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.

Michelangelo

Michelangelo didn't just paint church ceilings, he also was a great sculptor as well. Michelangelo would get a huge, shapeless hunk of marble and start by using a large hammer and chisel to break away large chunks of the marble block away. After that he would use a smaller hammer and chisel to chip away at the marble to define the shape he was making. After that process was over sand paper would be used to round edges, smooth areas and define even more what Michelangelo was creating. And finally he would use a damp velvet cloth to smooth and shine the finished product, resulting in something such as this...

Many people would ask ole "Mike" how he created that from a hunk of marble. He would reply, "I didn't, it was there all along. I just let it out." He called it "Releasing the form inside"

All this reminded me of mankind and untimatly myself. I believe God created us all with something beautiful and wonderful and amazing inside of us. God created
me with something beautiful and wonderful and amazing inside of me! But ever since I was about 8 years old I havn't believed that to be true. That wonderful thing inside of me had been knocked around, chipped and roughed up. But it's still inside of me, waiting to come out for me to put to use and for the world to see.

But as Michelangelo shows us it ain't always a pretty process getting that out. It needs to be chiseled away, chipped, broken and sanded down. Fortunatly after all that comes the velvet cloth to sooth and shine.

If I want to live as God truly intended me to I need to bring out what He's already placed inside of me. Bring on the chisel Lord.

Smoking=Unattractive

Today I was driving out to deliever the mail and I noticed a 25ish year old guy standing by the water treatment center that I had never seen before. As I drove closer I will admit, I was checking him out. He was a very good looking guy, I was thinking to myself, "That guy is gooooood lookin" when he put a cigarette up to his mouth, drew in a deep breath and puffed it slowly back out into the brisk air.

Suddenly not so good looking. Smoking is not attractive at all.

Extreme Makeover: Joni Edition

No I'm not going through a makeover in the sense that I get a new hair style and colour, and get a new wardrobe I'm talking about more of a soul makeover. This week my small group Bible study started a new study, it's called Breakaway. It's all about breaking away from the world and living the way Christ intended ME to.

"Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind..."

Most of the time I feel very comfortable conforming; being like the crowd. I've never really been one of those stick-out-in-the-crowd type of people, I really enjoy blending in in fact but that's not exactly what Christ has called me to. In the first session of this study we talked about our belief system and how that affects our decisions which ultimatly brings about certain outcomes in our lives. If we have obscure, unbiblical and ungodly belief systems it affects our entire life. When you are unhappy with your life it's usually because of the outcome. Whenever I am unhappy with an outcome in my life I tend to run away but I'm still me, I still have the same messed up belief system. So things remain the same. Thus I need to transform my thinking; my beliefs before I can be happy with who God created me to be and the outcomes of my life.

And so the transformation begins. It's not going to pleasant all the time, I know that already. As in any renovations it can get messy! But I'm committed to changing my whhhack beliefs!

I'll keep ya posted.