Tops of 2009

So I'm sitting here at 2:44am, on a Tuesday, unable to sleep and I start thinking about the things I've done this past year. Books I've read, movies I've watched, yadda yadda yadda. Well all that remembering and contemplating has led me to this...the tops of 2009!

Top 5 books I read...
5. Do Hard Things-Alex and Brett Harris
4. Coming Attractions-Robin Jones Gunn
3. The book of Hebrews in the Bible
2. Chasing Fireflies-Charles Martin
1. Crazy Love-Francis Chan

Top 5 movies I watched...
5. Horton Hears a Whoo
4. Hannah Montana (yeah, that's right)
3. Where the Wild Things Are
2. World Trade Center
1. The Last Sin Eater

Top 10 "moments"...
(This one was hard because there's been lots of amazing moments! These are not ordered in rank, just as they came to mind)
10. Recieveing a very specific vision from God about this generation of youth
9. Jonathan praying prophetically over me about being called to a generation
8. Family day at the Rosenke's with the ministry team, everything about it
7. Standing arm in arm with Julie singing Awesome God while watching fireworks
6. Singing He Has Done So Much for Me in the cabin at staff training after cabin devos
5. Dancing in the epic storm with Jenny, Karissa, Levi and Tim
4. That Thursday morning chapel at Inner City Camp
3. Standing arm in arm with Colette while praying over Debbie
2. Watching the ministry trip team preform "Everything" at The Rock
1. Prophecying over the bass player at youthedge

Top 5 worship songs...
5. For all You've Done
4. Mighty to Save
3. The Stand
2. I Give You Glory
1. He Has Done So Much for Me

Top 5 other songs
5. Beside You-Marianas
4. Fireflies-Owl City
3. You Belong with Me-Taylor Swift
2. Be Alive in Me-Abandon
1. I Will Go-Starfield

Top 6 funny moments...
(again not in order by rank)
6. Floating around in the middle of the lake for hours with Debbie, Kaylyn, Craig and Gary...then that boater came and circled us a few times!
5. Playing sardines in the edmonton church, squishing with all the guys behind that one table while Josh kept dropping the other one and making a racket!
4. Dressing up like fairies with Jenny, Rick and Frank
3. On the last night of teen camp, running to the bathroom and back like fools with my cabin and laughing up a storm until Shane yelled at us!
2. Pretty much the entire trip to Alberta and back with frank..."MOTH MAN!!"
1. Chugging the expired juice we were supposed to be dumping out with Janelle at the Edmonton foodbank then laughing and laughing after!

Top 5 places I went/events I attended
5. Nipawin with Debbie
4. Missions Fest
3. Jaylene's baptism
2. PraizFest
1. Youthedge

Some people (not an exhausted list) who have greatly influenced and/or impacted me in 2009...
Jenny Anna Danae
Jonathan Karissa
Brett Jaylene
Becky Aimee
Kaylyn Mary
Alvina Gary
Beatrice Debbie
Janelle Colette
Cory Rick
Frank Brian

5 things I learned about myself...
5. Unfortunatly my feelings are very easily hurt, but I usually bounce back pretty quick
4. I'm actually a pretty quiet person
3. I feel most loved when people make an effort and want to spend time with me
2. I strongly desire the gift of prophecy more and more
1. I can and will stand up for what I believe and know to be right and true when it's really important, even if no one else supports me

Some random, good memories...
-Camping with Becky on May long, everything about that camping trip was wonderful!
-Spending an entire Saturday with Jenny and Jonathan, the entire day was so fun!
-Canoeing back from the dairybar with Debbie and being so far behind everyone but not even caring
-laying on the trampoline with Debbie, Danae and Josh Ramshaw talking about life, love and shallowness
-Talking with Josh A in the Chinese church until 2am
-listening to a Chronicles of Narnia audiobook with Cory on the way to Regina
-Kellie's disasterous birthday cake
-getting to hold Erin just hours after she was born
-going to sleep at 10pm after D-camp was over and Debbie saying "Real old ladies we are"
-attempting to make bannock at teen camp, epic fail!
-When the girls thought there was a bee on my bed and Kaylyn jumped to my rescue at teen camp
-mini golfing after camp in the dark
-swimming with Jenny and Janelle at Meadow Lake
-driving back to the camp after the dairy bar walk with a van load of girls
-putting glowsticks in Exner Lake with Jenny and Levi
-playing rock band with Gary and Brett for hours then watching Muppets From Space
-two words...BOOT CR3W!
-my private communion down at camp of Good Friday
-everyone sleeping on the hard floor in one big room at The Rock with just some small dividers to seperate the guys and girls
-the rap I wrote in my dream, "I'ma white girl, but my heart is brown! With the Lord on my side I can't wear a frown..."

