Holiday Time

It's Saturday, and we're in California. We found favour on some tickets on Alaska Airlines. :-) I'm excited about going here to start our week at 10 AM. I've been several times before and I'm looking forward to experiencing it with Shanda and the girls. It is great to be able to join in the restorative work of God. What would it look like doing something like Adopt-A-Block in your community? Just so you don't think I'm a crazy dad, we are also going here later...

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

Social Justice

Our church lead a fundraising 5k on Saturday to raise funds to enable children in Haiti and Ghana to go to school. Not wanting to potentially embarrass my senior pastor with my prowess as a runner, I chose to run with my daughters.

I was so proud of the effort that they put in! Anika was the first girl (age 10-13) to cross the finish line in around 23 minutes. Alexandra was third place. She and her friends had gotten lost in the woods following the wrong tape markers off the trail! :) Alaina competed in a 400 metre race for the kids and was the first girl to cross! Great job girls!

Actually - if the truth be known - P Scott ran an amazing race. He wasn't whining about this, but his knees have been giving him severe trouble the last couple years. He can really only run on an elliptical trainer. He ran that race on willpower (and probably some ibuprofen) and did awesome. Great example!

I'll post the amount raised as soon as I know it.

We Have a Lot of Work To Do

If you have hung around our church for long, you quickly discover that "I'll Fly Away" is not one of our favourite songs. (It is awesome that Pastor Scott would be the leader of that sentiment - :-) ) It is a song that talks about a desire to escape the reality of the world and head for heaven ASAP. The tune is catchy but the words shouldn't be.
The harsh reality of the world is exactly what Jesus has called us to impact with his love, mercy and grace. In short, to pray and work as he prayed and worked, "Your will be done ON EARTH as it is in heaven." In other words, bring what is in heaven to earth.
It is when I read stories like this - Women buried alive in 'honour' killings - that convince me more than ever that the church cannot stay in isolated fortresses and hang on until Jesus comes. We are called to be a force for justice, goodness and kindness in the earth.

Northgate Team Time

Well, I'm tired! Our staff team at Northgate had a great day together - and learned a lot too!

We were in Nanaimo at Wild Play which is a park of some 'extreme' type activities. There were tree top rope courses and ziplines. There was a big swing that goes 140 kmh and 2 Gs of force. There was the canyon zipline in a total of almost 500 feet! It was great! What was really cool though was seeing many of the staff push themselves do things that were beyond their comfort zones! There were some tears and some shaky legs but people pushed on! At the end, Pastor Matt and Pastor Scott took the bungy plunge! It is not my thing, but they did it and hats off to them.

All in all though, it was good just to build relationships, support and encourage one another as we went beyond what our usual comfort zones. Relationships, support and encouragement are all things that we can use to help us go beyond what we think possible. It is amazing how much better we 'perform' when there are people cheering us on. Think of what would happen to people's lives if we consistently encouraged, supported and worked with them to achieve what God has put on their hearts. We're going to try to do that even better together as staff and a church family.

Relationships. Support. Encouragement. See what would happen in our relationships as we try this.

It is going to be great this year to work with each other to do our parts in the Kingdom of God.
What a great group of people. What a great church to be a part of.

It means right away!

In our home we have an ongoing challenge of teaching our kids the importance of obedience. Basically, we are challenged with delayed obedience, which is actually disobedience.

But as I was reading Mark chapter 1 this morning in the NAS version I realized that perhaps the children are not the only ones that have a problem with true obedience. Something really stood out to me as i read. It was the word, "immediately" which means, "
directly, that is, at once". In other word - IMMEDIATELY.
In 45 verses this word shows up 8 times! I went back and reviewed them.

• v. 10 "And immediately, coming up out of the water, He saw the heavens parting"
• v. 12 After baptism... "and immediately, the Spirit drove Him (Jesus) into the wilderness
• v. 18 After Jesus called Simon and Andrew, "They immediately left their nets and followed Him."
• v. 20 After Jesus saw James and John, "And immediately He called them."
• v. 21 "And immediately on the Sabbath He entered the synagogue (church building) and taught
• v. 28 After casting out evil spirits..."and immediately His fame spread"
• v. 31 After touching Simon's sick mother-in-law (Jesus loves mothers in law :-) ) "immediately the fever left her"
• v. 42 The leper came asking for healing and "As soon as He (Jesus) had spoken, immediately the leprosy left"

What's the point? I saw a few things for my life.

1. There was an abiding purpose (Baptized, wilderness, gather a team, church, healing) such that the next step for Jesus' life never seemed to be in question.
2. The Spirit of God was intimately involved in directing Jesus' life. I need to open my ears and listen ALL THE TIME so that I can be directed and initiate rather than respond to life.
3. Sickness immediately responded to Jesus. Lord, show me what gets in the way of immediate manifestation of God's power in and through my life.
4. The disciples responded with immediate obedience rather than questioning and reasoning themselves out of His calling. Father, help me do this.

Basically, I need to listen more, obey more quickly and watch the good that Jesus does in and through my life.