It's Your Privilege and Responsibility.

Here in BC, we have a provincial election tomorrow, May 12.

We have the wonderful privilege and responsibility of being informed and then voting accordingly. Pray for our leaders. Pray for the election. Be thankful we have the freedom to vote - it's been paid for by our forefathers. Let's show our appreciation and gratitude by participating.

In my opinion, apathy or passivity is not acceptable in this area.

The polls are open from 8 - 8 in every riding.

Struggling?

Well, the conference is amazing. It is great to be here.

We had Benny Perez yesterday morning. Benny is a Mexican American pastor with passion, depth, anointing and joy. On top of that, he's pretty funny!

Benny challenged us and reminded us of how important it is to rely on the strength of God. He shared his own challenges of even the past week - a friend who also attends their church, Las Vegas entertainer Danny Gans, died on Friday. Another pastor friend in LV fell morally.

Using the story of the man with the withered hand in Luke 6:6 and following, Benny mentioned that in the midst of our struggles of why? what? how come? etc. God wants us to reach out to Him.

Here's a few things that Benny said:

1. We all struggle in various ways. Jesus is not intimidated by our struggles. We all have them. Jesus embraces us in the midst of our struggles.
2. In His grace, Jesus reaches out to us, calls to us and doesn't sit by waiting for us to reach out to Him.
3. Religion is when we forget about hurting people and spend more time debating how and why we do things the way we do.
4. Apart from God, I can do nothing. With God, I can do whatever He calls me to do. (Moses, Jeremiah, Gideon)
5. God starts with people that struggle. He has the incredible power to turn our tests into testimonies and our mess into messages for Him.

Be encouraged. Jesus is calling out to us in the midst of our struggle. Stretch out your struggle to Him. Let Him do what only He can do.

Launch

My new political commentary blog is launching today. Click here to get there. If that doesn't work, you cna go to www.comoxvalleyview.blogspot.com

Coming Soon

I've been trying to work politics in this blog over the past 8 months. I'm finding that I have much I'd like to write about, but also know that many of my readers are not that interested in wall to wall politics. Thus, I will be launching a new blog (in addition to this one) that will be nearly all politics. It's something I'm looking forward too and hope that you'll enjoy as well.

Why politics? I was raised on oatmeal porridge and politics, I think. My grandfather, mom and her brother have all whetted my appetite in this area. It is an area that I feel God would have me use my gifts and talents in. I attended my first real political party event at the age of 15. I listen to talk radio and have been know to mock 'stupid answers' by politicians and callers alike. I've lead political action campaigns (complete with megaphone...). I've been involved behind the scenes (door knocking, telephones, etc.) with municipal and federal campaigns. If you hang around me very long, I'll probably end up talking politics - local, provincial, federal or international. I am intrigued by the political process. I have even been known to watch the CPAC (Canadian parliamentary channel) for fun.

In any case, with a provincial election looming, there will be much to comment on. I'll put up the web address for the 2nd blog soon. It's going to be fun. My first post will be of great interest to Comox Valley residents...30+ million reasons for interest.

Why Go To Church?

Someone emailed me this today, and i thought it interesting...Going to church is not the only thing, but it is certainly the place for encouragement, support, and relationship that only family can give.

A Church goer wrote a letter to the editor of a newspaper and complained that it made no sense to go to church every Sunday. "I've gone for 30 years now," he wrote, "and in that time I have heard something like 3,000 sermons. But for the life of me, I can't remember a single one of them. So, I think I'm wasting my time and the pastors are wasting theirs by giving sermons at all."

This started a real controversy in the "Letters to the Editor" column, much to the delight of the editor. It went on for weeks until someone wrote this clincher:

"I've been married for 30 years now. In that time my wife has cooked some 32,000 meals. But, for the life of me, I cannot recall the entire menu for a single one of those meals. But I do know this.. They all nourished me and gave me the strength I needed to do my work. If my wife had not given me these meals, I would be physically dead today. Likewise, if I had not gone to church for nourishment, I would be spiritually dead today!" When you are DOWN to nothing... God is UP to something! Faith sees the invisible, believes the incredible and receives the impossible! Thank God for our physical AND our spiritual nourishment!

Relevant or Revolutionary?

I was really challenged when I heard this quote from Matthew Barnett on Sunday..."If you want to be relevant, raise awareness of a problem. If you want to be revolutionary, do something to solve the problem."

That's a challenging statement no matter what the issue or problem that comes into view. Using this definition, I want to be more than relevant. However, too often I think that is what I've settled for.

Each of us come into contact with issues - some of which we are uniquely qualified to engage with our gifts/skills/talents, while others not so much. We will need the guidance of Father God to see which we are CALLED to. However, I think that too often we (or at least I) brush things off as being beyond us. I need to pray into the issue until the 'burden' of the problem lifts. If it doesn't lift, I believe that I need to ask Father what action He wants me to engage in.