Ahhhh yes, 2009 was a good year <3

Teen Camp 09 slideshow

This video might not be interesting for everyone, but then again you never know. Anyway I just watched it and I cried. There are a few reasons why it made me cry and I don't really feel like sharing them at this time.

I love teen camp. I love it.

It is a tradition afterall.

Every year my community has a Carol Festival around this time.
It's a tradition.
We all gather in the Rec Centre, sing Christmas carols together and listen to brave people sing solos or duets or trios. The school bands always play.
(Except for this year.)
It's a tradition.
Every year I do something at the Carol Festival. Sometimes I sing with a couple other people, the past couple years it's just been me and my guitar.
And every year while I'm preforming my face turns bright red.
It's a tradition.

So that's the point!

You know the other day it hit me, what the birth of Jesus really was. It turns out I've had a slightly skewed idea of the awesomeness of it for a long time now. I've always read the story in Luke chapter 2 and had such thoughts as these, "Wow, a virgin birth. That's a miracle!" or "Imagine, the King of kings coming to earth as a baby and born in a barn nonetheless, amazing!" Now those things are all true and I'm not trying to say it's wrong to have those thoughts. The birth of Jesus was an amazing event but there's so much more to it then the birth!

Jesus' birth was the fulfullment of prophecy!

All through the Old Testament we see how God has promised that a Messiah would come for the people. "I see him, but not now; I behold him, but not near. A star will come out of Jacob; a scepter will rise out of Israel. He will crush the foreheads of Moab, the skulls of all the sons of Sheth. Edom will be conquered; Seir, his enemy, will be conquered, but Israel will grow strong. A ruler will come out of Jacob and destroy the survivors of the city." [Numbers 24:17-19] "The days are coming, declares the LORD, when I will raise up to David a righteous Branch, a King who will reign wisely and do what is just and right in the land. In his days Judah will be saved and Israel will live in safety. This is the name by which he will be called: The LORD Our Righteousness." [Jeremiah 23:5-6] "Then Isaiah said, "Hear now, you house of David! Is it not enough to try the patience of men? Will you try the patience of my God also? Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel." [Isaiah 7:14] There's lots of verses I could bring up but the point is the people knew that a Messiah was coming, the prophets had told them it would happen. The people of Israel were waiting in great anticipation for the coming of their Messiah.

When Jesus was born the prophecy was fulfilled; the Messiah had finally come!

There's another prophecy though that hasn't come to pass yet. Jesus is coming again! "Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me. In my Father's house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am." [John 14:1-3]

Am I waiting in great anticipation for the return of the Messiah?

Please read this entire blog entry before you react drastically...

So last night I had to sleep in my car. I'm not really sure why, the details on that are fuzzy. I think I was parked in Anna's yard though...anyway it seemed to be an ok sleep. Some tossing, some turning, some strange sensations that didn't make sense at the time. In the morning when I apparently woke up I saw that Craig was walking into my uncles house and I thought to myself, "Craig?! What is he doing here and how does he know my uncle?" So I unwrapped myself from my blanket, started my car and drove over. I let myself in of course, although I don't actually remember opening the door...then I went and sat down at the kitchen table with everyone. My uncle was talking about a man wanted by the local police. They knew exactly who he was too they just couldn't seem to find him anywhere. They were spending a lot of time and effort looking for this man because he was doing something creepy and illegal. According to what my uncle was saying this man had spent that entire night breaking into peoples houses and painting their bellies red. I know, strange isn't it? My uncle said, "The paintbrush just tickles so it doesn't actually wake you up." As everyone else continued to talk I was thinking to myself, "What? And I was sleeping in a car last night? If this guy can break into a house without anyone waking up could he have got into my car?" Suddenly I remember feeling someone brush my hair from my face as I slept. Oh no! Did I too have a red stomach now? I wanted to check...at this point I became aware that I was in my pajamas...but I couldn't bring myself to do it in front of my family and Craig, who I still didn't understand why he was there. I could almost feel the red paint, now dry and stretching, on my skin. I didn't want it to be true!

