abundance of small toys in our home.  (I know, with three children under the age of six – you may find that hard to imagine.)  There are some special ones that create a modest buzz when they are taken out of storage for the Christmas season.  Among these are the Fischer Price “Little People” Nativity scene, Ernie & Bert figurines with Santa hats, and a “Little People” Santa Claus and his Christmas Train (which includes a reindeer and Mrs. Claus bearing a plateful of cookies.) 


Each year I take a mirthful moment to create a new nativity scene with a child-like twist by incorporating other characters into the scene.  See, our nativity scene doesn't just have Joseph, Mary, and baby Jesus with the attending angel, shepherds and three Magi, (for whom we have to incorporate the willing suspension of incorrect time lines, since they didn't really arrive until a few months later, but I'll wait to explain that to the boys.)  But ours also includes Santa and Mrs. Claus.  It also includes Hippos, Giraffes, and Elephants; and then I add other non-traditional visitors to the manger scene.  Our scene also includes characters like Kermit the Frog, Batman, Cookie Monster, Big Bird, Dora the Explorer, and Aquaman.  (Aquaman’s “swimming arms” can also be posed to look like he is praising the Lord, which I think is fun.)  There are also some of the less likely characters, including Swiper the Fox, Oscar the Grouch, and Batman's nemesis, the one that gets all the other toys into trouble and is always ending up back in jail - the Joker.

I overheard Joanne playing with the kids and interacting with these toys.  I was quite tickled to hear her giving voice to Mrs. Claus at the manger scene, “Hello Mr. Wise Man, would you like a cookie?”  I like that idea.  I like the paintings that have been done of Santa kneeling at the manger.  The idea of Mrs. Claus being there too and giving out cookies to weary travelers… It just makes me smile.

The boys don’t like Swiper, Oscar, and the Joker.  They often get shoved under other toys and in drawers, but I try to keep them around because we try to make up stories together and every good story has good guys and bad guys.  (I remember a time I came into their room and they informed me that the Joker and Satan had put all the other toys into jail.)

Usually I include these other characters at the manger scene mostly for pure sake of whimsy.  But this year I feel quite intentional about it.  I want to see Oscar the Grouch at the manger scene, because I can be pretty grouchy too.  There are times I am cross with my children and I don’t like the way I sound and I wonder how I ever got Joanne to marry me, and so I hope and pray that there is room for Oscar the Grouch at the manger, so that there may also be room for me.  I want to see the Joker there.  I am not a homicidal maniac, but I have had hatred in my heart, and Jesus said that murder and murderous thoughts are the same thing, so I need to see him there.  I want to see Swiper the Fox there.  He is not beyond hope, and I wonder (and this is where the whimsy creeps back in) if he may be able to connect with Jesus at a deep rooted level, because, after all, didn’t Jesus come to steal all our hearts away?

Our Nativity scene, with added guests.

Joanne at the Women's retreat

I had signed up.  It was official.  I was going to my first women's retreat at our Richmond church the Tapestry and truth be told I was NERVOUS!!

The women were and are hospitable and kind, yet I was wondering what I had gotten myself into.  You see, out of the 40-something women attending this "Girlfriends in Christ" weekend, I was one of the four non-Asians, and my time at Vineyard retreats seemed far away.  But I was determined to do it like Jeremiah 29 says... plant gardens, build houses, and settle down - so I was going to dig the soil to plant seeds of friendship; so going was the first step.

The centre was lovely right off the Crescent beach with eagles flying above in the early mornings.  I have never seen so much tea being consumed in a 48 hour period in my life!!  The ladies were kind and generous and open to relationship.  The speaker from the States was lively and genuine and Jesus was glorified.  I had to remind myself that things may look different and be done in ways that I am not accustom to - but we serve the same Lord.  It was good for me to be there.  To do things because I want to be obedient to the one who has called me to be just that.  And yes I was the tallest one there and the heaviest walker by far, but we all have our junk and baggage that Jesus wants.  Jesus speaks all languages and brokenness is found in ALL.  As Andrew and the kids pulled up that Sunday afternoon to bring me home, I left seeing the 40 women- as fellow women and daughters seeking a deeper relationship with Jesus and each other.  

However next retreat I am bringing my own coffee!

Testimony from a friend

A friend of mine, I'll call him Elvis, wrote about his experience in our Living Waters program last year, and he gave me permission to share it.

I came to Living Waters after the breakup of my 23-year marriage. I was angry at my spouse, scared for my kids, and full of self-pity. While I had a supportive church and friend-network, much of my interaction with these groups was stuck in the why-did-she-do-this-to-me phase. While I had great support, I wasn't really processing or progressing through the pain. I was already aware of Living Waters through friends at church and when the fall program was announced, I felt led to inquire more about Living Waters. 


I was immediately struck with how well the program was structured to create a safe, non-judgemental environment in which the unique story of every participant could be shared with complete trust. The small group prayer was Spirit-led, brutally honest, and Christ centred. The leaders were warm and caring, and the bonds formed within the small group helped each of us feel accountable to the group. 