Although it isn't always easy, I really think that I although I can't do everything I MUST be involved in doing my part and using my gifts/skills to solve certain issues that God places before me. With the help of Jesus, I will do my best to leave my rut for someone else to live in.

Arrows of the Lord

Another one of the highlights of Saturday was for Shanda and me was to be there with Tristen and Clara. They were part of our church’s Master’s Commission. They are both serving now in the LA Dream Center / Angelus Temple (Foursquare Church) They're pictured here with Alexandra in front of Angelus Temple - built in 1923 by Amy Semple McPherson, the founder of the Foursquare Church movement.

Anyhow, we watched in amazement as Clara (she’s the block ‘pastor’) fluently gave instructions in Spanish (learned while serving), saw people come up to her and give her hugs and greet their ‘pastor’. Clara comes here on a weekly basis, although her main ministry is Metro Kidz. At Metro Kidz she goes out into the places others don’t want to go (gangland) and gives kids hope, the love of God and a vision for a better future.

Tristen volunteers at other ministries although her main ministry is coordinating the delivery of all the tons of food donations to the Dream Center. She uses her administrative gifts and puts that together with a love for the people and children of Los Angeles and does a fantastic job! Tristen was excited to be with us handing out the food on the front lines - food that she had arranged to be delivered.

At the end of it all, we gathered in a circle and Clara went off praying in Spanish as these precious people gathered around to pray and be prayed for. More than food – hope, encouragement and love were given in large quantities.

These girls arrived to our MC in 2004…look what God has done in and through them as they have hungered after Him and followed His leading. No passivity, no procrastination – simple hunger and following the leading of Father. One prophetic word over Northgate is that there will be ‘arrows of the Lord’ (people) sent out or shot out to the nations. These girls are two arrows…shot out and making a difference. It’s a family sending out family seeing His ‘kingdom come, His will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” Northgate readers you can be proud. We were moved to tears and are proud to be part of a church family that sends out such as these.

CV Political Scuttlebut #4

Well, It was about 8:44 PM last night on the ferry and my cell phone rang. It was a call from someone at the BC Liberal candidate selection meeting. This person reported that Don McRae had won the nomination and will be the candidate for the BC Liberal party in the upcoming provincial election. No numbers were announced, but hopefully they will be forthcoming. I suspect that it was a first ballot victory. Don had a good, well-connected team around him. However, it is going to take more than that team to win the riding.

I have heard that at least one (and possibly two) of the losing candidates would not be helping the winner. I certainly hope that is not true. If this riding is going to be won, there will need to be unity from all the members - and far beyond words. There will need to be time, work and effort put into getting Don elected. It's easy to talk about how you'll support whomever wins, but action speaks far louder.

Transferable Ballot

This is an explanation of the way that the candidate will be chosen in the Comox Valley BC Liberal race. It should be exciting as there are apparently now 600 members in the riding. There were just over 100 that showed to vote at the NDPs candidate selection meeting...

Wikipedia: The contingent vote is an electoral system used to elect a single winner, in which the voter ranks the candidates in order of preference. In an election, if no candidate receives an absolute majority of first preference votes, then all but the two leading candidates are eliminated and there is a second count. In the second count the votes of those who supported eliminated candidates are distributed among the two remaining candidates,(that is, their 2nd or 3rd choices) so that one candidate achieves an absolute majority.

I believe that the BC Liberals eliminate the bottom one and go from there. This description is the closest that I have found to match with what I've been able to glean at various meetings.

CV Political Scuttlebut #3

Well, there are 4 people fighting to be the BC Liberal candidate for Comox Valley in the May election. You can read more about the individuals here. I want to make an informed decision at the vote on Thursday. Jon Toogood did not have any campaign events (at least that I heard about). I did go to hear the rest of them speak. Here's my impressions:

1. Roberta Stevenson has the potential to be a strong candidate. She has a varied and strong background. Her presentation was just ok. She is obviously new at the game. She is good at 'one on one' and making people feel welcome and included. At the event that I went to, there were about 60 people at it. I saw several federal Conservatives there to support, back and mentor her. I don't know if she has the political connections or the profile to take her over the top.

2. Don McRae performed very well at his 'meet and greet'. There were 170 or 180 people at it. The people at it are 'well connected' people. Paul Ives, mayor of Comox; Starr Winchester and Ron Webber, former mayors of Courtenay; Murray Presley, Courtenay Councillor; Ken Grant, Comox Councillor and some prominent developers and business people. I did notice that although the majority were definitely 'gray heads', there were a lot more younger people there (under 40 seems to be 'young' in politics). I think Don has a great profile of 7 years as Courtenay councillor, growing up and working in the Valley as a teacher. Don also spoke very well and seemed to have a good grasp of the issues without appearing like a 'know-it-all'. I think that he is the one to beat.