That's when I woke up in my bed covered in goose bumps.

And that is why I was awake and baking cookies at 6:30am this morning.

Christ in you, the hope of glory

A couple of weekends ago I took some youth down to Youthedge. It's an awesome youth retreat that Millar College of the Bible hosts each year. Now I've been to lots and lots of youthedges but this was the best one EVER!!!!

Seriously.

Let me tell you all about it! First off the speaker and worship leader worked together during the entire weekend to really bring us into a place of worship. It was amazing but not only that, both of them hung out with the youth during the weekend. That was very encouraging to see. But even more amazing then that was the youth that were there this year. Those teenagers were so ready to hear what the speaker had to say and so ready to experience worship. It brought tears to my eyes more then once to see those kids making public declarations and commitments to the Lord. On Saturday night I was sitting there in the gym, surrounded by hundreds of people, most of them 18 and younger and I saw something amazing. It wasn't something I saw with my eyes but something that God showed me in my spirit. I saw that this generation of teenagers right now isn't going to grow up to love the Lord whole heartedly, they aren't going to grow up to serve Him with their entire being, they aren't going to grow up to do outrageous things for the Kingdom of God. They are going to do it right now. Right now! This wasn't just a fleeting thought I had, I know that this came from God. This generation of teenagers, who are believers, are going to rise above the low expectations put on them by society and do amazing things. It's so exciting!!! It was such an awesome experience to be there and to see that and to know that God is bringing some exciting things on the horizon.

Also something that made youthedge so good this year was how many alumni were present! This year more then any other years alumni brought youth. I was so blessed and so encouraged to be able to spend time with friends, some that I have not seen in a really long time. God is good and I was so thankful for that!

Don't let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in life, in love, in faith and in purity --1 Timothy 4:12

Beauty makes me cry...

and this is beautiful.



I hope it touched you as you watched. Thanks to my friend Jonathan for bringing it to my attention.

Brad, the frustrated.

Last night at 9:30 my phone rang and like I always do I looked at caller id before I answered it. Because the reality is I can't live without caller id, I like to know who is on the other side of the phone before I say, "Hello?". It showed up as, "Unknown caller" I paused but then I decided to answer it anyway because some of my friends block their cell numbers. It was a telemarketer, or close enough anyway. The voice on the other side of the phone was a pleasant young man named Brad who wanted me to take a survey about the shows I watch on television. But it wasn't a phone survey, oh no, they wanted my mailing information so I could check off little boxes of which shows I watched at what time during the day.

He sounded like a nice enough guy but I didn't want to give him my address. So I kindly told him no but he insisted that it would be a really good idea for me to take this television survey. So I, kindly, insisted that I'm not really a survey taker and even if they did send me the papers I would never fill them out, so why waste a stamp? Then Brad did something I've never heard a telemarketer do. He held the phone a small distance away from his mouth and made a frusterated grunting noise! I found this funny so I laughed and told him I was very sorry and I hoped he had a good night, even though he was probably being rejected many times over. He laughed too and said, "Goodbye, thanks for listening!"

It was a nice conversation, I like Brad.

With greatful hearts, we say thank you...

Psalm 103:1-5
1 Praise the LORD, O my soul;
all my inmost being, praise his holy name.
2 Praise the LORD, O my soul,
and forget not all his benefits-
3 who forgives all your sins
and heals all your diseases,
4 who redeems your life from the pit
and crowns you with love and compassion,
5 who satisfies your desires with good things
so that your youth is renewed like the eagle's.