So, 6 months later, the Living Waters program has ended. Am I done? Am I healed? Is my marriage reconciled? Well, no. But those inward-focused questions probably aren't the best ones to ask. Do I know I am beloved by Jesus? Am I aware of His presence with me through this pain? Can I find peace in the knowledge that He is good and wants goodness for His children? The Living Waters program helped reshape my perspective, so I can answer emphatically yes! 


Elvis finished off his story by doing a little commercial for us.


The Living Waters program is not just for people with sexual addictions or same-sex attractions. It is a discipleship program for people who are relationally-broken, which is pretty much all of us! The Living Waters program can help anyone who wants to see what idols in their life are hindering their relationship with Christ and help them leave those idols at the foot of the cross. 


Thank you friend!

Our housing miracle

 I shared about this when I spoke at our home church in Ontario in September, and I wanted post about it as well.

I want to write a bit about our life in Vancouver.  It’s not easy out here.  Sure it’s pretty, but we still feel quite isolated, no matter the view.  (And we’re actually in Richmond.)   But we need to keep reminding ourselves of some of our miracles of getting here when things get hard.  Like so many of the Psalms, recounting God’s goodness when life is hard.  Or in Exodus, after being pursued by Pharos armies, and Miriam sang, “Sing to the Lord for he has triumphed gloriously, the horse and rider thrown into the sea.”

·         The last time I spoke in Ontario, I told them that we were moving to Vancouver, even though we had yet to find a place to live.  We were moving THAT week, with still no home to move to… and we were praying... (and we were also quietly freaking out.)  Joanne and I had spent months going over websites and newspapers and Craigslist, writing e-mails, making phone calls.  It was our nightly activity.  And we were a week away from our departure date and still had no place to live.

·         Then we got a phone call from Toni,  and he’d seen something in the paper he thought we should check out.  It was with BC Housing, so it was supplemented, which was nice because everything that we’d looked at that we could afford, was a dump.

·         So we checked it out online, it looked good, made some calls, they e-mailed an application to us, we filled it out and faxed it back.  Then they called us to let us know that we got it – and this all happened on the day the truck arrived for our stuff.

·         It gets better.  But first I want to take a little stroll through real estate land to give you more of the big picture. Joanne read in the paper that the price of an average starter home in Vancouver is $649 thousand, so I took the figure 649,000 dollars, and I decided to see what it would get me in other places I have lived.  First, in my home town in NC, that amount would get me this

or this

Or the one below in Cambridge, Ontario, notice the pool.


Or this in Vancouver...

Same amount.  This house costs $649,000 dollars.



·         Isn't that nuts?  We face the same problem in the grocery store.  A block of cheese for $12.99
(If you’ve been supporting us, Thank you, please pray about continuing.)

·         Which makes it all the more miraculous that we found this place.  


      There is a playground nearby.  And I can get to work in less than 15 minutes.  It’s a Godsend.  And when we moved in, we were talking to a neighbour, and she was raving about the place and said that she had been on the waiting list for a year before she could get in.  I did not have the heart to tell her that we got in in less than 24 hours.

·         I later met another neighbor that told me that only 5 of these units are supplemented.  (I thought they all were.)  And she said that she had been on the waiting list for TWO years!  So how was it that my boss saw something in the paper?  Weren’t there a bunch of people on a waiting list?  And wouldn’t they have been flooded with phone calls?

·         Or is this my horse and rider thrown into the sea?

·         We know that God wants us here.  And I know that this is what He has called and equipped me to do.

Plans, plans, plans...

Many people come and take Living Waters and they have Big Plans.  It is natural to have hopes - that’s a good thing.  But sometimes we can allow those hopes to build up momentum and they can become Plans.  We want God to deal with A, B, and C, and we’d prefer if He kindly left alone E, F, and G, thank you very much.

Sometimes I find myself praying that people will be open to surprises.  God may have plans to touch something entirely different.

Psalm 94:11  "The Lord knows all human plans; he knows that they are futile."

Often in prayer, after a big emotional release, a participant will say, "Wow, I had no idea that was in there."

Prov 19:21 "Many are the plans in a person’s heart, but it is the Lord’s purpose that prevails."

Below is a video of a guy that had Big Plans.  His plan was to propose to his girlfriend in the middle of the forest and to capture her reaction on a video camera.  A lovely idea, but our plans are not always God's plans... or even the dog's.

Some observations on ministering in Indonesia.

Me with my small group

I found it interesting that 4 of the 5 guys in my group had been abused by their mothers.  I usually assume the fathers to be the abusive ones.  Now I don’t know if this was specific to my group or if this could be applied to the general population.  Nevertheless, it was interesting.  The damage from their relationship with their fathers was usually that he was an absentee father – he had simply gone elsewhere to find work.  Regardless of the reasons, God was able to do some great healing work in the guys in my group.

One humourous observation:  Indonesians apparently have no rhythm.  (And I realize that I am an extremely white boy as I write this, and my rhythm is challenged at best.)  But I found it funny that as we sang worship songs, one third of the congregation is clapping on the “off beat,” one third is clapping on the “on beat,” and the other third is doing something else entirely, but no one seems to notice or care.  Frankly, I wish I were that free.  I get so self-conscious if my rhythm gets off that I will just stop.  I pray that someday I won’t care what people think about my clapping abilities.  But I will also say this about the Indonesians – boy can they sing!