3. Shawn Wilson. Shawn had about 50 people at this event. He came into the race later for some reason. Shawn has a good business background as well as a solid reputation and fairly good visibility around town. I think that Shawn may also be able to appeal to some of the undecided that are more 'socially minded' than people think the BC Liberals generally are. Shawn seemed comfortable speaking with people. His talk, although clearly showing knowledge, unfortunately. didn't project a lot of passion. He did talk a lot about working to attract business and investment to our Valley, which is something that I'd like to see.

4. Jon Toogood - no speeches, no newspaper ads, no website, no news conference - makes it hard to judge anything (positions, approach, ideas, etc.) beyond what I know personally of Jon. I don't know Jon well, but I have observed that Jon's a guy that wants to contribute and is a 'get it done' kind of guy.

I think that this is Don's to lose. Roberta, with the backing she has, should be 2nd. However, with the preferential style ballot, Shawn could benefit. If he is the 2nd choice of a lot of people, he could come up the middle as the winner. If you want to understand how the preferential ballot works, look for a post later today or tomorrow.

Adrenaline Junkie Type #4

4. The Dramatist – some adrenaline addicts get a degree of satisfaction from their addiction because it gives them an opportunity to draw attention to themselves and their plight. They complain about and describe their overwhelming situation, seemingly seeking admiration or pity from those upon whom they unload their problems.

Adrenaline Junkie Type #3

3. The Organizational Deflector – this type is like the previous one, except that the issue being avoided is trouble within the organization. Often a CEO or senior executive of a struggling company convinces himself/herself, as well as others, that he or she is too busy to stop and take an honest look at the company’s situation. As the company spirals, the adrenaline addict only works harder, trying to be convinced that the problem can be solved by working more hours at breakneck speed. The organizational deflector will do anything to avoid confronting the real problems which are often more complex and require real change

Adrenaline Junkie Type #2

Further to this...
2. The Personal Deflector – this is the type that uses their addiction to keep from assessing themselves and reflecting on their situation. They often have problems in their personal lives – or no personal life at all – and the last thing they want to do is face up to that. So they convince themselves that they have no time for their personal lives; which, sadly, only exacerbates the problem and prolongs the pain of dealing with it.

Adrenaline Junkie Type #1

One of the problems that I see with being an adrenaline junkie is that we just stay too busy. Too busy for family, for prayer, for down time, for relationships -with God and others. We are a BUSY society!! This addiction often manifests in work, but can really be seen in any team setting, including (or especially) family.

Not all adrenaline addicts are the same. There are four types:

1. The Accomplisher – this is the classic type of adrenaline addict, the one who has an almost innate need to stay busy and cross things off a list (mental or actual) in order to feel productive. They like to be able to measure daily progress in terms of what they have completed, even at the expense of the bigger, longer term view. Accomplishers are most susceptible to developing an adrenaline addiction because they are prone to take on more and more work.

We'll go through the other 3 over the next day or so...

CV Political Scuttlebut #2

Well, the local race to be the candidate for the BC Liberal Party candidate in the Comox Valley riding is heating up. The candidates that have filed letters to indicate their interest are: Don McRae (Courtenay councillor), Jon Toogood (former chair Habitat for Humanity Courtenay), Roberta Stevenson. Tomorrow, Shawn Wilson, Director of the Salvation Army Courtenay will announce his candidacy. Apparently, Ken Dawson (defeated school trustee) is also weighing his options.

I (with about 7 others)met with Don McRae on Saturday morning. Don has obviously thought about this and had some well thought out answers. He is also well connected in the community - having been raised here, taught here for 14 years and a city councilor for 6 or 8 years.

Roberta Stevenson is new to the political scene but seems to have a solid business background and is assembling a campaign team with many federal Conservatives. Roberta seemed like a good communicator in the short talk she gave when I went to hear her at a 'meet and greet' on Saturday afternoon.

John Toogood is fairly well known in the community for his work with Habitat for Humanity. He seems to be a 'get things done' guy having led Habitat to get 3 houses built in Courtenay.

Shawn Wilson has a solid track record of community involvement with his work at the Salvation Army. He is a hard worker and has an intimate knowledge of the 'social justice' side of the scale. He'll give more on his qualifications at a news conference tomorrow. I hope to be able to attend it.

At this point, I'm undecided as to who I'll support. After talking to many different people in the community, I hear people ranking them this way (see below). I'm not saying I agree with these assessments, I'm just telling what I'm hearing:

1. Don McRae
   
2. Roberta Stevenson
   
3. Shawn Wilson
   
4. Jon Toogood
   
5. Ken Dawson

If you want to be able to vote in the candidate selection meeting you need to be a BC Liberal party member. You can go here to get them to mail you a membership form. I wouldn't wait on this. You will need to have it into the BC Liberal headquarters by March 4, so you'll need to get on it. A quicker way might be to contact one of the candidates to sign up.