I have a whole lot to be thankful for, God definitely deserves to be praised! God has blessed me with amazing friends, who feel like family. With parents who have been patient with me as I find God's place for me in my time on earth. God has set me free from many worldly desires that used to claw at my mind, heart and soul. God has healed me from sickness many times this past year. God made a way for me, a fallen person, to be reconciled with Him; to ensure my eternal state would be with Him! I am blessed, and I am thankful.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Gathered Family

We all know what's it's like to have a family. Some of us come from really amazing families where the love is spread around and the good times never end. Some of us come from families where...it's a bit awkward. And unfortunatly some families don't know how to be a family at all.

Then there are our gathered family. What's a gathered family? It's the people in your life that you have no blood relationship to but they feel like your family nonetheless. You make them your family. I've got a very large gathered family, and I love them to pieces!

I'm not super close to my real family, it's always been a little bit awkward for me to fit in with them. I love them, but it's sometimes hard to be a part of them. It's something that I'm working on. That's why I started "gathering" family members a few years ago. It was more a fact that I realized I was closer to these people then my blood relatives. It's not something that I've verbalized to these people in my life but I hope I show it to them through my words and actions. In my gathered family I've got brothers, sisters, nieces, nephews, moms, dads, crazy uncles, cousins, a grandpa, a couple grans, I've even got a son and some daughters!

SBBC has played a big part in the gathering of these family members, many of my gathered family are in my life because of the camp. In fact I spent this past weekend with a bunch of them! On Saturday we had our staff appreciation banquet followed with a camp wind-up on Sunday afternoon. Hence my "busy" blog just before this one. It was a great weekend! After the appreciation banquet a group of us (many of them who I consider to be part of my gathered family) stayed together and played 4 on a couch, then we watch old camp movies (home videos?!) and I was so blessed by our time together.

Having a gathered family is one of my favourite things!

"If I ain't busy doing something I'm busy thinking of something to do"

Fall is a busy, busy time of year. Did I mention I'm busy? But I love it, even when it seems insane! God is putting together some great stuff and I'm very excited to be a part of it! I'll tell you all about it later, after I'm finished looking like this from all the rushing around...



Juuuuust kiddin!

When the heart hurts

Today I felt my heart breaking. Debbie is moving on Wednesday. Mind you this isn't just a little move as in a couple hours away to Saskatoon move, it's fourteen hours away; two provinces over.

It hit me reeeeally hard today and I pretty much cried off and on all day long.

Now because I am somewhat of a geek I sometimes think in facebook status. Today some of the thoughts I had were "Joni's heart is breaking", "Joni needs some glue and duct tape to fix her broken heart", "Joni is extremely sad". (Did I also mention I'm a bit dramatic at times?) And then tonight at church I was asking God what He wanted to say to me and while I stood there listening this is what He whispered in my heart...

"I want to share your heartbreak."

There are a few passages in the Bible where it talks about God fixing broken hearts, "He (the Lord) heals the brokenhearted and bandages their wounds." [Psalm 124:3] but God didn't say to me, 'I want to FIX your broken heart' He said He wanted to SHARE my heartbreak. In Psalm 34:18 it says that God "is close to the brokenhearted". I believe that our God is a compassionate God who is closely involved in His childrens lives. He rejoices with us in our blessings and He allows Himself to share our pain. I really do believe that. Why do I believe that? Because I see it displayed in people.

Ever since the fall of man pain has been a part of this world. Physical pain, emotional pain, people have given all sorts of different labels for pain but in short, it exists. Some people will run when they sense another is in pain and need. It's just true, pain is a pretty tough thing for anyone and some people just can't take it. Some people really like to fix pain, they love to walk into a situation that has hurt someone and do what they can to fix it; to restore or repair the damage that has ben done. Usually when I think of fixing pain and heartache I think of Red Cross Disaster Relief Volunteers. The Red Cross is an awesome organization that will step in when disaster has torn apart an area. Disaster Relief does a lot of really great work in fixing broken homes, restoring lost possessions and returning people back to their normal sitation. Then there are the people who are willing to share others pain. Greg Paul, who wrote God in the Alley said, "Being among people means being in their midst, not outside. It means being with them , not being over them. It means not looking away from their agony or humiliation, but beholding it and having the courage to be also wounded by their pain." Permiting yourself to be wounded by another's pain is pretty deep. It doesn't mean taking their burden upon yourself (since God is the burden bearer, we don't want to be taking His job!) but it means allowing them to express themself and pointing them towards the One who truly can heal their broken heart. It may mean sitting with them while they cry, walking along beside them as they face what's causing the pain, not always having a "right" answer. It might even mean crying with them, going for a meal with them and paying the bill. Sharing pain has many different faces. "Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn. live in harmony with one another..." [Romans 12:15-16] There are lots of people in this world who are willing to share another's pain: some ministers, trauma psychologists, sometimes it's not a career thing it's just who you are as a person with the people you love.

And since man was created in the image of God I believe that He also is willing to share our pain.

God allowed me to cry today, to be sad because I am going to miss Debbie more then words can express. He didn't scoff at me, ignore me, or tell me to get over it. What He did do is say that He would share my pain and hold me close to Him in this time.

Because of that, I know that it's right to feel this way and I know that this too shall pass.

People don't believe it's true...

Shy 1 (sh)
adj. shi·er (shr) or shy·er, shi·est (shst) or shy·est
1. Easily startled; timid.
2. a. Drawing back from contact or familiarity with others; retiring or reserved.
b. Marked by reserve or diffidence: a shy glance.
3. Distrustful; wary: shy of strangers.
Synonyms: shy1, bashful, diffident, modest, coy, demure
These adjectives mean not forward but marked by a retiring nature, reticence, or a reserve of manner. One who is shy draws back from others, either because of a withdrawn nature or out of timidity: "The poor man was shy and hated society" (George Bernard Shaw).
Bashful suggests self-consciousness or awkwardness in the presence of others: "I never laughed, being bashful./Lowering my head, I looked at the wall" (Ezra Pound).
Diffident implies lack of self-confidence: He was too diffident to express his opinion.

I found this definition here

Shy 2 or "shyness"
A crippling condition that causes one to draw away from others in social situations. It is, in fact, a fear of other people, especially people you are not familiar with. This condition can lead to tense relationships, lost opportunities, or a wrong reputation of being "rude" or "stuck up" Shyness has been found to usually be caused by a lack of confidence in ones self and even a dislike of ones self.

I found this definition in the recesses of my brain...

I've always been shy, ever since I was a very little girl. I used to hide when people would come to visit my parents. If I ever had to do a presentation at school I would hold my papers in front of my face. I once puked in front of the entire school at a Christmas concert because I couldn't stand the fact that I was standing in front of all those people, dressed as a snowflake. (I was in grade 2) It's always been a part of who I am. I did grow out of it as I got older and had more opportunities put in front of me. I've sang in front of large crowds of people, I've shared my testimony with complete strangers, I taught English to adults overseas, I even MC'd Millar's YouthEdge! So I'm not hopeless.

But sometimes the shyness creeps up on me and takes over. Especially when I meet new people. Which is really an unfortunate time to get shy because I know from experience that it makes a person look like a snob. I'm not a snob, I'm just really shy! Seriously! I started thinking about why I'm shy. What causes me to want to flee when I'm put into some social situations? It's really a very pitiful and selfish reason...

I don't really like myself all that much at times.

Which is stupid because I know who created me and I know He loves me and sees all sorts of potential in me. Besides, the fact that Christ is in me makes it so that I don't even have to worry about what others think of me, or of being rejected. "Greater is He who is in me then he who is in the world."

Plus I'm scared of people. I really am.

Which is also stupid because they are just people, just like me! So why not just smile and love people, not be scared of them. Afterall, "perfect love casts out all fear..."

all of that AND a muffin?!

Today at work while I was carrying a big bowl of hashbrowns to the brunch buffet the man I went in front of to empty that bowl said to me, "Your husbands must love you ladies, you're such great cooks!"