The nomination meeting will be held on March 12. Time and location TBA.

Yes or No

On Thursday night, I finished reading Organic Community by Joseph R. Meyers. It it he quotes a man by the name of Keith Johnstone: "There are people who prefer to say, 'yes', and there are people who would prefer to say, 'no'. Those who say 'yes' are rewarded by the adventures they have and those who say 'no' are rewarded by the safety they have."

Too often we say no to possibilities that God sets before us. Maybe like me, you are tempted at times to comfortably settle into life and silently say 'no' to God, His call, and the need of our world. However, we cannot dream very big or see very much if we are 'no' people. No" gives us security - but also the prison of scarcity, predictability, sameness and pessimism. "Yes" opens a door to a plethora of possibilities, spontaneity, adventure and optimism. That sounds more like the kind of life Jesus lived...

I want to grow as a man for God.

Newfie Bloc

NEWFOUNDLAND AND LABRADOR BLOC PARTY

Six Newfoundland Federal Liberal MPs recently voted against the federal budget that their party supported. The premier of their province, Danny Williams, was howling about how bad the budget was for Newfoundland. He made it clear that he would be very angry if the Newfie MPs didn't vote against the budget - no matter what their leader said.

So they caved to the premier of their province, rather than follow the leader of the party they were elected with. They did it in the interest of their province...actually for clear self interest (fearing not getting reelected). They did not stand for a decision that was a.) agreed on by their party and b) determined to be in the national goodby their leader.. Their leader, Michael Ignatieff, timidly did not discipline them, but rather gave them a 'one-time' exemption from their responsibilities.
(Danny Williams - left)


This is a dangerous precedent for a provincial leader to be directing federal politicians. We expect this pettiness from the Bloc Quebecois, unfortunately. However, federal politicians are supposed to weigh decisions based on the good of the entire Canadian federation, not regional issues. Regional issues are properly dealt with on a 'government to government' level, not by thuggish intimidation tactics as used by Premier Danny Williams. We risk descending into a country of regions, rather than the grand Dominion envisioned by our founders. We are better and stronger together than as individual regions working for self interest.

FSA. A Waste or Necessary?

FSA is not a disease. It is a standardized test administered to grades 4, 7, and 10. The government feels that it is one tool of several that gives them a 'snapshot' of how students are doing and where/if improvement is needed. Teachers feel it is a waste of time, money and an unnecessary stress on students. Teachers feel that their subjective observation is much more valuable. The government is mandating it while the vast majority of teachers do not want to administer it.

ONE VIEW:

One is left wondering whether the union is mostly interested in killing off data that could suggest when its members are failing kids.

Other professionals in B.C. -- doctors, lawyers, engineers -- embrace systems to reveal and correct mistakes and incompetence. BCTF members won't be viewed as full professionals until they do the same.

Another view:

The BCTF is encouraging parents to write to school principals requesting that their children be excluded from the tests.

The union maintains the province should use random sampling methods instead of testing all students in reading, writing and math.

What do you think? Vote in the poll at the top of the page

Wow - Another Amazing Student!

This is another great student from our church doing something about pain and suffering in the world. Great job, Samantha Middleton! We're proud of you!! Thank you for honouring your friend specifically, and also modeling compassion for people that you don't even know.

Want to have a great evening and raise money for a good cause at the same time?

Highland Secondary School Grade 12 student Samantha Middleton has planned a variety night to raise money for cancer research.

A close friend of hers, Olivia Johnson, passed away Sept. 20, 2007 from cancer at the age of 15.

Middleton decided to create an organization called Guardian Angel to raise money for cancer research. The slogan is “Honouring those taken too soon.”

The entry is by donation and there will be snacks for sale. The event will be held Feb. 3 at 6 p.m. at Highland Secondary in Comox.

Get the whole story here.

I'm Proud...

of my niece Samantha! I love her. She is someone who is passionate, kind, loud, loving (and a bit kooky at times :)) One thing she is not though is apathetic!!

I opened my newspaper to read this today...

A Comox Valley teenager is using chocolate bars and bracelets to do her part to stop the scourge of slavery.

Samantha Millar, a 16-year-old Courtenay girl, sprung into action when, during a series of sermons on social justice at her church, she found out that there are an estimated 27 million people still in bondage across the globe.

"Basically for every person we see in Canada, that's somebody in slavery," said Millar. "That's impossible to imagine. I think that we've really lost respect for people and people have just become a product.

Way to go, Dolly! I honour you for speaking up for those that can't speak for themselves. You're an inspiration to us old foggies - and the young ones too!

You can read the rest of the story here