He was just giving us a simple complement.

So I said, "Thanks!" (to assure him I had caught his complement and was appreciative) "But they never get to eat our cooking because we're always here!" (I said this because I like to think I'm witty and I wanted to make him laugh, which he did.)

Now we all know that I'm not married, but he didn't. So yes, I guess I slightly lied. Well I implied something that isn't true. But he didn't want to stand there while I explained how I wasn't married, he just wanted to let me know the food was good.

So there!

Change is in the wind...

It's almost that time of year again. Fall. Fall always makes me think of change. people usually move in the fall, last years graduating class takes off for school. There's just always new stuff going on.

I have this strong feeling that this fall is going to bring some major change in my life. Some of it scary change and some of it good change. For example, on September 5th Jenny and Janelle will both be leaving for their first year of Bible school. It's a little sad for me because I feel like I've grown so close to them this past year. On the other hand on Sunday I met Anna, she's new to town and I have a feeling that we are going to be great friends!

I'm thankful that in an everchanging world God will always remain the same. I really like having something constant in my life. I cling to that in the changes that scare me.

It's going to be a good year though, I can tell!

Dear James Ranson,

It seems to me that at one point you may have read my blog, although I could be wrong. It appears that I can't e-mail you so I thought maybe this would be a good way to get in contact with you.

I just wanted to let you know that Cory and I are going to be at Healing Hearts on Sunday morning, so you can do with that information what you will. I'll have something for you from Silver Birch probably. Just so you know.

Hope you are doing alright.

Joni

The old...remains?

(New Living Version)
"This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun!"

(Contemporary English Version)
Anyone who belongs to Christ is a new person. The past is forgotten, and everything is new.

(King James Version)
Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.

(Amplified Bible)
Therefore if any person is [ingrafted] in Christ (the Messiah) he is a new creation (a new creature altogether); the old [previous moral and spiritual condition] has passed away. Behold, the fresh and new has come!

No matter which translation I read it in 2 Corinthians 5:17 seems to being saying the same thing to me...when you accept Christ into your life and in return give Him yours there's supposed to be a drastic change in you. The old has passed away, how did the CEV put it? "The past is forgotton." What about when your past keeps hitting you in the face?

And I'm not even talking about temptation to sin. I more mean when the past...haunts you, so to speak, and causes you to feel a way that you know God never intended for your life. When Adam and Eve were created and placed in the garden they didn't know what it felt like to be ashamed, or rejected, or unloved, or unwanted. That all came after the fall of man and all of those will pass away when the new Heaven and Earth are set in place. But we live in a fallen world, these are part of our life. Yet I'm supposed to be a "new creation", all those old things are to be gone; passed away; forgotton. Still I come to the same question: what about when they are constantly being brought before you again and again?

It's gets exhausting to fight it. Inevitably someone will do or say something that brings up all these horrible feelings from my past. Sometimes I don't even know what triggered them, they just jump up and shout, "SURPRISE! Now deal with it in a godly manner." Maybe it comes down to believing I am who Christ says I am through Him...maybe I don't really believe that in my heart and in my spirit.

I'm probably not making sense, I need to think about this more and spend some more time in the Word about it. Hmmm...

time to start collecting stones and earth?...

I love the way the New Living Translation words Exodus 20:24...

"Build altars in the places where I remind you who I am and I will come and bless you there."

The Israelites were reminded so many times about who God was while they were wandering in the desert. I sometimes picture altars set up all over along the path of their journey in all the different places where God reminded them of something else. Then I start to wonder if I should be building my own altars.

Now I've never been in the habit of building altars or even thinking about altars all that much but when I read this verse I started to ponder and study altars. I love the meaning behind an alter, it's a public display. I can't think of any examples in the Bible where an altar was built where no one could see it, please inform me if I've missed that passage! Even today altars are always built in conspicuous places where others can take note of them. Think of the testimony that could have been when the Israelites were trying to get to the promised land! You know there's many examples in the Bible where people would build an altar because God taught them something [Genesis 12:7; Genesis 33:18-20] I like to think that other people would see those later and they would know that God showed somebody something in that place.

So how can I build altars in the places where God reminds me who He is? How can I let others who will come to that place after me see that God did something there?

And there it was...

Yesterday as I was sitting in my car uptown waiting for the mail truck to get in I saw a tiny, brown bird taking a bath in a dirty mudpuddle.

For some reason it struck me as beautiful.

Covered in alpaca wool

Today I got to help do alpaca shearing. it was pretty exciting. Before today the only time I've ever interacted with an alpaca was by just looking at them...from a safe distance...with a tall fence between us. Today I was upclose and personal!

First we had to get the alpaca onto the tipping table (which is exactly what it sounds like: a table that tips) I stood behind the table and tipped it over, grabbing the alpacas hips as we eased them onto the table. Ease might not be the best word. There was a lot of flailing and kicking. We basically slammed those alpacas on that table and while I practically layed on top of them 3 other people were tying down their legs and head. I thought about how I would be very disturbed if this is how things went right before I went under for surgery in a hospital...

Then 2 people went to work with large scissors and shears, cutting away all the wool from the alpaca. During this time I pressed against the alpacas back and stroked her neck, letting her know that everything was going to be ok! I'm a nice person like that. When the side started to get sheared my job was to grab all the wool coming off, hug it to me and not let any drop on the floor.

My first attempt was an epic fail.

But I got better! Once one side was done we had to flip over the alpaca and do the other side. Did you know that alpacas have really sharp toe nails...those things could slice you right open!

You know how poodles who are pampered look? Well that's what alpacas look like when all their wool has been taken off, really tall poodles. When we finished 2 alpacas I looked down at myself to discover I was now more hairy then the alpacas themselves!

Small Town

I live in a small town, it's an interesting life! Everyone knows everyone elses buisness, many of the men gather for coffee at the same time everyday, you get your mail even when it has no box number on it (or the wrong box number), children bike around town with no parent supervision and no one worries...it's interesting.

It can also be ridiculous.

I recently learned of a bylaw that is present in my town. You have to tie up your wind chimes after 9pm, if you don't you could get fined. That's a real bylaw where I live!

Someone better tell my dad before he gets arrested!

there was a time...

...when I was a child. I know I was. I just can't remember very much of those years...I should work on that maybe.

I've been studying again...

I'm tired. I've been pretty busy latley, which I'm not complaining about at all. Just stating a fact. So right now I am tired. Please forgive me if I write strange (well stranger then usual maybe) things or make funny spelling/grammar mistakes. I promise I'm not a complete moron, just tired.
I've been learning a lot of awesome things latley. It all started at our annual winter youth retreat, which by the way was spectacular! There were 57ish of us all together all stuffed into 3 cabins for the weekend! We played a lot of fun games, ate a lot of good food and learned a lot about God. That was my favourite part. I'm not even sure what it was about the weekend but I just decided that I was going to stop coasting in my learning new things about God and actually do it. When I finished at Millar I finished in a very exhausted way. I was just plain tired of studying and learning. So I kind of just stopped, in a way. I would still learn things but only on a basic level most of the time, I just didn't want to dig deeper. I was intellectually lazy. Not all the time, in every matter mind you, but most of the time. So anyway I decided to get over that and start diving in deep to learn the things of God again. It's been delightful! (Side note: I thought of the word 'delightful' just yesterday and realized that I never use that word but it's so wonderful!)
So anyway, one of the things that I've been learning, studying and putting into practice is praising God outloud. For specific things that He's done in my everyday life. It was scary at first. I mean it's easy to praise the Lord for something He did for me when I'm at my small group Bible study or when I'm hanging out with Silver Birch lifers. But it's a whole different story when it's around my coworkers or my family or my unsaved friends. I didn't even realize how differently I might word things when around different people. But in the Bible we read of the triumphant entry of Jesus into Jerusalem just days before He was crucified. It says that the crowds (which by the way were His disciples, not the crowds of Jerusalem) were shouting praises to Jesus, praising Him for the things they had seen Him do. So all these followers of Jesus are walking alongside Him as He rides into the city on a donkey and their yelling out things like, "Praise you Jesus for healing that blind man!" or "Oh Jesus, you are so wonderful! You fed 5000 men with only a small amount of food! " or "Jesus you are so great! You raised Lazerus from the dead, I saw it with my own eyes! he was dead but you brought him to life again! " So their saying all these things loudly and the thing is, this is dangerous for them. The people of Jerusalem are not happy to see Jesus coming, just days later Jesus has been crucified, tension fills the air and the disciples could get killed for being associated with Jesus. But right then, in that moment with Jesus rideing on a donkey colt they don't care! They just want to shout out the good things He has done!
What an example for me to follow. I can't really remember the last time I yelled for anyone to hear about something I saw God do that was wonderful and miraculous.

sketchy buisness? naaah, just youth ministry.

Picture this if you will...

A dark church, and when I say dark I mean pitch black. The kind of pitch black where no matter how long you are in the dark your eyes never adjust. You simply can't see. In this pitch black church are 10 teenagers and 3 youth leaders. Sardines is the game, not being the last one to find the hiding spot is the aim! In order to have any idea of where you are heading you need to feel with your hands, or your head, whichever you prefer to smack a wall or chair with. Suddenly in the corner of the sanctuary you sense people there, trying to stay quiet and undiscovered. So you crawl under the piano to hide with them. It's dark, it's squishy and it's quite warm from all the body heat! After more and more people climb under the piano you start to think, "Is anyone even still looking" but just in case someone is you all remain silent and cuddled together under the piano. Finally someone realizes that indeed everyone is under the piano. 13 people in all. Everyone laughs at how long they all stayed crammed together in such a small space as they untangle themselves from the pile and prepare to play another round.

I would say games in the dark for youth group was a success!

On March 5, 2007...

I had forgotton about Myspace for a while. I went onto mine just tonight after many moons of not being on it and I read this blog entry I had put in. Enjoy a day in the history of my life!


today I...

...Used my new face wash I bought at walmart
...put on makeup for once in my life
...shoveled the sidewalks at the bank
...recieved a compliment from the newly elected number one counsellor on the reserve
...saw Tim Tams on special in the Extra Foods flyer (only $1.99 a package!)
...had an older man say to me, "I better go to the little boys room before I leave!"
...think someone called me a b**** after I served them even though I was polite and kind
...did the floors at work by myself, again.
...ate beef noodle soup for the first time ever
...had to run after a guy who forgot to pay for his sandwhich
...poured half a can of Pepsi down the sink and was sad
...discovered I am on at the cafe every day next week
...wished I had a different job
...saw sadness in someones eyes
...missed David Melby
...googled information on Bed Bugs just for kicks
...wished I could be a better person for GOD
...watched Corner Gas with my mum
...wondered what September holds for me
...wished there was someone to hold my hand
...wished Janelle would come on msn so I could talk to her and then she did!
...showed my dad my new camera

It was a day...nothing out of the ordinary or spectacular, just a typical day.

The moldy muffin day

One day I was babysitting for a lady I am good friends with. I went to her house nice and early in the morning because she had to leave for work by 8:00am. As I was waiting for the little tyke I was to care for to wake up I felt a certain rumbling behind my belly button. Sure enough, I was hungry! So I rummaged through the fridge and the cupboards until I came upon some muffins. Oh how scrumptious they looked! I pulled one out and took a medium sized bite outta it. As I was chewing I thought to myself, "Man, this muffin sure tastes funny...maybe it has extra fiber in it" I took another bite. The self talk continued, "No it can't be fiber, what is that funky taste?" I had only to look down at the now significantly smaller muffin in my mind to find the funky taste culprit. Mold!!!
Realizing that I had already consumed some of the nasty mold my stomach started to churn. I hoped to high heaven it would all come back up. Alas it did not, I digested that mold.
The moral of my story is, make sure you look before you bite.

Something I recently learned

I don't like travelling all through the night to get somewhere. I would much rather stop and sleep somewhere... even if it's stopping at 3am and sleeping only until 9. That would be more preferable to driving all night long.